Chaos in relief.

American bishops embroiled in several searing controversies, the underwhelming witness of bishops in Canada and the United Kingdom, to say nothing about the limp role demonstrated by other European bodies, save the Poles—is the Church really collapsing?

Of course not, but, given the massive complaint coming from faithful Catholics—not the ever-complaining liberal religionists in our midst who lobby for faux-ordination, faux-communion, faux-etc.—it does seem that the observation Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) made in 1969 is coming true.

From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members.

For those of us who belong to smaller, tradition-minded communities, we are blessed with the certainty of direction and identity offered by God Who protects from error those who trust in Him. God gives grace and peace to those who trust in His ways.

The previous excerpt is from a 1969 radio broadcast that included the following observation:

Let us, therefore, be cautious in our prognostications. What St. Augustine said is still true: man is an abyss; what will rise out of these depths, no one can see in advance. And whoever believes that the Church is not only determined by the abyss that is man, but reaches down into the greater, infinite abyss that is God, will be the first to hesitate with his predictions, for this naïve desire to know for sure could only be the announcement of his own historical ineptitude.

Pray, wait (work) and see. Despair is too easy a trap to fall into, so it is appropriately dismissed as an option. Anger, if it be righteous, may serve a useful purpose when charity fully accompanies it. Hope is never naïve. It embraces all the pressures placed upon the human heart and submits them to the liberating truth of the Resurrection.

Let us not forget, and let us learn from the magnificent witness of our African and Asian brethren whose communities are growing despite pressures heaped against them by hostile fellow neighbours. The Euro-centric and Ameri-centric portions of the flock are crumbling. Other portions of the vineyard are alive and thriving despite persecution. Let us recall, too, the many thriving communities belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest—leaven among the faithful.