Posted on 12/27/2019 4:31:57 PM PST by ebb tide
ROME (ChurchMilitant) - The rise of Catholic traditionalism in Latin America, rooted in the Latin Mass, is rapidly reversing the long march of progressivism and Protestantism.
"We see that traditionally oriented churches and seminaries are increasingly full, especially with young people, while those of progressive orientation, increasingly empty," Juan Migel Montes, director of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), Rome, told Church Militant.
"Catholic traditionalism is back in fashion," an upbeat Montes said. "This explains the defeat the Left is suffering in ballot boxes everywhere as the social, political and cultural realities linked to a traditional idea of Catholicism are multiplying everywhere."
"In Rome, as in the main South American dioceses of Rio, São Paolo, Buenos Aires, Bogota, Lima and Santiago, Masses in the Vetus Ordo [Old Rite] are mushrooming," he said. "They are teeming with boys and girls and young families. They do not come across to me as sour people or, according to a certain caricature." Montes was alluding to Pope Francis' Christmas address to the Curia, in which many believed he decried traditionalist Catholics as "rigid" and "unbalanced."
Traditionally oriented churches are increasingly full, especially with young people, while those of progressive orientation are increasingly empty.Tweet
"On the contrary, I see them as very enthusiastic and very eager to expand their range of influence among their peers. In fact, I continually see new faces in religious ceremonies. This motivates me to hope well for the future," Montes added.
The Rome bureau chief of TFP, an organization founded by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in Brazil in 1960, attributed the leftists' political defeats and some resulting violence and unlawfulness — as has occurred in Venezuela — to the "undoubted growth of traditionalist Catholicism in South America, especially among young people."
A Tridentine rite parish in Belem, Brazil
In a frontpage article with the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Montes elaborated on the spurt in the Catholic traditionalist movement:
Right-leaning blogs are multiplying, animated by young and very young people, with millions of followers. New political and cultural groups of conservative orientation are arising. Online conferences of traditionalist orientation are gaining notoriety. Stores of modest clothing are spreading, in open contrast to today's immoral or extravagant fashions. After decades of virtual cultural monopoly of the Left, more and more books are being published and more and more conferences in the center-right area are being held. Sometimes the phenomenon can even be dazzling. For example, polls show 37% of Brazilians in favor of the restoration of the Brazilian monarchy.
Church Militant asked if the Amazon Synod might actually provoke an even greater growth of traditional Catholicism. Montes said that, ironically, the advance of progressivism in the Church — as seen in the so-called "Indian theology" that bears a marxist footprint and undergirded veneration of Pachamama idols — is serving to open the eyes of many people to the depth of the crisis in the Church.
Montes, in fact, attributes the ascendancy of Protestantism to a long history of "preaching from the pulpits, with different accents, of liberation theology. The re-emergence of traditionalism among the faithful," he said, is likely the "result of the 'unintended consequences of intentional actions,' which ordinary people mock with the expression 'the devil makes pots but not lids.'"
Montes also noted that in one of Pope Benedict XVI's trips to Brazil, the pontiff explicitly identified the sociological turn of preaching in the Catholic Church — specifically liberation theology — as the reason why countless Catholics defected to neo-Protestantism. Montes quoted TIME magazine: "The Catholic Church has made the option for the poor, and the poor have made the option for the evangelicals and the pentecostals."
This phenomenon does not occur in traditionalist Catholic circles, where evangelization adheres to the precept of Our Lord to "seek first the kingdom of Heaven and all these things shall be granted unto you," Montes explained. Despite having differing "liturgical sensitivity," he said numerous groups within the Church today "move decisively toward the search for tradition" in every field of life:
Procession with the Blessed Sacrament
[In] the life of piety they practice traditional devotions, especially the Marian one, and are not afraid of introducing themselves for what they are, conservative Catholics, even in the way they dress. In politics, they are increasingly demanding from candidates ... the non-negotiable principles preached by Benedict XVI, that is, the defense of life from conception to natural death, the family founded on the union of two people of different sex and the inviolable right of parents to choose education for their children.
