Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Pope Francis' false appeal to "communion" in blocking Latin Mass

Pope Francis' backwardly named motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, appealed to a fictional disunity as justification for restricting the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). 

In the document, Francis acknowledged both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI's move to promote the TLM for "the concord and unity of the Church." Two paragraphs later, Francis called for the exact opposite of his predecessors, and instead restricted the TLM for the sake of "ecclesial communion." 

Pope Francis photo by Juan David Tena, accessed at Wikimedia Commons

On November 30, 2023, EWTN's Raymond Arroyo interviewed Abp. Georg Gänswein, Pope Benedict's personal secretary.

Gänswein recalled asking Pope Emeritus Benedict in 2021 about Pope Francis' document oppressing the TLM. 

"Holy Father can I ask you a question? ... I do not understand understand that motu proprio because the liberty you gave with your motu propio years ago has bought peace in the liturgy and in the Church. And I feel this motu proprio will cause many, many problems." 

Gänswein then recalled Benedict's answer: "I hope God will help us."

Gänswein's instinct in 2021 has proven correct, as today we see "many, many problems" largely issuing from Pope Francis' antagonism for the TLM and the faithful attending. Following Francis' motu proprio, a multitude of vexed faithful have cried out. Francis' action, rather than following a trajectory of unity, has given rise to multiple faithful individuals and even formal organizations pleading for the restoration of the TLM. 

We knew nothing of such resistance and disunion during the time period Francis claimed disunity needed fixing. John Paul II wrote his indult in 1984; Pope Benedict his motu proprio in 2007. Pope Francis' motu proprio was in 2021. No such disunity between 1984 and 2021 existed. As Gänswein said, Benedict's motu proprio "brought peace." 

Speaking of the language, Pope Pius XI in 1922 said that Latin was a "great bond of unity." Pope Pius XII in 1947 said Latin was a "beautiful sign of unity."

Obstruction of Latin is also a disunion with the saints of old. For at the divine liturgy, the saints and angels are present. We especially acknowledge this during the confiteor when calling to angels and saints. Liturgical unity is not an enterprise trapped in a single generation. The presence of angels and saints for all of Christianity should not be ignored in the scope of "unity" in the Liturgy. Beyond the language, the new mass arguably preserved a mere 13% of the content of the traditional liturgy. Appealing to the new mass as somehow more unifying than a centuries-old liturgy is nonsensical.

Among the reasons the late Cardinal George Pell said of Francis "this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe" were because " liturgical tensions are inflamed and not dampened" under Francis.

Saturday, November 11, 2023

6 political behaviors of the Francis pontificate

Pope Francis and many of the bishops and Vatican spokespersons during his pontificate frequently behave in a manner matching modern propagandistic politicians. There are many examples. Here are 6.

CENSORSHIP

Francis Pontificate: Not only did the Pope command suffocation of the Traditional Latin Mass, but Vatican officials subsequently issued instruction censoring the TLM from being included among the bulletin mass times.

Hundreds of priests find themselves “cancelled” for reasons kept hidden by the aggressing bishops. In the typical case, there is no impropriety even alleged by the bishops. These priests are forbidden from public ministry. The latest inexcusable scandal was Pope Francis declaring the orthodox Bishop Joseph Strickland’s office in Texas vacant without due cause.

Politics: Recently, we’ve seen western governments even controlling social media sites to limit what is said and by whom. For example, Facebook has censored video of a living unborn baby. Both Facebook and Twitter censored a news story just prior to the 2020 election about Joe Biden’s son that was indisputably true. Social media knowingly censored true Covid information. Once the latest Ukraine conflict started, Youtube censored Oliver Stone’s 2016 film Ukraine on Fire, which incriminated the West in the 2014 Maidan coup. Youtube also recently removed interviews for the film The Sound of Freedom, which exposed a vast child-trafficking international network. It's a warlike tactic to take out an opponent's communication channels. These are a fraction of the censorship and account banning that has occurred in recent years at the behest of politicians.

Pope Francis 2016 (from Wikimedia Commons)

BLAMING A PROXY

Francis Pontificate: At the close of the recent “Synod on Synodality,” German heretical bishop Georg Bätzing claimed the “overwhelming majority of a world church has chosen” the sexual perversions he and many bishops (especially in Germany) have propagated. Of course, this is asserted gratuitously, because the practicing faithful believe the Church’s true moral teachings. The bishop points the finger at the faithful as a proxy for advancing his own ambitions.

