There
was a time
when Catholics knew and recognized Jesus Christ.
That it is no longer so is deeply
revealing. It reveals a spiritual malaise that is the
result of a lack of example, and a systemic failure
so deep, so broad, and so prevalent, that our children
no longer see God ... and neither do we.
What will suffice for proof? Perhaps a casual glance
in the direction of the Most Blessed
Sacrament of the Altar is a pretty
good indication. How many people walk past God (Jesus
Christ, really and truly present in the Tabernacle,
Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity) without so much as
a nod, let alone a genuflection? Indeed, how many even
know that He is there? How many recognize
Him?
Few. Very few,
indeed. Why is this? Why do so many people identify
themselves as Catholics without knowing where
God is — and, in fact, Who God is?
Who will dispute it? Ask a dozen Catholics leaving Mass
the following elementary questions about what
is most fundamental and central to Catholic
belief as uniquely distinguishable — that is to say,
simple tenets that distinguish Catholicism from other
and incompatible religions:
-
the Father?
-
the Son (Jesus)?
-
the Holy Ghost?
-
All three?
-
In Heaven?
-
In the Eucharist?
-
In the Tabernacle?
-
In all three
-
We are present at the Crucifixion of Christ
on Calvary
-
We gather at the Table of the Lord.
-
We eat Jesus flesh and drink His blood, literally.
-
We primarily engage in a Communal Meal.
-
All of the above.
-
None of the above.
-
Just two of the above.
(If you , too, are really uncertain, go to the
bottom of the page)
The answers that you most likely will receive will range
from stunning ignorance to patent heresy (and yes, the
notion of heresy still obtains, ecumenism notwithstanding,
not only in Catholicism but in Judaism.) Those whom
you had asked had just left Mass — some, after many,
many years — and had no clue about the most basic features
of their faith. Why is this? How can this be?
The answer is surprisingly simple: it has been a failure
in Catechesis, a catastrophic failure in teaching
the most fundamental doctrines of our faith as Catholics
to our children — just as they failed who had
taught us! That is to say, it is the result
of not one, but two entire generations that have failed
— and failed miserably — in handing on, transmitting
to future generations, the Faith of our fathers, the
authentic teachings of Holy Mother Church.
The Buck Stops Here
President Harry S. Truman kept a sign on his desk for
which he is famous, and it was a daily reminder to him
that, as President of the American people and as the
representative of
“their”
interests apart from the conflict of interests that
plagued and continue to plague the House and the Senate
... the responsibility was ultimately his. The buck
was always passed from the special interest groups to
the Representatives who passed the responsibility off
to the Senate which in turn passed the buck on to Truman.
He alone took the responsibility, and with it he took
the heat. Perhaps that is provenance of his other famous
quotation,
“If
you can't stand the heat, keep out of the kitchen.”
Truman was from Missouri, and if you are an American,
you understand what this means.
“I’m
from Missouri”
is synonymous with,
“Show
me! I am skeptical ...prove it!”
None of the Cardinals of the Archdiocese of Boston were
from Missouri ... O’Malley is from Ohio, Law was from
Mexico, and Medeiros from the Azores. That stubborn
practicality and low tolerance for equivocation, together
with the keen sense of responsibility to his office
and to the American people ... to make the decisions
that no one else was willing to make, and to accept
their consequences — largely characterized the
person and the Presidency of Truman ... much in the
way that the absence of these qualities and attributes
have notoriously characterized the Episcopacy of Boston.
Not one of them, in any manner of speaking, were
from Missouri ...
The point of this brief digression is that Catechesis
has failed miserably largely because our
Bishops have defaulted on their primary
responsibility as Teachers of the Faith. They are largely
involved in more pressing functionary issues:
things administrative, social, legal (especially
here in Boston, and elsewhere ...) public relations,
photo ops, etc., and appear to have no time, or simply
lack the dedication or the inclination to bring us,
or failing that, ensuring that we are brought, the authentic
Faith of our Fathers ... and are unwilling to accept
their responsibility for it. There are, after all, numberless
“committees”
to deal with such
“lesser”
things ... many and many an eager committee to relegate
this tiresome responsibility to.
Is it really any wonder that so many Priest have adopted
as their model of pastoral leadership the role of
Master of Ceremonies at Mass, and mere advisors
to the lay leadership in their parishes — rather
than that of the preacher, pastor and prophet? From
whom did they learn such irresponsible behavior? They
have taken their cue from their Bishops, whose poor
example they sadly but brilliantly emulate. Make no
decisions
“ex
meru motu”
*, but form committees to make the decisions for you
— and if they do not pan out, no one can lay the responsibility
at your doorstep. In fact, you were, in a Trumanesque
sense, out of the kitchen at the time ... so to speak.
For a scandalously preponderant number of bishops, here
and abroad, the Episcopacy appears to be more a matter
of the promotion of their personality, and good copy
for the press ... rather than enacting their
primary role as
“Teacher
of the Faith”
and in ensuring the proper teaching of the Faith; the
dignity and responsibility for their office is so often
reduced to a perfunctory stamp of approval on some issue
or other with which they are only remotely acquainted,
but which is, for the moment, highly visible and publicly
in favor. In a word, it redounds to their notability
and good name ... both of which, deservedly, have
taken a rather bad drubbing of late.