Faithful Catholics can correct the drift occurring within the Church, Montes emphasized, through "forms of devotion, prayer and Catholic witness, in harmony with the traditional Magisterium of the Church — forms that were gradually abandoned and sometimes explicitly denied."
In September, Bp. José Luis Azcona, bishop emeritus of the Marajó Prelature in the Amazon area of Belém do Pará, Brazil, sounded the alarm: "The Amazon, at least the Brazilian part of it, is no longer Catholic," because it has a Pentecostal majority that, in some regions, "reaches 80%."
"Under the pretext of 'intercultural dialogue,' Catholic missionaries no longer evangelize or baptize," he lamented. "However, evangelicals do evangelize and work very hard indeed. While Catholic missionaries talk to Indians about 'deforestation,' 'climate change' and 'integral ecology,' Protestant pastors visit their communities with Bible in hand."
Gabriel Klautau Miléo, creator of the Salve Roma website, confirms the recoveries made by Catholic traditionalism. On Twitter, he posts pictures of Latin Mass churches filled with young people.
"All the photos ... were taken in Belém do Pará, one of the main urban centers of the Amazon region," he writes. "Several friends of mine and their families have returned to Catholicism by [re-]discovering the traditional rite of the Church."
"This is what the Amazon really needs," he notes. "We already have the apostolate of the Tridentine Mass in the two main urban centers of the Brazilian Amazon [Belém and Manaus] and in a city in the interior of the state of Pará [Santarém]."
Archbishop Alberto Taveira Correa, who heads the archdiocese of Belém do Pará, confirms that in his 10 years as archbishop, he can testify to the "growth in vocations" in his own diocese and others.
The Amazon, at least the Brazilian part of it, is no longer Catholic because it has a Pentecostal majority that, in some regions, reaches 80%. Tweet
Brazil's traditionalist Catholic Instituto Bom Pastor (Good Shepherd Institute) is also reporting a boom in vocations, as its "members want to exercise the priesthood in the doctrinal and liturgical Tradition of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, faithful to the infallible Magisterium of the Church with the exclusive use of the Gregorian liturgy in the worthy celebration of the Holy Mysteries."
Montes agrees it is impossible to predict the immediate future. "However, the rise of a mighty movement in traditional Catholic public opinion allows us to have many hopes," he affirms. "These hopes are also based on the promises of Our Lady who, in Fatima, proclaimed the triumph of her Immaculate Heart, after a period of tribulation."
You should be ashamed of yourself to think Catholics are not saved. How can you judge our hearts? We don’t exactly get our marching orders from Rome but we worship at the local parishes. WE have a Savior who is the same one you have We worship Him differently than you obviously. Would you attack a Methodist or a Presbyterian the way you ignorantly attack Catholics WHO ARE the Original Christians? If you could research your ancestors back to the 1st century youd be shocked to discover they started out as Catholics.
I can’t get through to your hardened heart so I’m signing out.
Please reread the entire chapter I posted. The context is legalists telling new Gentile believers they had to follow the Law of Moses.
A council was called.
The Holy Spirit led the Apostles to write a specific letter telling them they would do well if they just did these things...
Greetings. 24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
IF the Holy Spirit was going to keep Gentiles under Law, this was the time to clearly state it. They did not. They wiped it away and listed 4 things.
There's all the authority any Christian needs. A passage in Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and the Apostles.
If you wish to ignore or deny it, no problem.
But in the end, Rome is not needed to tell Christians what day to worship.
Again, not what I stated. You seem to be having some kind of trouble distinguishing between the 4 Gospels in Scripture, and a teaching of the Gospel of Grace.
Some are. Many - maybe most, are not. They've been taught a false religion and have never heard the Gospel of Grace.
