1. We have seen Divine Providence providing man everything he needs for the salvation of his soul. That has been in place from the beginning of the world and will be up to the end. We have seen the damage God had allowed in His Church from the 8th century, through the 10th century and up to the present. We see today the state of the Church as if she is nowhere to be found. Let us now see how God intervened in these our days.
2. For the last 600 years most Catholic priests had both erroneous and true Catholic doctrines in their minds. This cannot foster a true act of Faith that will enable them to enter the Church and live a life of Faith, Hope and Charity. Priests should recognize error and separate it from the truth. After 600 years we just cannot imagine how this admixture of error and truth had affected the spiritual state of the Church. As Pope Benedict suspects the Church had been reduced to a ‘creative minority,’ words he himself use.
3. This erroneous state of mind was first isolated, analyzed and recognized by an international theological commission made up of expert theologians to advice the Fathers of Vatican II. This commission analyzed many truths being taught in the Catholic Church and had begun announcing some of their findings. The first was a clarification on the Limbo of unbaptized children. But a most significant announcement was made by then Cardinal Ratzinger in 1985 in a book entitled “Ratzinger Report” that the Church was undergoing a crisis of Faith. The implication of the statement is that few were entering the Catholic Church due to a problem in making an act of Faith. Then he described the problem of the priests (and bishops, I suppose) is that they were restless. The statement implies that most priest had the vice of restlessness.
There are eight vices and restlessness is the seventh. St. John Cassian states that if one has restlessness that means he has all the vices. He would be without the Theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity and, therefore, would be outside the Church. Tormented by this heresy for the last 600 years, most priests would, probably be outside the Church!
4. In 1993, Pope John Paul II with the obvious cooperation of Cardinal Ratzinger issued “Veritatis Splendor” where they laid down what could have happened from the year 1000 up to the present showing how the heresy corrupted the curriculum in seminaries and stated that the doctrines taught in seminaries and passed on to the lay faithful had been compromised. When an error enters a curriculum, the error gets worst as time goes. He who does not progress deteriorates, St. Thomas reminds us. It is unimaginable how bad an error can corrupt a church for 600 years.
5. ‘Veritatis Splendor’ explains how the Church had been invaded by Satan and how the Church today is trying to expel this evil spirit by the actions of the Church, herself.
6. After showing what had happened for the last 600 years in the Church in the ‘Ratzinger Report’, in 2000, Cardinal Ratzinger addressed a conference of Catechist and showed the defect in teaching Catechism in his ‘New Evangelization.’ He said, the defect was in the contents and in the method of teaching. That is like saying everything taught was wrong.
7. When Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope, like all Popes, he gave a review of the teachings of the Catholic Church in his first three encyclical on Faith, Hope and Charity. This should have given all priests the hint that they should check on their personal Faith, Hope and Charity. But this did not happen. So the Pope called for the Year of St. Paul, which was a further reminder to all to check on their Faith. The response was weak. So the Pope called on the Year of the Priest mildly suggesting to all priest to return to the seminary and review their theology, which no one seems to have done. Then from 2005 – 2011 the Holy Father issued the ‘Instrumentum Laboris’ where he advised all Bishops to sit down with their priest and give some pastoral suggestions based on ‘Veritatis Splendor.’ How many bishops responded is unknown but among my friend bishops no one responded to the ‘instrumentum.’ This was the Pope’s way of trying to find evidences on the spiritual state of the Church. And almost as a last resort the Holy Father announced next year,2012 as the Year of Faith.
8. The Church seems to be exerting great efforts for man to make an act of Faith. Repentance comes before Faith. And we have seen in Fatima that the world seems unable even to repent.
Faith is what brings us into the Catholic Church. It is what saves us. It is the gift that enable us to know and understand the teachings of the Catholic Church. It is the gift that enables us to know the way to God and our everlasting home. Is the Church saying nobody is inside the Church? That would be the blunt insinuation.
9. And now, the words ‘the New Evangelization’ is in everyone’s lips. But obviously nobody seems to know what is this. All we hear in conventions is the old defective evangelization already noted by the Pope.
10. To strengthen his effort in confirming his flock’s faith, Pope Benedict wrote his ‘compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church’ because the just finished Catechism of the Catholic Church is filled with the stench of this hydra that had corrupted the Church for the last 600 years. Yes why would the Pope write his own catechism when the New Catechism of the Catholic Church had just been distributed. And now we have the YOUCAT. Does this still have the defective content and method of teaching already mentioned by the Pope? Only those who have mastered ‘Veritatis Splendor’ can answer that because that document contains truths in its purity and errors that had plaqued Holy Mother the Church.
11. The Holy Father had already mentioned what went wrong with the Church for the last 600 years and what are the right teachings of Christ in both ‘Veritatis Splendor’ and ‘Instrumentum Laboris.’ The Holy Father had many times reminded us that the ‘New Evangelization’ is a call for priest and for all of us to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect because that is the image of the Catholic Church as the boat of the apostles in the Sea of Tiberias approached the shore where Christ was waiting that contained only seven disciples with their catch of 153 large fishes. Reading St. Thomas’ commentary on this last chapter of John’ Gospel…….this is the goal of the ‘New Evangelization.’