Plan your moves. Be ready to move out quickly without endangering yourself if
the enemy is near you. Use all your senses to evaluate the situation. Note sounds and smells. Be sensitive to temperature changes. Be observant. U.S. Army Survivor Manual
From the looks of it, we'll have to kiss goodbye our hopes for Restoration and Good Riddance: Jorge "Pope Pancho" Bergoglio turns out to be just another tradition-hating, sob-sister, Jesuit social worker hell-bent on propping up the creaking conciliar dispensation. There's still something wrong, aliquid pravi. (If you have any doubts, just wait for the ouster of conservative-leaning papal M.C. Guido Marini.) Maybe the shrewd, hard-ball playing bureaucrats of the Roman Curia will stymie the plot to break them, and P2 [read "P squared"] will take a powder like his predecessor.
Until the day when we have another opportunity for Restoration and Good Riddance, many traditional Catholics will have to struggle to keep their faith and consciences intact under the malignant cure of disordered, malformed, irregular, and money-mad sede clergy. So, for those folks who (mistakenly) think they've got to endure the sede circus, we're starting a new series -- a kind of survival guide for the Traddie perplexed, so they don't lose their savings and souls while visiting the cult's chapels. Each week, we'll post one easy-to-remember-and-practice survival tip to keep you from falling prey to wily priest craft.
TODAY'S SURVIVAL TIP
POISONOUS PADRES
As a traditional Roman Catholic, you know wandering bishops and uncardinated priests have no jurisdiction. Without this knowledge, you would probably feel defenseless against their toxic appeals for obedience and alms. You might even believe they are the Church. But when you remember that they have no authority at all, you will feel safe and secure while you assist at their chapels. You may freely ignore their public utterances. You may rest guilt-free as you refuse to sip from the cup of venom they offer. Below is a pew-expedient tool you can use to avoid their lethal bite.
Flesh-colored, foam earplugs and small book of Catholic prayers will preserve your faith and conscience during a cult master's sermon. First, discreetly insert the ear plugs snugly into both ears as the cult master slithers to the pulpit. Verify that all ambient noises are dampened. Next, with your Sunday Missal open on your lap, place the small prayer book on top. If necessary, cup your palms around the sides to obscure the view in case any cult-followers are spying on you. You can identify these creatures by their glassy-eyed stares and the thick drool trickling from the sides of their open mouths. (Don't step in the puddle when you leave.) Look placidly up to the pulpit until the sermon begins. Then, slowly look down and begin reading silently from your prayer book. Occasionally look up to the pulpit, and then resume reading. Continue until you observe that the sermon has ended. At that point, you may circumspectly remove the earplugs, making sure you don't draw attention to yourself; softly close and cautiously put away the prayer book. You have now preserved your faith, conscience, and pocketbook during the most dangerous time of your visit to cultilandia.
Whatever you might say about Papa Bergoglio, this man has more wits in his big toe than the rustic rednecks, the Rialto Road rascals and the ravenous reptile taken together - and has shown greater faith and virtue in a single ad hoc homily than they did muster in their entire miserable lives.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a day with the Jesuit social workers in the slums of Buenos Aires would teach them that a helping hand is sometimes worth more than a pair of Gammarelli shoes, whatever colour they might be.
And maybe you don't like Bergoglio's liturgy (and the author of this post would be greatly saddened should Marini II. be removed from office), but "whateva man", this guy does not forget his consecrations! In his humility, he might even give a helping hand when it comes to funeral rites or blessings of holy water, should a traditional priest get into another dilemma!
...Qui nos per abstinéntiam tibi grátias reférre voluísti, ut ipsa et nos peccatóres ab insoléntia mitigáret, et, egéntium profíciens aliménto, imitatóres tuae benignitátis effíceret...
We quite agree that "Papa" Pancho's vita proves him to be intellectually superior to the sede numskulls by several orders of magnitude. In fact, we're certain they couldn't have qualified to audit one of the theology classes he used to teach. And we also grant that the Zoroastrian dastūr of Sogdiana is probably blessed with more mercy and genuine religious sentiment than the whole lot of them. Why, we even think the evangelical Protestant ministers before whom Abp. Bergoglio knelt for a blessing possess more humanity and good will.
