“The status of a homily delivered in the
1960’s?”
By Father Kevin
M Cusick
The present state of
affairs has many Catholics angry, confused and questioning. So
much poor leadership and corruption have together conspired to
destroy what seemed before Vatican II to be a healthy, vibrant
and growing Body of Christ.
Catholics have
abandoned the Faith in droves, led by many priests and religious who
bled from the Body of Christ by the thousands
after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.
In
the intervening years John Paul II and Benedict have attempted to
stanch the flow by bringing back Tradition. John Paul was notable for
replanting Marian devotion and strengthening catechetical teaching. Benedict
restored the traditional Mass to its proper place as
something sacred which should always remain so.
These
elements are among the many handed down in the Church
which reliably transmit the apostolic Faith.
To
the extent that Vatican II documents referred to the Tradition they
can be trusted. That was never a problem.
The
problem were the ambiguous time bombs planted in the documents,
together with some orthodox elements, that were later exploited by
committees and individuals, after the Council, like a wrecking
ball against the edifice of the Tradition.
That technique by
nefarious individuals of undermining orthodoxy has roared back
into operation in recent years.
One by one the
practices remaining in faithfulness to Tradition have been
dismantled beginning in Rome under Pope Francis. The technique of
borrowing just enough elements of tradition to achieve the
objective of advancing its opposite has come back into vogue.
Lip service is
paid to recognizably Catholic practices and devotions on the surface while
building blocks are systematically removed under
the structure which endangers the integrity of the whole.
Amoris Laetitia
is a case in point. Write a long and lyrically beautiful paean
to Catholic marriage and family life, while burying a time
bomb foot note in it that blows up the whole
thing when followed to its logical conclusion.
We’ve always
known and believed with the Church that receiving the Eucharistic Body
of Christ in a state of mortal sin flies in the face
of the Faith because it doesn’t save but rather
condemns souls to hell. Yet glossing over civil remarriage
after divorce, by refusing to call it
adultery, in the name of “pastoral care” removes a
basic building block upon which the whole edifice of the Church
depends or otherwise falls.
That which uses
grace as a placebo without sorrow for sin is putting a band aid
on a sucking chest wound.
That which kills souls
is never pastoral, never love. Calling it such is a fraud of cosmic
proportions.
The plethora of
poor and heretical teaching topped off by sacrilege, such
as leading souls to receive Communion in a state
of mortal sin or irreverently, is the tip of the sword against
the holiness of teaching.
Attacking and
destroying that which is holiest in the Church, the Most Blessed
Sacrament, is the real objective of the evil one. The devil cannot destroy
God Himself. What he can do, however, is deceive man and woman
into receiving the Eucharist uselessly and sacrilegiously. He
can deploy deranged and evil individuals to
desecrate the Sacrament, our churches and sacred statues.
Discouragement
and despair are the temptations he uses against the faithful who
witness this tidal wave of evil which has swept over the globe in recent
days.
A
recent video originating in Minnesota instructed Catholics
to pick up an envelope containing the Eucharist as they departed
the church after Mass, like takeout food. The video was very careful to
include a shot of parishioners dropping their offertory envelopes
in a basket before helping
themselves to “the-Body-of-Christ-to-go”, to
be consumed “safely” in their cars after removing their
masks.
The archdiocese
concerned intervened to stop the scandal, as those who wrote letters and
otherwise complained were informed by an official response.
People are asking, who
or what is to blame for the many cases of
ongoing destruction of Catholic Tradition?
Archbishop Vigano weighed into
the debate recently with an intervention that blames Vatican II, in line with
the position of the Society of Pope Pius X.
This triggered an avalanche of reactions in defense of
the Council.
Bishop Barron said
that Vatican II is “part of the Tradition”. By this he hopes to
undermine the whole argument of Traditionalists. Not so fast.
Vatican II defines
itself as a pastoral council. It is laced throughout with optional
suggestions. The Vatican II Mass is the masterpiece of this
technique, riddled throughout with options as
it is, sometimes authorized by rubrics which say
things like, “in these or similar words”.
Over against Scripture
and Tradition, pastoral is only obligatory insofar as it aligns
with Scripture and Tradition. Otherwise it’s optional. And in cases where pastoral
is incompatible with Scripture and Tradition
it should be vigorously rejected.
Father
Weinandy is countering the Vigan position. Quoted by Gloria
TV, Weinandy says that “’some
bits and pieces’ of the Vatican II teachings ‘may need
revision’ but he believes that the Pastoral Council has borne authentic
fruit that ‘is yet to come to full maturity.’"
These “bits
and pieces” are enough to compromise the whole,
as arsenic in brownies. If you know there is arsenic
in the brownies you wouldn’t eat them unless
there was something wrong with you.
These “bits
and pieces” have in fact borne bad fruit and continue to do
so. Witness the many liars in high places and low who cite “the
Spirit of Vatican II” to advance the most deceptive and
evil frauds upon the trusting and unsuspecting.
Pastoral is drawn from
and depends upon the pillars of Tradition and
Scripture but does not replace them.
Pastoral is
the continued application of what has
been revealed once and
for always to particular situations in the Church’s ongoing
work of saving souls.
In connection
with this, the best description I once heard for situating Vatican
II within the long arc of Church history is to describe it
as having the status of “a homily that was
delivered in the 1960’s.”
Homilies are pastoral,
they deploy Scripture and Tradition to bring the Gospel
to individual believers in a given time and place, with
mixed results. The homilies never stand alone, they
always refer back to and must stand or
fall on their conformity, or not, to the foundations
of Faith. The pastoral always must flow from them as any
teaching in the Magisterium of the Church must do.
The Faith is not
my personal property or yours. We are receivers of the Tradition in
Christ, faithfully handed on in the Church through the work of
the Holy Spirit. We remain faithful as we lovingly and reverently
receive and hand on the key to salvation in the Faith of Peter and
the Apostles.
This is the
best and most loving “pastoral” practice in
the Church. Vatican II stands or falls in the light of this
truth.
You be the judge.
Thank you for reading
and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
Let’s continue the
conversation on Parler, the new free speech social network. You can find me
there as @FatherKevinMCusick
