Rev Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London (1500-1555) was burnt at the stake for heresy for asserting, among other things, that the words "Ite Missa est, Deo gratias," (go the Mass is ended, thanks be to God) is nothing but a papal ordinance. In ‘The Island’ of April 3, a self-appointed oblate theoretian who when we were undergrads was a spokesman for the party line but now often seen in mufti, a measure of his newly acquired contempt for the laws of the Church, asserted, peppering his assertions with Scriptural quotations to give a facade of academic rigour, that
(a) After consecration, Bread and Wine are not physically changed but only symbolically, rejecting the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
(b) The Eucharist is only a memorial of the Last Supper. Despite the heretical flavour of the assertions, the sower of cockle, this ancient enemy, who has dared to oversow the Lord’s field with scurrilous rubbish, leave alone being burnt at the stake has not even been given a smack on his wrist. An automatic excommunication latae sententiae, is brought on by the actions of an individual priest without the need for any formal pronouncement by Church authority. In other words the offender separates himself from the Church. Under existing law priests who reject the binding teachings of the past councils, incur the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae. As to why the Archbishop has not announced the excommunication of the oblate that has already taken place I cannot answer. That a Catholic priest who denies the Doctrine of the Eucharist and does so openly is certainly a scandal. Since it is morally and psychologically true that responsibility runs up and not down, it is even a greater scandal that a blasphemy is permitted to be propagated by the bishops, who are teachers of the faith and guardians of the flock against the wolves of heresy.
Reading too many ‘comics’
The Father turned Reverend seems to have been reading too many ‘comics’ of the continental heretics Bucer, Zwingli and Melanchthon who were excommunicated in the sixteenth century. The oblate not only rejects the binding teachings of the past Councils of the Catholic Church but thumbs his nose at the current teachings of Pope John Paul II, contained in the recent encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharista (Church and the Eucharist) showing nothing but hatred for the magisterium (teaching) of the Church. Worst of all, the heretic turned theologian, nay, poacher turned gamekeeper, is duping the innocent Catholic with tabernacles decorating them with fancy bulbs as if though Christ is present in the tabernacle in the form of consecrated bread, despite his assertion that the bread is any old bread one can get in any old bakery.
I admire Martin Luther for his candour and vocabulary because he vanished after declaring "that all the brothels, all the manslaughters, murders, thefts and adulteries have wrought less akomination than, the popish Mass. Masses are the height of idolatory and impiety, an evil introduced by Satan himself. It is indeed upon the Mass, as on a rock, that the whole Papal system is built, with its monasteries, its bishoprics, its collegiate churches, its altars, its ministries, its doctrine, that is its guts. All these cannot fail to crumble once their sacrilegious and abominable Mass falls". But the hanger-on of Martin Luther lingers behind enjoying the perks of priestly office provided by the gullible, blessing the same gullible with an empty chalice with the words: "Ite Missa est. Deo Gracias", "Go the Mass is ended. Thanks be to God."
Axe to grind
Today every bishop and priest with an axe to grind misinterpret Vatican II for unrestrained frontal attacks on the dogmas of the Church. Catholic beliefs are complex they assert. Religion they argue ought to be simple. Jesus came into the world with a simple message of love and the Catholic Church has encrusted His message with creeds and sacraments and stuff nobody wants. As Chesterton said: It is exactly as if, somebody were to say about medicine: "All I ask is Health; what could be simpler than the beautiful gift of Health; why not be content to enjoy forever the glow of youth and the fresh enjoyment of being fit. Why have litanies of words barbarously compounded from Latin and Greek? Why a damnable plague of long words? Why study dry and dismal sciences of anatomy and physiology? Why inquire about the whereabouts of obscure organs of the human body? Why pendantically distinguish between what is labelled a posison and what is labelled an anti-dote, when it is so simple to enjoy Health?"
Tearing threads out of the weave of Catholic faith is the fashion of bishops and priests who were the worst pre-Vatican II authoritarians and after Vatican II the most tyrannical in implemeeting liturgical changes. I was abused for not kneeling during Mass. Today the abuser is going overboard implementing changes, going to extremes, dumping statues, hiding tabernacles and replacing rubrics with village stunts. Recently a Catholic rang a bishop and started to criticize John Paul II.
