What’s Wrong With ‘We Baptize’ and Other Liturgical Abuses

When the sacred liturgy is treated as a plaything, people will suffer.

Pope Francis baptizes a young woman at the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on April 15, 2017. Franco Origlia (photo: Franco Origlia / Getty Images)

The story of a priest in the Diocese of Phoenix conducting invalid baptisms has been widely reported and commented on. But it would be good to reflect on this sad debacle by asking and answering a few questions.

As a disclaimer, this article is not a personal attack on the priest involved. He seems contrite and did not seem to have a dissenting attitude. More likely he was poorly trained or came under the influence of some bad liturgical fashions. This article seeks to look to some of the deeper roots of the problem that have affected the Church. Now to some of our questions.

Where did the priest in Phoenix get the idea to say “we” instead of “I?” Most often, these ideas emerge in the often-strange world of liturgical publications and conferences where priests, liturgists and other authors dream up strange ideas — like putting sand in the holy water fonts, or washing hands instead of feet on Holy Thursday, or replacing the priestly incensation of the altar with dancers holding smoke pots. It is often a world where imaginations run wild and proper theology gives way to excessive creativity. Articles are published and liturgical modifications that are dubious at best and erroneous at worst, and they insinuate themselves into parishes. Large Catholic gatherings like the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference often put these innovations on wide public display and they spread even further.

In this case, certain liturgists have wanted to emphasize that the entire community baptizes the child, not just the priest. Their goal is to level the Church and remove hierarchal distinctions between clergy and laity.

Some others have sought to emphasize and exaggerate the notion that every act of the Body of Christ, the Church, is an act of the whole body. This is only partially true. If I take a walk, my whole body is involved in some way. But not every part of the body does the same thing or has the same role. The heart pumps the blood, but we do not say the whole body pumps the blood. Further, the body is under the direction of the mind. So, using the body as an analogy, only in an equivocal and extended sense can we say that every act of the Church is an act of the whole Church.

What are the central problems in saying, “We baptize?” The whole community does not baptize the child any more than the whole community consecrates the Eucharist. There are ministerial roles that must be respected. The “I” who baptizes is really Christ. The “I” who absolves of sin is actually Christ. The “I” who says “This is my body” is really Christ. Christ is the true high priest and celebrant of every sacrament. A priest does not baptize in the name of the community but in the name and power of Jesus Christ who acts and speaks through him. “We baptize” hides, rather than reveals, that Jesus is the true High Priest and celebrant of every sacrament.

The error also invalidates the sacrament of baptism because it is not the proper form. Sacraments consist of, and rely on, proper matter and form. In baptism the matter is the pouring of or immersion into water, not some other liquid such as beer or wine. The form of the sacrament gives meaning to the action. In this case the proper and only valid form of baptism is, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Hence, “We baptize you” is theologically erroneous and also invalid since the proper words (the form) was not used.

Will these invalid baptisms exclude people from the Kingdom of God? We are bound by the sacraments, but God is not. God is just, and it seems quite unlikely that he would exclude people who thought they were validly baptized but were not. But this does not excuse us from doing what is right. We are bound by the sacraments and when doubts arise about the validity of baptisms or other sacraments, we have the duty to investigate and resolve these issues.

How widespread are problems like these? Sadly, there are others who have altered and invalidated many baptisms with other erroneous variations. As early as the 1970s feminists pushed the use of an “inclusive” form of baptism: “I baptize you in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier.” This became increasingly common in the more liberal mainline Protestant denominations. It also infected certain Catholic settings and parishes.

More recently, a number of Evangelical and non-denominational congregations have started using the formula, “I baptize you in the name of Jesus.” They incorrectly interpret Acts 8:16, construing it as a formula for baptism rather than an affirmation that someone was baptized with the baptism of Jesus, rather than John’s baptism or a Jewish purification ritual.

Baptisms using these variations of words are not valid. In the Catholic Church we used to presume that people baptized in Protestant denominations were validly baptized. Now we must ask for detailed descriptions of what took place. This is also becoming sadly true of increasing numbers of Catholic baptisms. This is disgraceful, and discipline must be restored among the clergy. The faithful too can assist by reporting violations of sacramental matter or form at once. Given the disobedient and antinomian age we are in, I am sadly sure that what we have seen in the news is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is the wider mentality that gives rise to these sorts of problems? The sacred liturgy is not a plaything. It is not a script for us to adapt or a stage on which we engage in self-actualization. The rubrics and sacred texts are not a mere template for our creative additions. Too often today, there is a mentality that is exactly the opposite of these truths. Instead of being formed by the liturgy we seek to form and mold it to our modern preferences and thinking. Mystery and ancient truths are off-putting to certain modern people. Many want all things to be approachable, understandable and “welcoming.” Too many do not want to be obedient to norms — they just want creativity.

