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The desolate city: Revolution in the Catholic Church
The desolate Revolution in the Catholic Church
219 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 29, 2015
Two things I have to say about this conservative take on what really happened 20 years after the Council.
On one hand, we see how the Church tries to reform herself over and over again. We see here the pendulum swing that Vatican II led to, and we also see countermeasures that led to where we are now.
On the other hand, we also see streaks here of conservatism that one can identify with hardcore "traditionalist" Catholics of the 80s and 90s. It's just sad that an influential person in Anne Roche was quick to throw away the things that brought Catholics back not only to the fold of the Church but also to the roots of the Christian faith. Not to mention with scathing rhetoric.
Bottom line, it's sad to see that the ideological systems that the Church goes against in these trying times is used to term the Second Vatican Council as a "revolution" of all sorts.
On one hand, we see how the Church tries to reform herself over and over again. We see here the pendulum swing that Vatican II led to, and we also see countermeasures that led to where we are now.
On the other hand, we also see streaks here of conservatism that one can identify with hardcore "traditionalist" Catholics of the 80s and 90s. It's just sad that an influential person in Anne Roche was quick to throw away the things that brought Catholics back not only to the fold of the Church but also to the roots of the Christian faith. Not to mention with scathing rhetoric.
Bottom line, it's sad to see that the ideological systems that the Church goes against in these trying times is used to term the Second Vatican Council as a "revolution" of all sorts.
September 23, 2024
A CATHOLIC WRITER EXPLAINS THE "EXTRAORDINARY COLLAPSE" OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD SINCE 1960
Anne Roche Muggeridge has also written 'The Gates of Hell: The Struggle for the Catholic Church.' She wrote in the first chapter of this 1990 book, "This book is an attempt explain the complete and extraordinarily collapse of the Catholic world in which I grew up, a society still in 1960 at the peak of confidence and unity. Since the Catholic Church is a human society... it is both possible and illuminating to compare events within with similar events in secular society. I argue that a revolution is taking place within the Roman Catholic Church, a classic revolution in the pattern of those that from time to time convulse and transform secular human societies." (Pg. 9)
She suggests, "There is no hint in [Pope John XXIII's] life or words that ... [he] had anything more in mind by aggiornamento than a modernization and simplification of procedures and disciplines, a kind of cheerful spring-cleaning of all the Church's treasures to make them more attractive to expected guests... He thought the whole thing would be over in a few months, and he seems not to have understood the new meaning the word 'ecumenism' had taken on. His own idea of ecumenism... was that all the separated brethren should return to the Catholic Church forthwith." (Pg. 72)
She observes, "In 1960, the majority of Catholics were BELIEVERS in the full sense in which Pope Paul used the word: they gave to the Church the presumption of truth in sexual morality as in all moral law because of the idea they held of the authority of the Church. And the presumption of truth bound them to obedience.
"Catholics accepted this, approaching the difficult teaching on marriage with varying degrees of heroism. Being sinners, they probably disobeyed it at least as often as they disobeyed the other natural moral laws. But even when they were totally disobedient, they continued to accept the Church's competence to teach it as true. Disobedient Catholics, knowing they had no firm purpose of amendment, absented themselves from the sacraments until such time as grace or circumstances enabled them to be once again in communion." (Pg. 105)
She states, "No significant change can be made in a rite without endangering the belief the rite expresses... no significant change IS made in a rite unless the men making it have experienced a serious change in belief in what the rite formerly expressed." (Pg. 130)
She adds, "I wrote years ago that the new liturgy was devised to ideologues and installed by dupes. Do I still stand by this harsh judgment? Yes, I do. I also wrote that I categorically assert the validity of the new liturgy when it is celebrated according to the mind of the Church. Do I still assert this validity? Yes, I do... the Holy Ghost has not allowed His Church on earth to lose its power to make present perpetually the Sacrifice of the Cross... [But] I know from experience that attendance [at Mass] demands a constant struggle to maintain the Catholic world view against the current liturgical expression of it." (Pg. 135)
She observes, "Catholics keep saying about the revolution, 'You can't turn the clock back.' Of course you can, and must, if it's telling the wrong time." (Pg. 173)
Conservative and traditional Catholics will be keenly interested in this book, although it is nearly 35 years old.
