My thoughts exactly - Mark Mallett

I think what is expressed here about the Pope is perfectly accurate and the way in which we need to be looking at the new encyclical as well - in the light of the Holy Spirit whose Church will endure forever:
http://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-papacy-is-not-one-pope/

 

Mark says, “Pope Francis is unafraid to take on any question,”
He refuses to answer the Dubia. When Cardinal Muller asked Pope Francis why he was ordered to dismiss three excellent priests who are among the most capable professionally, Pope Francis answered, “And I am the pope, I do not need to give reasons for any of my decisions.”

Holy Spirit, embolden us!!

Joel

 

MarkM is a brilliant and gifted catholic writer but he is no gatekeeper.

 

My whole point in posting this was: "Any teaching of the Holy Father must be understood in the context of the entire body of Catholic teaching called Sacred Tradition derived from the “deposit of faith.”, “Where Peter is, there is the church,”, and "Any question of interpretation of a papal statement pertaining to matters on faith and morals must always be made through the lens of Sacred Tradition".
Be not afraid of anything else he does. His intention will flesh out over time and until then, I will wait and watch and continue to respect the chair of Peter.

 

Why doesn't Mark just say Pope Francis should answer the dubia?

He can see the confusion and divisions caused by AL.


Why is Mark warning about those who disagree with Pope Francis?
But watch out too for those who are sowing dissension against Pope Francis.'
And not warning about how AL is being implemented in Malta and Germany?
That it is those Bishops who are sowing dissension against Pope Francis if indeed Pope Francis does not share their intentions.

Its time for Mark to stand up for the faith. To quote him...
'This is really a call for every Catholic to be a servant and faithful steward of God’s Word'

 

I am sorry, but I just don't get this way of thinking. As Mac said:

This is not the time to be silent.

Cardinal Muller , Prefect of the CDF, said very recently: “For us marriage is the expression of participation in the unity between Christ the bridegroom and the Church his bride. This is not, as some said during the Synod, a simple vague analogy. No! This is the substance of the sacrament, and no power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel, nor the pope, nor a council, nor a law of the bishops, has the faculty to change it.”
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/new...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

PF, and bishops who think like him, are clearly trying to change the 'interpretation and application' of church doctrine, while deceitfully saying that nothing has changed.

 

I think many people , including Mark himself miss the point of what Pope Francis is doing along with his friends.

Pope Francis it is true is not changing the Doctrines or Teachings of the Church as such. That much is true. So the front door of the Churches Teachings, so to speak remains firm. The Doctrine on Papal Infallibility remains secure.

But were Mark and others err, I believe is in not seeing that while the front door remains secure the back door, in how such Church Teaching is interpreted has been left wide open in a Protestant manner of leaving it up to the individual how they interpret such teaching. That is the grave problem here.

So for me Mark is rebutting an argument I myself would not make. I do not claim the Pope Francis is changing Church Doctrine , What I would claim is that by allowing people to interpret such Doctrine as they place he is permitting Church teaching to be bypassed.

So Mark is totally missing the point here. I can't disagree with a word he writes. It is simply that what he is writing about has nothing to do with issues of concern.

Change through the backdoor, gravely dangerous back door of bad praxis. Not through changing Church Teaching but changing how Church Teaching is interpreted . But Mark does not even hint at this.

But I am happy that he seems to be acknowledging that there is a problem by some vague references he makes to this. Though I get the firm impression he has not a clue how to deal with these issues.

I have the strong impression that , in fact he feels himself totally out of his depth in all this, which is true.

 

He is just unable to deal with the actual issues. And avoids them like the plague.
He should take his own advice..... suggesting others turn to prayer and keep silent.

 

Very few are able for what's happening before our eyes. I have many good friends who are very devout and cannot even talk about or acknowledge that there is a problem. I think that eventually the truth will be unavoidable. It's so heartbreaking it's difficult to take on board.

 

Yes, I have great sympathy with people who struggle with all this. It reminds me of Jesus, the time He went up to do the reading in the little synagogue in Nazareth. He read the words of Isaiah announcing Himslef as Messiah:

Luke 4:17

The Rejection at Nazareth
16Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read, 17the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,…

The people of His village who had know Jesus and the Holy Family from forever still wanted to kill Jesus by throwing Him of a cliff. Later on indeed we are told that His own relatives came to take Jesus away because they thought He was nuts.

Why this reaction? I think true prophecy initiates a radical rejection from people who wish to maintain the status quo.

I think asking the hard questions about the Vatican and Pope Francis at the moment have a prophetic role at the moment. I can see and sympathise with why people struggle with this prophetic voice. Prophets and those who speak a prophetic word are called to run ahead of the pack so to speak. To come apart from the rest, so to speak and walk into the desert of being despised.

Jesus of course pointed out that the ancestors stoned and murdered the prophets and I do expect in the fulfilment of events that people who question what the Vatican is doing and intends to do in future will have to lay down their lives. The secular authorities all over the world will come to the aid of Vatican in dealing with the, 'Pharisees', 'The hard liners', 'The fundamentalists' , which is how there heretics are already describing the Faithful.

As to those who still defend the indefensible, well it will become more and more clear that the Vatican is working hand in hand with Satan and also speak out.

I am full of hope. Jesus started His mission with people calling Him nuts and wanting to toss Him off a Cliff. We are in good company

 

This is what we are rapidly heading towards:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38863545

 

The "back door" has been open since Vatican II. Yes, it's more blatant now that satan's time is short. But do not worry! "I have overcome the world" said Jesus. So I wait and watch... and pray!

