It was Archbishop Fulton John Sheen who once said, "The acceptance of the fullness of Truth will have the unfortunate quality of making you hated by the world. Forget for a moment the history of Christianity, and the fact that Christ existed. Suppose there appeared in this world today a man who claimed to be Divine Truth; and who did not say, 'I will teach you Truth,' but 'I am the Truth.' Suppose he gave evidence by his works of the truth of his statement. Knowing ourselves as we do, with our tendency to relativism, to indifference, and to the fusing of right and wrong, how do you suppose we would react to that Divine Truth? With hatred, with obloquy, with defiance; with charges of intolerance, narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and crucifixion. That is what happened to Christ. That is what our Lord said would happen to those who accept His Truth." We have only to meditate upon the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 18-19 to see the truth of Archbishop Sheen's statement.
Readers of this Blog know that I'm not a partisan. I'm on the side of truth. Which is why I have worked to expose error wherever it may be found, whether in those circles which pretend to be "traditional" or in those which advance what is considered a "liberal" agenda. And so, I have been condemned, attacked, villified and even threatened by those who consider themselves to be "conservative" and by those who consider themselves to be "liberal." But this comes as no surprise since we are all called to be a sign of contradiction.
The Archdiocese of Boston has failed to appreciate this fact. Which is why they view bloggers who are faithful to the Magisterium, even while being critical of certain elements in the archdiocese, as "causing harm to the community." The Boston Globe cannot appreciate recent events. In a recent article, the newspaper said that:
"The blogs are a departure from the usual attacks against the Church because they offer a conservative critique of the local hierarchy. The archdiocese is more accustomed to fielding complaints from those pushing for a liberalization if Church teachings.."
But there is a profound difference between fraternal correction and an "atack." A point which those who publish The Boston Globe do not fully appreciate. My good friend Alice von Hildebrand, in an essay entitled "The secular war on the supernatural," gets to the root of the problem. She writes, "Now let us abolish the terms 'conservative' or 'liberal,' the terms 'left' and 'right' which are secularistic. I suggest that we say from now on 'those who have kept the sense of the supernatural and those who have lost it.' That is the great divide, that is the essence...Do you look at the Church and her teaching, whether dogmatic or moral, with a supernatural eye, or do you look at it with secular lenses? That is the divide. Left and right confuses the issue.." (See here for more).
Do we have a truly Catholic intellect? Do we see what the Church sees? It was Frank Sheed who reminded us that, "we must..see what the Church sees. This means that when we look upon the Universe we see the same Universe that the Church sees; and the enormous advantage of this is that the Universe the Church sees is the real Universe, because She is the Church of God. Seeing what She sees means seeing what is there. And just as loving what is good is sanctity, or the health of the will, so seeing what is there is sanity, or the health of the intellect." (Theology and Sanity, p. 4).
If the Archdiocese of Boston views Catholic bloggers faithful to the Magisterium (who see what the Church sees) as "harming the community" with their posts, what would that suggest about the sanity of the Boston Archdiocese?
Readers of this Blog know that I'm not a partisan. I'm on the side of truth. Which is why I have worked to expose error wherever it may be found, whether in those circles which pretend to be "traditional" or in those which advance what is considered a "liberal" agenda. And so, I have been condemned, attacked, villified and even threatened by those who consider themselves to be "conservative" and by those who consider themselves to be "liberal." But this comes as no surprise since we are all called to be a sign of contradiction.
The Archdiocese of Boston has failed to appreciate this fact. Which is why they view bloggers who are faithful to the Magisterium, even while being critical of certain elements in the archdiocese, as "causing harm to the community." The Boston Globe cannot appreciate recent events. In a recent article, the newspaper said that:
"The blogs are a departure from the usual attacks against the Church because they offer a conservative critique of the local hierarchy. The archdiocese is more accustomed to fielding complaints from those pushing for a liberalization if Church teachings.."
But there is a profound difference between fraternal correction and an "atack." A point which those who publish The Boston Globe do not fully appreciate. My good friend Alice von Hildebrand, in an essay entitled "The secular war on the supernatural," gets to the root of the problem. She writes, "Now let us abolish the terms 'conservative' or 'liberal,' the terms 'left' and 'right' which are secularistic. I suggest that we say from now on 'those who have kept the sense of the supernatural and those who have lost it.' That is the great divide, that is the essence...Do you look at the Church and her teaching, whether dogmatic or moral, with a supernatural eye, or do you look at it with secular lenses? That is the divide. Left and right confuses the issue.." (See here for more).
Do we have a truly Catholic intellect? Do we see what the Church sees? It was Frank Sheed who reminded us that, "we must..see what the Church sees. This means that when we look upon the Universe we see the same Universe that the Church sees; and the enormous advantage of this is that the Universe the Church sees is the real Universe, because She is the Church of God. Seeing what She sees means seeing what is there. And just as loving what is good is sanctity, or the health of the will, so seeing what is there is sanity, or the health of the intellect." (Theology and Sanity, p. 4).
If the Archdiocese of Boston views Catholic bloggers faithful to the Magisterium (who see what the Church sees) as "harming the community" with their posts, what would that suggest about the sanity of the Boston Archdiocese?
The Boston Globe would love to paint this as a "liberal-conservative battle." But it is really a question of orthodoxy and heterodoxy. One either stands with the Church and what She teaches or opposes [dissents from] that teaching.
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