No, really. An Orthodox Rabbi is doing a better job than any Bishop defending the Church over the reconciliation of the FSSPX - and defending Christian moral teaching to boot!
ROME, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The dissident, leftist movement in the Catholic Church over the last forty years has severely undermined the teaching of the Catholic Church on the moral teachings on life and family, a prominent US Orthodox rabbi told LifeSiteNews.com. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, the head of a group of 800 Orthodox rabbis in the US and Canada, also dismissed the accusations that the Holy See had not sufficiently distanced itself from the comments made by Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on the Holocaust.
"I support this move" to reconcile the traditionalist faction in the Church, he said, "because I understand the big picture, which is that the Catholic Church has a problem. There is a strong left wing of the Church that is doing immeasurable harm to the faith."
Rabbi Levin said that he understands "perfectly" why the reconciliation is vital to the fight against abortion and the homosexualist movement.
"I understand that it is very important to fill the pews of the Catholic Church not with cultural Catholics and left-wingers who are helping to destroy the Catholic Church and corrupt the values of the Catholic Church." This corruption, he said, "has a trickle-down effect to every single religious community in the world."
"What's the Pope doing? He's trying to bring the traditionalists back in because they have a lot of very important things to contribute the commonweal of Catholicism. Now, if in the process, he inadvertently includes someone who is prominent in the traditionalist movement who happens to say very strange things about the Holocaust, is that a reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater and start to condemn Pope Benedict? Absolutely not."
(...)
Rabbi Levin was in Rome holding meetings with high level Vatican officials to propose what he called a "new stream of thinking" for the Church's inter-religious dialogue, one based on commonly held moral teachings, particularly on the right to life and the sanctity of natural marriage.
"The most important issue," he said, is the work the Church is doing "to save babies from abortion, and save children's minds, and young people's minds, helping them to know right and wrong on the life and family issues. That's where ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue has to go."
Although numbers are difficult to determine, it is estimated that the Society of St. Pius X has over a million followers worldwide. The traditionalist movement in the Catholic Church is noted for doctrinal orthodoxy and enthusiasm not only for old-fashioned devotional practices, but for the Church's moral teachings and opposition to post-modern secularist sexual mores. Liberals in the Church, particularly in Europe, have bitterly opposed all overtures to the SSPX and other traditionalists, particularly the Pope's recent permission to revive the traditional Latin Mass.
May this good Rabbi live to one hundred and twenty and may his eyes witness the salvation of the Lord! He hits the nail right on the head; the wing which is causing the most problems for the Church is not the far-right conspiratorial wing but the vastly more numerous Liberal, moral relativist one. This wing claims to be so fond of Jews they will gladly stab their own Pope in the back to please them, but in reality they hate Judaism and all it stands for almost as much as they hate their own religion. Don't believe me? Look at the crusade this faction has waged against the traditional Catholic liturgy which was rooted in Jewish practices and imbued at the core with Jewish piety.
Orthodox Jews have far more in common with orthodox, traditionalist Catholics than with Liberal ones. Let us stop assuming that theological dialogue with the Jews, where we can never advance beyond the person of Jesus, will bring about a rapprochement; let us, as Dr. Levin says, focus on cooperation on moral issues where we are certainly in agreement and where we can bring benefit to society at large - if only we stay true to our authentic beliefs, rooted in the same Holy Scripture.
From LifeSiteNews, via the New Liturgical Movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment