The Storm after the Calm

Of course, almost immediately certain news outlets majored on the disappointment of certain circles of American Catholics whose reactions to the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy range from dismay to rage. These are people -- not only laymen but professed religious who ostensibly know better! -- who insist that the Church ought to be moving with the times, ordaining women to the priesthood and allowing without question abortion on demand, gay marriage, and a host of other agendas that have come to society's fore in the past twenty to thirty years.

Listen: Catholic doctrine is not a plastic medium that can be reshaped to accomodate the whims and caprices of any given generation or culture. It is the deposit of Faith, the reflection of an unchanging and unchangeable God.

I do hope that word will come from on high to these dissidents, in a clear and decisive manner, to fish, cut bait, or get out of the boat. Sounds harsh? Our professed religious take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience -- obedience to the Magisterium, the authority of the Church. In a showdown between which one is the more likely to budge, I'd say that the self-will of the dissidents is the wall of Jericho that, made by man, will be tumbled flat, one way or another, by the power of almighty God.