Poland and Ukraine – “The history of relations between the Polish and Ukrainian peoples is full of wonderful, kind, and heroic deeds, but unfortunately, also turbulent and dramatic events. These two peoples were baptized almost simultaneously and, although they derived from different Christian traditions.” “We are recording new important pages in the reconciliation book” — Head of the UGCC and Head of the Polish Episcopate in a Joint Statement (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
Private Abortionists – “As the state’s leaders crack down on pro-life pregnancy resource centers, New York Democrats fund abortionists who have killed dozens of women.” NY Abortionists Kill Girls as Young as 13, but Democratic Gov Cracks Down on Pro-Life Centers (Washington Stand)
Conservative Legal Movement – “While conservatives can do little about rectifying Democratic behavior, the question of what conservative judges can do to set our country on a better footing is the subject of Hadley Arkes’s new book, Mere Natural Law.” Natural Born Lawyers: A Scholar Challenges The Conservative Legal Movement (Amac)
Norms, Qualifications, and Abp Fernández – “Following his appointment Saturday as the new prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Francis’ choice of Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández faced immediate criticism.” A question of ‘discipline’: Is Archbishop Fernández up to the DDF job? (Pillar)
Canonical Trials – “… it is now abundantly clear that everything in the Church is local, and also that nothing in the Church is merely local.” Measuring the “ecclesiastical air quality index”
LGBTQ+ Identification – New survey data from Brown University’s student newspaper provides further evidence that the increase in LGBT identification is driven by social pressures. Forty percent of Brown University students say they are LGBT, suggesting social contagion (Washington Examiner)
Bidenomics – “The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today announced it has approved the plan for construction and operations of the Ocean Wind 1 project offshore New Jersey.” Biden-Harris Administration Approves Third Major Offshore Wind Project in U.S. Waters (U.S. Department of the Interior)
Divorced and Remarried – “Have you heard about the scandalous writings by the new head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office?” Archbishop Fernandez, Preacher of Chaos (First Things)
Pretty Unbelievable Stuff – “Blaise Pascal wrote: ‘How I hate these stupidities: of not believing in the Eucharist, etc. If the Gospel is true, if Jesus Christ is God, where is the difficulty?’ (Pensées §199).” The Eucharistic Revival and the Problem of Trust (Church Life Journal)
A Working Document – “The Vatican has recently released what is called an instrumentum laboris for the upcoming Synod on Synodality, which is to be held in Rome this October.” What Does Vatican II Mean by the ‘People of God’? (National Catholic Register)
Transgender Politics – “Ana Kasparian, a co-host of the progressive ‘The Young Turks’ show, slammed her fellow liberals Sunday for downplaying the risks involved in giving transgender treatments to minors.” Progressive journalist breaks with left, warns puberty blockers can cause ‘irreparable harm’ to children (Fox News)
Conservative Watchers ‘Polarized’ – “Nexstar Media Group fired four members of staff including their news director, after a memo concerning the reporting of LGBTQ issues was leaked” News director and three other staffers fired from Michigan TV station over ‘anti-gay’ memo which encouraged reporters to get ‘both sides’ of LGBTQ issues and to be discerning about which Pride events to cover (DailyMail.com)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ Canonical Trials
About the Vatican’s weak-kneed handling of aberrant bishops, the Pillar concludes: “At the very least, bishops from bottom to top could recognize that failure to let justice be seen to be done only adds fuel to the blaze.”
No mystery here, it’s all about “mercy” abrogating anything about justice or anything else. The perspective of a cyclops.
@ Conservative Legal Movement
Writing for AMAC, David Deavel comments on a book by Hadley Arkes urging conservative justices to appeal more to “moral substance”—our innate and universal natural law—in their findings, and less to “sounding like Tevye singing, ‘Tradition!’ in Fiddler on the Roof.”
