Monday, March 18, AD 2024 11:06pm

PopeWatch: Bye Sacraments

Sandro Magister brings us an article which exposes how the Sacraments are being ejected from the center of the life of the Church:

 

But in this same latest issue of “Catholica” another voice is raised – not of a cardinal, but of a Benedictine monk and talented theologian – that thoroughly analyzes and criticizes what is perhaps the most radical subversion taking place in the Catholicism of today: that which assigns primacy no longer to the sacraments – “culmen et fons” of the Church’s life, according to Vatican Council II – but to ethics.

It is the subversion that underlies, in particular, both the new discipline of communion for the divorced and remarried and “intercommunion” between Catholics and Protestants.

Giulio Meiattini, the author of this critical analysis, has presented it in its most complete form in a book he published at the beginning of this year:

> G. Meiattini OSB, “Amoris laetitia? I sacramenti ridotti a morale”, La Fontana di Siloe, Torino, 2018

While in the interview in the latest issue of “Catholica” he presents its salient passages, the most significant of which are reproduced below.

Fr. Meiattini, a monk of the Benedictine abbey of La Madonna della Scala in Noci, is a professor at the Theological Faculty of Puglia and at the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome.

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“AMORIS LAETITIA” AND THE OBLITERATION OF THE SACRAMENTS

by Giulio Meiattini, OSB
(passages selected from the interview in “Catholica” no. 140)

NOT DISCERNMENT, BUT CUNNING

The situation of confusion is evident. Naturally there are those who deny that this is a matter of confusion, maintaining that this is the positive result of a style of ecclesial governance aimed at “initiating processes rather than possessing spaces” (cf. “Evangelii Gaudium” 223). Therefore, the first discernment to be made would be precisely on the nature of this situation: can confusion, disagreement among bishops on sensitive doctrinal points, be fruits of the Spirit? To me it seems not. To discern also means understanding if it is appropriate or not to initiate processes in certain fields, and also with what timing, modalities, and objectives.

Let us observe, for example, the manner in which the new discipline for the “divorced and remarried” was reached.

After Cardinal Kasper’s talk at the consistory had prepared the terrain so to speak, the two synods, with an intermediate year of heated discussions, were unable to give rise to a common approach on the problem discussed. Those who read the accounts of the “circuli minores” of the 2015 synod realize very well that on the point in question there was not a shared perspective.

But one thing is clear: that a large majority of the fathers had not developed the conviction to change the traditional discipline. So much so that the authors of the “Relatio finalis,” on the controversial point, took care not to introduce innovations.

But – here is another small step – they drafted formulas of an indefinite tone that, while not providing for access to the sacraments, changed the atmosphere so to speak. Thus the “non-opposition” to those hesitant formulas (which had trouble getting two thirds of the votes) was enough to allow another subsequent small step: a couple of ambiguous little footnotes in “Amoris Laetitia,” which do not affirm or deny but hint at a certain direction.

This further passage smashed the interpretive boundaries, until in the autumn of 2017 – another step – there came the pope’s official approval of the “Criteria” of the bishops of the region of Buenos Aires on chapter VIII of “Amoris Laetitia.”

But these criteria, if one is honest, are not a simple interpretation of “Amoris Laetitia.” They add and say things that are not to be found in “Amoris Laetitia” and that, above all, had never been approved at the synods and never would have been. […]

Thus, through small successive steps, over the course of three years a very large one was made and the discipline was slowly changed, but certainly not in a synodal manner, in my view.

I may be wrong, but this “modus operandi” is not discernment, but rather cunning. In place of reasonable and open debate (the famous “dubia” have never received a response!), the strategy of persuasion and of the fait accompli took hold.

FAITH REDUCED TO ETHICS

Among the ethical demands and the sacramental foundation of Christian existence, the center is undoubtedly the sacrament, which is the communication to the believer of the grace that saves, and, in that it is welcomed by and transforms man, is also an act of glorification, doxology. […] Ethics is neither the first word not the last.

