A Little Bit From "Two Towers"
For the next two days we will excerpt "Two Towers-the de-Christianization of America and a Plan for Renewal" (RequiemPress -on special now) where John Meehan talks about the circumstances surrounding the founding Magdalen College.
It has been heartbreaking for me, to witness the vast number of lay people — old, middle-aged, and young — living their baptismal lives without a working knowledge of the Deposit of Faith or of the approved liturgical life of the Catholic Church. Let me be precise, "orthopraxy" (right ethical action or the tower of morals) has superseded "orthodoxy" (right Catholic belief or the tower of Faith). This reversal has turned personal belief upside down. The result has been the loss of a practical common belief among the laity in this country: American de-Christianization.
When Vatican Council II closed in 1965, I became disturbed over the non-responses of most lay people to the teachings of the Council Fathers. Their indifference, however, was apparent, not actual. The non-responses of the people I knew only indicated that, as lay people, they had not been prepared to educate themselves when it came to matters of Faith and morals. In fact, they did not even consider it an obligation to challenge the ideas or practices of bishops, priests, or consecrated religious. So, confusion became widespread, which resulted in a disoriented pew-sitting laity.
Continued tomorrow...Worse, I was shocked by the misapplications of Conciliar documents to catechesis, liturgy, and the vocation of the laity by certain bishops, priests, and teaching religious. Consequently, one day in 1967, I made an eager-hearted commitment before the Eucharistic Christ to promote the
authentic renewal called for by the Fathers of Vatican Council II, a decision that required some fundamental changes in my professional life which, in turn, affected my family life in nonessential ways. At that decisive moment, I promised Jesus Christ I would attempt to combat a surreptitious euphemism being passed on to the laity: "the spirit of Vatican II." As will be shown, that deceitful term advanced quite rapidly the process of de-Christianization in America.
posted by Jim Curley @ 11:14 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
"The non-responses of the people I knew only indicated that, as lay people, they had not been prepared to educate themselves when it came to matters of Faith and morals."
Of course not. Jim. It is the responsibility of the hierarchy - the successors to the Apostles - to teach the Faith to their respective flocks. It is patently unfair for anyone to blame the laity for "not educating themselves" when the hierarchy has decided carte blanche to stop teaching the Faith.
"In fact, they did not even consider it an obligation to challenge the ideas or practices of bishops, priests, or consecrated religious."
That's because challenging the ideas and practices of bishops, priests, and consecrated religious is NOT the normal obligation of the laity. The normative situation for Catholics, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, is for bishops, priests, and consecrated religious, who do not have families or day jobs, and who have all the time and all the grace necessary to learn and faithfully teach the Faith, to get the Faith right and to pass it on to the rest of us.
Granted, the laity do have an obligation to hold fast to all they have received and to evaluate every new teaching in light of the Faith they have been taught. In our confusing times, you might call that "challenging the ideas or practices of bishops, priests, or consecrated religious" - but traditionalists generally get in trouble for doing this.
Jeff-It is the Bishop's responsibility to teach the Faith-agreed wholeheartedly.
It is everyone's responsibility to know the Faith. In America (and this is where we are talking about) the Catholic laity by the 1950's and 60's were literate and educated. The documents of Vatican II and the teachings of the Faith were not held in some dark vault. The laity (except a few) chose not to find out for themselves what was going on. They chose to rely on priests and Bishops to tell them. And when those priests and Bishops fell down on their job (The dissent of priets and bishops from Humanae Vitae was a red flag waving that almost any of the laity who took their Faith seriously should have seen-if not before) the laity should have known, but unfortunately, many wanted an out from the practice of certain aspects of the Faith or were just habitual Catholics. It is a folly to blindly trust the any particular bishop or priest in any day and ages. Read the history of the Church. It is usually clergy who give the greatest scandal.
As an illustration: My mother often comments, in talking to her friends now, about how she refused to let us attend the sex-ed classes at our local high school. Her friends (who all had kids going to school with us) deny to her that sex-ed was even being taught. Their denial doesn't change the fact it WAS being taught. Was it the school's responsibility to tell the parents-certainly. Was it the parents' responsibility to know what was going on anyhow-certainly. Fault lies in two places, but the parent is the primary responsibility here.
Just so, we are the primary responsibilty for our own souls and our own knowledge of the Faith. The Church was formed to assist us, but not our away our own responsibility.
You wrote, "That's because challenging the ideas and practice of bishops, priests... is NOT the normal obligation of the laity."
Certainly it should not be the NORMAL activity of the laity-but when called for, it IS the OBLIGATION of the laity when appropriate. See the roll of saints (lay and religious) who admonished bishops and popes...
Traditionalists (and there are several ways to define these people, who I am sometimes counted among, and I am sure sometimes not), have done a tremendous service to the Church. They have kept the Faith when most of their Catholic friends followed their modernist pastors without question. They have been ridiculed and marginalized by "mainstream" Catholic press for years. But their constant voices and pressure are starting to bear fruit.
Of course much more could be said...
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