Reality check on Catholic renewal

Lots of news reports on how the Catholic church is organizing synods to push reform.

They have everything under control... or do they?

As Paul Harvey used to say: And here is the rest of the story.

The big shots forgot about a quiet African Cardinal who is out there  reminding them that the church is not about politics, but about holiness. 

You see, Cardinal Sarah released a new book late last year about the priesthood; Instead of parroting the PC line, he pointed out the real need was to renew the priests in holiness.

In a new book, Cardinal Robert Sarah calls priests to spiritual renewal, saying that it will not come through structural changes, but through rediscovering the priest’s mission and identity as the presence of Christ in the world.

“Christ never created structures. Of course, I’m not saying they aren’t necessary. Organization is useful in society, but it is not first,” Sarah said...

“What is first is the very first word of Christ in the Gospel of Mark: ‘Convert and believe in the Gospel.’”

The Vatican’s former liturgy chief published “Pour l’éternité: Méditations sur la figure du prêtre” (“For Eternity: Meditations on the Figure of the Priest”) in Europe on Nov. 17. 

The book, currently available only in French, includes passages from saints and the Church Fathers to encourage meditation on the renewal of the priesthood, which, according to the cardinal, is a necessary step on the way to resolving the crisis in the Catholic Church.

 

Cardinal Robert Sarah celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Basilica Sept. 28, 2019. (photo: Evandro Inetti/CNA / EWTN

I did read his last book on the priesthood, written with Benedict,(summary here) which is still only available in Italian but I pasted it page by page into google translate and managed to read it. 

It has a similar argument, and stresses the reasons behind church's traditions for celibacy and the need for prayer and holiness.

 and by releasing it at a time when the PC were ready to change the longstanding traditions of the church by using the "Amazon" synod as an excuse to change the rules that allow married priests (and eventually women priests).

Cardinal Sarah's book, coauthored by Pope Benedict, threw a monkey wrench into their plans. Duh.

Similarly, his new book is being released at a time when "synods" are again pushing the agenda of the woke in the church (i.e. married priests, allowing contraception, women priests, the agenda of gay activists, etc).

Synods are of course nonsense: They claim to want to talk to everyone, but are actually Astroturfing. 

as Wikipedia explains:

Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial connection...

it's easy to do. Activists are pushy, and have the time and energy to take over the leadership of many organizations, because ordinary folk have a life to lead. And if you oppose them, they quietly harass you often in a passive aggressive way, until you leave.

This is how activists destroyed a lot of orders of Catholic nuns, and now the same type is working with the pope to remake the catholic church in  his image, or in the image of the NWO...

This is the reason Catholics in diocese that are run by activist bishops, and why Christians of other liberal churches, have been fleeing these PC political churches for the past 50 years (not just in the USA but also here in the Phlippines and in South America, where Evangelicals have had a massive influx of believers).

So the synods are supposed to show grass roots support of the agenda, so how dare you oppose them?. Will these meetings get pushback? 

Maybe, if the Bishops start getting a backbone.

An example of this is the Australian bishops, who blocked the PC agenda in a meeting to the laments of the women and gay activists.

The article is biased of course; most of the quotes was by the activists. 

well, duh.

But why do all those attending this synod meeting seem to be of the left/woke church? Gay activists and women activists seem to be there en masse.

But what about the rest of us?

So do these synods ask the opinion of Catholics who joined Evangelical churches because of lack of holiness in their churches (something we see here in the Philippines and in South America where I also have family members)? 

Did they ask representatives of the Trad Catholics who are making an issue of the Latin mass for their opinions?

Heck, are they even inviting the quiet little old ladies in the pew like myself.? 

I'd love a nice vacation at a ritzy hotel to attend such a meeting...and unlike most little old ladies, I have credentials, if you count working with the "marginalized" and risking getting my ass shot off as a credential. But probably not: I am a secular doc. I didn't work for the church, nor work in the  bureaucracy, nor am I a member of any activist church groups. 

but you know, the real Christians who matter are not members of these groups, because they serve God in the lowly tasks of their daily lives, and are too busy to to to such meetings.

 Unlike the showy SJW activists with their self righteous posturing ordinary folks get their hands dirty. They teach in an inner city schools. The work at hospitals. They care for their family and accept their children even if the child is imperfect. Some actually adopt hard to place children, act as foster parents, or support a pregnant teenager in their family so she can have her baby instead of discarding it.

But  ordinary Catholic, who serves God in the duties of their daily lives, is not there: only activists. 

Sigh.

Will the Catholic bishops in the US oppose this synod farce? Given how Pope Francis just gave them the middle finger with letting Nancy Pelosi receive communion after he bishop warned her not to do this, one suspects there might be fights in the USA.

What about the Philippines? I have no idea: the bishops here are big into the green agenda and the bishops conference press releases tend to echo the twittersphere elite opinion, which echoes the agenda of the US left and sees social activism and working with the church as the way to serve God. Which is why the evangelical churches are growing, because they stress how to serve God in our daily lives.

On the other hand, here in the Philippines, we do have a lot of lay catholic groups, including many who are not run by the elite but are composed of ordianary Filipinos, including those who were OFW in areas with few priests, or working class charismatics. Both might oppose the PC agenda if they are allowed to be part of the synod.

If you want a summary by a lay reporter in a secular newspaper on what is going on,  read SandroMagister, an Italian reporter, who has two articles on this: one about the so called synods and the agenda behind them, and his most recent one on Cardinal Sarah and the catholics trying to stop the secular activists from taking over the church.

The good Cardinal doesn't just critique the PC arguments of reform, he quotes church fathers and points out previous times when the church was facing major attacks from secular authorities to obey Caesar, not God.

For example, Sarah's book discusses the reform of the church in the 11th and 12th century (when secular authorities tried to take over the church, appointing bishops and essentially telling the bishops what they should do... in contrast, Gregory and later reformers insisted church and state were separate and God's law outranks the law of mere men.)

hmm. that part sounds like how Henry VIII took over the church to change the law on divorce, but also is a big warning about a modern policy of Francis, who following the advice of McCarrick, has essentially let communist China take over the church there.

Sigh. But that is another topic for another time.

-------------------update:

Blame Mother Angelica who stopped the PC bishops from taking over her network, and the layfolk who run the network