Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Traditional Roman Catholic Thoughts

Reintroducing Logic and Reason to the Age of Sentimentalism

Pope Francis Washes Feet During Holy Thursday Liturgy; Breaks Own Rule

Pope Francis broke his rule during the Holy Thursday ceremony of foot washing.

Pope Francis Smiling

If you recall, just a few months ago I reported that Pope Francis changed the rubrics for the washing of feet to allow women to participate. Though the washing of women’s feet has been a common practice in recent years, according to the rubrics, it was never permissible before.

While it comes as no surprise to those who have followed the Pope during his pontificate, Pope Francis washed the feet of several women. He also washed the feet of three Muslims and one Hindu. This behavior isn’t much different compared to his last three years of washing the feet of men and women of various religious creeds. What is different is how this behavior comes just months after he had changed the rules to allow his breaking of them.

It raises the question as to why Pope Francis bothered to change the rules in the first place if he wasn’t even going to follow them. The issue here is that only Catholics can have their feet washed, and the Pope has included non-Catholics in this ritual, though as mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first time he has done so.

Some may argue that Pope Francis, being the Pope, can change the rules or grant himself permission not to follow them, and perhaps they are right. But what kind of an example does that set to those who are supposed to follow them? Do priests follow the rules he has put forth? Do they ignore them? What can or can’t they ignore? It sets a very dangerous precedent. After all, if we are supposed to follow the Holy Father’s example if he breaks the rules, does that mean we are allowed to as well?

A leader who sets rules and doesn’t follow them isn’t considered a good leader. If anything, they are seen as a tyrant who only makes laws to keep his subjects in line. To use a more recent example, any member of the United States Congress, whether it be the House or the Senate, is exempt from the requirement to purchase healthcare insurance from the “Obamacare” act. It isn’t right that a lawmaker is not required to follow his laws. It would be hypocritical of me to have a rule that states commenters are not allowed to swear, but to proceed to swear throughout my comments. Jesus made many new laws during His time here on Earth, but He followed them.

The Holy Thursday liturgy is supposed to reflect Jesus’ institution of both the Priesthood as well as the Eucharist. However, with the changing of the laws in regards to the washing of feet, the focus has shifted from the priesthood and Jesus Himself to a false notion of “togetherness” and “servitude.” While serving others and sticking together are important aspects of Catholicism, they are not the focus of this liturgy.

Also worth pointing out, Muslims are not our “brothers and sisters”, nor are the Hindus, as we do not share anything with these two different creeds. And while Jesus did, in fact, wash the feet of men who were not Catholic by birth, but rather tax-collectors and Jews, they were followers of Jesus, who were baptized, and were chosen by Jesus to be His priests. They were completely Catholic.

What we see today is just further evidence that Pope Francis doesn’t care about the Catholic faith, but uses Catholicism as a cover to promote his agenda to make a one world religion. By his example and his call that we are all “children of God”, he has effectively stated that all religions are equal and that rules do not matter, even his own.

I propose then that we follow the example of Pope Francis and ignore whatever rules he proposes, as if they aren’t important enough for him to follow, then surely they aren’t important enough for us to follow. Instead, let us look to Christ and the teachings of His Holy Catholic Church over the course of 2,000 years to be our guide. And as always, pray for the Pope and the Church.

Jeff March 24, 2016 1 Comment Permalink

The Mercy Doors Are Coming For You!

When I wrote my article comparing the Year of Mercy to the movie Dogma, I honestly didn’t think that my analysis would be proven right. But alas, it has been.

The Year of Mercy if anything is a parody of the Catholic Church, in which everybody is going to get mercy whether they like it or not. I had heard rumblings about a “travelling door of mercy”, but when I wrote the article, I couldn’t find anything. It was almost as if all traces of it had disappeared from the internet.

Portable Door of Mercy

Over at the Catholic Herald, we read that Portable Doors of Mercy are on the road!

The Bishop of Wrexham says it allows the sick and less mobile to experience God’s mercy

Doors of Mercy have become a familiar sight during the Holy Year, present in every cathedral and in many churches in Britain and around the world, through which Catholics can pass to gain an indulgence.

