Er... we know.
The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ compares the Church to a human body. It is made up of many different parts, some visible and large, others hidden and small. Together, they complement each other and form a beautiful creation. Not all have the same job. Likewise with the Church. Not all are apostles, not all are prophets or healers or teachers. Yet all have an important role to play.
The 2004 version of the Mystical Body will be a great deal healthier when significant numbers of individuals humbly accept their true role in the Church, desist from acting as if they were the head, i.e. the Pope, and cease their attempts to assume charisms which are not proper to them.
But popes must defend the faith. When they do not, but command what is harmful to the Church, their commands lose legitimacy. You need to understand this important truth better. When a pope actually attacks Sacred Tradition, he forces ordinary Catholics to resist--and to defend the faith by default.
Here's a recent www.traditio.com commentary you may appreciate...
TRADITIO has said it many times before. You might as well go to the Methodist church down the street as to one of the Novus Ordo churches, for all the difference there is now. Well, it seems that some Novus Ordinarians have been reading TRADITIO and are doing just that. Apparently, they too see no difference!
The Toledo Blade recently quoted a parishioner whose 115-year-old St. James Church is being closed to pay off sex lawsuits and in recognition of the fact that Novus Ordo attendance is plummeting. What this parishioner says is quite revealing. She said if her church closes, she might not go where the diocese says. "Maybe. I'm not sure," she said. "My husband's Methodist. I may consider going to a Methodist church."
Congratulations to the New Order! It has purveyed so much unCatholic "doctrine" about false oecumenism and "we all worship the same god" nonsense that Novus Ordinarians can't even distinguish between what passes for a Catholic church and a Protestant church. And notice how Novus Ordinarians throw over the "obedience" argument when it doesn't suit them. That being the case, why should traditional Catholics be expected to "obey" Newchurch bishops who simply want to destroy the Roman Catholic Faith as it has been known for two millennia -- and have almost succeeded in doing so?
A parishioner at the closing St. Anthony's says that she'll watch the "Mass" on TV. Well, she may as well tune in to "The Simpsons" for all the good watching the "Mass" on the boob tube will do her. She'd better hope that Lucifer likes TV!
Yet another church, St. Francis, is said to have trouble scraping even 200 of its 953 "members" to Sunday Mess. So, attendance at the Mess is less than 20% of even the most active members, active enough to register at a parish.
As TRADITIO has been saying, the Vatican II "springtime" has entered winter. Pope Paul VI in 1972, just seven years after Vatican II was closed, predicted it exactly right: "We thought that after the Council a day of sunshine would have dawned for the history of the Church. What dawned, instead, was a day of clouds and storms, of darkness, of searching and uncertainties."
Well, don't worry. The traditional Catholics who have held fast to the True Faith these forty years, heeding the counsel of St. Paul, will be around to pick up the pieces of Newchurch. We should not lose hope now. We are finally winning the Church back!