THE WANDERER
Novusordoísmo
INFOCATÓLICA
Mons. Aguer: Teníamos una Ley de «Educación Sexual Integral» mala y «ahora han inventado una peor. Es totalitaria y destila odio»
Selección por José Martí
martes, 16 de octubre de 2018
Noticias varias 16 de octubre de 2018 (Liturgia, Argentina, Novus Ordo)
THE WANDERER
Novusordoísmo
INFOCATÓLICA
Mons. Aguer: Teníamos una Ley de «Educación Sexual Integral» mala y «ahora han inventado una peor. Es totalitaria y destila odio»
Como todos los totalitarismos del siglo XX, el Vaticano II seguirá causando grandes estragos
El Concilio Vaticano II fue inaugurado en Roma hace exactamente 56 años, el 11 de octubre de 1962. Juan XXIII había escogido este día, la festividad de la maternidad divina de la Santísima Virgen, un recuerdo del Concilio de Éfeso, como el día de su inicio. Ironía de las ironías: el torbellino generado por el Concilio que casi extinguiría la liturgia tradicional de la iglesia romana incluía la abolición de la festividad de este día y la transformación del octavo día de Navidad en una solemnidad similar.
Hay varias maneras de entender el Vaticano II, pero una quizás se ha pasado por alto. Se dice a menudo que el Concilio fue una “reacción ” de obispos europeos transformados, “horrorizados” por la segunda guerra mundial. Y sin embargo… esos fueron los hombres del siglo XX, marcados por los grandes movimientos del siglo XX, los cuales –comunismo y fascismo/nacional-socialismo– se caracterizaron por un odio hacia el pasado y la tradición, y un amor por el nuevo hombre, la nueva sociedad, el nuevo mundo. Todas las cosas, todas las tradiciones, todas las familias, todas las instituciones, y todas las personas que eran obstáculos para la construcción del nuevo estado socialista, la nueva gente, el nuevo Pueblo debían ser abolidas para siempre.
La iglesia se había mantenido como una fortaleza contra ambas amenazas, pero, dentro de la iglesia, a pesar de los mejores esfuerzos de San Pío X, la levadura del modernismo nunca había sido limpiada. No es de extrañar que el imprudente llamamiento de Juan XXIII para el Concilio despertó a todos los hombres que estaban imbuidos del espíritu de la época, y este espíritu era el mismo de los totalitarismos: el odio a la tradición, el impulso de purgar el pasado, la necesidad de construir una nueva iglesia, en realidad un nuevo “pueblo de Dios”: Das Volk Gottes.
Los católicos tradicionales y conservadores hemos pensado a menudo que el fin de la pesadilla que comenzó ese 11 de octubre, 56 años atrás, estaba a punto de llegar. Trataron de acabar con todo, incluso el legado más preciado de nuestros padres en la fe, la Misa tradicional en latin. Y casi lo logran, si no hubiera sido por un remanente fiel. Una y otra vez, las esperanzas de los fieles católicos se han desvanecido.
Y sólo ha empeorado: Francisco es prácticamente una caricatura de un liberal del Vaticano II. Al igual que todos los regímenes totalitarios, la “Iglesia conciliar” crea un vórtice destructivo, en el que todo el pueblo tiene que ser completamente aniquilado con el líder: en nuestro caso, el líder es una idea abstracta, el “espíritu del Vaticano II”.
Sin embargo, nuestra esperanza sigue siendo que esto también pasará: así como los pueblos no fueron destruidos después de que sus líderes totalitarios murieran, nuestra iglesia, más grande que cualquier pueblo nacional, seguirá en pie, con la Cruz de su novio, Salvador de la humanidad:
Dignus est Agnus, qui occisus est, accipere virtutem, et divinitatem, et sapientiam, et fortitudinem, et honorem, et gloriam, et benedictionem. Et omnem creaturam, quæ in cælo est, et super terram, et sub terra, et quæ sunt in mari, et quæ in eo : omnes audivi dicentes : Sedenti in throno, et Agno, benedictio et honor, et gloria, et potestas in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
(Traducción: Rocío Salas. Artículo original)
¿Por qué no se puede confiar en los medios católicos oficiales? ... Los pagan los obispos (Michael Voris)
Duración 8:30 minutos
TRANSCRIPT
You've heard us say it a thousand times, official Catholic media cannot be trusted. And by official, we mean not independent — kind of just like official Catholic schools cannot necessarily be trusted to transmit the Faith to your children in spite of your financial sacrifices.
The media hacks are simply tied too closely to the Establishment they are reporting on and mustpaint officialdom in the best light possible. Case in point, last week, Catholic News Agency (CNA) published an analysis by JD Flynn about the current mess in the Church.
JD Flynn is a canonist, not a journalist, and has not a shred of actual paid professional secular reporting experience pounding the beat and investigating stories. Yet he is the head of CNA, a company man through and through.
And for the record, I've had a discussion about all this with JD in person a number of years ago in Denver. Since it was a private discussion, I will respect that and keep the details private.
But I will say, it was he who left that meeting wondering about the question of integrity.
In his recent post, he presents the notion that the whole "summer of Hell" is being used by orthodox Catholics who don't like Francis as a way to get at him because they don’t like his theology.
Well even if that is true — as if the raping of seminarians by formators and the covering up of it by bishops and payments of billions and the infestation of active homosexuals into the priesthood shouldn’t really register — even if all that is true, man, those vitriolic Catholic crazies running those alternative independent Catholic media websites like Church Militant, no one should really pay attention to them.
Sure, JD, no one should pay attention to us and others who unearth all these scandals that, like the one in Lincoln, Nebraska's seminary where you gave poor canonical counsel to Bp. Conley — yep.
Pay no attention to any of them — what do they know? For the record, we know a lot. And what's more, you know we know.
For example, if you read down into the wordy excuse-making article, which seems very calm and reasoned until you realize what is not being told you or reported — way down into it — is the poor recounting of the Fr. Kalchik case involving Cdl. Cupich.
The implication by Flynn is that the reports — which are exclusively Church Militant's — are flawed and the facts are in dispute, and the reason given is nothing more than, the Chicago archdiocese says so.
Without speaking to any single principle involved in the case, like Church Militant did, extensively — eyewitness, Fr. Kalchik himself, parishioners, staff and so forth — Flynn spoke to not one of them — yet he declares the facts are in dispute.
No, they aren't; that's just flat-out wrong.
If a proven murderer says he didn't do it but multiple people watched him, there's clear video, the DNA evidence is present and so forth, the facts aren't in dispute because the killer says so — that's stupid.
The facts are the facts. You would correctly conclude the killer is lying — just so with Cupich and the enforcement gang in the Chicago chancery.
But the main point here is this: Neither Flynn nor his employees at CNA did any checking with the relevant people involved — the main parties. And yet, they present something to you as credible based solely on the word of the chancery that has a dog in this fight.
That’s disingenuous and undermines their credibility. They work for the Establishment and will protect the Establishment at all costs, even if they have to, here or there, drop in an unpleasant fact, but only then because it's already widely known, and be sure they will do their best to make it as easy to swallow as possible.
Why doesn't CNA do any breaking stories, hard-hitting investigative stories on the gay seminarian hothouse for South Americans that Cupich had to close down it got so bad? It's called Casa Jesus and it was set up back in the 1980s by homosexualist Cdl. Joseph Bernardin.
Merely mentioning or chronicling these things isn't news. Where are the men who went through that gay bar disguised as a seminary? Are any of them priests now?
Why isn't that worth pursuing as a story? Certainly, with all your inside connections and friends, you've surely heard about it, JD. You're the consummate insider, the keeper of secrets and presenter of information in such a way as to put cover girl makeup on the ecclesiastical pig.
Won't Cupich let you go down that road of looking closely at Casa Jesus or the rampant homosexuality in the Chicago archdiocese, whose word you cast as the final and only believable word?
What's so maddening about all this is the absolute lack of integrity — as men — these Catholic Pravda types have.
They act as though the stories of life destruction that have occurred are maybe all sad and all that, but, golly gee, we can't talk about all this for too long because it will undermine the bishops and their legitimate offices.
No, JD, that's not the problem. The problem is the men in the office. They are undermining the offices just fine all by themselves thank you very much, and you and your kind are complicit in all this.
Most of you wouldn't know an authentic news story or how to go about chasing it down and reporting on it fairly if your professional Catholic lives depended on it.
Just come out and say it like it is, you are press release writers and readers and you work for the bishops in a kind of crisis management atmosphere disguised to look like news because here and there you actually touch on news — but nothing more.
At the end of the article, as part of the website boilerplate, there appears this laughable announcement: "In today's media world, the truth often gets compromised and is presented from someone's uninformed opinion, rather than facts. EWTN's Catholic News Agency is a remedy for this situation."
Well, ain't that that a real knee-slapper? Catholic Pravda accusing others of being uninformed and expressing opinion. The same crew who was completely uninformed in the recounting of the case they chose to recount, and at the end of the day having nothing but opinion to deceptively present as fact.
If you want to know the weather in Rome, or what the Pope's travel schedule is, or what bishop just got made cardinal, then Catholic Pravda's probably reliable. But if you want to know what's actuallygoing on behind the story, because every professional reporter knows that there's another story behind the story, then don't waste your time.
