Sunday Meditation: What would Pope Leo IV think of the Crisis in the Church?

 

As I posted yesterday I'm going on a silent Ignatian retreat this week from Sunday evening (tonight) until Saturday morning, July 25th. I've scheduled some articles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but will be completely off the internet starting this evening. 

I won't be moderating comments either. You are welcome to leave them, but they'll sit in the combox until I return on on July 25th. I will be praying for all my readers while I'm on retreat. Please pray for me as well.

For those who read regularly you've seen my open letter to Bishop Michael Burbidge about the treatment of the laity in the decree of Pope Leo and the explanatory note from Cardinal Fernandez. I mailed the letter on Monday, July 13th, but delayed publication out of courtesy for the bishop. Then I scheduled the letter's publication on Friday, July 17th. 

Reading Butler’s Lives of the Saints Friday morning, I found that one of saints of the day is Pope St. Leo IV who died in 855. Interestingly, he has a connection to Pope St. Pius X as well. Interesting coincidence? Providential encouragement? At any rate, I decided to share a portion of Butler's essay on the saint. 

Another Pope Leo, a saint who loved Gregorian chant and the "use [of] the Latin tongue to pay...tribute of praise to the King of Heaven."

“In his enthusiasm for the chant of the Roman church he was a precursor of St. Pius X, and there is extant a letter which he sent to an abbot who erred on the subject. Pope Leo wrote:

‘A quite incredible story has reached our ears….It is alleged that you have such an aversion from the sweet chant of St. Gregory…that you are at variance in this matter not only with this see, which is near to you, but with almost every other church in the West, in fact, with all those who use the Latin tongue to pay their tribute of praise to the King of Heaven….’

“He proceeds to threaten excommunication if the recipient continues to differ from ‘the supreme head of religion’ and his proper rite in his manner of worship.”

What do you think Pope Leo IV would say about the current situation in the church? Would he condemn, excommunicate and declare the SSPX schismatic? Somehow I doubt it. Of course, the problem would never have arisen during his pontificate obviously.

So I’m begging Pope St. Leo IV's intercession for Pope Leo XIV and will be praying every day for the pope and my bishop while I’m on retreat. Let us all pray together for the clergy. Fr. James Buckley, my retreat master for, I think, 18 silent Ignatian retreats said the clergy, especially the pope, have many "commando devils" assigned to attack them. Don't we need to get serious about praying and fasting for the pope and all the clergy? We so desperately need a holy pope, holy bishops, and holy pastors who do not bend the knee to woke ideology and the "synthesis of all heresies," modernism. Remember what Jesus told the disciples: "Some demons are only driven out by prayer and fasting." So let's get serious and do it.

Pope St. Leo IV, pray for us.