But the Diocese of Wrexham has gone one further, with a portable Door of Mercy to travel the diocese.

Bishop Peter Brignall of Wrexham said the portable Door of Mercy makes the indulgence available to those who can’t travel.

“The Portable Door of Mercy provides that opportunity for those who might not be able to go on pilgrimage to the cathedral of our diocese and pass through the door,” said Bishop Brignall.

“It allows for those who are less able and who are sick to pass through and receive the Mercy of the Father.”

The door is being transferred to different deaneries around the diocese on each Saturday in Lent.

During the Year of Mercy, Catholics can gain an indulgence by passing through a Holy Door, receiving the Eucharist and going to Confession, and praying for the Pope’s intentions.

In a statement, the Diocese of Wrexham said: “The diocese has an ageing population and many would be unable to make the journey to the cathedral – this initiative of Bishop Peter’s extends God’s mercy to all in bringing the door directly to the people.

“Last weekend, the portable Door of Mercy was taken to the parish of Buckley, Flintshire, where many hundreds of people from all over North Wales attended “24 hours for the Lord”, where priests of the diocese were stationed to hear confessions throughout that period.”

This weekend the door will be taken to Our Lady of Sorrows, Dolgellau. On Saturday 19, the Feast of St Joseph, it will be taken to St Joseph, Denbigh.

Pope Francis began the Jubilee Year of Mercy by opening a Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica on December 8 last year. The Year of Mercy ends on November 20.

“God’s judgment will always be in the light of His mercy,” the Pope said. “In passing through the Holy Door, then, may we feel that we ourselves are part of this mystery of love.”

First and foremost, there are plenty of ways a person can receive a plenary indulgence without the need to go through the mercy doors! There is no reason at all for traveling mercy doors.

Second, you can receive the “Mercy of the Father” by going to confession and confessing your sins. You can’t receive a plenary indulgence by just performing some action.There are specific actions you must also perform to gain the indulgence. Those actions are:

  1. Complete detachment from sin of any kind, including venial sin.
  2. You must perform the work or the prayer attached to the indulgence (in this case, walking through the Mercy Door).
  3. Go to confession and confess all sins.
  4. Receive Holy Communion worthily.
  5. Praying for the intentions of the Pope.

The Year of Mercy weakens the notion of plenary indulgences because mention of these conditions is few and far between. Catholic and non-Catholics alike are left with the impression that all one must do to gain the plenary indulgence is to walk through these mercy doors. This article happens to mention the actions, but not until seven paragraphs in, long enough in where the reader has likely stopped reading and is now left with the false impression. If an individual does not perform the works necessary for a plenary indulgence, they are left with only a partial indulgence, yet they are left to believe they have been forgiven all temporal punishment for their sins.

Third, all of this talk about passing through these doors and making them more accessible so that the person can feel God’s mercy is a hallmark of Modernism, in which a person’s faith is only as strong as their emotional connection with it. If a person feels that what they are doing brings them closer to God, then who are you to judge if it is correct or not? 

It is sad that we live in a time where those running the Church mock it. As I wrote in the other article, indulgences are a beautiful and wonderful gift from God to show his love for us. It is too bad that mercy has been redefined not to mean what it means. According to Pope Francis, one must only walk into a confessional to be forgiven, without the need to confess their sins.

Pray that God sends His mercy upon this Church and either convert this Pope or sends us another. It will be a miracle if there is any Catholicism left in the Church when Francis is through.

Jeff March 16, 2016 3 Comments Permalink

Three Years of a Pope Francis Papacy

It has been three years since Pope Francis took the Petrine office. Three long years. His papacy has been nothing but disastrous for the Catholic faith, with Papal audiences shrinking in size. He has caused an enormous amount of confusion not only to the faithful but the entire world as to what Catholicism is and what it means. He has given the impression that Catholicism can change depending on who is the current Pope.

