Nothing that happens in the Conciliar Church surprises me anymore. I rarely even read about it these days. However, today I read Rod Dreher’s Cardinal Screwtape. I’m sure many readers will have problems with Dreher. He’s not always a coherent thinker—a journalist masquerading as a thinker, you could say, perhaps a bit unkindly. It’s not my intent to recommend Dreher as a kind to anyone—it’s simply that he often does hit on important points. Today he writes about a charlatan name McElroy who published a secular humanist screed in the Jesuit magazine America. Follow the link for a discussion, which is largely on point.
Charlie Kirk and James Lindsay discuss Marx, Hegel, Gnosticism, Materialism, Hermeticism, the New Age religion, the Lucis Trust (which is headquartered in the UN building) and much more. No conspiracy theories; publicly available info.
I haven't listened to the podcast but, yes, all those -isms and more plus the norming of transgressive anti-human behavior of all sorts are all tied together. The Modernist movement in the Catholic West has deep roots in all this. It's a hidden history that few are aware of. Teihlard de Chardin, now the foundational thinker of the Conciliar Church and all but canonized, had deep roots in much of that. And quite consciously so.
As he wrote to a cousin: "What dominates my interests increasingly is the effort to establish in me and define around me a new religion (call it a better Christianity, if you will)...",[70] and elsewhere: "a Christianity re-incarnated for a second time in the spiritual energies of Matter".[71] The more Teilhard refines his theories, the more he emancipates himself from established Christian doctrine:[72] a "religion of the earth" must replace a "religion of heaven".[73] By their common faith in Man, he writes, Christians, Marxists, Darwinists, materialists of all kinds will ultimately join around the same summit: the Christic Omega Point.[74]
"It should also give us considerable pause to look at the select group of major Catholics who have dared to praise the work of Teilhard de Chardin in spite of its obvious witch’s brew of materialism, evolutionism, syncretism, and pantheism: Cardinal Henri de Lubac (who wrote four books explaining and defending Teilhard), Cardinal Agostino Casaroli (proponent of Ostpolitik), Cardinal Avery Dulles, Robert Barron, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis, who favorably cites Teilhard in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’, thus providing one more item for the future Syllabus of Errors that will have to be custom-made for him."
Thanks for this additional info! I had not heard of the Christic Omega Point but looked it up. Sounds suspiciously like The Beast of Revelation 13. All this--the stolen election, Covid, the communist takeover of Brazil, the WEF, Harari's transhumanism--it's all marching humanity toward the End. When our country was stolen I grieved as though a loved one had died. But all this doesn't depress me anymore; it's exciting. He who has seen the end from the beginning will be with us every step of the way. The best is yet to come! Luke 21:28
This Teilhard quote was featured prominently above the auditorium in the building where I took most of my foreign-service/international-relations coursework at my Jesuit undergrad:
"The Age of Nations is past. It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudices and build the earth."
Really struck a chord with me amidst the hopefulness of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the time, and it took me well into adulthood to see the insidiousness of it all.
Coincidentally, yesterday the Western Journal posted an article noting the Pope addressing Homosexuality. Initially and, per the headline, it appeared quite apalling. He says Bishops who opposed LGBTQ+ behaviors are to undergo "A Process of Conversion". Sounded like Woke-Pope (evidently I'm not very good at being 'catchy') initially I was thinkin' the Gloom and Doom of Faith had another new low to see. Some, but not quite that far out there...
While there is room for discussion and disagreement in the subject, it took some effort to find in that article what I believe to be true: Loving the sinner isn't loving the sin. I'd also note criminality of behavior is dangerous ground these days - no one (well, not many) thinks murder should get a pass while some think homosexuality should be encouraged (& etc., ad nauseum).
What I believe to be true is Marxism/socialism needs Faith in God to be reduced so that replacement-faith in Gov't can gain control. As our 'Separation of Church and State' constitutional intention is further eroded and its meaning inverted, God is being separated from the public square and our culture becomes increasingly diseased. A pretty specific inversion it is, indeed.
