News Item: : Dubia This!
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Monday 24 April 2017 - 12:48:50

Pope Francis recently suggested something that seemed so outrageously blasphemous to our ears that we did not even want to consider it during the whole period of the Octave of Easter.

I speak of his words on 4th April, which were subsequently translated and presented by Andrew Guernsey in L'Osservatore Romano.

Lest anyone should attempt to exhonerate Francis with the tired old line about the possibilities of a mistranslation, please be aware that the original Italian version of Francis' words remains posted at the Vatican's website; and that the Italian-speaker Antonio Socci responded rapidly and strongly to those original words, both in an article on his Facebook page, and in a strong article posted up at the Italian Libero, within a couple of days of their having first been uttered.

It therefore makes little sense for anyone to try and hide behind the flimsy defences of a supposed mistranslation.

And now that the Easter Octave is over, we find ourselves also having to leave the spiritual bunker, as it were, and face up to Francis' shocking words ourselves.

The offending paragraph is, of course, that in which Francis had spoken of Jesus, during a sermon on Numbers 21:4-9, ''... as the memory of the man who made himself sin, who made himself the devil, the serpent, for us; he debased himself up to the point of totally annihiliating himself.''

Made Himself the Devil?!!!

Isn't that just so blasphemous an idea as to make any faithful Catholic want to rend their own garments?

As you know, this is by no means the first time that Francis has spoken in a problematic manner about this theme. Still, this must represent something of a new low, sounding as it does so utterly blasphemous and indefensible.

Francis' previous comments on this theme have each had a particularly Lutheran ring to them. For example, by suggesting as early as June 2013, that Christ somehow ''became the sinner for us,'' Francis had the temerity to say: ''We look for Jesus Christ and say: ''This is your sin, and I will sin again''... And Jesus likes that, because it was His mission, to become the sinner for us, to liberate us.''

And Jesus likes that?!!! Has Francis ever seen, much less contemplated, a Catholic Crucifix? Does that statement display any conception of the fact that a firm purpose of amendment is integral to valid repentance, confession and absolution? What do you think of that question, post Amoris Laetitia? 

Although, like many bewildered people, we were still keeping quiet about Francis at that point in 2013, we were nevertheless deeply troubled by that blasphemous-sounding line, with all of its spooky similarities to Luther's discussions of ''sinning boldly''.

Again, on 15th March, 2016, Francis stated: ''Sin is the work of Satan and Jesus defeats Satan by 'becoming sin' and from there he lifts up all of us.''

Of course, there is a sense in which St. Paul speaks of Christ as ''becoming sin'' to save us from our sins. Consider, for example, the Pauline teachings announced in 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 2:7; and Rom 8:3.

Still, given the ring of Francis' earlier statement in 2013 and his steadily unfolding promotion of Luther throughout 2016, observant Catholics could be forgiven for being deeply concerned. Such concerns were only made worse by the fact that Francis also suggested, at that time, ''What is even stronger, 'he became sin'. Using this symbol he became a serpent'. This is the prophetic message of today's reading.''

Thankfully, the ordinary Catholic in the pew can be spared the confusion of the faulty notions established in this area by Luther, and taken forward by the liberal 19th-Century Protestant exegetes, and then the post-modern radicals, who have followed and taken these notions still further in our own days.

If one turns to paragraphs CCC 602 to 603 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, one rediscovers the clear articulation of Catholic Truth in this important area.

And so, CCC 602 acknowledges that God ''made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.''

And then CCC 603 expounds: ''Jesus did not experience reprobation as if He Himself had sinned. But in redeeming love that always united Him to the Father, He assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that He could say in our name from the Cross: ''My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?'' Having thus established Him in solidarity with us sinners, God ''did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all,'' so that we might be ''reconciled to God by the death of His Son.''

One of the things that brought me into the Catholic Church years ago, was hearing the late Canon Michael Culhane frequently teaching the basic fact that Our Lord Jesus Christ became one of us, in all things but for sin and ignorance, in order to save us from our sins, heal us from them, and restore us to the Father.

Christ did not become sin as in the sense of becoming a sinner. Being God, He took on our sins in order to overcome them. It is the serpent that was raised in the Old Testament that pointed forwards to Him as the antidote to sin; not that He points backwards as though He were becoming any kind of serpent!

And it can never be said, in any kind of literal or theological sense that Jesus ever became the Devil. Good grief, a kid who knew his Baltimore Catechism could tell you that much.

To suggest otherwise is only the stuff of hideous blasphemy.

In researching this piece earlier this morning, I came across a story in the often-troubling Crux. This suggested that Francis had also said something utterly blasphemous in a totally different context than that of a chapel sermon.

According to none other than Austen Ivereigh, in an article released on the Feast of the Annunciation, Dr. Emilce Cuda from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina had an audience with Pope Francis on 17th March, 2017.

During that audience, it is claimed that among Francis' ''intellectual passions'' is the forging of a ''new synthesis out of disparities and disagreements''.

Leaving aside the positively Hegelian ring in that statement, it was also claimed in Crux that Francis joked to Cuda that, ''Inside the Holy Trinity, they are all arguing behind closed doors... but on the outside they give the picture of unity.''

If this statement may be truly attributed to Francis, then how is it anything other than a most disgraceful blasphemy?

Do you or I know any honest-to-goodness Catholic lay person, much less a priest, bishop or pontiff, who would joke in this horrible way about the Most Blessed Trinity; the All-Powerful and Loving God at the very heart of all that exists?

As we move to a conclusion for today, we just read this morning that a conference has now been held by several lay academics to back up the four Dubia cardinals and their efforts.

This is all good and encouraging news.

Nevertheless, it seems to us that, as we have been saying on occasion here since at least November 2014, that the deeper problem beneath Synods '14 and '15, and subsequently within Amoris Laetitia, is the one to which all energies should surely be most constructively aimed.

If the battle against Holy Matrimony, Holy Communion and Holy Confession may be seen as representing an unholy fruit, this is because, prior to any of that, the grubby old root is that of the heresy of Modernism.

It seems to us that the energies of the Church would be best expended on deracinating this evil root, before becoming exhausted and tangled in the evil vines that this root sends out to smother everything that is good and holy.

It would seem to us that this has only been confirmed by the latest outburst against the Dubia Cardinals, from the long-silent Francis-favourite, Cardinal Maradiaga.

To conclude: Before we even get to the Dubia over Amoris Laetitia, oughtn't we have a universal Dubia over Francis' blasphemous sounding sermons and private jokes?

After all, surely every Catholic would agree that it is blasphemous to scoff about the Most Holy Trinity and to suggest that Our Lord Jesus Christ became the Devil!

In the Hierarchy of Truths, the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of Christ are even more fundamental than the indissolubility of marriage, the wrongness of adultery and the evil of sacrilege. The latter flow in a unified harmony from the former.

If one's parish priest acted and spoke in such a blasphemous way, one would take appropriate action to correct, resist and complain about him. Well, when a man sitting on the Throne of St. Peter starts to do just that, hadn't we all better do something about it? It is now essential for Pope Francis to demonstrate that he believes, understands and teaches on these subjects in a way that clearly accords with Divine Revelation and the Deposit of Faith.  

In short: Pope Francis has uttered blasphemous-sounding sermons and has even been claimed to make blasphemous jokes - Well then, Dubia This!!!

May Our Lord, Our Lady, Holy Michael and the Heavenly Hosts - Come to Our Aid and Protect Us!

Keep the Faith!

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1627 )