These sorts of attitudes give rise to innumerable errors and disobedience in the liturgy. While the priest in Phoenix may not have been intentionally defiant, he and others have been misled by those who are often cavalier and defiant. Too many think they can improve on the liturgy and sacred texts. But the sacred texts are carefully crafted to reflect the teachings of the Church and to reflect the truth. Many of these texts are the product of centuries of reflection. The Roman Collects are a special treasure, tersely and carefully constructed to reflect sacred realities. We should study them, not toy with them.

What should be done? Given that sacraments work ex opere operato (i.e., they have an objective reality “from the work that is worked”) the Church cannot just fix this with a wave of the hand. If a person has not been validly baptized (since the work was not properly worked) They must be found and baptized. Also, whatever other messes this has caused, (e.g., invalid confirmations, ordinations, etc.) those sacraments must be revisited as well.

Further,our bishops ought to summon priests and deacons for ongoing sacramental formation. The bishops have an obligation to restore the proper discipline of the sacraments and the sacred liturgy. God’s good people deserve this. Defiance and dissent from proper liturgical laws and practiced must be ended. Bishops must punish and, if necessary, remove clerics who persist in such “innovations.” It is unconscionable that any bishop, priest or deacon would knowingly alter the sacraments. Once again, we have sorely tested the trust of God’s people. It is hard to imagine how this trust can ever be restored. Surely it must begin with well-formed priests in parishes who love their people, are obedient to God and the teachings of the Church and who celebrate the sacraments with devotion and the precision that God’s people deserve.

Msgr. Charles Pope Msgr. Charles Pope is currently a dean and pastor in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, where he has served on the Priest Council, the College of Consultors, and the Priest Personnel Board. Along with publishing a daily blog at the Archdiocese of Washington website, he has written in pastoral journals, conducted numerous retreats for priests and lay faithful, and has also conducted weekly Bible studies in the U.S. Congress and the White House. He was named a Monsignor in 2005.

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Estonia Catholic News —Jesuit Archbishop Profittlich

Estonians renew push for beatification of martyr Archbishop Profittlich.

The Apostolic Administration of Estonia holds a webinar to shine the spotlight on the ongoing beatification process of its martyred former archbishop, Eduard Profittlich.

By Devin Watkins

Hopes are high among Estonian Catholics as the local Church continues its push for the beatification of Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, SJ.

The German Jesuit served as the Apostolic Administrator of Estonia from 1931 until his deportation to Siberia and martyrdom in the Soviet prison in Kirov on 22 February 1942.

His cause for beatification is currently winding its way through the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, after completion of the diocesan phase in late 2019.

Currently known as a Servant of God, the late Archbishop Profittlich offers a moving witness of faith for the people of Estonia today, as well as for Catholics further afield.

Great martyr of the Church

As the 80th anniversary of his death approaches, the Apostolic Administration of Estonia hosted an online conference on Tuesday evening to offer an update on his beatification process.

The event saw the participation of a host of Church leaders, Jesuits, and lay Catholics interested in Profittlich’s life and witness. It was moderated by Fr. Stephan Lipke, SJ, with the Jesuit-run St. Thomas Institute in Moscow, which co-hosted the conference.

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, the Metropolitan of Moscow, kicked off the webinar by calling it an opportunity to celebrate the life of a “great martyr of the Church.”

He said Profittlich ranks among the great Bishops to have served and died in the territories of the former Soviet Union, adding that he offers the faithful around the world an excellent example of “what it means to be Catholic.”

Estonian Catholics recall victims of Stalinism and Nazism

14/08/2019Catholics in Estonia pushing for canonization of Abp. Profittlich19/09/2018Estonians look to martyred bishop ahead of Pope’s arrival

Sharing fate of his flock

Speaking from Tallinn, just meters from where his predecessor ministered, Bishop Philippe Jourdan, the current Apostolic Administrator of Estonia, expressed his hopes that the beatification process would offer new life to the local Church’s evangelization efforts.

Profittlich, he said, was a very well-known figure in Estonia during his lifetime, even among the country’s Lutheran majority, which counted around 78 percent of the population in the 1930s.

As a German citizen, Profittlich was offered the chance to leave Estonia after its fall to the Soviet Union in 1940.

“The example of Archbishop Profittlich is very important for Estonian society, especially the fact that he chose to stay in Estonia to share the destiny of so many Estonians.”

Over 20,000 Estonians were deported to Soviet prison camps during the 1940s.

The Bishop added that Estonia’s President Alar Karis even recently asked him about Profittlich’s cause, saying he was following it “with great joy.”

Memorial to victims of communism in Tallinn, Estonia

Missionary vocation

Maria Chiara Dommarco, a historian on Catholicism in Russia during the reigns of Lenin and Stalin, offered a review of the Vatican’s goal of evangelizing Soviet Russia, especially during the pontificates of Benedict XV and Pius XI.

