Give Me That Old Time Religion

Our problems, at heart, collectively and individually, are the result of every man trying to exert his own desires on the world. We have bitten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and we are reaping the results. History tells us this. Christ entered history in the fulless of time to save the world from its sin.  We are warriors in the war against evil.  That is what Christ freed us to do, to fight the Evil One.  Tat is the meaning of human life.

 It pains me, but I have come to realize that my Lutheran beliefs are not enough, though they have satisfied for now 70 years. Lutheranism at least has the Eucharist at the center of its worship. But as protestantism strayed from the Catholic faith, it steadily delivered less and less spiritual nourishment to the people. And it lost some of this meaning to human life.  In truth, we need the complete Faith, including the ancient traditions embodied in the Catholic Church. Moreover, we need to be united in an age in which so many seem entirely secular. We can not do our job fighting the Evil One if we are fighting among ourselves.

So, it was interesting to read Fr. John Perricone's article at Crisis Magazine entitled Vatican II at 60: Stop the Cheerleading. Fr. Perricone questions George Weigel's book To Sanctify The World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II. Because, after 60 years of losing Catholics and increasing secularity in society, it seems clear that Vatican Council II has failed to deliver what it promised. The younger Catholics seem to be flocking to the Ancient Faith, the tradition Latin Mass and not to the Novus Ordo (new order) Mass.  They want the fully leaded version, so to speak.

Mr. Weigel seems to be parroting the Old Thinking of the septuagenarian and octogenarian Shepherds in the Church. This Old Guard is presently splenetic at the cry of young Catholics for the undiluted Ancient Faith rather than the Synodal Way that is so giddily embraced (and tightfistedly enforced) by their betters.

How could someone as gifted as Mr. Weigel repeat without embarrassment Roncalli’s indictment of 500 years of Post-Reformation Catholicism as “guarding a precious treasure as though it were an antiquity”? He knows better than most St. Paul’s mandate to Timothy: “custodi depositum” (guard the deposit). Yes, the Church jealously “guards” so that she can boldly proclaim. And, indeed, she did. And she did it with supernatural gusto during all those centuries to which Mr. Weigel happily bids a fond farewell.

People change, though seldom for the better. Society changes. But God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. His plan for mankind has always been the same. We need to be united and we need that old time religion to fight the Evil One. I agree that the Catholic Church needs to take a step back, repudiate Vatican II and begin to agressively fight for the souls of faithful Catholics.