I began The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of
God by taking note that many
Catholics after Vatican II were told by pastors, curates, religious, or
theologians that the sacred council had changed certain aspects of Catholic
theology or practice, and consequently had never read the documents of Vatican
II for themselves. As we approach the Year of Faith, it's not too late to get
started!!! To get motivated, perhaps this will help: many Catholics misunderstood or ignored the council's teachings under
the influence of secular culture and, as the Holy Father recently stated, "embraced uncritically the dominant
mentality, placing in doubt the very foundations of the deposit of faith, which
they sadly no longer felt able to accept as truths. Recent
decades have seen the advance of a spiritual 'desertification.'" He also remarked that fifty years ago, history
offered glimpses of a "life or a world without God. Now we see it every day around us. This void has spread." Yet, the pope said, a
"thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life" is still evident...."
MONDAY last I posted that Pope Francis might not be all that the secular media consider him to be, recommending a First Things piece on the matter. Today we read of Archbishop Chaput's interview with John Allen of the National Catholic (?) Reporter , in Rio for WYD. What caught my attention was the Archbishops's comment that alienated, non-serious Catholics perhaps interpret the Pope's openness as being less concerned than his predecessors with doctrine, and that it is already true that "the right wing of the Church" has not been happy with his election. As I argued in The Smoke of Satan , and as George Weigel has eloquently posited in Evangelical Catholicism , the political terms left and right are woefully inadequate as measurements of one's standing in the Body of Christ. There are only the orthodox, and the heterodox.
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