In a recent article (available in English at Rorate Caeli), Professor Roberto de Mattei set about placing the current ecclesial crisis, in particular as exemplified by Amoris Laetitia, in context relative to other tumultuous periods in the Church’s history.
All in all, it’s a decent article, even though it fails to adequately convey the degree to which the present crisis is entirely unique.
For me, the highlight of the lengthy post is Professor de Mattei’s commentary concerning Cardinal Schönborn’s description of Amoris Laetitia as a “linguistic event.”
The moment I read those words, “linguistic event,” which appear in quotation marks within the text of Schönborn’s presentation as provided on the Holy See website, I made a mental note to research the origins, and more importantly, the meaning of the phrase, as I will attempt to do so here.
According to Professor de Mattei:
This formula is not new: it has already been used by one of Pope Francis’ confreres, the Jesuit, John O’Malley from Georgetown University. In his history of Vatican II, O’Malley defined the Second Vatican Council as a “linguistic event,” a new way to express [things] and which, according to the Jesuit historian, “marked a definitive break with previous Councils.”
So, it connects directly to the Second Vatican Council. Why am I not surprised?
On further investigation, however, it ends up that that the notion of a “linguistic event” vis-à-vis matters of great impact on the Catholic Church runs a bit deeper still; to the French Revolution, for instance.
Again, who can be surprised? The liberal Cardinal Suenens is well known for having declared with glee that “Vatican II is the 1789 [French Revolution] of the Church!”
Dr. Steven Blakemore, Professor of 18th-century British and American Literature, further elaborates on the connection between language and an uprising on behalf of the “rights of man” in his book about the British-Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke, Burke and the Fall of Language: The French Revolution as Linguistic Event, writing:
Readers of Burke are familiar with the sense of desperation and despair which emanates from his writings on the French Revolution … but Burke also sees his “world” threatened by a new linguistic revolution in which old words are torn from their historical context emptied of historical meaning. These words are then with the “new” revolutionary meaning; in Burke’s writings there is a correspondent connection between the new revolution in France and the new revolution in language.
Writing in his magnificent Encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Pope St. Pius X, quoting his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, warned of this tendency on the part of modernists to empty words of their historic meaning, charging them with “perverting the meaning and force of things and words.”
As a result of their efforts, according to the saintly pope, “the way is opened wide for atheism.” (ibid.)
In his first public condemnation of the French Revolution, Edmond Burke also spoke of the practical relationship between the linguistic revolution and atheism, saying of the revolutionaries:
On the side of religion, the danger of their example is no longer from intolerance, but from Atheism; a foul, unnatural vice, foe to all the dignity and consolation of mankind; which seems in France, for a long time, to have been embodied into a faction, accredited, and almost avowed.
Pope Francis, whose public discourse frequently dwells on the rights of man apart from any reference to Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith, is nothing if not the quintessential ambassador of liberty, equality and fraternity – the rally cry of the French Revolution.
He has even been known to accredit those who openly avow the foul, unnatural vice known as Atheism:
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! (Sermon given 22 May 2013)
Amoris Laetitia is by far the boldest revolutionary act carried out by the present pope; it is precisely a “linguistic event” after the examples of the French Revolution and the Second Vatican Council.
That Cardinal Schönborn would so openly describe it as such is breathtaking enough, but for Francis to point to his presentation as the “interpretive key” to the text of Amoris Laetitia bespeaks of an arrogance rivaled only by him who boldly stood before the Almighty to declare, non servium!
Truly, the days in which we are presently living represent a “revolution in language” the likes of which the Church has never experienced!
When the pope himself promulgates an official document that boldly attempts to change the meaning of words like mortal sin, sanctifying grace, adultery, fornication, and marriage, and accuses the Lord Himself of burdening men with impossible demands, and then even goes so far as to suggest that He wills for us to sin, then we are witnessing something far more than just an assault against the historical context and meaning of mere words as humanly conceived; rather, we are in the midst of nothing less than a revolt against the Logos – the Eternal Word of God – at the hands of His very own!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)
No, the darkness of Francis is incapable of overcoming Christ, the Light of the world, but that does not mean that God will not allow him to cast a shadow so dense that the Way, the Truth and the Life is obscured to the point of leading souls to eternal death.
And why does Our Blessed Lord allow such evil?
As unsatisfactory as the answer may be, to bring about a greater good remains about the best that we can say.
In the present case, the revolt against truth that has come to define the disastrous pontificate of Pope Francis represents an opportunity for us to come to His defense, not for the good of Him who knows of no increase, per se, but for the salvation of souls.
This includes not only those members of the sacred hierarchy, the majority of whom have been content to quietly allow the revolution in language to continue unabated, but also those of us who participate, each in his own way, in the effort to defend tradition that is being carried out in this space.
