[Greek] κοσμικός (kosmikos), [Latin] saeculum, [German] zeitgeist: worldly, earthly, mundane, pertaining to the world; Tit.2:12, Heb.9:1
Cardinal Sarah accuses many Western bishops of accommodating the world and paying lip service to Church teachings. This human Church certainly looks like this Synodal Church, made in the image of man and his lived experiences. Shocker!
Background information:
Greek Hellenism: This term means world, worldly, secular, and belonging to the world.
Secularism: This is a philosophy seeking to interpret life on principles derived solely from the material world without recourse to religion. French secularism in the Age of Enlightenment was based on Gallicanism, which emphasized state supremacy, anti-clericalism, and materialism.
New Testament: This term, suggesting hostility to God, means worldly, earthly, and which belongs to the world.
Tit.2:12: “And training us to reject godless ways (ungodliness) and worldly desires and live temperately, justly, and devotedly in this age.” (Ungodliness and worldly desires: offensive acts (words), things that have nothing to do with the life to come, worldly lusts (desires), ACTIONS (DEEDS) WHICH DO NOT LAST, sinful desires, unlawful desires, selfishness, pride, idolatry and paganism, and superstition.)
Heb.9:1: “Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.” (The Old Covenant permitted all the priests to enter the Holy Place, but only the high priest was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies once a year.)
Cardinal Sarah denounces “atheistic” Western bishops who prefer the world to the cross.
- Too many bishops desire to be “loved by the world” and that they have forgotten that Christianity calls them to be signs of contradiction.
- The Synodal Church continues to focus more on MAKING A BETTER WORLD/SEEKING FAVOR WITH THE WORLD rather than on BRINGING SOULS INTO HEAVEN.
- Many bishops are more concerned with inclusion, tolerance, false compassion rather than with forgiveness, conversion of heart, sin, and Jesus’ statements on sin.
- Sin is no longer talked about. As a result, many souls will be put in eternal mortal peril [ex. homosexual lifestyles among laity and clergy].
- Practical atheism is more insidious because it seeps into every aspect of contemporary culture, including ecclesiastical discourse.
- Many in the Church and its leadership, accommodating to the world, fall in this trap of PRACTICAL ATHEISM (PAYING LIP SERVICE TO GOD).
- This brand of atheism is a masterful trap set by Satan himself.
- Satan only needs for one to forget about God, not necessarily “possess” someone.
- Vatican II naively brought in worldliness and the “smoke of Satan” [spirit of undermining] into the Church so that the Church “can get with the times.”
- Synodality is doubling down on what Vatican II has started. What does say about Synodality? Making the Church more like the world.
Vatican II’s “ecumenical” efforts to “Protestantize” the Mass:
- The Novus Order Mass was designed to appeal to Protestants.
- The sacrificial nature of the Mass (more suited to Catholics) was diminished in favor of a community meal (more suited for Protestants).
- Pope Paul VI meet with six Protestant theologians who were part of a commission to “Protestantize” the Mass. LET THAT SINK IN.
- Mass attendance has decreased since Vatican II. Fewer percentage of Catholics believe in the Real Presence. How is that working out for Catholics?
- The sacrificial nature and meaning of the Mass has lost among Catholics.
- The Latin Mass’s separation of clergy from the laity has been replaced by the Novus Order Mass’s commingling of clergy and laity in the sanctuary.
- We now have an extraordinary number of “extraordinary” Eucharistic ministers on the altar performing a function originally done by the clergy.
Pope Paul VI posing with six Protestant theologians engaged in a commission to “Protestantize” the Mass ===> Novus Order Mass
Three Church practices have directly or indirectly contributed to the laity’s DECREASED belief in the Real Presence:
- Receiving the Eucharist in the hand: This started as a FORBIDDEN practice which later became internationally “normalized”.
- Removing altar rails in Church: This practice was abolished because it was perceived as “a barrier between the priest and the people of God.” This practice also became internationally “normalized”.
