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JMJ
I believe that the root of the crisis of the Catholic Church is disobedience to some form of authority.
The Protestants revolted against the Pope and the Church - denying Dogmas and casting aside much of the 'artefacts' of the Catholic Faith. All they have left are vestiges.
The modernists revolted against the Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church, undermining Divine Revelation and as a result denied core Dogmas of the Catholic Faith. This revolt emerged in full light at the Second Vatican Council and we've been suffering its effects every since!
The Popes, starting even under Pius XII gave way to innovations that, as a pebble starts an avalanche, ended in a revolt against the authority of Tradition in the Catholic Church. With the erosion of the authority of the Church, anarchy soon followed and the bastions against heresy were razed to the ground.
This is the phase in which we now strive to save our souls.
Re-establishing Catholic Obedience in the Church will be a big step towards emerging from this crisis.
First,what is obedience?
- Obedience (Lat. obêdire, "to hearken to", hence "to obey") is the complying with a command or precept.
- Stress is put upon the fact that one not only does what is actually enjoined, but does it with a mind to formally fall in with the will of the commander. It is in other words the homage rendered to authority which ranks it as a distinct virtue
- As to whom we are to obey, there can be no doubt that first we are bound to offer an unreserved service to Almighty God in all His commands
- On the other hand the obligation to obedience to superiors under God admits of limitations. We are not bound to obey a superior in a matter which does not fall within the limits of his preceptive power
- Neither can a superior claim our obedience in contravention to the dispositions of higher authority.
- We cannot heed the behests of any human power no matter how venerable or undisputed as against the ordinances of God.
- All authority ... has its source in Him and cannot be validly used against Him. It is the recognition of the authority of God vicariously exercised through a human agent that confers upon the act of obedience its special merit.
- Source: Catholic Encyclopedia
So what does obedience involve???
A superior vested with authority, who gives an order to a subject and the subject's decision to obey, disobey / disregard the order.
It is literally a chain of:
Authority → Superior → Order → Subject → Obey / Disobey / Disregard
The
decision to obey / disobey or disregard an order depends on the nature
of order and the sphere of authority of the superior. The order is
either inside or outside the sphere of authority granted to the
superior. Second, it either involves sin or not.
So looking at the chain of events we can come to a few conclusions:
Authority → Superior → Order → Subject → Obey / Disobey / Disregard
The matrix makes the decision making process clear and simple based on two questions:
- Is the order in or outside the superiors sphere of authority? (yes / no)
- Is the order sinful in either the immediate or proximate sense? (yes / no)
If the order is outside the sphere of authority and does not involve sin, then obedience is optional. St. Thomas labels to obey in such a situation as Perfect Obedience.
If the order would require the subject to commit sin (proximate or immediate) then they must disregard the order even if it was within the sphere of authority.
Note the difference between disregard vs disobey. I believe that you cannot disobey a sinful order because it isn't a licit order, so you simply disregard such an order.
So ... I've tried to make this as simple as possible. I have added links below to the other obedience series on Tradicat.
So remember to ...
P^3
Tradicat Obedience Series:
Series - Obedience
Series - True Obedience
Series - Breaking Down St. Thomas' Teaching on Obedience
SSPX.ca: True-obedience-the-mark-of-a-faithful-catholic
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