...as of October 28, 2019, it is impossible for anyone in a position of ecclesiastical responsibility to deny what is at stake, save for reasons of inattention, indifference, or fear.
And what, precisely, is at stake, after this synod and its predecessors during the current pontificate?...
...At stake is the very nature of the Church: Is the Catholic Church a communion of disciples in mission, sacramentally constituted and hierarchically ordered, or is the Church to understand itself primarily by analogy to the world, as a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to good works in aid of the poor, the environment, migrants, etc.?Read the whole thing.
Headsup GetReligion
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Destroying the sacred/sacramental/spiritual nature of the church is opposing God, and l am not an expert on this, except to say if there is another dimension where spirituality rules, then this synod means the bad guys (i.e. the ones seeking their own will, not serving the will of the deity) win.
But I'm a doctor, not an expert at spirituality, and from a purely pragmatic viewpoint, the takeover of a huge institution like the church would have ramifications in the geopolitical sphere, especially here in the third world. Because if we learn anything from the 20th century, it is that when you destroy the religious impulse (that encourages people to see the numinous and to fill the God sized hole in their heart), it leaves a vacuum to be filled with the man made political utopias: utopias that have led to the deaths of 100 million people in the 20th century and many more in the wars spawned by those utopian regimes.
But even hijacking the church to become a man made NGO has risks: among them by making the agenda of the world's elites a priority.
I'll give one example that I am familiar with.
The Amazon synod said a lot about the "green" agenda, and implied that letting people remain poor and ignorant was a good thing. What's wrong with this picture?
But it gets worse. The "green" agenda pushed by the Catholics here in the Philippines mean the government encourages organic rice (good for us, since we've been in that business for 20 years, before the gov't started the push).
But it also means by default they discourage the use of Genetically modified rice, which would cut the use of chemical pesticides, lowers the cost of growing rice, and give farmers a higher yield while keeping the price of rice low for slum dwellers.
And maybe, just maybe, we could become self sufficient in food and be able to stop importing cheap rice from other countries.
the "Studies" about the "dangers" of GM food are exaggerated: monoculture is a problem, but there is no reason that you can't encourage both organic/traditional strains being grown by some farmers, and the more prolific monoculture. Indeed, when you have a capitalistic economy (as opposed to central planning) this is exactly what will happen.
so what's wrong with that (aside from making profit making Big Agri and the farmers rich)?
The back story: The crooked politicians/businessmen make a bundle importing rice (legally and illegal smuggling, both associated with bribery), and diverting funds that are supposed to go to help small farmers directly or indirectly by divering funds meant to build up the infrastructure to modernize rice growing.
and their kids can feel self righteous by opposing the evil GM food (while ignoring the street malnourished street kids who eat garbage).
And of course it means we import chemically grown probably GM rice from VietNam and China, who make the profit too. So it's not exactly "protecting" ordinary folks from eating this rice.
In other words, the church is involved in pushing a "green" religion that has little or nothing to do with it's goal of forming people to live a holy life, and might even be harming the poor that they claim they are trying to help.
Indeed, it is diverting energy from the very real problems we have here: Corruption that keeps people poor, encouraging people to work overseas because there are no local jobs due to corruption (and when parents work overseas, the children suffer), and opposing a well funded western sexual agenda that encourages promiscuity, resulting in family breakdown, children without fathers, street kids who are easily exploited by perverts, abortion and HIV.
Sigh.
The sexual agenda is especially pernicious in poor countries where the extended family, not the state, is the main source of support for the poor.
The "divorce is okay" as was pushed and snuck in during a previous "synod" sounds nice, but what about the kids? What about the wife left to support the children without her husband's help?
But after this stealth attack on marriage in the previous synod, a lot of people suspect more of the same "sexual liberation" is part of the Amazon agenda, but this time being pushed under the guise of "married priests". (and later, openly gay priests and women deacons who will quickly morph into women priests).
Probably allowing older married men to be priests in the Philippines would mean our deacons would become priests, so no problem behind that. (our priests, like those in the USA, are mostly pious and keep their vows, but some don't, and there is a long tradition of having girlfriends that taints the priesthood).
But why is there a shortage of priests? Part of it is the high level of education required (a reform that goes back to the middle ages).
So is it a good idea to have semi educated priests? That's not even in the discussion here.
nor is there a discussion about the reason for this tradition: as Paul says, an unmarried person is free to serve God full time and time spent in prayer.
Weigel notes:
Celibacy only makes sense as an expression of the Church’s eschatological self-awareness: the Church’s confidence in the Lord’s proclamation that the Kingdom of God is now among us (Mark 1:15), and the Church’s faith in the capacity of the baptized to live the most radical form of Kingdom-life here and now, with the aid of divine grace. To abandon celibacy as normative for the ordained ministry would thus be another step toward turning the Church into a global NGO.
Ironically, in the west, the priest shortage is somewhat artificial. Ignoring homosexuality in the seminaries caused many good men to leave .
There has been a turn around here in the last 15 years: the seminaries in the USA have been cleaning up their filth...meaning many of the younger priests are more traditional, and that this revival of faith at a time when the "nones" are often fallen away Catholics, is spreading.
and the "reformers" are not pleased.
if you read Weigel, the source of the "reform" money is a German church without Christians, and many international organizations. Read the whole thing and shudder.
I'd say sarcastically "place conspiracy theory here", (Maureen Mallarkey's essay is especially sarcastic about the agenda)...but Weigel is a scholar and no conspiracy theorist, and his warnings suggest that maybe something is going on that is being ignored by the MSM in the USA: and it bodes badly for ordinary Catholics.
Yes, I have spent my life in the "active" life, as a do gooder. But the dirty little secret is that prayer and faith is the power that keeps us working and not burning out or getting diverted while we work out the duties of our daily lives.
Sigh.
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