Which Heinrich Rommen clarifies further: NATURAL LAW doesn’t always tell us what to do, but it does tell us what NOT to do (the Aztec abortion culture, cancelling sexual morality—including physical mutilation of children, etc.)…
(“…the idea of natural law remains as it were latent [….] does not, for instance, tell us which of the many possible forms of laws about property is right in the abstract . . . But it judges each and every existing system of property [etc.] in terms of justice . . . This quality of the unvarying natural law, which elevates it ABOVE [caps added] the changing historical positive law, which makes it both the ideal for lawmakers and the critical norm for existing laws [!], renders it possible for the natural law to govern the acquisition and exercise of political power itself” (“The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy,” 1946/Liberty Fund 1998).
A reality also lost on AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF CLERICS now in high synodal places who would have us believe that natural law is simply one theological school among many. That the game is no longer moral judgments (!), but merely clericalist and disciplinary “decisions”.
Empty suits–the secularist lookalike Cardinal Hollerich and other tribal red hats now so set on butting aside even VERITATIS SPLENDOR:
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [no longer a ‘moral judgment’!] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not!]” (n. 56).
“People of God”
In 33 A.D., the ‘People of God’, Jews and early Christians, had the Synod to have Jesus Crucified, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”. At the Church Council of Caiaphas 33 A.D., the Pope Francis equivalent, High Priest Caiaphas decided that Jesus must be put to death. Of course High Priest Caiaphas is going to say that it was God leading the Synod and Council of High Priest Caiaphas.
Mark 15:6 The Sentence of Death.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested. A man called Barabbas was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion. The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed. Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what [do you want] me to do with [the man you call] the king of the Jews?” They shouted again, “Crucify him.” Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
Matthew 26:57 Jesus Before the Sanhedrin.
Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. Peter was following him at a distance as far as the high priest’s courtyard, and going inside he sat down with the servants to see the outcome. The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward who stated, “This man said, ‘I can destroy the temple of God and within three days rebuild it.’” The high priest rose and addressed him, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?” But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “You have said so.* But I tell you:
From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power’
and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’”
Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?” They said in reply, “He deserves to die!” Then they spat in his face and struck him, while some slapped him, saying, “Prophesy for us, Messiah: who is it that struck you?”
“ecclesiastical air quality index”
Apocalyptically, we are to watch for Jesus’, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’. In this Zechariah 13:7, apocalyptic, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’, phrase, Jesus is referring to God separating out the Faithful one third of the Catholic Church, whom, “They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God.”, in the post apocalyptic, Revelation 21, ‘“holy city, a new Jerusalem”, Catholic Church.
Matthew 26:31
‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’
USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 26:31
Will have…shaken: literally, “will be scandalized in me”; see note on Mt 24:9–12. I will strike…dispersed: cf. Zec 13:7.
Zechariah 13:7 Oracles Concerning the End of False Prophecy. The Song of the Sword.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the one who is my associate—oracle of the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In all the land—oracle of the LORD—two thirds of them will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left. I will bring the one third through the fire; I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God.”
Matthew 24 The Destruction of the Temple Foretold
USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 24:9-12
Matthew has used Mk 13:9–12 in his missionary discourse (Mt 10:17–21) and omits it here. Besides the sufferings, including death, and the hatred of all nations that the disciples will have to endure, there will be worse affliction within the church itself. This is described in Mt 24:10–12, which are peculiar to Matthew. Will be led into sin: literally, “will be scandalized,” probably meaning that they will become apostates; see Mt 13:21 where “fall away” translates the same Greek word as here. Betray: in the Greek this is the same word as the hand over of Mt 24:9. The handing over to persecution and hatred from outside will have their counterpart within the church. False prophets: these are Christians; see note on Mt 7:15–20. Evildoing: see Mt 7:23. Because of the apocalyptic nature of much of this discourse, the literal meaning of this description of the church should not be pressed too hard. However, there is reason to think that Matthew’s addition of these verses reflects in some measure the condition of his community.
