Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Rod Dreher on Bergoglio’s Latest Termitic Outrage

Decline and fall is the way of the world. It's our turn now as institution after institution is captured by wokeassery and termitry. Sodomy in the Senate and among prelates. The presidency of a 'wokified' but unqualified plagiarist at Harvard. The huge numbers of destructive leftists and their usefully idiotic fellow travellers who support a demented traitor in plain dereliction of duty for POTUS.  And that just for a start. Is consolation to be had? Well, the religionist can look beyond the passing scene, and the philosopher can take comfort in the thought that the owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk.

Here is Hegel in the penultimate paragraph of the preface to  The Philosophy of Right:

When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then has a shape of life grown old.  By philosophy's grey on grey it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood.  The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at the falling of the dusk.

Daughter of Jupiter, Minerva in the mythology of the Greeks is the goddess of wisdom.  And the nocturnal owl is one of its ancient symbols.  The meaning of the Hegelian trope is that understanding, insight, and wisdom arise when the object to be understood has played itself out, when it has actualized and thus exhausted its potentialities, and now faces only decline.

When a shape of life has grown old, philosophy paints its grey on grey.  The allusion is to Goethe's Faust wherein Mephisto says

Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, 
Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum.

Grey, dear friend, is all theory
And green the golden tree of life.

Dreher's piece is long but good. I've been called a writing machine but I can't hold a candle to Dreher in terms of sheer output. There is one thing I can't stomach about him, though: his mindless anti-Trumpery. But we all have our follies, fatuities, failings, and blind spots. 

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19 responses to “Rod Dreher on Bergoglio’s Latest Termitic Outrage”

  1. Vito B. Caiati Avatar
    Vito B. Caiati

    As you know, Bill, I have been commenting on the heretic Bergoglio for years now, having, along with others, including yourself, understood his evil method of double-talk, evasion, lies, insult, scandal, and repression that are the hallmarks of his pontificate. I have no desire to repeat these arguments here, since, except for the spiritually blind or corrupted, the formal heresy and, I would argue, apostasy is now out in the open. I would simply like to call attention to the part of the comment that I made here on July 11th of this year, which, I think, well captures the present state of the Church:
    “…the greater scandal of the Church under this Pontificate [is] THE SILENCE OF ALL BUT A FEW CARDINALS AND BISHOPS, ALL BUT A HANDFULL OF THEOLOGIANS AND CATHOLIC ACADEMICS, AND ONLY A RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER OF THE FAITHFUL IN REACTION TO THIS OPEN ASSAULT, AT THE SERVICE OF THE GLOBAL LEFT, ON THE GOSPEL, DOGMA, DOCTRINE, AND TRADITION.”
    Whether this silence will endure after the scandalous heresy of the last week, the blessing of adulterous and sodomic relationships, remains to be seen. As of this writing, only the episcopal conferences of Zambia and Malawi and the archbishopric of Astana, Kazakhstan have firmly opposed it and forbidden priests to confer such a blessing, while it has been welcomed, in one way or another, by high prelates in many countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, and Mexico). These are only early indications of the shape that the next phase of the crisis will take in the coming weeks and months; however, one thing is clear: Bergoglio’s stated intention of “making a mess,” that is, of confusing and dividing the faithful and clergy and propagating heresy, has been accomplished.
    One more point: It is time for all those who minimized this planned and systematic assault on the magisterium by (1) ignoring it; (2) presenting dubious and heretical acts and words in the most favorable light; or (3) speaking of it as something, like the crises of the past–all of which occurred in times of Christian cultural and political ascendency or domination–that in time will appear as one more “historical blip,” believing that what has long been regarded as foundational and immutable would safeguard the faith, to admit the truth of what the Italian historian Roberto Pertricci argued years ago, that the pontificate of Bergoglio, which is the culmination of sixty years of institutional, doctrinal, and liturgical decay, all promoted and celebrated in the name of an aggiornamento to the modern world, “segna il tramonto di quell’imponente realtà storica definibile come ‘cattolicesimo romano’” [‘marks the sunset of that imposing historical reality that can be defined as Roman Catholicism’]. On this last point, recall my critique of Edward Feser in in May of 2021: https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2021/05/an-ecclesiological-contretemps-edward-feser-versus-rod-dreher.html
    The best that orthodox Catholics and, indeed, orthodox Christians can hope for in this increasingly demonic and dystopian world is captured in the prophetic words of the late pontiff Benedict XVI, which he spoke more than fifty years ago (1969):
    “The future of the Church can and will issue from those whose roots are deep and who live from the pure fullness of their faith. It will not issue from those who accommodate themselves merely to the passing moment or from those who merely criticize others and assume that they themselves are infallible measuring rods; nor will it issue from those who take the easier road, who sidestep the passion of faith, declaring false and obsolete, tyrannous and legalistic, all that makes demands upon men, that hurts them and compels them to sacrifice themselves. To put this more positively: The future of the Church, once again as always, will be reshaped by saints, by men, that is, whose minds probe deeper than the slogans of the day, who see more than others see, because their lives embrace a wider reality….
    From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision.” https://aleteia.org/2016/06/13/when-cardinal-joseph-ratzinger-predicted-the-future-of-the-church/