How can you judge our hearts?
I leave that to God.
We don’t exactly get our marching orders from Rome but we worship at the local parishes.
Yet, every Catholic Church must teach exactly what Rome tells it.
WE have a Savior who is the same one you have
Having Him and being saved are two different things FRiend. "Lord, Lord, didn't we..."
Would you attack a Methodist or a Presbyterian the way you ignorantly attack Catholics WHO ARE the Original Christians?
1. I am not attacking a single catholic. I am pointing out the teaching as false.
2. Catholics were not the original Christians. This is just something you've been taught. And even if they were, that proves nothing. Read the first 3 chapters of Revelation and you will see what the fallacy of that argument.
If you could research your ancestors back to the 1st century youd be shocked to discover they started out as Catholics.
As was I, until I came to saving faith in Christ.
I can’t get through to your hardened heart so I’m signing out.
It appears your heart is hard against Christ, preferring catholicsm.
Best
By your logic, these are all allowed; it's the blood of strangled animals that's problematic.
(I can't keep up with this. I just...can't.)
“ There’s no prohibition there against theft, rape, or murder either
You do know there is more in the NT than Acts 15?
Show me the specific line in the New Testament (and not the vague catch-all line that allows everything but idols and meat from strangled animals) that shifts the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday.
I am judging Catholicism, not Catholics. I am judging that religion with reason, tempered with experience, and measured by Scripture.
And I don’t know which “Christian religion” you are referring to.
From pentecost, when believers were first baptized into the body of Christ - which was a Sunday - onward - the NT records believers gathering on the first day of the week.
Yes, a Apostles went on the sabbath to witness to gatherings of Jews, as commanded of them.
That Sunday gathering for Christian worship continues onward in the early church record for 300 years.
You’ve made up an argument about the authority of Rome being necessary to change to Sunday worship that is simply false.
It isn’t credible.
There was no decree issued in the NT. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost.
No Rome needed.
It was St. James Holy Roman Catholic Church in Falls Church, VA.
The Liturgy of the Word was part of the Mass then and all the way back to when I first attended Mass, regularly and on Holy Days of Obligation in the 1950s. It comes right before the Liturgy of the Eucharist - where the transubstantiation is alleged to occur.
Or, maybe you don’t believe that a “Priest” gave the Gospel on TV?! I know. Right?
Be specific. WHAT don’t you believe? I know what you obviously don’t believe.
That is all, my friend; have a good night.
LOL
You keep saying that and you don’t realize how STUPID it is.
Here’s an exercise for you: You’ll need a Bible. Search for the word “gospel” in the New Testament (That’s the Second of the two major parts). See how the word is used. It’s “ euaggelion” if you’re reading it in Greek.
Then get back to us.
Post #143: And THERE IT IS. That hurdle that can NEVER be cleared: Four Gospels v. The Gospel that SAVES. That wraps up everything anyone would ever need to know about the RCC v. Christianity. The GOSPEL (s) they believe and accept are the 4 gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. The GOSPEL that SAVES is not found there. It was revealed to Paul and he was commissioned to reveal it to us, in this dispensation of the GRACE of GOD.
No wonder we seem miles apart from the RCC...WE ARE.
Amen bro
Myth. And that’s your sign.
Have gotten you little pachmama statue yet to rest beside your mary one.
I attended mass for over 19 years FRiend.
If I’m misinformed, it’s because of your Priests who presided over the ceremonies and spoke.
Thank God, I found the Gospel and actually put forth the effort to read Holy Scripture on my own.
John 1:12
HMMMmmm…
Then logically; YOU would have had to graduate from "a Protestant seminary" to be able to make this assertion for sure.
So; just how DO you 'know' that he learned&knows NOTHING from the source you've claimed?
Tell me again; as I like a firm, authoritative voice in a person.
I can tell you that damned few FR Catholics recognize the 'authority' of their current pope.
Would that be the same thing??
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