The Revelation 11 “Two Witnesses” are the Jewish and Catholic Churches. Revelation 11:11 “But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.”
42 months, 1260 days, 3.5 years, is symbolic for the period of time between the exile and Fall of Israel, and the rise of Zion, aka ‘The New Jerusalem’, aka the post Apocalyptic Catholic Church atop God’s Holy Mountain under Messianic Reign. The Rise of Zion is the Second Coming of Jesus to reside in the Body of the Catholic Church. Jesus will Rule with and through His Catholic Church, which will be 12 Catholic elders and 12 Jewish elders, 24 combined elders, under Messianic Reign on earth, in Jesus’ Kingdom Come on free willed earth. All Spiritual Blessings and Sacraments of absolution of sin flows from heaven to earth through the Catholic and Jewish Churches, who are The Book of Revelation’s ‘Two Witnesses’ as well as ‘Two Lampstands’ and ‘Two Olive Trees”.
Revelation 11:5
If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain.
Revelation 11:5 is Catholic Anathema and Jewish Kareth.
Revelation 11:7
When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.
Revelation 11:7 is Satan, coming up from hell to kill and destroy the Catholic and Jewish Churches, and all their teachings from the Holy Spirit over the past 2600 years. The Jewish Church was killed by Satan at the time when they handed over their Messiah Jesus Christ to be crucified. If the whole Catholic Church goes the route of the German Synodal Path, then we can clearly see that the Catholic Church will have be killed by Satan very soon. When the Synodal Path takes over, then all the work done by faithful Catholic leaders and Catholic Saints will be finished, with no further guidance of the Holy Spirit to be used by the Catholic Church, only the secular lbgt and any fleshly desires and whims of those inputting into the Synod on Sodality.
Then, in Revelation 11, Jesus’ Second Coming, Comes and God blows new life into the Jewish and Catholic Churches, who are the ‘Two Witnesses’, and the Revelation 21 ‘New Jerusalem’ is born on free willed earth. This will be the Resurrection and Restoration of the ‘Two Witnesses’, who are the combined Jewish and Catholic Churches on free willed earth, in the post Apocalyptic Catholic Church, New Jerusalem.
The Revelation 11 ‘Come up here’, as Satan is cast down to earth (Rev 12:9), is Jesus taking over as King and Ruler of the world, as present God authorized secular power, which is presently ruling the world as a punishment from God, are removed as God’s selected rulers over Israel and the world. Jesus will Rule on earth with and through His Church, the Catholic Church. After Catholic Apostolic Successors read the Revelation 10 ‘small scroll’, which is a list of Catholic auto-anathemas, while seven Catholic Priests blow seven trumpets, this is when Jesus takes over as King and Ruler of the world. Jesus is not King and Ruler of the world until His subjects, Catholic Apostolic Successor put Jesus’ Laws into enforcement on earth. When they do so, Jesus is immediately crowned and King and Ruler of the world and Messianic Reign on earth begins.
Revelation 11:11
But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell in ruins. Seven thousand people were killed during the earthquake; the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed, but the third is coming soon. The Seventh Trumpet. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. There were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed, and he will reign forever and ever.” The twenty-four elders who sat on their thrones before God prostrated themselves and worshiped God and said: “We give thanks to you, Lord God almighty, who are and who were. For you have assumed your great power and have established your reign.
Jesus will Rule with and through His Church, the Catholic Church, which will be the combined authority of the 24 Catholic and Jewish elders. “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”
Acts of the Apostles 1:6
When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
Matthew 19:28
Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Jesus is Getting Married!
http://www.apocalypseangel.com/married.html
Poland and Ukraine: dialogue and reconcilliation? Words, words, words.
Ukraine won’t let Poland exhume the mass graves of the hundreds of thousands of the Polish people who were murdered in a most atrocious way, unique in a history of world genocides. They won’t allow for Christian burial/s either.
