Two Popes Who Saw the Problem: One in the Past, One in the Present

Pope Adrian VI, 1522-23

Anyone with eyes to see knows that the Catholic Church is in crisis. It's an unholy mess and, with the latest
Synod on Synodality, things are likely to get much worse. Just as the Vatican used previous synods and surveys to undermine the faith and attack Dogma and Sacred Tradition, the latest synod "listening sessions" will likely be used to further advance dissent and heresy. Already there are rumors about legitimizing contraception and further advancing homosexuality and even abortion. Check out the wolves among the synod "experts" who will be preparing the document for the next step in the synod process. 

No matter how this goes, don't lose heart, friends. God uses what Satan means for evil to bring about good, and what is happening is nothing new in the Church. 

Let's recall for a minute a 16th century pope who served only twenty months, Pope Adrian VI (January 9, 1522 - September 14, 1523). He was a reformer who eliminated many of the excesses of the corrupt Vatican which contributed to the Protestant revolt. He eliminated the balls and fetes, the plays and pomps and parties and all the luxuries infecting the Vatican court. He ate and dressed simply. His two objectives were to reform the curia and to fight the invasion of the Turks. He denounced clerical corruption through his legate at the Diet of Nuremberg in 1523 instructing him with these words:

Words, Words, Words -- Steppingstones to the Word Made Flesh!

My mother loved words. She used to read the dictionary. Really! It amused us children, but as an adult I appreciate her fascination with words.

I was thinking about that this morning at adoration. I'm reading The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict XVI. As I read the section on Sacred Time I thought, "I want to look up the derivation of some of these words: liturgy, reality, epiphany, cosmology."

 It isn't that I don't understand what I'm reading and need word definitions. But I think understanding can be enriched by plumbing the depth of word meanings. Where did they come from? How has the word changed? Why does the author use this particular word instead of another? I guess that's my inner English major coming out.