The Cure Is the Disease? The Vatican's New Document "Venite ad Me"

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:11] Welcome to Crisis Point. I'm Eric Sammons, your host, editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button, smash the like button. That way you won't miss any of our episodes. And also it tells the algorithm to share this podcast with others so they will see it as well. [00:00:29] Okay, let's get started. So today, this morning, the Vatican, the castry of Dr. For the doctrine of the Faith, dropped a new document and it's called Vanite Adme Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal. Yeah. Change. [00:00:48] And so basically it is a document written by Cardinal Fernandez and Monsignor Armando. Armando Mateo, who is the secretary of the doctrinal section of the ddf. And it's about the transmission of the faith. And so I wanted to go over it a little bit. Now I just went over it today when we look at my notes a lot because I took notes and I want to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm going to give the highlights. I just basically, I know most people won't read it because like all Vatican documents these days, it's too long. [00:01:19] But I did want to give us. It gives us a sense of both Cardinal Fernandez, who we. Who is somewhat notorious, and also just in general about kind of how the Vatican is moving right now, how Fernandez is leading. [00:01:33] Probably the most important of all the dicasteries, the one that's job is to protect the doctrine of the faith. It's a support doctrine. I think this is something important. Remember this, that the job of the DDF is to defend the doctrine of the Catholic faith. It's literally in their name. [00:01:51] And just remember that as we go into this document a little bit. Okay, so it was given a. It was released. It's like I said this morning, October 22nd. I think this. Yeah. Podcast can go out today. [00:02:03] It was approved with a simple approval by Pope Leo, not informa specifica, an audience on August 21, which is the liturgical memorial of St. Pius X. That's something else to remember that this was approved by the Pope on the memorial in the new calendar of Saint Pius X, who of course was very much into defended doctrine, was against the Modernism. [00:02:29] It was. It was finally a given released today, October 22nd, which on the new calendar is the memorial of St. John Paul II. [00:02:38] Again, it's too long. It's about 28, 000 words. [00:02:42] It just, you know, just has a lot in it. The origin of it is that Pope Francis repeatedly urged de Castry to write Something like this. [00:02:53] Leo supposedly renewed it. [00:02:56] And basically what. What the DDF is saying is that the faith has quote, all. Has all but ceased being passed on in places. And he quote, and they quote Leo, so what does it prescribe? So the problem that this document sees is a real problem that the faith is not being passed on. I know here in America, we like to promote the fact that we're getting a lot of conversions. That's great. We love it. I've had podcast episodes about this. I've written about this. That does not mean, however, the faith is being passed on to the next generation. Because what we're seeing is a large number of people who grow up Catholic are still leaving the church when they become adults. That's still happening, has been happening for a long time, but particularly in this century, it's been happening at frightening levels. That's still happening. That has not slowed down. In fact, by any indication, we are getting conversions, but the faith is not being passed on. So I would say I agree completely with the ddf. I agree completely with Fernandez. I mean, you almost can't. I mean, that's just. That's just facts. Even Fernandez, who, I think he's the one who famously said two plus two, we can equal five, even he can't deny the fact that the faith is not being transmitted to the next generation. And so we agree on the problem. The question is, is their solution an actual solution or is it more of the same? The same things have caused the reality that the faith is not being passed on. That's, I think, what we have to look at here. [00:04:28] And so the cure that. That they give is one of the favorite words of the progressive Catholic world. They love this word. It's kerygma. [00:04:37] And it just, they use. It's so overused. I remember learning this term when I was learning theology in the 90s. And it has a real meaning. And it's not like it's one of these things where it's like. It's not the word itself that's the problem. It's how it's been overused. And the kerygma is just basically, that's kind of the gospel in a, In. In a nutshell, the God. The gospel teaching is, and they say in chapter in paragraph 75, Jesus Christ loves you. He gave his life to save you. And now he's living at your side every day to enlighten strength and free you. Okay, that's. That's all true. Nobody would disagree with that. [00:05:14] Now the question is, I think what Happens is when progressives use the term kerygma, they reduce the term and. And they. [00:05:25] They isolate the term. They make it where it's everything, where. Where all you need is that basic preaching that Jesus loves you and he is living by your side, he wants to save you. All that stuff that they reduced the whole faith to just that. And what we'll see here in this document is they separate that from his mission of doctrine of catechesis. Really learning the faith and knowing the faith and defending the faith. And that's. It's a problem. [00:05:56] Faith is way of life. And this is kind of the. It's not. [00:06:02] AI wrote like, you know, the whole. It's not this. [00:06:06] Like these documents do that. That's where AI from. [00:06:10] It's not. It's. [00:06:12] It's not. [00:06:13] It's a life. [00:06:16] It's both. Of course, the faith is not transmitted primarily as a body of doctrinal content or religious information, but as a form of ecclesial life. [00:06:25] Okay. [00:06:26] Doctrine is explicitly bracketed. [00:06:30] The focus is on the act of faith without delving into the specifics of catechesis in orderly and gradual introduction to the church's doctrine. So again, we have this kind of two things at odds with each other. [00:06:43] The doctrine and then this way of life, this living the faith. [00:06:49] You know, a performative proclamation is not a mere transmission of content. [00:06:54] And so it gives this whole. [00:06:57] You know, the method it promotes is like the family first and the parish, evangelizing adults, not just kids, community liturgy, witness beauty culture. By the way, all that which is. [00:07:09] Is mentioned. All that's good. I mean, I agree with that. It does start family first, then the parish. And yes, we should evangelize adults, not just children, like this overemphasis on youth ministry without really focusing on adults, that's a problem. And yes, community liturgy, witness beauty culture. All those things are very important for evangelization, for transmitting the faith now. So, I mean, there's things in here that are going to be, as always, there are going to be agree. I'm going to agree with. The problem, though, is it really sidelines doctrine. [00:07:40] I mean, which is just amazing, considering this is the ddf, the Castry for the Doctrine of the Faith that's writing this. [00:07:51] It says transmission must not be confined to language that can be labeled as scholastic, dogmatic, or moralistic. Oh, we can't have scholastic stuff. We can't have dogmatic or moralistic. That would be awful. That would just turn everybody away. [00:08:04] Now, the reality is, if you look at the young people, particularly the People who are converting to Catholicism in this country, at least a lot of it is because of people talking about the scholastics or dogmatic or moralistic ways. It's actually literally that language that's attracting people because they reject the kind of squishy, touchy feely Catholicism of the seventies that people like Cardinal Fernandez love to promote. [00:08:32] Because they know that's weak, that's got nothing. It's weak sauce in our culture. [00:08:36] They want doctrine, they want morals, they want things like St. Thomas Aquinas. I'm not saying I'm not one of these guys who's like, the scholastic method is the only method and it's the greatest thing on earth, but it is. [00:08:48] Pope Leo 13th himself said it is kind of the, the PR. The top way of understanding doctrine. So I don't think we should just throw it away, give it a little hand wave, and it says, you know, the hierarchy of truth is applied to newcomers. It does not seem fitting to get lost in the many areas of Catholic doctrine, however important they may be. What do you mean getting lost in the many areas of Catholic doctrine? I find like swimming in Catholic doctrine is one of the most invigorating things I can, I can do, like reading Catholic doctrine. I know I'm a little bit of a theology geek. I'm not saying I'm the average person on this, but the reality I've seen though, over and over, when people who have been fed the kind of weak sauce of culture or progressive Catholicism, like the weak pair stuff, when they're given like hearty, real meat, real meat, they, they latch on. They love it. You see this in like, you know, when they all suddenly start reading apologetics from like Catholic Answers or something like that. They're like, wow, this is like, this is great. [00:09:48] It's not just be nice, but it's like, here's what we believe, here's why we believe it. [00:09:53] And so it also says the Kerygma should not impose the truth, but appeal to freedom. I mean, what do we mean by that? Impose the truth. The truth imposes something on us. [00:10:05] The truth imposes something on us. It imposes on us a decision. [00:10:10] Do we accept it or do we reject it? [00:10:13] It's not just simply an appeal to freedom. I mean, we're over emphasizing the whole idea of we have free will, which we do have free will. What I mean by that is we're overemphasizing the fact that there's no responsibilities, there's nobody on the other side. We just do whatever we want know the truth. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the way, the truth and the life. He does impose something on us. He imposes on us a decision. [00:10:39] Will we accept the truth or will we reject it? Will we live in the truth or will we live outside of it? I mean, that really does impose something on us. [00:10:48] Now, of course, like all these documents, it does have the caveat in there. It says the doc that the document does not distance us from the depositum fadi fidelity, nor does it, nor does it imply reducing the discussion to purely subjective domination of fides qua. Okay? They throw in a line, always do this, always this. The whole document will undermine something and they will make sure they have a line in there that they can point to and their defenders can point to say, look, we said we're not trying to distance ourselves from the deposit and fide. [00:11:19] We're totally doctrine people. Yeah, but really the whole document has nothing to do with doctrine. It in fact distance itself. It does distance itself from doctrine. And so essentially you have one paragraph that's is enough to balance the other hundred and something paragraphs in the document. [00:11:38] And here's a more important question. [00:11:41] Who the heck are they talking about? Who exactly in the pews is ever lost in doctrine? Is the problem that when you go to a Catholic Mass, when the homily comes up, that the priest is talking over his head because he's just talking about doctrine, that he's being a scholastic, that he's being too moralistic? I mean, give me a break. We know that's not what's happening. Most parishes, they're just simply the saying, be nice in the homilies, be tolerant, be kind, be ecumenical, being in a religious whatever. [00:12:13] Muslims are people too. [00:12:17] In fact, what you find is the parishes where the priests don't do that, where they are more dogmatic, more moralistic, they attract more people. They are the booming parishes that have more vocations, that come out of them, have young families going to them. I mean, the reality is Catholics are not people who grow up. They're not catechized at all. They're not getting enough doctrine, they're not getting enough dogma, getting enough moralism. [00:12:44] I mean, the reality, the truth is, the pastoral reality since 1970 is exactly what this thing is saying. We need to do more of this documentation. We're doing more of it's experience, not the Baltimore Catechism. It's just let's do experience, let's not do catechesis, let's not do doctrine. And so what the. The amazing thing is, is that Fernandez Caesar's a problem. And his answer is, let's double down, let's keep, let's do more of what we're doing. And they, they, I mean, they. This has always been a weird, like, thing with people like Pope Francis Fernandez. People of that generation, they have this image of the church today as if it's doing things exactly like it did in the 1950s. [00:13:32] And like, oh, we can't do it like that. Well, nobody does. So what's your problem? And in fact, the parishes are doing it more like the 1950s are the ones that are growing and they are transmitting the faith. So it's this weird thing where the reality is what they're saying, what they've said we should do for 60, 50 plus years has failed. And so their answer is, their cure is let's do it more. We, that's what we really need to do. We can't do it like they did in the 50s. Okay, but like your, your program has failed. And this is just more of the same also. I would just say that their actual kerygma, you know, what they're saying is the core of the gospel. It's very thin. It's thin soup. [00:14:18] What I mean by that is it just says things like, God is love for everyone. God is mercy for everyone. Without reserve, limit, measure, ultimately boundary. God does not bless division, much less discrimination. No human or religious law or authority can ever declare anyone unworthy of his love. [00:14:34] I mean, what it doesn't mention is sin, repentance, judgment, hell, the cross is sacrifice, the need for confession, conversion. I mean, it mentions it. Sin a