I was the last to know, apparently. I only heard the shocking news this morning.
My dear friends, the time to say the beads in now, and unceasingly until the white smoke emerges from the Vatican chimneys. The time is dark and the situation is very grave.
I will not bore my readers with my uninformed speculations. We all have our opinions. Mine are not any more informed than most other Catholic bloggers. I have no knowledge as to what prompted this. I have often criticized Benedict for his lack of governance, for not taking a firm hand at the wheel. Even while admiring the good he has done I have always had to face that cold shower of disappointment over a Papacy that has seemed mired, or stuck, in a groove of ambiguity and contradictions. It is all very strange.
But now it is time for the beads.
St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, pray for us.
UPDATE 13 February 2013:
We're hearing more Gregorian Chant in the abdication news reports background music in one day than the average Catholic has heard in thirty-five years.
FURTHER UPDATE:
The US president says that his "prayers are with the Pope". Isn't that special? My mind's eye can see Barack and Michelle, after a hard day of murdering innocents with drones and shoving sodomy and abortion down our throats, getting ready to turn in for sleep after brushing their teeth and cleaning the lint out from between their toes, kneeling at their bedside and saying their nightly prayers for Pope Benedict.
6 comments:
We must pray without ceasing.+
Saw your comment about the Mattei article over at Eponymous Flower. Would you please encapsulate it for us common folk? I have no clue what the man was trying to say. Too much talk and in the end I just don't get the big point he was trying to make. Can you help?
Dear Anon @11:07:
I will do my best to answer your question.
Firstly, Mattei makes a clear distinction between the power of "orders" and the power of "jurisdiction". The power of Orders is sacramental as in the Holy Orders of the priesthood, whereas Jurisdiction refers to the governance of the Church as a whole and every Catholic individually. Holy orders are indelible; they cannot be "erased" from a man; jurisdiction, on the other hand, is temporary and ceases when the mandate is finished. [Cardinal Mahony, for example, is no longer able to exercise jurisdiction in Los Angeles (thanks be to God) but he is still, alas, a Bishop of the Catholic Church and will remain one until he dies which, one can hope, will be soon.] So by abdicating Benedict is ending his jurisdiction over the Church, but cannot erase the power of Orders, which will always be with him until death.
Mattei is definitely signalling that what Benedict has done is "revolutionary". He stresses that it is canonically legitimate for a Pope to abdicate but that on a historic level is constitutes "an absolute break with the tradition and practice of the Church". Very rightly does he say that this move of Benedict does this: "The image of the institution of the papacy in the eyes of public opinion throughout the world is in fact being stripped of its sacredness". True enough. The average man in the street will now start to look at the papacy as some sort of mere figurehead, or as some kind of elected office, which will demolish its Sacred character.
He also points out that liberal crackpots like Hans Kung have long maintained that a Pope should resign at a certain age, or that he should be nothing more than a mere figurehead, elected for only a limited time, with no jurisdiction, a primacy of "honor" but not jurisdiction. In fact Kung and those who think like him want a mere puppet.
Mattei also points out the strange fact that Benedict is not physically incapacitated. He is sharp in mind and sound in body. Great health has never been a main requirement for governing the Church, so the excuse that he is abdicating for health reasons is very odd, to say the least.
I was pleased that Mattei points out that the Holy Ghost assists the Pope throughout his papacy until death (though a Pope can ignore that assistance, with tragic results for God's Church); I was also pleased that he reminds us that the Holy Ghost "is often invoked inappropriately, as when it is claimed that He vouches for every act and every word of a Pope or of a Council". Exactly.
I hope that helps a little. Perhaps someone more erudite than I can chime in on this. In any case I believe Mattei's assessment is far more sound than the mountain of idiotic speculation I have seen this past week, from liberals and conservatives alike.
So he just echoed what most of us already knew and he backed it up with some history and other facts. Nothing earth-shattering.
That what EXCELLENTLY explained and exactly what I needed to know. Merci!
I am glad it was of some help.
What is "earth shattering", however, in what Mattei says is that this is "an absolute break" with tradition and history. That could well be ominous in the long run, and I believe that is what terrifies him. (It terrifies me, too.)
I too fear it is ominous. Now the is again an eruption of "Let Piests Marry". This time it seems some how different. Pretty well that the Papacy and the Priesthood are employments,jobs. The Pope can retire and Married Priests work 9 to 5. And this then certainly dissolves Sarcred Imprimature.
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