As I write this, the news is being reported that Pope Francis has appointed 12 new cardinals, two of which are known to be homosexualists. The destructive tendencies of the papacy grieve my heart to the core, but we know the Immaculate Heart will triumph in the end. It is hard as layperson to watch the destruction unfold before our eyes, knowing that there is literally nothing we can do, but wait for either the chastisement or for God to pull the rabbit out of His hat. The most disheartening portion is as the saying goes, "as the church goes, so goes the world." With pagan pantheism running amok within the Church, there is no hope for humanity at large. It's as if the Church laid aside her weapons and we just watch the torrent of the City of Man destroy soul after soul, devouring in unstoppable pride. The only bulwark, Catholicism, is wounded and infirm, and sick unto death.
So what can we do? Follow Mary's instructions at Fatima. Pray the DAILY rosary, fast in reparation to the Immaculate Heart, wear the brown scapular and do the 5 first Saturday devotion. Saving the Church is beyond human power at this time. The true church is remnant now, and this boomer generation will bleed it out of money and people. Sadly, it seems there will be blood, and we need to sit back and watch. Woe to my children due to the failures of our leaders.
Beyond prayers, we need to educate our own children in the philosophical principles of St. Thomas Aquinas so as to withstand the onslaught of secular relativism. Oh the sorrows of our children who accept fleeting ephemeral relativism. The base paganism of modernity, our death.
We must also "know our enemy," which is untruth in all of it's subtlety. Reginald Gerrigou-Legrange mapped out the new theology well in his "Where is the New Theology Leading Us?"(see my previous post on the subject). The new theology is a subtle change in the understanding of truth. Instead of making the mind commensurate with reality, we are now told we must make the mind commensurate with the vicissitudes of life. This is merely nominalism under another theological name. Basically, our concepts are not ontologically "rooted" but shift with changes in experience. In other words, there is no truth as there is no permanency to our concepts, but they shift with time.
Recently listening to Catholic Radio, Drew Mariani had a guest on his show stating that the Catholic position on the death penalty had changed and that anyone who disagreed with that was not Catholic in good standing. Putting aside the prudential reasoning on the death penalty, this calls into serious question the idea of doctrine/dogmatic teaching. The death penalty has been considered legitimate by the Church since biblical times (Christ crucified, Paul mentions it in Romans), and has been supported by capital T tradition up until the current pontificate. Indeed, John Paul II was personally opposed to it, but he did not make the doctrinal statement that it was illicit, only that prudentially it was no longer necessary. This is a prudential understanding of the principle, but he did not contradicting the principle.
264 popes out of 266 affirmed it, Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, and others have confirmed its legitimacy. Yet, we are told by a modern theologian that the teaching had changed because we now have a better understanding of the effects of the death penalty, that they did not have in biblical times or all of tradition up until this year. And here is the threat modernism poses on full display. What this theologian was asserting is that Catholics who support 2000 years of tradition are wrong because a pope made a change to the catechism contradicting ALL of his predecessors. This contradiction is okay because we moderns now have a better understanding and more means to incarcerate people without killing them. Do you see how the standard/concept shifted with life? The philosophers of action have become the theologians of change. This theologian, very sweet to the palate in presentation, brought the sickening death of Catholicism on a delectable plate of false "charity." You see, this is a textbook case of the new theology or the commensuration of the mind with changes of life. The concept of "death penalty" is not a fixed concept, but shifts with ways of understanding the concept. It was sneaky relativism, whispering silently, presenting itself as truth.
This will not stand, and this is what we must keep our eyes out for. Anywhere definitions change, or understanding shifts to change or contradict a fixed concept, we are faced with modernism. Hegel has infected the church, we must all break out the magnifying glasses, or at minimum squint, to find Satan in our midst.