DeleteThat stipulated, however, P-Squared's agenda will promote an aggressive resurgence of failed conciliar polity. This media-friendly, doughy, grandfatherly class-warrior will preside over the burial of Catholic theological and liturgical tradition, unless, of course, the Curia thwarts him. (Goooooo team!)
In the short run, Marini II is toast. Reportedly, Pancho's already reproved Don Guido, who's fastidious about good form. We fear there's no room for gorgeous liturgy and chant when the Church must exercise a "preferential option for the poor." You should prepare for an enhanced scoliopraxis, if there is such a term.
Sad to say, but it will be some time before the world can rejoice that "gratum...Pontificem sanctae Matris Ecclesiae regimini praeesse."
In some instances ear-plugs would not be necessary: oftentimes, I see others giving in to drowsiness during the "presentations" of the clerics in question. It would be best to pray, as you have suggested.
ReplyDeleteI write "presentations" instead of homilies or sermons, since these clerics have no Canonical mission or faculty to preach. Their lack of jurisdiction makes it so that the faithful are not bound to give their assent to whatever they hear from the pulpits that has not been taught by the Church in past ages.
Neither supplied jurisdiction nor epikeia entitles the acephalous and vagrant clerics to make "presentations" of their personal perspectives and opinions as if they were doctrines pertaining to faith and morals that bind the Catholic conscience under pain of sin or censure. Epikeia merely allows these clerics to present sacred doctrine from the pulpit without having moral culpability or rashness to be necessarily imputed unto them by casuists and moral theologians of future ages. However, this is only insofar as these "presentations" propose sacred doctrine as taught by the Ecclesia docens and as understood by the Ecclesia discens throughout the ages. To exceed this would imperil the cleric as possibly being deemed by future casuists to be culpable of sin or ecclesiastical censure.
The clerics of the sedevacantists groups out there have declared publicly and from the pulpit this Sunday that Pope Francis is an "anti-Pope" and lacking Sacred Orders. This is an example of personal opinions and perspectives that do not bind the consciences of the faithful.
Personally speaking, I have more hope for Pope Francis than for the acephalous aggregate of false shepherds “who are indeed ravenous wolves” (S. Matt. cap. vii. 15), who, having the seeming of lambs and yet betraying themselves to be dragons (Apoc. cap. xiii. 11), yearn “to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to run after gains through covetousness” (Ezech. cap. xxii. 27); for they have not ingressed unto Sacred Orders by sanction of the Church of Our Lord Jesus, Who proclaimed Himself to be the Door (S. Joann. cap. x. 9) through Whom alone are His ministers sent to preach the Sacred Gospel (Rom. cap. x. 15); and, having not a divine mission, out of their self-will and self-love they are as a thief who “cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (S. Joann. cap. x. 10). There are exceptions, of course: but these are mostly silent and unknown, busying themselves only with serving the faithful; and they are too few in number.
The extra-institutional anti-modernist resistance was meant only to be merely ephemeral and transitional: it has now become a "church" unto itself that has usurped authority that does not belong to it and has befuddled the faithful with puerile novelties. Yet, Holy Church, as the bening Mother that she is, still supplies them with the jurisdiction necessary for the faithful who have no other recourse (cf. Introit Antiphon of last Sunday). This is by the merciful dispensation of God, the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary and graciousness of holy Church: not by the merits or fruits of the aforementioned clerics, who may themselves benefit from such sacred generosity if they earnestly endeavor to attain to the perfection that befits Sacred Orders and the humility that becomes their problematic Canonical predicament.
But if there is no obedience, then we are all liberals, or "anti-liberal liberals". I have noticed this strange attitude of "independent" priests. "So, what should I do, Fr.?" "You can figure it out yourself". Uhh, yeah, but I was asking for you to give a command. But then some commands I have gotten have been wildly unexpected. "The bishop and I have decided you are unfit for the priesthood and should seek to save your soul in a parish somewhere". Oh, I didn't know the swamp was overflowing with zealous young souls who want to be priests, my apologies! "Ok, if I can't become a priest, what should I do with my life to best serve the Church since therre are no solidly Catholic universities left?" ... "Good luck!"
ReplyDelete