Both the Polish Episcopate and the government are reluctant to act in any decisive way to promote the truth about Wolyn massacre and do justice for those murdered and those who managed to escape the Ukrainians in the years 1938 -1943.
My daughter & her family were in Europe last year & were surprised to hear about
historical Polish/Ukranian relations. The Poles she spoke with were generous in offering assistance to Ukranian refugees but they told her the history between the two countries had not been a happy one in the 20th century.
To follow my comment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qea60nm5o_M
The attempt to inoculate VCII’s ‘people of God’ from the synod’s ‘people’ is a baldric attempt to salvage the ambiguous language of VCII documents from continued trashing by today’s synodal sycophants.
Both Augustine and Ratzinger wrote of their understanding of the term ‘the People of God.’ Problem then and continuing today is that everyone interprets the phrase (as they similarly claim to know and follow the ‘Holy Spirit’) as they see fit. Then the immoralists of Rome’s pagan church come together with the mishmashed language of Babel, worshiping priests as celebrants and people as active participants while the presence of the Head abides conspicuously absent. Voila! You’re in union with Francis’s Catholic Church. VCII did and said what to stave off the likes of it?
Nicely valiant attempt, NCR and theologian author. Efficacious effects? I’ll keep watch.
“…the ambiguous language of VCII documents…”
Perhaps you can explain how Chapter II of “Lumen Gentium” (#9-17) is “ambiguous” about the meaning of “the People of God”. I’m truly curious. Because it isn’t ambiguous at all.
Consider Phil Lawler’s questions from a 2017 essay in Catholic Culture:
“Did the problems that arose after Vatican II come solely because the Council’s teachings were ignored, or improperly applied? Or were there difficulties with the documents themselves? Were there enough ambiguities in the Council’s teaching to create confusion? If so, were the ambiguities intentional—the result of compromises by the Council fathers?
Suggesting that there could be difficulties with some Vatican II documents does not mean denying the authority of the Council’s teaching….There may be a need for clarification, elucidation, explanation, even correction.
More to the point, while it is certainly true that the “spirit of Vatican II” that is often cited in support of radical changes cannot be reconciled with the actual teachings of the Council, it is also true that the proponents of change can cite specific passages from Council documents in support of their plans. So are those passages being misinterpreted?[sic] Are they taken out of context? Or are there troublesome elements of the Council’s teaching, with which we should now grapple honestly? One thing is certain: we will not solve the problem by pretending that it does not exist.”
Just to be clear, how do you define “the people of God” according to chapter II of LG?
Well, the section is 4100 words long, and it’s tightly written (LG is one of the best conciliar documents ever written, in my opinion). Keeping that in mind:
The People of God are the covenantal and messianic people who have been saved from sin and unto divine life by God, through and in Jesus Christ, by baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the Church, the Body of the Christ, and it is necessary for salvation. Christ alone is the Savior of the People of God. The People of God consist of all those who have been baptized and are in union with the Pope and the bishops; it is related in various and incomplete ways to other Christians and other religions. The People of God are made holy and called to perfection in holiness and they have an obligation to evangelize and call all men into the unity of the Church, which is the one, visible sacrament of saving union with God.
Much more could be said. But that’s a decent start, all of it taken from Chapter II of LG.
Thanks, Carl. You hit the nail on the head. The People of God is the Church. Why not call the church the church? The ambiguity of some language in VCII documents seems perfectly clear.
I thank God that you said what seems amorphously lost in so many words in so many VCII documents. I read somewhere but don’t have a handy reference that all VCII documents together contain more words/pages than all words/ pages of previous Councils put together. It is no wonder there is not amorphous or ambiguous language.
I have much more to say, as you say you do too. We could likely write tomes. I recommend Ratzinger’s 2001 address: http://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/ecclesiology-of-the-constitution-on-the-church-vatican-ii-lumen-gentium-2068. There he discusses how the “People of God” morphed into collectivist, Marxist, partisan, and political things.
