Self-refutation

[Nihil Obstat]

You forget, grasshopper. There was LOTS of fear over Benedict, from the picture of him in the '60s not in clericals but in a suit and tie, to various quotations from past books like the one about dogma being a graveyard of heresy (I forget the exact quote), and then fears during his pontificate itself, from the time he wore those blue vestments in Austria, to his dropping the title "Patriarch of the West," convening another Assisi, naming Levada to the CDF, etc. Benedict was never the Heresy Hunter that people imagine him as now...he even met with Hans Kung during his pontificate lol.

 

Of course, all this was Internet-driven. People in the real world weren't obsessing over this stuff. But that's true about most of what goes on on the Internet.  :disguise:

:idontknow: I recall almost none of that. 

Except Assisi. I remain not a fan of the Assisi meetings (and kind of dread the next one), but Benedict's was at least better than previous ones.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Jesus " there will be many false prophets after me." Our Lord doesn't say all though, but many.

 

 

I guess this includes from within the holy catholic church also perhaps. Alot of the supposed prophecies from the holy mother and seers and multiple others give me the creeps, i don't have the gift to discern spirits so i probably shouldn't get into it. I started to get into all these prophecies and decided to avoid them  since as i said i don't have the gift of discerning spirits(which is one of the gifts of the spirit mentioned by st paul, and not all have it.) But i assume at least half of them are snake oil and false prophecy if Jesus' words are correct, and he never lies.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye

[Anastasia13]

Yeah, just an aside, when I speak of the neurosis of traditionalism I speak from experience. I remember when the book "The Great Facade" came out circa 2002, and sites like Novus Ordo Watch, etc. getting a buzz, I went through my traditionalist phase. I still have the 1962 Missal I bought (it is still in the actual cardboard box from 1962). I went through an Eastern Catholic phase too lol. But like you say, each phase was driven by a rupture, not unlike people who convert from religion to religion, though I was never attracted to another religion.

 

What do you mean by this?

[Anastasia13]

When Benedict was elected, I remember he was like the defender of Orthodoxy.

[Era Might]

What do you mean by this?

 

Just that mentally we order our world around our sense of what is true, and when something fundamental in our ideologies are threatened, it creates a rupture in our world...the foundation on which we stood, or thought that we stood on, starts to crumble, and everything has to be rebuilt again. This happens in many different ways...some people embrace some kind of different emphasis in their religion, or convert to another religion, etc. This happens in other areas of life, e.g., a married man who starts to question the woman he has married, or a celibate priest who starts to think about his desires for a family, etc. Sometimes things like adultery, or a priest taking a woman on the side, is their way of balancing themselves without having to overthrow entirely the foundation they stand on. But with maturity and wisdom, a person is able to see things in context and not feel a sense of rupture in their lives, even when things change or things challenge their sense of themselves. That's why, in another post, I said that I value highly knowledge of self...which doesn't mean you deny that you are invested in certain views of the world or certain ideologies, but that you have a healthy sense of self-awareness so that you can respond maturely when life challenges you to question certain things about who you are or what you believe. This is important in the context of the church, because times change, and we always have to keep in front of us what is fundamental about the Gospel, and not lose what is fundamental because something changes.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Era Might

[Anastasia13]

Sometimes ruptures are good things though, like resetting a system, going back to the gospel...

[Era Might]

Sometimes ruptures are good things though, like resetting a system, going back to the gospel...

 

I don't like the image of resetting a system, because that implies a flight from the self, an attempt to renounce everything you are and were and become something else. I think certainly there are times when rupture can be good, when it puts us on a new path in life, but it can also be a way of fleeing life, reinventing yourself so you do not have to deal with yourself.