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Steve Skojec at 1Peter5 recently gave vent to the low state of mind that often overcomes him on account of the state of the Church today under the current Successor of Peter. But as dire as that state is, I do not share many of his reservations about the seeming futility and hopelessness of keeping one’s faith, and soldiering on to live worthy lives as all good Catholics have been raised to do – which we can all do, regardless of who happens to be reigning in the Vatican. We know abundantly by now that we can stop hoping Bergoglio will ever be someone who can confirm his flock in the faith, because he has broken with that faith. It is up to us, ourselves, individually and collectively (however few or many there may be if us), to keep the faith.
Quite simply, I have come to detest the individual who happens to be pope right now, but he is still the pope, and while I cannot love him, I can continue praying for him whenever I pray for the Church, of which right now, he is the official leader, whether we like it or not. My respect for the institution of the papacy has not diminished because I have lost respect for the individual who is now called pope.
That said, the letter Skojec shares from someone who declares that we who oppose this anti-Catholic pope are now ‘practical sedevacantists’ expresses what I have said a few times before in this space – nothing prevents us from continuing to live Christian lives the best way we can and as we have been raised, as if there were no pope at all, as if the See of Peter were actually vacant.
After all, there are enough bishops and priests – orthodox Catholics, competent and good men - who can minister to our sacramental needs, and we have the untrammelled deposit of faith from 2000+ years of the Church to draw upon. And even Skojec , of course, advises, “Stand fast!”
Stand fast: The storm will break
By Steve Skojec
April 3, 2017
[I shall omit his introductory paragraphs…]
…We wonder how to help people and not just discourage them. We ask if maybe we should talk less about what is going on, and more about what should be, because to tell the truth right now is almost to administer a beating to the fallen man; the darkness within the Church is so profound that simply to shed light on it seems, at times, as though it risks scandalizing people right out of the Mystical body of Christ and into clutches of despair.
One commenter here recently put the sum total of these things quite poignantly:
I think really for all intents and purposes we must be practical sedevacantists. I myself am not one formally, but the daily business of working out our salvation and picking up the pieces of faith and moving on is one which must decidedly exclude any place for Francis in our lives, other than the nod that he is the one in Peter’s see.
With John Paul II I could spin most of what he said as orthodox. Much the same with Benedict XVI. But this guy…I got nothing. And so all I can do is render him nothing in my life. For me, the see is empty practically speaking because it is devoid of what ought to be there – orthodox catholic leadership. It really is up to us finding good priests on our own, if possible, and God bless the small remnant who can find a Catholic Bishop in America who stands by tradition. There are a few, but not in my life. The See may be occupied physically, but my heart is vacant, devoid of any earthly shepherd and must rely on the one true shepherd and bishop of our souls.
I don’t know whether to thank God that I have lived to see such times or to curse the darkness for the confusion it rains upon millions who want to be of goodwill. I don’t know whether I will ever see the Church restored to her former glory, or if I am doomed to watch the bishops all topple like bowling pins, the fall of each spinning and knocking over his fellows.
When did we imagine that we would look upon a Pope and wish that God would take him from our lives? When did we imagine that we would cringe to hear the voice of Peter, knowing it was Judas, fearing to say it aloud. This is what it must have been like to be gathered around the campfire in the courtyard on that dark night, knowing Peter, waiting for him to defend his master, and to hear him not once, not twice but three times deny the man he swore he would die for.
“Get thee behind me Satan, for you are an obstacle to me.” Get thee behind me, Francis. You are an obstacle to me. Your thoughts are not his thoughts neither are your ways his ways. I want to be Catholic and you want me to sing the praises of Luther, I want to be Catholic and you would hand me over to the Greeks, I want to be Catholic and you will not genuflect before the Eucharist, I want to be Catholic and you curse the Roman Rite, you mock the faithful, you call us heretics, you open the doors of heaven to unrepentant Jews and grant the grace of baptism to those who have separated themselves from Holy Mother Church.
What have I to do with you? And what can you be to me? How can I help but be tempted to declare the see vacant when you have vacated Christ? What is there in you or the exercise of your office that would inspire the faithful to greater fidelity?
But sweetest Christ, though you hang dead upon the cross, lifeless in the arms of your mother I believe, I believe, I believe and confess that there is no flesh but this flesh that will grant us life, that there is no body but this which will be our salvation and that only in the tear stained face of your Immaculate Mother will my tears find their purpose… h Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.
Note the important qualifier, “practical.” We are not sedevacantists. Not sedeprivationists. These things would be easier. It is a far less traumatic thing to believe that the reason a pope is doing these things is because he is not really a pope at all than to believe that somehow he can be the legitimate successor of Peter but take on the mantle of Judas. We are instead forced to accept that there is an emptiness in the See of Peter that the formal reality of papal legitimacy cannot wipe away.
So we scan the horizon for something, anything, that will encourage us. Last week, I watched the video of Cardinal Burke talking about — still after all this time — the mere possibility of a “formal correction” of the pope. As if it isn’t already long past due. As if, in addition to Amoris Laetitia, which is itself now almost a year old and metastasizing through the Church like a theological tumor, there weren’t dozens of other things that Francis has said or done that demand correction. As if we don’t need quite a good bit more than to have a small handful of cardinals and bishops consider a public re-statement of what the Church believes.
