This may seem out of date now, but it provides a nice counterpoint to Raven’s post from this morning: (H/T to Teresa)
ROME, JAN. 25, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Though Christians are still far from the unity that Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper, resignation and pessimism are a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit’s power, says Benedict XVI….
…The Holy Father called the faithful to gratitude, since the ecumenical movement over the last few decades has “taken significant steps forward,” such that there is “encouraging convergence and consent on varied points,” as well as “mutual esteem and respect” and “concrete collaboration.”
“We are well aware, however, that we are still far from that unity for which Christ prayed and which we find reflected in the portrait of the first community of Jerusalem,” the Pontiff acknowledged. His reference to Jerusalem alluded to the theme for this year’s week of prayer, which was prepared by the Church of Jerusalem and pointed to the community of the first Christians.
Benedict XVI affirmed that the unity Christ desires is not only at the level of structures, but also in the confession of one faith and the common celebration of worship.
“The search for the re-establishment of unity among divided Christians cannot therefore be reduced to a recognition of the reciprocal differences and to the obtaining of a peaceful coexistence,” he said. “What we long for is that unity for which Christ himself prayed and which by its nature is manifested in the communion of the faith, of the sacraments, of the ministry.
“The path toward this unity must be seen as a moral imperative, response to a precise call of the Lord.”
In this light, the Pope asserted, “the temptation must be overcome to resignation and pessimism, which is lack of trust in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“Our duty,” he said, “is to continue passionately on the path toward this goal with a serious and rigorous dialogue to deepen the common theological, liturgical and spiritual patrimony; with reciprocal knowledge, with the ecumenical formation of the new generations and, above all, with conversion of heart and prayer.”
Full text: www.zenit.org/article-31567?l=english
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
Thanks for this..
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If the world today lacks Christian unity it is because the Church itself is no longer united in its own tradition whereby it has lost its ecumenical power to gather and unite the world’s peoples under its jurisdiction.
Christian unity is when all religions and peoples leave their particular religion and join the Roman Catholic Church wherein they are bonded by “One Lord, one Faith, one baptism.” (Ephesians 4:5) This is accomplished in our changing times by simply upholding the unchanging tradition of the Faith as propounded by the Vicars of Christ down through the centuries. (Tridentine Mass) When we give up and resign from such witness through fear and regard the Crucified Christ on the Cross as pessimism it is the clearest indication that we have lost confidence in what the Holy Spirit left us through tradition where we feel we have to look to the world instead for our guidance.
After his reading of the Fatima Third Secret Pius XII prophesied concerning our time:
“The day is coming when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as PETER doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God.”
What we have today is a division of loyalties where we can’t seem to get our ‘spirits’ straight. We need to distinguish between what God the Holy Spirit has guided through history and what He hasn’t. The heresies of the past all occurred in the course of Church history but that didn’t make them part of tradition; the Holy Spirit didn’t guide them.
What we have today is the heresy of Modernism which denies tradition and seeks its covenant with the world. Under the false pretext of ecumenical unity the church today pessimistically resigns from its commission to convert the world’s peoples and instead allows the world to come in and rape Christ’s Holy Spouse [the Church] with its secular errors and protestations to the end that a spirit of infidelity has ensued since the Second Vatican Council with escalating divorce, heresy, apostasy, immorality, homosexuality, even culminating now with the sexual abuse among the priests! This is the end product of our modern day reform because we as Church lost confidence in the Holy Spirit and went running after new and exiting ways of worshiping God (e.g. charismatic renewal, inter-faith worship, etc.) which the God of our fathers did not command us to do.
Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20) Forty five years of rotton fruits is enough evidence that a mistake was made at Vatican Council II. The conversion of Jews and Gentiles has virtually ceased since the Council so the Church needs to reflect on what worked in the past and return to it wholeheartedly in a spirit of contrition.
St. Paul said, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21) Let the Church fathers put aside their ecumenical reform this Lent and make that their Lenten meditation instead.
David Martin
jmj4today@att.net
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“The heresies of the past all occurred in the course of Church history but that didn’t make them part of tradition; the Holy Spirit didn’t guide them. “
Declares Mr. Martin.
How do we know the Holy Spirit didn’t guide them? Because they were heresies, of course! How do we know they were heresies? Because the Holy Spirit didn’t guide them, of course!
…a spirit of infidelity has ensued since the Second Vatican Council with escalating divorce, heresy, apostasy, immorality, homosexuality, even culminating now with the sexual abuse among the priests!
Says Mr. Martin.
