By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
“For as those rich dishes cannot be eaten without salt, so this simple virtue may be adorned with the glory and honor of different virtues, but if a man lack the love of God and of his neighbor, he is wholly worthless and contemptible” — St. Ephrem the Deacon.
The website Canon 212 strove mightily to amuse last week, nominating me the “bare shoulders warrior.” Trust me, “shoulders” was the modest way to describe what was being revealed.
More free advertising: Mary Pezzulo on her Patheos blog has continued her screed about something that never happened, at least as far as I know, and nothing I ever mentioned in Twitter or in a column. (Please see last week’s column.) Let’s pray that she becomes a more responsible blogger. It’s a lesson for all of us to write about the Church in order to build people up. She also claims I wrote a self-pitying column, but provides no evidence to back her claim. Please pray for Mary: She reveals on her blog that she suffers from fibromyalgia and supports her family through the writing.
While first-worlders talk about what to wear, or not, at Mass, or falsely claim priests call women out about it during the liturgy, a link on Drudge Report this past week draws our attention to the suffering of the poor people of Venezuela, some of whom are digging up coffins seeking trinkets to sell for food and other necessities. May the Lord soon free them from this hell on earth!
On to other matters:
In these days when doctrine is detached from pastoral practice, and the truth is misleadingly taught to be divorced from love, we must continue to affirm that, in the Lord, they were and are always one and the same reality. With such as our starting point, we must follow our conscience. A well-informed conscience, of course, and that means sometimes denying Communion to those who, for example, posted on Facebook that they’ve been to the women’s march and haven’t subsequently publicly rejected the agenda of contraception, abortion on demand even up to birth, same-sex genital activity and the redefinition of marriage.
Dan Hitchens in First Things reminds us that “Pope Francis Forgets,” among other things, that he put a footnote in Amoris Laetitia authorizing Communion for divorced-remarried couples and that he’s told other people to not follow doctrine. “But the impression of all these forgettings is — and it hurts to say this — of a teacher who often speaks without much reflection, before or after. While that may not be the greatest of imperfections, in a Pope it can be catastrophic.” We must not forget. We cannot forget the truth once we know it or we cannot be saved. Outside of the Church there is no salvation. And the reason for this is because rejection of the truth is rejection of the Savior, thus making salvation impossible: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.” One cannot be saved by a Christ one does not love.
Julia Meloni’s review in Crisis of Dr. Taylor Marshall’s book Infiltration gives us a brief description of the elements of modernism at play in the Church today undermining faith. These elements include: Demythologizing of Scripture, so as to detach doctrine from the living word of God, promotion of universal brotherhood based not on Christ but on false ecumenism and then rejection of Catholic faith and morals in the name of a new “inclusive” global reality, which in fact is promoted to supplant the Church of all time.
Amazon priests: There may not be any clothing at all in Masses after the Amazon Synod has its way. The working document inscrutably praises pagan rituals in promoting inculturation over evangelization. As journalist Maike Hickson reveals, the German bishop who wrote the document for the synod promotes women’s ordination and married priests. That should tell us all we need to know about the real purpose of the synod. The methods are getting bolder.
At Mundabor blog: “The Amazonian Synod clearly wants to introduce the standard of the married priests through the Amazonian back door: start first with a remote region where — you say — is it difficult to find priests (is it? When has a strong Church believing in Catholicism lacked brave missionaries?) and then allow this new praxis to extend to the other region courtesy of corrupted, faithless bishops.”
Rather than changing the faith or venerable charisms bestowed by Christ upon the whole Church, such as priestly celibacy, Popes once used their authority to send missionaries to priestless areas. How is having married priests in one of the poorest regions in the world going to be economically feasible? The priest in order to marry would have to have a full-time job as well as a family. When would he have time to do his priestly work? Somehow I don’t think this matters to those who desire to mutilate what has been handed down in an unbroken apostolic succession from Christ.
Married priests in Lebanon fled in the face of coming conflict. In war we see the truth about a priest truly married to the flock for which he was ordained. If you can have married priests in the Amazon, you can have them anywhere. This method of promoting experimentation, then using it to change the norm is an old tactic.
The TLM: Everything done to destroy any remaining recognizable elements of Catholicity in the liturgy will only give growth to the Traditional Latin Mass among those who keep the faith, above all other things, by which we are saved. Catechized Catholics know that changing the liturgy is not supposed to change the faith but, for the many of simpler understanding, changing the rule of worship does equal changing how we believe.
Paprocki vs. Cupich: Illinois legislators who voted for abortion have been informed rightly by Bishop Paprocki of Springfield not to present themselves for Communion. Cardinal Cupich of Chicago has a different take: “I think it would be counterproductive to impose sanctions, simply because they don’t change anybody’s minds, but it also takes away from the fact that an elected official has to deal with the judgment seat of God, not just the judgment seat of a bishop. I think that’s much more powerful,” Cupich told Catholic News Agency in a story by Matt Hadro. Wrong: It’s not up to us to “change minds.” That’s a useful distraction for the purpose of doing nothing. We are to be faithful, preventing scandal and praying for heretics.
The Traditional Latin Mass continues to be revealed as the only immunization against the madness at work to deconstruct and destroy what has been handed down. The official change to the words of the “Our Father” in Italian is another warning to all who will listen.
“The burden of your affliction, dearly beloved, is as a sleep; then there followeth unspeakable and priceless rest from labor. Therefore, watch thyself carefully, so that while thou followest after neither, wholeheartedly, thou shouldst not lose both the present and the eternal joy” — St. Ephrem the Deacon.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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