Go here to read her thoughts. Amy Welbourn was one of the early stars of St. Blogs. Virtually every Catholic blog sang her praises. It isn't difficult to see why. Her take is worth the read.
I typically don't comment on inside baseball stuff where the Church is concerned. Though I'm not blind to what the entire 'synod' is all about. Basically, the Church is trying to become what mainline Protestant denominations became. Why it is doing this is anyone's guess. Though if we ask too many questions, we might not like the answers.
Thanks for the link and kind words.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insights.
DeleteIt is very exasperating to give much thought to this "Synod on Synoldality" thing, but this was a good commentary on it. I'm mostly ignoring it, and it doesn't even blip on your average Catholic's radar. But I will say that any meaningful attempt at Eucharistic Revival really should begin with public apologies and repentance by our bishops for shutting down the churches 3 years ago. They did a LOT of damage to peoples' faith by that action and that should be acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I can recognize a movement that wants to follow mainline Protestants when I see it. Exactly why is hard to say, short of judging those involved. But as I said I think we wouldn't like the answer if we actually asked the question.
Delete"Welborn".
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She was talented at picking topics, keeping the riff-raff out of her comment boxes. She moderated discussions of controversial topics but was not contentious herself. An analogue among secular bloggers might be Ann Althouse. She got tired of it eventually and shifted to reflections and discussions which drew a much smaller audience.
In all honesty, in the early days of the Catholic blog world, her approach was par for the course. Many tried to distance themselves from the already toxic world of internet debate (that, by comparison to today, seems tame). I remember Mark Shea would tolerate no personal attacks, no false accusations, no threats. Break those rules and he would ban you after three warnings. It seems a testimony to people like Amy Welbourn, not that she was some exception back in the day, but that she has resisted slipping into the mire and bilge where so many other Catholic bloggers ended up going.
DeleteI remember Mark Shea would tolerate no personal attacks, no false accusations, no threats.
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Except the personal attacks he made himself.
In those days the attacks were a bit more measured. He tended only to attack individuals for something like attacking Christians over gay marriage, or abortion advocates. He generally didn't make personal attacks against individuals, and he didn't do it in the comboxes as far as I recall. But early on, his tendency to condemn others for what he proudly did was already beginning to show itself, that is true.
DeleteThe usual excellence from Amy Welborn. She never misses a note, and she keeps an objective, calm tone long past the point I would have summoned the town watch to build a scaffold.
ReplyDeleteThat said, while I continue to receive the sacraments, I'm mentally checking out of the Roman Catholic communion. Vatican I has become a spiritual obstacle that I have an increasingly difficult time squaring with historical Christian belief and practice. I know I'm far from alone with this--most of the Melkite Catholic hierarchy subscribes to the Zoghby Thesis, holding that the papacy of the undivided Church of the first millennium is all that can be properly asked of the faithful.
It's become painfully clear to me that, far from being the custodian of Tradition, the Vatican I papal office, as set forth in the documents of the council itself, is just as readily an engine of novelty and innovation. Lord Acton was right: absolute power corrupts absolutely. The unaccountable papacy is an office of absolute power. And the current pontiff is running up quite the bar tab. Though, to be fair to him, he has ample bad examples to draw upon in his exercises of arbitrary power.
I hear you. Not that we should accept the idea that the pope is God and the only thing that matters, but who the next pope is will speak volumes for where the Church and its leadership want to go. But I've heard others say what you say, that this has been a long time coming. If the Church's leaders continue to push the Church in the same direction as the mainline Protestants - that is, essentially saying the historic faith was rubbish, and embrace the worldly, secular approach to some vague spiritual materialism – I don't know what that will mean for the faithful. After all, if they have kids and grandkids, even if they can withstand the departure from the Faith, their kids and grandkids will be taught not to by the very Church they are exposed to every day. Hence why we, in our neck of the woods, went Orthodox for a half dozen years. When you're saying the Church has always said thus, but the Church as the kids are exposed to it disagrees and says it's all about conforming to the Left and embracing the world, your little voice starts sounding rather small in their ears. Especially when the message is what every kid wants to hear (don't worry, we all get our reward no matter what, so do what you want just be nice).
DeleteI tend towards the morose when it comes to the faith I converted to these days. But, yes, we appear to be on the same page.
DeleteThe message from the current management to those who have struggled to be faithful in word and deed seems to be an incredulous guffaw. "You believed all that? Wow, bet you feel dumb now!"
God can slam on the brakes if He wants to. Or it may be, as with Israel demanding and getting a King, that Catholicism is just getting what it asked for. Good and hard.
Oh, I ran into that when we entered the Church. Having heard tales about how Scott Hahn or Marcus Grodi were enthusiastically welcomed into the Church, I assume the same would happen. Some of the older Catholics (retired, born in the 20s and 30s) certainly embraced us. But among younger Catholics, including some leaders (though not the younger priests I'll admit), the response was often akin to 'you lost almost everything to become Catholic? that's odd. Why'd you do a thing like that?' I'm hoping that maybe some of those younger priests who did seem enthusiastic about such a thing will begin to take the helm and help the Church get back to the actual Faith.
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