The lack of leadership in the Catholic Church in Great Britain has come to a head. I shall put some links at the bottom of this post, which is a cri de coeur. Thank God for the new men coming up out of the seminaries and for the younger priests. I especially praise the ones in the Dioceses of A and B and Westminster, who have remained orthodox. Not only do they have, many of them, "life experience", as converts or older men, but even the young ones are of a new mindset. That mindset is simply "orthodoxy". Those Millennials who are choosing to follow God know their history, the history of their Church, and know the horrible signs of the times.
But the leaders, the bishops, except for a few, are out of touch not only with the young priests and sems, but with their own congregations. Catholics are floundering on the rocks of individualism, secularism, relativism and all the modernist heresies which have entered the Church.
Why? We know about the famous "magic circle", and we know about the old boy club which has existed for at least forty years in choosing leaders for the Church in Great Britain.
We know the Gospel has been watered down in the face of false ecumenism and we know that compromises happen daily and are taught daily. We know that there is little meat in most sermons. We need meat, not milk, but we are not given substance and guidance on the real moral and doctrinal apostasies of the day.
Why? The glorious blood of the martyrs, who died not only for Christ but specifically for the authority of the Pope, Rome and the Holy Mass would not understand so many of our present bishops.
Why?
Leaders are both born and taught. I had leadership training in highschool and in college. But, with that training came a grave awareness of the responsibility all Catholic adults have not only for their own souls, but for the souls of their children and the adults with whom they come into contact.
There is no sense of responsibility for souls in the Catholic statements which are promulgated in Great Britain. I know many priests who never read the letters from their bishops on civil unions or other important topics from the pulpit, merely leaving them in the back of the Church for people, maybe, to pick up. I know priests who refuse to talk about abortion or contraception, as they claim they will lose members of their flock.
Why these blind spots in our leaders? Why?
Can we blame bad seminary training in the past? Can we point to the over-influence of Anglicanism, creating the sense of the false via media?
I have come to the conclusion that it is one thing. Too many of our Catholic priests and bishops are not pursuing personal holiness. Personal holiness must begin with orthodoxy. One cannot be in dissent and be on the path of holiness. If one is dissenting in any way, one has not begun the walk the road of perfection.
Only the perfect see God. And, this movement of grace starts here and now.
If one does not pursue perfection, which includes purgation and purification of the mind, intellect and will, one weakens the Church. Apostasy begins with the setting aside of daily prayer. I heard one priest tell some sems that he never says his breviary. Not only is he not living up to his own vocation, he is polluting young men to whom he said this.
We have been taught here in GB to just do the minimum. Minimalists do not become saints.
Too many British Catholics fear "zeal" and "enthusiasm", and I am not referring to charismatic manifestations, but merely the total giving of one's self to God and His Church.
The Church in GB has been weakened by the lack of the pursuit of personal holiness. This is not to be found in experience or emotion, but hard work in meditation and contemplation, penance and self-denial.
For the most part, the leaders do not exhibit the virtues and the discernment necessary to help the laity. Laity, help yourselves.
If one does not pursue holiness, which is found on the road of perfection, one will lose the gift of discernment and no longer be able to judge in prudence and in temperance, in justice or in courage.
I need not give examples. I give links for your reflection.
"The kingdom of God is at hand and the violent are taking it by storm." Hopefully, those who do violence to themselves in penance and self-denial, that is the saints, include you.
links
http://goo.gl/x15w3
http://goo.gl/pgbzK
http://goo.gl/voRzb
Thank you for your link, however, this is heretical information. First of all, the site is an Episcopal Anglican site and therefore will be theologically dubious. Secondly, we know one person is in hell, as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity said this: "While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture may be fulfilled." John 17:12, so there is at least one person in hell. I suggest you read Ralph Martin's book on hell, as he clearly states the Catholic Church, the one, true, holy and Catholic Church's position on hell.
ReplyDeleteChrist, Our Lord mentions hell more than once. I suggest you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church bits I have copied for you in the next several commentaries, as these are too long for one comment.
Yes, there are people in hell. Even Fr. Barron is wrong about this.sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.
IV. HELL
ReplyDelete1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.614 Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"615 and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"616
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."617 The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."618
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."619
ReplyDelete1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;620 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":621
Father, accept this offering
from your whole family.
Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation,
and count us among those you have chosen.622
V. THE LAST JUDGMENT
1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust,"623 will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."624 Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him. . . . Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. . . . And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."625
and there is more in this section of the CCC
We are indeed called to give all freely to God, but many fear the scorching, purging flames of redemptive suffering. Behind all cowardice is this fear, and behind all true love is a willingness to suffer, at least a little.
ReplyDeleteGood one...thanks
ReplyDelete