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  2. BV Avatar
    BV

    Vito,
    I re-read your critique of Feser from May 2021, and was once again impressed by it.
    Conservatives of all kinds, whether Catholic or not, whether atheist or not, ought to be deeply disturbed by the collapse of the RCC which ought to be standing as bulwark against the decline and fall of the West.
    Here again we have the problem of the useful idiots. I am thinking at the moment of Sr. Wendy Beckett who has a spot-on critique of Tom Merton, but thinks Bergoglio is just such a wonderful man . . . when he is the Joe Biden of the RCC sans dementia.

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  3. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    As an architect I know what I will do for the small church of tomorrow that has lost much: In the church buildings that remain, I will move the altar eastward right up to the wall of the apse, and let remain a space of one inch between the altar and the wall, so that no one can stand at the altar and face the faithful. It will be God that the priest will have to face.
    Should I live long enough, I will do this.
    Signed,
    Catacomb Joe

    Reply
  4. Vito B. Caiati Avatar
    Vito B. Caiati

    Thanks, Bill.
    Yes: “Conservatives of all kinds, whether Catholic or not, whether atheist or not, ought to be deeply disturbed by the collapse of the RCC which ought to be standing as bulwark against the decline and fall of the West.” And, as I am sure that you know, much of this collapse is not accidental, but rather the work of a well-organized, highly ideological fifth column within the Church that adheres to much of the global Left’s political and cultural program (moral relativism, anti-rationalism, indifferentism, anti-traditionalism, etc.).

    Reply
  5. James Soriano Avatar
    James Soriano

    Ed Feser’s thesis in the 2021 exchange with Dreher was that the intellectual drift under Francis’ pontificate can be absorbed; it would amount to a “blip” in the long scheme of Church history. Vito Caiati’s comment above demolishes that argument.
    The experience with Arianism might be an apt analogy here, — not in terms of the dogma at stake but in terms of Church organization and unity.
    After Nicaea Arian teachings lingered on for four centuries or more. The Church was split; it could not meet as one, with some bishops accepting the teaching while others held to orthodoxy (with the miniscule “o”). There were Arian kingdoms in Spain, Africa, and Italy.
    So, too, today bishops are divided over “Fiducia supplicans,” with some welcoming the change, while others are opposed. If run-time of Arianism is any guide to the future, four centuries does not amount to a “blip” in the story of the Church on earth.