Thanks to Mark for offering this difficult subject up for discussion here and to all readers who, like me, appreciate the opportunity provided. (WRH)
I must say, this phenomenon — the rapid capitulation to the “woke agenda” and “critical theory” — is happening throughout the entire Christian world. The spirit of the age has even made inroads into erstwhile conservative denominations like the Southern Baptists and the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
In Luke 18:8 Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Almost seems he was hinting that things would turn out like this.
Organizations tend to get corrupted, one way or another. The Reformation was caused by the immorality and corruption of the Renaissance popes. (Barbara Tuchman's book "The March of Folly" has a good account of this.) The "mainline" Protestant denominations in the US adopted liberal theology more than a century ago. Now they are dying. For one example, the Episcopal Church in the US has half the members it had in 1960--while the US population has doubled since then. They still have money, buildings, and clergy; but they are having more funerals than weddings and baptisms. Ryan Burge, a sociologist of religion, has predicted they will likely disappear by 2040. The others aren't much better off. I do not find it surprising that the Roman Catholic church is heading that way as well.
I have read several of Dreher's books. I agree with him on some things, but not on a lot of others, especially about living as a Christian. I have little interest in human traditions and liturgies and denominations structures--they can always be captured and subverted.
My personal belief is that real Christianity is not about what you do in a building on Sunday. It is about how you live all week long. There is very little in the New Testament about what happens in the assembly; there is a lot about how to live. In my lifetime, I have known people who were Christians first and Catholics second; I have known some who were Catholics first. Likewise, I have known people who were Baptists or Methodists first; but there are some who are Christians first. As long as there are organized denominations, we will have that issue.
So true. I've known people who behaved like true Christians who had never even heard of Jesus. It's also significant that Jesus never talked about an organisation called the "church" in the sense that we know it today. He used the word "Ekklesia" and only used it twice. It meant his followers, not buildings, hierarchies and 501c tax exemptions.
The ekklesia is the assembled ("called") people of God, qahal in Hebrew. The people are assembled to worship and receive teaching. For Christians, the assembly is defined by belief in Jesus--who he is and what he did. Synagoge is another way of expressing the idea--a "gathering" or assembly. Organization is a part of that.
This hit the nail on the head, Mark. If anyone wants to be a Christian, he must seek to know Him, to follow Him, and to ‘take up his cross and follow Him’. Hard to see how one can do that without assembling with other believers on a regular basis.
The idea of each individual being his own authority is in practice a recipe for social dissolution. As Aquinas points out, while each individual can arrive at truth through reason, it only comes about over a long period, with great difficulty, and with mistakes mixed in. The Protestant concept of faith, when combined with the above, makes matters worse because it is basically the idea of subjective conviction--rather than the traditional idea of reasoned belief based on evidence. This is the common modern understanding of "faith" as a subjective thing. The Protestant idea arose from late Catholic nominalist philosophy--Luther was a professor of nominalist philosophy. Modernist Catholics like Ratzinger explicitly accept the Lutheran/Protestant idea of faith.
I'm speaking here in generalities--broad brush. There are always exceptions but for historical purposes and understanding where we are now, it's the trend that's important.
I like the point James makes on faith: it is shown by action. Faith is empty without being acted upon. "By their fruit you shall know them." The fruit is the result of the action - we see it. Just as Jesus "saw" the faith of the men who let the paralytic down through the roof. Their action revealed their faith.
Reading that article -slower- seems to show sensationalism in journalism a lot. Sorry to have implied too much negatively. Bad days/good days. Appreciate all your patience w/me...
more meaning in history: they had one son, David Rieff (see bio on wikipedia) whose name rang a distant bell! Turns out he’s a darling of the Open-everything intelligentsia (NYC-Princeton-New School), and…a board member of Soros’ Open Society Institute…even wrote a book on the need to lighten up and forget history! Freud would be smiling!