The bishop quite agitated, threatened to terminate the conversation if he does not stop criticizing the pope. But the bishop turns a blind eye at abuses taking place under his nose, the very abuses condemned by the pope in the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharista. Consequently a distorted set of ecclesiologies have emerged, lacking history and sacrament with little emphasis placed on virtue and tradition. The Magisterium of the Church does not speculate in Theology. The Magisterium presents the firm certainties of faith so that the educated and uneducated alike can put into practice the Catholic faith. Rejection of the Canon laws and teachings of the Church are two sides of the same coin of clericalism, a flight from discipline and the exercise of illegitimate power.
Syndrome
To understand this syndrome, it is necessary to recognise that the Church after Vatican II has become more clericalist than the Church before Vatican II, despite repeated claims to the contrary. Prior to Vatican II the Church was clericalist in transparent ways but part of that clericalism was the fact that bishops and priest were held to higher standards than lay catholics. Bishops and priests never questioned doctrine and those who did were condemned as pariahs. After Vatican II, this abruptly changed. Emphasis on the indellible, sacramental character imparted by ordination, a bond between priest and God, shifted to challenging all the teachings of the Chureh.
The spectacle of catholic priests supported by bishops denying the Real Presence and setting-up wayward catholics as catspaws to write to newspapers, scandalise the lay catholic because it means bishops and priests are exempted from teachings that lay catholics are told to obey. The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is like a bowl of salad at a madhatters tea party with bishops and priests interpreting dogmas and muddling through in their own merry ways united only by the fact they are in the same bowl sprinkled with a thin Vatican dressing. These clerics are more willing to compromise on the doctrines they preach than the vintage wines they have with their dinners. If the catholics had accepted the doctrines or the new messiahs 2000 years ago, catholicism today would be nothing but a footnote in history.
Grievously flawed
The process that results in the appointment of bishops is grievously flawed. During my school days only the best were chosen for the episcopate. If suitable candidates were not available the slot remained vacant. Today any clerical Dick, Tom and Harry with Divinity qualifications from third rate theological schools, finds himself appointed a bishop concerned only about status and hob-nobbing with politicians who are here today and gone tomorrow, than nip clerical abuses in the bud. When a concerned catholic protested to a bishop, who has some theological qualifications from Ottawa, Canada where catholicism has almost collapsed and where theologians routinely reject the teachings of the Church, against the absurdity and impiety of the actions of the sower of cockle, the bishop who being tanquam modo genitus infans (like a new born child) yawned and gave an hackneyed excuse supporting the reprobate demonstrating his unworthiness to hold episcopal office. The bishop displayed a mentality whereby unlimited sympathy was extended to the transgressor of Church teachings, while a judgemental spirit was reserved for the hapless catholic.
Dogmas
Why do bishops and priests who do not accept the teachings of the Church insist upon remaining in the church? In the Catholic Church there are dogmas which one must accept. To deny them is to relinquish the right to the name catholic. Bishops and priests are duty bound to respect the boundary lines. It is their duty to fix the lines clearly in their minds and if they wish to go beyond them they must change their profession. This is their duty not as catholics but as honest men because they are breaking the rule summed by Mary at the wedding feast in Cana. "Do whatever He tells you."
For two thousand years the Catholic Church weathered persecutions, storms and trials of enemies from within and without. The Church will continue to be challenged by Her enemies saecula saeculorum (till the end of time). When I was a graduate student the newspapers competed with daily prayer. After graduation television began to compete with the newspapers. After I completed my doctoral studies, the Internet started to compete with television.
Then a few catholic intellectuals lost their way. Now catholic intellectuals have lost their address. Only the so-called catholic professionals, who spend their time burying charms in bedrooms are left to give dinners to bishops and sing their praises. Why Christ does not intervene and chase the blashemers from the Temple profoundly shocks me, similar to the shocks I would get if I look at the mirror and not see my face. On the other hand,is Christ by His patience sending a message, similar to the one He sent when He bestowed the priesthood, at the Last Supper, on Judas, His betrayer. Is Christ waiting till the new betrayers, like Judas, get enough rope to hang themselves from the nearest gibbet?
