Archbishop Chaput Thunders: Complacency and pride within the Church are the enemy of Faith

My good friend Deacon Nick Donnelly is reporting that:

"In his latest pastoral letter Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia has written that complacency and pride within the Church are the enemy of Faith.


'Advent is a season of self-examination in the light of God’s word;a season of conversion and looking forward in hope to the birth of a Savior at Christmas. There is no better time to speak frankly about the conditions we now face as a community of believers.’

‘Complacency is the enemy of faith. To whatever degree complacency and pride once had a home in our local Church,events in the coming year will burn them out. The process will be painful. But going through it is the only way to renew the witness of the Church;to clear away the debris of human failure from the beauty of God’s word and to restore the joy and zeal of our Catholic discipleship.’

These words may sound sobering,but they are spoken with love as a father and a brother. They are a plea to take our baptism seriously;and to renew our local Church with Christian charity,justice and zeal. As Scripture reminds us so frequently: Do not be afraid. God uses poor clay to create grandeur and beauty. He can certainly use us to renew and advance the work of the Church —and he will.

Protect the Pope comment: We would do well to remember that Jesus longed to bring fire upon the world, the fire of the Holy Spirit. Complacency and pride, particularly among those called to act in persona Christi Capitis, damps down the fire of faith,hope and love as sure as an ocean of tepid water.

The wreckage that we see around us since the Second Vatican Council is the consequence of complacency and pride. The only antidote to this is humiliation,and its fruit,humility.

Until the majority of the Catholic leaders of our country, bishops, priests, deacons, theologians, catechists, truly feels the bitter pain of humiliation as a result of the appalling failures of the past, such as clergy sexual abuse, the collapse of Catholic education in our schools, the wholesale abandonment of Catholic doctrine by Diocesan catechetical teams and the majority of Catholic institutes of education, for example, then complacency and pride will continue to rule our local church;and the fire will continue to splutter out.

http://www.stbl.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Pastorallet_IC.pdf

Well said Deacon Nick. I have been saying this for many years now. Just recently, I found it necessary to inform my parish priest that his promotion of CCHD in the parish bulletin was most unfortunate as the organization promotes abortion, homosexuality and so-called same-sex "marriage."  Just yesterday, at Holy Mass honoring the Immaculate Conception, this same priest told the faithful present that they should not genuflect on one knee during Eucharistic Adoration and that doing so is a sign of irreverence.  He asserted that Catholics must genuflect on both knees.

Straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel?

I wrote this priest an email in which I said: "During Holy Mass today, the people present were told that they should genuflect on both knees during Eucharistic Adoration. Actually, in 1993 the USCC/NCCB Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy published the Order for the Solemn Exposition of the Holy Eucharist, a resource collection of rites and texts for use by those planning annual solemn exposition. In #9 of that document it states, "Genuflection in the presence of the blessed sacrament, whether reserved in the tabernacle or exposed for public adoration, is on one knee." The footnote references the Vatican document of 1973: the Roman Ritual: Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass (HCWEOM.) In #84 of that document is the identical wording.


Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., in his Catholic Dictionary, notes that, "..genuflection in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, whether reserved in the tabernacle or exposed for public adoration, is on one knee" (General Instruction on Holy Communion and the Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass, n. 84).

The faithful should not be made to feel guilty for genuflecting on one knee when the Church proscribes doing just that: "Genuflection in the presence of the blessed sacrament, whether reserved in the tabernacle or exposed for public adoration, is on one knee." (See No. 84 here)."

This same priest had nothing to say about the woman and her several children who disrupted the Holy Mass this past Sunday, screaming and jumping up and down and running through the church.  He didn't speak of this as irreverence.  He kept that accusation for the faithful and devout Catholics - what few there are - who actually go to Eucharistic Adoration and who genuflect on one knee.

God preserve us from such nonsense!

The House of God will be deserted....

"After the birth of Antichrist and shortly before the rise of the Great Monarch, the false doctrines were to multiply and spread to such an extent that even Catholics would doubt many of the articles of faith, resulting in their perversion, this to apply not only to the laity but even to many priests and some of the hierarchy. The zeal of these latter will be greatly affected by this lack of faith. There will be dissensions among the clergy. Many will be proud, selfish, unjust, covetous, and even forgetful of vows made at ordination regarding chastity. Many will even offer Mass and confer the Sacraments sacrilegiously. When the zeal of the clergy fails they will see the faithful leaving the churches and turning to the world. The House of God will be deserted, singing of hymns will cease, and the observance of festivals abandoned. The relics of saints will be considered powerless and any contributions the laity will make to the Church will be made grudgingly. In many religious houses humility and poverty will be forgotten, pride and desire for worldly luxuries will characterize the inmates instead of the spirit of simplicity which is the mark of a true religious. Because of these defections Catholics will be severely punished, for only by chastisements can God bring back to the minds of His people, a realization of their dependence upon Him. As a consequence, widespread persecution of priests and people will come upon the Church in order that faith and love of God may be revived, for as surely as night follows day, so will civilization crumble and the world become steeped in the darkness of ignorance, hatred, misery and vice when God, who is the Light of the World, will no longer rule in the hearts of His people....In these days fiction will be preferred to truth because the people of the world will wish to be seduced....The prophets say also that evil and falsehood will increase as the world grows weaker with age.." (Rev. R. Gerald Culleton).

Lutherans decide to allow homosexual clergy - without the church's former stipulation that they remain celibate

The Prophecy of St. Nilus, who lived around 400 AD:

"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time for the Advent of the Antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left. At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society."

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), in its "Confession of Faith," states clearly - among other things - that:


"This church confesses the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This church confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe

Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death, and resurrection God fashions a new creation.

The proclamation of God's message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginning with the Word in creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by God's Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announce God's revelation centering in Jesus Christ. Through them God's Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world."

And what does the word of God, inspired by God's Spirit, have to say about homosexuality? Among other things, that complementarity of sexes reflects God's inner unity (Genesis 1: 27); that homosexual acts are an abomination (Leviticus 18: 22); that such acts are unnatural, shameful, and a perversity (Romans 1: 27); and that active homosexuals - which is what the ELCA is condoning - will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6: 9).

Imagine the dishonesty required to ignore these scriptures, and the others dealing with homosexuality, while proclaiming to believe in the Word of God as being inspired by God's Spirit! The Catholic Church, however, remains faithful to this Holy Word: "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357).

Like the Episcopal church in this country, the ELCA has decided to genuflect before the world. But as Maritain says, "...the Church is of God, not of the world. And we have to choose to be friends of the world or friends of God. Because the world is not only created nature as God made it, but this very nature insofar as crowned with the triple diadem of the evil desires of human Liberty - Pride at being supremely self-sufficient; Intoxication with knowledge, not for the sake of truth but for power and possession; Intoxication in being overcome and torn by pleasure. 'Do not love the world or the things in the world.' 'If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that seduces in the world - the Lust of the flesh, the Lust of the eyes, and the Pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world will pass away, and the lust of it.' (1 John 2: 15-17)." (The Peasant of the Garonne, pp. 34-35).

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has decided to commit spiritual adultery. But the Word of God warns, "Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4: 4).

Pray for these lost souls.