Thursday, January 25, 2007

The DE-CHRISTIANIZATION of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

By default, the Catholic Church is undergoing a de-Christianization. Catholics and their descendants are no longer making their acts of faith.

The cause is the fact that an act of Faith is a purely supernatural act. And man today is so natural (and unnatural) that they are unable to climb up to the supernatural. Or, even though the act of Faith is purely an act of God, man is unable to dispose himself to deserve it. Unfortunately, our culture and our times, our system of Catholic education and our defective catechesis, and our parents all contribute to our present indisposition.

So what is happening is that Catholics with faith are losing their faith because of sins against faith and our young ones are unable to make their act of faith because of the bad examples around them. Blessed Alberione, in fact, put the blame on parents, particularly the mother. Our mothers are more like Eve than the Blessed Virgin Mary. Unlike Mary who brought Christ to the temple, mothers are bringing their children to the forbidden tree. Should we still wonder why we are killing one another as Cain killed his brother Abel?

And it is the children of Eve who are becoming priests and bishops, nuns and future mothers. Where are the true children of Mary? The book of the Apocalypse points at the desert where the woman fled to a special place prepared by God Himself. There, in that special place, is where the true children of Mary are to be found.

St. Louis de Montfort knew this and tried to establish a community that would truly become children of Mary, truly a community of Faith. St. Bonaventure knew about this, too, and was hoping that that community was that of St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Benedict knows about this "small Church" shining with true Catholic Faith, which, perhaps, explains his interest in new emerging small communities.

Christ has prophesied that "when the Son of man comes, will He find Faith on this earth?" Of course there will always be, for the Church will always exist. But He emphasizes its smallness.

Sion, and especially the temple of Jerusalem, pre-figured the Catholic Church. Because of the unbelief of the Jewish people the temple was destroyed, wherein "not one stone was left on top of another." Could this be the same vision at Fatima: the ruined Church wherein not one stone is left on top of another .... because of her de-Christianization, because of her absence of Faith?

Only those with Faith can transmit the faith, says Leo XIII addressing exegetes. We have had a crisis of faith since the middle ages. With faith practically dying with the Saints raised by God, the world would be devoid of it by now. Of course, God always raises up Saints and Popes to confirm us in the faith, but who gives their intellectual assent to their teachings as words of God? (Painting is "The Dream of Innocent III" from the Basilica of St. Francis.)

Thursday, January 11, 2007

WIELGUS AFFAIR - a bishop treated unCHARITABLY

I am still struggling with two articles in my draft. One on the absence of faith and the second on the de-Christianization of the Catholic Church. Both articles show the absence of the theological virtue of Faith among many Catholics.

Living Faith, however, must be enlivened with Charity; otherwise it is dead. Then comes the sad Wielgus affair that fortifies the above thesis. His treatment by the people shows a great lack of Charity in them.

Our analysis has two parts. The first part, what Bishop Wielgus did and the second part, the reaction of people who urged the good bishop to resign before his installation. I am unqualified to handle the first part for the same reason that those who rejected him were not qualified to judge the Bishop.

The first part is between the Bishop and God. A moral analysis of the second part shows that the people who urged him to resign were unjust if not uncharitable and guilty of mortal sin commonly called rash judgment "Judge not that you may not be judged." The words of Christ were threatening, showing the seriousness of the sin. Our concern is not whether the bishop is guilty or not. But whether the unfavorable reaction was Christian or not.

Let us go to the second part. Judgment is an act of Justice, a decision of what is just and right. To judge rightly proceeds from a virtuous habit. A chaste person decides matters relating to chastity; to what is just belongs properly to Justice. We may judge but not rashly. We may judge as long as it is an act of Justice.

But Justice is a moral virtue that accompanies the theological virtue of Faith enlivened with Charity. Only one in the state of Sanctifying grace, practically a saint, can judge with wisdom and with prudence (both a supernatural state) comforming with the ruling of the Gospel.

St. Thomas of Aquinas gives 3 requirements for an Act of Justice. Firstly, it must come from the inclination of the moral virtue of Justice in assistance to the theological virtue of Faith. Secondly, the judgment must come from a person in authority. And thirdly, the judgment is pronounced according to the right ruling of prudence. In the absence of any one element, the judgment is unlawful.

The violation of the three requirements would go thus: firstly, if the judgment is made by one in (the state of) mortal sin and therefore devoid of Justice, the judgment would be perverted or unjust. Secondly, if the judgment does not come from his superior, it is judgment by usurpation. And thirdly, if the judgment is not guided by the moral virtue of prudence (a supernatural moral virtue) then it is a rash judgment.

The first requirement was stated by Christ, "He who has no sin may cast the first stone." No sin... refers to being in the state of grace. Where those who objected to the bishop's elevation without sin? The fact that they rash judged him shows they were in the state of mortal sin since he is a Bishop. Because the bishop's dealing with the communist is not clear and labeled 'under suspicion', St.Thomas of Aquinas would have stated that to judge him is a mortal sin.

The second requirement: those who judged him were not his superiors. The immediate superior of Bishop Wielgus is the Pope. So when inferiors judged the bishop, it was perverse and by usurpation.

Besides, his promotion is of a spiritul matter and should not be ruled by human consideration. The spiritual is superior to the natural. The spiritual can judge the natural in its spiritual aspect but not vice versa.

The third requirement is that the judgment must be inspired by the moral virtue of prudence which exist only in those with living Faith, i.e. in the state of grace (which unfortunately everybody thinks he is). But the fact that they have disobeyed the commands of Christ "Not to judge," "Not to look at the speck," "To love," shows that they were not in the state of grace, they were in the state of sin and had no right to cast the first stone.

The Pope and the Congregation for the Bishops acted rightly and charitably. They knew the bishop, his background and acted according to the 3 requirements of St. Thomas and recommended his elevation to the see of Warsaw. The Pope is guided by Christ's promise of a strong faith; he is the superior of the bishop; and because Christ prays that his faith may not waver, he has prudence. The Pope's choice was in accordance to the teachings of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, thus completely a supernatural act that surpasses all natural, judicial, political or experimental knowledge. Our shepherd has shown the way. If we have the Catholic Faith, we must be one heart and one mind with him and do likewise and agree to the installation of Bishop Wielgus to the See of Warsaw. (Painting by Tintoretto, 1519-94, "The Banquet in the House of Simeon.")