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STORAGE AND PROGRESS

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To resolve the current intra-ecclesial conflict between modernists and Lefebvre have to give each other these two essential factors of the ecclesial dynamism: preservation and progress.

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Author
Giovanni Cavalcoli, o.p.

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Rereading some texts of the morning meditations the Holy Father in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Martha, the 31 October 2017 - as reported the columnist de The Osservatore Romano the 1 next November -, Pope asks, against the other: The Christians' really believe in the Holy Spirit "that is in them? And have the courage to "sow the seeds", to get involved, or take refuge in a "pastoral conservation ', that does not leave that "the Kingdom of God will grow"? And he answers: "So many times we see that you prefer a pastoral preservation" rather than "let the United grow".

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We would like some comments. It must be distinguished from conservation conservatism. Keep diligently and, jealously and the sacred deposit of divine Revelation, no compromises, without adding and without taking [cf Gal 3,15; AP 22,19] and be faithful to the cost of living is the absolute duty of every Catholic, in the first place the bishops and the Pope.

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conservatism, instead, which probably alludes to the Pope, It is a foolish and useless conservation. It is the store that is no longer needed, It is the cling or nearsightedness or laziness or fear or interest in ideas, costumes, mores, habits, traditions outdated or abandoned by the Church, is the exchange just progress for modernism, get stuck on a historic day phase of the Church's journey towards the Kingdom, is close the eye of the fields are already white for harvest " [GV 4,35]; is close ear to the voice of the Spirit, who "renews the face of the earth", that "renew our minds" [RM 12,2] and day by day renews our inner man [cf. II Cor 4,16]. The Holy Spirit urges the Church to ensure progress, but in the sense indicated by these words of the Lord, He serves to remind us [GV 14,26]and then encourage us to make money.

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Granted - I want to believe - the Pope to speak of conservatism and not of legitimate conservation, does not seem to correspond to truth, It seems like Pope Francis wants to insinuate, that there is a wide spread of conservatism, that nevertheless exists in Lefebvrians; but what now afflicts more and disturbs the Church have a much wider spread of modernism or a false progress and or a false interpretation of the renewal promoted by the Council. And these evils the Pope never speaks, all it is taken from exaggerated and biased polemic against traditionalism, which he is likely to make a bundle of all herbs, Also blaming that healthy conservatism that, along with a healthy conservation, are essential factors of the structure and progress of the Church.

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If Francis wants to be a reformer of the Holy See So begin with the ward or false stop those employees who are infected with Modernism and rahnerismo, and take very loyal employees and loyal to the papal Magisterium and enemies not only of lefebvrismo, but also of modernism, both open while the good sides of one and the other.

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However, there is a certain stubborn, short-sighted and presumptuous conservatism that, under the pretext of fidelity to Sacred Tradition, accused the Popes after the Council to disown, and he would like to return to the doctrinal climate and pre-conciliar pastoral, as if Vatican II did not take place, forgetting that, When a council makes a doctrinal progress, as is almost always the case, the church, more enlightened by the Gospel and overcome certain mistakes, On the infallibility of his doctrine, never comes back, while it may happen that a new Council corrects a defective pastoral practice initiated by a preceding Council, or restore or recover certain pastoral practices abandoned by that Council, because of this plan, for the changing historical contingencies or the fallibility of the churchmen themselves, it may mutate or wrong and therefore can be corrected, after experiencing the adverse effects caused by the error.

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Thus the Council, going to meet a need of the time in which it was celebrated, He insists on the pastoral renewal and gives about many directives, that touch all aspects of church life. But after fifty years of application of these directives, many observers and impartial pastors and lovers of the Church we have conducted for years now to make clear the fact that the pastoral reconcile, for some aspects, It needs a course correction, that perhaps only a new council or a great reformer Pope will implement.

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This in no way means that we should go back in toto to the pre-council pastoral, it means keeping the pastoral achievements of the post-council - for example a healthy ecumenism and interreligious dialogue -, purifying them from certain buonistici excesses and too optimistic towards the modern world, so that today, for lack of vigilance of the bishops, we see an impressive return of modernism, much worse and more insidious than that of St. Pius X times, even because, while this had taken root only in the lower clergy and among theologians and exegetes, that infects the same body Bishops especially in Smart thin to form the rahnerismo.

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All good Catholics, faithful and shepherds, You have now realized this enormous scam, except, I wonder why, the same modernist, which either fall from the clouds, or pretend they do not know or are deaf to appeals and warnings or contemptuously ignore the charges against them or reject them or disdained, poor slandered victims, from superfine hypocrites, persecute the courageous few who discover their plots.

