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Thursday, May 25, 2017

Guest Post: Francis Calls Keepers of Doctrine "Fanatics"

By David Martin

Solicitous concern over the purity of doctrine reflects the truest love of God and neighbor, since doctrine, as with any of the Ten Commandments, is not an ideal that may be watered down or dismissed to suit ones fancy, but an eternal command set in stone for man's sanctification. In the same way a healthcare expert does not tolerate poison in the diet, so a true priest will never tolerate poison in the spiritual diet. It has to be pure, which means it has to be clear, without which it is poison. 

But Pope Francis has now come out and slammed conservative Catholics who earnestly maintain that purity of doctrine be preserved. Concerning such people, the pope said in his Friday morning homily: "They are fanatics about things that are not clear, such as these fanatics who go about there, sowing discord in order to divide the Christian community."
So Thomas Aquinas was a "fanatic?" And all the saints and Apostles? Were they a band of kooks engaging in their "ideologies," or were they rather the true servants of God who were richly rewarded for their strict observance and clarification about Church teaching?

While admitting that "It is a duty of the Church to clarify doctrine," the pope said it is a "problem" and "great error" when "doctrine becomes an ideology," and he concluded his homily by asking for prayers for "those who transform doctrine into ideology."

So we're not supposed to know the truth in all its beauty and clarity? Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32), so why is it now a "great error" to know the truth and live up to it?

According to this, all the saints, monks, popes, and true servants of God of the past two-thousand years were a bunch of hecklers that disrupted the community because of their fervent love of the truth over the polluted ideology of the world.

The pope errs in saying that these faithful Catholics are "sowing discord in order to divide the Christian community," for the division being sown is not among the Christian community, but among the brood of heretics and rebels that despise the truth. Did Jesus not sow discord among the Pharisees because of his pure and heavenly doctrine of which he allowed no misunderstanding? And do we not see the Pharisees of today's counter-magisterium having misfits over Christ's doctrine because they are not willing to give up their worldly ideologies and come to grips with the absolute and unadulterated truth?


It is these hiss-fit Catholics who hypocritically argue that we must show "mercy" by giving infirm or newly converted Catholics "the rational milk without guile." (1 Peter 2:2) We indeed cannot force a whole load of doctrine down the throat of a spiritually "newborn babe," no more than we can force two pounds of beef down the throat of a young child. But it has to be pure, just as a bottle of baby-food must be pure. The point is that whatever we give to God's people, whether adult or young, must come from God's kitchen and cannot come from the modernist grill.

In his mercy, God from the beginning ordained that his people be nourished with the pure waters of holy tradition so that the light of doctrine might guide their lives in such a way that there is no doubt as to what they are to think or how they are to proceed. It's like a man with his eyes: the idea is that he sees where he is going. What optometrist in his right mind would refer to 20-20 vision as a "problem?" And why is the head of the Roman Catholic Church seeing clarity of doctrine as the obsession of "ideologues?"  

7 comments:

  1. Pope Francis is the fanatic, not orthodox Catholics.

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  2. "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith; whereas the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions." (1 Tim 1:3-7)

    Ah, I love St. Paul. He tells it like it is. If one is promoting "speculations" about "the divine training that is in faith" - they are not handing on authentic "doctrine", they are handing on an ideology, yes?

    [Okay, granted, theologians have been given latitude to help the Magisterium get a better understanding of Divine Revelation... e.g. the Faith. However, even they are given limits to this latitude as it says in the Vatican II document Dei Verbum, paragraphs 10-12.]

    To uphold the truths of the Faith, that is to say Divine Revelation, it is promoting the Truth. That is not an ideology (and I hope this is not what Pope Francis is talking about). For us the Truth (Jesus - John 14:6) is faith and morals (see CCC 892). We, the Church (see 1 Tim 3:15), are called to give a reason for the hope that is within us (see 1 Peter 3:15).

    I wish Pope Francis would give examples of what he calls "ideology". For me, a catechist, I am to teach the Faith... *not* my opinions - for that would be *my* ideology ("speculations" as St. Paul says) and not "the divine training that is in faith".

    Catechist Kev

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  3. Would a true pope seek to confuse the faithful by quibbling about two words that have practically the same meaning?
    Doctrine is a set of beliefs.
    Ideology is also a set of beliefs.
    Jorge Bergoglio seeks to make "ideology" a pejorative word.
    Objectively it is not because all doctrine is in essence a form of ideology.

    This man Bergoglio can not ever be trusted as he continually seeks to undermine covertly all catholic truth.
    I wrote before that Pope Benedict XV1 remains pope and as each day passes the scandal of the corrupt catholic twin type papacy
    continues.
    Regards John L.

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  4. When will this horrible fight, nightmare end? Will Our Lady of Fatima intervene????I guess I should count myself among the 'fanatics' and deplorables.

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  5. Traditional Catholics are doomed because "Pope" Francis is loading the College of Cardinals with like-minded crazies who are also out to destroy the Roman Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the "feeble and sickly" Pope Benedict still looks to be a picture of goood health! When will Catholics wake up and see what really happened?

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  6. Better fanatic than satanic! There are so many Catholics, lay and clergy leaders and teachers who should have been publicly excommunicated for heresy and scandal, using Canon 915 or whatever! We have clueless popes if not cowardly or even complicit in the sins of priests, bishops, cardinals and lay leaders! Pray for them, they are headed for hell along with the many souls they have destroyed!

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  7. I can't believe I'm saying this in this context, but, here goes:
    "Confusion is from the devil."

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