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Thomas's avatar

In my thinking, a normal Catholicism would be one where the “People of God” submit to and obey the Church and her successors precisely BECAUSE they hold to unchanging, timeless truths. It’s a false dichotomy to say one either should hold to “tradition” OR be in union with the Church. It needs to be BOTH AND. And yet, far too often, far too common, this is precisely what we see.

This is PRECISELY the dilemma that many traditionalist Catholics find themselves in. Obey their conscious about doctrine, morals or tradition, or stay in union with a Church which has abandoned (if not repudiated) the “old paths.” Not that I think even most trads are fully aware of the breadth or depth of Catholic teaching prior to the Council of Trent, because there is much ignorance among both the clergy and laity. But that’s a topic for another day.

As a former trad, but current Catholic struggling with and for my faith in the Byzantine East, I’d like to think my position outlined above is one of common sense, but reading comments such as you posted from Lewis, or from some trads who ultimately have a very low view of the Church and what it means to be in it, I’ve deduced my position probably isn’t all that common sense to most people today.

The Catholic Church, painting with a broad brush, today feels more like a gay man wanting to come out of the closet but dancing around the truth of whom he is knowing he’ll alienate his family or friends. So he keeps hanging onto old appearances while dropping hints. The Church bears little resemblance to the one I read in the pages of the Holy Fathers.

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Thomas F Davis's avatar

I've watched Dr. Eduardo Echeverria on Dr. Larry Chapp's site. He is a decent and completely reasonable person. I have never heard him say anything that was untrue or even inordinately critical, his views were sober, measured, tempered. The irony of this is that he was punished for adhering to basic truths that don't change, by a prelate who apparently wants them to change.

No, I'm not going to worship the Zeitgeist.

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