She said the young Jesuit Profittlich manifested an ardent desire to take on that missionary mantle. He was eventually sent to Estonia, where he served the Church wholeheartedly and established fruitful dialogue with Orthodox and Protestant Christians.

“The Jesuit’s free and conscious adhesion to his vocation, even to the point of witnessing martyrdom, was born and developed within the dialogue (mediated and then directly) with the authority of the Holy See.”

Faithful servant

Ms. Marge-Marie Paas, the diocesan postulator for Profittlich’s cause for beatification, then took the floor to review the path to holiness of the first Catholic Bishop in Estonia since the Protestant Reformation.

“Archbishop Eduard Profittlich,” she said, “carried out all his responsibilities with great love, and through consistent effort he was able to accomplish all that God expected of him, especially being faithful to Christ, His Church, and His Kingdom.”

Profittlich’s faithful dedication to his mission, added Ms. Paas, was crowned by God with martyrdom. He accepted to stay in Estonia fully knowing the fate he would likely suffer, a choice she said he made willingly, in deep prayer, and with the consent of the Pope.

Crown of martyrdom

As a martyr—a witness to Christ—many Estonians believe Profittlich now intercedes for the faithful before God, and Estonian Catholics are hoping to receive the Church’s recognition of this through his beatification.

A few short months before his arrest by the Soviets and deportation to Siberia, Archbishop Profittlich wrote to Pope Pius XII to request guidance as to whether to flee Estonia.

“I am also ready, in all peace of mind, to endure sacrifice for the Kingdom of God in this land, and for all the work and all the sufferings that, in these changed circumstances, will be necessary for the sake of the Kingdom of God.”

Ms. Paas summed up Profittlich’s holy example for the Church, saying he “sacrificed his life for the Kingdom of God… and he became a witness to new life and Truth.”

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Cuba Is Intelligence Service Hub for Worldwide Totalitarian Movement: Exiled Cuban Activist

Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance. (Zheng Wang/The Epoch Times)

By Ella Kietlinska and Joshua Philipp Updated: February 21, 2022

Cuba is a major hub for a worldwide totalitarian movement and its intelligence network has spread its influence throughout the Western hemisphere, said Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.

The communist Cubans have provided the intelligence structure and the organizational structure  for the Chinese regime to expand their power in the Western hemisphere, Gutierrez-Boronat told EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.

Cuba with its key strategic location has been an ideal platform for influencing the United States and Latin America, the activist said. “They’re [a] very considerable foe for the United States and the Western hemisphere.”

Gutierrez-Boronat cited Herbert Marcuse, a prominent Marxist scholar of the Frankfurt School associated with Columbia University in New York, who said that “the communist revolution in Cuba was essential for the communist revolution in the United States.”

The Cuban communist party is very confident that they’re gaining ground in Latin America and the United States, the activist said. Communists believe that “although [the American] nation is stronger, culturally, it’s weaker,” he added.

“So they have a very long term view of how to corrode our institutions, how to penetrate them from below in order to weaken the resolve to resist tyranny.”

The Cuban communists perceive the internal polarization and division in the United States as the right moment for a class struggle, which it disguises as a racial struggle, Gutierrez-Boronat said.

“All these weaknesses make it easier for totalitarian ideology to prosper. And for many young people, it makes their resolve to resist this totalitarian tyranny far weaker.”

Although Cuba is a small country, it is very influential in America because of its history and culture, the activist pointed out.

Cuban communists developed a long-term presence of Cuban communist intelligence throughout the hemisphere during 63 years of their rule, the activist explained. They identified, recruited, and placed in pivotal positions–key assets of communism, he continued, and this is what they contribute to their relations with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The Chinese are establishing a very strong presence in Latin America and what the Cubans provide them is very good intelligence about who’s who in Latin America.

“China hasn’t just invested in an island structure, they’ve invested in an intelligence service that’s been operating for many, many years. And that intelligence service is very clear that its foe is the United States and bringing down American culture and American life.

The Cuban communist regime has influenced Venezuela, Gutierrez-Boronat said, adding that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was recruited by Cuban communists, trained in Cuba, supported and aided in achieving power by the Cuban regime, and now is indebted to the regime.

The regime has also influenced Nicaragua, had a very active role in subverting Colombia and bringing down its economy, and has a very close alliance with the government of Mexico and the president of Honduras, Gutierrez-Boronat explained. “The government of Argentina is also a sympathizer with that regime.”

Argentina President Alberto Fernández signed a deal with the Chinese regime at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 6, political analyst Anders Corr wrote for The Epoch Times.

The deal stipulates that Argentina will join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), recognize China’s claims over democratic Taiwan, take another $23.7 billion in loans for Chinese infrastructure development, and derecognize Taiwan.

