[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, accommodating to the world, of succumbing to a “practical atheism”.
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.
- So many bishops desire to be “loved by the world” that they have forgotten that Christianity calls them to be signs of contradiction.
- Many bishops have a “failure of nerve” when confronted by cultural revolutions convulsing the West.
- Practical atheism is more insidious because it seeps into every aspect of contemporary culture, including ecclesiastical discourse.
- Many pretend to be Christian believers and men of faith, but in fact live as pagans and unbelievers.
- 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.
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.
Three Church practices will ultimately 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 became “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”.
- The permissive culture following Vatican II allowed for these practices to become “normalized”.
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. Keeping the Extraordinary ministers outside the sanctuary will reinforce the separation of the clergy from the laity.
Advantages of using altar rails in Church:
- They 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 beautify the sanctuary. This helps the laity further sense the sanctity of the sanctuary.
- 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.
- They remind the laity of the separation of the sanctuary in the Traditional Latin Mass.
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.”
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 (accumulating longer lasting heavenly treasures for oneself).
Update: Pope Francis and others, in their efforts to create a worldly synodal Church, is moving the Church to accommodate the world. We now have a Church is tolerating worldly values, situational moralities, and sin.
Yet there will continually clergy who say altar rails and keelers are not necessary. There will be clergy who will be at odds with the laity who seek to have altar rails.
Cardinal Sarah rightly points out what man continually seeks to redefine the image of the Church. This has resulted in diminished belief in the Real Presence.
The North Carolina Bishop Michael Martin, is understandably getting much criticism for for attacking Catholic traditions.
When the laity can further see the sense of separation from sanctuary, the laity’s reverence for the Eucharist will only increase. They will see that the sanctuary is where heaven meets earth.
The Vatican seems to act more like an NGO, engaged in worldly missions, rather than a church concerned with saving souls. Not much is said about what is sin and forgiveness.
Pope Francis’ Synod of Synodalities seeks to remake the structure and the decision-making authority the most poorly catechized generations of laity in recent memory. Laity deciding doctrine and dogma! What could ever go wrong with this???
The German Cardinal Kasper claims that the Church needs more leadership from the laity.
Pope Francis’s efforts to “reform” and “renew” the Church has not truly renewed the Church. Instead, there continues to be further confusion, division, schism, and heresy in the Church. Pope Francis’ efforts have been a failure for the Church.
As schism, heresy, error, and evil have entered into the Church and society, still too 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.
We now have high-level Church clergy shutting down other clergy deemed too Catholic or too Traditional. (This has come from the Bergoglian Reign of Terror and Traditiones Custodes.
Satan and his minions are seeking to undermine the Church by upending God’s moral laws (teachings) and confusing and corrupting man.
Pope Pius X’s encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis correctly foretold that the Modernists would seek to democratize the Church magisterium (teaching authority).
Pope Pius X: “Progress of dogmas is, in reality, nothing but corruption of dogmas.”