Highlight: Elizabeth Scalia, The "Anchorress" Counters the Slanderers and Quasi-Schismatics Who Say Pope Francis is Trad Bashing Again!

Hello Everyone,

If someone you know today is a:

• Radical who Misrepresents Traditionalists everywhere, 
• A Pope Francis hater, (different from being just "uncomfortable" with his mannerisms and choice of language in conveying the message)
• A "quasi-schismatic" (as defined by Dave Armstrong) who has truly abandoned Holy Mother Church in mind, body, and soul, but sticks around for the pomp and circumstance of fancy vestments and Latin Masses, afterwards feeling spiritually superior to the "simple" Novus Ordo Catholic they think is the rest of the Church, or
• Just a negative person, etc.

Then they likely woke up to hear another excellent homily of Pope Francis from the Casa Sancta Marta today about being "spiritually open." In typical spiritual pride, conspiracy alert mode, Francis the modernist bashing mode, etc., they then took to their smartphones and social media, and decided to commit more acts of the Devil (e.g. gossip), or perhaps slander and calumny, because once again, "Francis hates traditional Catholics and is evil and wants to destroy the Church. He hates Jesus and is the meanest pope evuh.... wah wah wah ... blah blah blah .... calumny, detraction, slander ....."

(Ha ha. I took a page out of Fr. Z's book.)

Well, allow me to dispel your unfortunate friend's tirades of hate and anti-Catholicism. If they told you that Francis once again went on a hate tirade to wipe the Church of Traditionalists, and they've vowed to be obstinate in their hatred, they are wrong in action and their interpretation of such a homily. 

Or should I say, allow me to feature someone who is much more versed in depth of the Catholic faith, and a professional author and writer on the TRUE Catholic blog-o-sphere and in Catholic newspapers, Mrs. Elizabeth Scalia of "The Anchoress" blog. Today, she writes on the Conservative Catholic or Christian web portal, Aletelia, to counter the fury caused by the Catholic blog-o-sphere of darkness. 

Being a short opinion article, it shall be posted in full. 

Pax, Julian. 

SOURCE: http://aleteia.org/2016/01/18/nothing-grows-in-no-pope-francis-on-the-idolatry-of-ideas/

Opinion  

Nothing Grows in “No”: Pope Francis on the Idolatry of Ideas. Pope urges resistance to the god of "but we’ve always done it this way.”

Elizabeth Scalia  

• January 18, 2016

   

During his homily at Mass today, Pope Francis said:

“Christians who obstinately maintain ‘it’s always been done this way,’ this is the path, this is the street—they sin: the sin of divination. It’s as if they went about by guessing: ‘What has been said and what doesn’t change is what’s important; what I hear—from myself and my closed heart—more than the Word of the Lord.’ Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is obstinate sins! [And damned do they. They commit the most Deadliest Sin: The Sin of Pride, taking after their real "god", Satan himself, who told God the ancient equivalent of a middle-fingered salute, "NON SERVIAM!"]The sin of idolatry. ‘And what is the way, Father?’ Open the heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God.”

Around the Internet there have some negative responses to these words, particularly by those who feel like Catholic traditions are under attack, but I can’t help wondering if some aren’t missing the pope’s point which is one I made in my book, Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life:

"We cling to ideas long past the point of what is healthy or reasonable, and we set them before us, daring anyone to knock them down. I once heard a new pastor complain about a dreaded first meeting with his pastoral team and liturgy committee. “In every parish,” he sighed, “the first thing they want a priest to do is bow down to the god of ‘but we’ve always done it this way.’” 

When we are too fast to say “no” — especially if we are entrenched in a bunker-mentality that said, “but this is the way we have always done it…” we cannot help but benumb ourselves to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And that’s all His Holiness is saying. “But this is the way we have always done it…” shuts the door to Joseph accepting a wife carrying a child not his own; “the way we’ve always done it,” would prevent the church from taking careful looks at who it elevates to canonical sainthood; “the way we’ve always done it” prevents Pope Pius X from advocating for the reception of Holy Communion by children; “the way we’ve always done it,” means no female doctors of the church.

Nothing grows in “no.” Especially not a church, or the life of faith. [Including bringing those "simple" Novus Ordo Catholics that collectively are shunned by these Radicals, to the Latin Mass that they value so much.]

Pope Francis words seem less a call for revolution than a frustrated cry of “ephphatha be opened”! He is prompting us to make sure we leave enough room in our lives, and in the life of the church, to give the Holy Spirit — who has a way of using the most confounding events and people to bring about God’s will — the room to move, and flow, and put God’s purposes to action. As the great saint, Philip Neri reminds us [of whom the Oratory of St. Phillip Neri in Toronto holds the Latin Mass], “All of God’s purposes are to the good, although we may not always understand this we can trust in it.”