“The Ratzinger Report” too claims the “locus of the real presence of God in the world” is the “Church of the Lord” (rather than among or even with the People of God) since Christ is the Head. This centrality of Christ became lost among the masses, the sociological group, the “people” in a democracy.
Individual persons are saved through the power of God within the Church. Except for the miracles of Jesus where he fed thousands and healed ten lepers, He encountered and healed people as individuals. We are not saved AS a people. Not every person (who believes he loves God) approaching God crying, “Lord, Lord” will He acknowledge as His.
The idea of a collective people (of God who do not know, follow, or obey God) has led to those “synodal structures of sin” of which we are all guilty but for which no one, individually, is to blame. Guiltless by diffusion. Then Francis hangs his head and apologizes for the Church, the Church of Christ. Christ alone deserves but gets no apology or thanks from the smallness of men with wills to power.
Happy upcoming Sunday.
Ralph Wiltgen’s “The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber” discusses the heuristics of the council and the power plays by some collections of Fathers with skin in the game. Truly the Council reflects the saving grace of the Holy Spirit. There was viciousness among some and the revolutionary theological spirits of the young periti were optimistically hoping to influence Church history. Thanks to the Holy Spirit for restraining Balaam’s voice in the documents of VCII. Now we only need survive our current crisis.
“Why not call the church the church? The ambiguity of some language in VCII documents seems perfectly clear.”
Sigh. Did you read Chapter II of LG 2? If not, why not?
Seriously, I don’t get why it’s difficult for folks to just read the documents.
Anyhow, a couple of quick answers to your question.
First, the entirely of Scripture is focused on God choosing people and then “growing” such groups of people through the covenants, which are (to put it simply but truly) acts of nuptial embrace between a king (in this case, the Triune God) and fallen, sinful people.
Secondly, and directly connected, the theme of the People of God is (as LG, ch II shows) rooted in God’s selection, first, of Israel as the Chosen People and then, through Christ, all those who enter into communion with God through Christ via baptism and the Holy Spirit. And, of course, that people is catholic, universal.
Thirdly, the term “church” has, for many people, been overcome with assumptions and stereotypes. Vatican II emphasized a number of a biblical and patristic descriptive/images of the Church, focusing on a more covenantal, relational, and familial reality that had, for various (and complex) reasons been overlooked or pushed to the side.
There’s more. But, seriously, this is not ambiguous. Or progressive. Or modern. Quite the opposite. LG is incredibly Scriptural and patristic. So it drives me insane to hear about how “ambiguous” and misleading it is. It simply ain’t the case.
Correction: It is no wonder there is not MORE amorphous language.
Carl,
A difficulty with listening is like a difficulty with reading or with writing. Did I truly write that LG or VCII was ambiguous? Did you read what I wrote? Some language in all the words in all the documents is bound to be ambiguously Babelous with amorphous concepts. Together our communication has proven the point. Now that we’re perfectly clear, I’m sorry for the confusion. I see a need for confession. Yes, I’ve read LG more than once.
SIGH.
“Correction: It is no wonder there is not MORE amorphous language.
That makes more sense. Thank you.
If people want to read a document with all sorts of confusing, sometimes unclear, occasionally ambiguous, and seemingly contradictory sections, they should check out the Bible. Or just the sayings of Jesus Christ.
Meiron’s concerns are fair, even noteworthy. A “priesthood of diffuseness” can quickly become intractable and can easily be counter-evangelical. (Speaking discursively.)
I am not saying it is a right thing either.
First I would say VATICAN II has warnings of dangers scattered throughout it and these are constantly being overlooked, sidestepped, relatavized. Yes, sidestepped too.
Second, more to Carl, VATICAN II calls for witness, where the faithful enter in the breach as it were but not to “discuss ambiguity”. It’s a teaching document -yet more.