Are "traditional Catholics" succumbing to Liberalism?

The Catholic Church will be saved by the Holy Spirit, from this present crisis through His Vicar. The Will of Christ is the Church needs and has a Pope. The Catholic Church is visible. Pope Francis is the Pope, the Hierarchy has not collapsed, or defected, as some sedevacantists, and de facto sedevacantists believe.  This is private judgment, this is liberalism.

Yet, this is the logical conclusion of Catholics living in a liberal world. Private judgment, a cornerstone of protestantism, has infected many who call themselves "traditional". Liberals hate obedience, they love "liberty", revolution. 

Protestantism and Freemasonry have done a marvelous job in poisoning Catholics' minds. What greater delusion can there be when someone who is a liberal, believes he is a "traditional Catholic". This is a masterstroke of Satan. To convince the slave he is a freeman. 

When Irenaeus, who recently joined this blog, pointed out that we are all, to some degree, infected with liberalism, he was "blocked" by a blogger who claims to be "traditional", and, by the way, has declared Pope Francis not to be the Pope. Apparently, the real Pope is Bishop Joseph Ratzinger. Even Luther did not go that far! Such people should be avoided, as they are spreading spiritual poison and endangering souls. But there we are. What can we expect of 500 years of protestantism, 200 years of liberalism, and 100 years of modernism? 

Thus it is no longer now a question of even returning to the delusions of the 1950s and 40s. 

There is no doubt that the behaviour, the confusion, the scandals, the homosexual outrages, the sexual abuse coverups, the waffling at sin, by so many churchmen in Rome (sadly, including the Holy Father - witness the catastrophe in Chile, and the now second scandal emerging over the coverup of serial homosexual rapist/predator, Theodore McCarrick, former Cardinal Archbishop of Washington), is the source of the increase in confusion and dissent amongst Catholics. 

But to break Catholic unity, because of someone else's sin? This is insanity! St. Paul warned us, we cannot do evil, that good will come from it. 

Do we not see, that Satan, seeing this confusion, is now tempting Catholics to break with the Church? Where would we go? There is only one Church. Are we to wander off to some "synagogue of Satan", to quote St. John? Are we to leave our Mother's bedside, when She needs us most!? No! We remain with our Mother!

"Lord, you have the words of eternal life". By the Will of Christ, there is ONE Church, and She is visible, and has a Hierarchy. Until deposed by the legitimate authority, these churchmen still retain jurisdictional power. They still hold their sees, and still dispense the Sacraments, irrespective of their sin. The High Priests still were the head of the Jewish Church, even as they were planning to crucify the Lord of Glory. Jesus Christ did NOT depose them! 

 "St. Augustine is fully aware that not all members of the clerical state and hierarchy are holy men, and if such is the case what is the relation of the wicked members to the body of Christ?  

The relation is the same as that of all other members. Good bishops participate fully in the life of the mystical body; they, as principal members are bound to it by life-giving ties. Bad bishops, may have jurisdictional powers and authority and belong to the Church, like all sinners not separated from it, but they do not participate in the life of grace. 

They are not however severed either from the external Church or the mystical body... till the end of time two categories of pastors are bound to exist. There are shepherds “who occupy a pastoral chair in order to tend to the sheep; others, however, sit on them in order to enjoy temporal honors and secular advantages”. 

Unrightous bishops are not honored with the name of sons, but are called mercenaries. St. Peter, who is portrayed by St. Augustine as a personification of the Church, is also presented as a symbol of all the pastors of the Church. 

However, it is only good pastors and not of mercenaries that Peter is representative...in opposition to the other apostles, Judas is reputed to be such a mercenary; and if this happened to one of the apostles, who were so close to Christ, there should not be reason for scandal if his example finds imitators among the apostles' successors. They can have a place in the temporal existence of the Church, but will not enjoy the eternal existence of the mystical body of Christ" (Grabowski, pp. 219-221)

A return to fifties Catholicism is a fantasy that desires a Church too rich, too comfortable, too conformable to the secular world that was rapidly sliding into apostasy. God, who writes straight with crooked lines used the Council to blow away the rot, the decadence, the hypocrisy, that had invaded the Catholic Church for decades prior to the 1960s. The Catholic Church, in Her churchmen, had been too close to the edge of the cliff and had a great fall. 

Some perhaps perceiving this, wish to return to a neo-gnostic elitism (seemingly a neo-Jansenism - and, as noted, really just a "Catholic" version of protestantism). But this is no solution, but just another temptation from the devil. We need to "watch and pray", remain humble and follow the example of saints like Philip Neri, Therese of Lisieux, and Brother Andre (whom we will be celebrating this coming Monday). 

Let us pray for the Church, the Pope and the bishops. Let us pray for our parish priests who need our encouragement and support!

Reference: Grabowski, S. J. (1957). The Church: An introduction to the theology of St. Augustine. B. Herder Book Co; St. Louis, MO & London, England.