Thursday, July 12

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

From Trent....
I have recently started my doctoral work, which is at least partly why I have not been blogging much as of late.  There was some church history in a section I was reading lately and, through various machinations and some good ol' fashioned wiki-creep, I ended up reading the 12 Conclusions of the Lollards. Some of their conclusions don't hold as much truck today as they did some 100 years before Luther....but I find the following four of real interest.
To Vatican II

  • The Church, once it began to deal in secular, temporal matters, drove out Faith, Hope and Charity.
  • Celibacy in the clergy leads to prejudice against women and 'induces sodomy within the Holy Church'.
  • The clergy 'feigned of a power higher than angels, is not the priesthood the which Christ ordained to his Apostles'.
  • Clergy should stay out of secular offices and should be accountable to civil laws.

These are reasons Wycliffe, who influenced Hus and, by extension, all of the Reformationists, wanted to break with Rome.

 Aren't these recurring themes?

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
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3 comments:

  1. parepidemosJuly 13, 2012 at 8:38 AM

    Not at all in agreement that celibacy induces sodomy, but I certainly agree with the rest. Still, one has to have the faith that, ultimately, the Holy Spirit will triumph. Good fortune with the doctoral work.

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    1. TimJuly 13, 2012 at 2:46 PM

      I also do not agree that celibacy induces sodomy (which, in this context, probably means homosexual sex). I WOULD say, though, that celibacy forces ANY sexual activity to be illicit (and most likely immoral). In light of the decades of abuse, rape and sexual misconduct by RC clergy....I don't think I need to draw a map.

      Though I agree with you that we should have faith, I am reminded that we are the hands of God and the Good Work will not do itself. As is commonly attributed to Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

      Thank you for the kind wishes.

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  2. parepidemosJuly 14, 2012 at 1:55 PM

    In agreement with your response, Tim. When I said that we must believe in the ultimate triumph of the Spirit, I didn't mean to advocate quietism; God forbid. Rather, I wanted to say that I have a firm belief that, although there is an incredible degree of suffering in the world, there is also a host of goodness exemplified in the lives of countless, courageous people.

    Tim, I do believe, most sincerely, that by God's grace (and yes, our cooperation with that grace) love will vanquish hatred, sadness will scatter before the brilliance of joy, oppression will wither before the gaze of truth and all pain (that which we cause and that which we experience) will be healed by the balm of forgiveness, compassion and acceptance. I hold to these because I believe that God will never give up on us.

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