Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 7:09pm

PopeWatch: Horizontal Church

George Neumayr nails it:

Before leaving office in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI mused about the dangers of a horizontal church, one that is more preoccupied with this life than the next one. He decried the “hermeneutic of politics” that had lowered the vision of churchmen and convinced them “that the pre-conciliar Church was finished.” He might as well have been describing his successor. The relentless focus of Pope Francis on temporal politics and contempt for tradition conform to that view perfectly. His pontificate has resembled a U-turn, taking the Church back to the tumult and trendiness immediately following Vatican II.

Pope Francis imbibed that period’s politicizing and liberalizing spirit and shares none of the sympathies of his predecessors for the pre-Vatican II Church. He sees the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI as years of lamentable conservative retrenchment. What they considered a problem, the Church’s drift from tradition, he regards as a solution.

So it is no surprise that recent reports from Rome suggest that he may soon limit access to the traditional Latin Mass. Its otherworldly liturgy is out of step with his worldly conception of the Church. Numerous churchmen have noted his dismay with the persistent interest in the old liturgy. It is no secret that he opposed Summorum Pontificum, the 2007 order from Pope Benedict XVI authorizing wider use of the traditional Latin Mass.

Not long after the election of Pope Francis, the National Catholic Reporter quoted an unnamed Vatican diplomat as saying, “The traditional Latin Mass brigade is finished.” Traditionalists in Buenos Aires, knowing of Jorge Bergoglio’s persecution of priests devoted to the old liturgy there, trembled at the news of his election.

Go here to read the rest.  Pope Francis is creating yet another institution where Leftist political opinions are rammed down the throats of an unwilling population and the original purpose of the institution is betrayed.  Heckuva job Conclave of 2013, heckuva job.

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Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 3:42am

It should be clear by now that Vatican II is the work of the devil.
Orthodox Catholics should look to Archbishop Vigano as the voice of God in our times as regards the Catholic Church. Here is his latest commentary. By the way, I would like to see The American Catholic publish all of his statements as the occur.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/in-new-interview-abp-vigano-discusses-failure-of-vatican-ii-novus-ordo-mass

Bob Kurland
Admin
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 4:48am

If the election of a pope is divinely inspired, what is God trying to tell us by the election of this last one?

Don L
Don L
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 6:31am

All true, but the simple difference is that the true Church cannot be a church that doesn’t have as its prime mission the salvation of souls that they might spend eternity with their creator and not be lost. We are either with Him or against him, and to focus primarily on this world and government, or economic structures as the means to salvation, is to be against Him.
The new

GregB
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 8:42am

1 John 2:15-17 says:
*
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Michael P. Ready
Michael P. Ready
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 11:10am

“Before leaving office in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI mused about the dangers of a horizontal church …” And then he quit and left us all to rot.

Pinky
Pinky
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 11:16am

I love the TLM, and I think the pope would be wrong to restrict it. But you’ve got to make a big leap to tie potential restrictions to a horizontal hermeneutic. The form of the Mass is no barrier to politicization on any side, and based on my experience, bishops who are perceived as being leftward and worldly have often accepted it.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 3:36pm

It will be an excuse for the worst sort of bishop to harass those devoted to the old rite. At this point, Francis does not command the attention of faithful Catholics except in the sense that an overflowing stopped up toilet might attract one’s attention. Those devoted to the old rite will attend SSPX Masses and off-the-books Masses.

Patricia
Patricia
Thursday, June 17, AD 2021 6:16pm

The Lord’s Ten Commandments are too hard for them to follow as regards Church teaching? It is possible to excommunicate oneself from the grace of Eternal Life by one’s own worthiness.

G. Poulin
G. Poulin
Friday, June 18, AD 2021 12:29pm

I hear that Satan had a lot of bishop’s skulls laying around, so he decided to pave Hell and put up a parking lot.

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