In “Amoris Laetitia,” however, the opposite logic is followed: the starting points are categories taken from the natural law and principles of general ethics (attenuating factors, the relationship between universal norm and subjective situation, non-imputability, etc.), and from these major premises are drawn the consequences for the pastoral practice of the sacraments.

In this way, the dimension of the symbolic and the sacramental, which should anchor, embrace, and transcend the moral sphere, loses its significance and becomes a mere appendix to ethics. […] The demonstration is given by the fact that in concrete terms the sin of adultery loses its public significance linked to the testimonial aspect of the sacrament, and can be remitted in the “internal forum” without any need to explain before the community why a spouse who publicly contradicts the sacramental sign of fidelity should publicly receive the Eucharist.

In short, the result of the decisions of “Amoris Laetitia” is the reduction of the sacramental to the moral, meaning of faith to ethics, which to me does not seem to be a mere question of pastoral practice. What is at stake here is something essential to the nature of Christianity.

A “TREMENDOUS BURDEN”?

I sincerely do not understand how a bishop, above all that of Rome, could write phrases of this kind: “There is no need to lay upon two limited persons the tremendous burden of having to reproduce perfectly the union existing between Christ and his Church” (“Amoris Laetitia” 122).

Here is the glaring exemplification of what I stated before in a general way: if the evangelical ethic is isolated from the sacrament and reduced to a general norm it becomes “a tremendous burden,” like the Mosaic law, instead of “an easy yoke and a light burden.” Whatever happened, in this perspective, to the transformative effect of the sacrament? […] So then we could ask ourselves whether the encouragement of bearing witness to faith in Christ to the point of bloodshed is not an even more tremendous burden, not to be placed on the shoulders of the people. […]

One arrives at this point only if one is accustomed to conceiving of Christianity – perhaps without fully realizing it – as ethics.

 

Go here to read the rest.  Take the Sacraments from Catholicism and what is left is not Catholicism.

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Don L
Wednesday, July 11, AD 2018 3:41am

When Christ instructed our first bishops to “be as cunning as serpents” I’m certain that this is not what he had in mind.

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, July 11, AD 2018 5:05am

Religion may be defined as man’s response to the gift of Faith from God. Ethics is one of the ways that man responds to the gift of Faith from God.
Obliterating the gift of Faith from God will leave ethics, our unalienable human rights, the Sacraments, and the Catholic Church optional, leaving man no sure way to heaven.

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, July 11, AD 2018 5:25am

In other words Satan will have first choice of souls, instead of Jesus Christ.

GregB
GregB
Wednesday, July 11, AD 2018 8:18am

I find it hard to see how modernist Catholics could oppose the construction of the Golden Calf. The Israelites held their Golden Calf Synod at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The Golden Calf was based on their “lived reality” in Egypt. Only an adherent to “rigid legalism” could have expected the Israelites to honor their solemn blood covenant with God not to build idols.
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What is at stake here is the very meaning of covenants. Holy Matrimony is a covenant. The Church as the Bride of Christ is based on Christ’s New Covenant ratified in His Blood shed on the Cross. The Eucharist is the living embodiment of this New Covenant.
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Modern spirituality is increasingly coming to resemble the hookup culture. Some people appear to be willing to only cohabitate with God and He had better be putting out. It is the pure essence of engaging in spiritual fornication with God. It is this spiritual fornication that made the Old Testament prophets call ancient Israel a harlot. Modern Catholics who behave likewise are doing everything in their power to make the Catholic Church into the Whore of Babylon, whose words, vows, and covenants are worthless.

ken
ken
Wednesday, July 11, AD 2018 8:24am

Social welfare is the source and summit of our Church.

Mary De Voe
Wednesday, July 11, AD 2018 8:53am

Ken: The Golden Calf was the image of our God to the Israelites. Images were prohibited by God until His Son Jesus Christ was held up and crucified. Their covenant was violated by the calf.
GregB “What is at stake here is the very meaning of covenants. Holy Matrimony is a covenant.” This is very much true.

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