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Saturday, December 30, 2006

As the Pendulum Swings

Some of you know I am an aspiring writer. Perhaps I'll write a soap opera about the Catholic Church in America: "As the Pendulum Swings...."

In all seriousness, the "reforms" that swept the nation after the Second Vatican Council resulted in the mass exodus of the religious from their convents, and even today we see the last vestiges of these religious who have left Catholicism and embraced the New Age, while still grasping the title of "Catholic", resulting in even further mass confusion.

And the Mass...well, on one hand we have the "Traditionalists", ranging from those of the SSPX, the schismatic society which does not recognize V2 as being valid, to Catholic "Traditionalists" who just seem to be a bunch of angry Catholics who are so offended by Haugen/Haas that they seem to feel a Novus Ordo Mass is barely even valid.

And then we have, on the other end of the spectrum, a bunch of nuts who call themselves "Catholic" yet are members of Call to Action, FutureChurch, promote the idea of women's ordination, homosexual marriage, contraception, and abortion.

And we have the run-of-the-mill "liberals" or "progressives" who embrace some of the above and become very offended at the mention that the Church knows what she is doing and that the "reforms" are too extreme.

And we have the average Catholic who may be a mixture of everything, or nothing.

And I haven't even defined the tip of the iceburg.

Father Martin Fox at Bonfire of the Vanities has a couple of posts regarding the issue of reforming the reform.

One of the reasons I get animated about this is that I do want to pursue the "reform of the reform," and I, too, don't want the abuses.

More than that, I believe there are questions of reorienting the celebration of the liturgy to where it is meant to be, but isn't; this is where the issue of music comes in -- and why it's more than bare questions of orthodoxy, but also simply what music.

And all this takes tremendous effort, and patience, both because of ordinary inertia at work in moving any organization, but also because so many of our fellow Catholics are used to what's not adequate, they are attached to it, and so, there will be resistance from other than ideologues.


Read the rest!

Father Fox does a great job of giving us a glimpse into what the average priest has to deal with when faced with the concerns in the Church today, and the wrath of the people he serves.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

swinging like this so much makes me dizzy....not good for the brain cells!

owenswain said...

It's swinging now in the same way it swung in the first 50 to 60 years following the council Nicea in 325. Finally, Church defined a unity of beliefs and then...everyone went nutso and there was more unrest than ever before.

Want the crap to fly? Just define truth and stand back.

Unknown said...

When I get frustrated with the Church and start to think about banging on walls to get them to take action, I recall that it took about 30 years after Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the doors of the Wittemburg Church before the Council of Trent was convened in 1545 and it lasted until 1563.

I think I recall reading that it took about 100 years for the edicts of the Council to be implemented.

The Church moves slowly. Maybe that is why it has lasted nearly 2,000 years.

Adoro said...

onionboy - Vatican 1 had a similar swing as well. It took 40 years to implement those teachings! Or longer.

Ray ~ Ray, I know you know this, but the Church has lasted for 2,000 years thanks to the Holy Spirit! Now don't go watering down the truth! *shaking finger*

But yes, it does move slowly, and that's likely a good thing. This is a big ship, and it's always good when large things move slowly. Otherwise we'd be going the route of the Anglican church...sinking into immorality and division just like the Titanic.