Last year, I remember candid conversations with friends and family and colleagues. “There can be no human solution to this,” I told them. “I think that God is going to let things get so bad that when He at last intervenes, there will be no question that it’s from Him.” I had been staring at the darkness long enough, and I saw no way out.
But then the dubia came, and there was a flicker of hope. Whispers of formal correction fueled that hope further. The prospect of a reconciled SSPX shed light on a possible source of encouragement and strength. A spreading metanoia began taking root in more mainstream Catholic media outlets, seemingly indicating that at last, reinforcements had arrived.
But in their turn, each of these things has disappointed. While far from worthless, each of these things has, in practical terms, been little more than the furtive ping of a pellet gun against the thick, dense armor plates of an on-rushing tank. Or as one friend of mine always puts it, “Like fighting a dragon with a toothpick.” And each time these initiatives have been revealed as something far less than the answer we were looking for, hope burned a little less brightly in our chests. [I do not join the chorus of those who protest that the Four Cardinals and their DUBIA have been largely ineffectual and futile. They laid down the essential lines that AL appears to have crossed doctrinally and did have the courage to call the pope's attention directly to their DUBIA. It is not their fault that they have the misfortune to be addressing an immovable hubristic obstacle to the faith!]
The chorus of, “The [insert your favorite group/cleric/initiative here] will save us!” has grown fainter and fainter, the exuberant idea that help was coming having diminished to nothing but a bitter, embarrassed memory of wishful thinking.
At some point, the foxhole grew quiet as the realization set in: help was not coming. But in the soul-crushing darkness that has fallen heavy and rueful across the faithful, a thought re-emerged like a pinprick of light: There can be no human solution to this. God is going to let things get so bad that when He at last intervenes, there will be no question that it’s from Him.
All of these hopes were false hopes. All of these saviors were false saviors. [It is uncharitable to think for a moment that the Four Cardinals, in articulating the DUBIA, were offering any false hopes, much less that they thought of themselves as 'saviors' in any way! They did what they had to do and what they could do, given the authority structure in the Church. It's more than what their peers in the Church have done! What do their critics - who do share the DUBIA - propose they ought to do?]
And all of this was according to His plan. There is only one Messiah, one hope, and His name is Jesus Christ — a name which sounds not like a timid whisper, but a peal of thunder, before which “every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:10-11)
I wish I had wisdom to offer you. I wish I had answers. I wish I could tell you what is next. But the fog of war has grown so thick that we are stumbling forward in total darkness. We are being forced to “walk by faith, and not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)
Nevertheless, there is no question: He will lead us. He will show us what we need to see when it is time for us to see it. He has pushed us, continuously, beyond our comfort zone, forcing us to grow, stretching our faith to the breaking point. It may be longer than we think we can endure — in truth, it already has been — but we we continue to trust because He is God, and for Him, all things are possible and already pre-ordained. It is His Church, and He will restore it as He sees fit. When He sees fit. Until then, we stand firm upon the counsel of Peter, the first of his see, in the passage from which we have drawn the name of this apostolate:
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory. Likewise you that are younger be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
– 1 Peter 5
By coincidence, Mundabor had similar reflections on his blogpost yesterday:
You Are Not Alone
APR 5, 2017
Posted by Mundabor
It pains me to read of the devastation that Francis is causing, and of the feeling some have that all is useless because Amoris Laetitia will inevitably metastasise (I agree with that, though) and we have already entered an age of unprecedented confusion and de facto schism from inside the Church.
Whenever such thoughts assault me, I reflect on the following:
1. The Church today is not a photograph of those alive in 2017. It is a community of believers spanning 2000 years. Francis and his ilk are not even on the radar screen. You are not only right, but you are with the vast majority.
2. If you think these times apocalyptic, you need to read history more. We live in a time of unprecedented peace and wealth, which inter alia means that you can comfortably access two thousand years of Catholic wisdom and digest them from the comfort of your couch. Francis is absolutely powerless against Truth so easily accessed. Never has it been so comfortable to work on your salvation.
Francis cannot deceive anyone certainly,
[not any Catholic who knows better]. He will merely provide an excuse to those who want to be deceived.
If you told me that you would prefer to live in the time of the Black Plague but with an orthodox Pope I would not believe you. Actually, I would consider you an armchair warrior with a great penchant for whining from a very high level of comfort, and not knowing what he is talking about.
3. Yes, the devil is tempting you. He always does. One generation is tempted to lose the faith because of a huge pestilence; another because of so many young men who died in the trenches; a third one because of an open schism with two or three pretenders to the papal throne; and a fourth one, because an Evil Clown is the Pope. The devil's ways are different. The intention is always the same, and is the real unchangeable story in the history of humanity. Nihil sub sole novi. (There is nothing new under the sun).
4. The Lord in His Goodness has decreed that our generation should be punished with the metastasis of the cancer of Vatican-II. We endure the chemo without questioning His wisdom. We submit to His will and make the best of the time given to us. We know this for an absolute certainty: that the means of salvation are given to everyone of us irrespective of how disgraceful Francis or any of his successors may become.
5. You don't need the Pope to save your soul. You don't even need the approval of the astonishingly tiny minority – compared with 2000 years of Catholic Church – of 2017 FrancisCatholics. You are not alone. Actually, almost everyone – and absolutely every single one who was right these last twenty Centuries – is on your side.
This pope is [may be] a cancer, but neither the Church nor your faith can die of it. Sixty-five generations of Catholics in heaven look at you and approve. What do you care about Francis's insults!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/04/2017 18:04] |