Enough Infidelity! Submit Your Mind and Will to the Pope!
Bishop Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria is now demanding it. Like a virus, the Catholic Oath of Fidelity is spreading cross the country. Arlington Diocese demanded it last summer. If you are going to be a catechist in today’s church, you must submit your mind and will to the Pope and to your bishop…to all bishops for that matter.
George Orwell just turned over in his grave.
Here is a sample form, that can be printed on nice paper, suitable for framing. The best part comes at the end.
Oath of Fidelity to the Catholic Church
I, ______________________________________________, with firm faith believe and profess each and every thing that is contained in the Symbol of Faith, namely:
The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.
I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.
Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.
Unbelievable- do they think they live in the pre-printing press world?
I do believe the Holy Spirit will have Her way in the end. This grasping for power is unseemly.
This church that I once loved�and obeyed has gone loco. No more obedience from me. Ade
The “reform of the reform” as it is being conducted in these times will fail and it will fail miserably. You see, this is the church’s version of corporate downsizing. Their clear intention is to weed out the riff raff. Make it a smaller more “manageable” church. Recently I have been involved with the Franciscans of the Immaculate, They preach as though they have been living in a cave for 2000 years, It is as though science has contributed nothing. Most of them are very immature, child like and backward. They consistently preach well outside of church teaching.
Unseemly perhaps, but disturbingly typical. You might look at today’s NCR morning briefing article on Diocese of Madison crackdown on “new age and indifferentist” nuns . Also there is a good article at youngadultcatholics-blog.com on “What’s the least I can believe” that is very well done. As I’ve been helping with Penance Services in a number of parishes I’m starting to get depressed at some of the things being taught as sins. I’m learning not to raise this concern with too many outside the confessional. John XXIII called the Council to “make the human sojourn a little less painful”. That is not happening. I’m trying to do my part.
You are one of the giants! Be strong.
John W Greenleaf
Email: jwgreenleaf@gmail.com Website: http://anothervoice-greenleaf.org/
Those that are implementing these “new” rules, many of them are mean spirited and lacking in compassion. Closed, unfriendly, unwelcoming, arrogant are all terms others have used regarding this Franciscan of the Immaculate facility. They turn off and turn away 100 people before one even gives consideration to what they are “teaching.”
John W. Greenleaf,
What is going on in the church these days is heresy, �We must call it for what it is. �I was recently fired from a Franciscan Of the Immaculate Friary and Retreat Facility for daring to challenge what is being preached there. There is woman at this facility that claims to have conversations with Jesus and Mary. �This place has taken on a “sovereignty” of its own. �They hide behind the “Pontifical Right” they received from John Paul II in 1998. �I was fired because the woman there claims she received a message from Jesus that another person other than myself should be doing the work I was doing there. �The Franciscans approved of it. �It all seemed surreal to me. � I find myself hating the Catholic Church now. �I am in my 60’s and I am a cradle Catholic in good standing. �They have proceeded to “demonize” me since I was fired. �Anyway. let me know what I can do to help.�
________________________________
It is the heresy of medievalism that was an infection in the church of my childhood. It is not the church Jesus started and is not the church of the apostles except for the delusional whose hubris believe such claims.
Medievalism…Catholic fundamentalism. Now we move on! Jesus of Nazareth is the focus.
Thank you!
I think you spelled his name wrong; isn’t it Jerky?
There are many whose name is JERKY… 🙂
John W Greenleaf
Email: jwgreenleaf@gmail.com Website: http://anothervoice-greenleaf.org/
My my my. Another reason to be glad I was raised Congregationalist, I suppose. But – what’s particularly odd to me is that for all the anti-death, or pro-life, or whatever it is, talk, the RCC isn’t leading the front to end capital punishment in the US. Couldn’t even get the Chicago powers that be to sign letters here in IL, let alone come on lobbying trips. What is up with that?
The Inquisition by the Puritans can’t be too far behind. Priests are already telling some lay people to leave their parishes. Since this has the appearance of “infallible” Roman sanction. The only thing missing is being threatened with “burning at the stake.” Lay people would be shocked to learn that the parish does not belong to them even though they paid for it. The parish and all its property legally belongs to the bishop. So lay people cannot refer to it as “their parish.” Welcome to the “medieval church.”
Not too worried about a Puritan Inquisition right now…but feeling much compassion for those trying to remain loyal to a Roman Catholic Church in distress. What with the war on Christmas and all, too…and wow, imagine if the next US Supreme Court Justice is NOT Roman Catholic. Shudder!
Why not use the “mental reservations” defense when challenged that one’s behavior doesn’t square with what was premised upon one’s initial job performance??
After all, that’s what most Hierarchs claim in legal trials to justify their complicity in the failure to rein in CSA subordinates!! And they claim to be in compliance with Canon Law, above secular law…
So why should there be a fuss when the Laity has fudged the truth about their beliefs, in order to be hired??
The Laity should then claim that such “consent” was given “under duress & undue influence” & hence invalid & not binding…
Better yet, skip working for such dinosaur employers unless they are the only job in town!!
In the play and the film A Man For All Seasons, Thomas More says, “When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.” I agree with this, for, as More also says in the same play/film, “What is an oath then but words we say to God?”
I could not take this oath in good conscience, and I would refuse to equivocate if called on to take it. If I took the oath as stated, I would be lying.
In his De Mendacio (“On Lying”), Augustine of Hippo says that a lie is not so much a distortion of the meaning of the words as it is a lack of fidelity to another person. In this, he disagrees with most other moralists, who allow equivocation, prevarication or evasion if at least some meaning of the words can be considered true. But he believed that in the most basic sense, what one says is irrelevant in itself, apart from the intention to deceive. As Augustine points out, one can lie by speaking the truth, or with an expression, or even by silence. Suppose you are asked if you performed some good and heroic act, and you know that silence would be taken as a modest reluctance to claim what is true — even if it is not. Your silence will deceive the questioner. The deception was your intent, and that intention to deceive is Augustine’s definition of a lie.
Equivocators would not consider silence a lie, since silence is indeterminate. It is, of itself, equivocal. You can take from it what you want. The person keeping silence, equivocators would claim, is not reponsible for another’s misinterpretation of the silence, any more than a speaker is responsible for the listener’s selection of one from multiple interpretations of the words.
For Augustine, such an argument is beside the point. If you believe that silence or equivocal words would deceive, you are lying. Even if you fail to deceive, since you intend to lie, you are lying. If you make a true statement, knowing it will not be believed, and wanting it to be disbelieved, the statement may be true but you are false.
Which brings us to Augustine’s main point. Truth telling is not minimalist or legalistic, but maximalist. It is an effort to live in the truth.
Much of moral reasoning on lying, especially in the Catholic tradition, is based on mediaeval attempts to establish minimal norms of culpability. What is allowable evasion? What is acceptable noncooperation? As in any legal context, the offense must be defined, with minimal conditions set for its recognition. (Yes, casuistry raises its head here.) For Augustine, the search for truth is a positive requirement for dealing with the God who is truth. Deception is too close to self-deception for a person to muddy his or her soul with.
Thank you! And may we all have the fortitude to speak the truth with courage and charity. This is not the end of the world but certainly the end of a particular stream of Catholicism…..The coming generation won’t buy it…..
John W Greenleaf
Email: jwgreenleaf@gmail.com Website: http://anothervoice-greenleaf.org/
Amen!
John W Greenleaf
Email: jwgreenleaf@gmail.com Website: http://anothervoice-greenleaf.org/
The Vatican has been seized by men promoted not for piety, but for obedience; thus to it now obedience is more important than piety.
This cannot be the Church that Jesus founded upon the rock of Peter, but just another corrupt human institution abusing the holy symbols. They couldn’t even detect Father Maciel’s evils when it was pushed in their faces, so I don’t think we need worry about their ability to figure out the divine intent through the “Magisterium”.
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