Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics (Law & Liberty): “Magnifica Humanitas could address contemporary questions more effectively if it had sounder economics.”
“Blame the Rooster for the Sunrise”: The post hoc fallacy at the heart of the traditionalist case against Vatican II (TraddyLand Group): “The core traditionalist indictment of the Second Vatican Council is easier to state than the people making it usually realize.”
Too Catholic To Be French Officers (European Conservative): “French military schools face a backlash after excluding Catholic pupils, exposing ideological bias and raising concerns over future army recruitment.”
The Vatican and the SSPX: repairing the damage—Part II (Catholic Culture): “Many faithful Catholics have become traditionalists after fleeing from parishes where the Mass was celebrated without reverence, where liturgical rubrics were ignored, where the altar became an ideological showcase. ”
The Scariest Thing I Heard at the ADF Summit (Catholic Culture): “There may be less distance between Catholics in Washington and Rome than we have been led to believe. But, as one official told me, ‘the reality of governing is different than advocating.’ This is true in both cities.
Misunderstanding ‘Human Dignity’ (Postliberal Order): “Drawing on Elizabeth Anscombe, Ed Feser argues that modern-day philosophers have come to misunderstand the idea of ‘human dignity’ at a very basic level.”
A Transformative Eucharistic Spirituality (What We Need Now – Substack): “Whatever its promise, AI also poses evident peril to a fully embodied existence, to the cultivation of and commitment to personal relations, and to the enriching and enlivening experience of community and communion.”
American Heroism and Our Lady of Walsingham (The Catholic Thing): “Here, some 3,000 World War II American servicemen lie buried. They died assisting Britain in a savage war, and they helped to preserve our freedom. I am grateful.”
‘Heaven Is Real’: Catholic Father and Speaker Paul J. Kim Talks Micah and the ‘Miracles’ (National Catholic Register): “for Catholic speaker and father Paul J. Kim, the devastating loss of his 5-year-old son, Micah, did not mark the end of a story. Instead, it tore the veil wide open.”
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Re: “Blame the rooster for the sunrise”
One of the clearest and most logical treatments of the SSPX schism yet. Much appreciated. “Traddyland” has a new follower.
Regarding the TRADDYLAND article:
I never before heard of this group of apparently 17 members according to the top of the piece.
I’m not a TLM or SSPX guy myself.
But this presentation is absurd on it’s face. It’s built around the idea of a post hoc ergo propter hoc straw horse argument of Traddyland’s own making in the first two sentences:
“…The core traditionalist indictment of the Second Vatican Council is easier to state than the people making it usually realize.
The argument, in its everyday form, is this: the crisis in the Catholic Church happened after Vatican II, therefore it happened because of Vatican II…”.
Since that is not true, the rest of the presentation – despite it’s inclusion of some very interesting statistics on protestant and other churches – and it’s conclusions are false.
The SSPX was founded in 1970 and predates ALL of the main statistics regarding the POST VAT II decline of the CATHOLIC Church (putting aside his current day African Church statistics which have no relevance to the main theme anyway – a takedown of the TLM followers).
As I said, I am not a TLM guy. I served the Latin Mass as an altar boy but have followed the Novus Ordo since it’s inception. That has NOT prevented me in recent years from studying the prayers of the TLM and comparing and contrasting them to those of the Novus Ordo. It’s obvious to anyone who would do the same the clear superiority of the TLM prayers and the dumbed-down deficiencies of those of the Novus Ordo.
Here’s the KEY STARTING POINT for the entire situation to do with this topic: YES, the bishops at Vat II voted for some changes to the Mass. But NO – they NEVER gave their ayes to what Bugnini radically imposed on us. That’s what needs to be resolved otherwise all further downstream disputing of the discrepancies are a waste of time.
I think the Traddyland piece made some good points but I’m always cautious reading things like that.
“It’s obvious to anyone who would do the same the clear superiority of the TLM prayers and the dumbed-down deficiencies of those of the Novus Ordo.”
So true.
@ Misunderstanding ‘Human Dignity’
Feser’s agreement with Elizabeth Anscombe’s explanation of human dignity opens the correct path to understanding a largely misunderstood principle.
