By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
I find myself in Italy simultaneously with the occurrence of the Amazon Synod. I will not land in Rome until closer to the end of October, the second week of pilgrimage with a group of American faithful. I am writing from Assisi where the Gospel found a new and dynamic herald in the “Poverello” who renounced wealth and privilege for love of the Lord and the rebuilding of the Church in obedience to His command.
St. Francis blazed with Christian integrity, spreading the reign of Christ through truth. He declared in his canticle of Brother Sun, “Woe to those who die in mortal sin!” Detachment from worldly riches is for the sake of giving first place to the life of grace rather than a conspicuous poverty, however glamorous or for the sake of a passing fad.
The poverty of Francis was not an end in itself, sought not to bring acclaim to his person, but for furthering the Lord’s reign on Earth in the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls. Poverty is not for God, but for us. St. Francis, for example, was very clear about the desirability of gold vessels for the confection of the Blessed Sacrament.
“Christ conquers, Christ rules, Christ reigns.” Among the attributes ascribed to the Lord in a venerable Latin chant popular in traditional liturgical usage is that of “conqueror.” Christ definitively overcame the ancient enemy, which is sin and death, through His Resurrection. The power and glory of His new life after three days in the tomb is, however, yet be appropriated by all of humanity.
To make this salvation known so as to share His victory with all of mankind has been the divine mandate for the Church from the beginning. Man’s cooperation with God’s plan for salvation is properly the work of the universal Body of Christ, the Church. She is the source of grace through which alone man is to be saved.
God’s victory, however, must be accessed by every human person through free cooperation. This is a work of love. Heart must speak to heart, in a motto beloved by the newly canonized St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, as borrowed from the Salesian inspiration at the roots of the Oratory he founded.
Ecumenism comes from a good place in Christian charity. It is a permanent aspect of the Church’s evangelization. It must be fueled by a desire to “baptize all nations.” When it is reversed, however, such that the faith is denied in a misdirected desire to affirm everything, including error and sin, it is a betrayal of the will of God.
One member of our pilgrimage group evidenced some exposure to the themes of the Amazon Synod. He mentioned during breakfast that he had heard about a discussion on ordaining married men to remedy the priest shortage in the Church.
What would St. Francis say about cutting out the heart of self-abnegation by eliminating celibacy in the life of priests? He treasured conformity to Christ made possible in this manner of renouncing earthly consolation of marriage and family as a friar and a deacon and believed it to be a paramount spiritual good also for others.
I met a newly ordained permanent deacon from Berlin who was sojourning with his family in Assisi in celebration of his Ordination. He never mentioned anything in connection with the themes of the synod in an hour of conversation.
Having refused priestly Ordination in humble unworthiness, the deacon Francis of Assisi might also be a reference point in these days when clergy shortages present a pressing need for the Church.
A cross-section of ordinary lay and ordained members of the Body of Christ evince a need and desire to persevere in the traditional aspects of faith and life, rather than anything else.
There is therefore good reason to believe that the two-thirds of the people of the Amazon region, living as they do in cities, would mirror such findings.
Our pilgrimage group’s Italian leader expressed consternation that the constant talk radiating outward from Rome of the poorest of the poor leaves the largest group in the Church, the middle class, feeling neglected. This, she said, as they sink economically lower and lower into poverty through neglect.
A seeming obsession with one group in the Church can have the unwanted and unhealthy effect of leaving other constituencies resentful, resulting in a kind of class warfare in which some feel at a disadvantage over and against others. The Church has many members, all belonging to the Body of Christ. Pastoral care should not exclude, but rather work tirelessly to include all.
One member of our group travels weekly to an inner-city parish to care for and accompany elderly persons who are neglected and lonely, abandoned even by family members. This work for those impoverished by various factors, including material ones, is good and necessary. It must be encouraged in every community.
The Amazon Synod, unfortunately, despite some good intentions, may further inflame feelings of neglect within a greater portion of the Church by encouraging class conflict, smacking of Communism and liberation theology.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan is among those working hard to counteract inversions in the Church today, attempting to restore the Church’s mission to “teach all nations.” His new book Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, was launched this month in Rome during a conference to counteract the prevailing confusion in the Curia. The book was written in conversation with Diane Montagna of LifeSiteNews and is available at amazon.com.
His message is one of hope, urging us to work and pray in cooperation with the victory of Christ over sin and death, bringing hope and the light of clear teaching where ambiguity and denial have betrayed the mission and mandate of the Church.
Held as a countervailing force simultaneously in Rome with the Amazon Synod, the above-mentioned conference featured leading lights in the fight for upholding truth as the true compassion the Church offers to the world. Orthodoxy will live on despite the sideshow distractions of feathered native pagan rituals flown to the Eternal City by the Church in Germany to advance a deconstructionist and dangerous agenda.
You may have heard about the pagan rite hailing Mother Earth on a blanket in the Vatican Gardens. It appears to have been too avant-garde for the Pope, who laid aside his prepared remarks and prayed the Our Father with participants before departing. This served as a precursor to additional unrecognizable liturgical embarrassments which followed at other Vatican-sponsored venues.
Gerhard Cardinal Mueller joins those few voices crying out as he declares that Christ has been “cast out by the synod.” Will any of us remain free of damaging shrapnel while loyally maintaining the fiction that no one person in Rome is responsible for the growing ecclesial darkness and confusion?
Or will many condemn themselves as unworthy of salvation, cower as they do in self-protective silence within the fog of war against God which obscures more and more of the ecclesial landscape?
“Christ conquers, Christ rules, Christ reigns.” And we will reign with Him if we persevere in rejecting all attempts to deny Him.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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