And not in the Dagger John Hughes sense, either. Not hardly. Quite the opposite, unfortunately.
Was St. Malachy Right?
These are hard times for conservative Catholics. For the past 60 years, they have had to watch their church gradually but steadily abandon many of its bedrock principles in what was at first an attempt to stay “relevant” but now looks very much a hostile takeover by the forces of relativistic “progressivism.” Under a series of weak and/or malicious popes, beginning with the unaccountably sainted John XXIII and continuing to the present day in the reign of the regrettable Pope Francis, the Church has abandoned its liturgy, its core beliefs, its traditions, its probity, and its sexual morality. Can things get worse? Of course they can.Still, let us count the ways they already have hit bottom: During the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965, much of the liturgy was “modernized,” starting with the traditional Latin Mass, called the Tridentine rite. No longer did the mass have to be universally celebrated in Latin, one of the faith’s two historic languages (the other is Greek); now it could be said in the local languages — a deliberate, disruptive balkanization of the faith that was in retrospect one of the first manifestations of the divisive “diversity” fetish that has taken hold in the West.
The priest, who formerly led his congregation by facing the elevated altar, now addressed the parishioners, thus making instant nonsense of his opening words, Introibo ad altare Dei — “I will go unto the altar of the Lord.” In the name of “ecumenicism,” distinctions between and among other faiths, including Judaism and rival Protestantism, were deliberately obscured. And the enormous library of sacred music, written over the centuries by some of the greatest composers, went onto the ash heap, to be replaced by mock-folk hymns sung by Peter, Paul and Mary imitators in order to get in synch with the folk-music revival of that period. It was all very current, now, hip, happening, and utterly awful.
Over the past couple of years, the first Jesuit pontiff, Jorge Bergoglio (an Argentine-born “progressive” Italian) has taken the strongest steps yet to outlaw the Latin Mass…
Last week the punitive primate fired a restive, rebellious American bishop for daring to challenge papal authority: “A statement from the Vatican posted online says ‘The Holy Father has removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral care of the diocese of Tyler, United States of America.’ Replacing Strickland will be Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin, according to the statement.”
Strickland, 65, has been publicly critical of Francis and the Vatican. He wrote an open letter in August suggesting the church’s “basic truths” would be challenged at a synod in September, and wrote that he believed an “evil and false message” had “invaded the church.” In another open letter the next month, Strickland addressed members of the LGBT community, particularly taking aim at trans people. “The transgender movement is another face of the LGBTQ agenda, and it is also at odds with the Catholic understanding of the human being,” he wrote in the letter.
It doesn’t help that Bergoglio is a Jesuit — a foundationally radical order that, according to Catholic insiders, has become a hotbed of homosexuality, which may account for this pope’s gay-adjacent theological preferences. Indeed, the Jesuits have distinguished themselves by their rampant apostasy during this parlous period for the Church. Their universities — Georgetown, Boston College, Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, even Fordham — are among the most “progressive” in the nation, having largely abandoned their religious functions in favor of “diverse” secularism. Like Bergoglio, they’ve lost faith in their own faith — the end stage of any liberal enterprise.
None of this would come as a surprise to Malachy, the 12th-century bishop of Armagh and close confidant of Bernard of Clairvaux, the influential Benedictine abbot and one of the founders of the Knights Templar. While the canonicity of Malachy’s famous prophecies of the popes is roundly disputed (and I generally discount “prophecy” across the board), perhaps we should heed his words. The loss of faith at the top levels of the Church, the diminution of its adherents in the West — not to mention the weird rush to canonize the line of largely failed popes from John XXIII to John Paul II (strong on politics, weak on dogma), including the cipher, Paul VI — indicates an institution in serious trouble.
We might start with treating the Jesuits the way Pope Clement V did the Templars, dissolving the order and leaving them to the mercies of the French king, Philip IV, who executed their leaders in a grand auto-da-fe in 1314.
Not being Catholic myself, strictly speaking, I don’t feel myself qualified to offer much in the way of commentary or analysis. But for what it’s worth, I think Walsh just might be onto something there.
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Jesus said there’s nothing new under the sun. He came to free people of man made rules, the Catholics have them as well.
It’s vital to distinguish doctrinal questions from the others. The important clashes are over changes in doctrine, such as Pope Francis’s seeming embrace of homosexuality and transgenderism. Of far less importance — in some cases none at all — are questions of temporal Church policy, such as the Novus Ordo Mass and the question of whether to ordain women.
I haven’t been following developments closely, so I’m not up on all the doctrines being proposed for modification. But the Church is by its very nature a conservative institution. It resists change, even when its hierarchy realizes that a change is required. So even the relatively trivial matters like Tridentine versus Novus Ordo Mass can generate a lot of agony…and bad feeling between the opposing sides.
I’ll close with this: No one likes to admit to error, regardless of what kind of collar he wears. Whatever comes of the current exchanges, there will be a lot of resentment among those who positions are disfavored. I have no doubt we’ll be hearing a lot from them in the months to come.
Subvert the institutions first is always the playbook of the Left.
Just another one being marched through in the 100+ years since Gramsci and others thought of it.