General
Zeal for Your House
Zeal for Your House
Catholics hope for the future conclave.
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Pope Francis’ recent hospitalization has given many Catholics hope and fear for the future of the Church in this dark time of the Holy Father’s suffering. The inevitable death of a conclave to elect the next successor of St. Peter is always a tumultuous event. At times it holds a special anxiety given the current state of the life of the Church. Since the time of Venerable Pius XII, the Church has felt tossed between the waves of the inspiring piety of orthodoxy Catholics and the demonic liberalism of modernists wishing to crucify Our Lord all over again. No better illustration of this crisis can be had than in the sobering words of Msgr. Nicola Bux, “The Church is not divided between traditionalists and progressives, but between Catholics and modernists.”1
At the Dawn of the New Millennium, it seems as though modernism is dying its ugly death as all godless heresies perish, but not without subjecting the Faithful to its violent death throes. Catholic piety is discouraged by old generations lately, priests, and sadly even some hierarchs to make way for a beige spiritualism with the occasional flourish of self-indulgent mysticism or platitudes regarding God’s love to keep up the appearance of religiosity. Catholics know that this is not the Faith of the Fathers, not the eternal revelation given to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, so we rightfully are disgusted and militant in our opposition to such deviations from God’s will. The modernists sensing this, however, wish to utilize the same institutional power they once balked at and rebelled against in the days of the Holy Office to enact their designs for a Christianity without dogmas or doctrines, suffering or saints, mercy or redemption, Christianity without Christ.
In this age of anxiety, it is understandable why Catholics look to the conclave to give us a Pope that might deal with this final battle against the forces of liberalism within the Church, and usher in the new Catholic golden age that we have seen in our parishes and on the local level already emerging. The new Pope must use the powers delivered to Him by Our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of St. Peter to cleanse God’s house of the new money changers. This time needs the charitable anathema, a phrase coined by the “twentieth century Doctor of the Church” Dietrich von Hildebrand, to escape the darkness that ravages the Bride of Christ. Hildebrand explained that the anathema recalls those who are in error back to God by condemning their evil ways and protects the Faithful from the contamination of heresies that destroy our Catholic Faith.
Many would contrast this with Pope Francis’s “medicine of mercy” approach championed by St. John XXIII2, but nothing could be further from the Truth. The sinner must know that when he is committing evil, he is turning from Almighty God and being led into the snares of sin. But once his eyes have been lifted from the veil, and he realizes the error of his ways, God’s mercy pours upon him to deliver him into new life with Christ. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Pope Francis could have been more forceful with those needing excommunication or discipline during his pontificate. The Church Germany still stands largely in apostasy despite a recent slow in the news cycle and many who attended the Synod on Synodality shouldn’t be within 500 feet of a Church, let alone sitting in the Paul VI Audience Hall. But what deficiencies the Holy Father has lacked in his anathematizing of heretics during his pontificate we pray will be accounted for tenfold in the reign of his successor.
Pope Francis’ emphasis on God’s mercy and love has done so much to show us that there is never a moment when we are without hope. It is the Christian’s hope that his successor, in taking up this balm of God’s mercy, may also use it to soothe the wounds of Christ’s Mystical Body in condemning the errors of our time and leading those who are misled back to God. God’s justice is His love and His love is His justice. So whether the next successor of Pope Francis may be a Pizzaballa, Eijk, Burke, Erdo, or Müller, our hope is as certain as the words we pray in the Holy Mass every Sunday. Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity.3 May the Successor of Saint Peter wield the charitable anathema with the medicine of mercy to bring God’s Church back into the fullness of charity.
1 Msgr. Nicola Bux, XXV Youth Meeting, Schio, 13-08-2016
2 St. John XXIII, Gaudet Mater Ecclesia
3 Eucharistic Prayer II
At the Dawn of the New Millennium, it seems as though modernism is dying its ugly death as all godless heresies perish, but not without subjecting the Faithful to its violent death throes. Catholic piety is discouraged by old generations lately, priests, and sadly even some hierarchs to make way for a beige spiritualism with the occasional flourish of self-indulgent mysticism or platitudes regarding God’s love to keep up the appearance of religiosity. Catholics know that this is not the Faith of the Fathers, not the eternal revelation given to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, so we rightfully are disgusted and militant in our opposition to such deviations from God’s will. The modernists sensing this, however, wish to utilize the same institutional power they once balked at and rebelled against in the days of the Holy Office to enact their designs for a Christianity without dogmas or doctrines, suffering or saints, mercy or redemption, Christianity without Christ.
In this age of anxiety, it is understandable why Catholics look to the conclave to give us a Pope that might deal with this final battle against the forces of liberalism within the Church, and usher in the new Catholic golden age that we have seen in our parishes and on the local level already emerging. The new Pope must use the powers delivered to Him by Our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of St. Peter to cleanse God’s house of the new money changers. This time needs the charitable anathema, a phrase coined by the “twentieth century Doctor of the Church” Dietrich von Hildebrand, to escape the darkness that ravages the Bride of Christ. Hildebrand explained that the anathema recalls those who are in error back to God by condemning their evil ways and protects the Faithful from the contamination of heresies that destroy our Catholic Faith.
Many would contrast this with Pope Francis’s “medicine of mercy” approach championed by St. John XXIII2, but nothing could be further from the Truth. The sinner must know that when he is committing evil, he is turning from Almighty God and being led into the snares of sin. But once his eyes have been lifted from the veil, and he realizes the error of his ways, God’s mercy pours upon him to deliver him into new life with Christ. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Pope Francis could have been more forceful with those needing excommunication or discipline during his pontificate. The Church Germany still stands largely in apostasy despite a recent slow in the news cycle and many who attended the Synod on Synodality shouldn’t be within 500 feet of a Church, let alone sitting in the Paul VI Audience Hall. But what deficiencies the Holy Father has lacked in his anathematizing of heretics during his pontificate we pray will be accounted for tenfold in the reign of his successor.
Pope Francis’ emphasis on God’s mercy and love has done so much to show us that there is never a moment when we are without hope. It is the Christian’s hope that his successor, in taking up this balm of God’s mercy, may also use it to soothe the wounds of Christ’s Mystical Body in condemning the errors of our time and leading those who are misled back to God. God’s justice is His love and His love is His justice. So whether the next successor of Pope Francis may be a Pizzaballa, Eijk, Burke, Erdo, or Müller, our hope is as certain as the words we pray in the Holy Mass every Sunday. Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity.3 May the Successor of Saint Peter wield the charitable anathema with the medicine of mercy to bring God’s Church back into the fullness of charity.
1 Msgr. Nicola Bux, XXV Youth Meeting, Schio, 13-08-2016
2 St. John XXIII, Gaudet Mater Ecclesia
3 Eucharistic Prayer II