Just recently I expanded my writing output by submitting my first article to the outstanding online website ‘Where Peter Is‘ and it was accepted.
A snapshot of the world of Vatican II – Where Peter Is
WPI is a phenomenally needed website today in the Catholic online world. It seems as if social media is plastered and bombarded by Catholics whose main goal in their online mission is to poo poo the current magisterium and heap ridicule on those who actually like and want to follow Pope Francis, love the Second Vatican Council, celebrate the Novus Ordo Mass, want to be kind to LGBT + individuals, propose that pro-life means more then just stopping abortion and those that think Donald Trump is not the politician Catholics should rally behind because he is just that daft. Where Peter Is charatibly defends these positions which are grounded in orthodox Catholic teaching even if they are expressed differently then what the Catholic Rigorous Vortex thinks is authentic sensible theologically correct Catholicism. I am happy and pleased to be a part of this great group of online writers that are standing up for the current way the Holy Spirit is running the church in the Pope Francis era.
While WPI published my article on the historical context of Vatican II, others like Word on Fire also published great stuff on Vatican II.
I am composing these words on October 11, 2022, which is the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, easily the most momentous ecclesial event of the twentieth century. I think it’s fair to say that we Catholics have been talking, arguing, and wondering about, denigrating and celebrating, Vatican II pretty much non-stop for the past sixty years. Even the most cursory survey of the internet will reveal that the lively discussion shows no signs of running out of steam. I find myself on this sixtieth anniversary of the council in agreement with George Weigel’s suggestion that the most basic of the texts, indeed the one by whose light the entire assemblage of texts should be understood, is Dei Verbum, the constitution on divine revelation.
Bishop Robert Barron “Dei Verbum” and the 60th Anniversary of Vatican II – Word on Fire
WOF recent put out a video series on Vatican II that I intend to watch at some point. There is also a book that came out last year called Reclaiming Vatican 2 I still want to read at some point.
Check out Larry Chapp’s contribution to the Vatican II conversation.
Vatican II Sought True Liturgical Reform| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com)
See also the National Catholic Register’s Vatican II at 60.
Mark Brumley@mabrumley (, 2022) Vatican 2 started 60 years ago today. The Cuban Missile Crisis began less than a week later. John XXIII helped the world avoid nuclear war. Through his prayers may he do the same today & may the authentic understanding of Vatican II pervade the Church. St John XXIII, pray for us.
Mark Brumley@mabrumley (Oct 12, 2022) Some folks seem confident that had there been no Vatican 2, everything in the Church would have gone swimmingly in the 1960s-1970s. But another scenario is that things might well have gone far worse. We’ll never know.
It is worthwhile to listen to those who want to help us understand this council that is not going away but is now a part of our everyday Catholic lives. Unfortunately other online webzines’ such as One Peter Five and Crisis don’t see it this way. They decided to publish articles voicing their contempt and disdain for the council instead of trying to understand it. How will this look at the Last Judgment? It is online publications like this that help sow division and doubt in the body of Christ. The sad thing is that Crisis is capable of producing uplifting inspiring articles that Vatican II Pope Francis loving Catholics would find worth reading. Things worth pondering for the first judgment such as this.
Many of us unconsciously practice memento mori as we say the Rosary—repeating the petition “pray for us now and at the hour of our death” as we meditate on the mysteries, events lived out under the shadow of the Cross.
Certain mysteries, such as the Crucifixion and Resurrection, clearly lend themselves to memento mori. Others, even in the midst of joy, contain a prophetic or poignant note of sorrow.
Once I opened myself to thinking about my own death, I found myself thinking about my parenting in the same light. An attitude of lived memento mori means not being overly attached to the passing seasons of life, looking—not anxiously but with prayerful preparation—toward one’s children’s ends as well. What do I want most for them? What am I preparing them for—a saintly death or merely a long and comfortable life? And if I’m called to give them back, God forbid, have I prepared them?
Without the Cross and Resurrection, memento mori belongs to the stoics, to the realm of the fashionably dark, the trendy, to the stylized skulls that seem to be everywhere as the days grow short.
Monica Seeley Memento Mori: Thoughts of Death and Rebirth in a Reminiscent Season (crisismagazine.com)
Were all gonna have to experience the reality of our personal death and those of our loved ones. Even though I don’t recommend Crisis overall as a site for Catholics to go to, it doesn’t mean that there are no worthwhile things to read at all put out by them. We should look for the truth, beauty and goodness of the people we will probably spend eternity with. Even if they don’t expend the same courtesy to us.
(a) liberals are stupid, and(b) liberals are working out global mastermind schemes to takeover everything
….can’t both be true.-William C. Michael
Dr. Edward Feser another notorious anti-Francis writer (and no fan of WPI or Mike Lewis) ironically penned these words of wisdom that could benefit all who speak on or off line.
A good rule of thumb is that when someone whose opinions you disagree with tries to engage with you in a civil and reasonable manner – or, if he doesn’t, at least will do so after you try to turn the temperature down by engaging civilly and reasonably with him – then it would be contrary to reason and charity not to give him the benefit of the doubt. There are definitely lots of people online who are not like this – who remain obnoxious and irrational no matter how patient and civil you are with them. But there are also lots of people who would behave more reasonably if only others behaved more reasonably toward them.
Another good rule of thumb is to consider, before posting some comment on Twitter, Facebook, a blog, or wherever, how it will look at the Last Judgment, when, Christ warns, “men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37, RSV).
Dr. Edward Feser Aquinas on the sin of rash judgment – Catholic World Report
Even our ideological enemies are capable of writing things worth looking at even if they don’t necessarily practice what they preach. I like to look for the diamonds of wisdom and insight that can be found in all baptized fellow believers. Even if there not living out the faith as they should they are still by brothers and sisters in Christ. After all even Bad Catholics Are Still Catholics.
A person who has committed heresy, apostasy, or schism may no longer identify himself as a Catholic, but he’s still bound by the Church’s laws—including, for example, the obligation to attend Mass every Sunday (without receiving Holy Communion, of course).
This brings to mind the old saying, “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.” There’s a sense in which that’s true, since the legal obligations we acquire upon being baptized or received into the Church continue to exist even if we renounce the Faith and no longer regard ourselves as Catholic.
It is even more clear that someone who still professes to be Catholic—even unfaithfully—remains so, even if it is purely in a “bodily” way and not “in his heart.”
Jimmy Akin, Bad Catholics Are Still Catholics | Catholic Answers
Even if you get accused of watering down the faith remember…
“Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags. The mere minimum of the Church would be a deadly ultimatum to the world.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
“Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.”
We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.Earth And Hell on Facebook.
Even if you think things are bleck in the church and that bad conservatives or evil liberals are destroying it, watering down, choose the position that will give you hope and lead to consolation and not desolation.
- It is worthwhile to listen to those who want to help us understand the Second Vatican Council
- Practice Memento Mori in your everyday life.
- Once a Catholic, always a Catholic
- Watered down Christianity is still Hot.
- We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.
- Choose the position that will give you hope and lead to consolation and not desolation.
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