Spaemann: ‘There’s a Limit to how much the Church can take’

Novus Ordo philosopher ups the ante…

Robert Spaemann: ‘There is a limit to how much the Church can take’

Robert Spaemann is an 89-year-old German philosopher and one of the few outspoken critics of “Pope” Francis. His religious affiliation is what we call “conservative Novus Ordo”, that is, he believes the Modernist Vatican II Sect to be the Catholic Church and Francis her legitimate head while adhering to what’s typically considered to be a conservative interpretation of Vatican II and the post-conciliar magisterium.

In April of this year, he denounced Francis’ “Apostolic Exhortation” Amoris Laetitia and warned about the “danger of schism” while Francis continues to wreck what is left of Catholicism in the Vatican II Church. Over a year ago, Spaemann had made headlines by describing the Francis Show as a “chaotic pontificate” characterized by “theological apathy.”

And a lot has happened since then, most especially Francis’ trashing of black-and-white morality, which we covered in a recent post here, and which is apparently what triggered Prof. Spaemann’s latest monograph:

On June 17, 2016, the German paper Die Tagespost published Spaemann’s article entitled, “There is a limit to how much the Church can take”. We have translated and are reproducing for you below the most important parts:

…

When [Pope Francis] said recently that there is no “either-or” in Christianity, he apparently isn’t bothered by Christ’s word: “But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil” (Mt 5:37). The epistles of [St.] Paul the Apostle are full of “either-or” [ideas]. And finally: “He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth” (Mt 12:30).

But Pope Francis only means to “make suggestions.” Dissenting from suggestions cannot be impermissible. And one must dissent quite vigorously, in my opinion, from his claim in Amoris Laetitia that Jesus merely “suggested a demanding ideal.” No, Jesus commanded “as one having power, and not as the scribes and Pharisees” (Mt 7:29). At the occasion of speaking to the rich youth, among others, He Himself refers to the inner unity of following Him with the keeping of the Ten Commandments (Lk 18:18-23). Jesus does not preach an ideal, He establishes a new reality, the kingdom of God on earth. Jesus does not suggest, he invites and commands: “A new commandment I give unto you.” This new reality and this commandment are closely related to the nature of man, which is discernible by rational means.

… The debate [about Communion for the “divorced-and-remarried”] now continues, and [is] just as controversial as before, because the Pope refuses to quote the clear remarks of his predecessors in this regard, and because his [own] response is so obviously ambiguous that anyone can and does interpret it in accordance with his own opinion. “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Cor 14:8). When, meanwhile, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith finds himself compelled to publicly accuse one of the closest episcopal advisors and ghostwriter of the Pope of heresy, things have really gone too far already. There is a limit to how much even the Roman Catholic Church can bear.

Pope Francis loves to compare the critics of his policies with those who “have sitten on the chair of Moses” [Mt 23:2]. But here too [the accusation] backfires. For it was the doctors of the law who defended divorce and were passing on the rules concerning it. Jesus’ disciples also ended up being aghast at their Master’s strict prohibition against divorce: “If the case of a man with his wife be so, it is not expedient to marry” (Mt 19:10). Just like the people who left when the Lord announced He was going to make Himself [their] food: “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” (Jn 6:61). The Lord “had mercy on the people”. But He was no populist. “Will you also go away?” (Jn 6:68). This question put before his Apostles was His only reaction to the dwindling number of followers.

(Robert Spaemann, “Die Kirche ist nicht grenzenlos belastbar”, Die Tagespost, June 21, 2016; our translation.)

Indeed, there is a limit to how much the Church can take, and a heretical Pope definitely exceeds that limit. The real question, on the other hand, is how much Novus Ordo adherents can take before finally coming to the conclusion that this blaspheming false prophet in Rome is not the Vicar of Christ but the Vicar of Judas.

Monographs like those of Prof. Spaemann will perhaps delight conservatives here and there and make a great headline for a day or two, but ultimately not change one iota of anything.

Dump Francis.

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