    Reply
  6. BV Avatar
    BV

    >>The U.S. Bishops issued a statement earlier this week on the Declaration Fiducia supplicans, reassuring the faithful that “The Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed.” But to say this is to miss the point, wildly. More pertinent is whether the Church’s teaching on non-procreative sex acts has changed; also, whether by the Declaration the Church now wishes to recognize a distinct type of relationship, which it regards as good – call it “spousal friendship between members of the same sex.” Either change would mark a major shift in the Church’s teaching on human nature and, it seems, a repudiation of St. John Paul II’s theology of the body.<< https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2023/12/21/on-the-public-meaning-of-priestly-blessings/

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  7. BV Avatar
    BV

    More on Fiducia Supplicans:
    https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/breaking-down-fiducia-supplicans
    https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/6947-francis-s-anti-christmas-gift-to-the-globalists-blessing-same-sex-unions

    Reply
  8. Vito B. Caiati Avatar
    Vito B. Caiati

    In yesterday’s Rorate Caeli, the Italian historian Roberto de Mattei offers a illuminating analysis of Fiducia Supplicans, explicating intellectual currents that underlie its heretical stance on human sexuality: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2023/12/roberto-de-mattei-quo-usque-tandem-for.html

    Reply
  9. Vito B. Caiati Avatar
    Vito B. Caiati

    Excerpt from Archbishop Vigano important statement today on LifeSiteNews:
    “Let us ask ourselves: what does Bergoglio want to achieve? Nothing good, nothing true, nothing holy. He does not want souls to be saved; he does not proclaim the Gospel opportunely, importunately to call souls to Christ; he does not show them the scourged and bloodied Savior to spur them on to change their lives. No. Bergoglio wants their damnation, as an infernal tribute to Satan and a brazen challenge to God.
    But there is a more immediate and simple purpose to be achieved: to provoke Catholics to turn away from his church and leave him free to turn it into the concubine of the New World Order. Women priests, gay blessings, sexual and financial scandals, the immigration business, forced vaccination campaigns, gender ideology, neo-Malthusian environmentalism, the tyrannical management of power are the tools with which to scandalize the faithful, to disgust those who do not believe, to discredit the Church and the papacy. Whatever happens, Bergoglio has already achieved his goal, which is the premise for securing the consent of heretics and fornicators who recognize him as Pope, ousting any critical voice”
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/abp-vigano-bergoglios-approval-of-blessings-for-homosexual-couples-shows-he-is-a-servant-of-satan/

    Reply
  10. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    Bill and Vito:

    “Conservatives of all kinds, whether Catholic or not, whether atheist or not, ought to be deeply disturbed by the collapse of the RCC which ought to be standing as bulwark against the decline and fall of the West.”

    As someone not a Catholic (not yet, at least), but just a formerly strident non-theist now groping his way toward faith, I can nevertheless say “Amen” to this.
    Little by little, the ancient foundations of our civilization — none of which has stood so firmly or so long as the Catholic Church — are dissolving and washing away in the floodwaters of hedonistic modernity. The Church is one of the few remaining channels by which the people of the West have any active connection with the immovable, transcendent principles to which their culture has always been anchored; when that chain breaks, we will be wholly unmoored.

    Reply
  11. BV Avatar
    BV

    Malcolm,
    It seems that there is no day without a new outrage. When people in positions of authority and influence believe that to save “our democracy” (Hillary’s cynical Orwellianism) it is necessary to keep front-runner Trump off the ballot in a move that is anti-democratic in excelsis one is tempted to despair.
    How can one reason with people who destroy the very terms in which alone reasonable discussion can be conducted: ‘democracy,’ ‘insurrection,’ ‘rule of law,’etc.?
    Get ready for hot civil war. This one will be a real civil war and not a war of secession. Of course no sane and decent person could want a hot civil war and each of his must do his bit to prevent one if that is possible without accepting political dhimmitude.

    Reply
  12. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    Here again the left destroys language: “retribution” becomes ‘revenge.’ They are lying, of course.
    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/democrats_and_media_deceptively_change_trumps_word_retribution_to_revenge.html
    When one realizes that evil only responds to force, one can see what we are in for.