 

Yes, I keep thinking or Padre Pio's words, 'Pray , hope and don't worry'.

I believe this is all part of a Great Purification planned by God and the heretics will wind up kicked out on their asses. It may take a while but it will happen. But it is like a boil you have to let it grow to be big before it bursts. This is one huge pus filled bag of a boil.

 

The Anti-Mercy
THE hour of the “great battle” which Our Lady and popes alike have been warning about for many generations—a coming Great Storm that was on the horizon and steadily approaching—is now here. It is a battle over truth. For if the truth sets us free, then falsehood enslaves—which is the “end game” of that “beast” in Revelation. But why is it now “here”?

https://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-anti-mercy/

 

"...anti-mercy says, “If you are ‘at peace with God’ about your conduct, then even your mortal sins are rendered venial.” But this is a deception. Anti-mercy absolves the sinner without confession while authentic mercy says all sin can be forgiven, but only when we acknowledge them through confession."

https://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-authentic-mercy/

 

I wonder if those who have a hard time acknowledging that there is a huge problem have been blessed with good parish priests and bishops and are ignorant of the problems that have been brewing for decades. When you grow up with bishops who insist that everyone remain standing after communion until everyone receives so that we all look uniform (anyone see The Lego Movie? This is reminding me of the Man Upstairs ) it's apparent that there is no true piety or love for Jesus. No one who has a true understanding of the Eucharist and is in love with the Lord would say such a thing. There are problems because true love of Jesus and piety is largely dead among the prelates.

 

I think most could concur with what Mark has written here. The key seems to be in clearly recognizing where and from whom the anti-Mercy message is coming from. I have no doubt at this point that it is coming from the very top down within the Vatican and trickling down through many diocesan bishops and priests. The laity then are challenged to listening to their local clergy or following the unchanging truths if the faith, which very few know today, after 50 years of lukewarm clergy and religious having educated them. This is where we are at.

 

Indeed - there are likely few (compared to the entire amount of so called Catholics) who have an 'informed' conscience. They will believe whatever they hear and likely jump at the chance to take the easy way out, not knowing the gravity of the situation.

 

Rationalism, and the Death of Mystery
Posted on May 26, 2017 by Mark





WHEN one approaches a haze in the distance, it may seem as though you’re going to enter a thick fog. But when you “get there,” and then look behind you, suddenly you realize you’ve been in it all along. The haze is everywhere.

So it is with the spirit of rationalism—a mindset in our times that hangs like a pervasive haze. Rationalism holds that reason and knowledge alone should guide our actions and opinions, as opposed to the intangible or emotion, and especially, religious beliefs. Rationalism is a product of the so-called Enlightenment period, when the “father of lies” began to sow one “ism” after another over the span of four centuries—deism, scientism, Darwinism, Marxism, communism, radical feminism, relativism, etc.—leading us to this hour, where atheism and individualism have all but supplanted God in the secular realm.

But even in the Church, rationalism’s toxic roots have taken hold. The past five decades, in particular, have seen this mindset tear away at the hem of mystery, bringing all things miraculous, supernatural, and transcendent under a dubious light. The poisonous fruit of this deceptive tree infected many pastors,

theologians, and eventually lay people, to the extent that the Liturgy itself was drained of signs and symbols that pointed to the Beyond. In some places, church walls were literally white-washed, statues smashed, candles snuffed, incense doused, and icons, crosses, and relics closeted.

Worse, far worse, has been the neutering of childlike faith in vast portions of the Church such that, often today, anyone who displays any kind of real zeal or passion for Christ in their parishes, that stands out from the status quo, is often cast as suspect (if not cast out into the darkness). In some places, our parishes have gone from the Acts of the Apostles to the Inaction of the Apostates—we are limp, lukewarm, and devoid of mystery… a childlike faith.

O God, save us from ourselves! Deliver us from the spirit of rationalism!



SEMINARIES… OR LABORATORIES?

Priests have recounted to me how more than one seminarian has had his faith shipwrecked in the seminary, where more often than not, the Scriptures were dissected like a lab rat, draining the lifeblood of the Living Word as if it were a mere textbook. The spirituality of the saints was dismissed as emotional meandering; Christ’s miracles as tales; devotion to Mary as superstition; and the charisms of the Holy Spirit as fundamentalism.

Thus, today, there are some bishops who frown on anyone in ministry without a Masters of Divinity; priests who balk at anything mystical; and laypeople who scoff at the evangelical. We have become, especially in the West, like that band of disciples who rebuked the little children when they tried to touch Jesus. But the Lord had something to say about that:

Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it. (Luke 18:16-17)

Today, the mysteries of the Kingdom are being revealed, not so much to scholars burrowed in intellectual pride, but to the little ones who do theology on their knees. I see and hear God speaking in tradesmen, housewives, young adults, and quiet priests and nuns with a Bible in one hand and rosary beads in the other.

So immersed are we in the fog of rationalism, that we can no longer see the horizon of reality in this generation. We seem incapable of receiving God’s supernatural gifts, such as those souls who receive the stigmata, or visions, locutions, or apparitions. We perceive them, not as possible signs and communications from Heaven, but as inconvenient interruptions to our tidy pastoral programs. And it seems that we regard the charisms of the Holy Spirit, less as a means to build the Church, and more so as manifestations of mental instability.

O God, save us from ourselves! Deliver us from the spirit of rationalism!

A few examples come to mind…

This article nails it. Read on....... https://www.markmallett.com/blog/2017/05/26/rationalism-and-the-death-of-mystery/

 

Well said, Fatima.

Safe in the Barque of Peter!