(Contentedly) Stuck In The Middle

Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, "prolific writer, (...) one of the most prominent living theologians (and) member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission", wrote an essay posted at The Catholic Thing wherein he cites several areas of serious concern.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/10/08/pope-francis-and-schism/

What Francis does not realize (and his close associates fail to grasp) is that the overwhelming majority of his American critics would never initiate a schism. They recognize that he is the pope and thus the successor of Peter, and that to remain within the Catholic Church is to remain faithful to the pope, even if it entails being critical of the pope in one’s faithfulness to him.

Some may wish that an actual schism will take place in America in order to get rid of the obdurate conservative element and so demonstrate that they were not really Catholic all along. But that is not going to happen, because those critical bishops, priests, theologians, commentators, and laity (more laity than Francis will admit) know that what they believe and uphold is in accord with Scripture, the Church councils, the ever-living magisterium, and the saints.

As has been often noted, Pope Francis and his cohort never engage in theological dialogue, despite their constant claim that such dialogue is necessary. The reason is that they know they cannot win on that front.  Thus, they are forced to resort to name-calling, psychological intimidation, and sheer will-to-power.

Heresy to the left of me, schism to the right... here I am stuck in the middle with you.

What are we to do? Many Catholics, if Catholic online professional and amateur essayists are to be believed, are either dancing liturgically in the camp of Pope Francis 'the progressive messiah' or are raising pitchforks among the 'Bergolio Must Go' mob. Yet, there are those oft repelled by the same Pope's teaching and remain faithful, as Fr. Weinandy says, because "(t)hey recognize that he is the pope and thus the successor of Peter, and that to remain within the Catholic Church is to remain faithful to the pope, even if it entails being critical of the pope in one’s faithfulness to him."

Criticize does not mean castrate.

The Ordinariate is as safe a cloister as any in the Church wherein one can effectively tame or ignore the voices of rebellion and alarmist reactionaries while joining the chorus of the faithful who demand of themselves fidelity to Christ and fidelity to the Church Jesus founded upon the Apostle Peter. The Ordinariate, though, is not a fortress of gloomy walls behind which hide the disenchanted and spiritually disabled. No - the Ordinariate is a well constructed home with solid doors tended by pastors motivated by the example of the Good Shepherd. Ordinariate sheep are protected to the degree which each community remains faithful to the Good Shepherd.

Fidelity to Christ requires fidelity to the authority Jesus entrusted to Peter and to his successors. Where the Anglican Communion lacks the promise Jesus gave Peter to protect His Church, Holy Mother Church - the Catholic Church - enjoys Jesus' promise. 'Enjoys', as in cooperates diligently with the Holy Spirit to storm the gates of hell and to spread the Holy Gospel to all the world.

Many in the Ordinariate, i.e., those who fought the good fight in their former Anglican homes, know full well the consequences of playing loose with doctrine: dissension, division and ruin. Such hardy souls continue to be witnesses to truth, goodness and beauty in their new home.

There is in the Anglican Patrimony received into the Catholic Church in and through the Ordinariate the patrimony of fidelity to Christ and Church sewn into the skin of Anglicans (now Catholics) who experienced first hand the spirit of this age sucking the life out of their former homes, a spirit of pride demolishing that which had remained in Anglicanism of the Apostolic Tradition.

Reacting to the dissent at the highest levels, many Catholics in the trad-o-sphere are, unfortunately, repeating half truths which, being cut with hatred for the current pontiff, are further alienating Catholics and amount to attempts to bolster the ranks of groups or online communities that are near sedevacantist. Anticipating Vatican denials that the Holy Father denied the divinity of Jesus, said online communities aiming to further undermine this papacy employ phrases such as "Now, obviously, as it has often happened with Francis' informal interviews with Eugenio Scalfari, some will try to deny the veracity of what Scalfari, a seasoned journalist, affirms." Such attempts to manipulate the faithful to settle for incomplete information are as insidiously devious as the actions of some of those in Papa Bergolio's circle of supporters who insert ambiguous (sloppy) text into synod documents and, because they are liberal religionists more than Catholics, despise the Tradition-minded.

Which brings us to a final point: why bother chucking around words that amount to wasted witness when we can witness to truth, goodness and beauty by contributing to a new and valid project in the Church? The Personal Ordinariates comprise a collective opportunity for all Catholics who love the Lord to discover and celebrate a gift, because it is a gift from God, possessing enormous potential, a gift that offers Catholics a means by which they can grow in faith, hope and love according to the will of God. The Ordinariates are uncompromisingly enthusiastic about bringing people to Jesus Christ for the sake of the eternal well being of people's souls.

The Ordinariates are, thanks be to God, beyond the tired polarizing left versus right ecclesiastical politics fomented by liberal religion on the left and fortress conservatism on the right. Though preserving the Apostolic Faith in and through an innovative form of the Mass, i.e., Divine Worship, the Ordinariates conserve the Faith while admitting the action of the Holy Spirit Who grows the Church in continuity with all that was and remains holy precisely because the Holy Spirit can not contradict Himself, and those allied to the same Spirit of Truth do not contradict what has been received. The Holy Spirit reveals what is true renewal by restoring to unity former-Anglicans and others to Holy Mother Church, helping us all to recognize that (Lumen Gentium 8)

(t)his Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.

Haec Ecclesia, in hoc mundo ut societas constituta et ordinata, subsistit in Ecclesia catholica, a successore Petri et Episcopis in eius communione gubernata, licet extra eius compaginem elementa plura sanctificationis et veritatis inveniantur, quae ut dona Ecclesiae Christi propria, ad unitatem catholicam impellunt.

Laudetur Iesus Christus!