News Item: : A Question of Integrity
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Saturday 23 April 2016 - 12:49:26

Which is it? The famous illusion picture; in which some see a beautiful, young woman and others see an ugly old hag! 

Wheeler Dealers...

When we had first arrived over in America, we quite quickly found ourselves befriended by a chap who said that he would be happy to help us to find our feet. As we were needing a set of wheels to get around with, we were delighted a few days later when he also informed us that he had a friend who was looking to sell a quality Japanese car at that time.

A few evenings later, this friend-of-a-friend turned up at our digs with a beautiful-looking Japanese car. As we don't want any lawsuits, I'll not mention the brand name! I will say that the car was finished in a nice metallic gold and, in spite of being almost 10 years old, it still looked and drove like a brand new vehicle.

As I had never driven a left-hand-drive before, much less driven on the right hand side of the road, I was glad when this gentleman trusted me enough to take a few slow runs around the block. It was weird driving a left-hooker for the first time: one had to quickly learn a new width-perception off to the right in order to avoid polishing off the sides from half the parked cars in the neighbourhood! Where I was so used to having a car door at my right elbow, there was, instead, a whole half-width of car to keep in line!

Still, I quite quickly noticed that the power-assisted steering was exquisite, the ride and handling were well-balanced and the plush interior was loaded with kit. Although the mileage was a little on the high side, I was not unduly concerned, because of the reputation Japanese cars have for both longevity and reliability. 

In the event, I actually bought a different kind of Japanese car: a silky-smooth and powerful Toyota Camry, on 6-spoke alloys, with over 125,000 miles on the clock; when my US visa expired 2 years later, I was able to sell this one on for the same price that I had paid for it!

Being that this Camry was bigger than most vehicles on British roads, I was tickled when the vendor described it to me as ''a cute little car''. It was certainly dwarfed by many of the Buicks, Cadillacs and wide-bodied Dodge ''dually'' pick-up trucks which we saw each day! (UK readers might like to ''Google'' that last one for some idea of my meaning...).

The ''cute little'' Camry - Powerful, Smooth and Totally Reliable.

Anyway, getting back to the gold car and warming to our theme...

When I got back to the apartment and started doing the whole tyre-kicking (tire in America!) routine, I opened the passenger door to discover an almighty rust hole in the door-sill. This was such a serious hole in terms of its width, depth and length, that I seriously began to doubt the car's structural integrity. Almost laughably, the hole had been tightly packed with a load of shiny tin-foil. The owner told me not to worry about the hole or the foil, as he had driven right across the American continent in that car. I politely said to him that I would now be very worried about my wife's safety in this car. If it were to be involved in a ''T-bone'' accident at one of the many cross-junctions in the area, I would be concerned that it might just fold up around her. Tin-foil and steel might look similar, but they simply are not!

That was not the only integrity that I began to doubt that evening...

As the owner departed, I noticed the man who was ''helping us to find our feet'' giving the car's owner a very knowing kind of wink, when he thought that I was not looking. It was the kind of gesture that said: ''Don't worry, I'll get this daft limey to buy this thing off you.'' Needless to say, that gold car was not the only thing that we politely walked away from...

In the end, it was all a question of integrity.

Are we giving up on integrity?

Converting to Catholicism is very much a journey towards integrity and truth. At times this can be a very painful experience, due to spiritual warfare, personal sin, the sins of others and the demands of conforming one's actions, thoughts, lifestyle and very will to Christ's Truth.

Becoming open to grace can be both a beautiful and a challenging process. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: ''Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield, man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity'' (CCC 409).

A key part of my journey into the Faith has been the encounter with the integrity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Truth. This encounter has frequently been facilitated by having my intellect engaged, and my will challenged, through reading the clear and precise teachings of the Popes.

Quas Primas, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Casti Connubii, Humanae Vitae, Fides et Ratio, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, Familiaris Consortio, Catechesi Tradendae and Redemptoris Mater: these are just some of the key papal teachings which, rooted in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, have helped to shape the way that I see, think, pray and act.

With each and all of these teachings, one glimpses the fact that, though we might be messed up as fallen sinners, Christ's Truth is ordered, beautiful, good and true. It is upon His clear foundations that one may, with the help and encouragement of grace, build one's life and begin to engage in the battle for ongoing conversion and sanctity.