In December, Nicaragua seized Taiwan’s former embassy to give it to Beijing, after the Central American state had unilaterally terminated diplomatic relations with the self-governed island in favor of China and declared Taiwan as part of the Chinese territory.

New Honduran president Xiomara Castro floated the idea of dropping diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of the Chinese regime during her election campaign. However, after Taiwanese Vice President William Lai attended Xiomara Castro’s inauguration at the end of January, the newly elected president decided to maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei.

New Phase of Communism

Cuban security forces pose alongside their Chinese trainers in a Cuban government training school in 2016. (Courtesy of ADN Cuba)

In July, ADN Cuba, an independent Cuban news network reporting in Spanish, broke the story about the People’s Armed Police, the Chinese paramilitary internal security force, training Cuban Black Berets, an elite military group dedicated to the suppression of anti-government protests.

It is believed the People’s Armed Police had been sent by Beijing to suppress protestors of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in 2019.

“I believe these totalitarian states: Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, they have a joint command where they analyze, study, and implement policies to put down popular uprisings. There’s a similar pattern which they repeated in every country from what they learned of how to crush a people’s uprising. Before the early 1990s, communists couldn’t stop popular uprisings; now they’ve learned how to do it,” Gutierrez-Boronat said.

This type of asymmetric warfare used by communism includes weaponizing social media, culture, and technology in a coordinated way, Gutierrez-Boronat added.

The activists called this “the new generation of communism.” To deal with this new phase of communism, the same kind of strategy is needed that was used to defeat the Soviet Union, he said.

“Unless we get on the same level with a coherent strategy, we will be defeated in the long term,” Gutierrez-Boronat warned.

“The Soviet Union fell as a result of a combination of forces that were coalesced and were channeled in a very effective manner by a proactive strategy implemented by the United States. And this brought together both political defiance, grassroots organization, as it happened in Poland, but also military means. The U.S. did not shirk away from arming and protecting itself. And also, the pressure put on post-Soviet regimes in Afghanistan, in Nicaragua, in Angola was essential for bringing down communism.”

West Props Up Cuban Communist Regime

The West, however, often offers the communist regime of Cuba financial support.

Although the sanctions against the Cuban regime implemented by former President Donald Trump and maintained by President Joe Biden have depleted the money base of the Cuban military, some Western countries such as France, Italy, and Spain entered into cooperation agreements with Cuba, Gutierrez-Boronat said. These agreements poured money into the Cuban armed forces because those forces control the Cuban economy, he added.

People take part in a demonstration against the communist regime of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana on July 11, 2021. (Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)

The Paris Club, an informal group of international creditors, “extended a lifeline to the regime in Cuba” in the months after July 11 protest against the communist regime broke out in the country, Gutierrez-Boronat said

In October, the Paris Club, whose role is to assist debtor countries unable to repay their debts, agreed to postpone an annual debt payment of the Cuban debt due in November until next year, according to Reuters.

In 2015, the Paris Club forgave the Cuban regime $8.5 billion of $11.1 billion in sovereign debt Cuba defaulted on in 1986. Cuba agreed to repay the remainder in annual installments through 2033, but only partially met its obligations in 2019 and defaulted the year after, Reuters reported.

“The elites in the free world have lost her backbone … to resist authoritarianism,” Gutierrez-Boronat said.

Cuba’s centrally planned economy is tightly controlled by the communist regime. Most of the Cuban enterprises are owned by the state. The state controls “wholesale trade, credit, foreign trade, and foreign investment,” according to a report by Coface for Trade, a credit insurance company.

“Cuba’s income per capita back in the 1950s was one of the highest in the Western hemisphere. Today it has one of the lowest,” wrote Jorge Salazar-Carrillo, a professor of economics at the Florida International University.

“In large part, that is the result of decades of failed policies and promised reforms that never materialized,” Salazar-Carrillo wrote for The Conversation.

The professor, who worked in the Cuban government in the early days following the communist revolution, said that Cuba’s economic crisis is not the result of American sanctions imposed on Cuban goods–as many analysts, activists, and the Cuban government asserted–but it was caused by the Cuban government that ”unsustainably” runs the country’s economy.

Cuba had been ruled for more than six decades by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, who led a 1959 revolution in the Caribbean island nation of 11 million, installing a communist-run country on the doorstep of the United States.

In 2021, Raul Castro as party chief was succeeded by Miguel Diaz-Canel as a communist party chief, the country’s de facto leader, thus ending the Castro era, although he said he would continue to consult his predecessors on strategic decisions.

Frank Fang, Rita Li, and Reuters contributed to this.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles (Latin Diocesis Ergadiensis et Insularum) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, in the Province of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh.