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The great pastoral problem today, It is no longer what it was imposed fifty years ago, as he commanded the Council, to abandon a pastoral too conservative, anachronistic, static, repetitive, too defensive, suspicious, fearful, suspicious and aggressive towards the modern world, indeed poorly known and sometimes misunderstood, for a renewed approach to benign modernity, open, fair, healthily critical, certainly prudent as the serpent, but also simple as the dove, knowing that the world reserves pitfalls, but also that the world created by God offers several values ​​to be recognized, to save, and to lead to Christ.

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On the path of renewal, of becoming, of change, the rejuvenation, development and progress has insisted, and it has gone very far in the past fifty years, and certainly true progress never end; but it has not always advanced in the right way, and more than advance, in many cases, You are deflected or one has strayed from the right path and fidelity to the real teachings of the Council; There is not always a moved with the necessary resourcefulness, moderation, caution and wisdom, in obedience to the guide of the Pontiffs or the doctrine of Catechism of the Catholic Church, indeed often falling into modernism Network, which it is a misleading approach to modernity, in which it is necessary to distinguish the wheat from the chaff, and instead the modernists have confused with one another.

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What then today we must above all do to promote healthy, effective and balanced ministry, It suits this need of the hour, different and in some respects opposed to the historical situation, he had to face and solve the council, It is not so reproach conservatism, although then it may still exist, but it is that the Pope decides, finally, with boldness and courage, heedless of any quacking of modernists, to denounce the rampant modernism, far more dangerous and harmful than lefebvrismo or conservatism, considering the extensive damage that modernism has done in recent 50 year old. and he is making, under the pretext of conciliar renewal, in the Church and in society. And here I note that since 1966 Maritain denounced the danger of modernism. It is not that Maritain was precisely a conservative. We should not insist unilaterally on developing leaving quietly preserving the deposit of faith. It is the opposite that needs to be done, after fifty years of progressive rhetoric, who ended up degenerating into partisan polemics against modernism and preservation.

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The real future of the Church and of humanity

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It must plant it once and for all with a relativism and historicism of Hegel's origin, reported several times by Pope Benedict XVI in the wake of the conviction modernist evolutionism made by St. Pius X. Becoming supposed to be. Its only makes sense in relation to the Absolute, and the story has an end only in the Lord report. Instead, we must find the principles and the absolute values ​​of reason and faith, now largely forgotten, neglected, misunderstood, incompression, e skin disprezzat, among the very people who should keep them and insegnarceli, including bishops. Values ​​that instead have always been taught and always will be taught for the salvation of mankind, by sound philosophy, as rational, and from the Church, as values ​​of faith. We must know for sure what these values ​​of reason and of faith, We need to know why are these and not others, It is necessary to distinguish them from the subjective views and deciduous. We must distinguish dogmatism and fundamentalism by the certainty of faith and rational certainty.

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We should be able to distinguish the immutable values, immortal and incorruptible from those that mutate and become corrupt. Necessary to distinguish the immutable truth and supra-temporal and temporal those mutable, what is true today, it is true always and will always be true - philosophical truths, moral theological - what is true today and will be tomorrow under certain conditions or historical or legal institutions or political or ecclesial realities.

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It is with reason and faith that we know what is right and what is faith. At this point we do not underfoot quicksand, but the rock on which to build the house, the firm ground on which to rest and walk. We know what are the values ​​that will never fail. We know what is the meaning of existence and of life. We know who we are, where we come from and where we can, we want and need to go. We know that God exists. We know who to trust. We know why the good and evil. We know that there is no middle way between yes and no. We know our vocation and our duty. We see our eternal destiny and we can pursue it with hope, perseverance and courage, knowing they will not be disappointed. We know that we can do it. We know what are the values ​​and goods, for which it is worth sacrificing our lives, we know what are the values ​​on which we can not give in, even at the cost of living. We know what is martyrdom. We know we can sell everything, negotiate on everything, fiddling around, outside of our soul. So we buy all. We know it is impossible to salvation without these values, so these are the values ​​that guarantee the salvation. If we abandon delivery that was given to us by Christ, considering it outdated or aged or no longer valid or no longer relevant, for future invented by us in the idea that it is the Holy Spirit, we are not innovators, we make no real progress, but we are traitors, deserters and faithless; we are no longer under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Demon ma.

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Instead it is necessary that we always keep before the eyes del'intelletto and heart the values ​​and the absolute property, perennial and unchanging, God's Word does not pass - The word of God remains forever - that illuminates our path, It shows us our duties, us to experience the divine law, inflames the heart, It pushes us to holiness - the love of Christ compels us —, correcting our mistakes, forgives our sins, It leads to real progress, founded on divine truth always known better in the same sense and the same meaning.

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The appeal to "tradition" to know what is faith and what is not, in itself is not enough, and it is even illegal and wicked, if you claim to appeal directly and subjectively to Tradition, to contest or contradict or "fix" the doctrinal teaching of a Pope or a Council, as they often are the guardians and interpreters supreme and definitive Tradition.