A Priest with Integrity Speaks

Fr. Gerald Murray with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN's - The World Over Live: Since the advent of Amoris Laetitia, Angie keeps finding me about the place wearing just that expression of Fr. Murray's...

In his latest Fatima Perspective, Christopher Ferrara has summarized Raymond Arroyo, Fr. Gerald Murray and Robert Royal's World Over Live critique of Amoris Laetitia as ''honest and unsparing''. In describing this summary, Mr. Ferrara draws attention to the team's use of terms like: dangerous; very disturbing; very problematic; not the language of the Gospel; a direct contradiction of John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio; not in accord with what the Church has said until now; an attempt to paper over what really is a change of doctrine... but denying that you're changing doctrine.

Indeed, Mr. Ferrara includes the following direct quote from the widely respected, and obviously deeply concerned, Fr. Murray: ''I don't want to criticize the Pope... but what I will say is when you do something in public that contradicts what your predecessor did, there has to be an accounting for it and a responsibility to upholding the Gospel...''

Where are we seeing this accounting and upholding of the Gospel?

We are carefully and gradually reading through Mr. Ferrara's own studious critique of Amoris Laetitia at The Remnant. It must be said that what we have read of his analysis so far reveals it to be as meticulous as it seems accurate. It is difficult for an honest person to disagree with his thesis that Amoris Laetitia is not so much revolutionary as subversive.

We suggested in our recent ''Dazzle Ship'' article, that there does seem to be a sophisticated use of obscurantism in the document which has allowed for multiple interpretations to develop throughout the world.

And so, during the past week, we have seen: Cardinal Reinhard Marx and two other modernistic German prelates suggesting that Amoris Laetitia allows them to give Holy Communion to divorced and ''re-married'' people; the Archdiocese of Milan claiming that it has been inundated with requests from such people wanting to receive Holy Communion since the document's release; Bishop Mark Davies affirming that Church teaching remains unchanged; and Bishop Philip Egan stating that the document nowhere allows for the divorced and ''remarried'' to receive Holy Communion.

Is it not far too late for Romanitas?

Since the late 1990's, I have been becoming increasingly frustrated by the employment of ''Romanitas'' when orthodox prelates and priests want to say something in code to affirm the Faith for those with ears to understand, whilst at the same time protecting themselves from attack and sending a subtle shot across the bows of the so-called ''progressives'' in the Church.

To my mind, the time for this rhetorical technique to be appropriate ceased when the danger to souls passed from the proportions of a crisis to that of a looming shipwreck. The game of Romanitas now looks like the arranging of deckchairs on a stricken vessel.

One example of this type of thing appeared to be Pope Benedict XVI's use of Pope Leo XIII's stole for his visit to the Anglicans at Westminster. This allowed liberals to claim a victory because the Pontiff stood next to a fully garbed woman minister in the cathedral. On the other hand, it allowed the orthodox to also claim a victory, because Pope Leo XIII was the Pope who had officially declared Anglican orders completely null and utterly void. Everyone could read into the thing whatever they wanted.

I have two local examples of this.

When one of my friends was placed for his seminary placement with an out and out extreme modernist priest, he wrote a message of thanks at the conclusion of the placement. It included a phrase suggesting that being with that priest had convinced him that he must become a priest.

Another time, a tradition-leaning parish-priest, not wanting to read out the liberal vagaries of the local bishop's pastoral letter, had it printed up and left in the porch with the words: ''Bishop's Pastoral letter for your convenience.'' A little deep thought might reveal the wit and deeper meaning in that phrase (overseas readers might appreciate knowing that ''convenience'' can also be a polite word for the loo!). Ah, Romanitas...

Perhaps we look too hard when we wonder if this is not the dynamic at work in the words of the English Bishops Mark Davies and Philip Egan.

The former says of Amoris Laetitia: ''The Pope shows us how a truly pastoral response must always indicate clearly the path leading to life by unambiguously offering the truth about marriage and the family that has been entrusted to the Church.''

And the latter speaks of Amoris Laetitia as a ''magnificent document'' that is ''truly breathtaking in scope.''

