As the crisis in the Church deepens to critical proportions, look to the example of St. John. The Beloved Disciple had a winning game plan for he darkest day in human history. We can follow the same strategy today.
It’s hard to keep up with all the moves being made during this pontificate. Many of the pronouncements coming from the Vatican seem to be intentionally ambiguous, allowing for the faithful to fib to themselves that nothing’s changed, and allowing the less heterodox among us to exploit the carefully constructed loopholes in documents like Amoris Laetitia. No doubt the end product of this month’s synod will produce whoppers of equal magnitude.
Then, of course, there are the outright moves of betrayal, such as the stunning agreement with the Red Chinese which effectively throws the Underground Church in China under the bus.
Even though many faithful Catholics are confused, perplexed, disturbed, and perhaps even outraged by the Pontiff’s moves, there are those whom we suspect would be quite pleased…
The hunt is on for the “renegade” Archbishop! In the wake of his bombshell eleven page letter which named quite a few names, more than a few high-ranking prelates are ticked off. According to some press reports, the Vatican is actively seeking the whereabouts of Abp. Viganò, and has dispatched agents to locate him. Fearing for his life, Abp. Viganò has gone into hiding. From an undisclosed location, Viganò has written two additional letters.
Pray for Viganò’s safety during this time of crisis. Pray that his allegations be investigated fully, and pray to Our Lady that our beloved Church will emerge from this present tribulation stronger and holier!
In The Burden: A Warning of Things to Come, a wonderful volume of poetic prophesies written by Paul Thigpen and inspired by Divine Scripture, you will find a poem titled, “The Shepherds.” In this tremendous work, Dr. Thigpen issues a very harsh reminder to the faithful that some who pose as Shepherds, are in reality doing the bidding of Satan in an ongoing spiritual battle here on earth.
We the laity often remain silent in the sight of the obvious evils within; perhaps our silence is borne out of fear and intimidation, or a bizarre felling of deference to the flawed mortal sporting a miter. Either way, silence in the face of that which is wrong, brings about a degree of culpability. Culpability of which I do not wish to be a part. Whether it be ambiguous teachings, or the absence of moral teaching; when those entrusted with Shepherding the flock, either foster or allow to persist feelings of ambivalence or error within the congregation, they are not only paving their own pathway to Hell, but they are charting a course for countless souls to follow to pits of eternal damnation.
We, the laity, have an obligation to make use of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Fear, Piety, Fortitude, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel and Wisdom, to combat evil from wherever it comes, in the name of Jesus Christ as we set our sights on the True Evangelization and the eternal Salvation of all who would receive. 
I highly recommend, “The Burden.” It is available at TAN or Amazon. ISBN-13: 978-0615780436. Kindle price is $3.95 and paperback is $7.95
Balloon masses.
Clown masses.
Hootenanny/Rock Band/Jazz Band masses.
Liturgical dancing.
Hey! Liturgical “Innovators!” Know what might be fun? How ’bout doing a Mass where it is a supernatural event wherein God Himself is made present (Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity) among us? And everyone actually behaves as if that’s really happening? Wouldn’t that be a novelty? Whadd’ya think?
Regardless on which side of the Amoris Laetitia debate you find yourself, it’s undeniable that the promulgation of this document has produced considerable churn (understatement). Earlier blogs on this site have decried the way in which AL, by its ambiguity, produced such a wildly-varying degree of interpretations. Some bishops say nothing has changed; others see the opportunity to allow divorced & remarried Catholics to start receiving Holy Communion again. In one zip code, a divorced/remarried Catholic is an adulterer; in the next that Catholic is simply “on a journey” of some sort, and receiving the Eucharist might well be possible if an unspecified number of prerequisites are met.
Who are the winners and losers in all this?
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, says that AL represents “a paradigm shift, and the text itself insists on this, that’s what is asked of us — this new spirit, this new approach!” Factions favoring such a change refer to Amoris Laetitia‘s stress on the objective relevance of extenuating circumstances, the subjective conscience and discernment to allow some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion and apply it to allowing use of artificial contraception in some cases (National Catholic Register, 11 Jan 2018).
Although it comes a few centuries too late, it makes me wonder if one of the “winners” might not be His Majesty, King Henry VIII. Wasn’t that all he was asking when he divorced Catherine of Aragon, dumping her in favor of Ann Boleyn? One can just imagine him insisting to Thomas Moore (perhaps while visiting him in the Tower of London), that there was a bucketload of “extenuating circumstances,” and that the King was perfectly clear in his “subjective conscience of discernment,” and surely the “extenuating circumstances” of no royal heir.
Yeah….right….
The Roman Catholic Church has a deficit of cardinals who openly embrace the Magisterium. We need more men like Cardinal Sarah. Instead we have guys like this.
Some months before his infamous “rabbit hole” remarks the cardinal in charge of the Chicago Archdiocese still had plenty of other weird things to say.
In a recent talk at the Catholic Theological Union when praising the concept of “thinking out of the box,” he went just a little too far. According to a LifeSiteNews article published Nov. 2 2017, Blase Cardinal Cupich (appointed by Pope Francis) stated that if Catholics want to engage in “discernment” like Pope Francis does, they must let go of “cherished beliefs.”
Riiiiiight…
Excuse me, Your Eminence, does “cherished beliefs” include things like the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church? The Magisterium? You know…stuff like that? Here, see for yourself what Cupich is saying:
Letting go of “cherished beliefs” like the magisterial teaching of the Church and instead engaging in something like following a path of personal discernment….hmmm…isn’t that what the arch-heritic Martin Luther did? This guy sounds like he’s just another protestant to me.
Defending orthodoxy and tradition doesn’t always have to come in the form of a grand essay which lays out our arguments and apologetics in long paragraphs of well-constructed prose. Maybe every now and then a simple little poem might suffice.
And thus do I submit this bit of “Traditional Catholic Haiku” for consideration…
And, in case you’re wondering…no, it’s unlikely that we’ll get one of those official Vatican “Stamps of Approval” for our site!