    Reply
  13. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    A real civil war in 21st-century America — and the phrase “civil war” seems now to be on everyone’s lips, as well as being the title of an upcoming movie whose purpose seems to be to blame us yokels for causing trouble — would be a catastrophe on a scale that I think most people, especially your average cordycepted collegiate ignoramus or soft-handed coastal symbol-manipulator, cannot even imagine. And it would be a catastrophe not just for the United States, but for most of the rest of the world as well.
    The fault-line, in general terms, is nothing new in history: urban versus rural (the blogger Z-Man has called this division “Cloud People” vs. “Dirt People”). I would not recommend being in one of our big cities when the logistics are suddenly tied off by the people who grow and build and supply and maintain everything that our urban overclass depends on for survival.
    Is it really going to come to kinetic civil war? Are enough of us willing to light that match rather than be mocked and humiliated and subjugated any longer, as we watch our nation die? As stewards of the America we inherited from our forefathers, what is our duty here?

    Reply
  14. BV Avatar
    BV

    Malcolm made me look up a word and for that I thank him.
    >>Being “Cordycepted” is when a person, group, or organization is taken over by outsiders, usually political activists, and their original culture, mission, or goals is replaced with the outsider’s political culture, mission, or goals, often self-destructively.
    The name comes from the “Zombie ant fungi,” Ophiocordyceps, which is a parasitical fungus that infects ants, literally forcing them to go to a high location and become a spore bomb to infect other ants.
    The specific tactic when outsiders join a group to do this is called Entryism, and is a hallmark of political activism going back since at least the 60s. See also “Spectrum of Allies Analysis,” a specific activist tactic that seeks to push a person, group, or organization “just one tick” in a certain direction, from “active opponent” to “neutral” to “active ally,” often from outside the group.<< https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cordycepted

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  15. BV Avatar
    BV

    Has the RCC been cordycepted by Bergolio and his consiglieri? No, because Bergoglio the Termite grew up within the RCC: he is not an entryist.

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  16. BV Avatar
    BV

    For the record, I have contempt for the SPLC. But here is what they have to say about the Z-man to whom Malcolm refers: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/02/18/prolific-white-nationalist-personality-identified
    >>He asserts that Black people are intellectually inferior and more prone to criminality, caging his views as “race realism.”<< Ah, but isn't that true? And if true, how can it be racist? It is bad to be a racist, but to speak the truth is good. (That is not to say that one ought always to speak the truth in every situation. If I see a man with no legs, I must not say to him, "Sir, you have no legs; so I don't expect to see you on Saturday at the 10 K foot race." For me to say that to him would be morally wrong.) It appears that the Z-man is an antisemite. If he is, then I condemn him for that. I reject the NETTR principle "No enemies to the right." My positions, all of them, are sane, reasonable, and moderate -- or so it seems to me. Might there be some self-deception at work here? Have I ever said anything insane, unreasonable, or extreme? I am committed to self-examination and self-critique.

    Reply
  17. BV Avatar
    BV

    Some links re: upcoming civil war:
    Once again: linkage does not constitute endorsement! You must examine every issue from every point of view, pan-optically and syn-optically.
    https://www.science.org/content/article/half-of-americans-anticipate-a-us-civil-war-soon-survey-finds
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/next-us-civil-war-already-here-we-refuse-to-see-it
    https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/is-a-civil-war-ahead

    Reply
  18. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    “… rather than be mocked and humiliated and subjugated any longer…”
    It will be more than that, because force will be used to compel lying and sin.
    We are nearly there with “pronouns.”

    Reply
  19. BV Avatar
    BV

    Joe,
    I am in receipt of your beautifully inscribed postcard. Thanks and best to you and the clan. No ‘Merry Xmas’ this year — what’s to be merry about? The destruction of our country is televised and right before our eyes. And what do people do? They distract themselves with holiday nonsense & merriment. Something like drinking and dancing while the Titanic sinks. Traitor Joe fiddles and lies while America burns. The Demented Doyen of the Despicable Dems. He and they must be condemned for their willful self-enstupidation, pollyannish frivolity, and hate-America globalism and race-baiting wokeassery. I feel a rant coming on. Or is it already here? And I have already taken my ACE inhibitor.
    Just up from a nap in gloom and rain. Had me a portentous dream in which everything went wrong, a dream that portends the gathering crapstorm, the perfect shitstorm that will soon be upon us. You will make it out in the wilds of Mendo. Me, I’m making it to the range more often, honing, steeling, prepping, for an Unholy Advent.

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