For this we can be thankful. As Fr. Demetrius wrote:
We Christians need not think of the present circumstances as a curse but rather a blessing and an occasion for personal sanctification and whatever else God intends for us and the Church. For as Saint Paul said to the early Christians who were suffering persecution at the hands of corrupt religious leaders and the pagan world powers, “It is through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.”
Amen to that!
Didn’t JP II use revolution language too? He said during Vatican II that in modern time there is no need for the Catholic Church to convert others to the Catholic Faith. And he wrote that by the incarnation of Christ all men are saved (without conversion all it needs is Christ’s incarnation to become man which already took place 2000 years ago)
We need a leader to step forward from among the Traditionalists. I’m exhausted by all the false precepts coming from the modernists. Francis in particular seems to be either a Freemason or has been brainwashed by them. Is there no one to stand before the world and announce the Traditional Catholic Faith together with it’s Doctrines and Dogmas-?1
“There you have it, my dear friends, the great drama which the Church is experiencing today, worse than the attacks of the Moslems in the time of Pope Saint Pius V; worse than Protestantism in the sixteenth century, worse than all heresies and schisms put together.
Today the evil is inside the Church.”
+Lefebvre
“Now what shall we do, we Catholics of the twentieth century, members of the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Shall we lay down our arms? This is the drama of the Church today. They want us to lay down our arms. They want us to enter into a kind of pacifism which is nothing more nor less than cowardice. In the face of Satan, in the face of the enemy, in the face of all those who seek the destruction of the Church, in the face of those who want to crush all Christians, to finish off Our Lord Jesus Christ here below, we are supposed to lay down our weapons. ”
Archbishop Lefebvre
“They (a group of Cardinals in Rome) were bitterly opposed to Tradition. They did not want to hear us speak about it. I believe that they would have strangled me if they could.”
+Lefebvre
“But you will not forget that opposed to the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ there is the reign of Satan. The reign of Satan has never perhaps been more extensive and penetrated everywhere into all domains as it has today. It surrounds us on all sides. What is the reign of Satan? The reign of Satan is the reign of scandal but scandal understood in its true sense understood in the sense of that which leads us to sin and, as a consequence, which leads us to HELL. That is scandal! Scandal is that which leads to sin, that which draws one into sin and indeed the reign of scandal is to be found in this world. Much is scandal around us, much is contrary to the law of God. Henceforth, in society, even the commandments of God are not only ignored but they are publicly and officially attacked. Laws are passed which are contrary to the law of God. All of this is legalized, officialized; the magistrates, the doctors are obliged to do some things which are contrary to the law of God, which are unjust, which are horrible, abominable! All of this in a time when one believes that our civilization has never been as great or as beautiful! On the contrary! This civilization bears the mark of SATAN and it bears the mark of HELL!
You will denounce these scandals in order to prevent them from leading souls to hell. You will not be afraid to denounce all that which drags souls into sin.
In order to have this courage and this force, you will ask these graces particularly of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You know, my dear friends, Mary is our Mediatrix Mother. She is the Mediatrix of all graces.”
Archbishop Lefebvre
Why does Our Blessed Lord allow such evil? Well, He allowed Himself to be arrested, mocked, spat upon, tortured and killed in order to consummate our redemption. Hence I presume He is allowing this spiritual criminal and fraud, this Judas, to similarly despoil the Chair of Peter in order to consummate the glory of His Church – through His Mother. Which is not necessarily comforting in the short term….
Hitler used the power of words to mesmerize a nation. He also brought that nation to ruin. The modernists in the church know this. If it worked for Hitler, it will work for them. Everything coming out of the Novus Ordo establishment in a “linguistic event”. However, they will never defeat Our Lord, the Eternal Word.
Read up on 1920’s Germany.
Yes, and so did Ratzinger.
Is there an evil in the world today that cant be traced back to the Jews? If there is I havent heard of it.
How about Bishop Williamson? Of course we assume the Sedvacantist bishops reject all the teachings of the post Vatican Popes.
Which brings up the serious issue of the study of the three traditional languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Not only does so much of our secular, practical and scientific languages have their roots in these languages, but even more so Christian theological language is deeply rooted in them.
The study of these three languages is not simply an academic exercise.
It’s interesting —- and correct me if I am wrong — that Amoris Laetitia was not even penned in Latin when it was issued.
Alarico–I think you have a point. Latin is a “dead” language which means the definition of words to do not change. ( “gay” used to mean happy, carefree.) It may be difficult to be vague, confusing or misleading when using Latin. Could it be that is why Latin has been abandoned by the Novus Ordo establishmen? How do you accomplish a “linguist event” with a dead language?
