Where is the real teaching of our church?

Are we living in a Church that is upside down and turned inside out?

First of all, we must look into the meaning of this as it pertains to the very Church we grew up in.  The term upside down refers to an alternate dimension that mirrors the object of concern and opens up a different view of the inner workings of that entity.   With that in mind, the vision we now have is not especially like the one we once knew.  It is like shaking a bushel filled with all the essential elements we learned and held trust with is filled with confusing attributes that can become foreign to our intellect.

Add to this another term that fits well with upside down is inside out.  Both reflect the internal make-up of any particular existing item or institution.  Put together as in the opening and we have an organization that no longer may have the identity of our precious temple of worship.

A preacher who uses the internet either praising the Church or making clear the many obstacles that are becoming warnings to the Catholic followers.  Dr.Taylor Marshall has produced one of these incidents on an evening production showing the Holy Father including as a member of a particular panel a female atheist and a pro-abortion advocate.  Why Would  the holy Father do such a radical thing?

Then I remembered some time back I wrote an article titled “A Schismatic Church in 2018?”  I mentioned the Chinese Communist Regime and the Cathoic Underground Church wherein two Roman Catholic Prelates had been removed by the Vatican and replaced with new bishops from that county’s self-appointed government and approved by Rome as leaders of the Catholic Church in China.  Cardinal Zen’s abrupt removal by Rome and his meeting with Pope Francis became a deep concern by all Catholics the world over.  Where now is the solidity of the Catholic Church and its adherence to the teaching of Jesus Christ and the tradition of 2,000 years?  

Whatever Rome and the Pope were trying to keep the Cathoilc Church active in China going this way by the country now placing clergy as their own choosing has become a slap in the face of the Church and it is doubtful the dictates of the Catechism will be followed since the right to all life certainly is not adhered to by China.  It is a hard pill for the faithful to swallow, but here we see a Schism entrenched within and because of a hands-off attitude from the Church it can not improve.  

Some comments I made in the article were; (1) The problem is not with the resignation of the legitimate bishops, but the request to make place for the illegitimate and even excommunicated ones.  (2) Some say that all the efforts to reach agreement is to avoid the ecclesial schism.  How ridiculous !  The schism is there, in the independent Church!  The popes avoided using the word schism because they knew that many in the official Catholic community were there not by their own free will, but under heavy pressure.  The proposed unification would force everybody into that community,  The Vatican Would be giving the blessing on the new strengthened schismatic Church.  (3) Can you imagine an agreement between St, Joseph and King Herod?  (4) Regarding attempts to bridge the long divide between the Vatican and the Chinese government, can there be anything really mutual with a totalitarian regime?

What is next on the inside of the Church that has yet to be turned upside down so as to see what is festering there and inside out and shaken for all to pick through the pieces?

Ralph B. Hathaway