Pointing the finger at the second Vatican council is also a common theme during the Francis pontificate. A Vatican official recently said, “Francis is the one who is pushing forward the application of Vatican II.” Yet Vatican II did not call for many of the Pope’s chief causes, such as the oppression of the Traditional Latin Mass. Cardinal Roche even claimed “The Council Fathers perceived the urgent need for a reform” in his letter defending suppression of Traditional Latin Mass. When cited this way, Vatican II has become a Rorschach blot, a proxy for advancing causes the Council did not call to advance.

Politics: The censorship tactic also ties into this, as government officials launder their power through big tech, belying the argument that these are “private companies.” They are instead used as proxies to do the bidding of the government entity.

In the Ukraine conflict, both NATO and U.S. politicians have insisted involvement in the war is limited to Russia and Ukraine and not NATO nor the U.S. However: In September, NATO candidly confessed the NATO expansion east was a cause for Russia’s response; the April Discord leaks show that the Pentagon was the source of war plans to which Ukraine did not have access; Hillary Clinton has said favor for Ukraine come with “strings;” British intelligence flat out said they support Ukraine so they can hurt Russia for non-acceptance of Western “lgbt+” ideology; President Biden’s son spearheaded funding for bioweapon research in Ukraine; and U.S. Undersecretary Victoria Nuland confirmed involvement with Ukraine biolabs. Sen. Tim Scott proudly said the U.S. was using “Ukranian blood” in the U.S. effort to weaken Russia. These are just a few of the direct involvements and interests the West has in Ukraine well beyond “freedom” help.

So, while Western politicians say their support is just altruism to help Ukraine, the operation appears ordered for Western interests. Ukraine is the proxy.

HYPOCRISY

A quick word on “hypocrisy.” The concept of hypocrisy is not merely condemning someone for that which one does himself. Someone addicted to smoking would be quite right and not hypocritical to discourage others from doing the same. Hypocrisy as used here is to condemn another for a behavior one condones for himself.

Francis Pontificate: Synod on Synodality pitchmen speak of the “openness” of the event. Yet participants are sworn to secrecy.

Pope Francis often makes statements like “say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism” while his pontificate is plump with clericalism. One example would be his attitude of placing himself above Church Fathers and preceding Popes when he rejected their teaching on the death penalty. Another is his absolutization of the Novus Ordo mass, in which the priest’s ad populum posture is a textbook form of clericalism. Other examples abound.

Politics: One of the politicized tactics of the abortion industry is to accuse the pro-life movement of being against “choice.” Of course, “choice” is a euphemism the abortion industry uses to disguise the intentional termination of an innocent human life. Meanwhile, when doctors offer women an actual “choice,” such as the abortion pill reversal (APR) protocol, the abortion industry has responded by attempting to silence that treatment, most recently in Colorado and California.

As mentioned above, the West has denied leveraging proxies throughout the business world – especially tech - and the international scene. Ironically, Nuland said last year, “It is classic Russian technique to blame on the other guy what they're planning to do themselves.”

FICTIONAL VICTIMS

Francis Pontificate: One of the battle cries of the Synod on Synodality is reaching out to people labeled “marginalized,” such as women or so-called “LGBT+” etc. As Professor Regis Martin said recently, “I have yet to meet any of these people. Who exactly are they whom we’ve so cruelly consigned to the margins of ecclesial life? … I really have not seen anyone who fits the description.”

Of course, the victimhood expressed here is fictional, since all of humanity is invited to participate in the full life of the Church, and the above persons are no exception. The only ostracized group today are the TLM attendees, ostracized by that very pontificate, and referred to in official Vatican documents as “members of the said group” distinct from all the other faithful. The heterodox cries of marginalization of women or the sexual identities commit a form of the fallacy of equivocation, confusing the non-possibility of a female priest or the non-possibility of blessing a sinful relationship as “marginalizing” those people. It’s similar to the modern world’s poorly thought-out attempt to redefine “love” as “endorsing” whatever someone does.

Politics: Fictional victimhood in the Synod mirrors fictional victimhood tactics in the world. Leftist ideologues have been conditioned to seek refuge in victimhood even when they act as bigoted aggressor. For example, in December, the Family Foundation had reserved a dining room at a restaurant later discovered to be owned by a leftist. Once the owner discovered the group was pro-life and pro-marriage, the owner rescinded the reservation and released a delusional statement claiming the Family Foundation sought to “deprive women and LGBTQ+ persons of their basic human rights” and that the restaurant staff felt “unsafe.” Of course, the natural law and millennia-old notion of marriage and desire to protect innocent life is no cause for alarm.

