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The Chasm Between Catholics
I am truly spry and full of fun, but am pursued by the vilifications of progressed Catholics. Mark my word man there is no uglier species on the face of the earth than progressed Catholics, mean, frivol, ungainly, inarticulate, venomous, and bursting at the seams with progress into the secular cities and Teilhardian subways. The Ottavianis was bad but these are infinitely worse. You wait and see. – Thomas Merton
Self-professed Catholics like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Catholic journalists are trying to determine what will be acceptable in being Catholic. There is no room for Amy Coney Barrett, an Orthodox Catholic in public life because she does not meet their expectations of what being a Catholic means.
Self-professed Catholics are not alone. There are priests and bishops that are concerned with a border wall, and yet they remain silent on the 800,000 abortions that are performed each year. Joe Biden is an unrepentant advocate of abortion and has said his administration will drag the Little Sisters of the Poor back into court to make them complicit in providing abortion-inducing medication to their employees. Catholics like Joe Biden resent being reminded that abortion is an intrinsic evil.
These kinds of Catholics that cannot accept the Catechism are at best schismatic, and at worst heretics. They are not in communion with the Catholic Church. The road to Hell is not only paved with the skulls of bishops, it is paved with the skulls of self-professed Catholics.
They exalt the state over the Church. They would do well to heed this paragraph from Mit Brenneder Sorge written for German Catholics by Pope Pius XI, March 14, 1937.
Published in Religion & Philosophy8. Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community – however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things – whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.
There is a place for SPC’s, the Episcopal Church. All the tradition, but half the guilt!
I’m surprised Thomas Merton said that about progressives. I have the image of Merton being a sort of progressive himself. Perhaps I am wrong on him. I need to explore more Merton.
Thomas Merton is a fairly complex character. He had his detractors from both orthodox Catholics, and as the quote indicates from progressed Catholics
George Weigel wrote an interesting essay on Merton.
I think you meant “does NOT meet”.
Thanks, I’ve changed that.
When I was a kid an SPC was called a former Catholic, and an OC was called a Catholic.
The Wall Street Journal gives a fair report of Pope Francis apparently endorsing civil unions for gays. It quotes him as previously saying gay unions cannot be similar to marriages. But now this. Hopefully, I’m missing something.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-backs-civil-unions-for-gay-couples-in-shift-for-vatican-11603296578
It actually could be correctly understood in both phrasings. By saying “she does not meet their expectations”, you imply they have considered her orthodox views as incorrect. By saying “she does meet their expectations”, you imply (and I think correctly) they see her Catholicism as correct and regret that she gives no cover for their own heresy or the slovenly way they profess their “faith”.
( Grammatically, I believe from my elementary education that periods and commas belong inside the quotation marks. But I will continue to place them outside the marks unless they exist in the original quote or outside the marks in usage such as the word “faith” above. That’s just how I feel. Pedant filter . . .off)
Thank you. Interesting.
I’ve had this conversation elsewhere, too. There are differing positions, including international usage in English. Whichever is correct, I prefer to use quotation marks for the quote itself, and not include outside punctuation that is not part of the quote.
Agree.
This is what you are missing:
It appears that we will be going downhill even faster:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/pope-francis-names-first-black-american-cardinal
I wrote about this guy, here at Ricochet, several weeks ago. The only thing that he’s ever “steered” is two million dollars in donations to a mansion for he and six of his buddies.
The chaos continues…Will it ever stop?
Now, when asked “Is the Pope Catholic?” you won’t know how to answer.