The story behind the story is what they're paid to make sure you don't find out.
The Catholic Church in America is on the brink of extinction, the bishops have lost all credibility, the Pope is involved in covering up and advancing homopredator cardinals, whistle-blower clergy are driven into hiding, laity are forced to take training as though they were the ones raping altar boys, former seminarians are pouring out of the woodwork telling of the evil they endured, homosexual clerics are allowed free reign in parish after parish, a gay South American pipeline is discovered — and in the face of all this, CNA says the independent Catholic media are making things up, not to be believed.
Yep, nothing to see here folks.
For the thousandth and first time, the official Catholic media cannot be trusted.
Michael Voris
Cadoré, superior de los dominicos: “El futuro de la Iglesia es la apertura al cambio” (Carlos Esteban)
El sínodo tiene cada día más pinta de ser un vacío ejercicio de Relaciones Públicas con un mensaje que relance la ‘primavera eclesial’ profetizada en el último concilio, con su adaptación al Mundo y sus consecuencias estadísticamente desastrosas. Mucho ruido pero, nos tememos -o esperamos-, pocas nueces.
Ayer fue el turno de palabra -digámoslo así- de los religiosos, e intervinieron Cadoré por los dominicos, Arturo Sosa por los jesuitas y Marco Tasca por los franciscanos, además de la auditora laica chilena Silvia Teresa Retamales.
“La gente cambia cuando se siente acogida, cuando encuentra apertura, así que tenemos que cambiar porque todo está cambiando, la cultura cambia, las tensiones históricas”, dijo Cadoré, el superior de unos dominicos que, no hay más que oírle, han cambiado lo suyo desde Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
“Y ésta es, creo, la marca de la Iglesia”, remachó Cadoré. “El futuro de la Iglesia es la apertura hacia el cambio, no sólo estar abierto ante algo nuevo por sí mismo, sino con el fin de provocar cambio, y esto es lo que veo que está sucediendo, ésta es mi esperanza”.
Y nuestros temores, porque si la ‘roca’ se convierte en una cambiante magma, si la ‘marca’ de la Iglesia no es que sea una, santa, católica y apostólica, fundada por Cristo, cuyas palabras no pasarán ni cuando hayan pasado el cielo y la tierra, estamos ante una realidad que puede ser muy interesante, pero que no es católica.
Este cambio cambiante que, por lo visto, pretendía introducir el último concilio y que no acabó de producirse, fue también el eje de la intervención del jesuita SOSA, el hombre que nos recordó en su día que en tiempos de Jesús no había grabadoras y que, por tanto, no podemos estar seguros de que dijese lo que los Evangelios dicen que dijo.
“El Vaticano II introdujo un modelo eclesiológico que aún no se ha hecho realidad, un modelo de Iglesia propuesto por el Vaticano II con el pueblo de Dios en el centro”, dijo.
Cristo, desde luego, no parece estar en el centro del modelo de Sosa o Cadoré, a juzgar por su ausencia en las palabras de ambos superiores.
El modelo eclesiológico de Sosa es, ciertamente, distinto del tradicional.
El modelo eclesiológico de Sosa es, ciertamente, distinto del tradicional.
“No hay una jurisdicción para toda la Iglesia”, asegura. “Con mucha frecuencia olvidamos que el Papa no es el jefe de la Iglesia. Es el Obispo de Roma. Como Obispo de Roma tiene otro servicio para la Iglesia, que es tratar de lograr la comunión de toda la Iglesia de la mejor manera posible. Francisco siempre repite, si usted recuerda, que él es el Obispo de Roma –déjeme repetir eso– y él siente que los otros obispos son responsables de sus propias Iglesias con quienes pueden entrar en diálogo”.Más perlas de Sosa:
“La Iglesia debería mostrar el rostro multicultural del Dios que se reveló en Nazaret y promover una ciudadanía universal que reconozca la riqueza que aporta la diversidad cultural, construyendo por tanto un mundo multicultural”.Sus palabras son tan misteriosas que uno está tentado de pensar que se ha limitado a acumular aleatoriamente palabras de moda.
¿Qué puede significar, por ejemplo, que Jesús tenía un “rostro multicultural”?
Que el Hijo de Dios hecho hombre redimiera a las personas de todo tiempo, raza y condición no significa que Él mismo no fuera alguien concreto, de una raza específica, en un momento de la Historia y con una cultura particular.
En cuanto a promover “la ciudadanía universal” -una obsesión que todos los clérigos en ascenso parecen compartir con Soros-, no nos parece demasiado compatible con esa multiculturalidad que alaba. En cuanto a que la Iglesia reconozca la diversidad cultural, debe de tratarse de una broma: la Iglesia no sólo reconoce ya esa diversidad, sino que fue la primera en hacerlo, como puede comprobar quien compare la imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe con una madonna china.
En cuanto a SILVIA TERESA RETAMALES MORALES nos aleccionó de que
En cuanto a promover “la ciudadanía universal” -una obsesión que todos los clérigos en ascenso parecen compartir con Soros-, no nos parece demasiado compatible con esa multiculturalidad que alaba. En cuanto a que la Iglesia reconozca la diversidad cultural, debe de tratarse de una broma: la Iglesia no sólo reconoce ya esa diversidad, sino que fue la primera en hacerlo, como puede comprobar quien compare la imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe con una madonna china.
En cuanto a SILVIA TERESA RETAMALES MORALES nos aleccionó de que
muchos no católicos piden “una Iglesia más abierta”, concretamente, “una Iglesia multicultural abierta a todos, que no juzgue ni discrimine contra las minorías, o la gente con orientaciones sexuales diferentes, o los pobres”.Si la Iglesia ha discriminado alguna vez a los pobres, es la primera noticia que tengo.
En cuanto a lo demás, me sorprende que una institución, la que sea, deba reaprender su propia doctrina de quienes no la comparten. Y si la Iglesia “no juzga”, tenemos un serio problema.
Es imposible hablar de moral sin juzgar, sin determinar que esto es bueno y esto otro es malo. Todos lo hacemos todo el rato, también el Mundo y también los amantes de los aires renovadores, aunque lo malo sea el plástico en los océanos.
Es imposible hablar de moral sin juzgar, sin determinar que esto es bueno y esto otro es malo. Todos lo hacemos todo el rato, también el Mundo y también los amantes de los aires renovadores, aunque lo malo sea el plástico en los océanos.
Carlos Esteban
lunes, 15 de octubre de 2018
FSSPX: “nos negamos a aceptar el Concilio Vaticano Segundo”
En una entrevista publicada el 12 de octubre en el sitio web Fsspx.news, Pagliarani cuestiona la autoridad dogmática de un Concilio que intentó explícitamente ser solamente “pastoral”.
Pagliarani critica que el último Concilio transmite una forma de pensar sobre la Iglesia que es un “obstáculo para la santificación de las almas”.
Agrega que “sus trágicos resultados están bien a la vista de todos los hombres intelectualmente honestos”.
Al compararse con su predecesor, monseñor Bernard Fellay, Pagliarani dijo “que detesto sin excepción y en forma irreparable todos los medios de comunicación electrónicos y no pienso cambiar de opinión, mientras que monseñor Fellay es un experto en ese tema”.
The Society of Saint Pius X refuses to accept the Second Vatican Council as “just another council”, its new superior general, Father Davide Pagliarani, said.
In a Fsspx.news interview (October 12) Pagliarani questions the dogmatic authority of a Council that explicitly intended to be only "pastoral".
Pagliarani criticises that the last Council conveys a way of thinking about the Church which is an "obstacle to the sanctification of souls".
"Its tragic results are right before the eyes of all intellectually honest men", he adds.
Comparing himself to this predecessor, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Pagliarani said “that I irreparably detest all electronic media without exception and with no chance of changing my opinion, while Bishop Fellay is an expert on that subject.”
Al compararse con su predecesor, monseñor Bernard Fellay, Pagliarani dijo “que detesto sin excepción y en forma irreparable todos los medios de comunicación electrónicos y no pienso cambiar de opinión, mientras que monseñor Fellay es un experto en ese tema”.
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SSPX: “We Refuse to Accept Second Vatican Council”
The Society of Saint Pius X refuses to accept the Second Vatican Council as “just another council”, its new superior general, Father Davide Pagliarani, said.
In a Fsspx.news interview (October 12) Pagliarani questions the dogmatic authority of a Council that explicitly intended to be only "pastoral".
Pagliarani criticises that the last Council conveys a way of thinking about the Church which is an "obstacle to the sanctification of souls".
"Its tragic results are right before the eyes of all intellectually honest men", he adds.
Comparing himself to this predecessor, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Pagliarani said “that I irreparably detest all electronic media without exception and with no chance of changing my opinion, while Bishop Fellay is an expert on that subject.”
Noticias varias 12 al 15 de octubre de 2018 (masonería, secreto de confesión, sínodo, homosexualidad, virgen del Pilar, amigos De Francisco, Viganò, Pablo VI ¿santo?, Humanae Vitae, FSSPX, etc.)
IOTA UNUM
CORRESPONDENCIA ROMANA
Marchando Religion entrevista el profesor Sandri
GLORIA TV
Francisco estuvo contra la respuesta de Ouellet, prefería el «silencio"
Sínodo homosexual sobre la Juventud: "cambio" en aras de «cambiar"
Delegada juvenil: la Iglesia debería estar "abierta a todos" - ¿Es real esto?
