Interesting read bump.
He makes a number of good points. I am also particularly puzzled about this Pope's "cult of personality." I remember the papacy of Pius XII, and while I recall that he was enormously respected, I don't remember so much personal adulation, or even that he was personally visible that much. Granted, I was just in my early teens when he died, so it's possible that my recollections aren't accurate.
But it does seem to me that, aside from the fact that church governance does not seem to be high on his list of things to do, this Pope has also taken a very unusual approach to the Papacy. He has rewritten everything, revised everything (even things such as the Rosary), and left his personal stamp on everything. I think many people, whether they know it or not, find that disturbing, and it may account for some of the heated passions and polarization in Catholic circles nowadays.
Ping
Will Mr. woods ever tire of promoting his book?
Ping.
"who is blind like My servant" -- God.
I guess you can count me in the middle. I attend a regular Catholic Church but I keep my hands at my sides during communion. I have done so ever since communion in the hands was allowed, and have seldom run into any trouble--none for the past twenty years or so.
I sympathize with traditional Catholics. Many of the changes to the Mass were, indeed, mistakes, imposed by power-drunk liturgists and disrupting traditions and gradual developments that go back more than a thousand years, way past the Council of Trent.
Nevertheless, I don't feel it is right to separate myself from the main body of the Church, which is referred to here as "neo-Catholic." No, it's the Catholic Church we're talking about, not some new Church.
In the disputes between Luther and Erasmus, Luther was right about more things than Erasmus. Nevertheless Erasmus stuck with the Church and Luther broke with it. The Catholic Church of that time was filled with abuses, but it was still the Catholic Church. It needed reforming, not a schism.
However good the intentions, going into schism because you don't approve of the doings of a jerk like Cardinal Mahoney is only hurting yourself. Heretics like Mahoney will come and go, but it's still the Catholic Church that he's so busy abusing.