When Nicolás Gómez Dávila penned the aphorism in today's epigraph, he was naturally referring to the modern Church. His words, however, apply equally to the fake Catholicism of the clownish cult masters of Tradistan. In the next three weeks, we'll look separately at each of the three dimensions -- clergy, liturgy, theology -- that provoke a Catholic's threefold response to the grotesque sede comedy sadly playing out before his shocked and bemused eyes. In the concluding post of the series, we'll advance a fourth dimension -- the depraved laity who permit and support all the abuses.
Poster-boys for fallen standards, the malformed clergy by themselves are proof that Tradistan offers only ersatz Catholicism.
This blog has chronicled in detail all the reasons for the laity to reject Tradistani clergy and any other priests affiliated, even remotely, with the cult. Just a small sample of their laughable failures is sufficient to detect spurious currency: the entire group's substandard education and training; the Skipper's forgetting the consecration at Mass; the fabrication of new mortal sins; the lingering scandal of one-handed priestly orders; Cekada's many errors and his perverse translation of papal teaching; Uneven-Steven's "formation" through unreliable independent study and his embarrassingly incompetent "exposition" of the Summa on Restoration Radio; a French MHT completer's inability to bless holy water; the reprehensible behavior of Scut the Prefect in the scandal of the rector's wet cat; the cry-baby deacon who wept when the Scut unjustly raged at innocent seminarians; the mindless MHT completer who couldn't perform a graveside service and who told the Arizona laity the 2009 SGG School Scandal was "all false."
The list goes on and on and could keep you laughing for days. Today, we'll concentrate on one seriously worrisome and outrageous incident perhaps never revealed before. It alone is sufficient to demonstrate that these "priests" are definitely not genuine Catholic clergymen.
About a decade ago, a severely disabled, confirmed child had to undergo a dangerous, lengthy operation to straighten a painfully curving spine. Although the doctors held out hope, they warned the parents of the real possibility of death during the complicated surgery. The worried father -- a very generous donor of time, expertise, and money -- called one of the cult "priests" to request extreme unction.
The poorly educated, callow "priest," who quite mistakenly fancies himself a theologian, replied that the sacrament was unnecessary insofar as the disability rendered the child incapable of the use of reason and, consequently, the child was not a subject of the sacrament.
After conferring with others, the anxious father reminded the misfit "priest" that the child (a) had attained the age of reason, (b) had been examined by a traditional bishop (who, you should note, was a feared rival of a cult kingpin), and (c) had received the sacrament of confirmation. He also volunteered that he and his wife could attest that, albeit inarticulate, the child possessed the use of reason and knew the difference between right and wrong.
Still the fatuous cleric persisted in denying the sacrament. An educated professional, the father assembled citations from theologians regarding the subjects of the sacrament, which he sent to the reptilian cultist. In particular, he reminded this vermin "priest" of the secondary sacramental effects so beneficial to the body as well as to the soul: as true Catholic priests know, at times the sacrament has restored bodily health.
Perhaps realizing he was cornered and fearing loss of face (as well as loss of contributions from this well-to-do, highly skilled professional), the mean-spirited "priest" promised to consult his library. Shortly afterward he agreed to administer the sacrament. The child survived the surgery.If this counterfeit cleric were an authentic Catholic priest, the child's father would never have had to suffer prolonged agony in his dark hour of deep emotional distress. He would not have had to struggle, under such trying circumstances, to bring this reprehensibly bad imitation of the Catholic priesthood to the few senses he might possess.
A real Catholic priest with a pastoral orientation and a knowledge of moral theology would have known the "rules" about extreme unction backwards and forwards. He certainly would not have needed a layman to school him. And if he needed to double check, he would not have issued a denial as his first response to a troubled parent's heartfelt petition. Never -- NEVER -- would a true Catholic priest have let peevishness and petty one-upmanship get in the way of his solemn duty in a grave matter pertaining to the cure of souls. Most importantly, a real Catholic priest would have been a source of comfort, not of grief, to anguished parents.
This incident, you must remember, is not an isolated instance subject to dismissal as a one-off event. This kind of knee-jerk, wrongheaded, ignorance-fueled arrogance is standard practice in soulless Tradistan. For this reason, all right-minded Catholics must sever any connection to the bogus cult masters.
*Ante la iglesia actual (clero - liturgia - teología) el católico viejo se indigna primero, se asusta después, finalmente revienta de risa.
Am I the only one who has to think of the Terri Schiavo case after reading this article? Well, as the great Davila said: Lo que desacredita la religión no son los cultos primitivos, sino las sectas norte-americanas.
ReplyDelete¡Y que lo diga, buen Tarquinio!
ReplyDeleteBTW, the young child was on a feeding tube as well. For that reason, according to the Blunderer's medically uninformed reading -- very possibly second hand -- of Vitoria, she might, therefore, have caused the priest undue repugnance, so he tried to skirt of his duty.