https://wdtprs.com/2023/10/importan...fr-z-presents-and-rants-about-whats-going-on/ IMPORTANT: Bp. Schneider’s new catechism. Wherein Fr. Z presents and rants about what’s going on. Posted on 27 October 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf TwitterFacebookEmailWhatsAppCopy LinkGmailYahoo MailShare Before anything else, again and again I get questions like: “Things are going badly. I feel like I have to do something, but I feel helpless. I don’t have any power to stop what is going on. What can I do?” Do these things and you will be more at peace and you will be more effective in your particular vocation and sphere of influence. Strive to be in the state of grace: examine your conscience daily and GO TO CONFESSION Use the sacraments and sacramentals well. You are baptized, which means you are incorporated into Christ’s Person. You are confirmed with the seal of the Holy Spirit. Are you sacramentally married, ordained? Call upon those sacraments with confidence. Do not forget that God called YOU into existence HERE and NOW, not somewhere else or in some other time. You are part of “His team” whom He knew and chose before the creation of the cosmos. God will give you all the actual graces you need to do His will according to His plan. God makes His works our own and gives us the strength to carry them out. We live by grace and elbow grease. Get to work. Get to work and and let God judge your successes, because He knows more than you do. You cannot fathom in the moment of the doing what fruits your grace-informed efforts will bear down the line. You cannot love or give what you do not know or have. Therefore, you must learn your faith well. Read a) Scripture, b) lives of the saints c) sound catechisms, d) tried and true spiritual and devotional writings and prayer books. Always be ready to GIVE reasons for your faith. This is the work of a lifetime, not just early years and then coast. Speaking of catechisms and speaking of being at peace… Last night I attended the Rome presentation of Bp. Athanasius Schneider’s catechism entitled Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith published by Sophia Institute Press. US HERE – UK HERE I did not have time last night to ask my question during the Q&A, but I approached Bp. Schneider afterward (he and I were at the Augustinianum together back in the day). I asked him if his new catechism presupposes some knowledge, some idea of Christianity or the Catholic Faith in order to be helpful or could a person with zero knowledge or experience use it effectively. He responded that, in his opinion, a person with no previous background in the Faith could use the new catechism. There are foundational sections that be introductions for people who have never known anything about the Faith before. This would be a good gift for people with little of no knowledge of the Faith. It would be an excellent resuscitator for the fallen away. It would be a great review for the practicing and committed. Priests could find in it a rich resourcefor preaching (and the confessional) because it deals with things that previous catechisms could not, because they weren’t issues when those catechisms were composed. Gender ideology, trans stuff, environment, COVID lockdowns, etc…. they’re in there. One of the presenters last night was the great Robert Card. Sarah, from whose writings we glean that he fasts and spends a lot of time in silence and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Last night Card. Sarah, one of the newest set of “Dubia Cardinals”, told us in Italian – his remarks were live streamed and the video is available HERE – that … … the Church is not in crisis, the Church’s pastors are in crisis. Card. Sarah has made a distinction, and qui distinguit bene docet… He teaches well who makes distinctions. I’ll riff on that. Con’t
Con’t The Church is the bride of Christ. Her four “marks”, her characteristics identifying her, are known to us: unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. These cannot be overturned or rooted out or morphed into what they are not. It is not possible. Christ gave the Church two gifts to ensure her mission until His return: indefectibility and infallibility. These cannot fail or be removed by any human agency, by an individual or by a multitude. Remember that in Matthew 16 Christ gave to Peter (and his successors) an office and gifts to guarantee that office. After Christ did this, Peter screwed up by defying God’s will for Christ and was called by Christ a “satan”. Peter fled the Garden. Peter denied the Lord. Peter was challenged by Paul in Antioch regarding Gentile Christians and Jewish practices. Not everything Peter and his successors would do would be protected by the Holy Spirit. Only some things. When in the Council of Jerusalem all the debate was done, James, the local leader, handed the whole thing over the Peter. Ultimately, Peter manifested that the Holy Spirit was with him in the most important moments. The attributes and gifts of the Church are guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot be pitted against the Holy Spirit. If there is ever a claim that an immemorial teaching of the Church regarding the faith and morals, guaranteed to be true by the working of the Holy Spirit, must now be changed because of the working “of the Holy Spirit”, then the claim is wrong not the immemorial teaching. Last night in his speech, Bp. Schneider brought in the 5th century theologian Vincent of Lérins who said in Commonitorium 4 (my emphases): What then will the Catholic Christian do, if a small part of the Church has cut itself off from the communion of the universal Faith? The answer is sure. He will prefer the healthiness of the whole body to the morbid and corrupt limb. But what if some novel contagion tries to infect the whole Church, and not merely a tiny part of it? Then he will take care to cleave to antiquity, which cannot now be led astray by any deceit of novelty. What if in antiquity itself two or three men, or it may be a city, or even a whole province be detected in error? Then he will take the greatest care to prefer the decrees of the ancient General Councils, if there are such, to the irresponsible ignorance of a few men. But what if some error arises regarding which nothing of this sort is to be found? Then he must do his best to compare the opinions of the Fathers and inquire their meaning, provided always that, though they belonged to diverse times and places, they yet continued in the faith and communion of the one Catholic Church; and let them be teachers approved and outstanding. And whatever he shall find to have been held, approved and taught, not by one or two only but by all equally and with one consent, openly, frequently, and persistently, let him take this as to be held by him without the slightest hesitation. Finally, at the end of his own talk last night, Bp. Schneider said: Let us humbly ask the Lord to grant us through the intercession of our Lady the grace to be able to say, “I know my Catholic Faith. I will not permit to be confused. For the sake of this Faith I am ready to die.” “I know my Catholic Faith.” “I will not permit myself to be confused.” Do you know your Catholic Faith? If you are disturbed, confused by what you see going on in the Church and in the world, perhaps also in your smaller world of your family and other relationships, take my advice in the points I made at the top, which include learning and reviewing your Catholic Faith with sound, time-proven catechisms – Bp. Schneider mentioned the Baltimore Catechism – as well as new tools from reliable sources such as this new compendium. Sent from my iPhone
One of the great things about true life “celebrities” in the Catholic Church, unlike sports, the entertainment industry/ MSM, etc., is that common folk get to meet and rub elbows with them. I.e., they’re truly humble. I’ve met the good bishop twice now, once when I had a chance to have an extended personal conversation with him. He is an incredibly humble, wise and kind shepherd.
