A recent two part interview in the National Catholic Register with Oxford University Professor Thomas Pink discussed the state of the Church. The full interview is available in part one and part two, but there are two major points that the interview makes below:
Yes. The Church’s magisterial teaching is increasingly embarrassing to many bishops and senior clergy. And of course, once this process gets going, I can see why people might get worried about apostasy on the part of the Church’s own hierarchy. For sooner or later some bishops and senior clergy stop pretending that it’s all just about changes in pastoral policy, and start openly claiming that the doctrine itself really can be changed.
…
Some see it as almost undeniable that the Church is drifting into apostasy because they see her going along with a world, putting forward views not backed by grace, by baptism, and so she is following a world which is not going towards salvation. Is she therefore being led astray?
Well, clearly at the level of official theology, yes. I think the reason why I avoid words like apostasy is that the Church cannot fail. The Church cannot leave the Church, which of course what apostasy is about. It’s about leaving the Church.
So as Catholics we’ve got to see the fundamental structures of the Church and magisterial authority continuing. But we can also see that there are considerable and growing departures in official theology and policy from magisterial teaching.
Which is kind of eclipsing magisterial teaching…
Yes. After all, the ordinary Catholic doesn’t read encyclicals, or the decrees of past councils. The ordinary Catholic simply hears what the parish priest says, what that priest has been taught to say at seminary or what he or his fellow-clergy now think he ought to say … . All that is a matter of official theology, not magisterial teaching itself. The problem now is that so much of the official theology omits magisterial teaching, or even contradicts it.
So this is a considerable crisis, but it will only be resolved by understanding the roots of the official theology, and then confronting it intellectually. I think the fundamental point to make is this: we have an official theology that no longer treats the unconverted nature of the world as living under the dominion of the devil, and so inevitably in a state of spiritual war against Christ and his Church. The Church has historically taught that in a fallen world, human nature will degrade, in a way that must inevitably lead to spiritual conflict with the Church. And that historical teaching appears all too true – but modern official theology will not admit the inevitability of the conflict or its roots in the Fall.
What the professor is speaking about in the Church is the conflict between the many statements of various bishops and even the current occupant of the See of Peter, Pope Francis.
Catholic theology is very clear and it has a consistent history going back two thousand years. One can read this from the books on the Catholic Faith, and until just over the last half-century, there had not been a serious internal crisis over basic matters on faith and morals since the time of Constantine and the Aryan heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. While sometimes one uses hyperbolic language to describe a crisis, it is completely appropriate for this case, for the situation with the Church is over not just basic issues that have been settled, but issues that had never been even questioned because the teaching was so obvious.
I speak specifically of the issues regarding the LGBT and the related groups.
Sacred Scripture and Tradition make abundantly clear the gravity of the sin that is homosexuality. It is a sin that is only one of four in the Bible that explicitly cries out to Heaven for vengeance. It is specifically named in both the Old and New Testaments as a sign of grave evil in a man. It has been roundly condemned by the Church throughout the ages. It is listed as a sin so hateful by the saints that even the demons despise it.
The above photo is to click on to expand and read at your own risk, and it is definitely not for children. It is an infograph comprised of responses from the LGBT about fantasies and experiences involving “bug chasing,” an activity unique to and common among homosexuals, which is a sexual fetish over contracting and spreading the HIV virus and is something I have written about. In spite of all the “HIV/AIDS Awareness” fundraisers, promises to find a “cure” for HIV, and the complaints of the LGBT about it, many in fact are obsessed with the virus and want to get it and spread it, and do it in the absolute worst way that they can. One can find many of such reports in the archives.
The way of the LGBT is one of death embracing the worst forms of sickness. It is a basic moral duty, as far as the faith is concerned, to opposed the LGBT in all her forms, and it is so well-established in Sacred Scripture and Tradition there is no question as to the matter.
The only thing that one would be embarrassed about, is if either one does not believe in the teaching, or if the society is so perverse that it accepts this as normal.
The truth is, that both situations are present. There is a crisis of morality and faith and a world that while it has never embraced the Faith, is now legislating and spreading the LGBT in ways that are nothing less that unprecedented.
If many in the Church are afraid to talk about the LGBT, who else will oppose it? It only advances the march on the road to Gomorrah, which will end in destruction by fire.
The Church will not fail, and the heresy of individuals and even a majority of people cannot change divinely revealed truth, just as what happened during the Arian crisis when over 80%+ of Christians and bishops did not believe in Jesus’ divinity.
All things will be worked out in time, and the Faith will persevere. It is just a long hard fight ahead for a time, and it is worth remembering that now is not the time to despair, but to keep the faith and press on until the end, for that is where salvation will be found at last.