That understanding is centered on the classic description of human nature created in God’s image. That we are created with intellect, memory, and free will. Rather than a host of descriptions that base that understanding on transient, human sentiment be it ethical, political and so forth.
We are created with this indelible image of our creator. It’s the reason why the human soul, exclusive to all creation is immortal. And why God does not annihilate Man if Man rejects his God. That dignity remains forever whether in heaven or hell. As he says to Catherine of Siena in her Dialogues We can lose grace but not our existence.
@ “Blame the Rooster for the Sunrise”: The post hoc fallacy at the heart of the traditionalist case against Vatican II
I’m not convinced of Louis Massett’s thesis that the virtual collapse of Catholic practice post VII is merely coincidental with a similar worldwide collapse of other forms of religious practice.
Whereas the rapid growth of Catholicism in Africa can be largely attributed in agreement with Massett on the introduction of an inculturated Catholicism, language, customs, music.
And introduction of the Novus Ordo. Which enhanced that liturgical inculturation.
That success supports Massett’s thesis but doesn’t explain the dramatic collapse of Catholic practice in such an abbreviated time frame.
It does however support the misinterpretation, poorly written sections of texts that led many to form their own opinions regarding the binding force a doctrine.
traddyland by an ex-trad. Yes, correlation does not equate to causation. Agreed. Yes.
VCII’s aftermath, the hijacking, the letting loose of rabid dissent (Curran, Kung, Schillebeckxxx and friends), the progression of a new theology replacing the old, the liturgical releasing of rubrics, the forbidding of what was once sacred, ALL were allowed to reign, seemingly unchecked. The contradictions between what VCII said and what the post VCII church did or allowed to go unchecked were stark. The loss of faith grew.
Western Protestantism followed Western Catholicism’s lead.
I concede that Asian and African growth may be for the reasons this author states. But all else is arguably not so. Asia and Africa, predominantly pagan or pantheist, were anti-imperialist in light of their history; they would not easily accept the Western church with ANY of its foreign languages prior to achieving political freedom, so Church growth in Asia and Africa is entirely understandable from that perspective alone.
@ Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics
Gregg makes the case that in linking the existential threat of AI to economics, “Magnificent Humanity” drifts into a too-familiar ideological school of thought about “economics.” And then argues that CST should be “engaged a wider range of economic theory, evidence, and opinion.”
Well enough, but even beyond and above real economics, CST is centered on the “transcendent (!) dignity of each human person.” We then have these possible pairings of the key themes in the “Compendium” of CST (2004): (1) the “transcendent human person” AND the “family,” always together, (2) wider “solidarity” AND concrete “subsidiarity” always together, (3) “rights” AND “responsibilities” always together, (4) “informed conscience” AND “faithful citizenship” always together, (5) the “option for the poor” AND the “dignity of work” always together, and (6) “solidarity” AND “sustainable care for God’s creation” always together.
CST is based first on moral theology, and therefore is about the moral virtues of prudence, courage, fortitude and temperance—and is the very negation (!) of any ideology. The existential downside of AI isn’t limited to economics and politics…
Mighty any too breezy a connection with these domains remind us of the earlier and too-abbreviated connection—in part of the Vatican II Documents—between “Dei Verbum” and the “Declaration on Non-Christian Religions”? The initial intent was to restore a needed and positive relationship with our Jewish elder brothers…but then—it seems to many selective speed readers—that the broadened effort implies an equivalency of all religions (Christianity alongside Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). Bridges without boundaries?
SUMMARY: Later, and misread separately (Sola Documenta?), is the unique (!) Christian distinction & connection between universal Natural Law and actual Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) lost on too many readers?
Today, how to affirm the whole CST alongside an alarm about concrete misuses of AI—without bracket creep into distractions or confusion? An assignment for the wisely created inter-dicastery committee on “Magnifica Humanitas”.
@ Blame the Rooster for the Sunrise
So, what actually happened after Vatican II? To be watched soon is Cardinal Fernandez who will ponder the failure in intergenerational transmission of the faith: https://www.ncregister.com/news/cardinal-fernandez-on-new-transmission-of-faith-document
Three comments:
FIRST, rarely considered is what Newman identified as the “illative sense.”
By this he means the particularity of “instinct or inspiration” which reinforces conceptual knowledge and faith. He explains particularity: “a poet is not therefore a painter, or an architect a musical composer.” Especially the initial Novus Ordo—an abuse of Sacrosanctum Concilium—was universal only in that it insulted all of these human sensitivities by flattening the transcendent. A sophomoric exercise in what Benedict called “project church.”
SECOND, hoping that Cardinal Fernandez will reveal the big picture…
Not only infiltration of the zeitgeist (with the happy exceptions of John Paul II and Benedict), but also the ground-level loss of even the reinforcing “plausibility structure”: Friday abstinence, Holy Hours, midnight fast before Communion, rosaries, Stations of the Cross (rather than internet apps), paintings (other than Paglia’s homoerotic cathedral mural!), even the camaraderie of Saturday Nite Bingo! For want of nail a battle is lost; for want of a bingo chip, an entire culture is lost! And, with it, the Faith.
THIRD, about the Protestants, now hear this! At the 2015 World Meeting on Families held in Philadelphia, pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church spoke thusly:
“In today’s society, materialism is idolized, immorality is glamorized, truth is minimized, sin is normalized, divorce is rationalized, and abortion is legalized. In TV and movies, crime is legitimized, drug use is minimized, comedy is vulgarized, and sex is trivialized. In movies, the Bible is fictionalized, churches are satirized, God is marginalized, and Christians are demonized. The elderly are dehumanized, the sick are euthanized, the poor are victimized, the mentally ill are ostracized, immigrants are stigmatized, and children are tranquilized. In families around the world, our manners are uncivilized, speech is vulgarized, faith is secularized, and everything is commercialized.”
Will Cardinal Fernandez compare this to synodality’s expert and experiential Study Group #9, or even mention the elementary Veritatis Splendor?
The author of Blame the Rooster proposes that Vatican II was not the cause of the decline of the Catholic Church, as other mainline protestant churches also declined after 1965. If the author had said that Vatican II was not the only reason for the Catholic decline he may well have had a case.
His comparison of the Catholic Church with protestant churches, which technically we call ecclesial communions, or might be called assemblies of like minded believers, does not make the case because Catholics view authority in a very different way. For Catholics authoritative teaching comes from the Magisterium, based on scripture and Tradition, and not on individual biblical interpretation. And so, the teaching of a Church council has a great deal of authority.
One can argue forever that it was not the council, but rather misinterpretation of the council that caused the decline. But whose duty was it to bring the correct interpretation to their dioceses? If it was so easily misinterpreted what does that say about how it was written?
Liturgy plays a much larger role with Catholics than protestants, and there was a great upheaval in the mass. This brings up some obvious things we did to ourselves, and not caused by society. One would be the loss of belief in the real presence, which society did not care about at all.
In conclusion, if B follows A, it may be true that A was not the only cause of B, but it may well have contributed to B.
The Rooster article’s comparison of Catholics to mainline Protestants seemed spurious. For Catholics, attending weekly Mass is a precept, a necessary component of salvation. For Protestants, Church attendance has little bearing on their eternal salvation. Also, self-reporting of one’s religion and of one’s attendance at religious service are different measures.
Gallup and Pew polls did not support the claim of Rooster’s writer. Gallup and later Pew polls showed: Catholic church attendance fell from 71% in 1964 to 60% in 1970. Protestant attendance remained level at 38%. By 1980, the Catholic attendance rate was 45-50%; Protestant 28-35%.
The decline in Catholic church attendance started in the mid 1960s. The Protestant decline began a decade later.
Bringing the can back from down the road, the problem of pastoral waywardness i.e. not pastoral integrity, is dealt with through Church discipline.We have now had some 15 years of very overt somewhat forced correcting of an extreme matter, clerical and religion-based sex abuse and grave scandal. But there are other types of mundane matters needing urgent attention according to ordinary forms of discipline that require due processes and that will not have to entail anything especially sensational; and this must to get going.