little bit, you know, in paragraphs 10 and 11 is something to be restored, but it doesn't, like, it doesn't actually present the kerygma that you find in the, the actual New Testament, which is where it kind of comes from. I mean, what did St. Peter say at Pentecost? [00:15:02] At Pentecost, St. Peter said to the, to the crowds, repent and be baptized. [00:15:07] Repent. That was his first word. That's the first word of Christ's ministry of St. John the Baptist. They say repent and believe the gospel baptized. [00:15:16] There's no call for repentance in this. It's just God is mercy. God is love. God loves you. Doesn't. Without measure, without boundary. And by without boundary, what they mean, what somebody like Fernandez means is you don't have to actually change your life when the reality is that's not what Jesus preached. It's not what John the Baptist preached. That's not what St. Peter preached, the actual kerygma. If you want to reduce kerygma to its actual true New Testament gospel form, it's repent and believe the gospel, repent and believe the good news. That really is the kerygma at its most fundamental, smallest form. [00:15:56] Now, you build upon a lot of that. Well, the kerygma. So even if they want to just talk about the kerygma, which they love to talk about, it's a different kerygma. It's, as you know, St. Paul said, if any, even an angel of light comes to you with a different gospel, you need to reject it. Well, honestly, Cardinal Fernandez's kerygma, his gospel is different than the kerygma found in the New Testament, found in. In the words of Jesus Christ. [00:16:21] And so you have this, like, you know, it does not cite fiduciary supplicants, of course, because it. That's a, like, embarrassing document to him now. But it has the same type of refrain like everyone without boundaries. It's the same because Fernandez wrote both, so of course it does. [00:16:38] Now, also, there's. There's an interesting. I thought this was an interesting paragraph. Paragraph 94, where it talks about the liturgy is. This particular care should also be taken to enable the faithful in every diocese to encounter the various liturgical sensibilities present within the traditions of the Church. [00:16:57] With due respect for liturgical norms currently in force, pastors are called to highlight the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage. [00:17:06] Okay, how can we highlight the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage when you've literally told us we're not allowed to celebrate the Catholic liturgical heritage found in the traditional Latin Mass in many places. And you do things like, you ban ad orientum, you ban communion at the. At the altar rail in the tongue. You ban, you know, all these traditional richness of Catholic liturgical heritage. You're banning all them. [00:17:30] Your bishops are. And tradition custodes is saying, yeah, do that. [00:17:35] This seems to be like, you know, you say that. I mean, the only example gave was in the variety of musical styles. [00:17:42] But it talks about, like. Does this include the. It talks about the various liturgical sensibilities in every diocese. Well, does that include the tlm? Why not? [00:17:53] It doesn't mention this. It's not like an attack on the TLM or anything like that. I'm not saying that, but I kind of feel like we, maybe those of us who love the traditional Latin Mass or even love a more reverent traditional Novus Ordo, maybe we should be quoting paragraph 94 to our bishops and say, hey, we're supposed to have. We're supposed to highlight the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage. Did that richness start in 1970? [00:18:20] Is the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage to start 1970, and we can't go before that. Why not? [00:18:26] I mean, use the document in our favor a little bit. [00:18:31] It also says, liturgy requires, quote, a healthy and fruitful tension between fidelity to tradition and the comprehensibility of the message. Is. We all know what this means. [00:18:40] It's it. It. [00:18:43] Guys, this is just the language they've been using since the 60s. [00:18:47] They. They. They give lip service to one side of it, and they only do the other side. [00:18:52] A fruitful, healthy and fruitful tension between fidelity to tradition and the comprehensibility of the message. What they mean by that is, screw tradition. Just make it, you know, for the people. Make it relevant. Make it the way we want it to be, what we think is relevant, which is 1970s, like folk music or whatever. [00:19:10] And anything before the 1970s, you can't do. [00:19:13] That's their tension. Their tension. It always breaks it. They always go one side it all, and they. They throw in that line. But in