Saturday, September 23, 2017

With profound grief... A filial correction.

St Catherine of Siena before Pope Gregory XI
Update: to add your name (the public list will be moderated, i.e. we are looking especially for signatories with academic qualifications etc.) please email

info@correctiofilialis.org

or go to Change.org to support the petition.

With profound grief, but moved by fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ, by love for the Church and for the papacy, and by filial devotion toward yourself, we are compelled to address a correction to Your Holiness on account of the propagation of heresies effected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions of Your Holiness.

We are permitted to issue this correction by natural law, by the law of Christ, and by the law of the Church, which three things Your Holiness has been appointed by divine providence to guard.

By natural law: for as subjects have by nature a duty to obey their superiors in all lawful things, so they have a right to be governed according to law, and therefore to insist, where need be, that their superiors so govern. 


By the law of Christ: for His Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to rebuke Peter in public when the latter did not act according to the truth of the gospel (Gal. 2). St Thomas Aquinas notes that this public rebuke from a subject to a superior was licit on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning the faith (Summa Theologiae 2a 2ae, 33, 4 ad 2), and ‘the gloss of St Augustine’ adds that on this occasion, “Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects” (ibid.). 

The law of the Church also constrains us, since it states that “Christ’s faithful . . . have the right, indeed at times the duty, in keeping with their knowledge, competence, and position, to manifest to the sacred pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church” (Code of Canon Law 212:2-3; Code of Canons of Oriental Churches 15:3).

I am a signatory of the document which begins with these words, and also its spokesman. You can read the full text on Rorate Caeli, and on a specially made website, http://correctiofilialis.org/ [corrected]. See also 1Peter5's commentary.

The document is signed by 62 people, Catholic academics and pastors, from 20 countries. It expresses, in technical theological language, the concern that, while Amoris laetitia itself may be open to an interpretation in line with the previous teaching of the Church, various informal indications, which appear to be favoured by Pope Francis himself, point to an interpretation not in line with that teaching.

Either the new view is wrong, or the old one is. There has in fact been no attempt to promulgate the new view magisterially - that is from the Holy Father himself, clearly, and in an authoritative format, such as a formal document - since Amoris laetitia itself. It would seem, in any case, that such an attempt could not be successful, in the sense of creating an obligation on Catholics to assent to this new view, because the old view expressed the Ordinary Magisterium, based on Scripture, and this teaching cannot be changed. In short, it seems to me that the new view which has been suggested and insinuated is incompatible with the Faith.

That does not mean that the Pope is a heretic. There is a wide gap between appearing to favour a view which is objectively contrary to the faith, and being a heretic, one part of which is the knowledge and intentions of the person concerned, and another part of which is the judgement of that person by a competent superior. We cannot ascertain the former, and as for the latter, in the law of the Church, the Pope has no superior. Judgment of the Pope's culpability or personal state has absolutely no place in this project.

What we can do, and are doing, is simply pointing out that the view being insinuated is not the Catholic faith, as we are able to understand it. In such a case, where the stakes are so high, it seems to us an obligation to discharge our consciences to the Holy Father himself, privately, as we did a month and more ago. And then, in the absence of a response, to manifest our concerns to the Catholic public at large.

This does not mean that I think I am or the petitioners as a group are infallible. It just means that I feel I must manifest my view. It is for those with teaching authority to address our concerns, to make clear what is unclear, and to show us, if necessary, where we have gone wrong. Any document like this, within the Church, is designed to stimulate the exercise of the magisterium, not to undermine or replace it.

Posted on the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, and of Walsingham.
St Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

Support the work of the LMS by becoming an 'Anniversary Supporter'.

22 comments:

  1. May the most Holy Trinity bless all of you for your defence of,and fidelity to the faith.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I strongly support this document and thank profusely the courageous body that initiated it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for this and for putting your signature to it.

    David A. Domet

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://www.correctiofilialis.org/ .org not .com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you and God bless!

    ReplyDelete
  6. THANK YOU! May Our Precious Lord Bless you for your fidelity to the truth of His Church!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well done, good brother in the Lord.

    We are praying for you and your families.

    +Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us, Most Beloved Holy Family+

    ReplyDelete
  8. A sad but necessary thing. May the Holy Father accept this correction and better promote and express the faith.

    ReplyDelete
  9. GOD BLESS, STRENGTHEN, GUIDE, AND GUARD YOU, good and faithful servant!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I find it very good that the Correction neither just rehearsed the Dubia, nor limited itself to just criticizing AL, but also looked into wider context, especially, exposing the roots of the present errors in modernism and protestantism (lutherism). Indeed, the double synod and exhortation did not arise from nowhere. This can thus serve as a preliminary exrcise for an eventual 'correction' of other current errors widespread after V-2.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their Confreres. The Church and altars will be vandalized. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord. Our Lady of Akita https://www.olrl.org/prophecy/akita.shtml

    ReplyDelete
  13. "With profound grief"! What appalling hypocrisy, and what arrogance in these people to stand in judgment on the Holy Father.
    It is high time the nonsense of heresy-hunting was consigned to the junk-heap of history where it rightly belongs. We are all just fallible human beings trying to apprehend something of the truth of God and his goodness, and no doubt most of us failing most of the time. Why should anyone take notice of the Church when they see its people behaving like this - pretending to certain knowledge they cannot possibly have and thinking that gives them the licence to beat down anyone who disagrees with them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How quick you are to judge, Savoranola. And you do not judge the act, but focus on what you imagine the interior states are, of people you know nothing about. Isn't your hypocrasy more serious than that you impute to us?

      Delete
    2. Hoist by your own petard.

      You really aren't very bright.

      Delete
  14. Thanks, Dr. Shaw, for doing this. I hope you will be able to find time to address these rejoinders by Scott Eric Alt: https://scottericalt.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/and-then-there-were-six/. So far, at least, this is the only attempt I've seen to address the substance of the correctio.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've had a quick look. It's not worth the effort.

      Delete
    2. As it's currently the only attempt at a substantive critique, and it's circulating in some areas, I'd humbly suggest it is worth the effort, even if the response is limited to a single Tweet.

      Delete
  15. I see the chaos beginning at WWII and the subsequent American and Soviet occupation of Europe. It is an irony that American hegemony in Western Europe is proving more pernicious and devastating.

    Babyboomers have spent their entire lives internalizing lies that dialogue is proving an impossibility. This Pope and his brainwashed enablers are intellectually clueless. He only has to look at the state of the Church in the countries whose cardinals elected him. Stop talking look.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Congratulations to Dr David Shaw for this wonderful petition. Of the dubia cardinals, half died waiting for an answer. The future of family life, the bedrock of society, lies in the hands of faithful catholics like these. And I would like to say, not all supporters are pro SSPX, Ecclesia Dei or sede. some are normal catholics like myself who simply object to the trachings of marriage being undermined in this way

    ReplyDelete
  17. We need to pray for those involved in the petition especially on Friday, Feast of St Michael the Archangel. For they will be greatly attacked by the smoke of Satan which has entered the church

    ReplyDelete
  18. God bless you and all signatories of the petition and the supporters of it!
    One question: Is there any possibility to see a new names of the signatories in an easy (quick) way on http://correctiofilialis.org?
    We see today, two days later, that the number of the faithful ones has increased for 17, which is now 79.
    It would be a bit easier for the readers and supporters, if we could see the signatories faster, by clicking on the that page, than each day must do recheck of all the names. Which btw., have its own plus points as making a better chance to remember who the true defenders are of the true Faith.
    But, while we hope to have more than a few hundreds, and very soon, than it would be difficult to see the new ones.
    Veritas et Gratia
    Et Pax Christi
    Ivan

    ReplyDelete