“linguistic event” –oops!
These Apostates are well aware of the reason that the Latin vernacular was always used in church documents and they will leave nothing unscathed. We are without a doubt in the thick of it .The remaining , albeit few true believers in the One Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church are without a doubt being give an amazing opportunity to make reparation for our sins and save souls. I expect to see every unthinkable despicable scenario come out of this Papacy and after he has accomplished the visible ( note I said visible) destruction of the One True Faith and after some catastrophic event, then and only then do I think that whatever is left of the heirarchy and whoever is on the seat of Peter, may by the grace of God find their way down to the Vatican cellar where they have hidden the Third Secret of Fatima, take it out , read it and obey The Most Holy Mother Of God. Our Lady Of Fatima, Ora Pro Nobis!
Here is Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, SSPX. Whenever I’ve read anything he’s written I’m struck by how he can go to the heart of the matter. Like Archbishop Lefebvre he’s an honest soul. God must love that in him.
“Rather than read Vatican II in light of Tradition, we really should read and interpret Vatican II in light of the new philosophy. We must read and understand the Council in its real meaning, that is to say, according to the new philosophy. Because all these theologians who produced the texts of Vatican II were imbued with the new philosophy. We must read it this way, not to accept it, but to understand it as the modern theologians who drafted the documents understand it. To read Vatican II in light of Tradition is not to read it correctly. It means to bend, to twist the texts. I do not want to twist the texts.”
Bishop Tissier de Mallerais
How true. How so very true.
my2cents,
it may also mean that human nature does not fundamentally, or, to sound more Thomistic, essentially change, without reference here to the marks of supernatural grace in Christ that creates the “new man”.
I wonder about Theologians like Romano Guardini with their reference to a “modern world” and to a “modern man”, as though both were essentially different from their predecessors or precursors.
I’ve been giving this situation a lot of thought.
Satan used this same type of twisted language on Eve, and he won’t likely stop using it on other humans until his head is completely crushed by Our Lady’s heel.
In the meantime, we Catholics are expected to keep fighting him, living in hope, praying for the conversion of sinners, and telling the Truth- as long as there is even one soul yet to be saved, or one brother or sister in Christ to be encouraged in the Faith.
We won’t be as effective in doing all that, if we let ourselves be led by Satan to get hateful or too bitter to pray well, or wallow in depression or resentment of God’s “seeming” inaction in these times, because then we’re really letting ourselves think we’re un-deserving of the sufferings undergone by our sinless Master. The One we’re supposed to imitate.
Jesus, St. John’s Gospel tells us, was rejected even by “His own” people, but went on to make children of God out of as many as would accept Him- and Baptism into His Church. Even while on the cross, he took the time to help encourage the repentant thief next to him, while the guy on the other side continued to mock Him.
I sometimes get physically nauseated by the pride and presumption around us -especially when I see clergy rejecting the need of repentance from grave sin, or claiming eternity in Hell is an “old wives tales” still being passed on by people who don’t really understand the “depth” of the Mercy of God.
That’s when I’ve now learned to go and take some time to pray and read some Scripture. (Sometimes 5 minutes is all I can manage) It really helps me see that God gave us His word to counteract all the devil’s pernicious lies. Here are just two I read today, from Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, that really cover this whole mess:
“The beginning of all Wisdom is fear of the Lord.”
“The Word of God on high is the fountain of Wisdom,- her ways are everlasting Commandments. ”
I hope this helps anyone like me, who tends at times to get overwhelmed by all this stuff.
God Bless you, Mr. V. and all your readers
And, “Let Justice be your sacrifice, and trust in the Lord.”
“First of all they (the Modernists) lay down the general principle that in a living religion everything is subject to change, and must in fact be changed. In this way they pass to what is practically their principal doctrine, namely, evolution. To the laws of evolution everything is subject under penalty of death–dogma, Church, worship, the Books we revere as sacred, even faith itself.”
Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Encyclical on the Doctrine of the Modernists
His Holiness Pope Pius X
September 8, 1907
28. It is thus, Venerable Brethren, that for the Modernists, whether as authors or propagandists, there is to be nothing stable, nothing immutable in the Church. Nor, indeed, are they without forerunners in their doctrines, for it was of these that Our predecessor Pius IX wrote: “These enemies of divine revelation extol human progress to the skies, and with rash and sacrilegious daring would have it introduced into the Catholic religion as if this religion were not the work of God but of man, or some kind of philosophical discovery susceptible of perfection by human efforts.”[14] On the subject of revelation and dogma in particular, the doctrine of the Modernists offers nothing new. We find it condemned in the Syllabus of Pius IX, where it is enunciated in these terms: “Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to continual and indefinite progress, corresponding with the progress of human reason”
3. Although they express their astonishment that We should number them amongst the enemies of the Church, no one will be reasonably surprised that We should do so, if, leaving out of account the internal disposition of the soul, of which God alone is the Judge, he considers their tenets, their manner of speech, and their action. Nor indeed would he be wrong in regarding them as the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For, as We have said, they put into operation their designs for her undoing, not from without but from within. Hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain from the very fact that their knowledge of her is more intimate. Moreover, they lay the ax not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fibers. And once having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to diffuse poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth which they leave untouched, none that they do not strive to corrupt.
13. Dogma is not only able, but ought to evolve and to be changed. This is strongly affirmed by the Modernists, and clearly flows from their principles. For among the chief points of their teaching is the following, which they deduce from the principle of vital immanence, namely, that religious formulas if they are to be really religious and not merely intellectual speculations, ought to be living and to live the life of the religious sense.
“Dogma is born of a sort of impulse or necessity by virtue of which the believer elaborates his thought so as to render it clearer to his own conscience and that of others. ”
“for the Modernists, whether as authors or propagandists, there is to be nothing stable, nothing immutable in the Church.”
“it is abundantly clear how great and how eager is the passion of such men for innovation. In all Catholicism there is absolutely nothing on which it does not fasten.”
“no dogmas are to be inserted except those that have been reformed and are within the capacity of the people.”
“and there are some who, gladly listening to the teaching of their Protestant masters, would desire the suppression of the celibacy of the clergy.”
” Such is the opinion of Our predecessor, Gregory XVI, who wrote: “A lamentable spectacle is that presented by the aberrations of human reason when it yields to the spirit of novelty, when against the warning of the Apostle it seeks to know beyond what it is meant to know, and when relying too much on itself it thinks it can find the truth outside the Catholic Church wherein truth is found without the slightest shadow of error.”[21] from Gregory XVI, encyclical of June 25, 1834, Singulari Nos.
all above quotes are from
Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Encyclical on the Doctrine of the Modernists
His Holiness Pope Pius X
September 8, 1907
Ahh ….. Fresh air. Thank you.
You are most welcome, – thank God for sending us a Saint – a warrior Pope who told us exactly who the enemies are, how they operate, and how to identify them.
Perhaps Team B sees Amoris Laetitia as a “linguistic event” because, as bishop after bishop has proclaimed (and as we on the ground know), it is merely cataloging what is already happening–even forced sex education in Catholic schools. The so-called defense of Christ and/or Tradition that is being carried out [DOA] in this space is linguistic as well. Seriously, if none of you (scribes, Pharisees & mob) protest the deeds, why should anyone bother about your reaction to the words? All those here who think they are being persecuted (while Christians are being murdered in the Middle East, babies in the womb (3,000+ a day in the U.S.), and the elderly and sick in the nursing homes and hospitals) might consider that another reason God permits evil to happen is so that the sheep (good) can distinguish themselves from the goats (bad). Hopefully, God will be able to tell the difference between you and Fran and his priests by your ACTS. If Fran and his priests spread evil, why do you congregate with them? John the Baptist spent his entire life in the desert wearing skins and eating bugs when he was an hereditary member of the Jewish priesthood—and I don’t remember him whining about being persecuted or begging for bucks (he was a holy man, ‘rich,’ and he fed the flock when it came to him in the desert so that they wouldn’t faint in the way even though he had no money (same w/Peter & John)). It was by following him that the disciples found Jesus. The scribes, Pharisees (who only wanted John’s baptism/the OUTWARD show) and mob, on the other hand, who stuck w/the corrupt priests (and Herodians (politicians)) and magnificent Temple buildings/Abraham (their heritage vs the reality) ended up murdering Jesus.
“And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.”
Sirach 6:24-30 Put your feet into her chains, and your neck into her collar. Put your shoulder under her and carry her, and do not fret under her bonds. Come to her with all your soul, and keep her ways with all your might. Search out and seek, and she will become known to you; and when you get hold of her, do not let her go. For at last you will find the rest she gives, and she will be changed into joy for you. Then her chains will become for you a strong protection, and her collar a glorious robe, and put her on like a crown of gladness.
Baruch 3:14 Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding: that thou may know also where is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace.
Sirach 21:21 As a house that is destroyed, so is wisdom to a fool : and the knowledge of the unwise is as words without sense.
Wisdom of Solomon 6:12 Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart.
Proverbs 9:7 -10
He who corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will still be wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Matthew 7:6
Do not give to dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
“linguistic event” = lie
http://i68.tinypic.com/211l1qb.jpg
Thanks for the quote from Bishop Tissier de Mallerais.