INFOCATÓLICA
Virgen del Pilar, Patrona de la Hispanidad
Emotiva carta de una joven homosexual al P. James Martin, SJ: «Me estás lastimando»
La votación del Documento Final del Sínodo de los Obispos será párrafo a párrafo y necesitará 2/3 de votos
IN EXSPECTATIONE
Para un Álbum de Figuritas del Apocalipsis
Virgen del Pilar, Patrona de la Hispanidad
Emotiva carta de una joven homosexual al P. James Martin, SJ: «Me estás lastimando»
La votación del Documento Final del Sínodo de los Obispos será párrafo a párrafo y necesitará 2/3 de votos
IN EXSPECTATIONE
Para un Álbum de Figuritas del Apocalipsis
Las personas equivocadas de las que Francisco no se libera De interés
INFOVATICANA
“Convertíos y abandonad la corrupción”
Francisco: “Interrumpir el embarazo significa quitar la vida a uno, directamente”
ADELANTE LA FE (Lectura recomendada)
¿Religión revelada o “religión dialogada”? (Sí, sí; no, no)
Por qué no hay necesidad de llamar santo a Pablo VI (ni se debe hacerlo) (One Peter Five: Peter Kwasniewski)
CATHOLIC FAMILY NEWS
«Saint» Paul VI? More doubt and confusión
Synod 2018: Weekend Highlights. Viganó Developments
RORATE CAELI
REMINDER: The Case for Pacelli
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER (NCR)
Synod 2018: Weekend Highlights, Viganò DevelopYouth Synod’s Missing Element: Discussion of Humanae Vitae (Edward Pentin)
FSSPX NEWS
The SSPX Holds a Treasure in its Hands: Fr. Pagliarani Interview
"Saint" Paul VI? More Doubt and Confusion"Saint" Paul VI? More Doubt and Confusion
Selección por José Martí
El SILENCIO del VATICANO ante el Testimonio Viganò, según SPECOLA (11) Saltándose los procesos canónicos
15 de octubre
Las consecuencias del testimonio Viganò son tremendas.
Llama la atención el silencio y la desaparición de cardenales que antes del testimonio eran omnipresentes.
Hoy sabemos que el cardenal O’Malley , el que perdió la carta de McCarrick, ha extendido la investigación de abusos sexuales a todos los seminarios de Boston y no solo al diocesano.
Antes o después sabremos el porqué de esta grave decisión en una diócesis especialmente castigada por esta terrible lacra.
La decisión de reducción al estado laical de los dos obispos chilenos se ha hecho saltándose los procesos canónicos, sin posibilidad de defensa y con la inocencia civil de uno de los suspendidos. Al contar con firma directa del Papa Francisco es inapelable.
Specola
Pablo VI y la 'fábrica de santos' (Carlos Esteban)
Más críticas contra InfoVaticana, en esta ocasión por la traducción de un artículo aparecido originalmente en OnePeterFive y firmado por el teólogo Peter Kwasniewski cuestionando la canonización de Pablo VI, un artículo que, como advertimos en la introducción, no compartimos en su totalidad. La parresía, parece ser, va sólo en una dirección.
¿Compromete la Iglesia su infalibilidad al declarar santo o santa a determinada persona? Aunque no existe una declaración específica y tajante en la doctrina sobre este particular, la opinión mayoritaria de los doctores y teólogos se ha decantado tradicionalmente por el “sí”. La solemnidad de las propias palabras del ritual parecen, incluso, dejarlo claro.
Pero hay diversos puntos legítimamente cuestionables. El primero es si está ligada esa declaración en principio infalible al proceso que se ha seguido para determinar que la persona en cuestión ha vivido las virtudes en grado heroico y que su intercesión ha producido ese hecho inexplicable por la razón humana que llamamos milagro.
La veneración a los santos es muy anterior al rito de la canonización; de hecho, desde el principio de nuestra Iglesia. Moría alguien con fama de santidad y se formaba alrededor de su memoria un ‘cultus’, se pedía su intercesión, se le ponía como ejemplo, etcétera.
Precisamente para evitar obvios engaños y poder universalizar esa veneración local es por lo que se instituyó la Congregación para la Causa de los Santos y todo el exhaustivo proceso para comprobar la santidad del ‘aspirante’.
De lo minucioso de ese proceso da fe, por ejemplo, que santos en principio tan ‘evidentes’ como Santo Tomás Moro tardaran cuatrocientos años en ser canonizados.
Fue San Juan Pablo II quien ‘aligeró’ el proceso, creando lo que algunos han llamado ‘la fábrica de santos’, y lo que hace que sólo haya, por ejemplo, dos papas santos -de altar- en setecientos años y ahora, de los cuatro papas muertos que participaron en el Concilio Vaticano II o en el inmediato posconcilio, tres ya han sido canonizados. O tenemos una suerte insólita los que vivimos esa época con nuestros Papas o lo que se está intentando es canonizar el propio concilio.
¿Cómo se aligeró el proceso? Los detalles puede consultarlos cualquiera, me centraré sólo en dos puntos que me parecen cruciales: la reducción a dos de los cuatro milagros exigidos por el proceso -antes, dos para la beatificación y otros dos para la canonización- y, sobre todo, la desaparición (en la práctica) del Promotor Fidei, más popularmente conocido como ‘abogado del Diablo’.
La misión de esta figura esencial era poner todas las objeciones posibles a la santidad de la persona. A cada acto que se achacara a una virtud del santo debía oponer, si era verosímil, una motivación más mundana. Debía investigar todas las sombras y zonas oscuras de la vida del ‘canonizable’. Y, por supuesto, debía cuestionar todos los milagros que se le achacaran.
El milagro, por cierto, tenía que reunir condiciones igualmente estrictas: debía de ser cierto, relativo a una enfermedad grave, instantáneo, duradero, obtenido exclusivamente por intercesión del aspirante a los altares y carecer de explicación científica alternativa.
Hay que admitir que en esto también se han rebajado bastante los criterios, admitiendo como ‘milagro’ una curación improbable pero en absoluto insólita en los anales de la medicina moderna.
Cualquier jurista ducho en causas judiciales sabe que lo que garantiza la fiabilidad de un juicio es que existan dos partes, cada una interesada en el resultado contrario al que conviene a la otra. Un juicio en el que sólo pueda intervenir el fiscal o en el que sea el abogado defensor el único que pueda exponer su caso degenerará con mayor probabilidad en una injusticia.
La respuesta, en este caso, podría ser que da igual que el proceso sea ahora menos cuidadoso, porque lo que hace infalible el acto es la asistencia del Espíritu Santo. Pero si se tratara sólo de eso, si sólo eso bastase, ¿para qué molestarse con el proceso? El Papa sólo tendría que leer el nombre y el Espíritu Santo haría el resto.
Pero sabemos que no es así, sabemos que existe desde hace muchos siglos un proceso que, aunque aligerado, sigue vigente. Luego es de razón que deba existir alguna relación entre la investigación que se lleva a cabo durante años y el acto por el que se proclama santo a un individuo y se permite su veneración por parte de la Iglesia universal.
Incluso en la proclamación solemne de dogmas hay un proceso, consultas, investigación. Y precisamente es la comparación con el magisterio dogmático, con el que supuestamente comparte carácter infalible, la que nos invita -una vez más- a dudar. Porque un dogma no es una opinión novedosa referida a una realidad temporal, sino proclamar como cierto e indudable una verdad atemporal que ha sido creída sin interrupción en el seno de la Iglesia.
La canonización, en cambio, no se refiere a ninguna verdad universal, sino que es el juicio sobre la vida de un hombre y su destino eterno. Tal destino se deduce de su vida, y esa vida se conoce de modo más o menos completo gracias a la minuciosa investigación de un proceso.
Si el proceso falla, si el proceso es incompleto, si sus responsables han sido negligentes o fraudulentos, ¿queda igualmente comprometida la infalibilidad de la Iglesia al declararle santo?
Quizá la respuesta sea “sí”. Pero no nos parece en absoluto que sea ocioso, y mucho menos irreverente, plantear la pregunta.
Quizá la respuesta sea “sí”. Pero no nos parece en absoluto que sea ocioso, y mucho menos irreverente, plantear la pregunta.
Carlos Esteban
Nuevos «santos» sin veneración popular
Duración 2:55 minutos
Pope Francis canonized seven candidates on Sunday. Among them were Oscar Romero and Paul VI. The sanctity of both of them is strongly disputed. Only about 60,000 faithful were present in St Peter's Square. As a comparison: For the canonization of John Paul II, 500,000 pilgrims travelled to Rome. Gloria.tv sources in Rome said that for Paul VI almost no pilgrims showed up although he was an Italian, his canonisation was strongly supported by the Italian oligarch media, and his canonisation took place in Rome.
Benedict Did Not Show Up
The former Benedict XVI declined Pope Francis's invitation to attend yesterday's canonizations. The official reason: He is not as agile as he used to be. Benedict XVI already skipped Paul VI’s beatification in 2014. But in the same year, he was present at the canonization of John Paul II.
