Thursday, April 17, 2008
THE NEW SPIRITUAL SOLIDARITY
In a speech made public last Saturday, Benedict called for a “new humanism” that includes moral and spiritual development, to combat the spread of warfare." He further added:
Certainly, joint action on a political, economic and juridical level is needed but, even before that, it is necessary to reflect together on a moral and spiritual level. What is ever more vital is to promote a 'new humanism'.
Those are the words of Freemasonry, but they are coming from a Roman Catholic pope's mouth. Have the Masons gotten it right all along, and now the Catholics are going to catch up? It almost sounds like a call for some sort of universal spirituality that can be used to interrupt recourse to violence. According to the Catholic News Agency Benedict explained further:
"True and lasting peace is unimaginable without the development of each person and of all peoples," Pope Benedict asserted. Yet, is it inconceivable “to think of reducing arms if first we do not eliminate violence at its roots, if man does not first turn decisively to searching for peace and for what is good and just"....
"The future of humanity depends upon a commitment on everyone's part. Only by pursuing an integrated humanism of solidarity, in which disarmament assumes an ethical and spiritual dimension, can humanity progress towards the true and lasting peace for which it longs,” the Pope concluded.
This Catholic openness to a new spirituality was represented recently at Emergent Church Leaders' InterSpirituality Talks by Sr. Joan Chittister.
The participation of emergent church leaders in an interfaith dialogue raised flags for some conservative Christians who have been concerned over a growing cooperation of emergent church leaders with New Spirituality/New Age leaders.
Prior to Tuesday's InterSpirituality Day panel discussions, hosted by Seeds of Compassion, Christian talk show host Ingrid Schlueter of Crosstalk Radio warned the public that emergent leaders Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church and Doug Pagitt of Solomon's Porch would promote universalism.
The panel included various Christian leaders, a Muslim scholar, a Sikh, and the Dalai Lama, among others, who spoke on compassion and spirituality....
"We say we are created by one god. We say we are all the human family. That makes us interdependent. That is the basis of compassion because it is the basis of the morality of the world," said Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Catholic nun.
"The morality of the world"...who is the Prince of this World? Is a morality without God even a possibility? Can man construct his own moral system without recourse to his Creator? What would it be grounded on--public opinion? Majority rule? The high-minded ideals of Pope Benedict and Sr. Joan sound nice until we get down to specifics.
Sr. Joan is thought to be on the far left, yet she is promoting ideas that are so similar to those being proposed by Benedict. How can this be possible? How can it be reconciled with Catholic Tradition?
Together they seem to be undoing 2000 years of an established religion and proposing a morphing of that religion into something alien. Yet war in a nuclear age is not a viable alternative. To make matters worse, this is coming at the very time when many Catholics are so disillusioned by the sexual abuse scandal that they are walking out. There is a noticeable reduction in warm bodies in the pews at the parish where I'm registered.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Those who are walking away are going to walk toward something, and Benedict would seem to be offering some sort of syncretistic alternative to Roman Catholicism for those who don't wish to be Roman Catholic. As I try to sort out the implications of these two articles, my head starts to spin. I can't pin down a Catholic philosophy to live with. The pins insist on popping out. The spirituality Benedict seems to be speaking of is fluid. It accommodates, changing and shifting. The center doesn't hold. It is possible to reshape it to fit the circumstances.
When Benedict speaks to the world, he blurs the distinctions that are the ground of faith on which we build our lives. When he speaks just to Catholics he uses familiar words of doctrine. Is it possible to hold both concepts in tandem? Is it possible to be both a Roman Catholic and a universalist? Is that where he is going with this developing spirituality? Is Benedict encouraging us to move from "either/or" to "both/and"?
"Both/and" is what occultist Rene Guenon lived by. Pick your tradition and live it. Recognize that others are going to do the same. The idea was rejected during Guenon's lifetime. Is it becoming the new Catholic spirituality? If it is, the lodge has become us; and as with the lodge, evangelization will have to become anathema.
As I think about these things, the prophecy of St. Malachi continually interrupts my thoughts. If St. Malachi was correct--and there is no guarantee that he was--Benedict is the last pope. He is 80. That would mean that either we would live in a world without Roman Catholicism, or Christ is about to return. Either would fit the prophecy which does not have Church approval in any case, and so its only purpose, if it is a true prophecy, could be fulfilled only in retrospect.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!!