Another example of fictional victimhood prowls the world of modern feminism, which asserts that women are denied “equal pay” for equal work. However, the statistics they use for this assertion conflate the average pay of males and females in totality, ignoring job-types or amount of work. When those factors are accounted for, the so-called discrimination virtually vanishes. A hallucination of victimhood occurred when the U.S. women’s national soccer team cried foul on equal pay because they themselves rejected the collective bargaining agreement under which they would have made more had they signed it when offered.

EUPHEMISMS

Francis Pontificate: Pope Francis often uses the term “backwardness” as a pejorative against orthodox Catholics. He said, “There is incredible support for restorationism, what I call indietrismo (backwardness).” The term is non-theological. As a concept, looking backward per se is neither good nor bad. It depends to what one is looking back. Certainly, the Church in every age has looked back toward the Apostolic deposit and the preceding Magisterium to guide matters of the day. As mentioned in the proxy section above, Francis himself is ever looking “backward” to Vatican II and the 1960s to defend many of his teachings. In rejecting what he claims is “backwardness” of orthodox Catholics, he ironically (and unconvincingly) appeals to the 5th century’s St. Vincent of Lerins. Also ironic is that his document detaching from Tradition is called Traditionis Custodes, which in word means “guardians of tradition” and in practice means obliterator of tradition. While Pope Francis belittles such “restorationism,” predecessors such as Pope Pius X said where “Christian doctrine…is neglected, to restore it.”

Another common term used by Francis and heterodox bishops is “accompaniment.” This is, again, a concept that is neither good nor bad, per se. It depends on who one is accompanying. Proverbs 13:20 says “[T]he companion of fools will suffer harm.” In 2018, Cardinal Cupich exposed the term as a vehicle leading to the 2023 Synod, which, among other offenses, blurred the authority of the hierarchy and laity: “Thus, in a genuinely synodal Church there is no hierarchical distinction between those with knowledge and those without. As such, the most important consequence of this call to accompaniment ought to be greater attention to the voices of the laity, especially on matters of marriage and family life.” Opening doctrine in this way to any laity has resulted in various justifications of sinful behaviors. Fr. Jerry Pokorsky explained: “instead of accompanying our Lord on the way of the cross, many Church leaders choose to accommodate sinners on sinners’ terms.”

Related to “accompaniment” is “inclusion.” The Synod touted concepts like “radical inclusion” in the context of women and so-called “LGBT+,” etc. But, as discussed in the fictional victims section above, the notion that any group is excluded is really only applicable today to TLM attendees against whom the Francis pontificate has been plainly hostile. Polish Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki said the modernist term “‘inclusiveness’ implies an acceptance of how a person defines him or herself, as if defining oneself were in obvious conformity with reality, inherently unquestionable, and therefore demanding affirmation.”

Politics: The abortion industry is dependent on lies, including many euphemisms like “reproductive health” or “her body.”

The gay “marriage” movement hides behind many euphemistic slogans like “love is love,” “same love” or “marriage equality,” none of which address the root of the matter of what is a marriage or what is a man and woman.

The term “underrepresented” is used to signal supposed injustice if there are not enough of certain people of a particular demographic involved in a business, industry, film, or similar. It’s also applied inconsistently. Modern use of “representation” is a euphemism to condition people to perceive injustice where there is none. Politicians then leverage this. Merely sharing, say, skin color, with another person does not amount to any sense of relevant “representation.” If a white female devout Catholic is asked who better represents her, Nancy Pelosi or Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, she’s going to pick Cardinal Arinze. Today’s political use of “representation” appeals to trivial demographic characteristics when those characteristics are irrelevant to the context at hand.

ABUSE OF AUTHORITY

Francis Pontificate: The Pope’s quest to eradicate the Traditional Latin Mass is outside the scope of his authority. Cardinal Roche also abused authority proper to local bishops when he attempted to police them to impose Pope Francis’ Latin Mass restriction.

The removal of priests or even bishops without due cause is also external to the Pope’s or a bishop’s authority.

The Vatican Press office declared the Church was now ruled by Pope Francis as an individual, as opposed to the authority of Scripture and Tradition.

Politics: In an explicit overlap between the Francis pontificate and politics, the FBI was caught spying on traditional Catholics.

A court recognized the “abuse of authority” the U.S. government attempted to impose when demanding “vaccine mandates.”