Whether this is subtle Romanitas or not, it does clearly reveal one thing: We have, as yet, no prelate able or willing to put their head above the parapet and openly say that there are a number of serious concerns relating to the ambiguities and thrust of Amoris Laetitia.

And so for now, the ambiguities allow for Modernists to promote sacrilege without being challenged; and the more orthodox - or less liberal? - prelates to affirm the Tradition via another extension of the hermeneutic of continuity.

Truth, Honesty and Integrity

A couple of days ago, I read a very moving and heartfelt reflection by Laurence England of ''The Bones'' fame. In the comments, I noticed the words of ''Jane Old Convert'' who wrote: ''The voice of Pope Francis in AL sounds like that of a stranger, it does not sound like the voice of Christ speaking through Peter. We cannot pray enough for this Pope.'' And yet, we find bishops and priests that we formally thought to be orthodox towing the party line without expressing so much as a flicker of clear concern. There are even some priests going so far as to herald Pope Francis for his wisdom and so forth. At the very least, this reveals a disconnect between the public expressions of the clergy and those of increasing numbers of distressed laity.

As we turned in for the night last evening, I remarked to Angeline that part of my conversion included the discovery of deep intellectual truth and honesty in the Catholic Church.

As St. John Paul II so wonderfully demonstrated in Fides et Ratio, faith and reason really do remain in harmony together, or else they perish together.

The Rover Metro - I had one of these little cars for 10.5 years. Over a 20-year period, my Mum owned 4 of them. The brand was finally killed off when it was discovered to have rather a lack of structural integrity...

The Catholic Faith is logically consistent in each and all of its doctrines and associated practices. Part of its beauty is that following Christ and His Vicar has always been about going deeper with authentic freedom into truth and logically consistent principles; rather than having to smile inanely at whatever be the latest pronouncement, however self-contradictory, of a Kim Jong-un style of leader.

If one notices that Pope Francis ''appears'' to take Gaudium et Spes, Familiaris Consortio or the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and twist them to fit a programme that ''appears'' to contradict the original intention and thrust of those earlier sources, then one should not only feel free to do so, but one has a duty to do so.

Using natural logic alone, one is left with the thought that either all the popes and Pope Francis have been wrong; or that they were all right and he has some things wrong, or at least has them poorly expressed. As the first is impossible from a Catholic conception, then the latter option must logically follow.

The Catholic response, primarily that of cardinals and bishops, should be to point that reality out with genuine charitable concern for the Pontiff's immortal soul and, indeed, for all of our souls. Emboldend by their feeble response up to now, the Modernists everywhere are gearing up for mass-public-sacrilege. Mark that this will not be the end, but only the beginning of an ever-deepening problem. 

It seems that orthodox Catholics are gradually being required to leave behind their Catholic beliefs, and even the use of their reason and logic, in order to smile at the ''new clothes'' of a naked emperor and rejoice with everyone else.

In such a situation, faith and reason give way to mere party spirit. Truth falls to mere will to power.

If such a conception of the Church were ever to prevail, then we would be left with something distinctly other to Catholicism. It really would become a religion of man, rather than of the God-man.

And, if we were to simply go along with the new order, without pointing any of these things out, especially after having searched for the Truth in the first place, converts like us would also lose our integrity.

Conclusion

It appears to me that, as with that golden car all those years ago, a gaping chasm has now been opened up. Those like Cardinals Kasper and Marx remind me of that fella who was winking to let his buddy know that he would be able to sell us that pile of junk as something good, reliable and safe.

On the other hand, and however well-intentioned they may be, those telling us that there really is no problem to speak of, remind me of the vendor who had packed his rotting door-sill with shiny tin foil in the first place. It might have looked nice and shiny, but it had no structural integrity.

I wouldn't let my wife drive that car then; and I'm loath to let her, myself or any of my loved ones be put in spiritual danger by any prelate or priest; no matter how orthodox their reputation has been up to now.

It stikes me that what we need from our cardinals, bishops and priests is not more Romanitas, not more shiny foil, but some rather serious welding. And that soon.

Because, when all is said and done, it is a question of integrity... 

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1294 )