A Saint of Decline
The new alleged saint and left-wing activist, Monsignor Oscar Romero, was an El Salvador archbishop in the middle of an unprecedented decline of his Church which he did not prevent or which he perhaps even co-managed. Ninety-nine percent of the population of El Salvador was Catholic in 1950. With the radical liturgical changes after Second Vatican Council, an unprecedented apostasy to Protestant sects started. Now, the amount of Catholics is below 50% of the population.
Pain and Attacks – Was It His Own Fault?
Cardinal Robert Sarah welcomed the controversial canonization of Paul VI. Sarah called on Twitter to pray with confidence and joy to the alleged new saint whom he called a pontiff of pain who suffered many attacks and criticisms. As a pope, Paul VI led the Church into total turmoil which is still ongoing.
Now All Council Popes Are [Alleged] Saints
Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X explained in an interview with Michael Davis why Paul VI was canonized. Quote: "They're canonizing Paul VI because they want to canonize the Council.»
Cardinal Robert Sarah welcomed the controversial canonization of Paul VI. Sarah called on Twitter to pray with confidence and joy to the alleged new saint whom he called a pontiff of pain who suffered many attacks and criticisms. As a pope, Paul VI led the Church into total turmoil which is still ongoing.
Now All Council Popes Are [Alleged] Saints
Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X explained in an interview with Michael Davis why Paul VI was canonized. Quote: "They're canonizing Paul VI because they want to canonize the Council.»
domingo, 14 de octubre de 2018
"Señales contradictorias" - Padre SANTIAGO MARTIN F.M. (Comentado por José Martí)
Duración 11:28 minutos
Ciertamente, Francisco condena el aborto, como no podía ser de otra manera, siendo, como es, el Papa, y aunque es verdad que ahora lo ha hecho con más energía que nunca, como dice el padre Santiago, al compararlo con la contratación de un sicario para matar a alguien, es decir, de un asesino a sueldo, ello no quita para que tengamos en cuenta que es la primera vez que lo ha hecho así, al menos que yo recuerde. Por ejemplo en la entrevista concedida a Antonio Spadaro, director de la Civiltá Cattolica, Francisco dijo lo siguiente:
“No podemos seguir insistiendo sólo en cuestiones referentes al aborto, al matrimonio homosexual o al uso de anticonceptivos. Es imposible. Yo no he hablado mucho de estas cuestiones y he recibido reproches por ello. Pero si se habla de estas cosas hay que hacerlo en un contexto. Por lo demás, ya conocemos la opinión de la Iglesia y yo soy hijo de la Iglesia, pero no es necesario estar hablando de estas cosas sin cesar”.Y es verdad, al menos en parte ... pero seamos coherentes, porque tampoco se puede estar hablando sin cesar de los inmigrantes y del cambio climático, cuestiones que -en sí mismas- no son parte esencial de la Doctrina católica, como sí lo es el mandamiento explícito: «No matarás», el cual es aplicable, más que en ningún otro caso, a los seres humanos más indefensos e inocentes que existen, cuales son los niños que están todavía en el vientre de su madre. El aborto es un crimen. Y es un crimen «legalizado» en bastantes países y, concretamente, en España, al que se le ha calificado como un derecho de la mujer. Y esto, que es algo objetivo, hay que denunciarlo una y otra vez, con preferencia al tema de la inmigración que, con ser importante, no lo es tanto.
Desde luego, hay muchas más cosas de las que hablar, como es el caso de los grandes misterios del cristianismo: La Santísima Trinidad, la Presencia Real de Jesucristo en la Eucaristía, la Virginidad de María, etc... así como la importancia capital de la Tradición en el Magisterio auténtico de la Iglesia. Estos temas, que sí son fundamentales, apenas si se tocan y el pueblo cristiano, en su amplia mayoría, en particular los jóvenes, los desconocen ... ¡porque no se les ha enseñado! «Y andan como ovejas sin pastor» (Mt 9, 36)
De manera que ese hablar ahora de un modo tan tajante sobre el aborto (y siento ser mal pensado, pero es que hay ya tantos precedentes, Amoris Laetitia, entre ellos, que no puede evitarlo) puede ser una estrategia para desviar la atención sobre el tema del llamado «Sínodo de los jóvenes», un Sínodo que se está llevando «en secreto», prácticamente, y en donde los jóvenes brillan por su ausencia: ¡a saber qué es lo que nos depara! Pienso que nada bueno.
Para colmo, ahora resulta que las conclusiones a las que se llegue en los Sínodos van a ser consideradas como magisterio común de la Iglesia. Es realmente increíble, pero así está ocurriendo ... aunque yo me pregunto: ¿de qué Iglesia? ... porque si se llega a conclusiones que estén en clara disconformidad con la Doctrina del Nuevo Testamento, como ha ocurrido con Amoris Laetitia, en el tema de la comunión a los divorciados vueltos a casar, AHÍ NO HAY MAGISTERIO, por más exhortaciones, Motus Proprios, encíclicas o lo que fuese.
No puede haber dos magisterios en la Iglesia. Hay UNA SOLA IGLESIA y SÓLO PUEDE HABER UN MAGISTERIO ... y éste es el que ha perdurado durante casi dos mil años.
¿Cómo es posible que, a consecuencia de la aplicación del Concilio Vaticano II, se llegue a un Magisterio diferente al que la Iglesia siempre ha predicado? Sencillamente, no es posible.
De modo que los fieles católicos deben de tener bien claro que su fidelidad es a Jesucristo, a la Iglesia que Él fundó y, por supuesto -y esto es esencial- al Vicario de Cristo ... ¡siempre que éste represente, a su vez, fielmente, el Papado y la Tradición y siempre que no se dedique a vender sus propias ideas como «sorpresas que el Espíritu nos trae y a las que tenemos que estar abiertos» ... porque entonces tendríamos la obligación de no hacer caso de dicho «Magisterio», dado que «es preciso obedecer a Dios antes que a los hombres» (Hech 5, 29)
Pero me estoy desviando un poco del asunto que nos ocupa en este post.
Según Rome Reports, esto fue lo que dijo Francisco sobre el aborto:
Y ésta la información de Gloria TV con relación a esas palabras del Papa:
Según Rome Reports, esto fue lo que dijo Francisco sobre el aborto:
Duración 2:59 minutos
La fuerte condena del aborto por parte del papa Francisco, vinculándolo con la contratación de un sicario, como hizo el 10 de octubre, podría ser un mal presagio, advirtió Maria Madise, de la organización provida SPUC.
Ella remite en el sitio web LifeSiteNews.com “a un modelo consistente de fuertes declaraciones provida” por parte de Francisco, las cuales son seguidas después por “traiciones muy preocupantes de la fe”. Un ejemplo de ello: Francisco condenó primero el aborto como un “crimen” e inmediatamente después dijo que la anticoncepción era [presuntamente] lícita bajo ciertas circunstancias.
Además, Francisco llamó a la sanguinaria abortista italiana Emma Bonino una de las “grandes olvidadas” de Italia y rindió honores a la activista proaborto holandesa Liliane Ploumen con la Orden Pontificia de San Gregorio.Me parece que hay una gran incoherencia entre lo que el Papa ha dicho ahora, el 10 de octubre de 2018 y lo que hemos estado viendo que ha hecho y dicho a lo largo de cinco años de pontificado.
Estoy con el padre Santiago en que en este momento difícil, de tanta confusión, sólo nos queda confiar absolutamente en Dios ... y pedirle que acelere la hora en que esto termine.
José Martí
Comunicado de la FSSPX sobre la canonización del Papa Pablo VI
(Puede leerse, igualmente, en Adelante la Fe)
Durante el Sínodo de obispos sobre los jóvenes, el domingo 14 de octubre de 2018, el Papa Francisco llevará a cabo la canonización del Papa Pablo VI.
La Fraternidad Sacerdotal San Pío X reitera sus más serias reservas, que había expresado con motivo de la beatificación de Pablo VI, el 19 de octubre de 2014:
Estas beatificaciones y canonizaciones recientes, según un procedimiento acelerado, dejan de lado la sabiduría de las normas seculares de la Iglesia. ¿Acaso no tienen como objetivo más bien canonizar los papas del Concilio Vaticano II antes que constatar la heroicidad de sus virtudes teologales? Cuando se piensa que el primer deber de un papa – sucesor de Pedro – es confirmar a sus hermanos en la fe (Lc. 22, 32), hay motivo para perplejidad.
Pablo VI es, por cierto, el Papa de la Encíclica Humanae Vitae (25 de julio de 1968), que aportó luz y reconfortó a las familias católicas cuando los principios fundamentales del matrimonio eran fuertemente atacados. Es igualmente el autor del Credo del pueblo de Dios (30 de junio de 1968), mediante el cual quiso recordar los artículos de la fe católica objetados por el progresismo ambiente, especialmente en el escandaloso Catecismo holandés (1966).
Pablo VI, empero, es también el Papa que condujo a término el Concilio Vaticano II, introduciendo en la Iglesia un liberalismo doctrinal expresado a través de errores como la libertad religiosa, la colegialidad y el ecumenismo.
De aquí se siguió una gran trastorno, que él mismo reconoció el 7 de diciembre de 1968:
“La Iglesia se encuentra en un momento de inquietud, de autocrítica, incluso se diría que de autodestrucción. Es como si la Iglesia se dañara a sí misma”.