Another court blocked Minnesota’s Democrat Secretary of State from forbidding the opposition party’s overwhelming leading candidate from appearing on the ballot.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What these overlapping tactics and language patterns between the Church and the world suggest is that the world is over-influencing the Church if not outright directing it. Language tricks and political tactics are not native to the pursuit of sound doctrine nor pastoral and familial leadership. It is indicative of a modern and worldly infection warned against by many in Church history:

Everyone must understand that such ravings and others like them, concealed in many deceitful guises, cause greater ruin to public calm the longer their impious originators are unrestrained. They cause a serious loss of souls redeemed by Christ’s blood wherever their teaching spreads, like a cancer; it forces its way into public academies, into the houses of the great, into the palaces of kings, and even enters the sanctuary, shocking as it is to say so. (Pope Pius VI, Inscrutabile, 7, 1775)

The common enemy of the human race is wholly engaged in undermining faith, destroying truth and disrupting unity by worldly wisdom, heretical discussion, subtle, clever deceit, and even, where possible, by the use of force. (St. Pius IX, Quartus Supra, 2, 1873)

According to these rules, Venerable Brethren, you should judge those to whom you will entrust the ministry of the divine word. Whenever you find any of them departing from these rules, being more concerned with their own interests than those of Jesus Christ and more anxious for worldly applause than the welfare of souls, warn and correct them. If that proves insufficient, be firm in removing them from an office for which they have proven themselves unworthy. (St. Pius X, Pieni L’animo, 9, 1906)


Thursday, October 5, 2023

2 paths to save the immoral culture

What will solve the immoral madness that has seized the world today? The Western world is largely responsible for fostering various sexual deviance, abortion, sterilizations, child predation, anti-marriage and family, fatherless homes, drug overdose, and various other immoralities.

There are at least two key fronts by which this hellish trajectory can be altered.

#1: The Church restores moral authority

Abortion and various sexual, economic, and societal indecencies have infected the world, in a particular way, the West (predominantly North America, Western Europe, and Australia). The primary and non-negotiable path to save the moral decadence in the West must come from the Church. The current generation of papacy and bishops is largely infected with a secular bent hostile to truth and tradition.

Our Lady of Akita in 1973, fifty years ago, prophesied:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres.

In recent days, we’ve seen no less. One archbishop called out a Cardinal’s acceptance of sexual perversion at the divine liturgy, another archbishop called out a Cardinal’s heresy on sexuality, another Cardinal called out the bishops of Germany for openly embracing heresy, and holy priests remain persecuted and removed unjustly from ministry by their own bishops. Even the Pope is in contradiction to his predecessors and Vatican council fathers on the liturgy and otherwise. Cardinal Zen this week called to the attention of bishops the revolutionary sexual deviance promoted by the German bishops, allowed by the Pope to persist to date, and warning that a goal of some at the “Synod on Synodality” is “sexual morality different from that of Catholic Tradition.”

The sex abuse scandal, predominantly victimizing young males, continues to come to light. Liturgical abuses are all too common.  Pagan influence permeates the current hierarchy. The secrecy of the sex abuse scandal has moved to secrecy in “cancelling” good priests. And there are other scandals throughout the Church hierarchy, sadly too numerous to enumerate.

Meanwhile, a supermajority of “Catholics” are apparently contracepting against the moral order. Only a small minority agree fully with the Church on abortion. Suicides are hitting record highs. Teen depression is spiking. In the past several years, youth have been conditioned to embrace heterodox sexuality to the point that 20% of Gen Z thinks they are “nonbinary.”

Such tragically off-course results coincide with a Church hierarchy too silent on orthodoxy, morality and the meaning of the human person, marriage, life, sexuality, and humility. Instead of feeding the flock a foundation for virtues, they largely act as “a disciple of the world,” as Msgr. Charles Pope recently described the suspect “Synod on Synodality.”

As long as all these scandals and improprieties are permitted or endorsed by the Pope and hierarchy, the entire world will suffocate and decay under their poisons. The sanctification of the world is dependent on the sanctity of the Church.

“The world and the church are in a mess because we priests have failed to be as holy as we are called to be,” said Father John Corapi in 1997 at a retreat for priests and seminarians.

Dr. Edward Feser, professor of philosophy and scholastic, recently observed (emphasis added):

A mark of the diabolical disorder of our times is that we face grave problems (in Church, state, education, etc.) which can be solved only by those with the relevant authority, while at the same time largely having the worst possible people occupying those positions of authority.

Finally, restoration of the Latin may be a lynchpin to restoring sanity in the world. The Traditional Latin Mass’s promotion of family and anthropological realities are especially what today’s world not only lacks but often abhors.

Exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger F.S.S.P. stated:

It is safe to say that, objectively speaking, with respect to the ritual itself, the old rite of Mass has an ability to merit more than the new rite of Mass. While this merit is accidental, since the essential or intrinsic merit of the Mass, which is the Sacrifice of Christ, is the same in both rites, it is nevertheless something serious. Since the faithful are the beneficiaries of the fruits derived from this aspect of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we have a grave obligation to consider the impact that this factor may be having on the life of the Church.

The Mass of St. Gregory
Spanish anonymous, ca 1490

A parallel change in rites also occurred in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, namely the rite of exorcism. While some exorcists deny a difference in efficacy of the older or new exorcism rites, the late Fr. Gabriel Amorth, exorcist of Rome, decried the new exorcism rite and obtained a dispensation to perform the rite rooted in antiquity from 1614.

On the new rite of exorcism, Fr. Amorth said, “Efficacious prayers, prayers that had been in existence for twelve centuries, were suppressed and replaced by new ineffective prayers.” Another anonymous exorcist stated of the new rite: “The new rite will one day itself be subject to a true restoration, which will restore to the obligatory texts of the exorcist the true nature of his office.”

These changes in liturgical and exorcism rites coincide both with the aftermath of the Council and immoral norms of the cultural and sexual revolution from the 1960s and 1970s. The evidence shows that a restoration to Latin in liturgy and exorcism will restrict the current hold the devil and his minions have on the world today.

Ultimately, moral decadence will persist until the Church leads the way back to sanity.

 

#2: The East and Global South move the West to reverse course

Related to the Church dimension is a secondary political one. In the U.S., the current Administration is using a form of financial terrorism against states that do not submit to “LGBT” ideology by withholding school lunch funding that is available to states that do submit.

Western nations also use economic penalties (or even military penalties) to obtain their social demands as an international policy. While Eastern or Southern nations are not immune to corruption, the West had traditionally operated with a brand of freedom and human prosperity. Those days have vanished. The East and South at least appear to have a greater aversion to the degree of moral depravity in the West.

The West’s accelerating deterioration has been noticed around the world. The following is a small sample of countries condemning Western economic and social immorality.

  • Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party) recently issued a statement: “A valid marriage is only between a biological male and biological woman… any equality offered to same-sex couples goes against religious values and seriously affects the interests of every citizen.” Indian citizens also reject the idea to modernize by “follow[ing] Western culture.”
  • The group of countries forming what is known as BRICS are allying in large part to insulate themselves from Western sanctions by way of “de-dollarization.” These sanctions are often imposed against countries that do not embrace the West’s sexual proclivities. The West openly admits this, citing a nation’s “climate of intolerance” as grounds for “financial sanctions, visa restrictions, and other actions.” The U.S. currently even has a bill, HR4422, with the intention “To impose sanctions on foreign persons responsible for violations of internationally recognized human rights against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals, and for other purposes.”
  • In June,130 African signatories wrote to the U.S. Congress warning against funding immorality in Africa. They wrote:

[W]e want to express our concerns and suspicions that this funding is supporting so-called family planning and reproductive health principles and practices, including abortion, that violate our core beliefs concerning life, family, and religion.

Nations represented included: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

  • Japanese citizens are opposing so-called LGBT politics because “thanks to” the West, they have seen its “horror.”
  • On the current U.S. government’s abuse of the Department of Justice, the President of El Salvador observed: “Sadly, it’ll be very hard for US Foreign Policy to use arguments such as ‘democracy’ and ‘free and fair elections’, or try to condemn ‘political persecution’ in other countries, from now on”.
  • At the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill stated there was a link between Western moral values and the war. “For eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in Donbas. And in Donbas there is a rejection, a fundamental rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim world power.” He added that having “pride parades” showed a “test of loyalty” to Western sexual propaganda. “[I]n order to join the club of those countries, you have to have a gay pride parade.”
  • In November, Russia passed a law criminalizing, among other things, propaganda for “promoting non-traditional sexual relations,” sex-change operations, and pedophilia. Vyacheslav Volodin, deputy of the Russian State Duma, commented: “This decision will protect our children and the future of the country from the darkness spread by the United States and European states. We have our own traditions and values.”
  • In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech that proved internationally popular, emphasizing Western notability’s sexual predation of children.

Look what [the Western elite] are doing to their own people. It is all about the destruction of the family, of cultural and national identity, perversion and abuse of children, including pedophilia, all of which are declared normal in their life. They are forcing the priests to bless same-sex marriages. Millions of people in the West realize that they are being led to a spiritual disaster. Frankly, the elite appear to have gone crazy, and it looks like there is no cure for that. But like I said, these are their problems, while we must protect our children, which we will do. We will protect our children from degradation and degeneration.