Toad thinks The Beatles, rather than Vatican Two, are to blame. Although he must point out that all those wicked sins were being enjoyed, (if that is the mot juste,) long before the 1960’s. They just weren’t publicised as much.
And Toad is confident that all will join him in welcoming Mr. Martin’s distinctive brand of sanity to the proceedings on CP&S.
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“he must point out that all those wicked sins were being enjoyed, (if that is the mot juste,) long before the 1960′s. They just weren’t publicised as much.”
That is of course the key point. The observation that resolves the problem of why there was such an explosion of taboo behaviour, which by coincidence occured around the same time as the prohibition on talking about what was already going on was lifted.
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“a spirit of infidelity has ensued since the Second Vatican Council with escalating divorce, heresy, apostasy, immorality, homosexuality, even culminating now with the sexual abuse among the priests! ”
The reformation was of course a child of the Pre Vatican II Church. It’s hard to measure escalating homosexuality (independently from its increased visibility these days). The suggestion that the issue of sexual abuse is something new, would be sweetly naive, if it weren’t positively dangerous.
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Mr. Badger,
There was a lot being taught in seminaries that caused them to revolt against church teachings. Lack of faith always brings in sin.
This was a letter written by seminarian’s who were studying at Maynooth in Ireland.
Click to access ms.pdf
“The heretical teaching about the Eucharist, the total blurring of priesthood of the priest and of the laity, blatant homosexuality, angry feminist nuns teaching and running our lives, the relentless mix of non-seminary students, the absurd excuse for worship, the risible spiritual direction, the breezily malevolent evaluations, the defense of abortion and contraception, the all-pervading incompetence.”
Dr. William Cuolson, who organized encounter groups.
“The proof of authenticity on the humanistic psychology model is to go against what you were trained to be, to call all of that phoniness, and to say what is deepest within you. What’s deepest within you, however, are certain unrequited longings, including sexual longings. We provoked an epidemic of sexual misconduct among clergy and therapists.”
http://www.mtio.com/articles/aissar74.htm
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I am sure the Church Fathers are deeply humbled by Mr. Martin´s sage advice, and are this day repenting of their wicked, misguided “ecumenical reforms.” Once the Holy Spirit is properly re-installed we can all — Jews and Gentiles, even! — look forward to a “Christianity” of fiddleback chasubles, a “universal” language spoken nowhere in the world outside church walls, priests who lay down the law with the monolithic voice of True Holy Spirit doctrine… and nice little nuns fitted with proper habits and properly silenced.
If being a Christian means I must be a self-rightous prig, or a sort of Christian Pharisee, or just being silenced, well… I think I will take my chances out here with the heretics and Jews and and sinners. (Jesus seemed to prefer their company, himself.)
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Rebrites, being a self-righteous prig is not compulsory. Being a self-righteous prig is, however, a game everyone can play, not being confined to traditionalists, Catholics, Christians, or even theists.
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Rebrites,
There’s a lot of confusion and loss of faith caused by the liturgical shift. The Mass is the marriage of the lamb. We participate in the liturgy in heaven, in the company of the angels and saints, and the Christ and victim.
It is heaven on earth.
How many Catholics know this?
How would we act if we were in the presence of God?
A Protestant friend once told me, if only Catholics who live what they profess.
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Rebrites,
Jesus sought out the company of sinners – and that’s all of us, you and me too – so that they would turn away from their sinful ways, not wallow in them.
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I am so impressed by David Martin’s response. So impressed. (except that ‘rotten’ needs an e). It is really dangerous to be even slightly smug. Smugness is terrifyingly damaging. It is a very hard time to look for Christ (I think).
But everything will come together if people aren’t proud (on either side) and forgive everybody everything.
I just saw some programmes about Tolstoi- and the cost to him (and indirectly his family) of his great work and (unusual Christian) vision was a life of great intensity, much ongoing agony, self-revulsion…but it all came together because he stayed committed (bravely) to the truth.
Which he couldn’t know at the beginning, and his originality was such that nothing like his novelistic vision had happened before-absolutely fresh creativity MUST also belong to the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It can’t be just ‘always already’ true- static- but ongoing, totally surprising as well.
His version of Christian truth was vehemently anti-establishment. Now I wonder if HE provoked the Revolution more than Lenin & co.
It took a lot of personal suffering and self-doubt for what was so valuable to finally grow. It is a mystery why there has to be such a lot of loss/struggle before a deeper truth can be born.
Maybe the resolution of Vatican 2 will be like that! (things better than before, a perspective which couldn’t be imagined before, but after a LOT of suffering & dissolution, even death like a seed going into the ground).
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