There are three ‘dimensions’ to the Church in her pilgrimage through time: The Church suffering, in purgatory; the Church triumphant, in heaven; and the Church militant, here on Earth. These terms are muted in the current Catechism, but the idea is implicit. There are principalities and powers, Satan and his minions, angelic and human, who, in their envy and malice, seek to block as many souls as possible from entering paradise.

More on that anon, but for now, to the point that, as a military organization, it is requisite the Church maintain her structure and discipline, especially when things seem to be falling apart, when they are needed most.

A significant component of that ‘structure and discipline’ is the hierarchy and, as much as possible and practical, our respect and obedience.

A big part of the ongoing problem in the Church is the lack of obedience, which only works in any hierarchy when everyone buys in. A lawless Church militant is an oxymoron, and it is disconcerting when the officers themselves don’t obey what their own institution – in this case, a divinely-guided one – tells them to do. We are left flummoxed, and are like foot-soldiers who know the master-plan of their general, but find their officers flouting it: Do they obey the bishops, or the Church?

Here are just a few examples of laws, decrees and disciplines, that have been formally promulgated, and are binding upon the Church. They are sort of random, and of varying degrees of gravity. But the point is how well they are preached, observed and obeyed.

  1. Those persisting in manifest grave sin are to be denied Holy Communion. This has been clarified to include politicians who formally support legalized abortion. What we do to Christ’s little ones…
  2. Same-sex attraction is inherently disordered, and acting upon such is objectively sinful. Persons with such attraction must be treated with compassion and respect, but the truth about the meaning of sexuality must never be denied.
  3. The apparent compromise of ‘same-sex unions’ are at the very least an occasion of sin, and a public scandal.
  4. Contraception is intrinsically evil, and never permitted.
  5. Pornography and attendant masturbation are also grave evils, corrupting the persons involved.
  6. One must enter marriage in a state of grace, if not virginal, at least living in chastity and continence.
  7. Marriage forms an indissoluble bond, and annulments should be rare, and rarely given.
  8. Outside of the danger of death, children should be baptized only if there is practical certainty they will be raised Catholic.
  9. Catholics schools should actually teach the Catholic Faith, in its entirety, without compromise. Teachers who have rejected the Faith should not be permitted to teach.
  10. Latin is still the universal language of the Roman rite, and its liturgy should be prayed and celebrated so, with some allowance for the vernacular (and not the other way around).
  11. Gregorian chant should be the primary ‘music’ at Mass, and the pipe organ is to be the primary instrument at Mass.
  12. All Latin-rite priests are to be proficient in Latin. Very few of them are – and it’s often not their fault, with the deficient formation they receive. See Catholic schools, above.
  13. Nowhere is there is a mandate to say Mass ‘facing the people’. And, while we’re at it, the traditional rite can never be abrogated.
  14. All priests – indeed, all students – are to be taught in their course of studies with ‘Saint Thomas Aquinas as teacher’. That means, primarily, the Summa Theologica.
  15. Catholics should have a knowledge of their Faith and its doctrine on the same level as their secular knowledge.
  16. The sacrament of Confirmation is to be given before Holy Communion, both at the ‘age of discretion’ (i.e., at the dawn of reason, when the child can discern between good and evil, right and wrong) and First Confession before either of them.
  17. Communion is to be given on the tongue, with reception on the hand an ‘indult’, which was permitted only for extraordinary reasons.
  18. Confession should be widely available, and even beyond this, whenever the sacrament is reasonably requested by the faithful. In fact, the faithful have a right to all the sacraments, even in the midst of various ‘risks and dangers’.
  19. Barring extreme necessity, churches should be open during the day for private prayer, and not locked up like Pharaoh’s tomb.
  20. Christ and the Church He founded are the only certain and sure paths to salvation. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus is still doctrine, and only non-culpable ignorance can save one otherwise.
  21. We are bound to seek the truth, especially salvific truth, and to follow the conclusions of such truth in our pilgrimage through life. Every one of us will be judged on our response to truth.

The reader may discern any number of others, but these twenty-one I hope provide a beginning for seeing why the Church is in disarray. As someone once put it to me, no two Catholics think alike, and that includes priests and bishops. There is a good sense of diversity in matters that are not binding, but the Church should signify far more in the way of unity, which is one of her divine marks. Such unity is the only basis for a legitimate and enriching diversity.

Although there is allowance for ‘pastoral application’, bishops, even the bishop of Rome, are still as bound to the Church’s official teaching as any of the rest of us.

How can the laity obey the hierarchy, when they themselves do not obey their own Church? Law must derive from written principles, pondered by the wise and learned over a long time, and often given by God Himself. Saint Thomas warns, on the contrary, against ‘animate justice’ wherein the ‘law’ – if we may call it so – derives rather from the whims and proclivities of individuals (bishops, priests, presiders, liturgists) who may not ‘like Latin’, or ‘chant’, or ‘Communion on the tongue’; who think extra-marital sex is no big deal, and often a good release; who are friends and boon companions with various corrupt politicians and potentates; or at least don’t want to rock the boat or jeopardize tax exemption and ‘long term’ influence; or the timid, whose primary aim is to avoid vilification or shaming in social media, and who hide out in their episcopal mansions and rectories; the comfortable and complacent…and on it goes.

As Thomas More pointed out to his son-in-law Roper, ignoring the law is a short route to chaos, which is what reigns at present, seen most vividly in the German episcopacy synodalling themselves off the cliffs of insanity. Curiously, Saint Paul describe the antichrist as anthropos tes anomos, (2 Thess 2:3) the ‘man of lawlessness’ – and more on that in a subsequent post. Might this ignoring of the law be a remote preparation for his coming?

So, yes, exhort, challenge, criticize our bishops and priests to obey rightly ordered law, but always with the respect and dignity that befits their office. God will take care of things, once we have done our own duty, and this applies also to bishops and to all of us.

We must fight courageously for the truth. As Catherine of Siena exhorted, which we quoted the other day, Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices. It is silence that kills the world.

In all things, pray, for truth and goodness to prevail, and for charity in our own hearts, in the garden of which, to paraphrase Solzhenitsyn, the wheat and tares grow. May God find enough truth and goodness in each of our own souls, that we survive His winnowing.

 

 

 

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