I'm moving on today to part three of T.S. Flanders five-part series on Pornocracy in the Church which is well worth reading and reflecting on. There is nothing new under the sun as Ecclesiastes tells us, and certainly that is true of papal corruption.
But what is even more true is that God is so good that, while He doesn't desire evil, He desires us to love Him freely. He could have made us little robots who could only choose good, but, in His goodness, with full knowledge of how we would abuse our freedom, He loved us enough to give us free will anyway.
So what does He do in His infinite goodness? He brings good out of every evil act and He wills the good He will accomplish. Think of the Easter Exsultet which rings out the joyful news of salvation: "O happy fault of Adam that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer."
Nothing can overcome God's holy will. Sin deforms us; it does not "hurt" God in His divinity, but only Jesus in His humanity, a pain and suffering He willingly chose to atone for our sin and open the gates of heaven. No wonder the chapel bells ring out long, loud, and clear on Easter night! And so, let us consider the Third Pornocracy in the light of salvation history. We must never allow ourselves to lose hope, as Flanders tells us in this third episode:
We may be overwhelmed with the evil of the Third Pornocracy, and it may seem overwhelming. And so, having unveiled the horrors of the three pornocracies of the papacy, let’s have the rest of the story and see how God brought good out of the evil of the first two. After that, we will speculate as to what might be coming next.
I'll leave you to read the amazing facts of the post pornocracy stories that brought new vitality to the Church. He puts it this way:
In both of the first two pornocracies, a period of intense and hitherto unprecedented papal corruption preceded a yet more glorious and unprecedented triumph and renewal.
Yup! God is faithful to His people.
Flanders doesn't really go into "what's coming next" in this article, but simply states that the the Third Pornocracy "seems to have climaxed in the pontificate of Pope Francis." Let's pray he is correct, because a climax indicates the point of the greatest force. In literature, after the climax comes the denouement. Think of Hamlet. We see the climax in the final Act when Hamlet and Laertes fight to the death. By that time the stage is littered with bodies. But then in comes Fortinbras to conclude the play on a note of hope for the future.
Hope! That's what we need to foster. And, of course, in God is our hope and our salvation.
There is never a reason to despair for those who put their trust in God. Like the First and Second Pornocracies, the third will eventually be followed by a period of renewal. Keep the faith and hope in the Lord.
Christ has risen. The Victory has been won. All we have to do is to remain Faithful.
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Richard W Comerford
I’m sorry but this is one of the most poorly reasoned One Peter Jive articles I have ever read. John XII? Weak historical sauce: The era in which these events may have occurred is called the saeculum obscurum (“dark age”) for a good reason. Reliable historical sources, let alone primary sources are extremely scarce to non-existent. With respect to John XII, Church historians such as Fr. Charles Poulet, Fr. Fernand Mourret, and Fr. Joseph Darras contradict the Flanders/DeMattei historical wish for a Pope who, immoral in personal conduct, MUST have espoused heresy and then, resisted by the flock, was even deposed or removed from the Papacy.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Third Pornocracy, come on Tim! Are you trying to undermine your own argument?:
Tim says, ” Just because we do not have written records of official acts (like sermons) which contain these corruptions of the faith, we still have indications from contemporary witnesses like Erasmus, that such corruptions of doctrine were being done by the popes themselves in their acts as popes, leading to scandal not only in morals, but also in faith. Besides, the era of the pope being a universal teaching office (churning out multiple encyclicals per year) would not happen until after Vatican I.”
Okay, so “written records” not a basis for historical claims but "indications" are, and no written ordinary Papal Magisterium before VI even though Pope Leo I in the 5th century wrote the Tome of Leo (which established for the faithful the doctrine that Christ’s natures coexist and his Incarnation reveals that human nature is restored to perfect unity with divinity). Yes, it all makes sense now.
To play Devil's Advocate, Anonymous, there is a long history of oral tradition. Homer likely did not write down the Iliad and the Odyssey. They were passed on for years orally and only recorded later. Even much in Scripture was passed on in Sacred Tradition before being written. So I think you are a little hard on Flanders and DeMattei. I think the sarcasm of "One Peter Jive" is rude and inappropriate. In the spirit of 1 Corinthians 13, shall we all presume the best of those with whom we disagree when we know them to be serious Catholics (presumably like you and me).
ReplyDeleteAgreed with respect to oral tradition but eventually it too must be substantiated with other corroborating forms of historical evidence. My apologies for the sarcasm. I transgressed 1 Corinthians 13 with respect to Flanders. Not as much with DeMattei. He needs to be held to a higher standard. :-)
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