Trends in the Church

I see six psychological tendencies and attitudes (in her members) that have popped up in the Catholic Church, during her  long journey through the centuries, towards her final destination, similar to that of the Jews going from Egypt to the Holy Land: reactionaries, orthodox, conservatives, modernists, liberals, and progressives.  These mentalities are expressed in the chief areas of dogma, liturgy, discipline and morals

1)      Reactionaries:These types want the Catholic Church to turn back (like those Jews  who wanted to return to Egypt). In history, they opposed the definition of the infallibility of the Pope (ultramontanists), and defended the missal of Pius V and theTridentine Mass. They also wanted nuns to be covered from nose to toes, and believed, like Augustine and Gregory had taught, that women were to conceive children in the same manner  possible as the Virgin Mary did, without the collaboration of man.

2)      Orthodox:These believe in preserving the precious, legitimate truths and official teachings of the Church, but are also open to the necessary, valid and urgent changes and modifications that history sometimes demands of her. They represent the Jews that believed in God’s promise, taking with them the tablets of the law and the showbread towards the promised land, resting when necessary, and walking when fortified.

3)      Conservatives:These types believe in bringing the Church to a standstill and a state of stagnation. They represent the Jews that did not want to go forward, but wished to remain in the desert and die. They are opposed to any sort of new ideas or concepts and persecute, prohibit and repress them ferociously, viewing them  as threats or “heresy”. They are like the Pharisees of Jesus’ times, that brought Israel into decadence and religious hypocrisy. They would love to turn the Church into a great museum,  visited and admired by all, but deprived of life and spirit. The conservative clergy in America is responsible for the loss and defection of 17 million Catholics. Many evangelicals were ex-catholics, fed up with the inertness of this group and who no longer supported their dead letter attitude.
After 30 years,  the teachings of Vatican II on the changes in the liturgy still have not been implemented or carried out in this country, and the blame for this is theirs. They continue with out-dated, antiquated, inadequate  and out-moded concepts of sex, marriage and celibacy. They are the real culprits and ones responsible for all the moral crisis occuring amongst marriage couples and religious priests and nuns. Their repressive, ignorant and paranoical attitudes concerning the moral law  has blocked and prevented  any progress, understanding or development of this area of human knowledge and behavior. They are the ones to condemn abortion, contraception, sex outside of marriage, etc. but won’t lift a finger to propose a satisfactory and intelligent solution to the problems.

4)      Modernists:These types are the ones that St. Paul warned us against. They are like the Jews who fashioned the golden calf for the people to worship in the desert, saying that Moses had died and would never come back. The modernists would have the Church conform herself to the mentality of the world and accept her pagan teachings and practices. Modernist theologians are those who are always trying to intellectually justify and argue in favor of the acceptance of that which is morally unacceptable: abortion, contraceptives, Marxism, homoeroticism, second illegitimate marriages, women priests, etc. They attempt to water down doctrine and destroy the Church from within. Christ, reassured us, however, that the gates of hell will not prevail and that His Church would be protected from such types.

5)      Liberals:These types feel that the Church walks too slowly and going at a snail’s pace. They think that she ought to be more open and lenient in her attitude. They relax greatly and widely interpret  her laws and customs. They are like the impatient Jews that constantly complained about the lack of drinking water, meat and other things for the comfort of the journey. While they do sometimes have legitimate gripes and complaints against the Church, they should also learn to dialogue and obtain, through a patient, respectable and persevering struggle, the victory of the important changes needed to be made in the Church. Whether it is a question of priestly celibacy or changes in the liturgy, they are to go through the proper and authoritative channels in the spirit of obedience.

6)      Progressives:These types believe that they know more than the Church does and even make an illegitimate use of her to promote their own projects and ideas. They will preach bold and novel ideas and doctrines unapproved of nor recognized by the Church (such as Marxism, homoerotic clergy, women priests, contraceptives, etc). The progressives are like those Jews that wanted to go ahead and enter the Holy Land without the permission of God or Moses. They fought the enemy alone and were defeated, because they did not walk with the Israelites.

    Now you ask: what am I? I am an orthodox-liberal. I am a true son of the Church, obedient to her magisterium, but also open to the promoting the necessary changes of which permit her to better evangelize mankind. To me, the worst enemies of the Church are her conservative members, which are numerous. I believe they will still bring to loss millions of souls along with themselves.  Dogma and morals are unchangeable, since they are of Divine Revelation and the natural law. Discipline and the liturgy can, depending on epochs, be modified to better suit the needs of mankind (though the essence of the liturgy is immutable).

Anthony Mellace