{"id":36121,"date":"2019-03-25T18:07:36","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T00:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=36121"},"modified":"2019-03-26T12:44:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T18:44:48","slug":"the-crisis-behind-the-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-crisis-behind-the-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Crisis Behind the Crisis","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

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To repent is to not just acknowledge that I have done wrong;<\/strong><\/span>
\nit is to turn my back on the wrong and start incarnating the Gospel.<\/strong><\/span>
\nOn this hinges the future of Christianity in the world today<\/em>. <\/strong><\/span>
\nThe world does not believe what Christ taught<\/strong><\/span>
\nbecause we do not incarnate it.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u2014Servant of God Catherine Doherty, from\u00a0Kiss of Christ<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE<\/b> Church’s greatest moral crisis continues to escalate in our times. This has resulted in\u00a0“lay inquisitions” led by Catholic media, calls for sweeping reforms, an overhaul of alert systems, updated procedures, the excommunication of bishops, and so forth. But all of this fails to recognize the real root of the problem and why every “fix” proposed thus far, no matter how backed by righteous indignation and sound reason, fails to deal with the crisis within the crisis<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE HEART OF THE CRISIS<\/p>\n

At the end of the nineteenth century, the popes had begun to sound an alarm that a troublesome world-wide revolution<\/a> was underway, one so insidious, that it seemed to herald the “last times” foretold in Sacred Scripture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

…those dark times seem to have come which were foretold by St. Paul, in which men, blinded by the just judgment of God, should take falsehood for truth, and should believe in \u201cthe prince of this world,\u201d who is a liar and the father thereof, as a teacher of truth: \u201cGod shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying <\/strong>(2 Thess. ii., 10). In the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and the doctrines of devils\u201d<\/strong> (1 Tim. iv., 1). \u2014POPE LEO XIII, Divinum Illud Munus<\/em><\/a>, n. 10<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The most reasonable response at the time was to confirm the immutable truths of the Faith and condemn the heresies of modernism, Marxism, communism, socialism, and so forth. The popes \"\"also began to appeal to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Mother, the Archangel Michael and seemingly the whole host of heaven. By the 1960’s, however, the Moral Tsunami<\/a> seemed unstoppable. The sexual revolution, no-fault divorce, radical feminism, contraception, pornography, and the emergence of mass social communication that fomented it all, were well underway. The Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life lamented that secularized culture had even penetrated deeply into Western religious orders…<\/p>\n

\n

…and yet religious life is supposed to be precisely an alternative to the ‘dominate culture’ instead of reflecting it.<\/strong> \u2014Cardinal Franc Rod\u00e9, Prefect;\u00a0from\u00a0Benedict XVI,\u00a0Light of the World\u00a0<\/i>by Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press); p. 37\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pope Benedict added:<\/p>\n

\n

…the intellectual climate of the 1970s, for which the 1950s had already paved the way, contributed to this. A theory was even finally developed at that time that pedophilia should be viewed as something positive. Above all, however, the thesis was advocated\u2014and this even infiltrated Catholic moral theology\u2014that there was no such thing as something that is bad in itself. There were only things that were \u201crelatively\u201d bad. What was good or bad depended on the consequences.<\/strong> \u2014Ibid. p. 37<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We know the rest of the sad but true story of how moral relativism has all but collapsed the foundations of Western civilization and the credibility of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

It became clear in the 60’s that what the Church was doing, the status quo, was not enough. The threat of Hell, the Sunday obligation, the lofty rubrics, etc.\u2014if they were effective at keeping adherents in the pews\u2014were no longer doing so. It was then that St. Paul VI identified the heart of the crisis: the heart<\/em> itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EVANGELIZATION MUST BECOME OUR MISSION AGAIN<\/p>\n

Paul VI’s landmark Encyclical Letter\u00a0Humanae Vitae<\/a>, <\/em>which addressed the contentious issue of birth control, has become the hallmark of his pontificate. But it was not its\u00a0vision.\u00a0<\/em>That was elucidated several years later in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi<\/em>\u00a0(“Proclaiming the Gospel”). As if lifting layers of soot and dust from an ancient icon, the pontiff transcended centuries of dogma, politics, canons and councils to bring the Church back to her essence and raison d’\u00eatre<\/em>: to proclaim the Gospel and Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of every creature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection.<\/strong> \u2014POPE ST. PAUL VI,\u00a0Evangelii Nuntiandi,\u00a0<\/em>n. 14; vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Moreover, the crisis was a matter of the heart: the Church no longer acted as a believing Church. She had lost her first love<\/a>, so wonderfully lived and proclaimed by the saints, which was to personally<\/em> and without reserve<\/em> give oneself to Jesus\u2014as spouses to one another. This was to become the “program” of seminaries, schools, \"\"
\nand religious institutions: for every Catholic to truly incarnate the Gospel, to make Jesus loved and known, first within, and then without in a world that was “thirsting for authenticity.”[1]<\/sup><\/a>Evangelii Nuntiandi,\u00a0<\/em>n. 76; vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/span>