Since I’ve been in college, I’ve seen evidence of a disturbing trend. In a theology class I heard a Jesuit professor state, “The Catholic Church doesn’t teach that Satan exists.” A few weeks ago, I read that the director of Campus Ministry called the Pope senile for affirming traditional doctrine. And, most recently, I saw a sign for National Coming Out Day. All these events occurred on a Roman Catholic campus. Where is the uproar? The trend that is so disturbing is that the Catholic Church has been moving, for some time now to the left and is gradually losing its traditions.
It pains me to see that centuries-old traditions have apparently been cast aside for new, politically correct “rituals.” Catholics are becoming used to clapping during Mass, standing during the consecration, Communion in the hand and plain-clothes priests. These new practices are not necessarily good, and what is truly frightening is the possibility that changes in belief are soon to come.
Today, with Mass attendance and vocations in decline, we hear that the solution is further liberalization from the PC crowd. We need married priests and female priests, they say. What frightens me most is their assault on the Magisterium-the Church’s authority to teach.
When I hear people say that the prohibitions on premarital sex, birth control or homosexual activity (all of which are serious sins) are just results of an outdated Church, I can’t believe my ears. When I hear Catholics talk about skipping Mass or not fasting during Lent, I am amazed. What I’m beginning to hear now are doubts about original sin, hell, purgatory and the Real Presence.
What has happened to the Bride of Christ? Roman Catholicism is not a pick-and-choose religion; Jesus himself said, “Whoever is not for me is against me.” You’re not for someone if only half-heartedly. No one said following the faith would be easy, as we are to accept our crosses. Tolerance is trumping tradition, it seems, in an attempt to make the Church more “user-friendly.” After all, we can’t tell people that some things are sins, since this would be controversial. This attempt to lighten the load is an affront against two millenia of tradition.
Some will say that since these innovations are authorized by the clergy, they are allowable. Such is not the case. Popes and cardinals are human, and humans make mistakes. Are we to say that the Inquisition or the sale of indulgences are acceptable because they had papal approval?
Of course not-in Catholicism there is a tradition to be followed, and the politically correct have launched an assault on this tradition. If the Church is wrong right now, it was wrong for centuries.
Furthermore, consider the words of Our Lady of Fatima: “In Fatima the Faith will always be preserved.” Was this a hint that it would be attacked in other places? That’s not for me to say, but it is something to consider.
In the past, when the Church hierarchy was wrong, it took the efforts of holy and pious men and women to set it straight. It took St. Catherine of Siena to convince Gregory XI to move the Church back to Rome from Avignon. When the Church was guilty of corruption, Pope Pius V, a saint, had to set it straight. As hard as it is to believe, in this day in age, I firmly believe the Church is in dire need of a pious man or woman to point out the errors of its hierarchy.
By no means am I claiming that the entire hierarchy is wrong or that we should disobey anything out of protest. What I’m trying to get across is that, even though things have become liberalized, it is not true that the traditions or rules have been abandoned. What is true is that they have become obscured, or de-emphasized, in a world where it has become unfashionable to adhere to the controversial teachings of the Church.
For example, I once heard a priest here on campus say that the famous exorcism story here was merely the case of a boy with a mental disorder, even though Cardinal Ritter authorized the exorcism and Pope Pius XII knew about it. I’ve also been told by a priest that Vatican II actually did away with the centuries-old Latin Tridentine Mass, when Pope John Paul II has even decreed, in Ecclesia Dei, that bishops are required to allow the old Mass when requested. It is occasions such as these, when the leaders of our faith tell us incorrect information about it, that I can’t help but wonder what is happening to the Church.
Pope Paul VI once stated, “The smoke of Satan has entered the Church.” One need not look hard to discover that the Church is not heading in the best of directions. I can only hope that there is some future saint out there willing to restore the traditions, and we may once again truly have one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. After all, Jesus did tell St. Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Mike Benoist is a junior majoring in political science.
