Good Riddance

 

I generally avoid making names when criticising other (more or less) Catholic blogs and writers, and I will do the same this time. I leave it to the discernment of the reader to draw their general conclusions (both in particular and in general) from what I am about to write. 

I have a special sort of allergy for those fake “c”atholic, confused, “let’s see where the “spirit” drives me today”-blogs which are at the same time pompous, self-centred and distinctly unCatholic. 

Catholicism can never be reinvented. Experience shows that it cannot be “updated” (update in Italian is “aggiornamento”) without causing extremely grave damage. It does not even need to be polished. The only thing that Catholicism needs is to be learned, accepted in toto, and defended in season and out of season. 

More in general, Catholicism is never about you, nor is any sane person that does not sleep in your bed or in its near proximity really interested in how you feel today. Much less will any sane Catholic care a straw about what strange new interpretation of – actually – very easy things you are concocting right now. 

I remember a CINO blogger who, on the day Amoris Laetitia was released, enthusiastically embraced the novelty, actually coming to the point of wondering how much the Church still has to travel on the way to “understanding” where Satan  (cough) the “Spirit” is leading Her. Alas, she was too fast, and the tidal wave of criticism promptly caused by that demonic work suggested to her more cautious tones in the future. 

This particular episode is emblematic of so much of CINO blog and journalistic activity. They don’t “get” Catholicism, because they do not submit to it. They treat their religion like they treat their own political party. They ponder about what might have been wrong until today within the Church and what (and it is a lot) has to change as if they discussed the pros and cons of a low-carb diet, or of a new type of exercise routine. They think that truth changes and, most stupidly of all, that this rather fickle, imaginary “spirit” has chosen them to be a vehicle for the spreading of, no less, a new and improved truth. 

Listen, CINO blogger or journalist: in Catholic matters the surest indication of what is right is what your devout grand-grandmother would have thought right, and you will discover that your grand-grandmother was actually pretty well-aligned with all the old encyclical letters, catechisms, and other learning material we have received from past ages. There is nothing to innovate, nothing to add, nothing to take away. Any fantasy of a “spirit” leading us to some “new truth” is satanical delusion and willed, mortally sinful, self-deception. 

Yes, your grand-grandmother possibly had less fun in bed than many XXI century women; but then again she lived a far better, wholesome, more serene life than the absolutely vast majority of women today; and she died at peace with the Lord, which is the most important part. Yes, your grand-grandmother did not care a straw for “inclusion” of perverts, but this was because she was Catholic. Yes, your grand-grandmother was possibly not even allowed to vote; but this was never an obstacle to her being a blessing to her loved ones and friends, a precious counsel to her husband and leader, and a loyal servant of Christ. 

One of those fake-orthodoxy-cum-modern-times blog has just closed, apparently because of the “spirit”.

Good riddance.     

A blog that confuses the truths of always with the fads of today has not deserved to be called a Catholic blog; and those who write and spread such rubbish imperil their soul. 

M