Sometimes, happily, it works the other way around, as in the case of the famous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hare who, on behalf of her young son got prayer banned in public schools in the mid-sixties. When her son grew up and became a man, he managed to break free of mother’s domination and actually became a Christian. Not so, his sister. Both mother and sister came to a frightful end, murdered for money.
Yes. The label was first used by the modernist party after Vatican II to declare the triumph of their revolution — i.e., that the council had given birth to a “new” and “improved” church. In recent years the label has been adopted by traditional Catholics as a pejorative, turning the modernists triumphalism on its head — essentially granting the claim regarding a “new” church but casting it as a heretical counterfeit.
This is why Archbishop Vigano draws a direct parallel between what we call the Deep State and the Deep Church.
I've always struggled with the idea that God intercedes. It's hard to believe that after the last 3 years when evil people seem to have flourished and good people had their livelihoods and even lives destroyed. However, it seems evident that God has made a set of rules for this world, and those who inhabit it, and that we are all bound to those, like it or not.
The Psalmist in chapter 73 of that book struggled with the same idea. He complains about the prosperity of the wicked, their pride and arrogance, how they loftily threaten oppression, how they are always at ease and increase in riches, and how it’s been all in vain that he’s kept his own heart clean. “But,” he says, “when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” Then there’s Ps. 92:7, “…though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever…”
This sort of thing offends modern sensibilities. It’s not very, um, conciliatory. Not nice. But if you believe there’s a God, and that he is good, then you can know that evil people will receive their just desserts sooner or later. Of course, if it is within our power to right a wrong, then by all means we should do so. But if tyranny cuts off even the opportunity to do what’s right, there is still the Psalmist’s consolation that justice will not tarry forever.
Readers may like to merge Mark's info with that contained in this article:
https://www.wnd.com/2023/01/pope-benedict-recently-revealed-antichrist-letter/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=PostBottomSharingButtons&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons "One especially significantly fact is that this Vatican coup occurred shortly after a report Pope Benedict had commissioned finally confirmed the existence of a powerful "gay mafia" in the Vatican (an open secret that had been publicly hinted at by his predecessor Pope John Paul)."
And in this podcast: https://charliekirk.com/podcasts/?ep=35d5a11e-1dab-465d-ba2d-af7f004ab9cf
Charlie Kirk and James Lindsay discuss Marx, Hegel, Gnosticism, Materialism, Hermeticism, the New Age religion, the Lucis Trust (which is headquartered in the UN building) and much more. No conspiracy theories; publicly available info.
It is indeed "all tied together".
I haven't listened to the podcast but, yes, all those -isms and more plus the norming of transgressive anti-human behavior of all sorts are all tied together. The Modernist movement in the Catholic West has deep roots in all this. It's a hidden history that few are aware of. Teihlard de Chardin, now the foundational thinker of the Conciliar Church and all but canonized, had deep roots in much of that. And quite consciously so.
As he wrote to a cousin: "What dominates my interests increasingly is the effort to establish in me and define around me a new religion (call it a better Christianity, if you will)...",[70] and elsewhere: "a Christianity re-incarnated for a second time in the spiritual energies of Matter".[71] The more Teilhard refines his theories, the more he emancipates himself from established Christian doctrine:[72] a "religion of the earth" must replace a "religion of heaven".[73] By their common faith in Man, he writes, Christians, Marxists, Darwinists, materialists of all kinds will ultimately join around the same summit: the Christic Omega Point.[74]
https://onepeterfive.com/teilhard-chardin-ambiguity-pope/
"It should also give us considerable pause to look at the select group of major Catholics who have dared to praise the work of Teilhard de Chardin in spite of its obvious witch’s brew of materialism, evolutionism, syncretism, and pantheism: Cardinal Henri de Lubac (who wrote four books explaining and defending Teilhard), Cardinal Agostino Casaroli (proponent of Ostpolitik), Cardinal Avery Dulles, Robert Barron, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis, who favorably cites Teilhard in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’, thus providing one more item for the future Syllabus of Errors that will have to be custom-made for him."
Thanks for this additional info! I had not heard of the Christic Omega Point but looked it up. Sounds suspiciously like The Beast of Revelation 13. All this--the stolen election, Covid, the communist takeover of Brazil, the WEF, Harari's transhumanism--it's all marching humanity toward the End. When our country was stolen I grieved as though a loved one had died. But all this doesn't depress me anymore; it's exciting. He who has seen the end from the beginning will be with us every step of the way. The best is yet to come! Luke 21:28
This Teilhard quote was featured prominently above the auditorium in the building where I took most of my foreign-service/international-relations coursework at my Jesuit undergrad:
"The Age of Nations is past. It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudices and build the earth."
Really struck a chord with me amidst the hopefulness of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the time, and it took me well into adulthood to see the insidiousness of it all.
I've listened to the first 15 minutes of the podcast and it seems to be quite spot on.
An astute if depressing explanation of why western civilisation is falling apart. Thanks Mark!
Coincidentally, yesterday the Western Journal posted an article noting the Pope addressing Homosexuality. Initially and, per the headline, it appeared quite apalling. He says Bishops who opposed LGBTQ+ behaviors are to undergo "A Process of Conversion". Sounded like Woke-Pope (evidently I'm not very good at being 'catchy') initially I was thinkin' the Gloom and Doom of Faith had another new low to see. Some, but not quite that far out there...
While there is room for discussion and disagreement in the subject, it took some effort to find in that article what I believe to be true: Loving the sinner isn't loving the sin. I'd also note criminality of behavior is dangerous ground these days - no one (well, not many) thinks murder should get a pass while some think homosexuality should be encouraged (& etc., ad nauseum).
What I believe to be true is Marxism/socialism needs Faith in God to be reduced so that replacement-faith in Gov't can gain control. As our 'Separation of Church and State' constitutional intention is further eroded and its meaning inverted, God is being separated from the public square and our culture becomes increasingly diseased. A pretty specific inversion it is, indeed.
Thanks to Mark for offering this difficult subject up for discussion here and to all readers who, like me, appreciate the opportunity provided. (WRH)
Its really all of a piece. And it is existential.
I must say, this phenomenon — the rapid capitulation to the “woke agenda” and “critical theory” — is happening throughout the entire Christian world. The spirit of the age has even made inroads into erstwhile conservative denominations like the Southern Baptists and the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
In Luke 18:8 Jesus said, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Almost seems he was hinting that things would turn out like this.
Is it too late to suppress the Jesuits...?
This chastisement is going to hurt, but it's been a long time coming, so.
Never say it's too late.
Depressing.. yep, that's the word for it.
Organizations tend to get corrupted, one way or another. The Reformation was caused by the immorality and corruption of the Renaissance popes. (Barbara Tuchman's book "The March of Folly" has a good account of this.) The "mainline" Protestant denominations in the US adopted liberal theology more than a century ago. Now they are dying. For one example, the Episcopal Church in the US has half the members it had in 1960--while the US population has doubled since then. They still have money, buildings, and clergy; but they are having more funerals than weddings and baptisms. Ryan Burge, a sociologist of religion, has predicted they will likely disappear by 2040. The others aren't much better off. I do not find it surprising that the Roman Catholic church is heading that way as well.
I have read several of Dreher's books. I agree with him on some things, but not on a lot of others, especially about living as a Christian. I have little interest in human traditions and liturgies and denominations structures--they can always be captured and subverted.
My personal belief is that real Christianity is not about what you do in a building on Sunday. It is about how you live all week long. There is very little in the New Testament about what happens in the assembly; there is a lot about how to live. In my lifetime, I have known people who were Christians first and Catholics second; I have known some who were Catholics first. Likewise, I have known people who were Baptists or Methodists first; but there are some who are Christians first. As long as there are organized denominations, we will have that issue.
So true. I've known people who behaved like true Christians who had never even heard of Jesus. It's also significant that Jesus never talked about an organisation called the "church" in the sense that we know it today. He used the word "Ekklesia" and only used it twice. It meant his followers, not buildings, hierarchies and 501c tax exemptions.
The ekklesia is the assembled ("called") people of God, qahal in Hebrew. The people are assembled to worship and receive teaching. For Christians, the assembly is defined by belief in Jesus--who he is and what he did. Synagoge is another way of expressing the idea--a "gathering" or assembly. Organization is a part of that.
This hit the nail on the head, Mark. If anyone wants to be a Christian, he must seek to know Him, to follow Him, and to ‘take up his cross and follow Him’. Hard to see how one can do that without assembling with other believers on a regular basis.
The idea of each individual being his own authority is in practice a recipe for social dissolution. As Aquinas points out, while each individual can arrive at truth through reason, it only comes about over a long period, with great difficulty, and with mistakes mixed in. The Protestant concept of faith, when combined with the above, makes matters worse because it is basically the idea of subjective conviction--rather than the traditional idea of reasoned belief based on evidence. This is the common modern understanding of "faith" as a subjective thing. The Protestant idea arose from late Catholic nominalist philosophy--Luther was a professor of nominalist philosophy. Modernist Catholics like Ratzinger explicitly accept the Lutheran/Protestant idea of faith.
I'm speaking here in generalities--broad brush. There are always exceptions but for historical purposes and understanding where we are now, it's the trend that's important.
I like the point James makes on faith: it is shown by action. Faith is empty without being acted upon. "By their fruit you shall know them." The fruit is the result of the action - we see it. Just as Jesus "saw" the faith of the men who let the paralytic down through the roof. Their action revealed their faith.
not an accident or minor part of The Great Commission: Discipleship.
Reading that article -slower- seems to show sensationalism in journalism a lot. Sorry to have implied too much negatively. Bad days/good days. Appreciate all your patience w/me...
more meaning in history: they had one son, David Rieff (see bio on wikipedia) whose name rang a distant bell! Turns out he’s a darling of the Open-everything intelligentsia (NYC-Princeton-New School), and…a board member of Soros’ Open Society Institute…even wrote a book on the need to lighten up and forget history! Freud would be smiling!
Sometimes, happily, it works the other way around, as in the case of the famous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hare who, on behalf of her young son got prayer banned in public schools in the mid-sixties. When her son grew up and became a man, he managed to break free of mother’s domination and actually became a Christian. Not so, his sister. Both mother and sister came to a frightful end, murdered for money.
"Conciliar church". Sounds very cosy and comforting, don't it? Exactly what it's not supposed to be.
Yes. The label was first used by the modernist party after Vatican II to declare the triumph of their revolution — i.e., that the council had given birth to a “new” and “improved” church. In recent years the label has been adopted by traditional Catholics as a pejorative, turning the modernists triumphalism on its head — essentially granting the claim regarding a “new” church but casting it as a heretical counterfeit.
This is why Archbishop Vigano draws a direct parallel between what we call the Deep State and the Deep Church.
Yes.
I've always struggled with the idea that God intercedes. It's hard to believe that after the last 3 years when evil people seem to have flourished and good people had their livelihoods and even lives destroyed. However, it seems evident that God has made a set of rules for this world, and those who inhabit it, and that we are all bound to those, like it or not.
The Psalmist in chapter 73 of that book struggled with the same idea. He complains about the prosperity of the wicked, their pride and arrogance, how they loftily threaten oppression, how they are always at ease and increase in riches, and how it’s been all in vain that he’s kept his own heart clean. “But,” he says, “when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” Then there’s Ps. 92:7, “…though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever…”
This sort of thing offends modern sensibilities. It’s not very, um, conciliatory. Not nice. But if you believe there’s a God, and that he is good, then you can know that evil people will receive their just desserts sooner or later. Of course, if it is within our power to right a wrong, then by all means we should do so. But if tyranny cuts off even the opportunity to do what’s right, there is still the Psalmist’s consolation that justice will not tarry forever.
I think you mean “intervene.” God intervenes. We intercede.