practice, it always. It's like when tradition is custodians. I can't remember if it was in the document itself or in the letter Francis wrote to introduce it, where he talked about that. Like, he mentioned, like, we need to crack down basically on any literal abuse, liturgical abuses. Novus Ordo. Oh, that sounds great. See, he's being balanced. And he. He. He doesn't. He wants a great liturgy. Has anything happened since then? Has anything happened since then? No. Not one thing to tighten up, to button up the. The Novus Ordo. In fact, it. All it's done is it's made it so you can't do more traditional things in the Novus Ordo. [00:19:54] And. Okay, what else we got here? Like I said, I got my notes here for different things in the document. [00:20:02] Oh, it also does the whole thing about, like, oh, the worst word on earth, the worst word we can ever use is proselytism. [00:20:12] Proselytism. That's awful. And of course, of course, it quotes Benedict, Pope Benedict. The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by attraction. [00:20:21] The problem, though, is, is that, like, what's the line between evangelization and proselytism? I've talked about this in my book Deadly Indifference. I've talked about it a lot of different places. [00:20:29] But the reality is what Fernandez means and what Pope Francis meant, what A lot of these people mean when they say process. This is not what Benedict meant, by the way, what they mean by proselytism. They mean evangelization. They mean anything other than, like, just like, you don't. [00:20:45] If you share the faith at all, if you actually share the faith and say you need to become Catholic, that's proselytism. [00:20:51] Like we said earlier about this whole. No imposition. [00:20:57] Yes, there is something as such as bad proselytism. I mean, Muslims, you know, converting people by the sword. We shouldn't do that. [00:21:04] You know, by force. Forcing somebody to be baptized against their will. We shouldn't do that. That is proselytism in the. In the bad forms. But the reality is evangelization does push. [00:21:15] It does push. It does tell people, hey. It challenges people. [00:21:19] It says, hey, you are not. You're not completely on. You're not completely on board with God. You need to become completely on board with God, and here's how you do it. That would be rejected by Fernandez and company. And of course, it's got to talk about ecumenical dialogue, because you literally can't have a Vatican document. Doesn't bring up ecumenism. Somehow. It says it constitute a specific form of proclamation. [00:21:41] No, it doesn't. I mean, in reality, it doesn't. I mean, that's the thing is they keep on repeating the canards from the 1960s and 70s when all around us we know it just simply isn't true. But we know ecumenical dialogue does not consist of a form of proclamation of the gospel. It consists in a form of compromise, in caving in. That's exactly what it's done forever. [00:22:04] You know, it talks about. [00:22:06] Let's see what else we got here. [00:22:09] Oh, of course, synodality is mentioned everywhere. It talks about synodality as some, like, magic formula. More synodality. We, I mean, just. That's. That. That's all it is, the authentic spirit of sendality. I mean, just like, you know, it just talks about these things and, and like, like a singleity is some magic formula. C is not going to help bring in the masses. It's not going to help transmit the faith. We all know that. We all know that. And yet they continue to push it. They continue to push it. [00:22:40] Also, another thing is like, the DDF mentions that the topic of transmitting the faith falls within the purview of another dicastery, the one of evangelization. So that's just like, why is Fernandez writing this? That's the weird thing. Like, what was the purpose? Why did he take his time? Because obviously this took resources from his office from his decastery. Why do this? It's so weird. Because it should be written, if you're going to do something like this about the transmission of faith, it should be written by the Castri on evangelization, not doctrine of faith. And in fact, the fact that the whole document kind of undermines doctrine is another weird thing. It's almost like Fernandez wants to redefine the dicastery of doctrine of faith to not mean doctrine anymore. It would not surprise me. Book this, clip it, maybe we'll, you'll see it one day. It would not surprise me if they rename the dicastery to something else. I mean, it used to be the Holy Inquisition a long time ago. It's been renamed a number of times, and I wouldn't be surprised if somehow it gets renamed. I don't know what. [00:23:43] But like, this whole emphasis, I mean, Fernanda's whole emphasis on just experience, on