Diocese of Argyll and the Isles Dioecesis Ergadiensis et Insularum Sgìr-Easbuig Earraghàidheal ‘s nan Eilean(Scottish Gaelic)
Location
Country	Scotland
Territory	Most of Argyll and Bute, southern part of Highland, and Outer Hebrides, plus the Isle of Arran
Ecclesiastical province	St Andrews and Edinburgh
Metropolitan	St Andrews and Edinburgh
Statistics
Area	31,080 km2 (12,000 sq mi)
Population – Total – Catholics (including non-members)	(as of 2015) 74,546 10,660 (14.3%)
Parishes	25
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Latin Rite
Established	4 March 1878
Cathedral	St Columba’s Cathedral, Oban
Secular priests	29
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Brian McGee
Metropolitan Archbishop	Leo Cushley
Episcopal Vicars	James L. Canon MacNeilDonald J. Canon MacKayJohn P. Mackinnon
Website
www.rcdai.org.uk

Overview

The diocese covers an area of 31,080 km² and has a Catholic population of 10,546 (14.1%) out of a total population of 74,546 (2006 figures). The see is in the town of Oban where the seat is located at St Columba’s Cathedral.^[1]

History

The diocese was erected on 5 March 1878 following the restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy. On 28 December 2015 Pope Francis appointed Father Brian McGee to succeed the Right Reverend Joseph Toal as eleventh Bishop of Argyll and the Isles.^[1]

Timeline

After its establishment in 1878, the seat of the diocese was in various buildings each overlapping the same site:^[2]

• 5 March 1878: The Scottish Catholic hierarchy is restored and the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles is erected. There was no cathedral, and the bishop resided in, what became, the Cathedral House. It was bought from the Society of Jesus who previously used it as a summer retreat house.
• Early 1880s: A wooden building served as the pro-cathedral for the diocese. It was located on the site of the Cathedral Hall.
• 1886: A church made of corrugated iron became the pro-cathedral. It was known as the ‘Tin Cathedral’ and was given to the diocese by the Marquess of Bute.
• 1919: Bishop Donald Martin decided to build a permanent cathedral.
• 14 September 1932: The foundation stone of St Columba’s Cathedral was laid.
• 29 October 1933: The ‘Tin Cathedral’ was demolished to allow space for the cathedral to be finished. Worship continued in the Cathedral Hall.^[3]
• 25 December 1934: The cathedral was opened.

Peter Schweizer

Biography

Peter Schweizer is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling books Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption, and the President of Government Accountability Institute.

Peter Schweizer

From 2008-2009 he was a consultant to the Office of Presidential Speechwriting in the White House. He has also served as a member of the Ultraterrorism Study Group at the U.S. government’s Sandia National Laboratory and is a former consultant to NBC News.

His books have been translated into eleven languages and include several New York Times or Washington Post bestsellers.

Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich became a New York Times best-seller and spurred independent reporting by multiple mainstream media outlets.

Peter is the author of the book Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets. Both Extortion and his previous book, Throw Them All Out, were New York Times bestsellers and were featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

His other non-fiction books include Reagan’s War (Doubleday, 2002), which the Washington Post praised as “A fascinating, well-written, useful and important look at one of the three or four most important American political leaders of the 20^th century. No serious assessment of the 40^th president of the United States can ignore the central importance of anti-communism in his career; after Schweizer none will.” The Los Angeles Times called it “A rousing and compelling case that Reagan’s personal and political odyssey…was central to bringing down the ‘evil empire.” He is also the co-author of The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty (Doubleday, 2004), which the New York Times called “Fascinating…Provides illuminating insights into the internal dynamics of the Bush family dynasty.” The New York Post declared “If you want to know as fully as can be told the story of how the Bushes rose from Midwestern obscurity to equal the records of families like the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, and the Adamses—this is the book.”

Other non-fiction works include Architects of Ruin (Harper, 2009) Victory (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994) , Do As I Say (Not As I Do) (Doubleday, 2005) and Makers and Takers (Doubleday, 2008).

His academic books include Landmark Speeches of the American Conservative Movement (Texas A&M University Press, 2006) The Reagan Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Legacy (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), and The Fall Of The Wall: Reassessing the Causes and Consequences of the End of the Cold War (Hoover Institution Press, 2000). He was also a contributor to Living in the Eighties (Oxford University Press, 2008). See especially his newest Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win (HarperCollins Publishers, January 25, 2022). Schweizer then quoted by Michael Washburn (March 24, 2022) in the Epoch Times.

His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Review, and elsewhere. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs. Again, see his Elite Capture in Gatestone International Institute Policy Council (February 20, 2022) and Chinese Censorship on American Soil in Gatestone (February 25, 2022).

Peter received his M.Phil. from Oxford University and his B.A. from George Washington University. He lives in Florida with his wife, Rhonda, and their children.

Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World

In the century between 1847 and 1947, a handful of men and women changed the world. 