- Using Extra-ordinary Ministers: This practice started in 1971 in the United States. This practice also became internationally “normalized” and COMMONPLACE.
Receiving the Eucharist in the hand:
- This practice replaced the custom of kneeling receiving the Eucharist on the tongue. This diminished the more reverential attitude in receiving the Eucharist.
- This practice has contributed to liturgical sacrilege: not consuming the Eucharist, dropped Eucharistic hosts and crumbs, Extraordinary Minister being offended when someone kneels when receiving the Eucharist.
- Extraordinary ministers are becoming mundane, ordinary, and commonplace (at every Mass) instead of being utilized in extraordinary situations.
- Extraordinary ministers are commonplace in the sanctuary, diminishing the separation of the clergy from the laity.
Advantages of using altar rails in Church:
- They actually speed up the distribution of the Eucharist.
- They eliminate the need for the common use of Extra-ordinary ministers.
- They will prevent liturgical sacrilege, abuses, and mishaps.
- They allow the recipient be in a more reverential attitude to receive the Eucharist.
- They appeal to the younger members of the parish who are seeking Tradition and reverence.
Etymology:
- The Greek noun kosmos means order, good order, and orderly arrangement.
- The Greek verb kosmeo means to prepare, to order, to arrange, and to adorn.
- The Greek adjective kosmetikos means skilled in adornment and arrangement.
Conclusion:
Zeitgeist, cosmic, microcosm, cosmetic, secular
The French Revolution (The Reign of Terror) is most notably known by atheism and the persecution of the Church in France in the late 1700’s.
Scripture makes an important distinction with temporary worldly actions (belonging with the world) and with eternal actions in doing God’s will (not belonging to this world).
Update: Satan is the prince of the world (Jn.12:31) ===> worldliness and the “smoke of Satan”
Yet unfortunately there many clergy who will be at odds with the laity who seek to have altar rails.
Pope Leo recently appointed Bishop Sithembele Sipuka as archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. This bishop seeks to inculturate pagan and polytheistic practices in the Catholic liturgy. Shocker.
In his March for Life address, Vice President Vance compares abortion to pagan human sacrifice. The baby is being sacrificed on the “altar of convenience.”
Curiously, there seem to be several bishops who feel empowered to further implement Traditiones Custodes in their dioceses. Pope Leo XIV still has not yet made his response about Traditiones Custodes. Many priests are now being put in an uncomfortable and unenviable position of having to obey their superiors’ questionable actions about the TLM.
When the laity can see the sense of separation from sanctuary, the laity’s reverence for the Eucharist will only increase. Otherwise, they may have further difficulty in seeing that the sanctuary is where heaven meets earth.
The Traditional Latin Mass illustrates this separation between the clergy and laity. The Novus Order Mass seems to actually undermine this notion with the commingling of clergy and laity in the sanctuary.
The Synod of Synodalities seeks to remake (decentralize) the organizational structure of the Church. Sounds like making a Protestant Church. The Synod also seeks to share the decision-making authority between the clergy and laity. Laity deciding doctrine and dogma! What could possibly ever go wrong with this???
As schism, heresy, error, and evil have entered into the Church and society, still too many clergy (Cardinals, bishops, and priests) have remained cowardly silent and indifferent in speaking against out these concerns. We also must acknowledge that the Devil may influence some clergy in undermining the Church.
Satan and his minions are seeking to undermine the Church by upending God’s moral laws (teachings) and confusing and corrupting man.
Quotes by G. K. Chesterton, often rightly called the “apostle of common sense”:
“We do not want a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world.”
“The modern world is insane, not so much because it admits the abnormal as it because it cannot recover the normal.”
“Right is right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it.” (Right and wrong must not be determined by worldly secular values.)
“Progress should mean that we are changing the world to fit the vision. Instead we are always changing the vision.”