“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.” ― St. Antony the Great
Pope Francis’ new comments on the death penalty are incoherent
and dangerous
Pope Francis says that his innovative teaching “does not
imply any contradiction” of the Church’s tradition but, one has to say
reluctantly, it indeed does.
By Father George Rutter
Debate has always been an invigorating and constructive way
of defining and refining views, assuming that the debaters have minds of
probity and reason. This is increasingly absent in our culture, where
subjectivism rules, and where there is only one debater, and his opponent is a
straw man of his own construction.
Yet when one reads the “spontaneous remarks” of Pope Francis
on various subjects of the day, the quality of reasoning and information of
facts is so fugitive, that frustration yields to sheer embarrassment. There is,
for example, the Holy Father’s remarks to youth in Turin on a hot June day in
2015: even a Reuters press release said that his smorgasbord of concerns, from
bankers to the weapons industry to Nazi concentration camps, was “rambling.”
While constrained by respect for the Petrine office, and aware of the strains
that imposes, it is distressing to look for a train of thought and find only a
train wreck.
In a carefully worded and very precise series of statements to Catholic World Report, Raymond Cardinal Burke has outlined, hypothetically, what would happen should a pope teach heresy.
He refers to the last time such a situation occurred was under John XXII in the thirteenth century and backs up with scripture, the right of a bishop or cardinal to correct a pope, citing Paul's rebuke of Peter in Galatians.
CWR: Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., the Auxiliary
Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan and titular
bishop of Celerina, who has written an open letter of support for the four
cardinals and their dubia, has also said that the Church is in a de facto
schism. Do you agree with that? Cardinal Burke: There is a very serious division in the
Church which has to be mended because it has to do with, as I said before,
fundamental dogmatic and moral teaching. And if it’s not clarified soon, it
could develop into a formal schism. CWR: Some people are saying that the pope could separate
himself from communion with the Church. Can the pope legitimately be declared
in schism or heresy? Cardinal Burke: If a Pope would formally profess heresy he
would cease, by that act, to be the Pope. It’s automatic. And so, that could
happen. CWR: That could happen. Cardinal Burke: Yes.
One could expect a new barrage of assaults from the minions surrounding Pope Francis. Let us keep Cardinal Burke and all faithful prelates in our prayers.
As time moves on, more and more Catholics are coming to the realisation of what is happening in the Church. Even the secular media, has begun to notice. The Rosicas of the world can keep perpetuating the narrative of the France Effect. What is this Francis Effect? Is his reaching out filling the pews, the RCIA's, the Confessional line? That is not my experience. In fact, it is the opposite. What is yours? Are people coming back to your parishes because of the Francis Effect? Carl. E. Olson of Catholic World Report has much to say. http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/5091/francis_has_built_his_popularity_at_the_expense_of_the_church_he_leads.aspx
Or if you need a break from reality, there's always Remy!