Instead of delegating what are essentially peripheral
issues to other ecclesiastics and enacting the primary
role in which they are presumably most competent, they
have relinquished the greater for the lesser. We could
charitably attribute it to mere indolence, or even incompetence,
did it not verge on culpable neglect in their having
entrusted it to those unworthy of it,
to so many who manipulate, distort and often entirely
expunge the genuine teachings of the Church to conform
to their own largely social agenda.
They, in turn, pass this distorted doctrine on to
our children — with the Bishop's rubber
stamp of approval which they hold, and which came with
the job. After all, were they not
“hired”
by him? Surely, then, he knows what they are teaching.
Or does he? It is frightening either way. If he does,
then he is complicit in the fraud. If he does not, he
is guilty of inexcusable neglect. His
“job
title”,
after all, is
“Teacher
of the Faith.”
Everyone Wins but the Kids
How often a job not to our liking is palmed off to someone
else, and washing our hands of it, we gladly forget
the unsavory matter. If it prospers we take the praise,
and if it fails we plead ignorance. It is a win-win
situation.
Except for the children.
For them it is a no-win situation.
They never come to know Christ.
So what do we walk away with?
Parents, be very clear about this:
if you do not bring Christ to your children, it is extremely unlikely that anyone
will
We are too quick to surrender this responsibility, which
is really a blessed gift ... the gift of Faith
that will carry our children through so many difficulties
in life ... long after we are gone. It is a patrimony
to generations beyond us, a sacred trust that we
cannot entrust to another: not your son's or your
daughter's CCD teacher (who probably knows far less
than you do), not your parish priest through his cute
and irrelevant homilies punctuated by jokes and laughter,
and not, sadly to say, to your bishop. In fact, if you
write your bishop in your growing concern about the
laxity in your parish, you will, in all likelihood,
receive no reply ... or a
“Document
Template”
from Microsoft Word with the blank spaces appropriately
filled in. Been there, done that.
In all fairness, of the two scenarios offered, it is
very likely that your bishop is clueless of
what is being taught under his auspices — and it is
as equally likely that he really does not wish
to know more, and could not appear to care less. This,
of course, is the best scenario. The worst is that he
does know.
Most parents are familiar with the scenario: pay CCD
(the Religious Education Office in your parish) to pass
out books that are never opened, solicit "teachers"
who are as ill-informed as their students, hire a Director
of Religious Education (DRE) irrespective of a genuine
commitment to authentic Catholic Doctrine – and it is
a fait accompli! The Gospel is preached! The
ignorant are enlightened. The children are taught. Process
them through to Confirmation regardless of their complete
ignorance of the Faith, kiss them off, and tell yourself
that you have done a magnificent job! Just look at the
Confirmation lines!
“What
a testimony”,
the auxiliary bishop who comes to Confirm them will
tell you, "to the vibrancy of your
“faith
community”,
as the Church is most often called in these times of
doctrinal indifference and ecumenical correctitude.
Indeed ...
Do not, however, look at the dwindling numbers: in the
pews, in the Priesthood, in Religious life, in successful
marriages, in chaste lives free from the misdirection
of a perverse, and increasingly homocentric society.
And do not tabulate the divorce rate, or the number
of abortions that verge on exceeding the number of baptisms.
Pretend that the sexual abuse of our children has no
correlation with the number of homosexual priests knowingly
ordained, and that their predatory pederasty has nothing
at all to do with their being homosexual – that it is
just a coincidence that the abused have been, with few
exceptions, boys. Just a disturbing and terribly repetitive
coincidence ... right?
The effects of the longstanding negligence of our bishops
have been far-reaching ... to even the smallest among
us.
The frightening question, really, is this: not,
“Who
will teach our children better?”
– but this:
“Who
will teach our Bishops better?”
Not Francis!
Do
not say
“Francis”!
His unconcealed disdain for genuine Catholic
teaching — that for 2000 years has been found in the
immutable and Sacred Deposit of Faith — approaches
contempt! No. Francis is the “Innovator”
nonpareil — endowed, he claims, with a “personal
magisterium”
(whatever that is, apart from the
“Magisterium
of the Catholic Church” with which it does not coincide).
He is an Innovator of the Faith — not
a
“Teacher
of the Faith”. Saint Paul speaks of this unsparingly
(2 Timothy 4.3) Would that we were wise enough to give
heed.
In very deed, the question still stands: ...
who will teach our bishops to teach our children?
If they
will not — and it is likely they will not — then
we must teach our children!
But first,
we ourselves must learn the
True Catholic Faith
... before it was poisoned and distorted by Modernism,
Ecumenism, and Feminism — an unholy trinity close
to the hearts of too many bishops ... and especially
the Innovator of the Faith.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
_______________________________________
*Of one's own accord
Answers:
Printable
PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