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The error then worsens, whether between the content of Tradition does not discern which ones are truly permanent, inviolable and insuperable, and which it is old and outdated content. Tradition is not a matter of time duration, but the intrinsic value of truth, over the time, the content of the Tradition. We must be able to distinguish in the Tradition that is related to time and historical contingencies passing, what belongs essentially the Eternal and the Absolute, ie the institutional will of Christ ("Divine right") - for example the sacraments - which can never be, It never will be changed or abandoned by the Church.

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Thus it is not sufficient in every case to say: "gives 2000 years' - provided that you know for certain - "has always been thought or done so", because instead it is said that we should continue to do so forever. There is a past that is now past dead and buried. It would make sense to remove a corpse from the grave like the restoration of the values ​​of the past. What is rightly passed, it is good that remains of the past, otherwise it would be like trying to bring back those "things past" [II Cor 5,19], of which St. Paul speaks. Better still an ancient truth that a new error.

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There are indeed compared to Tradition firsts, never before existed. If, however, the Church establishes new things unknown to the previous Tradition, such as women's ministries or The new order of Mass, this is not a break with Tradition, but simply it means that those things were contained implicitly in Tradition.

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These are the lines of true "breakthrough prophetic", the real reform we expect of Pope Francis. Of course he should not listen to extollers time acti, and it does well to arguirli, but above all do not listen to flatterers and false friends, but those who really loves, who urges him to join teaching and pastoral, conservation and development, continuity and progress, loyalty and inventiveness, even if the true friend can have the tone of the warning or reprimand. The "revolution" populist, reckless and low-priced to let dittatorelli ambitious, bellied and demagogues Africa and Latin America, without lowering its sacred dignity of Vicar of Christ.

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If the Pope wants to be father of the poor, as it is clear from its intentions, imitate his Lord Jesus Christ and the countless Holy Fathers of the poor and let stand the Don Lorenzo Milani, i Fidel Castro Helder Câmara gli. The oppressed are not only immigrants. We invite the Holy Father to exercise his mercy with the crushed by the modernists, do not have too much confidence with the modernist oppressors.

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It is true that the lefevriani also speak of "modernists", but they distort the meaning of the concept, when they accuse of "modernism" the Papacy post-conciliar and doctrines of the Council, confuse progress with modernism or Maritain with Rahner or confuse Mass new world order Dinner with Lutheran. Continues below the journalist: "Reality, indeed, It is that "wheat" - words of the Pope - "has the power within, the yeast has the power inside ", and also "the power of the Kingdom of God comes from within; the strength comes from within, the growth comes from within ' ".

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There is no doubt about the truth of what the Pope says here. Only the Gospel image of the wheat grain is not the only image that Christ offers to His Word. No doubt it throughout history, always comes better known by the Church in the same sense and the same meaning, as St. Vincent of Lerins, with the development of the Church's dogmatic.

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To clarify the issue of the conservative function of pastoral and avoid the conservatism, necessary to refer to statements or comparisons of Christ, in which emerges the durability, stability, the immutabilità, incorruptibility, eternity of God's Word, like when, for instance, it is compared to a. "treasure" [cf. ], to a "precious pearl" [cf. ], a "drachma" [cf. ] or a "rock" [cf. ]. It is a word that "does not pass" [cf. ]. It is a word of "eternal life" [cf. ]. The precious things are carefully preserved and jealously. It is a principle of good sense, that everyone understands. And how much more so it must be kept intact and undamaged, at any cost, without change, without corrections, without adding and without taking, although with continuous explanations, the divine message of salvation, who assures us and promises us eternal life.

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Of course, the Gospel message is not like a perishable food, which is corrupt, if it is not well guarded and preserved. In fact, it is not afraid of the wear of time or corrosive agents. It is made of corruptible matter, but it is pure immortal spirit. It is a treasure that, though well guarded, "the thief can not steal and moths can not break '. Who can be corrupted is the possessor, who is unfaithful, negligent and neglected in the store and keep it, and then he can lose. Here apostasy. It can conceive evil and can travisarlo. That's heresy. It can hurt administer. Here human respect, sloth and negligence of the pastors.

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He continues the columnist: "Similarly, said Francis, "If we want to preserve for us the grain, It will be only a grain. If we do not mix with life, with flour of life, the yeast, It will remain only the yeast "". Here the Pope touches an aspect of conservatism. He obviously does not deny that needs store grain: otherwise, if you come to donate? We give what we have carefully preserved. Ma, If values ​​are to be donated, and this is precisely the case of God's Word, although it must donate. They are the very words of Jesus: "If the grain of wheat does not die, it remains only; but if it dies, it produces much fruit » [LC 12,24].

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How to tune preservation and progress

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It can advance the living being that has its own stable identity. In fact the real progress is to improve the conditions of the subject. The course assumes that the preservation of the subject. It is true that life is movement, it is becoming, it is changing. But why is life indeed be development or explanation in the right direction of the existing entity. The progress of the movement must be healthy, that is orderly and well-guided and non-pathological, disorganized or incoherent. Even a madman is full of movement, but no one envies his condition.

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The subject that divides or changes by denying their identity namely by ceasing to keep himself, start a movement that does not involve progress, but dissolution or disintegration. It is the process that leads to death. It is true that the dead no longer exercises the vital activities. However, the stiffness of death does not exclude at all in becoming a corpse which is its dissolution. So the sheer becoming, the simple change or mutate is not a good in itself. All becoming has a direction.

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Not to be trusted to a becoming confused and contradictory. To test whether this is progress, not corruption, We have to see where tents. If it tends to better progress; it tends to worse setback. It should be short, it is becoming, the development or enhancement or improvement of a subject who is supposed to be maintained in its own identity. Otherwise, becoming is not life, my dead, it is not progress, but retrogression, not evolution but involution, but no progress relegation, not decay.

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The concern to preserve their healthy alleged identity, It is a very legitimate concern and dutiful, that has nothing to do with conservatism do not know what "closing another". It lacks in masochists subjects and d It corresponds to what in the animal kingdom is self-preservation, without which that animal would soon be destroyed by adverse agents.

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It is necessary that the Pope, which supreme guardian, advocate, guarantor and moderator, concord and peace in the Church, to assume its responsibilities. It must ask yourself in the position it deserves fair trial, centering on the universal principles of the Church, so that both sides conflict - lefevriani and modernists - can recognize themselves as Catholic.

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It should be, secondly, that recognizes the part of truth and justice - mentioned in this article -, present and carried forward by both parties. The two sides, side by side relationship, fit perfectly, as the two halves of a sphere broken, because God created them just because, unite, do one thing, which it is the same reality of the Church.

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The Pope must make every effort so that the two sides meet each other and approached, overcoming old grudges, ODĪ. and mistrust. It must abandon its current propensity for modernists, otherwise it can not be expected to elicit the confidence of Lefebvre and the modernists remain confirmed in their errors and take on an arrogant attitude, which will not lead to any result. The Pope must make sure that Lefebvre feel understood and appreciated in their good reasons, What the Pope has so far not done, indeed falling into contempt and nell'insulto. They, But, from them, They must strive to accommodate confidently all the doctrines of the Council, as he urged them repeatedly Pope Benedict XVI and, consequently, the following papal teaching until Papa Francesco.

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As for the modernists, the Pope must follow the same method applied to Lefebvre: recognize the good sides and correct defects. Good side of the modernists, that has escaped the Lefebvrians, who misunderstood, is the attention to modern thinking and a willingness to modernization and progress of the Church. But if the Church is relatively easy to correct the errors of Lefebvre, after all few in number and fairly compact, a fact of doctrines and morals, gigantic undertaking, and above the forces of the Church it appears the work of correction of errors of the modernists, and because they are scattered throughout the Church, among pastors and the faithful, and because mistakes are very varied and touch on all the dogmas of the faith. Wanting to make a comparison drawn from garbage, cleaning up the Lefebvrian camp is about cleaning up the modernist camp, as well as to clean up in a Swiss city is to treat the Naples garbage.

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However, a point of agreement between the Pope, Lefebvre and the modernists you might find around the problem Rahner. Indeed, while the modernists consider Rahner their greatest theologian, Lefebvre have sharply Rahner identified in the greatest danger for the Church today. At this point the Pope - it's about time - should decide with courage, come what may, to condemn the errors Rahner, giving a just satisfaction to Lefebvre and to all lovers of truth and of the Church. However, things are not so simple, because really Rahner gave a contribution to the doctrines of the Council. It is at this point that Lefebvre pass from the wrong and so must the Pope correct them, because they consider it as a modernist's contribution to the Council rahneriano. From here their rejection of such doctrines regarded as moderniste, which is false, because Lefebvre interpret those doctrines of modernism in the sense rahneriano; and instead there Rahner gave a positive contribution, otherwise it would not have been approved by Council. If the Pope will be able to show to Lefebvre and the modernists the points on which they meet each other and if one more he will accept the papal corrections, Peace will be made.

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The Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary sustain the Pope in its leadership in the Church's mission in the truth, in the unit, in holiness, in a healthy pluralism and harmony, in a renewed evangelization, that enlarges the boundaries of the visible Church, vinca forces hostile to it, religions convert to Christ, reacquaint the separated brethren to the Holy Mother Church, showing the world the face of just God vindicates the humble, merciful comforter of the afflicted, liberator of the oppressed, conqueror of sin and death.

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Varazze, 14 September 2018

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