Today's Crisis in the Church is Different than All Others

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Phrancez

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First, I want to point out that I sincerely believe in Matthew 16:18 and that evil will not ultimately prevail over the Church.

I have read where many downplay the impact of today’s crisis on the Church, by listing arguably “worse” crises in the Church’s past. What they never mention however is how the world has fundamentally changed in terms of the lightning-fast, almost total world saturation of today’s communications.

It’s clear the Holy See has not really grasped this reality. I think the hierarchy truly believes they can sweep the hot issues: clerical homosexuality and its organizational effects, bishop accountability, pederasty and others under the rug.

They cannot, and it’s due largely to today’s communications and of course, God’s grace.
 
The worldwide change in the availability and the rate of transmission of information doesn’t change the amount of abuse or evil committed, now or in the past. It does make it more well known across the world, and less likely to be brushed aside or ignored. I see that as a positive change.

I tInk the hierarchy grasps the importance of the situation. If their response is inappropriate or minimal, that same news cycle will keep it in the forefront.
 
Mtatum1958 said:
If their response is inappropriate or minimal, that same news cycle will keep it in the forefront.
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Never mind the media regurgitating the problem over and over. The flock is left stuck in the mud. Most will perish.
Swift action is necessary for damage control.
 
I’m not stuck in the mud, nor are most people I know. It depends if you’re in it for the players or the game.
 
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It’s also been mentioned elsewhere that this crisis is worse because there are two elements to it – both widespread moral and spiritual corruption. In the past the Church had a lot of corruption and moral failures but generally there wasn’t a lot of open dissent about doctrine the way there is today.
 
That goes back to the earlier statement regarding the rapid fire spread of news and information. In addition, anyone can set up a blog, website, or re-feed articles in an instant.
 
Well, it works both ways, though.

While misinformation and wrong information can be lightning fast, so can corrections and true information.

Back in the old days, say you lived in a village miles from the nearest ‘big city’. Might take days or weeks to hear from your own country’s seat of government, let alone from another country. So if you didn’t get accurate information, you had the ‘wrong info’ for days, weeks, months at a time. And you were at the mercy of a handful of people, even one person, who might deliberately give you wrong info, and it would take forever for you to get the real news.

Now, you can hear wrong info, but you can pick up your phone or your pad and have instant access to the right info as well. You aren’t limited to what your village, or your state, or your country, ‘let’ you receive.
 
Ardent_Fire said:
In the past the Church had a lot of corruption and moral failures but generally there wasn’t a lot of open dissent about doctrine the way there is today.
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There wasn’t “open dissent about doctrine”? Then how did we end up with 1000 heretical movements and schisms and excommunications in the past?

Plus a whole lot of open dissent about things that didn’t necessarily result in schism and heresy, but was considered extremely important at the time. I was just reading about a saint who quit his bishopric in a dispute over how to determine the date of Easter. Today we see this as almost trivial, but it was a huge deal at the time 1800 years ago or whenever.
 
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Really?
I think you need to brush up on Church history. There have been many periods where various heresies have rocked this or that corner of the Church. Medieval priests (pre-Trent) were also often very poorly educated with limited knowledge of doctrine.
 
For some, every issue in the Church, from open dissent to clerical abuse, is the result of Vatican II…
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I think you are living in a fantasy land, if you think that “open dissent about doctrine” just showed up recently.
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Wow, that’s a pretty uncharitable response and I’m pretty surprised to see that kind of hostility from you. I always enjoyed your posts and viewed you in pretty high regard so I really don’t understand what it is about me that really warranted such an unkind remark.

I’m aware that it’s always been a problem but I do feel that we’re in a particularly difficult situation on both fronts. Obviously none of us have a time machine for the best perspective but that’s just gathering from what I’ve read. I didn’t say “only just recently” but I view today in a different light, but that’s just me.

Sorry for offering my opinion on here. But differences in opinion or wanting to challenge something I post really didn’t warrant being so hostile to me.

I hope everyone has a nice Lent. I’m outta here.
 
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Yeah, I never said that either. This kind of passive aggressive remark about me and response from bearself I really did not expect. Quite frankly I find it very disappointing and hurtful to see this lack of charity. Neither of you had to agree with me but I didn’t think my response warranted being treated so uncharitably. I’d rather discuss differences of opinion charitably but obviously this isn’t the place to do it.

God bless.
 
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I apologize for offending you. It’s nothing personal. In general, some of us are very sensitive to the fantasy endorsed by some that the 1950s (and the 1900 years preceding it) was a rosy golden era…
 
Well, I don’t view it in that light. Each era has its own problems and complications. I think that was all that I was trying to say and I view today as being extremely difficult on multiple fronts but maybe we’re touching on something that gets complicated because we start trying to compare historical context and the like.

I had a feeling that my post was probably going to have wordage insufficient for what I was trying to say and it was going to be misunderstood. There was a video that discussed in a way that was far better than I could, I just couldn’t find it.

No hard feelings, this is just not a great place sometimes so my Lent will be better off without it.
 
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I agree that things are worse today. The Church and the world has accepted the heresy of modernism which Pope Pius X warned us against. He called it the worst heresy because it would be the culmination of all heresies.
 
MagdalenaRita said:
I agree that things are worse today. The Church and the world has accepted the heresy of modernism
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In many ways some things are indeed worse today, although it’s certainly not all due to the “heresy of modernism.” It important to also keep in mind that many of the Church’s increasingly visible ills were originally born many,many decades before during a time that many people equate with a “golden time” in the Church.
 
Phrancez said:
It important to also keep in mind that many of the Church’s increasingly visible ills were originally born many,many decades before during a time that many people equate with a “golden time” in the Church.
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Yes, agree. The modernist heresy started many decades ago and in many ways, such as in the protestant revolution and the French revolution and including 19th and 20th century progressive thoughts and ideologies.
 
MagdalenaRita said:
The Church and the world has accepted the heresy of modernism
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Perhaps Catholics have accepted the heresy of modernism as recent polls show that 67% of Catholics in the US approve of SS marriage. But I don’t believe that is true of the world. In Russia, for example, where the Russian Orthodox Church is the dominant religion, only 5% approve of SS marriage, according to polls I have seen.
 
twf said:
For some, every issue in the Church, from open dissent to clerical abuse, is the result of Vatican II…
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I wonder what people blamed before Vatican II, since all this stuff was no doubt around before that time as well. Perhaps they blamed Freemasonry and “modernism”.
 
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