The Left Is Right: Clericalism Is the Problem

p/c Remnant Magazine

The leftists who hijacked the hierarchy since the 1960s (and especially since 2013) state that the main problem in the Catholic Church today is “clericalism.” They condemn anything maintained by traditional Catholics that still delineates between the clerical state and the lay state. For example, they believe even something as innocent as the cassock must be deemed a sign of arrogance and “rigorism.” Like Marxists have always done, their thrust is to blur the lines between Holy Orders and marriage… so as to destroy both sacraments.

But it is precisely the leftists who believe they can replace God’s own revelation of Himself in both dogma and liturgy. Why are traditional Catholics frequently called “schismatic” or “Protestant”? Because they hold to what Catholics in every century (before the last 100 years) have held to. How can the faithful today holding to what Catholics in the 2nd century and 6th century and 13th century and 17th century be called “schismatic”? The answer is simple but shocking: It is because the alleged-hierarchy today does not hold to what Catholics in the 2nd century and 6th century and 13th century and 17th century held in doctrine and liturgy.  Thus, anyone who diverts from them by being true Catholics must be the problem.

As I have said on social media before, “you can’t be a schismatic for rejecting a heretic.” That is not just a zinger. It’s the Magisterium and it’s canon law. Many saints and doctors of the Church like St. Alphonsus, St. Bellarmine and St. Francis De Sales assert that a heretic can hold no office in the Catholic Church. Thus, a true Catholic rejecting obedience to a manifest and obstinate heretic (not an occult heretic) can never be a “schismatic” (at least for that decision.)  Ironically, the left is correct about one thing:  Clericalism is the worst problem in the Church today.  (They just don’t recognize the core of this error is believing a mere man can trump Divine Revelation.)

For example, consider the notion that an alleged-member of the Catholic hierarchy could change the Catholic faith (such as Marriage/Eucharist in Amoris Laetitia or sex contra naturam in Fiducia Supplicans.) It is the same diabolical thrust that Satan had at his fall in putting his angelic-nature ahead of God Himself.  Both Satan’s rebellion against God and the attempt to change dogma on earth are equally Satanic: One purports to put the angelic-nature above God and the other purports to put human-nature above God.

Like Archbishop Viganó, I’m sure St. Michael the Archangel was called “a schismatic” by those “newly” fallen-angels who were following Satan out of heaven due to “obedience.” But those obedient to God will be the only ones who remain with Him forever. This is especially true post-Fatima. Why post-Fatima? Because everyone who has read the Third Secret says it says everything has something to do with the apostasy in the hierarchy.  They were not talking occult heresy (error known only to God) but full and open apostasy, which is public rejection of Christ as the only way to the Father.  Hmmm… where have we seen that lately?

Obedience to an angel or human who itself is disobeying God is the decision to obey a fallen-angel or human who lost his office (or never had it in the first place.) Thus, a true Catholic could never ever be a “schismatic” for refusing to follow an apostate. To choose obedience in following an apostate is to choose hell itself, regardless of how many beings around you tell you it’s the right thing to do.  (And yes, your average blue-collar Catholic can recognize and call-out a heretic even in the alleged hierarchy as I wrote here, quoting numerous saints from the First Millennium of Catholicism.)

Clericalism is reflective of that Luciferian move that places a creature’s doctrine ahead of God’s doctrine.   So, yes, clericalism is truly the problem in the Catholic Church today.  Failure to resist it may cost your soul.  You won’t be able to say “I was being obedient” any more than the angels who followed Lucifer into becoming Satan out of getting the memo wrong in heaven.  (There does seem to be a hierarchy of communication in heaven, so the fallen-angels who originally came from less-glorious choirs may have truly been trusting the higher fallen-angels in the worst decision of their celestial lives.)

Earlier this year, a group of traditional Carmelite nuns in Arlington TX were commanded by Bishop Olson of Fort Worth to “publicly disassociate themselves from Archbishop Viganò and acknowledge Pope Francis to be the Vicar of Christ and Successor of Peter.” They were assigned Mother Marie of the Incarnation, O.C.D., president of the Carmelite Association of Christ the King who later stated “none of the sisters have made any response, either to me or to their bishop.” She also wrote: “Over the past six weeks since they received this offer, the nuns have given no indication that they desire the gift of the sacraments, nor have they shown openness to any dialogue with us,”

I find it fascinating that a diocese would dangle the carrot of the sacraments in front of the Arlington Carmelites as if it were “a gift” and not a right. In fact, even the 1983 Code of Canon Law is clear that the sacraments are a right, not a gift: “Can. 843 §1. Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.”

Of course, some would say the Arlington Carmelites are ill-disposed to the sacraments due to impending “schism” and are approaching disobedience so rapidly that they will be “prohibited by law,” as seen in the above quote from the Code of Canon Law. However, this is where we have to discover false-premises are leading to a canonically-solid-sounding (but false) conclusion, namely, that one can be a schismatic for rejecting a heretic.  (Trusting a rebellious cleric is no better for one’s salvation than trusting a rebellious angel at a higher rank, so blind obedience to a man won’t cut it at your particular judgment.)

But even if you can’t go as far as me on that, most readers of good-will can admit that the Arlington Carmelites simply wanted to live the liturgical life and ascetical life of Carmel through the centuries. I don’t know everything that happened there in the Texan Carmel as I have never been there.  But I suspect part of what they’re being hung on is simply their decision to be traditional.

Ironically, all of modernism and even the Novus Ordo is trying to replace Christ with priests and bishops. That is the true definition of clericalism. Even Pope Benedict XVI (whose daily Mass was the Novus Ordo) admitted that the priest facing the people at Mass was “an unprecedented clericalization,” as he wrote:  “Now the priest—the ‘presider,’ as they now prefer to call him—becomes the real point of reference for the whole liturgy. Everything depends on him. We have to see him, to respond to him, to be involved in what he is doing. His creativity sustains the whole thing…. Less and less is God in the picture. More and more important is what is done by the human beings who meet here and do not want to subject themselves to a ‘pre-determined pattern.’ The turning of the priest toward the people has turned the community into a self-enclosed circle. In its outward form, it no longer opens out on what lies ahead and above, but is closed in on itself.”

In fact, Pope Benedict XVI was in favor of ad orientem worship, for he asserted “a common turning to the East during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of something accidental, but of what is essential. Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. It is not now a question of dialogue, but of common worship, of setting off towards the One who is to come. What corresponds with the reality of what is happening is not the closed circle, but the common movement forward expressed in a common direction for prayer.”

All in all, the diabolical leftist “Catholics” are correct about one thing:  Clericalism is the most severe scourge upon the Catholic Church in the 21st century.  We need to start putting Jesus Christ ahead of the wicked clergy who have rejected not only the Bible, but even the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.  This is why Viganó’s rejection of the current apostate hierarchy can’t be compared to that of Luther:  The former has the Magisterium of the Catholic Church on his side, whereas the latter totally rejected it.  Thus, a mutiny against a mutiny is true obedience to the original Captain of the Ship.  Of course, only the full publication of the Third Secret of Fatima will vindicate a claim as radical as that.  Yes, we Catholics are called to be obedient to a hierarchy—provided it is actually Catholic.