Anne Roche Muggeridge has also written 'The Gates of Hell: The Struggle for the Catholic Church.' She wrote in the first chapter of this 1990 book, "This book is an attempt explain the complete and extraordinarily collapse of the Catholic world in which I grew up, a society still in 1960 at the peak of confidence and unity. Since the Catholic Church is a human society... it is both possible and illuminating to compare events within with similar events in secular society. I argue that a revolution is taking place within the Roman Catholic Church, a classic revolution in the pattern of those that from time to time convulse and transform secular human societies." (Pg. 9)
She suggests, "There is no hint in [Pope John XXIII's] life or words that ... [he] had anything more in mind by aggiornamento than a modernization and simplification of procedures and disciplines, a kind of cheerful spring-cleaning of all the Church's treasures to make them more attractive to expected guests... He thought the whole thing would be over in a few months, and he seems not to have understood the new meaning the word 'ecumenism' had taken on. His own idea of ecumenism... was that all the separated brethren should return to the Catholic Church forthwith." (Pg. 72)
She observes, "In 1960, the majority of Catholics were BELIEVERS in the full sense in which Pope Paul used the word: they gave to the Church the presumption of truth in sexual morality as in all moral law because of the idea they held of the authority of the Church. And the presumption of truth bound them to obedience.
"Catholics accepted this, approaching the difficult teaching on marriage with varying degrees of heroism. Being sinners, they probably disobeyed it at least as often as they disobeyed the other natural moral laws. But even when they were totally disobedient, they continued to accept the Church's competence to teach it as true. Disobedient Catholics, knowing they had no firm purpose of amendment, absented themselves from the sacraments until such time as grace or circumstances enabled them to be once again in communion." (Pg. 105)
She states, "No significant change can be made in a rite without endangering the belief the rite expresses... no significant change IS made in a rite unless the men making it have experienced a serious change in belief in what the rite formerly expressed." (Pg. 130)
She adds, "I wrote years ago that the new liturgy was devised to ideologues and installed by dupes. Do I still stand by this harsh judgment? Yes, I do. I also wrote that I categorically assert the validity of the new liturgy when it is celebrated according to the mind of the Church. Do I still assert this validity? Yes, I do... the Holy Ghost has not allowed His Church on earth to lose its power to make present perpetually the Sacrifice of the Cross... [But] I know from experience that attendance [at Mass] demands a constant struggle to maintain the Catholic world view against the current liturgical expression of it." (Pg. 135)
She observes, "Catholics keep saying about the revolution, 'You can't turn the clock back.' Of course you can, and must, if it's telling the wrong time." (Pg. 173)
Conservative and traditional Catholics will be keenly interested in this book, although it is nearly 35 years old.
September 30, 2010
Beautifully written in Canadian, Malcolm Muggeridge's daughter-in-law's account of 'the Revolution' - which occurred by means of Vatican II, though not, she carefully shows, dictated in any necessary way by Vatican II - in the Roman Catholic church, which took unquestioned, if difficult behaviors like avoiding contraception that were perfectly well accepted in 1960, eliminated them, and drove the very people in whose name the revolution was made out of the church. A tragedy described by one of its victims, for whom every blow was felt personally, and which focuses not on "that dreadful thing which Freud calls 'sex'", to quote Lucia of the Lucia novels, but on the ruination of the Mass, above all. Great on John Paul II as well. One of those great demonstrations of religious faith, that even the faithless can admire.
Which reminds of Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock (surely misquoted here):
And on her chest a jeweled Cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore."
She just died, and it was the wonderful David Warren, formerly editor of The Idler, now of the Ottawa Citizen via davidwarrenonline.com, who brought it to my attention.
Which reminds of Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock (surely misquoted here):
And on her chest a jeweled Cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore."
She just died, and it was the wonderful David Warren, formerly editor of The Idler, now of the Ottawa Citizen via davidwarrenonline.com, who brought it to my attention.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews