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Augustine
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Posted -
2002/4/11 下午 10:34:07
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An American Catholic, Part !: An American Catholic at Easter
Diane Alden
March 26, 2002
Reflections of an American Catholic
By no means do I approve of what the pedophile priests have done to children. It is an abomination. Nor do the American bishops and cardinals who have overseen this horror deserve a pass.
What is worse, however, is their failure to acknowledge that this acceptance and denial of pedophilia began when the Catholic Church in America allowed itself to be sucked into the moral relativism of the '60s. On many issues that is exactly what happened.
Many in the Church grasped Vatican II (1962) as an opportunity to turn the church into a trendy adjunct of the '60s counterculture revolution. At that time serious sin went out the window.
Thus, after a few short years, trendy clerics and theologians and administrators distanced themselves from notions of what traditional Catholics call "mortal sin." At least in the minds of the liberal theologians and politicizers of Catholic doctrine, there was almost no accountability for one's actions, as everything seemed to have a psychological rather than a spiritual aspect.
No sin, no consequences. Everything, all our actions, were not of our doing.
Indeed, at that time much of Catholicism was dumped in favor of the social gospel. The hard stuff the Founder demands was out or ignored. Selective interpretation of Christ's words erred in favor of His forgiving and loving side.
Meanwhile, many Catholics and hierarchy, along with progressive theologians, forgot the more difficult and uncompromising demands He made on humanity. They wanted to ignore His recognition of evil, punishment, justice and sin as well as the eventual sorting out of evil from good.
In the '60s and '70s, the American Catholic Church tended toward the idea that Christ was all about "love" and nothing about casting into the darkness those who do not obey God's laws. It was okay to sin as long as you "loved" everyone and meant well.
The road to hell was no longer paved with good intentions, because no one was sure hell really existed. God help anyone who made value judgments on moral issues or called certain behaviors sinful or evil.
Total tolerance of all kinds of things became more important than not sinning, even though many of these attitudes and behaviors were in defiance of what the Catholic Church officially taught.
In the '60s especially, the Catholic Church began to accept as priests and nuns many men and women who were not so much the followers of Christ as they were the likely intellectual descendants and proponents of Hegel, Marx, Freud, Jung, Maslow, Rogers and Antonio Gramsci.
It is because of that fact that the Catholic hierarchy in the U.S. could justify sending pedophile priests to the shrink as they attempted to find out "why" those men did foul deeds to young boys.
Rather than throw them out of the priesthood or hand them over to the authorities, in the best tradition of Oprah Winfrey many of the cardinals and bishops chose to "understand" them or cure them and hide the scandal. This in spite of the knowledge that understanding and forgiveness did not stop, cure or prevent the horrors committed by pedophile clerics.
While pedophilia is statistically no more likely among homosexuals than heterosexuals, gay men are often particularly attracted to boys in their teens, just as perverted heterosexual men tend to prey on teenage girls.
But rather than use some commonsense judgmentalism, the Catholic bishops, certain cardinals, and their resident shrinks and thinkers sought to find the "root causes" of a great immorality that we used to call "mortal sin."
Mortal sin had been replaced by psychological pathology. That was one of the Church's big mistakes. It would have been better off to leave pedophilia and other "conditions" in the realm of sin and get rid of the perverts.
The American Catholic Church, especially, became a tool to promote Hegelian notions about the nature of man, God and the place of the church and man in society. All but forgotten was Christ's admonition that His kingdom was NOT of this world. Hegel's collective "whole" or the collective good became more important than salvation of the individual soul.
In the meantime, the hierarchy in America forgot that their MAJOR responsibility was to the flock and not to the perverted shepherds. But it became a game of hide-and-seek and cover-up and dogged refusal to face reality.
sources from:
(NewsMax.com:commentaryArchive April 11)
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Augustine
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Posted -
2002/4/11 下午 10:38:28
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That is an explanation of what
I termed "moral mediocricy" previously.
My English is not good enough to convey my idea,
hers is much better.
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Cecil
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Posted -
2002/4/17 下午 03:17:49
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這文章提到不少基礎的post vatican ii理念,其'遺害'當不止於對小男孩的侵犯而已:
"Thus, after a few short years, trendy clerics and theologians and administrators distanced themselves from notions of what traditional Catholics call "mortal sin." At least in the minds of the liberal theologians and politicizers of Catholic doctrine, there was almost no accountability for one's actions, as everything seemed to have a psychological rather than a spiritual aspect. : - 在這方面,反映的是整體美國當日的文化趨勢,教會只不過是給流行文化"同化"了罷了;今日,這情況還不是不斷在上映嗎?不說萬民四末,當然可以用新天新地來代之,但不表示這不會有"末流'的弊端來著 -
"many Catholics and hierarchy, along with progressive theologians, forgot the more difficult and uncompromising demands He made on humanity. They wanted to ignore His recognition of evil, punishment, justice and sin as well as the eventual sorting out of evil from good".
人民價值就替代了傳統神學:"In the '60s especially, the Catholic Church began to accept as priests and nuns many men and women who were not so much the followers of Christ as they were the likely intellectual descendants and proponents of Hegel, Marx, Freud, Jung, Maslow, Rogers and Antonio Gramsci".