Many of them are well known—Marx, Freud, Proust, Einstein, Kafka. Others have vanished from collective memory despite their enduring importance in our daily lives. Without Rosalind Franklin, for example, genetic science would look very different. Without Fritz Haber, there would not be enough food to sustain life on earth. What do these visionaries have in common? They all had Jewish origins.

Norman Lebrecht has devoted half of his life to researching the mindset of the Jewish intellectuals, writers, scientists, and thinkers who turned the tides of history and shaped the world today as we know it. His conclusions are featured in his book Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947. Join the Museum for a conversation between Lebrecht and Museum Trustee Matthew Goldstein, former chancellor of the City University of New York, about Genius & Anxiety.

Buy and read the book ahead of time and submit your questions for the program’s Q&A session to pubprog@mjhnyc.org.

Michael Lofton — his path of faith

How Eastern Orthodoxy Made Me Catholic

Eastern Orthodoxy demands adherence to the first seven ecumenical councils . . . so what exactly is in those councils?

It may seem hard to believe, but my reception into Eastern Orthodoxy put me on a path to communion with the Catholic Church. Perhaps some will say this is an exaggeration, but in fact, it is true.

This path to Catholicism began with the reception ceremony, where I was required to make a profession of faith, along with a promise to abide by the doctrines laid out in the first seven ecumenical councils. As I studied these councils in depth, I was startled to discover that the council fathers affirmed the Catholic position about the papacy. This is strikingly evident in three of the seven: Ephesus (431), Constantinople III (680-681) and Nicaea II (787). Let’s examine them to see how they affirm Catholic doctrines.

In the fifth century, a major theological controversy arose over the Marian title Mother of God. Some were concerned this made the Virgin Mary the origin of the one, true God, while others insisted that it was an affirmation that the child she gave birth to was fully divine. The Council of Ephesus was called in the year 431 to put an end to the controversy.

Whereas it is often noted that the council fathers defended the title Mother of God their implicit affirmation of the Catholic position on the papacy is not as well known. What exactly did the council fathers maintain? Philip, a legate who represented the pope at the council, openly stated before the council fathers in the second session:

We offer our thanks to the holy and venerable synod, that when the writings of our holy and blessed pope had been read to you, the holy members by our [or your] holy voices, you joined yourselves to the holy head also by your holy acclamations.

He later added in the third session:

There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the Faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the savior and redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors. The holy and most blessed pope Celestine, according to due order, is his successor and holds his place.

From these two quotes, three points are noteworthy. First, the pope is identified as the head of the council. Second, the pope is claimed to be the successor of St. Peter, who authoritatively acts in his successors. Third, this succession of leadership will endure in the office of the papacy “forever.” How did the council fathers react to these words? Not even one council father protested such bold affirmations of the papal claims.

Fast-forwarding several centuries, the Council of Constantinople III (681) was called to address the Monothelite heresy, which claimed that Jesus had only one will, not two wills, divine and human. Openly read before the council fathers was the letter of Pope Agatho to the emperor, which stated:

For this is the rule of the true faith, which this spiritual mother of your most tranquil empire, the apostolic Church of Christ, has both in prosperity and in adversity always held and defended with energy; which, it will be proved, by the grace of almighty God, has never erred from the path of the apostolic tradition, nor has she been depraved by yielding to heretical innovations, but from the beginning she has received the Christian faith from her founders, the princes of the apostles of Christ, and remains undefiled unto the end, according to the divine promise of the Lord and Savior himself, which he uttered in the holy Gospels to the prince of his disciples: saying, Peter, Peter, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that (your) faith fail not. And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.

It is considerable that the pope unequivocally stated the church of Rome had never erred in apostolic tradition because of a divine promise to remain “undefiled unto the end.” The council fathers received this letter joyfully and wrote back to the pope expressing their appreciation and approval of his words, which they claimed were “divinely written as by the chief of the apostles.”

Lastly, in order to quench the raging fires of the heresy of iconoclasm, Pope Hadrian appeals to the Roman tradition of the veneration of images, which he maintained was unable to err, according to the divine promise of Christ. His letter, read before the council fathers, states:

For the blessed Peter prince of the apostles, who was the first to preside over the apostolic see, left the primacy of his apostolate and pastoral responsibility to his successors, who are to sit in his most sacred see forever. The power of authority, as it had been granted to him by the Lord God our savior, he in his turn conferred and transmitted by divine command to the pontiffs who succeeded him, in whose tradition we venerate the sacred effigy of Christ and the images of his holy mother, the apostles and all the saints.

How did the council fathers react to the claims that the Roman see is unable to err in a matter of doctrine because of a divine promise and that the Roman see will always have a successor to Peter? In response, they categorically approved his words, stating: “We follow, accept and approve them.”