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From the beginning of his papacy, he has been manipulating the liturgy to allow for women (and especially non-Catholic women) to have their feet washed during the Holy Thursday liturgy. But Pope Francis had been doing this for many years prior. The difference though was when Pope Francis was only a Cardinal Archbishop he was abusing the liturgy by doing this. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had both washed the feet of men, the latter washing the feet of priests. It was a beautiful representation of the Vicar of Christ washing the feet of his priests, much like Jesus washed the feet of his priests that night. It was a moment in which we transported back in time.

However, Pope Francis continued his abuse of the foot washing as he became Pope. His defenders said the Pope can change the liturgy though he didn’t. In fact, it wasn’t until January that he changed the liturgy. So really, what has happened is an abuse for the last 2,000 years has just been made permissible by the Holy Father.  But the message we hear is how this is more inclusive and more “Catholic”, and those who disagree are not Catholic.

There is a parable that Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew 25 of the shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. The shepherd will take the sheep with him, and the goats will be taken away. It seems the purpose of this papacy is to do exactly that. Those who adhere to Jesus’ teaching and that of the Church are the sheep, and those who adhere to this Pope’s teachings and ignore the Church’s teachings and traditions are the goats, along with all non-Catholics.

However, the difference though is Pope Francis actively tells the goats that they are good sheep and lavishes them with praise. Meanwhile, he berates the sheep and accuses them of being poor sheep and goat-like, making them think they are not good.

Even more disturbing are those otherwise faithful Catholics who seem to be enjoying his beatings. Pope Francis supporters are every day becoming more masochistic, enjoying the fact that the current Pope berates them for being Catholic. In today’s world, it is Catholic not to be Catholic. When Pope Francis harps about an attitude from the Catholic perspective, these Catholics will nod their head and praise “the spirit” for sending us a Pope, who is looking to change things (and not for the better). There is quite the difference in encouraging Catholics to be more Catholic by examining their faults and lambasting Catholics for being Catholic.

This papacy, God-willing, will not last for much longer, as I’m not sure how much more the Church will be able to bear. Remember, when Pope Benedict XVI abdicated the throne, that very night lightning struck the top of St. Peter’s. Many thought it was an ominous sight.

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Looking back, we can confidently say that that was a warning shot from God letting us know that He was not pleased. These last three years have done no good for Catholicism, with the only benefit being how many more people have rediscovered authentic Catholicism. Continue to pray and fast for the Church and this Pope, and pray that his successor will uphold authentic Catholic values.

Jeff March 11, 2016 18 Comments Permalink

The Year of Mercy as Foretold by Dogma

The Year of Mercy has been in full force for well over three months. I’ve seen various articles across numerous social-media platforms, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. I’m not sure if I wasn’t paying attention during 2015 or just didn’t care, but I didn’t realize that one could gain a plenary indulgence by walking through the doors of a Cathedral during this Year of Mercy. In fact, it wasn’t until I heard someone refer to these holy doors as “Mercy Doors” that I had thought how familiar this sounded. Then it hit me. It’s part of the plot from the blasphemous movie Dogma!

For those of you who have never seen Dogma, or don’t remember, it is a comedy in which Ben Affleck and Matt Damon play two fallen angels who disobeyed God and were banished and sent to Wisconsin. But, it gets better. Because the Catholic Church is considered “old and stale” the fictitious Cardinal Glick, reveals a new image of Jesus, called “the Buddy Christ,” in which we see an updated Jesus who is smiling, winking and pointing at you. During this campaign to update the Church’s image along with his Cathedral’s rededication, Cardinal Glick announces that anyone who goes through the Cathedral’s doors during this time will gain a plenary indulgence and will receive pardon from all sin, allowing for direct entry into Heaven. Seeing this as an opportunity to prove God wrong, Affleck and Damon drive across America to New Jersey so that they can pass through this “Door of Mercy” so that they can go to Heaven and cause all life as we know it to cease to exist.

Yes, I know how awful this movie is, but before my conversion to Catholicism ten years ago, I really enjoyed this movie. It was my favorite movie, but no longer is.

