Well, that’s a rhetorical question that bites the dust.
Like Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca who will “forever will have Paris”, bears will continue to do what they do in the woods but I’m not so sure you can say the same thing about the pope.
I’m bewildered at the dizzying pace in which Pope Francis is giving away the store. And make no mistake, the recognition of civil unions for homosexuals is so “yesterday” that it really doesn’t make sense to be talking about it at this juncture. Except on this level: eventually, the Catholic Church will go full ‘Piskie and find a sacramental way to sanctify sodomy. It has to; the State will make sure that it does.
As far as the other pesky things the Catholic Church teaches, they will be given a pass. The State doesn’t care if it believes in the efficacy of the other sacraments. Those are internal things. Sodomy and abortion are the only rituals that matter to the new secular overlords.
My first instinct is to address my traditional Catholic brethren, for whom I have great sympathy: What now, Tradcats? Do you still hold to the doctrine of Sede Vacantism, the idea that Francis is not a validly elected Pope? Or, if he a legitimate successor to St Peter, where the magisterium resides in his office?
I realize that the more realistic among them will always looks to the Roman Curia to serve as a backstop to any possible papal excesses. Where is the Curia now? Or has the rot, the “filth” which Pope Benedict XVI warned us about, completely taken over them?
I could go on with this line of questioning but that would be churlish. We Orthodox have our own problems with the episcopate so I won’t be the pot calling the kettle black. As a fellow Christian, I truly feel your pain. So instead, I will turn my gaze to my own backyard.
Patriarch Bartholomew has presumably been watching this spectacle, as he is again, joined at the hip with Pope Francis. Several years ago, while in Estonia, he gave a sermon in which he came down hard against same-sex marriage. Now, it is looking more like it was an Obamaesque-type ruse; a way to buy some time until the culture changed.
And boy has the culture changed! Bartholomew has arrogated a papal ideology to himself, crafted by his protege, an archimandrite by the name of Elpidophoros Lambrianides. He later elevated this priest to archiepiscopal status here in America. Clearly, this new archbishop imbibes the spirit of the age in every way possible. It would not strain the eyes of even the most dim-witted to see where the more progressive elements of the Orthodox Church are leaning.
We can lament the self-inflicted wounds that Catholicism has inflicted upon itself, but alas, there’s nothing more we can do. Hopefully, it’s not too late.
The Episcopal Church is the most natural fit for Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Elpidophoros, Fr Arida, Sister Vassa, Fordham, and those in harmony with their beliefs and actions. In it anything goes except traditional Orthodoxy or traditional Roman Catholicism. While briefly Episcopalian I was stunned to learn after the intro classes that Each of us got to decide whether or not the bread and wine was transformed into Christ’s body and blood or just symbolic. Adam and Eve, Arius, Barlaam move over. No confession means no repentance or even awareness of heinous sins in direct contradiction to Christ’s own words. Anything can be rationalized and interpreted by self. As tragic as that is, even worse is to stay snd try to change the Church into one’s own creation.
Blessedly the Orthodox Church has the consensus of the Holy Fathers past and present as chief advisors rather than any individual Patriarch or Bishop so we have the Royal Path blazed by the saintly for guidance, interpretation and true teaching. If someone in authority departs from their path, it is easy to see and sense if one studies the Holy Fathers reverently and reads the lives of the Saints snd the interpretation of Holy Scripture by the Fsthers not academics or secularists and studies Tradition. While we pray for all persons to discover or return to the Faith, we also pray for their souls and for the Body of Christ not to be harmed by them as false teachers. Or by lay sinners either as I certainly am!
Lots of gears moving in the Vatican apparatus now. The Curia is not in a position to backstop anything.
Pope Frank the I has been appointing Cardinals at a dizzying rate, and dismissing from the Curia those who have the temerity to adhere to anything remotely resembling Christianity. In addition, he is setting world records for the appointment of auxiliary bishops, including to dioceses that have never had one (or needed one) before. Often, these dioceses are poor and cannot afford to support a second prelate, so there is pressure to promote these auxiliary bishops quickly to Ordinaries (the RC term for “ruling hierarchs”). Of course, these RC bishops are cut from the same modernist cloth as Frankie. This cynical tactic quickly forces these modernists to the top of the list when RC episcopal sees become vacant.
While I expected it to happen relatively soon, I didn’t think I would see the utter destruction of the institutional RCC in my lifetime, but it looks like such has been put on the fast track.
They were always just one bad pope away from becoming the Episcopal Church. Evidently that bad pope has arrived.
If the gates of hell prevail against an institution, one thing that can be said with complete confidence is that that institution is not now, nor ever has been, the Church of Christ.
Here are the new business worker bees for the GOA!
This will help Orthodox Christians navigate the “new” GOA serpent like entanglement with Rome!
https://www.thenationalherald.com/community_church_united_states/arthro/archbishop_elpidophoros_announces_appointments_to_the_2020_2022_archdiocesan_council-1062421/
New Appointments Metropolis of New Jersey.
https://www.thenationalherald.com/community_church_united_states/arthro/archbishop_elpidophoros_appoints_metropolis_of_new_jersey_council-1061878/
Let the games begin!
Metropolis of Chicago creating new tax free“foundation!” Looking to fill seats in new Board of Directors!
Wow!https://www.chicago.goarch.org/foundation
https://www.chicago.goarch.org/foundation
So the pope said a bunch of gibberish based in lies and conceit to gain favor with the world? What else is new? That’s what it means to be pope. It’s been happening for centuries.
‘Is the Pope Catholic?’
The jury is still out…
Does a bear wear a tall hat?
