Robert Mickens on Vatican Implosion

A friend sent me this link to a video of the Tablet's Vatican Correspondent, Robert Mickens address to the City Club in Cleveland on “The Vatican Implosion.”:


This is very interesting. I also find it disturbing. The Tablet is described as a "revered publication"...Surely this should be "reviled"? I know an increasing number of priests who refuse to have this pamphlet of dissent and confusion in their churches. I have heard that they keep their numbers up by sending free copies to churches to 'sell', when then rot at the back until thrown out. This serves the purpose of keeping their circulation figures up and helping procure advertising revenues.

The Tablet has become increasingly hysterical over the last few years as the tide continues to move very firmly against their brand of anti-catholic "believe whatever you like" theology and back towards orthodoxy.
 Mickens thesis in this talk is as follows:

"I’ve chosen to speak to you today about what I’ve begun to call for several years now “The Vatican Implosion.” Now, what do I mean by implosion? Well, I define it as the collapse of an entire system, a structure, an ethos, a culture if you will, of global church governance. It’s the crumbling of what’s as close to an absolute monarchy as anything that ever existed in the world, certainly in the western world. In fact, the Catholic hierarchy, and certainly its centre in Rome, could arguably be called the last absolute monarchy in the west today. It is imploding, I think, for a variety of reasons…"

I had to watch more. This seems to be in direct contradiction to everything I witness and see around me. Far from 'imploding', the Catholic Church seems to be practically alone (standing with its orthodox sibling) in retaining authenticity and holding fast to the faith handed to us from the Apostles. Having suffered greatly in the wake of the Second Vatican Council from those who considered modernising the Church meant throwing the baby out with the bathwater, the bath, the bathroom, and any means of delivering water to the bath's location at all, the Church is now full of a new-found confidence. Indeed, it is being led by a new generation of young, orthodox believers who are utterly commited to the Gospel message and devoted to the Holy Father.

Orthodox orders have increasing vocations, where in contrast, we observe the fruits of lax catechetal activity as a slow death. And how could it be different? What young man or women would give their life to serve relativism? How do you preach about something that doesn't really matter?

I didn't watch all of the video, but here's a few highlights.
"this structure wasn't designed by Jesus Christ...it wasn't designed by St. Paul"
This sort of logic surely states that God failed in his mission? If we take for granted that Mickens believes in God and the Incarnation, he is stating that the organisation God left us, an historical reality, to be the means of the transmission of the Good News of Salvation, more successful than any other body in the world in carrying out that mission, is false, a mistake, He never meant that it should turn out this way?
"they're all Italians", "there is no word for accountability in Italian", 
What does this mean? He says it with a wry smile to his American audience which I find rather disconcerting to be honest. Is he saying it would clearly be better if it were run by Americans. What has nationality got to do with ability?
"Vatican II sought to make peace with modernity, with the Enlightenment" 
Did it? I thought it was about the integration of modern human experience with Christological principles and a return to foundational values: i.e. Scripture and early Church Fathers, as a source of renewal? There was huge change at the time driven by social, economical and political change, and these issues are addressed. This is the sort of false idea that has driven many of the mistakes we have witnessed since the Council. Lots of people talk about the Spirit of Vatican II. Ask them where it says you must receive communion in the hand in the council documents and they are lost...Because it isn't in the documents. Micken's talks about a move towards collegiality for example, but if he read the documents (LG 18 for example) he would discover (probably to his horror) that what the council actually taught was that the Pope is infallible, that we should give religious assent of mind and will to his teaching even when he is not infallible, that Latin should be retained as the language of the Church, that “both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence”, that Catholics “may not undertake methods of birth control which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding of the divine law”. In short, what it has always taught!
"The only thing the council pounded down was the liturgy" 
It didn't, again, what it actually taught might surprise Mickens but the liturgy was certainly 'pounded on' afterwards, and this caused huge hurt and division. Even my little mum, who says she couldn't go back to the old Mass now, says she felt utterly betrayed when the Mass changed. She said she, and those she worshipped with in the West of Ireland, felt like all the rules had changed and that everything they had been told was true was now false. How extraordinarily insensitive and painful that must have been, I can't imagine! The Latin Mass Society has continually rallied for the retention and proliferation of the ancient rite of the Mass and in a historical context, this shows that devotion to the Usus antiquior has never diminished. And rightly so! Why would we discard such a treasure of our tradition? It is something to be valued and cherished.
"I have been predicting for several years..."
"I predicted before JPII died that there would be an implosion when this man died"
...Got that wrong then Robert! Despite his obvious mistake, like any conspiracy theorist, he simply goes on to expand his timeline and state it will happen within a longer time-frame than he initially thought.

I gave up there, about 30 minutes in.






Comments

  1. I watched a fair chunk of this, but ended up staring at some drying paint to relieve the monotony....

    ReplyDelete

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