Thursday, April 9, 2015
A Sincere Question for Mrs. Bogle & the Catholic Herald
By: Michael J. Matt | Editor
Cardinal Jean Daniélou, S.J.
In her April 9, 2015 column, "The holy cardinal who died in a prostitute’s home" Joanna Bogle offers a spirited defense of Cardinal Jean Daniélou, the famous progressive who, according to Bogle, was largely maligned and misunderstood. Fair enough! I hope Mrs. Bogle is absolutely spot on about that, for the sake of the man's soul if nothing else.
But I have an honest question for Mrs. Bogle who, being a very busy woman, may or may not have time to answer. So, I will put it to readers of The Remnant. In the penultimate paragraph of her article, Mrs. Bogle writes: "Today, the truth is known and Daniélou is beginning to be honoured as he should be. I am rather proud to have been a part of the group that stood by him, even when his reputation was unjustly tarnished. I’m discovering with joy his earlier writings, and being nourished by them. The post-Vatican II chaos gave way to happier times, with St John Paul the Great paving the way for a new era."
But I have an honest question for Mrs. Bogle who, being a very busy woman, may or may not have time to answer. So, I will put it to readers of The Remnant. In the penultimate paragraph of her article, Mrs. Bogle writes: "Today, the truth is known and Daniélou is beginning to be honoured as he should be. I am rather proud to have been a part of the group that stood by him, even when his reputation was unjustly tarnished. I’m discovering with joy his earlier writings, and being nourished by them. The post-Vatican II chaos gave way to happier times, with St John Paul the Great paving the way for a new era."
And now to my question: In what sense can it be understood that the "post-Vatican II chaos" has given way to "happier times", with Pope John Paul having "paved the way for a new era"? What can this mean? I'm quite serious. I really want to know. What are Mrs. Bogle, the Catholic Herald, and so many other well-meaning conservative Catholics today seeing in our Church racked with scandal and apostasy, as well as mass defection from the Sacraments, that could possibly translate into "happier times" and the dawning of a "new era"?
WHAT IS IT? What new era? What about the massive clerical sex scandal that makes the circumstances of Danielou’s unfortunate demise appear positively tame by comparison (after all, at least he died in the company of a woman!). And the best defense of which I can think against the charge of the late Cardinal’s modernism is that in comparison to the modernism espoused by Pope Francis, Danielou was Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
I’m anxious to see what these fellow Catholics are seeing. I want the blindfold removed from my eyes so that I too can appreciate this “new era” and join the celebration of these “happier times”. God help me, I’m trying to raise children in the Church John Paul the Great left us, and it must be said that parents must become the Catholic equivalents of Navy Seals just to survive behind these enemy lives. There are virtually no nuns left, the Catholic schools are either shuttered or such dens of iniquity that home-schooling is the only option, the holy priesthood is in obvious shambles, and the Mass has become, as Pope Benedict put it, “totally trivialized”.
There’s a new era, alright, but it is marked by what Pope John Paul called the “silent apostasy” and Pope Benedict termed the “dictatorship of relativism.”
What, pray tell, are they talking about? Can someone help me out here?
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Michael J. Matt | Editor
Michael J. Matt has been an editor of The Remnant since 1990. Since 1994, he has been the newspaper's editor. A graduate of Christendom College, Michael Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Church and the modern world. He is the host of The Remnant Underground and Remnant TV's The Remnant Forum. He's been U.S. Coordinator for Notre Dame de Chrétienté in Paris--the organization responsible for the Pentecost Pilgrimage to Chartres, France--since 2000. Mr. Matt has led the U.S. contingent on the Pilgrimage to Chartres for the last 24 years. He is a lecturer for the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy. He is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly delivers addresses and conferences to Catholic groups about the Mass, home-schooling, and the culture question. Together with his wife, Carol Lynn and their seven children, Mr. Matt currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.