being nice, accompanying people, embracing them where they are not having boundaries. God is love. All this nonsense. Not that God is love isn't nonsense, obviously, you know what I mean? [00:23:58] The idea of God is love without any consequences to our lives. Like, we don't have to change it all, we just accept whatever. And I just think that this is a, you know, a real problem in, you know, it's not even this documents like some terrible document, like, oh my gosh, this one's so scandalous. I mean, fiducia's supplicants is. Is scandalous. Tradition is custodes is scandalous. This one is like, I mean, on grading on a curve. Ah, it's not that scandalous. It's just kind of more of the same. But it does do a lot of things that really just show that the Vatican doesn't get it. They don't get it. They do not understand how to transmit the faith. In fact, what they're doing actively keeps people from staying in the faith. [00:24:42] Because we've seen the people who convert are not following this script, and the people who are falling away are following this script. And so it's just like, this is like, if you want to say what this document's good for, it's on what not to do. [00:24:54] If you want to know what not to do to transmit to faith parents, read this document and do the opposite. [00:25:00] And then, then you'll be in good shape. [00:25:02] It also has other things, like, Let me just see, like, it has some stuff on. Where is this? I had some notes here about, like, on women, the need to allow women access to those forums where Important decisions regarding the life of the community are made has become increasingly clear. The Castry has studied this topic extensively and submitted its conclusions to the Holy Father through the secretary of the Synod. [00:25:23] I mean, what is this? You know, what are the conclusions? What. I mean, it doesn't say what they are. They're not published. [00:25:29] You know, why. Why are you mentioning this in this doctrine on transmitting the faith, this document, it's kind of like if you. I don't know if you've noticed this, but a lot of times back in documents, like everything but the kitchen sink stuff, they. They're kind of that are their hobby horses. They'll throw in all the time. [00:25:43] I mean, we saw this actually. I mean, this was all the time in. In Francis's documents, but it also was in. In Leo's Magnifica Humanitas is. Is encyclical. And AI, it had a lot of this, too. [00:25:56] The whole thing was five chapters, and the third chapter was the only one that really mattered. It was good, but the rest of it was just kind of, let's throw everything else in. And that's what they're doing here. [00:26:04] It's just like another little thing of like, hey, let's push for women to be in charge of things. I mean, they're on a big push there of like, appointing women to these positions of leadership. I mean, all I'll say is this. The Church survived for almost 2000 years without women in charge of anything. Yes. I'm not talking about women religious superiors of the religious communities. Obviously, that's fine. But. But there was no women in charge of anything at the Vatican. There were no, you know, women in charge of parishes or diocese or anything like that. And somehow, just somehow, the Church survived for almost 2000 years like that. It can survive again. We don't need women in these positions of leadership. What we need is good men. [00:26:41] What we need is. It's almost like they're picking bad men for stuff. And they're bad men themselves. Like incompetent and just wrong and sometimes heretical in order to show that. And weak in order to show, oh, look, we're having a problem with leadership. We need women to take over. Well, maybe pick some good men. You wouldn't have to worry about it. Pick some good men in these positions and you wouldn't have to worry about it. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. Also, there's no little prediction if one day there's a woman in charge of the diaspora doctrine of faith. I mean, she can't be worse. Than Fernandez. Right. When Ratzinger was. Was ahead, nobody was thinking, oh, we need a woman in charge. But now it's like with. With Fernandez. [00:27:18] I mean, you know, what's the difference? Right. [00:27:20] But again, why throw that in here? [00:27:23] Okay, let me go. Okay. There are a few things in there. Like, as always, there are things in the document that are fine. It talks about family is the first tabernacle, personal prayer and prayer as a couple. Participation in Sunday mass, visits to shrines, and various forms for popular piety. Prayers of thanksgiving before meals, the devout preparation for the nativity of the nativity scene. Yeah, these are good examples. Absolutely. It is, right. The document