A quick
commentary on Fr. Longenecker’s latest, my observations in red.
A
Schism in the Catholic Church?
Headlines last week were
proclaiming that a group of cardinals believe Pope Francis should step down to
avoid a catastrophic schism in the Catholic Church.
Schism? What schism?
In fact, the modern Catholic Church is already in schism, but it
is an internal schism, hidden to most people.
AS I noted
in Smoke:
It is clear that the Church is facing a
grave crisis. Under the name of 'the new Church,' 'the post-conciliar Church,'
a different Church from that of Jesus Christ is now trying to establish itself;
an anthropocentric society threatened with immanentist apostasy which is
allowing itself to be swept along in a movement of general abdication under the
pretext of renewal, ecumenism, or adaptation.
-Cardinal Henri de Lubac, S.J., Christian Witness (1967)
The divide is very clear and yet virtually unspoken. Nobody dares
to really speak of it. The divide runs between cardinals. It runs between
bishops and archbishops. It runs between theologians. It runs between parish
priests. It runs between liturgists and catechists, church workers, musicians,
teachers, journalists and writers.
It is not really a divide between conservative and liberal,
between traditionalist and progressive.
From Smoke:
….the
schema of “liberal” (progressive, left) vs. conservative (traditional,
right) which followed upon the close of Vatican II is wholly inadequate for
explaining the present-day crisis of faith within the Church of Jesus Christ,
though it is most unfortunate that usage of these terms persist among many
Catholics and in the media today. Division within Christ’s Church is a clear
attack by the evil one
It is the divide between those who believe that Jesus Christ is
the Virgin born Son of God and that as the second person of the Holy and
undivided Trinity established his church on earth supernaturally filled with
the Holy Spirit which would stand firm until the end of time, and those
who believe otherwise.
Those who believe otherwise are the modernists.
Though space precludes representing my discussion of modernism, here
is a tidbit:
Neomodernists also raised questions, as we have seen, as to
whether Jesus intended to found a Church, since they understand his mission as
concerned only with inaugurating the Kingdom of God, i.e., delivering
people from spiritual and physical suffering in this world, which is how
neomodernists understand salvation.
They are the ones who think the church is a human construct. It is
a historic accident that occurred two thousand years ago and succeeded by a few
twists of fate and a few happy circumstances. Because the believe the church is
a human construct from a particular time and place, the church can and MUST
adapt and change for every age and culture in which she finds herself.
This is the great divide. This is the schism which already exists.
Is the church a divinely appointed institution established for the
eternal salvation of souls or is it a social construct which sincere people
have put together to make the world a better place?
This is the divide within the church today and every conflict
about everything –from music, to architecture, to art, to Catholic
education, from liturgy, to literature, from devotions to disciplines and
doctrines–everything comes back to this basic divide.
Of course I believe the first: the church was established by God’s
Son Jesus Christ our Lord for the defeat of Satan, the salvation of souls and
the redemption of the world through the supernatural graces empowered by the
sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
All the rest–from saving the environment to feeding the hungry,from equal rights for workers to opening a soup kitchen, from educating theyoung to achieving peace and justice–are secondary and reliant on this first
and eternal priority.
The schism already exists.
All that is required is for individual Catholics to decide which
side of the chasm they reside.
Lastly, to aid in the
decision:
Satan’s
strategy here is the time-honored one of divide
et impera – divide and conquer. Remember, too, Jesus’
words to the Pharisees: “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste,
and no city or house divided against
itself will stand.” Quite simply, no ideology, no matter how sincerely
embraced, may substitute for personal conversion.
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