Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: “The People Shall Save the Church.” But How?
On October 4, 2019, at the Hotel Massimo D’Azeglio in Rome, there was a roundtable discussion, sponsored by Voice of the Family, an international lay initiative supporting Catholic teaching on the family. The topic was: “Our Church – Reformed or Deformed?” The panelists were a who’s who of lay Catholic thought leaders. Panelist John-Henry Westen, co-founder of LifeSiteNews, said one word that reverberated throughout the whole conference: “Enough!” Enough to the harm being done to the faith by Pope Francis. At virtually the same time, the Pachamama idol was being worshipped in the Vatican gardens.
A few days earlier, several of those panelists had participated in a public Rosary at the foot of Castel Sant’Angelo on the eve of the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, September 28. They had prayed for angels to come to the aid of the Church. At the same time, a group of priests gathered in private to pray the extended St. Michael prayer, which is a prayer for exorcism of the Holy See.
In 1972, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said that it would be up to the people to save the church. What could he possibly have meant by that? At the time, he seemed to be telling the people to put pressure on their priests and bishops to act like priests and bishops. But surely he also saw that the people were being led astray by their priests and bishops in matters of morality, faith, and worship. Perhaps he had in mind a more active role for the people.
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We were reminded in 2013 that a man need not remain the pope until he dies. Despite being the latest rock upon which the Church is built, he can abandon the faithful and decline to continue to serve. The process is simple; in fact, there is no process. The pope simply renounces his office before the whole Church and flies off in a helicopter. There is no vote or decision by any group to accept or deny the resignation. The faithful are not asked to assent. Instead, the Church shrugs and a conclave makes another pope.
The faithful, however, were uneasy about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the subsequent election of Pope Francis. Debates sprang up among scholars and pew sitters alike regarding the legitimacy of what they had just witnessed. Could he still be pope, but not exercise that office? There was precedent for voluntary papal resignation, however, and so the debates flickered out, although the unease has persisted.
Last December, Pope Francis publicly approved of blessings for same-sex couples in the Declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, in direct contradiction of formal Catholic teaching, not to mention Sacred Scripture and the natural law. In doing so, he has taken a bellows to the embers of unease.
And this was not the first such action, nor has it been the last.
How much must a pope say and do that is contrary to the sensus fidelium (that is, the sense of the faithful), before the faithful can take matters into their own hands?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the Vatican II document, Lumen Gentium (12), states:
92. The whole body of the faithful. . . cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole people, when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals.
Let it sink in: the faithful, taken together, are infallible in matters of faith and morals. They know when their faith is in peril. Witness the widespread rejection of Fiducia Supplicans.
Fiducia Supplicans is simply one of the most recent in a series of this pope’s affronts to the faith. These affronts include:
The Post-Synodal Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia
The modification of doctrine on the death penalty
The Pan-Amazon Synod with its filthy Pachamama
The Abu Dhabi Declaration that God wills a plurality of religions, which has been reaffirmed and aggravated by the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, and
The apostolic letter, Traditionis Custodes, which revoked the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum, and restricted the Traditional Latin Mass.
If the shepherd has the right to abandon the flock, do not the flock also have the right to abandon the shepherd? If the flock have a claim to infallibility in matters of faith and morals, there is no superior claim that can be made by the shepherd in that regard.
Some would falsely claim this is a “Protestant attitude” and “not Catholic.” I would direct these critics to the 2014 document prepared by the International Theological Commission of the Vatican:
‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world’ (1 Jn 4:1). The sensus fidei fidelis confers on the believer the capacity to discern whether or not a teaching or practice is coherent with the true faith by which he or she already lives. . . . The sensus fidei fidelis also enables individual believers to perceive any disharmony, incoherence, or contradiction between a teaching or practice and the authentic Christian faith by which they live. They react as a music lover does to false notes in the performance of a piece of music. In such cases, believers interiorly resist the teachings or practices concerned and do not accept them or participate in them. [As St. Thomas says:] ‘The habitus of faith possesses a capacity whereby, thanks to it, the believer is prevented from giving assent to what is contrary to the faith, just as chastity gives protection with regard to whatever is contrary to chastity.’[1]
In 2016, the German publication Der Spiegel published an article that quoted Pope Francis saying, “It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic Church.” Perhaps. Or he may enter history as the pope who found himself a minister without a portfolio when the faithful said “enough” and reclaimed their Church. We are the whole people, from the bishops to the last of the faithful. We know our faith. You will shepherd us no longer. Depart from us.