is right. When it talks about the transmission of faith starts in the family. That is. That is a good thing. From this. There's nothing wrong with this. [00:27:55] I mean, it gives like, you know, it gives an example. Like, I think it was. [00:28:01] Oh, I didn't write very clearly my notes here in paragraph 35. You know, my father's hands and my mother's lips taught me more about the good Lord than the catechism did. [00:28:09] Okay, yes. But again, they're trying to undermine doctrine and catechesis. It's true. [00:28:15] If a family, if parents, they just simply teach the catechism, but they do not practice the faith, it's unlikely that their kids will maintain the faith. But I would actually argue, if the parents do practice the faith, but they never transmit the doctrine to their kids, it's also likely the kids will not stand. [00:28:38] They will fall away. You need both. So this whole, like, pitting them against each other that the document does just doesn't work. It's not. It's not reality. It's weird coming from the doctrine, the castry of the doctrine of the faith. Like, I'll say again, it says the liturgy is living memory and tradition. To celebrate means first and foremost to receive a faith that has been believed, live, and prayed for by others before us. So why did we radically change it in the 1970s? [00:29:03] I mean, again, it uses this language, but it's. It. It doesn't follow through in the acts that's happening at the Vatican. [00:29:14] You know, it actually admits at one point that popular piety survived the attacks. That culture and at times even members of the church themselves have often directed against it. Well, who attacks it? Who is it? Who tried? Who. Who wants to drop calling Our lady co Redemptrix, Mediatrix? That's a popular piety. It's a doctrine, but it's also popular piety. That's where it kind of comes from. [00:29:33] Who Is it? Who attacks these things? It's not us. [00:29:36] It's not us. So, I mean, I'm glad you admit it, but recognize who's actually doing it. [00:29:42] Okay, okay, let me just kind of wrap this up with kind of the big picture here. [00:29:48] Ultimately, it's modernism again. I just had a podcast the other day about Father James Martin and how he kind of plays, follows the modernist playbook, which is you say things that sound nice, but then you undermine them. And in your actual. [00:30:03] What you're doing. And this experience versus content, that is a modernist thing. That is a modern thing, the experience versus content, because it's versus, in their mind, the experience of the Kerygma versus, oh, the scholastic teaching, you know, you know, dogmatic, moralistic, you know, content. [00:30:23] They're not in separation. They are not opposed to each other. They are one in a whole. You can't have one without the other. To separate them is to rip apart the, The, The. The deposit of faith. You need both. [00:30:36] And so what this document does, mostly subtly, I mean, not always subtly, sometimes very explicitly, but what this document does, it does try to tear those two things apart. And I think that's very unfortunate. [00:30:48] You know, just to be fair, the document is not modernist in its formal claims, but you really is. It's all about emphasis and method. This has been my hobby horse for years, ever since I wrote the book Deadly Indifference back in. [00:31:03] What year was that publishing? 2021. But I started writing it a year or two before that, a couple years before that. [00:31:09] It's just the. The emphasis shift. I've talked about this before, the emphasis shift. And that's what they're doing here. It's all about the emphasis. What is the emphasis of this document? It's all about feelings and experience and, you know, touchy, feely stuff. It's not. It's like making you feel like when you finish it, oh, I don't want to. [00:31:27] I shouldn't overemphasize doctrine too much. I mean, it's more important that I just give my kids a hug than I teach them catechism. [00:31:33] No, give them a hug and teach them catechism. There's no opposition there. [00:31:39] It's just silly to think that that's. That's the case. And so the truth is, this document diagnoses the problem well. There's a family collapse, there's individualism, there's secularization. [00:31:50] There's definitely these problems. It diagnoses the problems well. But the cure is just, frankly, more of the same. More. The same things in the church that's done before, it never asks the questions whether the post. Concealer, concealer, catechesis and liturgy were the cause of our problems. That's what I think it comes down to more than anything. Like, what is the cause? Why are people not staying Catholic? Why are they leaving the faith? [00:32:19] You can blame all these