Sunday, February 01, 2009

A RORATE CÆLI Editorial: Standing with Peter.

"Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness. So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; that build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just, ... Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets. ... You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell? Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city." (St. Matthew, xxiii, 27-34).

Shame on you, "Liberal Catholics", Pharisees of the "New Springtime"! You proclaim to tolerate all, and to respect diversity, but you loathe those whose only wish is to preserve the purity of what was always taught and of the prayers that were always offered, because their continued presence in the Church contradicts the new "house" you tried to build.

Shame on you, "Progressives", official Scribes of the "Spirit of the Council"! You build monuments to the "Good Pope John", but reject all that he stood for, in traditional doctrine and in liturgical beauty. You hail Paul VI, but have done all you could to ignore his greatest magisterial document, Humanae Vitae, and discredit him in the eyes of the world. You maligned John Paul II every single day of his pontificate, but now you praise him, for you have found your new scapegoat - Benedict XVI, a man who, as his last work on earth, has accepted the heavy burden of the Fisherman, trying to bring unity to the flock God entrusted him.

You crucify Peter in the global public square. You deliver him to the enemies of the Church of Christ. You hate him for his struggle to rehabilitate what the Church has always believed and the way the Church has always prayed. You persecute him for he removed the scarlet sign of "excommunication", which you used to despise, but which you now view as good!

You hypocrites! You are accommodating towards abortionists and you pander to politicians dedicated to the culture of death - but you misrepresent Peter's legitimate gesture of mercy as an act of uninformed weakness. Liberal serpents, pseudo-Conservative vipers (i.e. All you Neo-Cons), you are "witnesses against yourselves" for your relentless persecution of Peter. Yet, Peter will keep working for unity with charity, charity in Truth.

Those who love the Vicar of Christ will keep praying daily for him, so that he "will not flee for fear of the wolves", so that he may persevere in the mission he set out to accomplish. What about you? "Your house shall be left to you, desolate."