Meanwhile, Western leaders specifically state that “lgbt” issues are a primary factor in Western opposition to Russia in Ukraine. Four days after Putin’s speech, the Chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) Robert Moore said: “With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights.”

  • Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov also cited the West’s exportation of its sexual requirements.

“[T]he [West’s] “rules” concept also manifests itself in attempts to encroach on the very human nature. In a number of Western countries, students learn at school that Jesus Christ was bisexual. Attempts by reasonable politicians to shield the younger generation from aggressive LGBT propaganda are met with bellicose protests from the ‘enlightened Europe.’ All world religions, the genetic code of the planet’s key civilizations, are under attack. The United States is at the forefront of state interference in church affairs, openly seeking to drive a wedge into the Orthodox world, whose values are viewed as a powerful spiritual obstacle for the liberal concept of boundless permissiveness.

  • In March, a Western ambassador from Germany traveled to the African nation of Namibia to criticize them on their growing Chinese population. The Namibian Head of State, Hage Geingob, responded sternly. “Why has this become your problem?” He contrasted the way Namibians are treated poorly in Germany versus how their relations with the Chinese are faring. “[O]ur people are being bullied in Germany. … Talk about Germans. How do you treat us there? The Chinese don’t treat us like this.”
  • In September, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also spoke of turning attention to China as a result of Western economic sanctions: “[M]ost countries in the world are looking forward to the Chinese yuan transforming into an international currency, since the dollar is the West’s weapon against developing countries.”
  • In a November 2021 interview with British media, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko issued strong condemnation of the West’s tactics. “I really don’t care what they think of me in England or in the USA or EU. Because the whole world has seen what you’re really like.” And, referring to Western interference in Belarus 2020 elections and possibly an alleged attempted assassination attempt in 2021, he added, “What business of yours are our elections? We don’t interfere in the UK or America, in your home, why did you come to ours and start to smash it up?”
  • In March, the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni finished a speech on economic policy with a comment on Western interference: “On the issue of homosexuals, we shall get time and discuss it thoroughly… The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other peoples.”
  • Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva explicitly condemned the United States’ role in fueling the Ukraine conflict. “It is necessary that the U.S. stops stimulating the war and talk about peace,” he said in April. Leaked documents pertaining to Russia and Brazil apparently refer to an “the West’s ‘aggressor-victim’ paradigm,” which echoes a sentiment that the West is the aggressor in many international conflicts while claiming to be on defense.
  • Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban recognized both the West’s interference in elections and propagandization of its sexual distortions. He said “the [EU] federalists are trying to squeeze us out. They openly wanted a change in government in Hungary.” He added: “The EU rejects Christian heritage, carries out a replacement of its population via migration ... and conducts an LGBTQ offensive.”
  • A member of Poland’s parliament, Kacper Plazynski, rejected Britain’s criticism of Poland’s efforts to promote the traditional family. “I am enormously disappointed in the unit of the UK’s Home Office which fell for propaganda of a trivial radical left activist about alleged Polish discrimination of gays.” Hinting at Britain’s interference, he added. “It is up to Polish people to decide the shape and form of the Polish constitution.”
  • “This is the path of Venezuela and the path of a free economy where currencies are not used to punish countries and impose sanctions,” said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in May, promising to abandon the U.S. dollar.  “The de-dollarization of global trade is an unavoidable reality that we are currently witnessing. The era of unjust sanctions and economic manipulations that harm the people is coming to an end.”
  • The concept of gay “marriage” is overwhelmingly rooted in Western governments as this map illustrates.
  • In April, a dignitary from the Bahamas vehemently decried England’s effort to push perversion in schools:

You can't come in my country teaching my children foolishness. Don't come in this country. Now you want to be in England, you can teach them all the boogery things you want to teach them in England. But not in the Bahamas. Don't bring that around here. And I also want to say to all you parents, all you parents who have been emailing me, texting me, listen, you all get ready. Because the time will come when all of us are going to have to stand up to protect our children. I think we have to show this government. Because what this government is doing is testing the water to see if we pass it, if we're benign and going to let it slide. We will not let it slide. Not one filthy book will be let in our classrooms and our libraries. I'm going to lead the charge. When I say let's go, I need you all to let's go. Because I ain't letting it happen.

Examples could go on and on. But this is a flavor for the global resistance to Western immoralities.