宗教價值的顛倒終於在這樣的環境下產生了:"Mortal sin had been replaced by psychological pathology. That was one of the Church's big mistakes."
這有豈屬偶然?
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Augustine
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Posted -
2002/4/17 下午 04:48:25
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What we must do, besides lamenting the crisis ieself,
is to act as far as we can, to prevent traditional
catholic teaching from being ignored and subsequently, deceitfully mis-interpreted and eventually abondaned.
What we must do is to teach our children, inform our fellow brothers and sisters that we can't trade solid Faith with humanist liberalists or secularists,
otherwise we end up with a contaminated faith---
emphasis on this World rather than the Next.
The Church should influence this World and never
vice versa.
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Augustine
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Posted -
2002/4/18 下午 12:06:12
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仲有第二集, 取自同一位專欄作家Diane Alden (NewsMax, 26 Mar 02)
第二段如下: (希望不會太長 其實這只是其中一段)
The Devil Wears a Smiley Face
My old parish priest Fr. Donahue was an Irishman of
great common sense and wisdom. I think he would have
maintained, about the situation in which the Catholic
Church finds itself today, that "Evil can wear a smiling
face and most of the time it does. It is an angel of light,
not a 10-horned devil that breathes fire. We will listen to
the devil because he sounds so good and promises so
much."
Fr. Donahue of Prince Edward Island understood a few
things about human nature. Indeed, that simple man
understood more about the nature of evil than many in the
Western Catholic Church who call themselves "Doctors
of the Church", bishop, cardinal or "theologian".
In the late '50s and into the '60s, the Catholic Church's
trendy intellectuals were exemplified by the likes of
Germany's Fr. Hans Kung, Teilhard De Chardin and the
New Age crystal-gazing priests like Matthew Fox.
In recent times, that trendiness would include the
politicized leftist arrogance of a Fr. Richard Drinan or
the Maryknoll priest who joined the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, Fr. Miguel Esposito, an advocate of
"liberation theology."
Meanwhile, it seemed, traditional theologians,
intellectuals and thinkers like Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
were pushed aside in favor of the hippy-dippy kind.
Bishop Sheen was the popular TV personality who made
very difficult intellectual ideas easy to understand.
Bishop Sheen passed on to ordinary people what was
grand about intellectualism, Catholic or otherwise.
(Bishop Fulton Sheen 的文章十分有名 )
After that era, Catholic writers like J.R.R. Tolkien,
Flannery O'Connor and Grahame Greene were replaced
by the trendy, soulless, ignoble literature of a Fr.
Andrew Greeley. It was not a fair exchange.
During the social experimentation of the '60s, various
institutions were captured by the left and the New Age,
psychological, touchy-feely approach to life. The
Catholic Church was no different.
難免教會也受到了這幾股歪風左右了
Many Catholics, including ambitious Catholic bishops
and cardinals, were captured body, soul and intellect
and set on the wrong course.
他們Ambitious?為什麼? 因為希望受世人注目 因而要投世俗社會所好
個人榮譽取代了天主的光榮
Oddly, it was often converts to Catholicism like
Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene, G.K. Chesterton,
Evelyn Waugh and a few others who set things in proper
context in regard to traditional intellectual Catholicism.
In more recent times, a few American intellectual
defenders of traditional Catholicism have arisen, men
like Fr. Richard Neuhaus or Fr. James Schall or
Cardinal Avery Dulles.
But their impact on "modern" Catholicism may not be
that great. Certainly the few intellectual traditionalists
are not enough to stem the tide of error in the hierarchy,
in Catholic academic circles or the larger Catholic
culture. It probably won't happen in my lifetime.
Unfortunately, most modern Catholic intellectuals
offered a menu of warmed-over leftist thought with a
religious spin. Stuff better suited to a bull session at a
pub near Harvard than the kind of thought that should be
in the pattern of Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius Loyola or
Catherine of Sienna.
又是 liberalism
But more importantly, Catholic intellectuals and
American Catholic bishops did not want to deal with sin
or judgment or God's justice.
No, the modern American Church seemed more
interested in fitting doctrine with utopian socialism,
counterculture revolution, or New Age crystal gazing,
with a smattering of Zen, a bit of ceremony and pageant
on the side. It was all lollipops and roses and very little
cross and Calvary.
錯就在於以為現世有可能有所謂Hegalian 人為的 烏托邦
於是 "走向人群 "發展成 "背向天主"...... 忘了教理第一句:
問:人生有何目的?
答:光榮天主救自已的靈魂....., 追求今世公義絕對是基督徒責任
但必須作為宣講的手段而非目的 救人靈離永火比一切社會理想重要
得多, 也是我們真正本份. 未見的天國才是那無價珍珠啊!
超級市場式信仰另一極之端 : New Age...禪修...加上一些所謂禮儀
甚至可憎之物(New Age 近Occult一類 ) 不堪入目
難道要這才叫多元? ? counter-culture revolution 就叫光榮天主??
In times past, Catholic intellectuals created a fire that
drove the darkness away. But the new crop of
intellectuals and hierarchy opted for a schematic in
which truth was little more than a jar full of fireflies that
spark briefly and disappear, creating no light at all.
In the post-Vatican II era, tradition crumbled under the
weight of '60s radicalism. The lights went out one by
one. Morality became a process open to compromise and
interpretation. All of it based on nothing more than the
socially acceptable trends of the moment ?some call it
political correctness, Catholic style.
Again sin/mortals/powers of evil 被解作 psychological effect
道德妥協以 "牧靈理由" 掩飾
What was most disheartening in America, however, was
that traditional Catholics watched as God and His Son
got an Oprah makeover. Catholic intellectuals and the
powers that be used liturgy, music, ritual, faith and the
pulpit to accomplish that.
The American Catholic Church, especially, became a
tool to promote Hegelian notions about the nature of
man, God and the place of the church and man in society.
All but forgotten was Christ's admonition that His
kingdom was NOT of this world. Hegel's collective
"whole" or the collective good became more important
than salvation of the individual soul.
"我的國不在這世界"
In fact, God and Christ merely became one more cell in
the collective. When there is a collective soul, there is
also collective guilt. Rather than individual sin
committed by unique individuals, collective guilt
allowed that an individual need not be held accountable.
In other words, one could blame it on society or
psychological factors but not on the individual evildoer.
"I confess" 成為 "we confess"......但賞罰分明的天主是照
各人所作施行審判 每人臨終時還不是要單獨面見天主
所以 基督徒要天天發痛悔 預備面見天主更要謹記永罰之可怕
犯了罪就要改......好似老生常談 但其實經常被人有意無意忽略
source taken from: http://www.aldenchronicles.com/articles_by_diane/diane_032602.html
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Cecil
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Posted -
2002/4/18 下午 03:46:25
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沒有幸到美利堅合眾國修讀神學教理,卻可能亦是大幸!在本地,傳統的(舊派的)教理也受一定的衝擊 - 有好些梵二後一二十年才慕道的,不是十二分看重事工(效益),就是愛詆毀梵二前受洗的'老'教友,也使人覺的,新的,真的不同舊的哩!
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Augustine
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Posted -
2002/4/19 下午 12:31:44
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這種歇斯底里式對教會傅統(習慣)的敵視和反對,
在外國也經常出現
這種文革式的(如Edward之前所提)對自身文化的無知和忽略,
使不少教會的文化遺產漸漸失去 ,羅馬公教會的有形特質逐漸被同化甚至除去
雖然教理本質依舊 但常被 誤解曲解.造成混亂
教友對自己身份再沒有強烈認同Identity, (因為人不會滿足於理念上的一致而希望
有Concevible Identity---中文唔知點寫),(教會需耍共同有形文化去維系,絕非單單一個
灌輸理念的團体.)
逼使他們四出尋找這份失去了的歸屬---> 新教, Pentecostal Mov't, New Age Movement,
禪修, Rock and Roll, Kumbaya,
泒對式的禮儀......令人瞠目,不過香港還好這些都比較少.
至於新教友詆毀舊教友, 我不知原因是啥 但可以想像: 有如十六世紀「新教」友詆毀
「舊教」友一般 不是批評念口黃誦經 就是不懂聖經教理 或迂腐陳舊云云其實他們也
非惡意 只是被某些人灌輸這種紅衛兵式革命情怀罷了.
其實主基督要求我們知識上不多 但對生活中倚靠和順從並對永生仰望才重要
教友其實要多留心克服私慾偏情 在道德上堅持 多過鑽研這 反省那 批判彼
但今天可悲的是教友太世俗化了 即是對來生永世未有熱切的盼望
我們知道 新天新地是在這世界受審判被毀滅之後的 但只知今生口頭上認來世的太多
了 照祈克果Kiergegard的話 這類人最多只到達倫理階段 未到宗教階段 即像亞巴郎般
肯獻上依撒格 或殉道者般堅持 換句話說 他們太愛這世界了 太希望把持自己一生舒服
地過活了 祈克果emphasize對天主的信仰是對未見的盼望 一種被迫上絕路的昄依
一種在死路上獲救的經驗
當人以為自己可以把持自己的生命 或更遠的 事工的實質果效時 其實天主是在冷眼旁
觀 等到人到絕路時天主才施救援 太看重事工果效其實是一種驕傲 以為自己掌握一切
忘了「除非天主願意 我們什么也不成」
今日不少教友質疑默觀隱修生活的「果效」, 也是忘了這
難道人不能單為愛天主為補贖世罪而活嗎 ?主也愛 瑪爾大 但:
「瑪利亞選了更好的一份」難道那珍貴的香液是浪費?
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Cecil
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Posted -
2002/4/19 下午 03:22:52
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的確,現世的信徒愈來愈不能肯定默觀璟修和神操這些信仰"操練",只埋首於每年多少人入門,福傳變成了數字遊戲;而聖召因為長時間少,所以為普遍信友們所摒棄,甚至認為教會的修道生活是不妥的,不能推行的......這都其實是效益主義的'入侵',是人在成聖自己,聖化他人的路上走入岐路!
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