It’s Our Prelates Who Owe Their Flock An Apology

You have been too hasty in criticising him!

The publishing of the Cardinals' letter to the Evil Clown is only a few days old, and I already hear around the usual weak voices stating that we all know that the Church is oh so slow, and we should feel bad for having criticised Cardinal Burke & Co. Perhaps, they say, an apology is in order? Well, let me say it with one word:

Poppycock.

The Church used to be slow largely because the circulation of information used to be slow. It needed months or years for heresies even to reach the ears of Rome; more still to get detailed information about it; more still to conduct proper investigations once the information had proved alarming; and more still to spread any reaction to the menace.

This is not the case anymore. Information spreads almost instantaneously. Heresy can be spread worldwide in a matter of days. Everyone knows that, even our cowardly hierarchy.

You have evidence of this everywhere. When the Evil Clown staged the first phase of his War On Doctrine with the 2014 synod, the reaction of the bishops present was instantaneous and roaring. Nobidy said: “oh, wait! Let's reflect some six months on this, and then see what posture to adopt. The faithful will understand. That's the way the Church works”. Only a couple of days later, the strongest condemnation came from the Polish bishops, and they had to consult or gather together first. At the same time, many voices rose, particularly from Africa, and were not slow at all in letting the faithful know where the truth lies.

Even admitting that a formal response will take some weeks (I don't think so; see below), it is clearly the duty of every bishop and Cardinal to reassure the faithful that something is being done. “The document as it stands is unacceptable. We are in filial communication with the Holy Father. Be assured truth will be reaffirmed. Formal steps will, if necessary, be taken”. That could enter in a couple of tweets, and would have been enough for the time being. It did not happen.

What happened instead, was a very prompt interview of Cardinal Burke; who, whilst belittling the document with some specious argument about it not being magisterial, had the effrontery to criticise those Catholics orthodox enough to be concerned. You see, Cardinal Burke did not wait five months to give his interview. He only needed a couple of days. His reaction wasn't slow at all.

I could go on until tomorrow, but I will give you a last example. It seems pretty evident that the letter with the Dubia was, after months of scandalous silence, finally prompted by the answer of Francis' letter to the Argentinian bishops, the notorious “there is no other interpretation” letter. After this, certainly more than four Cardinals (we don't know how many; it could have been a dozen or more) only needed some ten days to formulate and agree a very formal document, carefully worded to leave the Evil Clown nowhere to hide. This, my friends, is fast by every standard!

Why, then, be so fast in September, but not in April? The answer is chilling: because for our cowardly hierarchy a document dripping heresy like Amoris Laetitia just isn't bad enough to warrant action. If the Evil Clown had resisted the temptation to write the letter (a letter, mind my words, written in answer to a question very similar to the Dubia expressed now, and which therefore Francis explicitly answered), our blessed hierarchy would have left us without any criticism of Amoris Laetitia whatsoever. And we are the ones who should apologise?

No, my dear readers. No.

Let's stop being the usual wet kitten here, and let's start demanding from our bishops and cardinals that they do their darn job. Not after six months. Not after Francis' umpteenth provocation. But timely after things happen, so that the sheep may know that Francis may happen, but their shepherds are vigilant. What has become of us, if seven months of leaving the faithful absolutely alone is considered something not only acceptable, but which should prompt us to feel guilty?

As I write this, what we have is a promise of escalation, that has not happened yet. This is all. I hope the escalation comes one day, but again I can't say the past experiences (I include Burke here) help much.

Let me remind you again of some facts:

• Francis was already formally asked, in writing, by bishops, about what Italian lawyers call “authentic interpretation” of the issue of communion for adulterers. He has already answered, formally, in writing. This was enough to condemn Honorius.
• Amoris Laetitia is so blatantly, so obviously, so shamelessly heretical, that the very concept of having doubts about its lack of orthodoxy is between hilarious and scary. When the document was published there were no calls for the submission of dubia. There was and there is no need for that. The document is heretical beyond doubt.
• It may well be that the decision to present the Dubia is merely a legal “angle” (that is: it is seen as a necessary step towards a formal declaration of heresy). But even in this case, there is no excuse whatsoever for delaying this step to September when the document was published in April.

Let us be realistic here. We have been abandoned by everyone but one bishop in April, and we are abandoned by everyone but one bishop and four Cardinals now, after months of I action of the same Cardinals.

We, the abandoned sheep, don't have to apologise to any prelate. They, the shepherds, must now show that they are worthy of their role. They must recover the credibility they have blatantly lost. I for one am fed up with being surrounded by mass dereliction of duty, and being told that I was hasty and uncharitable when some reaction starts to happen.

But let our shepherd seriously, factually take the lead of their sheep against this satanical pontificate, and I will be the first and loudest to praise them.

Providence works in wonderful ways. Trump has just won an election against a very powerful political, media and business apparatus that has outspent him many times, defeating a strong fifth column within his own party.

Hitlery never saw it coming.

May Francis, one day, repent or experience the same.

M

 

Will The Kitten Start To Scratch?

Much better….

 

Only hours after I have written my blog post about some Cardinals’ (far too slow) reaction to Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Burke has doubled down in an interview with Edward Pentin.  

The interview is very clear on one point: there is no intention of stopping here, and this matter will be pursued further. I quote:

[Q]What happens if the Holy Father does not respond to your act of justice and charity and fails to give the clarification of the Church’s teaching that you hope to achieve?

[A] Then we would have to address that situation. There is, in the Tradition of the Church, the practice of correction of the Roman Pontiff. It is something that is clearly quite rare. But if there is no response to these questions, then I would say that it would be a question of taking a formal act of correction of a serious error.

A “formal act of correction of a serious error” can only be a formal declaration concerning the heretical content of Amoris Laetitia. If this happens (it is still a big “if”), then we would have a big step in the right direction, because there is no way Francis can save face when one or more Cardinals declare one of his documents heretical. His pontificate would be in tatters, destroyed for all eternity.

Note here that, the perennial teaching of the Church being easily discernible, this declaration would be much different than, say, a bunch of homo Jesuits declaring a hypothetical Pope Pius XIII a “heretic” because he doesn’t follow the Gospel of Fidel. In both cases every sound Catholic, even of the thicker sort, would immediately recognise who is right and who is wrong.   

The question is now whether the Cardinals will let actions follow words. I am healthily sceptical on this, because I can’t but notice that the widespread revolt of the Bishops during the first synod (aka the day the pussycat roared) was followed by the most scandalous silence when Amoris Laetitia was published. However, I must say this is a new situation, and a couple of people are now leaning very far out of the window. We should pray that they have the strength to continue on this path, and that other pussycats (basically all bishops and cardinals, with a handful of exception) find a backbone somewhere and start doing their job.

We shall see how this pans out. We have been betrayed when Amoris Laetitia was published, and I therefore will suspend my judgment until I see real action taken. The real action is what should have happened in April: a formal, official, public denunciation of the heretical content of Amoris Laetitia. If you look at the recent past, you have The Abbe’ de Nantes’  Liber Accusations in Paulum Sextum, Liber Accusationis Secundus (against JP II) and the third Liber Accusationis against the new Catechism  as useful guides.

If you ask me, nothing less will suffice. 

We have had a situation of officially proclaimed heresy since April. Finally, timidly, something starts to happen. And once again it was the outrage of the Catholic laity, and the openly proclaimed condemnation of our cowardly clergy, that paved the way for this action. 

I’d say we are past the kittens’ meowing. Clearly, there are some angry cats around. 

But I still can’t see any serious scratching. 

M