outside sources, but you have to look at, did we have the proper protections in place in the church to keep them here? Because, yes, they are going to be attacked by. Because the truth is, our culture has. You could. You could say part of that's because the church hasn't stood strong. Okay, fine, but the culture is terrible. Secularization, feminism, individualism, all that stuff. Yeah. So what that means is every Catholic, as they get older, they're going to get attacked by it. [00:32:45] Did we as a church, did the church give them the proper armor to protect them? [00:32:52] Or did they send them out there basically naked? [00:32:57] And I would argue in many cases, they send them, we send them out there naked. So many parishes, parents, families are sending their kids out there naked, and they're getting consumed by the culture, by the problems. [00:33:08] And a lot of it has to do with the catechesis, but also the liturgy and so much about parish life, which I've talked about before, for it. It's also ignoring the reality of what we're seeing, at least in the west, particularly in America, where is the faith being transmitted? Homeschooling, big homeschooling families, traditional parishes, these, the pilgrimages, converts drawn by beauty and by tradition. All these things. [00:33:33] It doesn't really focus on those and say, this is how we transmit the faith. This is what they give some lip service at times. [00:33:41] And so again, it just is like this. It's a false opposition that you have doctrine on one hand, if you have love on the other hand. No doctrine is love. [00:33:50] Proper doctrine is love. [00:33:53] Obviously, it's not. Just like I said, we're not robots. [00:33:56] We're not like AI bots, where you just feed us with the doctrine and we'll be good Catholics. No, it's more than that. It does include experiences, but it's both. It's both to get together together. And so really, what I would just say is, like, you probably already do ignore this document. I mean, nobody's reading this. I mean, that's why I did it, so you guys don't have to. Nobody's reading this. Hardly. [00:34:17] But I do think what we should do is we should ask ourselves very seriously, how do we transmit the faith? I know too many stories of Catholics who let Their kids be overwhelmed by the culture. I'm not claiming to be a perfect parent. I'm not claiming that. I'm like, you know, I did everything right. I didn't. I know I didn't. And I asked God to kind of make up for those mistakes. At the same time, if you just do. If you just go through the motions and do what your local parish that you. That just happens to be the local one that you picked has nothing, you know, that does things like most parishes do, your kids will probably fall away. Your kids will probably fall away. And I'm sorry to say that. And I don't mean to say so bluntly, but I do mean to say so bluntly. You need to change. You need to make sure family prayer is important in your family. You need to make sure you're doing these popular PIC practices. You need to go on pilgrimages. You need to try to find a liturgy that is. That is reverent and is. Is more traditional. You need to do all these things. You need to consider homeschooling, all these things. If you really want your kids to. If you really want to transmit the faith to your kids, you have to do that. [00:35:17] I mean, the funny thing is, is that the document knows the house is on fire, but its prescription is, let's pour some gasoline on it, which we've been doing for 60 years. Let's continue pouring gasoline on it. You know, the. Are good things in it talks about like family, beauty, liturgy, pilgrimage, all that stuff. But really, those are kind of almost asides. Really what matters is, you know, to, To. To. To. To Fernandez. And the DDF is, okay, let's just be nice, have a good experience. God is love. And that's just not going to cut it. That's not going to cut it in this world. We have to do so much more. So be countercultural Catholics, but also be counter ecclesial cultural. [00:35:58] The. The dominant culture in the church today is still from the 1970s. It's exactly what's presented in this document. And we need to resist that. We need to be counter to that and be truly countercultural. If we do that, we have a better chance. There's no guarantees in life. There's free will and all that, but we have a better chance of transmitting the faith onto our kids. And so that's what we had to be faithful to, not kind of the. The useless nonsense put in this document. Okay, I'm going to wrap it up there. Hopefully that helped that you understand kind of what the document says, what it doesn't say what its emphasis is and all that. So until next time, everybody, God love you, and remember the poor.