After learning that the council fathers affirmed the Catholic claims about the papacy in these councils, and in other places, I could no longer remain separated from the Catholic Church. If I were going to make good on my promise to adhere to the first seven ecumenical councils, I had to maintain the same faith they did, which was that the pope is and will always be the successor to Peter, and that he cannot fail in matters of faith, according to the divine promise of Christ. This led me to communion with the Catholic Church . . . so I can truly say that my reception into Eastern Orthodoxy led me to communion with Catholicism.

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“Tribulation and Psychological Terror”

Cardinal Müller: For Faithful Catholics, It’s a ‘Time of Tribulation and Psychological Terror’

In an exclusive interview with the Register, the prefect emeritus of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith castigated the state of the Church in Germany and its ‘Synodal Way’ process.

Cardinal Gerhard Muller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, pictured at a penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica during the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative on March 29, 2019. (photo: Daniel Ibanez / CNA/EWTN)

Edward Pentin Interviews February 11, 2022

VATICAN CITY — Faithful Catholics are today facing a period of persecution, tribulation and “psychological terror” that, in an unprecedented way, is coming from within their own countries that have ancient Christian traditions, Cardinal Gerhard Müller has observed.

The German cardinal made the observation in an exclusive Feb. 5 interview with the Register, during which he issued a blistering attack on the state of the Church in Germany and the “Synodal Way,” a controversial multiyear reform process that grew out of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis.

The prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said these attacks on the faithful from within are coming from “secularized” parts of the Church and frequently occur in the workplace or in schools. 

Now is a “time of tribulation and psychological terror,” and orthodox Catholics are being “persecuted; and in some countries this is culminating in martyrdom,” Cardinal Müller noted. “Usually this has come from the outside, but now it’s from the inside, in our countries that have old Christian traditions. It’s a new situation.”

The cardinal’s words came as a plenary meeting of the “Synodal Way” was concluding last weekend. 

The participants voted at that meeting for a raft of dissenting notions that included same-sex union blessings; changes to the Catechism on homosexuality; the ordination of women priests; priestly celibacy to be optional in the Latin Church; and for lay involvement in the election of new bishops.

His comments also follow a spate of controversial statements from German and European prelates in recent weeks. They include Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich saying on Feb. 3 that priests should be allowed to marry “not just for sexual reasons,” but so they “wouldn’t be so lonely,” and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg arguing that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality is “false” and needed revision.

Last month, more than 120 homosexual Church employees in Germany demanded the blessing of same-sex unions and a change in the Church’s labor rules — an initiative welcomed by the German bishops’ conference. 

‘Secularized People’

Cardinal Müller, 74, who was bishop of Regensburg, Germany, from 2002 to 2012, said many of those promoting such dissenting views are “secularized people” who “want to keep the name ‘Catholic,’ to stay in the institution and take the money, but they won’t accept the teaching of the word of God.” 

“They relativize the Catholic faith, but remain with their titles: cardinals, bishops, theology professors — but in reality they don’t believe what the Church is saying,” he noted, and he described such people as “materialists” whose basis of belief is not in creation and Revelation but in pseudo-sciences. 

Similarly, he said the “LGBT” agenda that many of them support “is totally idiotic because its Neo-Gnostic mythology is absolutely against human nature, not only in a biological sense, but also in a philosophical one.”

Cardinal Müller, who was CDF prefect from 2012 to 2017, warned that the blessing of same-sex couples promoted by the German bishops is “absolutely a blasphemy” because it is a “negation of the constitution of human beings as man and woman, and there can be no blessing there.” He also decried the idea, proposed by some in the German Church, that a priest should have sexual relations with women so that “then they won’t take boys” as “scandalous argumentation!”

Upholding the teaching of previous popes, he also firmly ruled out a women’s diaconate, saying the “sacramental diaconate is one degree of an indivisible threefold order that cannot be transferred to women according to the permanent apostolic tradition.” 

And yet he noted that this is “what they’re voting for” in the German “Synodal Way,” in reference to the Feb. 4 vote by the members of the German synodal assembly in favor of women’s ordination, even though “they cannot vote against the revealed truth and its infallible definition by the ecclesial magistery.”

More generally, Cardinal Müller warned of determined attacks against the sacraments, especially the Blessed Sacrament and holy orders. 

“Not a few are denying the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and the Real Presence,” he observed. “The role of the priest and the substance of the faith is in danger.” 

He added that those pushing for these changes have no “supernatural understanding,” and what they are calling for is, in fact, a “major anti-Vatican II movement” that goes against Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s dogmatic constitution on the Church, and the Council’s decree on the ministry and life of priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis,on the dignity of the “priestly vocation and service in the understanding of priestly celibacy.”  

