Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, who is the most senior Catholic delegate invited to the Lambeth Conference, has diagnosed many Christian communities with “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and “ecclesial Parkinson’s.”
Whoa! A cardinal telling it like it is.
He said, according to The Guardian: “When we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer’s…When we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any coordination with the head of or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson’s.”
That does seem to sum up the situation rather well in many Christian sects, if phrased in a slightly politically incorrect manner.
Dias told bishops the battle to bring Christ to the world must be placed in the “wider context of spiritual combat” with Satan. “If this context is ignored in favour of a myopic world-vision, Christ’s salvation will be conveniently dismissed as irrelevant.”
This “spiritual warfare” had continued since the fall of Adam, raging “aided and abetted by well-known secret sects, Satanic groups and New Age movements” that revealed the “many ugly heads of the hideous anti-God monster”.
These works of the devil were, he added, “secularism, which seeks to build a godless society; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel”.
“We Christians and bishops can ill afford to remain on the sidelines as passive spectators,” he warned.
Spiritual warfare, anti-God monsters, Satan. Is it just me or don’t you just really love it when someone in the Vatican speaks like this, you know like they actually fiercely believe in something?
July 23, 2008 at 6:02 pm
don’t you just really love it when someone in the Vatican speaks like this
Yep. I’d really love to hear more of it while sitting in the pews, too.
July 23, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Yep. I’d really love to hear more of it while sitting in the pews, too.
I’d love to hear it in the pews once.
July 23, 2008 at 6:58 pm
You know what happens when you hear it in the pews? Your fellow parishioners don’t like it, denounce your priest to the bishop, and the bishop sends him back to religious life.
Guess how I know?
July 23, 2008 at 7:01 pm
So, we just continue to get watered down sermons that say very little and never challenge the pew-warmers. The wide path is so very lukewarm.
July 23, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Right on Your Eminence!
Folks, can you imagine the look on the listeners’ faces when the good Cardinal mentioned spiritual combat with Satan? I would wager, given the extreme liberal viewpoint of much of the Anglican audience in attendance at Lambaste, er Lambeth, i.e., they don’t accept that Satan is real, that Cardinal Dias’ words largely fell on deaf ears. Ears made deaf by the sugary doctrine of the Evil One, I’d say.
July 23, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Last Sunday the priest at Mass gave a fine “peace and justice” homily and enjoined the congregation to vote accordingly in the November elections!! And as for the weeds growing along side the wheat, why there are good weeds after all…. Entirely missed (obfuscated) the point of the Holy Gosple. Veni Creator Spiritus!
July 23, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Take heart! There are parishes and priests who do preach not unlike Cardinal Dias. I live in the Chicago Archdiocese and have experienced them not only at parishes like Saint John Cantius but even out here in the NW burbs.
Of course, there are also those priests who dip their toes in the Thames and those who are yet unsure which river to swim in.
July 24, 2008 at 4:33 am
Nancy P,
Are you the speaker of the house? The one who keeps pulling the strings and getting priests who don’t water down their sermons sent back to religious life? Shame on you!! (Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. You don’t know where I live, do you??)
July 24, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Tom,
Arrgggh, no! Looks like it’s time to try a new online nickname. How about NotNancyP???
July 24, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Nancy – keep your name! To quote Office Space’s Mike Bolton: “Why should I change? He’s the one that sucks.”