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/no-families-no-children-no-future-lgbt-30-percent-carle-c-zimmerman/
Dreher has an interesting article at American Conservative. I encourage you to read it. He does not appreciate the significance of what he is observing, but he is also obviously a beta type.
If you were to substitute the word “patriarchy” in place of “family” in articles such as these, the mystery would be solved. The chemistry is being ruined by progressive ideology.
Ok, don’t be shocked. Remember I warned you:
Men want to be strong and to dominate women, especially sexually. And women want their men to be strong and to dominate them, especially sexually (yes, I know that sounds kinky, but bear with me). This is not a “wanting” at the level of philosophy or ideology. This is a primal hunger and desire seated deep in our psyches and hormonally induced and supported.
It just is.
Now we need be loving in all things, even control and hierarchy – but that does not change the fundamental nature of the dynamic.
Man is a hunter/warrior by nature. He is the most efficient predator ever created, by far. Woman is a gatherer/nurturer. They compliment each other. But one way in which they compliment each other is in dominance/subservience.
Now don’t go all ape sh*t and get me wrong yet again. It’s all friendly and fun for the most part and just understood rather than being overtly demonstrated constantly. But it’s there and it’s the elephant in the room in these types of discussions about demography. Everybody knows it but we just don’t want to face it because of its political implications.
All these dramas about Rome and other more primitive realms and even the whole Handmaid’s Tale thing in its subconscious, unintended aspects is a reference to this part of our psyches which has been profoundly repressed through political indoctrination over the past 50 years or so.
I think the problem will solve itself but not before substantial trauma. One cannot be liberated in any sense by suppressing ones id. It has teeth and a right to life. It will fight back, one way or another – hence the idealized patriarchies (in dramas), whether intended that way or not.
Besides, you need it, particularly in a fallen world. And here’s the thing: Much like certain species of animals won’t mate in captivity, humans are less inclined to reproduce when they live in sexual captivity to feminist ideology. The data is not murky in the least, indeed, it is crystal clear.
Misha, I would probably use different words but agree on much of what you say.
Wars, it seems tend to kill off or maim the most alpha among us leaving Betas or worse in charge. What say you?
Not sure about that. War can actually make men out of boys as well. You assume it’s the alpha’s who get killed but they may actually be more likely to survive it. He who seeks to save his life shall lose it . . .
Misha, excellent analysis!
He’s been on fire lately!
I am but an imperfect and lowly conduit who accepts credit for nothing and am wholly dependent on the mercy of our Lord.
The process is actually described in 1 Romans 26-27:
ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄρσενες ἀφέντες τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν τῆς θηλείας ἐξεκαύθησαν ἐν τῇ ὀρέξει αὐτῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἄρσενες ἐν ἄρσεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι καὶ τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν ἣν ἔδει τῆς πλάνης αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀπολαμβάνοντες. Διὰ τοῦτο παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας. αἵ τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν μετήλλαξαν τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν.
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
This “φυσικὴν χρῆσιν”, “natural use” refers to “use” in the sense of utilization; i.e., “employing a thing or a person for a purpose” . “Natural” is used in the sense of “instinctual” or (according to Strong) “animalistic”. The same word is used to refer to men in their unregenerate state, slaves to fleshly desire – which makes sense since the passions are basically normal desire gone into extremity, unbridled. It definitely has an earthy tone to it.
Notice, he first mentions women as changing into lesbians and then men into gays. I’m not blaming women in saying this, I’m simply speaking chronologically. The disorientation St. Paul describes begins with a misconception within women themselves of their own role (i.e., feminism). Whether as a consequence or merely sequentially, men also begin same sex behavior. That may simply be the order of events at that time, the way the psychoses developed in that era, or perhaps that is the basic pattern in general. It makes sense that an idolization of the feminine would come first. Why else would men want to act like women? I would have thought the opposite, that men becoming effeminate would lead to women relying on each other. But St. Paul ascribes it all to materialism:
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” – 1 Romans 22-25
That is Screwtape’s teleology: “Man is the measure of all things”, “The voice of the people is the voice of God”; i.e., Enlightenment Humanism, into idolatry of creation, into materialism, into feminism, into homosexuality (and transgenderism, bestiality, and God knows what other abominations).
Is a Cypriot Pope?
‘The hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus do not accept Archbishop Chrysostomos’ “papal decision” to commemorate Epiphany Dumenko, the head of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” during the Divine Liturgy…’
https://orthochristian.com/134832.html
“Cypriot hierarchs call to immediately revoke recognition of OCU”
https://spzh.news/en/news/75411-priznanije-dumenko–vopijushheje-narushenije-sinodalynoj-sistemy–ijerarkhi-kipra
I am surprised there’s only 4 bishops opposing this. The Church of Cyprus has, I think, 16 bishops total. That’s one quarter in opposition. What about the rest?
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
How many bishops can dance on the edge of a fence?
Or perhaps, like Br’er Rabbit, they lay low an’ say nuthin’.
The Pope may not be, but Christ Medicus is Catholic! Their journal on Freedom of Religion and Pro-life Health Care is a wonderful read pre-election for ALL who call themselves CHRISTIANS. Wish our Orthodox Bishops would do the same! Reasoning different but conclusion about the election the same:
https://christmedicus.org/fall-2020-catholic-journal/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=The Well-Formed Catholic Vote, SCOTUS Roundup, Pro-Life Health Care&utm_campaign=CMF Journal – Fall 2020
Better link to excellent pre-election article on Religious Freedom and Pro-life Health Care: https://christmedicus.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/CMFJournal_Fall2020Edition.pdf