A Question of Authority: Catholic Unscripted Episode 30

I have been looking forward to getting together with Gavin and Katherine to discuss some of the extraordinary developments in the Catholic world over the last couple of weeks and we managed to find some time on Saturday. We talked about Fr. Altman's claims that Pope Francis is not the Pope, the Vatican launching a very public attack on Bishop Joseph Strickland and Cardinal Müller, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI, who gave an interview to Spanish news website InfoVaticana last week - I posted an English translation here - in which he states (among other things):

Q-What would happen if, for example, the Synod Assembly approved the blessing of homosexual couples, the change in sexual morality, the elimination of the obligation of priestly celibacy or allowing the female diaconate? Would you accept it?

A-Priestly celibacy must be eliminated from this list, since the connection of the sacrament of Holy Orders with the charisma of voluntary renunciation of marriage is not dogmatically necessary, although this ancient tradition of the Latin Church cannot be arbitrarily abolished on a whim. stroke of a pen, as the Council Fathers expressly emphasized at the Vatican Council (Presbyterorum Ordines 16). And the loud agitators are rarely concerned with the salvation concerns of priestless communities, but rather with attacking this evangelical advice, which they consider anachronistic or even inhumane in a sexually enlightened age. Blessing the immoral behavior of people of the same or opposite sex is a direct contradiction to the word and will of God, a gravely sinful blasphemy.

Only a baptized person whose vocation has been verified by the Church as to its authenticity can receive the right. Such demands with a majority vote would be obsolete a priori. Nor could they be implemented in canon law by the entire college of bishops with the Pope or by the Pope alone because they contradict the revelation and clear confession of the Church.

The formal authority of the Pope cannot be separated from the substantive connection with Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition and the dogmatic decisions of the Magisterium that preceded him. Otherwise, as Luther misunderstood the papacy, he would put himself in the place of God, who is the sole author of his revealed truth, instead of simply testifying faithfully, on the authority of Christ, to the revealed faith in an unabridged manner. and unadulterated. and presenting it authentically to the church.

In such an extreme situation, from which God can save us, every ecclesiastical official would have lost his authority and no Catholic is anymore obliged to religiously obey a heretical or schismatic bishop (Lumen Gentium 25; cf. response of the bishops to the misinterpretation of Bismarck). of the First Vatican, 1875).

This comment, for me, really highlights how serious things are in the Catholic Church and how far Pope Francis has wandered from the settled teaching of the Church. I am listening to The Catechism in a Year podcast with Father Mike Schmitz every day and I daily find incongruity between the words and actions of the Pope and the faith as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism expresses the faith I hold and have taught for many years. Pope Francis increasingly does not. Yes, his words are ambiguous, but evidence mounts. His appointments of compromised individuals to important offices in the Church, his bizarre rhetoric in Mongolia, and the litany of errors being "discussed" at the Synod in October. Taken all together, it is increasingly difficult to excuse Pope Francis.

Pope Francis may not succeed in his bid to radically altar the Catholic Church and bring it in line with modern secular culture, but he is losing souls and damaging the authority of the Church and the papacy. I have no doubt this is in God's hands, but I do believe we have to be careful not to be complicit with dangerous errors being taught.

Take, for example, the number of Catholic laity who receive the Blessed Sacrament every Sunday in a state of unrepentant mortal sin. This should be a huge priority for the Church, where is the concern of pastors for these souls? Instead, we allow people to continue in ignorance of what they are doing. What can one conclude? Do we not believe it or do we just not take it seriously? This lack of integrity is what is killing the Church, young people especially recognise this a mile off.

Ramping up the rhetoric are people like the Pope's fellow Jesuit, Fr. Thomas Reese, who tweeted at the weekend that the Synod could approve women priests:

This is bizarre. It would mean a Synod changing the definitive ruling of a pope. That is just not Catholic and utterly undermines the authority of the office. Sloppy thinking, off the wall statements, poor theology - these are the hallmarks of the Franciscan Pontificate best exemplified in the disparity in his approach to the German bishops who are in dissent and the US bishops, who are not!