In an article which may be found here, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn is quoted as having said that, "The truth will set you free...Without the truth, one cannot experience Jesus’ mercy....But it must be truth in its proper form. One must speak the truth without injury.”
Really? Here again is the lie that we must, at all costs, avoid a "negative polemic."
Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand refutes this
intellectual sophistry. He writes, "Some might be tempted to believe that the
rejection of error and falsehood [ and here, again, we are speaking of ideas not
persons] is something "negative" and even cult-like....Perhaps never before has
there been as much intellectual fraud as there is today. In the mass media - and
even in discussions on university campuses - this intellectual fraud appears
chiefly as the manipulation of slogans designed to bluff the hearer or reader,
and prevent him from thinking clearly. For a typical example, let us consider
how the terms positive and negative are now most often used to discredit the
refutation of pernicious errors and to give credit to the most shallow
speculations. The intellectual swindlers who play such an important role in
public discussions will often denominate as 'positive' propositions and
attitudes they favor. They thereby seek to forestall questions of truth and
value by enveloping their prejudices in a vague suggestion of 'creativity,'
'originality,' 'openness,' 'unaggressiveness.' This is the device of the
cuttlefish. The moment one tries to grasp it, it emits a murky substance to
confuse and deceive.
In reality, the popular slogan usages of positive
and negative is a distortion of the genuine meanings of the terms. In proper
usage they can refer to existence and nonexistence or to value and disvalue.
They can refer to desirability and undesirability, or to answers to questions
and demands, or to results of tests and inquiries. But when these terms are
applied to attitudes of mind or to theses - by way of suggesting an evaluation -
an intellectual fraud is committed; for they are then being used to evoke vague
associations that distract from the question that alone matters - namely: Is
this attitude objectively called for? Or: Is this thesis true?...It is the
nature of truth to exclude every contradiction of itself. Thus, the rejection of
errors and falsehoods can never be separated from the affirmation of truth. The
one implies the other...
To give the impression that affirmations are
'positive' and denials 'negative' is to misrepresent completely the nature of
judgments and propositions. This abuse of the language transforms the terms
positive and negative into deceptive slogans and thus amounts to an intellectual
swindle..." (The Charitable Anathema, pp. 45-47).
Si palam res est,
repetitio injuria non est: "To say what everybody knows is no injury."
In one of his last homilies, Archbishop Oscar Romero, the martyred
Archbishop of San Salvador [whom Francis claims to admire], said: "A
preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A
preaching that makes sinners feel good so that they become entrenched in their
sinful state, betrays the gospel's call. A preaching that does not discomfit
sinners but lulls them in their sin leaves Zebulun and Naphtali in the shadow of
death. A preaching that awakens, a preaching that enlightens -- as when a
light turned on awakens and of course annoys a sleeper -- that is the preaching
of Christ, calling, "wake up! Be converted!" this is the church's authentic
preaching. Naturally, such preaching must meet conflict, must spoil what is
miscalled prestige, must disturb, must be persecuted. It cannot get along with
the powers of darkness and sin."
We've had enough of a preaching which leaves Zebulun and Naphtali in the shadow
of death. We've had enough of a Cotton-Candy Catholicism which offers
Chicken-Soup Homilies and asinine
theatrics rather than the solid meat of sound preaching and liturgical
reverence. Sadly, so many of our priests haven't caught on to this. And so
they continue to spoon-feed us the unsatisfying pablum.
The time for
lying is over. I have been saying this for years. Back in 2009, Archbishop
Charles Chaput noted that, "40 years of American Catholic complacency and poor
formation are bearing exactly the fruit we should have expected...We can't talk
about following St. Paul and converting our culture until we sober up and get
honest about what we've allowed ourselves to become. We need to stop lying to
each other..."
The
lying must stop. For this to happen, we need priests and Bishops who fear God
more than they do men. Cowards will not lead us out of the valley of death.
Only shepherds who have the spiritual strength, the Cardinal Gift of Fortitude,
to brave the risk of worldly criticism, will be able to lead the American
Catholic Church out of the valley of the Culture of Death and back on the road
to the Civilization of Love which Pope John Paul II spoke of so
often.
Why have so many priests succumbed to fear? Why is it that their
preaching no longer points out sin? Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange provides us with an
answer:
"The reason for this is not difficult to find. A sermon is
the result of the combined effort of all the priest's powers; it reveals his
entire person; it is his struggle against the vices of the surrounding world."
In other words, if the preaching is unsound, it is because the priest's
spiritual life is unsound. Fr. Lagrange continues, "Everything in the priest
cooperates in his preaching - study, reflection, his powers to compose and
revise, the activity of his intellect, his imagination, his memory, his
feelings, his voice. Therefore, when he preaches, the priest stands exposed for
all to study; some will be attracted, others will not. Some will accept what he
says, others will simply criticize. So if the
priest approaches his task from the human angle, he will say to himself: 'I
cannot afford to lose my reputation; people of weight in the parish who take
offense easily must be spared their feelings and not provoked; I must proceed
warily so as not to incur criticism.' In
that way Christian eloquence is invaded by a profane eloquence in which the
preacher looks after his own interests, not the glory of God or the saving of
souls." (The Priest In Union With Christ, p. 156).
I've
never been a fan of lying. And this because Our Lord tells us that the Devil is
the Father of all lies (John 8:44), If it's lying you want, this Blog is not
for you. Forty years of lying has wrought so much damage to the American
Catholic Church. Archbishop Chaput is right, we are merely reaping the fruit of
what we've planted. St. Paul tells us that, "...the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control.." (Galatians 5: 22). But what fruit have we witnessed in the
American Catholic Church? The Church has been infected with dry-rot as so many
Catholics have succumbed to the works of the flesh.
We need heroic
shepherds. Men who, like Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., are willing to give their
very lives for the Catholic Church and her teaching.
If anyone is inclined to listen to the ramblings of this faithless Cardinal, I would remind them that this is the same confused individual who asserted that, "We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships." See here.
2 comments:
Archbishop Chaput is right on the MONEY!! Lack of proper catechizing, or in a fair number of Parishes, NO CATECHIZING AT ALL, has been the diabolical plan of the evil one. Our pews are EMPTY because of it! TRUTH IS ATTRACTIVE, but we have not received the truth from the pulpits in almost 50 years now!! A half century of decay perpetuated from our 'Shepherds' has devastated the Church. And NOW, with the infamous 'EXHORTATION' at our door, I do believe the wolves are planning the final blow. May Jesus have MERCY ON ALL OF US!
The darkness spreads.
http://www.onepeterfive.com/pope-francis-departs-from-church-teaching-in-new-exhortation/
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