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Church - State Relations
Folie à Deux - Madness by Two
Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.
The two new explosive issues - the Pope’s statement on condoms and the approval of open homosexuals in the military - bring to mind the chasm that separates a sin or a crime committed by an individual, as different from that committed by two or more. On the one hand, original sin occurred because there were two persons; on the other hand, Our Lord emphasized that when "two or three gathered together" in His name, He would be there. (Matt. 18: 20). In the field of crime and punishment a felony can be attached to any crime where two or more conspire.
Addressing the relationship between Yugoslavian dictator Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mira, an author wrote: "Mira chose Milosevic, then she made him president. She's mad. It's as simple as that. And she is very powerful." Both of them were mad "in mutually supportive ways, creating a folie à deux (madness by two), in which two people lose touch with reality and do terrible things they'd never have done on their own." (1)
This concept, where the evil multiplies exponentially when committed by two, can be applied to a broader scope. Actually, it may be applied presently to the illicit marriage between the Church and the world.
The word aggiornamento (updating) was applied to the beginning of this illicit marriage. It refers to the ideal embodied in John XXIII’s intent to “open the windows" of the Church to the world. He confirmed this intention on October 11, 1962, when he convened Vatican II. His initial address to the two-thousand-plus Prelates was one of the most remarkable papal addresses in the entire History of the Church.
One historian aptly describes it: “In subtle but unmistakable language he disassociated himself from the Curia's narrow, defensive view of the Council and urged the Bishops instead to undertake a great renewal or updating of the Church."(2) The Johannine Revolution had begun.
It was based on a virtual denial of Original Sin. His saccharine remarks demonstrated "a grave misunderstanding of a sacred Church dogma and, at the same time, it was a piece of naïveté that is hard to understand in a man of his wide pastoral experience." (3) His message follows:
"Formally the Church enforced the doctrine of faith by means of sanctions and punitive methods for violations of the papacy's teaching ... [Now, however] the Church decided, as Mother of all men's souls, to rely on explanation and dialogue in order to exact obedience ... A sort of natural goodness [exists] in all men and women ... Once the Church explains to a man the error of his ways and the correct doctrine of faith for belief and moral practice, he will accept it." (3)
This Rousseau-type of optimism, considering everyone good, is so contrary to elementary reason that it takes on the tone of madness. It would be like a governor of a State eliminating his police department, alleging that all bandits are good and can be moved by kind arguments. It seems impossible not to classify this attitude as absurd.
Above, hand in hand with Communist Chaves; below, supportive of Brazilian ex-President Lula
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This absurdity becomes patent comparing it with Our Lord’s life. He preached the sublimity of good and the malice of evil, exalting one, attacking the other, and confirmed His mission by the most marvelous miracles. Nonetheless, this did not move His enemies to accept either His mission or His doctrine. The very opposite happened: They rejected Him to the point of crucifying Him.
The Catholic Church followed her Founder based on this fundamental opposition between good and evil. John XXIII changed this wise policy and what happened was mathematically the opposite of his expectations. Instead of his dreamed acceptation of the Church’s good by the world, the world’s evil flooded into the Church as never before in History. We live now in an increasing global Socialist State, supported by an insane Progressivism in the spiritual sphere, forming a perfect folie à deux.
In his encyclical Pacem in Terris, John XXIII paved the way for the end of the Catholic attacks against Socialism and Communism that materialized at Vatican II. Nodding to the encyclical's Enlightenment tone, German Foreign Minister Willy Brandt inaugurated his Ostpolitik, extending hands to the Communist East. A few years later, international relations theorist Hans Morgenthau, in the spirit of detente, lauded "the ideological decontamination" of U.S. foreign policy. (4) Echoing those initiatives, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently made the same point when she said, "Ideology...is so yesterday." (5)
In tune with Benedict’s encyclical Caritas in veritate, with its approval of a global socialist State, the Conciliar Church is leading its sheep in the free countries to follow the Communist wolf. The whole Latin American Continent is in the fast lane to Communism, represented by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. Russia has truly spread her errors.
In the last two months this folie à deux has become institutionalized. We had a Church praising the use of condoms, and a State approving open homosexuals in the military. As before, the temporal took its cue from the spiritual. The earlier release of Ratzinger's book Light of the World approving condoms for safe sex took place on November 23. Twenty-six days later the U.S. Senate repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." It was signed into law by Obama forthwith.
Benedict admitted condoms for safe sex saying that "in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more humane way of living sexuality.” (6)
Referring to the "in this or that case," Fr. Maurizio Faggioni, consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, commented: "One could ask to which other cases this would extend. This is something that will be seen. One should not force the words of the Holy Father, either."' (7)
But no force was needed to make an analysis of what direction the Ratzinger conundrum would lead to. In a timely inductive article titled “Benedict on Condoms: A Forgotten Paragraph," this question was recently fully answered by Atila Guimaraes. (8) The lid is off. No holds barred. Pope Ratzinger's message will eventually produce exponentially more people - sodomites, heterosexuals with partners, heterosexuals sinning serially, married couples - living in habitual mortal sin.
In the face of this madness, any silence, whether from Bishops, priests, religious or laymen, is to render consent. Qui tacet consentit. Silence implies consent. Our Lady of Good Success predicted with much acumen these times. May she give us in the Catholic resistance the stamina and the fortitude to continue our war against this folie à deux: the progressivist Church that has aligned itself with the socialist world. May her Reign come quickly.
1. Peter York, Dictator Style, San Francisco: Chronicle Bks, 2006, p. 102f
2. Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, New York: Image Bks, 1979, p. 413.
3 Malachi Martin, The Keys of This Blood, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1990, p. 144.
4. Frederick F. Siegel, Troubled Journey, NY: Hill & Wang, 1984, pp 237-238.
5 Toby Westerman,. "Ideology Belongs to the Past," Tradition in Action, posted 5-13-09.
6. Pope Benedict XVI and Peter Seewald, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010, p. 119.
7 The Catholic Voice, Oakland diocese, December 13, 2010, p. 6.
8 Bird's Eye View of the News, Tradition in Action, posted 12-27-10.
Posted January 10, 2011
Related Topics of Interest
When the Pope Becomes the Chaplain of Masonry
Caritas in Veritate, an Encyclical to Foster the Revolution
Benedict on Condoms: A Forgotten Paragraph
Schizophrenia at the Vatican?
Color Variations in Communism - I
Color Variations in Communism - II
Authentic and Artificial Leadership
Vocations of the European Peoples
Related Works of Interest
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