Needless to say, has no one else thought of this comparison? Not only is the plot line similar, but the logo looks an awful lot like Buddy Christ.

buddy-christ-looks-like-year-of-mercy

My knee-jerk reaction was to wonder if anybody in the Vatican’s PR department didn’t stop to see if something was a bit off with the Year of Mercy. After all, Dogma came out in 1999 and drew the attention of a lot of Catholics as being quite anti-Catholic. And while the Vatican can’t keep track of every movie released, you would think that one of the American Cardinals would have at least thought “hey, this sounds familiar?” I mean, it isn’t like Pope Francis just dropped this into their laps with only a couple of months to prepare, right?

Many Popes have granted indulgences throughout the history of the Church as a sign of God’s love and mercy. Indulgences are a beautiful gift which remits the temporal punishment due to sin which already has been forgiven in full or in part. It is up to the reigning Pontiff to determine if he should impart a plenary indulgence to the Church for a particular event, but he should use this power responsibly, as one of the biggest complaints during the Protestant Reformation was the abuse of such indulgences.

The plenary indulgence for a pilgrim who walks through the Holy Doors of a Basilica or Cathedral has occurred throughout the majority of the history of the Catholic Church. This practice is nothing novel. What is novel about this particular devotion with the Year of Mercy is that originally a pilgrim was required to go to Rome and walk through the doors of one of the major basilicas or St. Peter’s to receive the indulgence. It was work to gain the indulgence. It was an indulgence given as a reward for making the long pilgrimage.

With the Year of Mercy, the indulgence has been extended to all Cathedrals or Basilicas across the world.

Perhaps instead of looking at Dogma as a movie that was predicting the future, maybe we should view it as a movie parodying the Church for some of the silly things it was already doing? The movie clearly mocks the Catholic practice of receiving a plenary indulgence from walking through the Holy Doors.

This misunderstanding derives from the fact that the average Catholic would not have known about this practice because your average Catholic before the Second Vatican Council would likely not travel to Rome to participate in these Jubilee years. But the Popes had begun loosening the tradition of pilgrims being required to travel to Rome to receive the plenary indulgence, thus this practice would seem novel to your average Catholic, who had not known about it.

Dogma was controversial for it’s heretical theology and jokes profaning much of what the Catholic Church considers holy. It was absurd to think that the Church would remove the crucifixes because they were too negative and replaced them with sappy images of Jesus Christ trying to portray Himself as “hip” and “cool” to appeal to the modern man. Fast-forward seventeen years and what do we see?

We see the Catholic Church trying to whimsy it’s way into relevance by asserting herself to be “hip” and “cool.” Gone are the days in which your average Catholic in the pew submitted himself to God. Today, the average Catholic forces God to submit to him. We no longer see the crucifix as being the primary image of Our Lord to remind us of our redemption, but because the crucifixion isn’t happy, we see the images of Our Lord replaced with happy hippy versions who “don’t judge” and are cool with whatever you do, man.

If anything, the Year of Mercy demonstrates how far the Catholic Church has fallen into a parody of herself. We can see the Year of Mercy, if anything, as a parallel to Dogma. We now witness the “Oprahfication” of indulgences, in which everybody gets an indulgence, every church gets a Holy Door, everyone gets mercy, whether they like it or not.

Oprah You Get an Indulgence

Don’t get me wrong, mercy is beautiful, but it is something that can only be given by God if the individual requests it. Throughout this Year of Mercy, everyone has been suffocated by the term that it no longer means what is intended. It leads numerous people to believe that they do not need to amend their lives but instead leads them to think they can continue to live the lives they lead and that mercy will forgive them regardless. This attitude does no favor to these people, but only reaffirms them in their sin.

The “Church” as we see from her visible witness is no longer acting as if she is in the business of saving souls, but rather, is attempting to be in the business of entertainment. But the Church fails because her job isn’t to entertain, but to bring souls into the graces provided by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Those who adhere to Christ and His Church’s rules know that the Church’s mission hasn’t changed one iota, but the clergy who are running the show have. And while these men pervert the image of the Church as well as her message, Christ’s sending message still rings true even to this day.

“Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” Matthew 28:19-20

Jeff March 6, 2016 5 Comments Permalink