Jeffrey Sachs, economist and former UN advisor, recently commented on the West’s dangerous path:

The US is seen for what it is, which is, you know, most of the world saying we don't want to be led by you. Thank you. We'd like to trade with you, would like to cooperate. We don't want to be bombed by you. Thank you. … But we don't want to follow you or have your sanctions regime and so on. … I do think that the weight of the world opinion really coming together to say, come on stop already, is actually going to, one way or another, make the difference. I hope it makes the difference.

If the East and global South are sincere in their rejection of Western immorality, this could pose a problem for those immoralities to persist, even in the West. The current BRICS nations have surpassed the Western-led G20 nations in global GDP. BRICS also stands to control 80% of the world’s oil production. The West may well have to back off their insane immoral propaganda and child abuse if they want any part of commerce that will otherwise be insulated from their control. Or the West can stay the course and be king of the ashes gathering underfoot.

Friday, July 23, 2021

The glory of Latin, in the Church's words

Following is a sample of texts in Church history pertaining to the Latin language, the nobility and encouragement of the language, as well as the glory of the Latin liturgy. Emphasis added.

If any one saith… that the mass ought to be celebrated in the vulgar tongue only…let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, Session 22, Canon 9, 1563)

Council of Trent by Pasquale Cati 1588
Council of Trent by Pasquale Cati, 1588

Let all everywhere adopt and observe what has been handed down by the Holy Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher of the other churches, and let Masses not be sung or read according to any other formula than that of this Missal published by Us. This ordinance applies henceforth, now, and forever, throughout all the provinces of the Christian world... (Pope Pius V, Quo Primum, 1570)

The previous text from Pope Pius V does later in the apostolic constitution allow for pre-existing liturgies in other forms. However, I have included it above because of the force by which the Latin liturgy is elevated.

The first thing concerns fostering with every care and promoting the study of the Latin language in the literary schools of clerics; and gaining a grasp of this language, by knowing and using it, is important not merely for humanity and literature but also for religion. For the Church, since it contains all nations in its embrace, since it is going to endure until the consummation of the ages, and since it utterly excludes the common people from its governance, requires by its own nature a universal language, unchangeable, not that of the common people. Since Latin is such a language, it was divinely foreseen that it should be something marvellously useful for the Church as teacher, and that it should also serve as a great bond of unity for Christ’s more learned faithful; that is to say, by giving them not only something with which, whether they are separated in different locations or gathered into one place, they might easily compare the respective thoughts and insights of their minds, but also – and this is even more important – something with which they might understand more profoundly the things of mother Church, and might be united more closely with the head of the Church. (Pope Pius XI: Apostolic Letter Officiorum Omnium, August 1, 1922)

The use of the Latin language, customary in a considerable portion of the Church, is a manifest and beautiful sign of unity, as well as an effective antidote for any corruption of doctrinal truth. (Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 1947)

Nor must we overlook the characteristic nobility of Latin formal structure. Its “concise, varied and harmonious style, full of majesty and dignity” makes for singular clarity and impressiveness of expression. … Since “every Church must assemble round the Roman Church,” and since the Supreme Pontiffs have “true episcopal power, ordinary and immediate, over each and every Church and each and every Pastor, as well as over the faithful” of every rite and language, it seems particularly desirable that the instrument of mutual communication be uniform and universal, especially between the Apostolic See and the Churches which use the same Latin rite. … Finally, the Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular. In addition, the Latin language “can be called truly catholic.” It has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic See, the mother and teacher of all Churches, and must be esteemed “a treasure … of incomparable worth.” It is a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Church’s teaching. It is also a most effective bond, binding the Church of today with that of the past and of the future in wonderful continuity. (Pope John XXIII, Veterum Sapientia, 1962)

Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, Second Vatican Council, 36.1, 1963)

While there are many motives that might have led a great number of people to seek a refuge in the traditional liturgy, the chief one is that they find the dignity of the sacred preserved there. After the Council there were many priests who deliberately raised ‘desacralization’ to the level of a program ... they put aside the sacred vestments; they have despoiled the churches as much as they could of that splendor which brings to mind the sacred; and they have reduced the liturgy to the language and the gestures of ordinary life, by means of greetings, common signs of friendship, and such things ... That which previously was considered most holy — the form in which the liturgy was handed down — suddenly appears as the most forbidden of all things, the one thing that can safely be prohibited. It is intolerable to criticize decisions which have been taken since the Council; on the other hand, if men make question of ancient rules, or even of the great truths of the Faith — for instance, the corporal virginity of Mary, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the immortality of the soul, etc. — nobody complains or only does so with the greatest moderation. (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Address to the Bishops of Chile, 1988)

