Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Saturday 14 July 2007

We believe, sorta....?

Someone I read online, (C ant R ecall W here,) was bemoaning the fact that the CDF document on the meaning of "Subsists", reaffirming as it were the the marks of the Church, came so hot on the heels of the motu proprio that the latter would not get the attention it deserved.
And indeed, in most articles in the secular press they are being seen as facets of the same jewel. (Well, no, you're right, they are seen as faces of the same lump of coal, but many see through a glass darkly, I mean, it really IS a jewel, isn't it.....)
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=d473fecc-e56e-48ec-9edf-f75bb8e714ac
The headline from a Reuters piece: Pope accused of turning back the Catholic clock
Recent moves will alienate Protestants and other faiths, critics say


Despite the headline (the view expressed in one always has more weight than an opposing view that shows up in the body of the story,) the tone isn't awful, and the actual reporting is ; but the quotes are from doubting Fr Reese, and carefully neutral and objective John Allen -- a con- and an abstention, as it were, no "pro" voice.

And it is nice to see a MSM outlet acknowledge that "For most of the immediate period after Vatican II, modernizers won the day even though church attendance fell and the number of men who left the priesthood rose," although I would have preferred an "and" to its "even though" or perhaps scare quotes around the "won the day," although there is plenty of whistling in the dark going on, progs who refuse to see that if there was a victory, it was Pyrrhic,

But this : "Jews, Muslims and members of other Christian faiths were no longer seen as heretics to be converted or shunned," has a lie hidden in the truth -- Catholics were never not called to evangelize and convert, despite the heresy (yes, "heresy," ) of even powerful voices denying that duty and doing their damnedest to convince the Church.

And that this (accurately reported,) fact, that "Benedict also approved a document that said all other Christian denominations apart from Catholicism were wounded and not full churches of Jesus Christ," is surprising, hurtful or disappointing will never cease to amaze me.

What is the alternative?
Indifferentism is Death. If there is no other reason than inertia to adhere to a creed, that creed will eventually have no adherents.

So I ask, what is the alternative?

Some of your beliefs contradict some of our beliefs and that to the degree that your denomination's teachings diverge from our Church's teachings, we hold that yours is is incomplete, "broken", "wounded," dare I say?.... wrong.

The alternative is utter folly: to say, oh yes, this is what I believe, but don't worry, even though I believe it, it's not like I think it's TRUE or anything.

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