Al año siguiente reconocía:
“En muchos aspectos, el Concilio no nos ha dado hasta ahora tranquilidad, más bien ha suscitado trastornos y problemas nada útiles para reafirmar el Reino de Dios en la Iglesia y en las almas”.
Hasta llegar a esta alarmante expresión el 29 de junio de 1972:
“El humo de Satanás ha entrado por alguna grieta en el templo de Dios: la duda, la incertidumbre, la problemática, la inquietud, la insatisfacción, el enfrentamiento están a la orden del día…”.
No hizo más que una comprobación, sin tomar las medidas necesarias para detener esta autodestrución.
Pablo VI es el Papa que, con una finalidad ecumenista, impuso la reforma litúrgica de la Misa y de todos los ritos de los sacramentos. Los cardenales Ottaviani y Bacci denunciaron esta nueva misa por alejarse “de forma impresionante, en el conjunto como en el detalle, de la teología católica de la Santa Misa, tal como fue formulada en la XXIIª sesión del Concilio de Trento” (1). Sobre estos pasos, Monseñor Lefebvre declaró que la nueva misa está “impregnada de espíritu protestante”, vehiculizando en sí misma “un veneno perjudicial para la fe” (2).
Durante su pontificado numerosos sacerdotes fueron perseguidos, e incluso condenados, por su fidelidad a la misa tridentina.
La Fraternidad Sacerdotal San Pío X recuerda con dolor la condena infligida en 1976 a Monseñor Lefebvre, declarándolo suspendido a divinis por su apego a esta misa y por su categórico rechazo de las reformas.
Solamente en 2007, por un Motu Proprio de Benedicto XVI, se reconoció el hecho de que la Misa tridentina nunca había sido abrogada.
Hoy más que nunca, la Fraternidad Sacerdotal San Pío X renueva su adhesión a la Tradición bimilenaria de la Iglesia, persuadida de que esta fidelidad, lejos de ser una crispación pasajera, aporta el remedio saludable a la autodestrucción de la Iglesia.
Como lo declaró recientemente su Superior General, el R. P. Davide Pagliarani: “Nuestro deseo más firme es que la Iglesia oficial no considere ya [el tesoro de la Tradición] como un pesado fardo o un conjunto de antiguallas, sino más bien como la única vía posible para regenerarse a si misma” (3).
Menzingen, 13 de octubre de 2018
Por qué no necesitamos (y no deberíamos) llamar «santo» a Pablo VI (con un comentario personal al principio)
Es un artículo muy bueno, aunque está en inglés y es algo largo. Espero que lo traduzcan pronto al español. Mientras tanto, puede hacerse uso del traductor de Google: yo lo he hecho y, aunque no suele ser lo habitual, sin embargo, la traducción que he encontrado es bastante buena, dentro de lo que se le puede pedir a un traductor, y se entiende bien lo esencial de lo que el autor pretende comunicar ...
[A la mañana siguiente he visto que la traducción se encuentra ya en Adelante la Fe. Pinchar aquí. No obstante, sigo manteniendo el original inglés en esta entrada, por si algún lector prefiere el inglés]
... ¡Y es que el papa Pablo VI, aunque, según ley, sea canonizado, ello no obliga, ni mucho menos, a tenerle devoción, pues su vida no fue ejemplar, en aspectos muy importantes; y fue muy grande el daño que hizo a la Iglesia, bajo las influencias modernistas: habría que leer el artículo para entender por qué dice esto su autor.
Siendo eso así, sin embargo, Francisco lo canonizará hoy, 14 de octubre de 2018. Y, además, va a hacerlo de forma acelerada, sin haber realizado la correspondiente investigación que es necesaria para ello ...del mismo modo que canonizó al papa Juan XXIII (para quien sólo fue necesario un «milagro») y a Juan Pablo II (a quien vemos besando el Corán, como si fuese un libro sagrado) el mismo día (27 de abril de 2014)
Queda claro que Francisco pretende canonizar el Concilio Vaticano II, canonizando a todos los Papas post-conciliares, como si así hubiera que decir amén a todo cuanto se dice en los documentos de dicho Concilio, cuando algunos de éstos son de muy dudosa ortodoxia, por no decir claramente heterodoxos, en determinados puntos, en particular, aquellos que se refieren al Ecumenismo, el diálogo interreligioso, la libertad religiosa y la colegialidad ... aunque hay más.
Afortunadamente, las canonizaciones no son infalibles ... en el sentido de que la Iglesia no obliga a creer en ellas como si se tratase de dogmas de fe. Antes del Concilio Vaticano II, existía la figura del «abogado del diablo» y la santidad se concedía a muy pocos, y las exigencias para que alguien fuese declarado «santo» eran muy grandes. No así ahora, en que se canoniza a cualquiera; y rápidamente ... con lo que la devoción a los santos va de capa caída, ha disminuido enormemente y la figura del santo se ha devaluado.
En la época en la que nos ha tocado vivir, tenemos que rezar con una fe más grande que nunca: pedirle al Señor, con fuerza, que nos la conceda; y ayudar a los demás católicos, nuestros hermanos en la fe, a no dejarse engañar por los falsos profetas que aparecen con piel de oveja ... ¡porque dirán muchas verdades, ciertamente ... pero acompañadas de muchas mentiras ... de manera que el pueblo cristiano quede confundido y vaya perdiendo la fe, objetivo que están consiguiendo, pues eso es justo lo que está ocurriendo.
La apostasía, a nivel mundial, se está generalizando. Queda claro que necesitamos de una intervención divina, la cual tendrá lugar, con toda seguridad ... aunque no sabemos ni cómo ni cuándo. Pero Dios no puede abandonar a su Iglesia, la cual, pese a todo, sigue siendo «Una, Santa, Católica y Apostólica» según rezamos en el Credo.
Mientras tanto, no podemos hacer otra cosa que redoblar nuestra oración y acudir a la Virgen María, Madre de la Iglesia (Iglesia que es el Cuerpo Místico de Cristo: dogma de fe) y, por lo tanto, madre nuestra, debido a nuestra Unión con Jesucristo mediante el Espíritu Santo que recibimos, sin merecimiento alguno por nuestra parte, cuando fuimos bautizados.
Recordemos que María fue bienaventurada precisamente porque creyó, en todo momento, aun cuando no comprendiera los designios de Dios: «Dichosa tú, que has creído que se cumplirá las cosas que se te han dicho de parte del Señor» (Lc, 1:45), le dijo su prima Isabel, cuando el niño saltó de gozo en su seno, en cuanto oyó el saludo de María, que venía a visitarla .
Y así también a nosotros se nos da la posibilidad de ser bienaventurados, ya desde ahora: «Bienaventurados los que, sin ver, creyeron» (Jn 20, 29), le dijo Jesús a Tomás, debido a su incredulidad; porque, en definitiva, como bien dijo san Juan: «Ésta es la victoria que ha vencido al mundo: nuestra fe» (1 Jn 5, 4)
José Martí
NOTA1: Un buen complemento a este artículo es el escrito por el padre Ángel David Martín Rubio (éste está en español) en Adelante la Fe, titulado «Pablo VI y España: una perspectiva histórica»
NOTA 2: Según el cardenal McCarry (dicho en 2013), Francisco cambiará la Iglesia en 5 años (estamos en 2018), como puede verse en el siguiente vídeo, de 6 minutos de duración, el cual he colocado también en otra entrada posterior. Dicho vídeo está en inglés subtitulado:
NOTA 2: Según el cardenal McCarry (dicho en 2013), Francisco cambiará la Iglesia en 5 años (estamos en 2018), como puede verse en el siguiente vídeo, de 6 minutos de duración, el cual he colocado también en otra entrada posterior. Dicho vídeo está en inglés subtitulado:
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Many who have studied the life and pontificate of Pope Paul VI are convinced that he was far from exemplary in his conduct as pastor; that he not only did not possess heroic virtue, but lacked certain key virtues; that his promulgation of a titanic liturgical reform was incompatible with his papal office of handing on that which he had received; that he offers us a portrait of failed governance and tradition betrayed. In short, for us, it is impossible to accept that a pope such as this could ever be canonized. Not surprisingly, then, we are vexed about Pope Francis’s “canonization” of Giovanni Battista Montini on Sunday, October 14, 2018 and have grave doubts in conscience about its validity or credibility.
But are we allowed to have such doubts? Surely (people will say), canonization is an infallible exercise of the papal magisterium and therefore binding on all – indeed, the very language used in the ceremony indicates that! – therefore we must accept that Paul VI is a saint in Heaven, honor him and imitate him, and embrace all that he did and taught as pope.
Not so fast. In reality, the situation is more complicated. In this tempestuous time, it is just as well that we know the complexity of it, rather than seeking refuge in naïve simplifications. In this article, I will cover seven topics: (1) The status of canonizations, (2) The purpose of canonizations, (3) The process of canonization, (4) What is objectionable in Paul VI?, (5) What is admirable in Paul VI?, (6) The limits of canonization’s meaning, and (7) Practical consequences.
