Monday, February 16, 2009

A gentle schism

Briefing: Rorate Caeli is right to point out the significance of this. For those who have not been following the story a priest who the Vatican had announced would be an auxiliary bishop of a looney-liberal diocese in Austria, Linz, has been forced to ask for his name to be withdrawn. The objection against him was essentially that he was conservative; the hook this was hung on was that he had said that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment for sin. Well, perhaps not very diplomatic.

But here is the response of the Austrian bishops:

The faithful are legitimately concerned that the process of candidate search, examination of the proposals and the final decisions should be carefully undertaken and with pastoral sensitivity are possible. This can ensure that bishops are appointed who are not 'against' but 'for' a local church. We bishops will make every possible effort to support the forthcoming episcopal appointments in the sense of monitoring these procedures in close cooperation with the relevant Vatican offices."

What this means is that bishops should never be appointed who are not tainted with whatever nonsense has got a grip in a local area. This is a recipe for schism: it is so obvious that it is amazing that these bishops can keep a straight face. If the bishops of a country drift away from the teaching authority of Rome, and if it is a principle that no new bishop should be appointed who isn't 'with' the existing self-appointed gang, then clearly they are going to go on drifting until they have given up being Catholic altogether.

As Rorate Caeli says, if the Pope accepts this, the game is up. But the worst thing is that this is, as far as it is possible to discern, essentially the principle lying behing appointments to the sees of the United Kingdom, and indeed most countries, for several decades.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

We have had de facto schism for quite some time now in various dioceses. This only serves to make it even more objectively demonstrable. John Paul II (RIP) in 1995 in his Episcopal Letter expressed the desire to reduce papal power to a matter of mere ecumenical episcopal consensus and this is what we have got - the post-conciliar collegial condition has reached full maturity. Why, therefore, are so many surprised by this tumult?

This is yet another manifestation of the new philosophy of post-conciliarism. The Pope is a bishop amongst bishops and when all is said and done the Vatican Secretary of State is always at hand to put another spanner in his works if necessary. And the consequences for discipline in The Church are devastating since where now does ultimate responsibility lie? According to the current reality it is dispersed among hundreds of rebellious, disunified bishops who frequently behave schismatically; who are often acting in the shadow of their lay-dominated diocesan councils and who compromise Roman Catholicism at every turn. Austria is not a unique situation. This is the situation throughout the Neo-Catholic Church. The entire ecclesiastical complex reeks of protestantism, as I have stated before.

By systematising personalistic and phenomenological approaches to The Faith we have finally arrived at the total chaos in the Catholic Church indicated by Fr Paul Marx OSB. Each individual has become vested with a false sense of their own "Royal Priesthood", "sonship" and "kingship" which has been contrived from modernist manipulation of Holy Scriptures. Self-realisation has come of age.

This incident, among many, provides us with every reason to summon Bishop Fellay and other traditional church leaders to act cautiously and avoid walking into carefully laid traps that will stifle Tradition and its absolutely essential place in The Church for the rest of time on Earth. Therefore, it is imperative that The Vatican Councils are fundamentally revised since there is little evidence in the final analysis of living tradition or continuity. It represents what many have claimed all along - a rupture with the pre-conciliar church.

Pope Leo XIII's Prayer to St Michael

Holy Michael, Archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust down to Hell Satan, and all wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen