Cardinal Cupich: “We must let go of “cherished
beliefs”
Where do we go when the “Church of Discernment”
Replaces the
Holy Catholic Church?
U.S. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich appointed
by Francis to the powerful Vatican Congregation for Bishops
made the following unimaginable statement: “If Catholics want
to engage in “discernment” like Pope Francis does, they must let
go of “cherished beliefs” and outlined the “rebuilding and
re-imagining of the Church through “discernment” and “dialogue”
— nouveau concepts dear to Pope Francis's vision of a new Church
emerging from the ashes of 2000 years of history, teaching, and
tradition that Vatican II ignited and Pope Francis is determined
to consume in a conflagration that will obliterate all distinctions
between Catholics and Protestants — and perhaps a totally “inclusive”
pan-religious “Faith Community” that will abolish the Roman Catholic
Church — much as the Communist Revolution was to abolish all class
distinctions in the “withering away of the State”. It will be,
as Cupich flatly states, “a revolution”, a process and a Church
that will necessarily have its “own vocabulary”.
“Graduation Day” for Catholics?
Indeed, Cardinal Cupich maintains that we must
graduate from our Catholic “adolescence” into what we presume
he understands as a largely Protestant spirituality based on conscience:
According to Lifesite News, “In June,
the Cardinal interpreted the Pope’s 2016 exhortation Amoris
Laetitia (Joy of Love) as a call for Catholics to graduate
from “an adolescent spirituality into an adult spirituality”
where they will be able to use their “freedom of conscience”
to “discern truth” in their life ... Cupich has argued that
active homosexuals should be able to receive Holy Communion
and is a public supporter of Jesuit priest and homosexualist
Vatican adviser James Martin.” 1
How are we to understand his clearly pejorative description
of genuine Catholic spirituality as “adolescent”? After 2000 years
is it in need of maturation? Is it not much more a matter of accommodation
— specifically ecumenical accommodation to better align Catholic
with Protestant doctrine and spirituality? Indeed, the admiration of
Pope Francis for the arch-heresiarch Martin Luther and his recent ebullient
“Commemoration” of the Reformation is unmistakable ... and deeply regrettable.
It is an exuberance equally shared by Cardinal Cupich.
2
What
does it say, however, to the faithful of the past 2000 years? That
they have lived in spiritual immaturity, replete with all the
devotions and practices that characterized Catholics before (and even
after) Vatican II — and which were the very beliefs and practices which
Luther reviled, and many Protestants since?
An “Imaginary” Church?
First let us be clear about terms — specifically the
word “re-imagine”.
We can only re-imagine what was
first imaginary to begin with. If we “imagine”
something, it is clear that what we envision does not exist (or,
possibly,
once did and no longer does) — it is so remote from
recollection, so distant in the past, that we no longer have a clear
idea of what it really was and certainly no contemporaneous
connection with it — hence we must resort to imagining what it was,
which is to say that our concept of it is imaginary:
it does not pertain to what actually exists, but but to a
mental fabrication, a mere ideological construct that has no
correspondence in reality. At best, it is what we imagine
might possibly exist or what had existed
in some long-forgotten primeval haze ... but no longer does, or is
no longer present to us.
Does this
describe the Holy Catholic Church? Is Cupich, then, an imaginary
cardinal since the Church that conferred this office upon him is itself
imaginary — as are, eo ipso, her sacraments, doctrines,
dogmas, teachings, and discipline?
Where will Catholics faithful to the Magisterium
and the Sacred Deposit of Faith go once this revolution materializes?
To what Church — after the Roman Catholic Church has been
“re-imagined” — indeed, we hold that it was never imaginary
at all
(and therefore in no need of re-imagining) to begin
with, but a beautiful reality in the ugly and impoverished world
of the City of Man? To the nearest Lutheran or Episcopal
“church” with a female priestess — or, for that matter, even a
transgender male-female/female-male “officiant”? The
logic of “ecumenism” does not exclude this blasphemy — indeed it
does not even exclude the mosque!
Of course
this sounds nonsensical. Why? It is nonsense!
We cannot go to a Lutheran church or a mosque — however ecumenically
magnanimous we are urged to be — for nowhere else apart from the
One, True, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church will we find Jesus
Christ — in the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in Holy Communion,
and in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
An “imagined” or “re-imagined”
church has none of these — and never will. In a
word such an “imagined” church — even were “re-imagination”
possible — would be an utter imposter: not the
beautiful and spotless Bride of Christ, but a meretricious
harlot with many “lovers” upon the altars of many religions
in
the world — and of the world. (1 John 2:15)
_______________________
1
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholics-must-let-go-of-cherished-beliefs-to-discern-like-pope-francis-u.s
2
https://www.archchicago.org/news-release/-/article/2017/10/24/the-archdiocese-of-chicago-and-the-metropolitan-chicago-synod-of-the-evangelical-lutheran-church-in-america-to-commemorate-the-500th-anniversary-of-th
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Boston Catholic Journal
Sunday 8 July 2018
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