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What Does One Do When the Pope Is Woke?
One of the more bizarre (and potentially very destructive) events of the Francis pontificate will take place October 6-27 in Rome. It is a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, entitled Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology. The lead-up to this synod consisted of talk about the lack of priests in the Pan-Amazon region and that, without priests, the Sacraments were not available on a regular basis. This is a serious concern for a Church given the mission by Jesus Christ to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).
A story like this, wherein the Institute of the Consolata for Foreign Missions – a Catholic mission, mind you – has had priests and laypeople working among the Yanomamis in Brazil but have failed to baptize one single soul, gives a face to this serious concern.
One might think that a Jesuit pope would look to the Society of Jesus to find a good missionary priest or two cut from the mold of St. Francis Xavier or Matteo Ricci or St. Isaac Jogues or St. Jean de Brebeuf to go to the Amazon region and preach the Gospel. Or one might think that this special gathering of bishops in Rome to (allegedly) deal with a priest shortage might be about evangelization and an increase in missionary activity.
But no.
With the first woke pope, we get a synod on New Age mumbo-jumbo. To define the mission of this synod, the Church has issued a laborious Instrumentum Laboris (IL). This working document focuses more on integral ecology (a vacuous term used 22 times in the text) than Jesus Christ or evangelization (21 and 19 mentions, respectively).
It really is an odd document to be issued from the Vatican. It is almost as if the case of the Institute of the Consolata for Foreign Missions is the model for evangelization that Francis and his sycophants want. Mind you, this was written by so-called theologians and priests – with the approval of bishops – and all endorsed by the pope. The document has not only been called heretical and apostasy, it has also been labeled as having a demonic tone.
Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider are so concerned that they have jointly issued a document calling for a crusade of prayer and fasting to implore God that error and heresy do not pervert the Synod. In the document, they list six principal errors that are pervasive in the IL:
- Implicit pantheism.
- Pagan superstitions as sources of Divine Revelation and alternative pathways for salvation.
- Intercultural dialogue instead of evangelization.
- An erroneous conception of sacramental ordination, postulating worship ministers of either sex to perform even shamanic rituals.
- An “integral ecology” that downgrades human dignity.
- A tribal collectivism that undermines personal uniqueness and freedom.
Suffice to say that there is not much talk of the salvation of souls – which, apart from worshiping God, is the primary mission of the Church. The IL is mostly climate-change hogwash, New Age dumb-jumbo, and neo-Marxist drivel. Unsurprisingly, the working document and lead-up to the synod has been dominated by the Germans. For, you see, the Germans – even the so-called Catholics like Cardinals Kasper and Marx – are almost as pagan as the poor people of the Amazon. The progressive version of Catholicism that the Germans preach is leading to the death of the Church in Germany. They are losing their beloved Kirchensteuer (a church tax that is imposed on members of churches) because the faithful have lost their faith and no longer produce vocations or Catholics.
So what do the leaders of the German Church want to do? They double-down on stupid, embrace the world, and push for more progressive ideas like eliminating the rule of celibacy in the Latin-Rite Church, approving women deacons and priests, and promoting blessings for sodomitical unions – the same things many of their Protestant brethren have tried and also failed at.
It isn’t only the crazy Germans who will be at the synod but also non-Catholics like Jeffrey Sachs and Ban Ki Moon. It is a wonder that Greta Thunberg and Bernie “let’s promote abortion in the Third World to combat climate change” Sanders haven’t been invited to participate (perhaps the pope doesn’t want to be out-woked).
This is the long game that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been playing. We faithful Catholics have been like the proverbial frog in the pot of water. We have been fed so much drivel from this man (Laudato Si, Amoris Laetitia) and have had to put up with the never-ending promotion of heretical and pro-sodomite priests that we have almost become numb to the confusion and weaponized ambiguity that spills forth from the Vatican.
As Burke and Schneider write in answer to the title of my post:
The theological errors and heresies, implicit and explicit in the Instrumentum Laboris of the imminent Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon, are an alarming manifestation of the confusion, error and division which beset the Church in our day. No one can excuse himself from being informed about the gravity of the situation and from taking appropriate action for love of Christ and of His life with us in the Church. Above all, all the members of Christ’s Mystical Body, before such a threat to her integrity, must pray and fast for the eternal good of her members who risk being scandalized, that is led into confusion, error and division by this text for the Synod of Bishops. Moreover, every Catholic, as a true soldier of Christ, is called to safeguard and promote the truths of the faith and the discipline by which those truths are honored in practice, lest the solemn assembly of the Bishops in Synod betray the mission of the Synod, which is “to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline” (can. 342).
[snip]
May God, through the intercession of the many truly Catholic missionaries who evangelized the indigenous American people, among whom are Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo and Saint José de Anchieta, and through the intercession of the saints whom indigenous American people have given to the Church, among whom are Saint Juan Diego and Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of the Holy Rosary, who vanquishes all heresy, grant that the members of the coming Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon and the Holy Father be protected from the danger of approving doctrinal errors and ambiguities, and of undermining the Apostolic rule of priestly celibacy.
In other words, know your faith, live your faith, and defend your faith.
I was told, in no uncertain terms that the Reformation was a bad thing. Without it, I would not have as great a choice of churches. Ergo, not everyone believes that a choice of churches is a good thing.
Scott, thanks. I find the Revelation citations unconvincing. They are symbolic visions of the prayers of the “saints” portrayed as incense in bowls held by the 24 elders, and in a censer held by an angel, respectively. It does not say that the prayers were offered to the elders or the angel.
I do agree that the Bible uses the word “saints” to refer to all believers. This is a second, linguistic objection that I have to the Catholic doctrine of canonization, though perhaps this linguistic issue exists only in English, not in Latin.
Finally, I remain skeptical of claims based on tradition. The Bible also makes it clear that heresies sprang up almost immediately, so the mere fact that a particular practice emerged early does not prove that it is correct.
I do appreciate your responses.
And so it begins.
The new Novus Ordo apparently.
If your point is that the Reformation increased the “choices” for us all, then I agree. (No one told me, BTW, in terms uncertain or not, that it was a “Bad Thing.” Whatever.) If your point is that, in the second decade of the 21st century, we are all, somehow, conscripted by birth, biology, culture, or anything else, to a particular religion, faith, point-of-view, or church, then I do not understand your point at all.
?
That old joke – “Is the Pope Catholic?”
It’s less funny now.
As an outsider, I probably should just keep quiet, but I do have what I think is a valid observation. It seems to me that it is quite different to pray to a Saint to perform an act for you, one that might not be in accordance with the will of God, and asking a Saint to put in a good word for your needs knowing full well that God might say “no” to the Saint the same as he could to you.
The Reformation was a good thing, that increased choice. I have been told that is not true. Not sure how else to be more clear than that.
I personally think the Catholic Church is an overall force for good, doing God’s work in this Earth. I also think that it has done great evil, with men who had no business being Pope, who were far too tied to this Earth to do God’s work.
So, I can pray.
Who is the St. Francis Xavier for the Amazon? Will one emerge from this synod?
I certainly don’t see the Protestant Revolution as a good thing. It took a wrecking ball to the hope that Jesus Christ prayed for in John 17: that we may all be one. Christ founded a Church – the Catholic Church – and that is just historical fact. Sure there have been scoundrels in the Church – all the way back to Her founding even – but it has always been the scoundrels and sinners who have done evil – not the Church herself.
There you go.
Ergo, the only thing we can take from that, is that you think the great variety of Christian Churches we have today is a bad thing, because they stem from the Reformation, which you see as a bad thing.
I thank God for the Reformation. I can have my own relationship with Him, without men in the way.