The spirit of the 2.nd Vatican Council was one of opening up
and aligning the Catholic Church to the spirit of the world.
Although the spirit of the world is opposite to the
spirit of God, and Jesus Christ; Our Lord and Saviour, said
repeatedly that His Kingdom was "not of this world."
One of the documents with it's origin in the 2.nd VC;
"Nostrae Aetate" concerns itself with dialogue with,
and respect for, non- Christian religions,
especially Islam.
It's stated purpose is reconciliation with the other main
religions of the world,
although it is not a dogmatic document.
How they hope to make two different irreconcilable religions
reconcilable, without erasing one of them, I do not understand.
But I am sure that there will be no concessions or compromise
from Islam. So who is going to alter and modify their religion,
betray Our Lord, like Judas did?
From this document sprung the idea of ecumenism and religious
liberty, neither of which has strengthened the Catholic Church
but rather has caused wide spread confusion and lack of clarity
and guidance among Catholics, and has hugely contributed to
people leaving the Church.
Because such liberalism makes God Himself subjective and
relative; each one makes their own god.
The new liturgy changed the very understanding of God, and
our relationship to Him.
The priest facing the people instead of God, changed everything,
it changed the priesthood itself.
The priest became "one of us", but he isn't, he is set apart from
us, he is there to serve God, the Church, to save souls, to bring
the Kingdom of God to people.
They did away with kneeling while receiving Him on the tongue,
we could from now on stand, as if we are His equal, and receive
Him with our own unworthy hands, as if it was any other food.
This itself caused people to loose faith in the Real Presence, it
brought the Church down to the level of a human community,
amongst all the others.
And bringing lay people to distribute the Body and Blood of
Our Lord was a terrible idea, a serious blow to the priesthood.
The Church's true value; the divine and
supernatural, was taken out.
People started to leave the Church in droves, and those who
remained lamented the drop in numbers.
But there is a reason for everything, everything has a cause.
Ever since we hear about the lack of vocations to the priesthood,
the low number going to Mass, etc.
But why would we bother going to Mass, if not going to Mass is
just as good?
The work of ecumenism has brought a favorable attitude towards
Islam amongst many Catholics, because many priests have almost
been promoting it from the pulpit. This does not necessarily come
from a good knowledge of it, it stems from the "Nostrae Aetate"
document; it says: this is the attitude we now ought to have.
The muslims are praised for being devote, compared to us
Christians.
But I see many devote Catholics, mostly at Traditional Latin Mass,
where they did not abandon the dogma and the teaching of the true
faith. These communities, e.g. The Institute of Christ the King
Sovereign Priest and others, are growing, and they constitute mainly
of young people, they have real catholic schools where the Faith is
being taught to the children from an early age.
There is much less of a spirit of devotion in the Novus Ordo, where
still to this day, many members of the congregation do not turn off
their mobile phone before going in to Mass, where the dress code
is non existent, where there is chatter and even clapping, and where
the priest is your friend and your psychotherapist.
It is the Mass itself which is causing the lack of devotion.
Groups of Lectio Divina, found in many parishes; where the Gospel
is read, reflected on, shared thoughts on, reveals the differences
people have on the Word of God, it is like "this is how I see it, this is
how I feel", due to lack of catechism.
Because God's word is objective, it is not up for interpretation.
In France there are already parishes that have shared prayer
meetings with muslims, they often take place in mosques.
This is set up by bishops.
Also in France, in certain parishes The Holy Communion has been
devalued, degraded, to such an extent that it is a buffet meal; instead
of feeding the faithful with the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy
Communion, congregations are told that they can come up and serve
themselves from the Ciborium, while the priest is sitting down.
Also striking is the difference in the Sacrament of Confession between the
Novus Ordo and the TLM.
In the N.O.the concept of sin has almost been done away with, so when
you confess your sins to the priest, he almost justifies them for you, saying
that what you did was totally understandable, and that in fact it was you
that was the victim of somebody's else's sin, thus taking the responsibility
for our actions away from us, and blaming someone else. This
does not help us to grow in holiness, which is the sole purpose of the
existence of the Catholic Church.
A sin must be recognized as such, confessed by the penitent, absolved
by the priest, penance done, end of story, as it is done in the TLM.
Because hearing that it was "only normal and human" makes one think
that it was fine, and there will be no effort of improvement.
We are weak humans, but our participation in the Church is not about
a growth in human nature, it is an effort to become more like Christ:
God Himself.
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