‘Social Worker’ Priesthood

These are the same people, he said, who want to “destroy the sacramental priesthood, firstly by being against celibacy and then denying the supernatural institution of this sacrament.” They would like to relativize the sacramental priesthood, he added, so that what is left is a “social worker,” leaving the identity of the priest “hollowed out” and vulnerable to breaking down. On Feb 4, the German “Synodal Way” also backed an appeal to relax the celibacy requirement for priests in the Latin Church, urging that the topic be taken up in a future ecumenical council.

Church leaders and lay Catholics pushing these anti-Catholic views do not believe in the Last Judgment, Cardinal Müller contended. 

“To them, God has to justify himself.” But he warned that their judgment will be harsher, given that they have apostatized. “As an apostate, that person has more guilt than someone who has never heard of the Catholic faith.” 

He further noted that these dissenters within the Church won’t criticize the decadence of the world, nor do they “dare” say “abortion is child-murder,” because then “they will be brutally attacked.” 

Instead, they focus on sexual abuse of children, but exploit it to advance their own agenda, without examining the causes or insisting on ordaining priests who can live in abstinence. “They say they’re ashamed of sexual abuse, but they don’t say what damage has been inflicted on the souls of those abused and the abuser, and the damage caused to the Body of Christ,” he said. “They’re instrumentalizing human beings; they have no respect for people. They manipulate young people, shed tears for abuse victims; but for others, they have no interest.” 

In sum, he said he believes those advocating changes such as those in the “Synodal Way” “are not reformers” but are pushing for “a deformation of the Church, a secularization of the house of the Triune God.”

And he said a key problem is the desire to compromise with the world, an unwillingness to live with the tension of living the faith in today’s highly secularized society. 

The aim of many bishops is to be loved and respected by society, as they were in the 19th century, but he said they know they cannot change the faith, so they call their efforts to do this “development of doctrine” and thereby “destroy and contradict the revealed faith.”

Attacks on Faithful Prelates 

Asked about the relentless attacks on prelates such as Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg and, most recently, Pope Benedict XVI (over accusations of mishandling abuse cases more than 40 years ago, for which the pope emeritus denies wrongdoing), Cardinal Müller stressed that all of these bishops “took the most action against these abuses,” while other bishops, general vicars and others responsible for handling abuse cases “made big mistakes, but they’re not criticized because they belong to this ideological group of self-secularization.”

Cardinal Müller said that he and other prelates are on another “theological level” to their dissenting detractors, who “don’t have any argumentation, only personal attacks and defamation.”

He contended that Cardinal Woelki, for example, “can in no way be blamed” for mishandling abuse cases, “but the most furious slanderers among his German bishop-brothers can escape only because the anti-Catholic mass media is on their side, along with secularized Catholics inside.” 

Many of these attacks are whipped up by a highly secularized and anti-Catholic media whose biases, Cardinal Müller contended, date back to the Kulturkampf, the 1872-1878 conflict between Otto von Bismarck’s Prussian government and the Catholic Church, led by Pope Pius IX.  

“They take positions against the natural law, and what they ultimately don’t accept is a supernatural standpoint: that the highest authority is the personal and loving God, not us,” he said.

Further, he said that someone such as Cardinal Marx is often favored by the press because “he’s the best promotor of the aims they want — to neutralize the Church” and prevent it from giving “answers to deep existential questions.” 

What’s Needed

Looking forward, the cardinal said it is up to Pope Francis and the College of Cardinals to step in and discipline these prelates and the “Synodal Way” before it’s too late.

He also called for the Pope to have more German consultants to explain to him exactly what is happening. More broadly, he said correcting these wrong teachings “can only be done by promoting a better, theologically informed episcopate,” as happened “in the time of the Reformation in Germany and in other countries.” 

Meanwhile, for faithful Catholics enduring continual attacks on account of the faith, he encouraged them with Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:11): 

“Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before me.” 

• Keywords:
• our lady of lourdes
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Edward Pentin Edward Pentin began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN’s National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope–The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.

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Cardinal Müller: For Faithful Catholics, It’s a ‘Time of Tribulation and Psychological Terror’

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60 Catholics Who Changed the World, by Gerard M. Verschuuren

“These 60 Catholics truly did change the world for the better, and any Catholic can at the least change his or her world for the better. May these 60 give you inspiration in your own life–I know they have in mine!” — Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Gerard M. Verschuuren is a human geneticist who also earned a doctorate in the philosophy of science. He studied and worked at universities in Europe and the United States. Currently semi-retired, he spends most of his time as a writer, speaker, and consultant on the interface of science and religion, faith and reason.

More information about his life and works may be found on his Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Verschuuren

A review of Aquinas and Modern Science: A New Synthesis of Faith and Reason, by Gerard M. Verschuuren, has appeared in Volume 57, Issue 4 (December 2017) of the International Philosophical Quarterlyi>, and The Pluralist Game.