Monday, August 21, 2006

If it walks and talks like a DUCK....

...It might just be one - a Dissenting UnCatholic Klub (DUCK), or just another dissenting "Catholic" organization along the lines of CTA, VOTF, ARCC, CFFC, and on and on...

WELCOME TO TAKEBACKOURCHURCH.ORG

Let's cut right to the chase. Everyone talks about the weather in the U.S. Catholic Church but no one does anything about it. We propose to do something about not only the weather, but the climate as well -- with your help. In fact, without your help, and the help of a million others like you, we won't be able to demand the action necessary to create the Church we need. If you've been following the horror stories for the past four years, you know it isn't only the spectacle of sex abuse by a relatively few American priests that makes us ashamed of our Church. It is the systematic cover up of that abuse by most of the nation's bishops. read more »

Yet another group arises from the dungheap of dissension. And, of course, there is nothing new with this one either. It espouses the same, tired complaints: the Church is too authoritarian and has failed to fully implement the reforms of Vatican II and because of this, the faithful must change the Church - fashioning it into an idol, shaped upon the whims and desires of the chosen elite - those to whom a 'spirit' has bestowed the heretofore unknown knowledge of 'authentic reform' - those whose numbers are dwindling, having been unable to persuade younger Catholics to join in their lost cause against the Church.

Here is some of what the group has to say:
We want to push for new laws in the American Church that will make us all accountable to one another, grounding our stand in scripture and the traditions of the primitive Church.

How primitive do they want to be? While it may not be precisely addressing this issue, let us recall what Pope Pius XII said in Mediator Dei nearly 60 years ago, and from this, we may obtain an insight, at least in principle, of the errors of abandoning the growth and development of the Church for a more primitive one from an earlier time:

63. Clearly no sincere Catholic can refuse to accept the formulation of Christian doctrine more recently elaborated and proclaimed as dogmas by the Church, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit with abundant fruit for souls, because it pleases him to hark back to the old formulas. No more can any Catholic in his right senses repudiate existing legislation of the Church to revert to prescriptions based on the earliest sources of canon law. Just as obviously unwise and mistaken is the zeal of one who in matters liturgical would go back to the rites and usage of antiquity, discarding the new patterns introduced by disposition of divine Providence to meet the changes of circumstances and situation.

64. This way of acting bids fair to revive the exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism to which the illegal Council of Pistoia gave rise. It likewise attempts to reinstate a series of errors which were responsible for the calling of that meeting as well as for those resulting from it, with grievous harm to souls, and which the Church, the ever watchful guardian of the "deposit of faith" committed to her charge by her divine Founder, had every right and reason to condemn.[53] For perverse designs and ventures of this sort tend to paralyze and weaken that process of sanctification by which the sacred liturgy directs the sons of adoption to their Heavenly Father of their souls' salvation.

65. In every measure taken, then, let proper contact with the ecclesiastical hierarchy be maintained. Let no one arrogate to himself the right to make regulations and impose them on others at will. Only the Sovereign Pontiff, as the successor of Saint Peter, charged by the divine Redeemer with the feeding of His entire flock,[54] and with him, in obedience to the Apostolic See, the bishops "whom the Holy Ghost has placed . . . to rule the Church of God,"[55] have the right and the duty to govern the Christian people. Consequently, Venerable Brethren, whenever you assert your authority - even on occasion with wholesome severity - you are not merely acquitting yourselves of your duty; you are defending the very will of the Founder of the Church.

(All emphasis mine)

And we read this:

...we must elect our own bishops. And retain the power to un-elect them if they fail to serve us. We don't do that by trying to change the thinking of a pope. Not right away, not unless we think we can persuade a man of power to simply give it up.
. . .
Some say we can revolt, following the example of America's Founding Fathers. But we say it's not necessary to go into formal or practical schism. [Note: material schism seems to be sufficient.]

We just have to persuade the bishops (never underestimate the power of public opinion) to inculturate the Gospel in the United States, creating a modern autochthonous American Church...Autochthonous (pronounced aw-TOCK-thun-us) doesn't mean autonomous. It means homegrown.
. . .
We will write a Declaration of Autochthony, one that will challenge our priest-people and our people-people to work out a constitution for the American Church that carefully puts aside the Rome-based secretive, half-vast, culturally-conditioned, legalisms codified in canon law in return for the kind of servant Church envisioned at Vatican II.
Not schismatic? Could have fooled me...

Just another "Klub" doomed to unhappiness and extinction...

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