I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It’s impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent. (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth, 1996)

For fostering a true consciousness in liturgical matters, it is also important that the proscription against the form of liturgy in valid use up to 1970 should be lifted. Anyone who nowadays advocates the continuing existence of this liturgy or takes part in it is treated like a leper; all tolerance ends here. There has never been anything like this in history; in doing this we are despising and proscribing the Church’s whole past. How can one trust her present if things are that way? I must say, quite openly, that I don’t understand why so any of my episcopal brethren have to a great extent submitted to this rule of intolerance, which for no apparent reason is opposed to making the necessary inner reconciliations within the Church. (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, God and the World, 2000)

On the other hand, a variety of vocabulary in the original text should give rise, insofar as possible, to a corresponding variety in the translations. The translation may be weakened and made trite, for example, by the use of a single vernacular term for rendering differing Latin terms such as satiari, sumere, vegetari, and pasci, on the one hand, or the nouns caritas and dilectio on the other, or the words anima, animus, cor, mens, and spiritus, to give some examples. Similarly, a deficiency in translating the varying forms of addressing God, such as Domine, Deus, Omnipotens aeterne Deus, Pater, and so forth, as well as the various words expressing supplication, may render the translation monotonous and obscure the rich and beautiful way in which the relationship between the faithful and God is expressed in the Latin text. (Fifth instruction for the right implementation of the constitution on the sacred liturgy of the second vatican council, Liturgiam Authenticam, 51, 2001)

The previous text was one that ultimately discussed how to incorporate the vernacular mass, and in doing so, found itself admitting to the advantages of Latin.

The Popes and the Roman Church have found Latin very suitable for many reasons. It fits a Church which is universal, a Church in which all peoples, languages and cultures should feel at home and no one is regarded as a stranger.  Moreover, the Latin language has a certain stability which daily spoken languages, where words change often in shades of meaning, cannot have.  … Latin has the characteristic of words and expressions retaining their meaning generation after generation. This is an advantage when it comes to the articulation of our Catholic faith and the preparation of Papal and other Church Documents. … Blessed Pope John XXIII in his Apostolic Constitution, Veterum Sapientia, issued on 22 February 1962, gives these two reasons and adds a third. The Latin language has a nobility and dignity which are not negligible (cf. Veterum Sapientia, nn. 5, 6, 7). We can add that Latin is concise, precise and poetically measured. (Cardinal Francis Arinze, “Language in Liturgy,” 2006)

The Latin language has always been held in very high esteem by the Catholic Church and by the Roman Pontiffs. They have assiduously encouraged the knowledge and dissemination of Latin, adopting it as the Church’s language, capable of passing on the Gospel message throughout the world. This is authoritatively stated by the Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia of my Predecessor, Blessed John XXIII. (Pope Benedict XVI, Motu Proprio: Latina Lingua, 2012)

Furthermore, after the 1960s, some riches of the liturgy were abandoned, such as its hieratic invariance, but also its geographic and historical unity, which was assured by Latin as the language of the liturgy, by the rites that had been handed down, by the beauty of its art and of the solemnity that accompanied it. The disappearance of linguistic unity in the liturgy in favor of the vernacular languages is, to my mind, one possible factor of division. … The Second Vatican Council explicitly demands that the Latin language be preserved. Have we been faithful to it? The use of Latin in some parts of the Mass can help us to rediscover the profound essence of the liturgy. Being a fundamentally mystical and contemplative reality, the liturgy is beyond the reach of our human activity. Nevertheless, it presupposes on our part some openness to the mystery being celebrated. Thus the conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy recommends a full understanding of the rites, and it prescribes “that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 54). (Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Day is Now Far Spent, p. 137-138, 2019)

It must be remembered that, from a theological point of view, every valid celebration of a sacrament, by the very fact that it is a sacrament, is also, beyond any ecclesiastical legislation, an act of worship and, therefore, also a profession of faith. In that sense, it is not possible to exclude the Roman Missal, according to the UA [Usus Antiquior, i.e. Usage of Antiquity], as a valid expression of the lex orandi and, therefore, of the lex credendi of the Church. It is a question of an objective reality of divine grace which cannot be changed by a mere act of the will of even the highest ecclesiastical authority. (Cardinal Raymond Burke, Statement on the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes, July 22, 2021)

The Eucharist is to be celebrated in the Latin language or in another language provided the liturgical texts have been legitimately approved. (Code of Canon Law, #928)