- The status of canonizations
While historically the majority of theologians have defended the view of the infallibility of canonizations – especially neoscholastic theologians who tend to be extreme ultramontanists [1] – the Church herself has, in fact, never taught this as binding doctrine [2]. The exact status of canonizations remains a legitimate subject of theological debate, and it is all the more debatable given the changing expectations, procedures, and motivations for the act of canonization itself (points to which I shall return).
The infallibility of canonizations is not taught by the Church, nor is it necessarily implied by any de fide doctrine of the Faith. Catholics are therefore not required to believe it as a matter of faith and may even, for serious reasons, doubt or question the truthfulness of a certain canonization. This conclusion is rigorously established and defended in John Lamont’s “The Authority of Canonisations” (Rorate Caeli, August 24, 2018), which, in my opinion, in the best treatment of the subject yet published and well worth reading in full, especially by those who are troubled in conscience about this question [3].
- The purpose of canonizations
Traditionally, canonization is not merely a recognition that a certain individual is in Heaven; it is the recognition that this man lived a life of such heroic virtue (above all, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity), had fulfilled in so exemplary a fashion the duties of his state in life (and this would include, for a cleric, the duties of his office), and had so practiced asceticism as befits a soldier of Christ that public veneration (including liturgical) should be offered to him by the universal Church, and his example deserves to be followed as a model to imitate (cf. 1 Cor 11:1) [4]. We can see all of these features shining in the “classic” saints, to whom there is much popular devotion.
In recent pontificates, we have seen a shift take place in why individuals – at least, certain individuals – are canonized. Donald Prudlo observes:
As an historian of sainthood, my greatest hesitation with the current process stems from the canonizations done by John Paul II himself. While his laudable intention was to provide models of holiness drawn from all cultures and states in life, he tended to divorce canonization from its original and fundamental purpose. This was to have an official, public, and formal recognition of an existing cult of the Christian faithful, one that had been confirmed by the divine testimony of miracles. Cult precedes canonization; it was not meant to be the other way around. We are in danger then of using canonization as a tool to promote interests and movements, rather than being a recognition and approval of an extant cultus. [5]
Prudlo is making the obvious point that beatification and canonization are supposed to be responses of the Church to a strong popular devotion shown to a particular individual, whose heavenly intercession God has endorsed, so to speak, by working several demonstrable miracles. It is not supposed to be the Vatican rubber-stamping particular individuals the Vatican happens to want to promote. There is no serious cultus of Paul VI, nor has there ever been, and it is doubtful that papal fiat can create a cultus ex nihilo.
In reality, we see that Pope Francis has carried to its extreme the “politicization” of the process, whereby the individual to be beatified or canonized is instrumentalized for an agenda. As Fr. Hunwicke points out:
There has been, in some quarters, an uneasy suspicion for some time that canonisations have turned into a way of setting a seal upon the ‘policies’ of some popes. If these ‘policies’ are themselves a matter of divisive discussion and debate, then the promotion of the idea that canonisations are infallible becomes itself an additional element in the conflict. Canonisation, you will remind me, does not, theologically, imply approval of everything a Saint has done or said. Not formally, indeed. But the suspicion among some is that, de facto and humanly, such can seem to be its aim. This is confirmed by a prevailing assumption on all sides that the canonisations of the ‘Conciliar Popes’ does bear some sort of meaning or message.
Similarly, Fr. “Pio Pace” writes:
We must dare say it: by canonizing all Vatican II popes, it is Vatican II that is canonized. But, likewise, canonization itself is devalued when it becomes a sort of medal thrown on top of a casket. Maybe a council that was “pastoral” and not dogmatic is deserving of canonizations that are “pastoral” and not dogmatic. [6]
Most keenly, Prof. Roberto de Mattei observes:
For the papolater, the pope is not the vicar of Christ on Earth, who has the duty of handing on the doctrine he has received, but is a successor of Christ who perfects the doctrine of his predecessors, adapting it to the changing of the times. The doctrine of the Gospel is in perpetual evolution, because it coincides with the magisterium of the reigning pontiff. The “living” magisterium substitutes [for] the perennial Magisterium, expressed by pastoral teaching which changes daily, and has its regula fidei (rule of faith) in the subject of the authority and not in the object of the transmitted truth.A consequence of papolatry is the pretext of canonizing all and each of the popes of the past, so that retroactively, each word of theirs, every act of governing is “infallibilized.” However, this concerns only the popes following Vatican II and not those who preceded that Council.At this point arises the question: the golden era of the history of the Church is the Middle Ages, and yet the only medieval popes canonized by the Church are Gregory VII and Celestine V. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there were great popes, but none of these were canonized. For seven hundred years, between the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, only Saint Pius V and Saint Pius X were canonized. Were all the others unworthy popes and sinners? Certainly not. But heroism in the governing of the Church is an exception, not the rule, and if all the popes were saints, then nobody is a saint. Sanctity is such an exception that it loses meaning when it becomes the rule. [7]
This last paragraph is particularly worth emphasizing: it should cause the deepest astonishment and skepticism to note that while the Church had canonized exactly two popes from a 700-year period [8], in recent years, she has “canonized” three popes from a period of scarcely over 50 years – a half-century that magically coincides with the preparation, execution, and aftermath of that most magical of all Councils, Vatican II. Must be that “new Pentecost” effect. If this is not enough to make a cynic of someone, I’m not sure what would be [9].
- The process of canonization
In order to expedite the making of saints, John Paul II introduced many significant changes in the canonization process that had been stably in place since the work of Prosper Lambertini (1734-1738), who later became Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758). This process was based, in turn, on norms going back to Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644). It was none other than Paul VI who, in this area as in so many others, initiated a simplification of the procedures in 1969, a process John Paul II completed in 1983.
Studying a comparison of the old process and the new process is illuminating. A comparative chart has been provided at the Unam Sanctam Catholicam site. After noting the obvious fact that the old process is considerably more involved and thorough, Unam Sanctam proffers this evaluation:
The difference between the old and new procedures is not in their length, but in their character.In the pre-1969 procedure, you will note the care with which the integrity of the process itself is safeguarded. The Sacred Congregation must attest to the validity of the methodology used by the diocesan tribunals. The Promotor Fidei must sign off on the canonical form of every act of the Postulator and the Congregation. The validity of the inquiries into the candidate’s miracles [is] scrutinized. There is a very strict attention to form and methodology in the pre-1969 procedure which is simply lacking in the post-1983 system. … Essentially, while the modern canonization procedure maintains the nuts-n’-bolts of the pre-1969 system, the aspect of “checks and balances” that characterized the pre-1969 procedure is weakened. The rigid oversight is missing in the [modern] system. [10]
The role of the promotor fidei, the so-called “devil’s advocate,” was massively reduced. In the old system, this person’s crucial role was:
… to prevent any rash decisions concerning miracles or virtues of the candidates for the honours of the altar. All documents of beatification and canonization processes must be submitted to his examination, and the difficulties and doubts he raises over the virtues and miracles are laid before the congregation and must be satisfactorily answered before any further steps can be taken in the processes. It is his duty to suggest natural explanations for alleged miracles, and even to bring forward human and selfish motives for deeds that have been accounted heroic virtues[.] … His duty requires him to prepare in writing all possible arguments, even at times seemingly slight, against the raising of any one to the honours of the altar. The interest and honour of the Church are concerned in preventing any one from receiving those honours whose death is not juridically proved to have been “precious in the sight of God.” [11]
This paragraph bears repeated reading. Rash decisions concerning miracles or virtues…all documents must be submitted…apparent virtues must be argued against…the Church’s interest and honor must be defended at all costs…
The loosening up of the process, together with the chaos that often seems to reign in the Vatican in its free-wheeling postconciliar years, has meant that nothing comparable to the above stringent “devil’s advocate” role has been seen since 1983 (and, arguably, since 1969, when instability was first introduced into the process).
Among other things, it was taken for granted that all of the documentary archives associated with a proposed blessed or saint should be reviewed carefully for doctrinal, moral, and psychological issues that might be red flags.
Here I must share some disturbing information. A person who works at the Vatican in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints told me personally that orders were received from “on high” that the canonization process for Paul VI should be sped along as quickly as possible – and that, as a result, the Congregation did not examine all of the documents by or about Paul VI housed in the Vatican archives. This glaring lacuna is all the more grave when we recall that Paul VI was accused of being an active homosexual, a charge that was taken seriously enough to be denied [12]. It is also grave because of his involvement in secret negotiations with communists and his endorsement of “Ostpolitik,” under which many injustices were committed [13]. One would think a desire for transparent truth about every aspect of Montini would have led to an exhaustive examination of the relevant documents. However, this was purposefully bypassed. It goes without saying that this lack of due diligence, all by itself, is sufficient to cast into doubt the legitimacy of the canonization.
Arguably the worst change to the process is the number of miracles required. In the old system, two miracles were required for both beatification and canonization – that is, a total of four investigated and certified miracles. The point of this requirement is to give the Church sufficient moral certainty of God’s “approval” of the proposed blessed or saint by the evidence of His exercise of power at the intercession of this individual. Moreover, the miracles traditionally had to be outstanding in their clarity – that is, admitting of no possible natural or scientific explanation.
