Auto-Constructed Catacombs

I just saw this on Rorate Caeli.

" The challenge also won’t be met by Catholic traditionalists retreating into auto-constructed catacombs." - George Weigel

source

I have to admit that I have not read the entire article - but ... really do I need to?

When I read the words - it struck a chord.

What do 'Traditionalists' bring as a solution to the crisis in the Church?

Nothing.

We don't bring anything that the Church doesn't already possess.

All 'we' are is a memory of the Church.

We remember what She was before the Second Vatican Council ...

We remember what She has taught in the millennium prior to the Council ...

We remember what She must be ...

Eventually, through Prayer, Penance and Patience, we will see Her recover Her Memory.

In the Catacombs, the early Catholics gathered to worship, so yes, we gather in the catacombs, but not 'auto-constructed' ones.

What some find inconvenient are not the shadows and ignominy of the catacombs, but the Truths of the Faith.

Perhaps Mr. Weigel fears being forced to worship in the catacombs beside the 'radtrads'.

P^3
Prayer
Penance
Patience

Postscript October 27, 2013

Well, I have now read the remainder of Mr. Weigel's article.

First, I was not far off.

Here is a core item of his article:

For the challenge now is to give America a new birth of freedom rightly understood as built upon those four truths; a new birth of freedom re-cemented to a foundation of transcendent moral truths about the human person, to the principle of government-by-consent, to a recognition of the priority of civil society over the state, and to an existential affirmation of the linkage between personal and civic virtue and liberty lived nobly. source

Unfortunately, in a number of ways, I believe Mr. Weigel has lost his mooring.

Leo XIII had some valid criticisms of 'Americanism' that are found here.

Comments

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