One of the boasts of the dissenting oblate is that he was once in charge of the Ampitiya seminary. The quality of his training can be measured by the following examples of abuse taken from many, which I have censored, because I am ashamed to write about them. In a church south of Colombo, the parish priest uses only bread, no wine for the consecration. In a church north of Colombo the priest is a contortionist. Stunts have replaced liturgical rubrics and begins distributing communion by tossing a host in his mouth. The new breed of priests are like Gadarene swine and do not support the Church, Her hierarchy, Her Eucharist or Her liturgy.
They have knocked the guts out of orthodoxy. A temptation against Faith, Hope and Charity. They look at the Mass as tired men look at flies and their bloated bodies and cynical laughter are worse than the ancient wrongs of Martin Luther that produced so much greed, ugliness and vice. When we were students the Ampitiya Seminary produced priests of admirable quality. Although priests of that era had their faults they were by any standard less ignorant, less immoral, less neglectful of duty and less disobedient than at almost any time in the history of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka. More positively priests of that generation were pious and zealous.
Decreed
The Ampitiya Seminary was modelled the way it was decreed by the Council of Trent. The system of discipline was characterized by ascetism and was used to train the will and develop habits of regularity, self-control self- sacrifice and holiness. The seminarians were trained to follow a rule of life which determined what they would do throughout the course of each day, Mass, prayer, classes, study, recreation and devotion. Nothing was left to caprice. St. Charles Borromeo, the cardinal archbishop of Milan, a renowned father of the Council of Trent, is the one who developed the seminary system and copied in to by the Ampitiya Seminary. St Charle’s contributions to the seminary system are so significant that he is often called the father of the seminary. Even The Second Vatican Council which the wreckers often misquote to drive a coach and six through catholic dogmas, decreed "Since the training of seminarians hingers to a very large extent on wise regulations and on suitable teachers, seminary directors should be chosen from among the best and be painstakingly prepared by solid doctrine, appropriate pastoral experience and special spiritual and pedagogical training." Despite the clear instructions in Optatium Totius (priestly formation of Vatican II) dissenting theologians are appointed to the seminary. The Ampitiya Seminary falls under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop. After the sexual abuse scandals of the clergy in America, the American bishops are fighting back and wresting control of the seminaries from the hands of the infidels. The Archbishop should follow their example. St Thomas More parted with his head rather than part with his catholic principles.
Left aghast
American catholics have been left aghast after the recent clergy sex scandals. Destruction of the American seminary system has been an inside job by homosexual bishops, priests and lesbian nuns. The corruption, the deliberate infiltration by Gnostic gurus who are bringing back into the seminaries the old heretical, pagan, pantheistic ideas which historically can be traced as far back 2000 BC, are having a devastating impact. Gnostic words like gentleness, love, peace, caring, forgiveness, spirituality are commonplace. The seminarian who arrives to be taught the Catholic faith is sadly disappointed. Instead he is taught the rubbish of dissenting theologians like Richard McBrien, Edward Schillebeecks, Hans Kung, Bernard Haring, Charles Curran who were chained like mad dogs by Pope Pius XII and unleashed after Vatican II, that the Bible is not to be taken seriously, the pope is not infallible, Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is just an old pre-Vatican II myth, Christ was not divine, God is feminine, Mass is simply a meal in which we should eat bread that looks like bread in a bakery, women should be ordained priests and so on.
Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss of Omaha, Nebraska has attributed the shortage of priests to be artificial and contrived by those who promote ordination of women. He has pointed out that in dioceses which support orthodox candidates there is no vocation crisis but an increase in priestly vocations. Orthodoxy begets vocations. Dissent kills vocations he said. A final point. The expert brings his gifts for money or to promote dated indeas and agendas. The amateur brings his gifts in pursuit of learninq. The amateur is an enthusiastic learner. He is not ashamed of enthusiasm because the word enthusiasm comes from the Greek words "en theos" meaning "filled with God". When the amateur locks horns with the expert there is no dialogue only a monologue.
