By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
And teaching Catholic truth is not “rigid.”
The Pope’s in-flight press conference en route from Africa back to Rome this month was the cause of yet one more shockwave emanating forth through the Church, unsettling and confusing scores of faithful Catholics and further encouraging the lobby of rupture and dissent.
The key words to take away from the Pope’s harsh condemnation of certain members of the Church, priests and bishops in particular, were “rigid” and “museum.”
He claimed that some members of the Church are “rigid” and want to save souls with their rigidity. He further elaborated on what that rigidity might mean by saying such hidebound troublemakers want to hark back to the past, to a “museum,” as the source of their rigidity.
The gravest crises in the Church today are fed by those who avoid the truth at all costs so as to preserve their own comfort or to aggrandize themselves with a certain lobby that opposes the truth. Fr. James Martin, SJ, is a case in point.
Any priest or deacon can have a bad day in the pulpit and, for whatever reason, fail to hit a home run, though he may be orthodox and at a minimum be able to repeat the Catechism word for word on a given topic.
This is to be lauded. The role of the minister is to be faithful to the Word of God and to the Magisterium of the Church for the sake of the salvation of souls. The truth — however it is stated — can always plant a seed.
Every ordained minister is blessed with different gifts. Some are better able than others to assist the faithful in assimilating and incorporating the teachings of the Church. The Church expects that at least they speak the truth in the pulpit so as to “preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” as St. Paul describes the role of the preacher in the Church.
The truth does not change. If it is because the priest consistently teaches the truth “in season and out of season,” that someone describes him as rigid, that priest is nonetheless doing what the Lord expects of him.
Those who oppose such a faithful priest need to have a discussion with the Lord if they do not like the situation, because the priest is serving with fidelity as a minister of the High Priest who ordains and sends him through the Church.
The Deposit of Faith, reaching back through time to the apostles and the Lord Himself, cannot be described as a “museum.” Everything that comes from Christ and leads to Christ is life and gives life. A museum is a place of things that are cast off and lifeless because belonging only to the past. The immemorial faith may never be forsaken and always gives life in Christ who “is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
When a priest teaches the immemorial faith, no matter how he may be lacking in the talents of a modern Lacordaire, he does what the Lord sends him to do and has a right to our respect and support.
Holding to the doctrine of faith is not a problem for anyone, no matter what other issues they may be facing. It is in fact the answer to human problems.
Furthermore, our living apostolic tradition handed down from Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is not a “museum.” It is unhelpful and disedifying and it hampers evangelization to attack it as such.
Faithfulness to the entire “tradition” is not a cause for schism as some may suppose, which crisis the Pope said he does not fear, also on the flight to Rome from Africa.
Why bring up schism in the context of fidelity to Church teaching? There was a schism after Vatican I. What we are witnessing today may simply be a reaction to Vatican II which purifies the Church.
If people who believe in the teachings of the Catechism are sharing space in the Church with others who function as if they do not believe in those teachings, it is certainly not the prior group that would be guilty of schism, should it come to that.
If a priest or bishop, or even a cardinal or Pope, has human problems, holding steadfast to the truth of faith is the solution to those problems: It is not a problem in and of itself.
In my days in the seminary I ran into priests, vocation directors, professors, and others who used the word “rigid.”
They were using the term as the camel’s nose under the tent to promote an alien agenda or to remove certain men from formation for the priesthood because their orthodoxy was thought to be a threat to the agenda of these individuals.
Under the present Pope, increasing numbers of those who dissent from the Church’s teaching that the Eucharist benefits only those in a state of grace and the immorality of contraception, concretized in the destruction of the JP II Institute, have been empowered.
I would argue that the use of the word “rigid” by those in power, whether formators in the seminary, bishops, vocation directors, or even the Pope, veils an agenda that in fact is corrosive to the orthodox faith and Tradition.
Any men in the seminary who didn’t act like groveling, obsequious chameleons were labeled “rigid” by ordination gatekeepers who seemed to be more interested in ordaining politicians than faithful priests.
Perhaps certain persons in positions of power in the Church are uncomfortable with certain aspects of Catholic faith and doctrine. Perhaps they nurse an agenda to undermine those teachings they personally find inconvenient or uncomfortable.
The ever-growing list of teachings that are being attacked grows: the Eucharist, Confession, Marriage, the celibate male priesthood, and the Mass.
Is it not rigid, rather, to systematically reject the teachings and sacraments of Christ handed down in the life of the Spirit as we see happening?
Some who have been entrusted with certain powers and decision-making ability allow bias to come into play. The word “rigid” is used to mask their personal discomfort with the faith and others who hold to the orthodox faith in a consistent and persevering way.
The ever-changing world needs the unchanging moral truth from the Church, call it “rigid” or not. The Lord sends us to share it without prejudice. We will be judged adversely when we meet the Lord if we refuse the mission.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
@IntroiboAdAltar
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress