IT ALL BEGINS WITH DISSENT
Dr.
Peter W. Frey
2/4/03
Catholics
who are faithful to the Magisterium
easily see through the VOTF scam.
Watch
with vigilance the future actions of
the "Boston 58" .
Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) is simply the latest in a long,
dreary
line
of Catholics and pseudo-Catholics whose vision of the Church is in
opposition
to the defined and revealed dogmas entrusted by Christ to His
Church. Members of VOTF may make their
protestations of simply wanting to
"reform"
the Church in the wake of the abuse scandals which have legitimately
shocked
the faithful. But Catholics who
are faithful to the Magisterium
easily
see through the VOTF scam.
The
2000 year history of the Church shows that VOTF is really
nothing
new, that dissent and self-willed objections to the teachings of
Christ
reach back to the very time that Jesus was setting up His Church and
entrusting
it with His divine authority.
The real challenge which VOTF and
other
modern dissenters such as Call to Action or We are Church is not
to
object
legitimately to this or that problem with the Church, but to attack within
the
very structure and nature of the Christ's kingdom on earth.
History bears out the fact that every single good intentioned
:"reformer"
who set out perhaps in good faith to purify the Church of
corruption
ended up in complete revolt and outright apostasy. In the 16th
century,
Martin Luther recognized scandal of land abuse in the Church of his
day,
but finally rejected almost the entire depositum fidei. Other reformers
followed
suit, and the result was a fragmented and divided Christianity that
endures
to our day. Our Lord ,Himself,
was betrayed by His own dissenter in
the
ranks of his chosen twelve, the one who "handed Him over" and left the
company
of Jesus because he could not accept the teachings that Jesus had
clearly
established. Even in more
recent times, popes have condemned errors
and
false teachings which simply seek to present doctrines incompatible with
the
moral and dogmatic teachings of the Catholic Church.
And the fundamental cause?
It comes down to pride......to a
refusal
to accept beliefs which the Church has carefully preserved through
the
ages, a pride which echoes the "Non serviam" of the original angelic
dissenter
Out own
times have a particular virulent form of dissent, however,
which
seems to penetrate every level of Catholic belief, values and
practices. Pope John Paul II stated this
concern clearly in his encyclical
Veritatis
Splendor "it is no longer a matter of limited and occasional
dissent,
but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional
moral
doctrine... and the lack of harmony between the traditional responses
of
the Church and certain theological positions encountered even in
seminaries
and faculties of theology" (VS 4)
In that
same encyclical, John Paul focuses intently on the gospel
story
in Matthew about the rich young man who asked Jesus, "what must I do to
have
everlasting life?" (Mt 19).
The answer comes down to Jesus words to us
as
much as to him, " keep the commandments" (Mt 19:17) The holy father goes
on
to say that obedience to lawful commandments, to the teachings of the
Church,
far from restricting freedom in any way are the true way to freedom
in
Christ. "Those who live by
the flesh experience God's law as a burden,
and
indeed as a denial of their own freedom.
On the other hand, those who
are
impelled by love and walk by the spirit, and who desire to serve others,
find
in God's law the fundamental and necessary way in which to practice love
as
something freely chosen." (VS 18).
The great risk which dissenters pose to the Church hinges on the
presentation
of issues long since rejected by the Magisterium: contraception,
divorce
and remarriage, homosexual unions and women's "ordination" Yet
vociferous
members of VOTF insist on putting forth these items in their
personal
agenda, and as John Paul points out "the Magisterium has the duty to
state
that some trends of theological thinking and certain .philosophical
affirmations
are incompatible with revealed truth (VS 49). Thus in Ordinatio
Sacerdotalis the pope affirms that the church
"has no authority
whatsoever
to confer priestly ordination on women, and this
must
be accepted by all the faithful as
authoritative" (OS 1).
Yet members
of
VOTF and other groups demanding a "constitution of lay rights"
continue
to
agitate for a change in this divinely revealed truth.
Moreover,
the same kind of intellectual and moral dissent continues
to
flourish where it is most dangerous, in Catholic seminaries and
universities. But here too, the holy father has again
affirmed the lawful
role
of the Magisterium to define truth and to declare what is authentic
teaching,
and he call upon those entrusted with educating young Catholics to
be
true and faithful to that vocation.
"Catholic theologians, aware that
they
fulfill a mandate received from the Church, are to be faithful to the
Magisterium
as the authentic interpreter of Sacred Scripture and Sacred
Tradition."
Ex Corde Ecclesiae, 1,3)
Thus
dissenting groups such as VOTF have no legitimate credentials
to
stand as an authentic Catholic organization. Only by loyalty of the
Magisterium,
to defined teachings, and by a humble spirit can scandal and
corruption
be rooted out. The Church is
by nature "holy" because it is the
Bride
of Christ (Eph 10) and it alone is charged with the responsibility of
safeguarding
sound doctrine, as Paul advised Timothy (2 Tim 4). Therefore
its
doctrine is incorruptible, though its individual members sin, and often
sin
grievously. And with dissent
scandal inevitably follows. As Fr
Matthew
Lamb
of Boston College said, "How many of the priests and bishops who brought
such
suffering to minors and scandal to the public were first encouraged by
teachers
and theologians to cut corners and dissent from the truth of the
Catholic
faith.... a climate of dissent was promoted by wholesale dissent
from
Catholic teaching (Lamb, FV.com/lamb.htm)
Thus VOTF seeks not a return to fidelity to those teachings but to
even
further dissent and fragmentation, designed not for healing at a time
when
healing is most needed, but to advance their personal agenda. Once
again
it seems they are being led by the same academic dissenters who caused
the
problem in the first place.
It
is imperative for good and loyal Catholics to support the Church by
prayer,
by spiritual and personal support of good priests, of young men
discerning
a vocation and by living out fully the baptismal vocation each of
us
has.
Dr.
Peter W. Frey1@FaithfulVoice.com 2/4/03