The new system cuts the number of miracles in half, which, one might say, also cuts the moral certainty in half – and, as many have observed, the miracles put forward often seem to be lightweight, leaving one scratching one’s head: was that really a miracle, or was it just an extremely improbable event? The two miracles for Paul VI (one may read about them here) are, to be frank, underwhelming. I mean, it’s lovely that two babies were “healed” or “protected” in the way described, but that we are dealing with a naturally inexplicable supernatural intervention by the force of Paul VI’s prayers is not patently obvious. Four miracles that were all robust, like the restoration of sight to the blind or the raising of the dead, would carry a great deal more conviction.
With the greatly increasing number of canonizations; the removal of half of the number of miracles required (which are sometimes even waived [14]); the lack of a robust advocatus diaboli role; and, at times, the rushed manner in which documentation is examined or at times passed over (as, apparently, has been the case with Paul VI), it seems to me not only that it has become impossible to claim that today’s canonizations always require our consent, but also that there may be canonizations about which one would have an obligation to withhold assent.
- What is objectionable in Paul VI?
Beyond the general consideration of the status of canonizations, the purpose that should animate them, and the procedures by which they are securely or insecurely conducted, we must also consider the particular merits of the case at hand. Why, specifically, do traditional Catholics object to the canonization of Paul VI?
During his pontificate, Montini presented a lack of heroic virtue in shouldering his solemn responsibilities as shepherd of the universal flock. Instead, he displayed a habitual incapacity for effective discipline, as he wavered between extreme indulgence and extreme sharpness (e.g., rarely punishing the most obnoxiously heretical theologians but treating Archbishop Lefebvre as if he were worse than Martin Luther or empowering Annibale Bugnini with continual papal access and support throughout the course of the liturgical reform, then suddenly banishing him to Iran). The contradictory signals he gave – encouraging modernism, then curtailing it; intervening in controversial matters and then withdrawing, back and forth, like Hamlet (a character to whom he compared himself in a private note from 1978), only compounded the confusion and anarchy of the period. What was needed was a pilot with a steady hand in the midst of the storm, not a self-doubting soft modernist suffering an existential crisis.
Particularly glaring problem areas include the liturgical reform, where Paul VI gave ample evidence of operating under rationalist Pistoian principles incompatible with Catholicism and of gross negligence in reviewing materials. (There seem to have been quite a number of things he signed off on without being familiar with their details.) His Ostpolik dealings with communists, including his disobedience to Pius XII, are well known. Although Paul VI reached the right conclusion on birth control, the manner in which he failed to respond to the media barrage connected with the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, failed to discipline dissenters from Humanae Vitae, and even allowed to be marginalized those who upheld the papal teaching all conspired to undermine that teaching’s effectiveness. The irrational harshness of his dealings with traditional Catholics was shameful, as when he turned down the petition of a large group of over 6,000 Spanish priests [15] who wished to continue celebrating the immemorial Roman Rite of St. Gregory and St. Pius V (while later granting this permission to priests in England and Wales – once more showing the stuff out of which Hamlets are made). He abused his papal authority by discarding what should have been revered and by treating as forbidden what could never be forbidden.
The pope has a solemn obligation to uphold and defend the traditions and rites of the Church; he has no moral authority to modify them past recognition. No pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church ever came close to modifying more traditions and rites, and more extensively, than Paul VI did. This alone should make him forever suspicious in the eyes of any orthodox believer. Either this pope was the great liberator who delivered the Church from centuries, perhaps over a millennium, of bondage to harmful forms of worship – in which case the Holy Spirit had fallen asleep on the job and the Protestants were correct all along that the true Church of Christ had disappeared or gone “underground” – or he was the great destroyer who tore down what Divine Providence had lovingly built up and sold the Church into a slavery to intellectual fashion more humiliating than the physical bondage suffered by the Israelites.
Paul VI did not helplessly watch the Church’s “autodemolition” (his own term for the collapse after the Council); he did not merely preside over the single greatest exodus of Catholic laity, clergy, and religious since the Protestant Revolt. He aided and abetted this internal devastation by his own actions. By pushing ahead at breakneck speed a radical liturgical and institutional “reform” that left nothing untouched, he multiplied a hundredfold the destabilizing forces at work in the 1960s. Anyone who enjoyed the functionality of reason would have been able to see that it was dangerous, not to mention impious, to change so much, so fast. But no: Paul VI was a willing votary of the ideology of modernization, a high priest of progress, who boldly went where none of his predecessors had ever gone before.
Ironically, it is none other than Pope Francis, the willful canonizer of Paul VI, who has demonstrated past all doubt the self-destructive trajectory of postconciliar Catholicism, when its own tendencies are acted on without restraint (rather as Theodore McCarrick acted on his own tendencies without restraint).
Many Catholics are rightfully anxious about Pope Francis. But what he has done in the past five years is arguably small potatoes compared with what Paul VI had the audacity to do: substituting a new liturgy for the ancient Roman Mass and sacramental rites, causing the biggest internal rupture the Catholic Church has ever suffered. This was the equivalent of dropping an atomic bomb on the People of God, which either wiped out their faith or caused cancers by its radiation. It was the very negation of paternity, of the papacy’s fatherly function of conserving and passing on the family heritage. Everything that has happened after Paul VI is no more than an echo of this violation of the sacred temple. Once the most holy thing is profaned, nothing else is safe; nothing else is stable.
At this point, someone may object: “Okay, so what if Paul VI wasn’t very good at being pope? Surely he could still have been a holy man on the inside. He was living in a tempestuous period, when everyone was confused, and he was doing his very best. We should admire his intentions and his great desires, even if we might criticize in retrospect certain decisions and actions. Sanctity isn’t a blanket approval of everything a person says or does.”
The problem with this objection is that it fails to recognize that how a Catholic lives out his primary vocation in life is part and parcel of his sanctity. How a bishop of the Church – and all the more, a pope – exercises his ecclesiastical office is not incidental, but essential to his sanctity (or lack thereof). Imagine it this way: could we canonize a man who, in spite of beating his wife and neglecting his children, was dutiful in attending daily Mass, praying the Rosary, and giving alms to the poor? It would be absurd, because we would rightly say: “A married man with children has to be holy as a husband and father, not in spite of being a husband and father.” It is no less absurd to say: “Such-and-such a pope was negligent, irresponsible, indecisive, rash, and revolutionary in his papal decisions, but his heart was in the right place, and he was always striving for the glory of God and the salvation of men.” A pope is a saint because he “poped” well. He showed heroic faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc. in his very activity of governing the Church. this cannot be reasonably maintained for Paul VI.
If we are supposed to venerate Paul VI, then inconsistency, ambiguity, pusillanimity, injustice, reckless change, negligence, indecisiveness, false signaling, despondency, wishful thinking, irritability, scorn, and contempt for tradition are not merely virtues, but virtues one can exercise to such a heroic degree that they are actually sources of sanctifying grace, deserving of general admiration, veneration, and emulation. Sorry, I’m having none of it. Such things have always been, and will always be, vices. Montini was a terrible ruler of the Church, and if the virtuous fulfillment of one’s responsibilities in one’s state in life is constitutive of sanctity, we may conclude that it is impossible to imagine a worse role model for any ruler than Montini.
To read more about the flaws of Paul VI as pope, the following are recommended:
- “The Enigma of Pope Paul VI” by John Knox [Msgr. F.D. Cohalan]
- “The Papacy of Paul VI” by Henry Sire
- “50 Years Ago: Dietrich von Hildebrand Confronts Pope Paul VI”
- “Liturgy, Abuse and Humanae Vitae: Some Connections?”
- “Archbishop Lefebvre, Pope Paul VI, and Catholic Tradition” by Neil McCaffrey
- What is admirable in Paul VI?
Do traditionally-minded Catholics admire Paul VI for anything? Yes, of course. We would be foolish not to acknowledge the good he did. But that good is not sufficient to cancel out the many and serious problems discussed in the preceding section. Indeed, the history of Montini’s pontificate is as vivid a demonstration as one could wish to have of the difference between the person and the office. In the case of saintly popes, the grace of office seems to take up and enfold the person and transform him into a luminous icon of St. Peter and of Christ. In the case of bad popes or mediocre popes, the grace of office is something that occasionally flares up, that comes out of hiding in emergency situations, but does not transform the incumbent in the same way. The latter is what we see with Paul VI, as an editorial at Rorate Caeli astutely expressed it (with my emphasis):
Pope Paul VI is described by most historians as a kind of tragic figure, trying to control the whirlwind of events surrounding him, but unable to do much. It is probably because of this, because it seemed that Montini often bent to the opinions of the world, because it seemed that he frequently accepted the fabricated notions and texts which committees of false sages delivered to him (with very small modifications), that the moments in which he did not bend shine so clearly with the simple brightness of Peter. The Nota Prævia to Lumen Gentium, the vigorous defense of the traditional Eucharistic doctrines (in Mysterium Fidei) and of the teachings on Indulgences (in Indulgentiarum Doctrina), the Credo of the People of God are pillars which remain standing in a crumbling edifice, signs of supernatural protection. Amidst the moral collapse of the 1960s, and against the commission set up by his predecessor to reexamine the matter, Peter spoke though [Pope] Paul in Humanæ Vitae: “it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it.”
If such good actions and teachings had been habitual, normal, and characteristic of Paul VI, and had been imbued with the panoply of Christian virtues St. Thomas discusses in the Second Part of the Summa, and on top of this, a popular cultus had arisen around a beloved pontiff, culminating in many indisputable miracles, then – and only then – would we have had reason to elevate Paul VI to the altars.
