The Pope enlisted Saint Paul yesterday in his war against orthodox Catholics:
This situation is not far removed from the experience of many Christians today. Indeed, today too there is no shortage of preachers who, especially through the new means of communication, can disturb communities. They present themselves not primarily to announce the Gospel of God who loves man in Jesus, Crucified and Risen, but to insist, as true “keepers of the truth” – so they call themselves – on the best way to be Christians. And they strongly affirm that the true Christianity is the one they adhere to, often identified with certain forms of the past, and that the solution to the crises of today is to go back so as not to lose the genuineness of the faith. Today too, as then, there is a temptation to close oneself up in some of the certainties acquired in past traditions. But how can we recognise these people? For example, one of the traces of this way of proceeding is inflexibility. Faced with the preaching of the Gospel that makes us free, that makes us joyful, these people are rigid. Always the rigidity: you must do this, you must do that… Inflexibility is typical of these people. Following the teaching of the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Galatians will help us to understand which path to follow. The path indicated by the Apostle is the liberating and ever-new path of Jesus, Crucified and Risen; it is the path of proclamation, which is achieved through humility and fraternity – the new preachers do not know what humility is, what fraternity is. It is the path of meek and obedient trust – the new preachers know neither meekness nor obedience. And this meek and obedient way leads forward in the certainty that the Holy Spirit works in the Church in every age. Ultimately, faith in the Holy Spirit present in the Church carries us forward and will save us.
Go here to read the rest. The Pope might wish to have a talk with the inflexible Apostle Paul:
[2] And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. [3] But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: [4] Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. [5] For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Galatians 5: 2-5
The Pope always reminds PopeWatch of this passage from The Screwtape Letters:
The use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under. Thus we make it fashionable to expose the dangers of enthusiasm at the very moment when they are all really becoming worldly and lukewarm; a century later, when we are really making them all Byronic and drunk with emotion, the fashionable outcry is directed against the dangers of the mere “understanding”.
Cruel ages are put on their guard against Sentimentality, feckless and idle ones against Respectability, lecherous ones against Puritansm; and whenever all men are really hastening to be slaves or tyrants we make Liberalism the prime bogey. But the greatest triumph of all is to elevate his horror of the Same Old Thing into a philosophy so that nonsense in the intellect may reinforce corruption in the will.
“nonsense in the intellect may reinforce corruption in the will”
Truth has few friends.
Yes, demonstrated every day where we live, work and go to church.
This pope is abysmally ignorant of Scripture. An absolute embarrassment to the Church.
That Christ fellow, going overboard to insure that every last word of scripture was fulfilled, just had to be so radically rigid. Glad this pope straightened all that out for me.
“inflexibility. Faced with the preaching of the Gospel that makes us free, that makes us joyful, these people are rigid. Always the rigidity: you must do this, you must do that… Inflexibility is typical of these people.’
Like Pope Francis when it comes to things like immigration, Global Warming and Covid vaccines.
It depends what you are flexible or inflexible about, that is the substance the content? you know. If the substance of the inflexibility is evil, then applying strength and will with fortitude would be forwarding evil. If the substance is good, then so are the actions promoting it also good.
Our response to the pope’s jiggery with words. (Eg using “ pelagian” against us 🙄) has to rise above the level he tries to keep us at. Rigidity in the service of truth is a good thing
good i
As always, what he says describes his so-called pastoral approach. There is no one less flexible and more attached to a stultifying form of the past than the pontiff.
A joyful, humble and meek man would, you know, radiate such. And maybe step away from the digital world. Instead, every week he issues global denunciations and demands via the internet and television.
His joyfulness seems easily snuffed by the behavior of those sinners over there.
“His joyfulness seems easily snuffed by the behavior of those sinners over there.”
Apart from a few isolated, independent fundamentalist churches I ran into back in the day – and not many even in those cases – I’ve never known a leader who has engendered so much of a ‘thank you for trashing those deplorables over there’ response from believers as Pope Francis. Almost every time he opens his mouth, I see Catholics on the internet rejoice that he’s once again gone after those sinful Catholics over there. Never does it seem to dawn on them that they might be the ones he’s targeting. But then, that seems to be his emphasis as well.
Curious timing that the pope would deliver this address in such close proximity to the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. A bold prophet who was not afraid to deliver prophetic correction when needed. Christ Himself also was quite direct in His woes to the Scribes and the Pharisees. This was followed by the discourse of St. Stephen where he ends his biblical history presentation in Acts 7:51-53 saying:
*
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
*
In Christ’s woes in Matthew 23 He specifically references crucifying and stoning as the ways that prophets were killed. The ways that He and St. Stephen were killed. Jerusalem and the Second Temple were destroyed for a lack of faith.
*
I think the pope needs to explain himself. He appears to be repudiating both St. John the Baptist and St. Stephen. The New Testament didn’t abolish the office of prophet.
I’d forgotten where that Lewis quote was from. Thanks! I always think about it when people of our modern era talk about the need for openness and withholding judgment.
“The louder he talked of his honor (non-rigidity), the faster we counted our spoons.“
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If anyone is rigid or inflexible in his positions it is this Pope who again and again tries to impose Modernism on the Church.
OT:
About 40 years ago, a Chicago alderman explained the peregrinations of Mayor Jane Byrne by saying she was ‘deranged by menopause’. As good an explanation as any as to why Dawn Eden is wasting her meagre income on the services of ambulance-chasers:
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/a-bizarre-jihad
dryly and what, exactly explains the dudes who act exactly the same? Low T?
Incidentally, the judge as reported is wrong– there is cyber stalking– but Ms. Eden’s behavior is much closer to it than those she accuses.
sighs Just like Shea, I remember when she was sane. I don’t recall getting along with her, but…..
Art, I think that Austin Ruse made a mistake by not invoking the DC anti-SLAPP law in this case. He should have told the judge that he had no animus to Dawn Eden, and that her fool of an attorney should have borne the price of the anti-SLAPP penalties, since he should have known better.
dryly and what, exactly explains the dudes who act exactly the same? Low T?
Over 39 years at the bar have told me that both sexes can go haywire as they age, and that the explanations tend to be all over the place.
I’m just a middle aged house wife, and I’ve noticed that, McC!
I am angry about the horrible philosophies that drag them around, though.
Curiouser and curiouser. This fellow Cubbedge is 41 years old and appears to have lived in Savannah, Georgia for about 10 years. (I thought Dawn Eden lived in New York; I think she was employed by the chancery at one point). He received his law degree 17 years ago. He admits to three employers: one a foundation in DC, one a school in Savannah (where he says he was part-time), and one a law office in Savannah, where it appears he was neither a partner nor an associate. These three employers account for 7 of the last 17 years. He claims to have set up a solo practice in 2017. He doesn’t admit to what he was doing during the other six years. He lists “Specialties: Campaign Management, Donor Acquisition, Donor Relations, Grant Writing, Real Estate Law, Trusts and Estates, Criminal Law, Adoption”. Torts not on the list. By some accounts he offers free consultations. Maybe that’s why she hired him.
https://dawneden.blogspot.com/
She’s replied, not mentioning the fate of her suit.
I’m just a middle aged house wife, and I’ve noticed that, McC!
My Mom and my Bride taught me never to underestimate house wives Foxfier!
A fair number of dissolutions occur because one of the spouses goes loopy, and usually they are adamant that they have not changed at all.