There is, of course, no process or precedent whereby a man remains pope, but forfeits the papacy. But neither has the church previously suffered an attempted doctrinal coup, which has now become an emergency. Perhaps an announcement by the whole body of the faithful and a helicopter would be sufficient for the present moment. The camerlengo can administer the secular affairs of the Church for the next little while. Then a chastened conclave can make another pope upon the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
[1] “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” nn. 61–62.
Source:
“The People Shall Save the Church.” But How?
A few days earlier, several of those panelists had participated in a public Rosary at the foot of Castel Sant’Angelo on the eve of the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, September 28. They had prayed for angels to come to the aid of the Church. At the same time, a group of priests gathered in private to pray the extended St. Michael prayer, which is a prayer for exorcism of the Holy See.
In 1972, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said that it would be up to the people to save the church. What could he possibly have meant by that? At the time, he seemed to be telling the people to put pressure on their priests and bishops to act like priests and bishops. But surely he also saw that the people were being led astray by their priests and bishops in matters of morality, faith, and worship. Perhaps he had in mind a more active role for the people.
❦
We were reminded in 2013 that a man need not remain the pope until he dies. Despite being the latest rock upon which the Church is built, he can abandon the faithful and decline to continue to serve. The process is simple; in fact, there is no process. The pope simply renounces his office before the whole Church and flies off in a helicopter. There is no vote or decision by any group to accept or deny the resignation. The faithful are not asked to assent. Instead, the Church shrugs and a conclave makes another pope.
The faithful, however, were uneasy about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the subsequent election of Pope Francis. Debates sprang up among scholars and pew sitters alike regarding the legitimacy of what they had just witnessed. Could he still be pope, but not exercise that office? There was precedent for voluntary papal resignation, however, and so the debates flickered out, although the unease has persisted.
Last December, Pope Francis publicly approved of blessings for same-sex couples in the Declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, in direct contradiction of formal Catholic teaching, not to mention Sacred Scripture and the natural law. In doing so, he has taken a bellows to the embers of unease.
And this was not the first such action, nor has it been the last.
How much must a pope say and do that is contrary to the sensus fidelium (that is, the sense of the faithful), before the faithful can take matters into their own hands?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the Vatican II document, Lumen Gentium (12), states:
92. The whole body of the faithful. . . cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole people, when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals.
Let it sink in: the faithful, taken together, are infallible in matters of faith and morals. They know when their faith is in peril. Witness the widespread rejection of Fiducia Supplicans.
Fiducia Supplicans is simply one of the most recent in a series of this pope’s affronts to the faith. These affronts include:
The Post-Synodal Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia
The modification of doctrine on the death penalty
The Pan-Amazon Synod with its filthy Pachamama
The Abu Dhabi Declaration that God wills a plurality of religions, which has been reaffirmed and aggravated by the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, and
The apostolic letter, Traditionis Custodes, which revoked the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum, and restricted the Traditional Latin Mass.
If the shepherd has the right to abandon the flock, do not the flock also have the right to abandon the shepherd? If the flock have a claim to infallibility in matters of faith and morals, there is no superior claim that can be made by the shepherd in that regard.
Some would falsely claim this is a “Protestant attitude” and “not Catholic.” I would direct these critics to the 2014 document prepared by the International Theological Commission of the Vatican:
‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world’ (1 Jn 4:1). The sensus fidei fidelis confers on the believer the capacity to discern whether or not a teaching or practice is coherent with the true faith by which he or she already lives. . . . The sensus fidei fidelis also enables individual believers to perceive any disharmony, incoherence, or contradiction between a teaching or practice and the authentic Christian faith by which they live. They react as a music lover does to false notes in the performance of a piece of music. In such cases, believers interiorly resist the teachings or practices concerned and do not accept them or participate in them. [As St. Thomas says:] ‘The habitus of faith possesses a capacity whereby, thanks to it, the believer is prevented from giving assent to what is contrary to the faith, just as chastity gives protection with regard to whatever is contrary to chastity.’[1]
In 2016, the German publication Der Spiegel published an article that quoted Pope Francis saying, “It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic Church.” Perhaps. Or he may enter history as the pope who found himself a minister without a portfolio when the faithful said “enough” and reclaimed their Church. We are the whole people, from the bishops to the last of the faithful. We know our faith. You will shepherd us no longer. Depart from us.
There is, of course, no process or precedent whereby a man remains pope, but forfeits the papacy. But neither has the church previously suffered an attempted doctrinal coup, which has now become an emergency. Perhaps an announcement by the whole body of the faithful and a helicopter would be sufficient for the present moment. The camerlengo can administer the secular affairs of the Church for the next little while. Then a chastened conclave can make another pope upon the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
[1] “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” nn. 61–62.
Source:
“The People Shall Save the Church.” But How?