Here is is worthwhile to point out that time will show, as we have already begun to see, that the good for which Paul VI was responsible is not at all the point of his canonization. In fact, all of the things listed above as “good moments” are contrary to the prevailing trends of the Bergoglio party. We are therefore ringside witnesses of the most cynical case of “promoveatur ut amoveatur” ever seen in Church history – that is, promoting someone to another, usually more distant position in order to remove them from their current more influential position. I have argued this point here.
- The limits of canonization’s meaning
There is, as usual, a divine irony in all of this. Even if the canonization of Paul VI turns out to have been legitimate – one may have one’s serious doubts, obviously, but one cannot rule out this possibility altogether – it would not, strictly speaking, accomplish what its political proponents intend by it. They intend that by canonizing Paul VI, they effectively canonize his entire Vatican II program and, above all, the liturgical reform. But, as Shawn Tribe of the Liturgical Arts Journal noted:
Anyone who would try to use the canonization of Paul VI to seriously propose that therefore all of the ecclesial and liturgical reforms that took place around his pontificate are therefore canonized and cannot be questioned (let alone reformed/rescinded) is either being intentionally and deceitfully manipulative or is woefully misinformed and uncatechized. Personal sanctity does not equate to infallibility; saints are often found at cross purposes with other saints; not every utterance/policy/decision/opinion of a saint stands the test of time nor the eventual judgement of the Church, nor is it dogmatic – not to mention that the Conciliar and liturgical reforms are not the personal possession of Paul VI but rather of a whole host of people and figures.
Gregory DiPippo extends the same argument at New Liturgical Movement:
The canonization of a Saint does not change the facts of his earthly life. It does not rectify the mistakes he may have made, whether knowingly or unknowingly. It does not change his failures into successes, whether they came about through his fault or that of others. …[T]he intrinsic merits or demerits of the post-Conciliar reform, and its status as a success or a failure, will not change in any way, shape or form if Pope Paul VI is indeed canonized. No one can honestly say otherwise, and no one has the right to criticize, attack, silence or call for the silencing of other Catholics if they contest that reform. If that reform went beyond the spirit and the letter of what Vatican II asked for in Sacrosanctum Concilium, as its own creators openly bragged that it did; if it was based on bad scholarship and a significant degree of basic incompetence, leading to the many changes now known to be mistakes; if it failed utterly to bring about the flourishing of liturgical piety that the Fathers of Vatican II desired, none of these things will change if Paul VI is canonized. Just as the canonizations of Pius V and X, and the future canonization of XII, did not place their liturgical reforms beyond question or debate, the canonization of Paul VI will not put anything about his reform beyond debate, and no one has any right to say otherwise.
- Practical consequences
Given the foregoing, what are the practical consequences for clergy, religious, and laity who doubt the validity of this canonization?
This topic may deserve a separate fuller treatment, but briefly, I would say that anyone with such a doubt or difficulty should not pray to Paul VI, should not invoke him publicly in prayer, should not respond to such invocation, should not offer a Mass in his honor or attend a Mass in his honor, and should not comply with or financially support efforts to promote his artificial “cultus.” On the contrary, it would be advisable to remain silent and, if circumstances permit and prudence dictates, to help other Catholics to see the real problems this canonization raises, as well as other beatifications and canonizations that may have run afoul of Catholic principles.
We are all obliged to pray for the salvation of the Holy Father and for the liberty and exaltation of our Holy Mother the Church on Earth. This intention would implicitly include a petition that the papacy, the Roman Curia, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and the very process of beatification and canonization all be reformed in due season, so that they may better serve the needs of Christ’s faithful and give glory to Almighty God, who is “wondrous in His saints” (Ps 67:36).
NOTES
[1] For example, arguing that all papal disciplinary acts that bear on the entire church must be inerrant and certainly favoring the common good – a position that one might have defended earlier in history, but which, at the present moment, is nothing less than grossly risible.
[2] It is therefore harmful when popularizers write things like this: “Beatification requires one attested miracle and allows the beatified person to be venerated by his local church. Canonization requires two attested miracles and allows veneration of the saint by the universal Church. Canonization is an infallible statement by the Church that the saint is in heaven” (https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-the-difference-between-saints-and-blesseds). This is to state too much, unless some qualifications are added.
[3] In order not to make my own article unduly long, I will not summarize his argument here, but merely note that it responds fully and amply to the objections usually raised by proponents of the infallibility of canonizations. Inter alia, Lamont refutes the claim that the use of certain Latin terms in the rite of canonization adequately establishes its infallible nature. Additional worthwhile treatments of the subject include this and this.
[4] For example: “A canonization … is a formal papal decree that the candidate was holy and is now in heaven with God; the decree allows public remembrance of the saint at liturgies throughout the church. It also means that churches can be dedicated to the person without special Vatican permission. … ‘In addition to reassuring us that the servant of God lives in heaven in communion with God, miracles are the divine confirmation of the judgment expressed by church authorities about the virtuous life’ lived by the candidate, Pope Benedict said in a speech to members of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in 2006” (http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2011/holy-confusion-beatification-canonization-are-different.cfm, emphases added).
[5] Cited by Christopher Ferrara in “The Canonization Crisis.”
[6] https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2018/02/guest-note-paul-vi-pastoral.html. Fr. Hunwicke similarly noted prior to the event: “As if he has not yet created enough divisions within the Church Militant, Pope Francis intends this month to perform the highly divisive act of canonising Blessed Paul VI. Even he, judging from what he said in giving this information to the Clergy of the City, can see that this canonisation business has become a silly giggle: ‘And Benedict and I are on the waiting list,’ he quipped. Delightfully humorous. A very witty joke. Very drole, Sovereign Pontiff. I share the views of many, however, that the joke is a bad one, in as far as this projected canonisation is fundamentally a political action to be linked with the apparent conviction of Pope Francis that he himself is the champion and beneficiary of Bl Paul’s work at Vatican II and afterwards.”
[7] http://www.robertodemattei.it/en/2018/04/11/tu-es-petrus-true-devotion-to-the-chair-of-saint-peter/; emphasis added.
[8] This is surely not for lack of many heroic individuals in that 700-year period – but, as we have said, if there was no popular cultus yielding indisputable miracles, the Church was not going to go rifling through the archives to find whatever candidates for honors she could find and push their causes.
[9] I might add that our skepticism should extend to the canonization of John Paul II as well, since his own governance of the Church was severely problematic in many ways. I have noted some of these in my recent article “RIP Vatican II Catholicism (1962–2018).” See also “The Pennsylvania Truth: John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II were no saints.”
[11] From the article “Promotor Fidei” in the old Catholic Encyclopedia. To learn more about the “devil’s advocate,” read this informative article.
[12] Wikipedia capably summarizes the basic information: “Roger Peyrefitte, who had already written in two of his books that Paul VI had a longtime homosexual relationship, repeated his charges in a magazine interview with a French gay magazine that, when reprinted in Italian, brought the rumors to a wider public and caused an uproar. He said that the pope was a hypocrite who had a longtime sexual relationship with a movie actor. Widespread rumors identified the actor as Paolo Carlini, who had a small part in the Audrey Hepburn film Roman Holiday (1953). In a brief address to a crowd of approximately 20,000 in St. Peters Square on 18 April, Paul VI called the charges ‘horrible and slanderous insinuations’ and appealed for prayers on his behalf. … The charges have resurfaced periodically. In 1994, Franco Bellegrandi, a former Vatican honour chamberlain and correspondent for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, alleged that Paul VI had been blackmailed and had promoted other gay men to positions of power within the Vatican. In 2006, the newspaper L’Espresso confirmed the blackmail story based on the private papers of police commander General Giorgio Manes. It reported that Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro had been asked to help.” As incredible as such a story may seem, we are more inclined to believe it today because of the indisputable evidence we have of Pope Francis promoting homosexuals to positions of power within the Vatican.
[13] See George Weigel on Ostpolitik. Again, we see that Bergoglio is simply following in Montini’s footsteps by his negotiations and compromises with Communist China.
[14] Or redefined: see this revealing article by John Thavis. Pope Francis waived the requirement of a second miracle for the “canonization” of John XXIII. Thus, incredibly, a pope who does not stand out for notable sanctity and whose cultus was never particularly strong or widespread was elevated to the honors of the altar on the basis of one miracle. We can see in this a fine example of the crass abuse of pontifical power that Francis depends on for his ideological consolidation.
[15] Namely, the “Hermandad Sacerdotal Española de San Antonio Mª Claret y San Juan de Ávila,” which was formed by the “Hermandad Sacerdotal Espanola,” founded in 1969 by Spanish priests to defend Tradition in the face of the changes in the Church, and another similar group, based in Catalonia, called “Asociación de Sacerdotes y Religiosos de San Antonio Maria Claret.” They sent a letter to the Vatican in 1969 petitioning the continued use of the old Roman missal – and Paul VI refused them flatly. Unfortunately, as Spanish and Italian traditionalism was characterized by absolute obedience to Rome, the Novus Ordo was thereafter accepted without cavil, and to this day tradition has difficulty making inroads into either of these cultural spheres.
Peter Kwasniewski
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