News Item: : Doublespeak
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Saturday 11 March 2017 - 00:44:47

doublespeak.jpg
Matthew 5:37: But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil. 

I had an enjoyable conversation with my barber today. We spoke about the usual type of stuff whilst I was under the razor and scissors: the weather, cars, motorbikes, books, social history, our families. On earlier visits to get the old mop chopped, we've also chatted about the monks at Norcia, the splendid beauty of Gregorian chant, medieval European history, DIY, home-cooking, philosophy and a comparison of childhood holidays in Wales.

What is so satisfying about exchanges like that is the straightforwardness of the conversation. It's down to earth, honest and real. Ordinary words bear and convey real meaning.

It sometimes strikes me that some of our ivory-towered and silken prelates could learn a thing or two from your average neighbourhood barber. For some, it might even make up for the lack of time they've spent actually working as ordinary priests down at the cliff-face in real-life pastoral situations.

I've just been reading Cardinal Vincent Nichols' latest, erm, contribution in the Jesuit America magazine. It is sad to have to say it, but compared to the clarity of the barber-shop colloquy, His Eminence's interview comes across as a classic example of obscurantist doublespeak.

Take for example, the cardinal's praise for the sacrilegious ''guideline'' document issued by Scicluna and Grech; those two Judas-bishops in Malta-Gozo who, in their attempts to give Holy Communion to adulterers, have gone so far beyond Christ's teachings, and the boundaries and anathemas so clearly marked out by the Magisterial Council of Trent.

Cardinal Nichols gushes: ''It doesn't start by saying, 'What about this rule or that rule?' It starts by saying if this is your position and you feel uneasy, you want to know where you stand, what you ought to be doing, then come and we'll talk. But let's be honest, let's be open and let's see where we go.''

To this confused utterance, one must ask: How can anyone discover where they stand, or what they ought to be doing, if nobody will be ''honest and open'' with them and admit that there are clear and objective rules regarding marriage? For example: if you are already validly married to someone, then you cannot validly be married to anybody else. You are either married to the first person, or you are not; but you cannot have it both ways.

A little further on in his America interview, Cardinal Nichols attempts this little gem: ''Try and accompany these people, whoever they might be, with the full richness of the Gospel and try not to enter the process with a determined outcome.''

The point here is that the ''full richness of the Gospel'' includes the determined outcome that a valid marriage is valid and an invalid marriage is invalid. It was Jesus Himself, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who so clearly taught in the Gospels that we must not commit adultery.

He also said that the Truth will set us free.

Any young child who knew their Baltimore Catechism would be able to refute the cardinal's claim that it is no problem for different dioceses to issue varying guidelines about giving Holy Communion to adulterers (he does not use that word of course...).

He suggests: ''Creating space for a variety of pastoral responses is not decentralization. It is a response to the realities in which people live.''

To this airy-fairy bit of ''space-creation'', your average well-catechized 10 year-old kid would counter with the Four Marks of the Church, the weight of Sacred Tradition, the fact that one cannot be validly married and invalidly married at the same time and the reality that one cannot receive the Holy Eucharist in the state of unconfessed mortal sin without commiting another mortal sin, and a particularly grave one at that, of a sacrilegious communion. These are just a few ''realities in which people live'' to be going along with.

Perhaps one of the most risible examples of Modernistic Doublespeak that the cardinal employs occurs in his resistance to the Dubia.

Having claimed that Francis is ''absolutely right'' to ignore the Dubia, he riddles: ''To enter into that field is actually to step back from the very thing he wants to help us understand, that we have to respond to people and help them in their journey to God and to do so is not simply to apply a law.''

So, to sum that up briefly: It is absolutely right not to respond to people, in order to help us to understand that we have to respond to people.

O-Kaaayyyy.....

Later on, Cardinal Nichols and America use the opportunity of this interview to take another pop at so-called ''populism'' - i.e. President Trump's leadership - and bolster the anti-Trump statements which Cardinal Nichols has already used in his pro-immigration interviews in the British media. In common with the Anglican Justin Welby, Cardinal Nichols has spoken in the UK media of politicians ''trading in fear'' over the immigration issue.

And so, without a word of praise for Trump's pro-life policies, he speaks of not playing to people's fears and worst traits, but by instead leading through appeals to what is best in them.

He suggests: ''I think that's what Pope Francis does, and that is why people are so interested in what he has to say - because he appeals to their best. They feel better when they listen to him, because he seems to recognize what is best.''

Looking at the evidence - for example the praise Francis receives from atheists, elites in the globalist movement, pro-abortion population control advocates, homosexualists and pop-culture idols - I cannot help but think that many folks like him because he actually gives them the impression that they are free to keep on wallowing in their sins.

In the words of Madonna during the papal visit to America in September 2015: ''Rules are for fools. That's why I like the new pope. He seems very open minded.''

Yeah, they ''feel better when they listen to him'' alright...

All of which is why Cardinal Nichols' latest statement, made in an official letter of congratulation to Pope Francis for the fourth anniversay of his election, comes across as sounding like just another piece of Modernistic Doublespeak.

Leaving aside the question of whether or not it is normal, and not just a little toadying, to send official congratulations for something as trivial as a 4th anniversary, one can only stand open-jawed at the cardinal's gushing praise of Francis for his ''steadfast defence of Church teaching''.

Steadfast what?!!!

This brings me back to my barber shop conversations earlier today. As I noted above, the dialogue there was so rewarding because it was authentic. Both my barber and I knew that words actually mean something. It is because of such basic realities that any human activity and interaction can take place. And upon those foundations can be built the search for objective truth and meaning. Throughout two millennia of Church history, it has been the logical coherence and consistency of Catholic Truth which has been so appealing to human beings, who were made to know and love the Truth. Indeed, to love God Who is Truth Himself.

Alas, all Cardinal Nichols has done is to further obscure Christ's wonderful truth for so many of the already confused people in these post-modern times.

As if it were really possible to obscure Christ, that is.

Make no mistake, when each of us goes before the Holy Face of God for our particular judgement at the end of this life, there will be no room for doublespeak or obscurantism. The hearts of each and all of us will be laid open (1 Corinthians 14:25).

Let us conclude with one of my favourite quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church in CCC 89: ''There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas. Dogmas are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the dogmas of faith.''

If we ever see Pope Francis or, for that matter, Cardinal Nichols, affirming truths like this, perhaps then it would be meaningful to claim them as ''steadfast defenders of Church teaching''.

Oh, that it already were so!

For now, those congratulatory words are as empty and meaningless as those of the cardinal's interview with America magazine. At least he is consistent...

Keep the Faith!



This news item is from Torch of The Faith
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