Countdown to the Conclave, Day 7: Iron Fist?

By Deal W Hudson and Deacon Keith Fournier
3/5/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit

We suggest that all of you following this series leading up to the Conclave join with the cardinals, now meeting, in asking for the Holy Spirit to guide their proceedings and the choice they will ultimately make.

We do not take 'iron fist' literally, but as a metaphor for one of the more obvious needs in the Church, that all Catholic educational institutions either embrace the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990) or stop calling themselves 'Catholic.'

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Our Countdown, thus far, has focused on the hostile media's message about the Conclave: "The Church must elect a progressive pope who will not follow in the footsteps of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but will finally fulfill the hopes born at Vatican II of a democratized institution, one that listens to the enlightened voices calling for women priests, more married priests, acceptance of contraception and same-sex marriage, and an end to abortion activism."

But there are other hopes for the Conclave, voices that are not heard in the mainstream media -- Catholics whose concerns, at best, are expressed publicly on Catholic radio and TV, Catholic blogs, or in emails passed virally along established pro-life, pro-marriage communication networks. These are voices usually ignored by religion writers and correspondents unless they are looking for a quote to caricature orthodox Catholics as mean-spirited and bigoted, in contrast to the justice and charity that characterizes their favorite Catholics.

We hear these voices, and they are concerned -- in a different way -- about the future of the Church, praying that the true reform and aggiornamento begun by John Paul II in October, 1978, reaffirmed with the election of Benedict XVI April 19, 2005, will continue with the election to be held sometime in the next ten days.

These Catholics, because they are so active in the day-to-day life of the Church, know what goes on in parishes, chanceries, state conferences, and the USCCB. They are holding their collective breath, knowing there is no foregone conclusion given the deep divisions among the clergy and the bishops about the future of the Church.

We talk to these people everyday. For example, an email exchange about the latest bit of nonsense coming out of a Catholic university, in this case DePaul University, led to the following comment last night from a friend of ours:

"This makes no sense.I hope the new pope will rule with an almost iron fist in regard to Catholic schools and Universities. They should not be able to be called Catholic if they do not support the teachings of the Church. This should trickle down to the politicians too."

We do not take "iron fist" literally, but as a metaphor for one of the more obvious needs in the Church, that all Catholic educational institutions either embrace the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990) or stop calling themselves "Catholic."

Local bishops, of course, have the canonical power to declare any institution or organization no longer "Catholic," as happened recently to the National Catholic Reporter. These type of decisions, call them the "iron fist" variety, do little good if the institution in question has a base of support that could care less, as is the case with NCR.

That which is not directly funded by the chancery can continue to exists, to call itself "Catholic," in spite of opposition from the local ordinary. Thus, more a prudential perspective, the use of the "iron fist" can easily demonstrate the limits of a bishop's authority more readily than his purported power. It's our observation that bishops, including those working in the Vatican, are acutely aware of this dynamic and seek substantial change in ways that do not expose their incapacity.

Today, 115 cardinals of the Church are meeting to determine the starting day of the Conclave and to reaffirm the rules surrounding the election, especially the special security measures that ensure the participants are cut off from communications with anyone from "outside." This is particularly important given the spectacle over the past year of the leak of papal documents by the pope's ex-butler. The dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who is leading the pre-Conclave meetings, has said the date may not be announced for a few days.

The cardinals gathered together are aware of the entire spectrum of concerns and expectations in the minds of Catholics around the world. As we outlined on our Day 1 report much of the time spent at the Conclave will be in prayer and worship: The Church, after all, teaches that Her life is directed and nourished by the Holy Spirit:

"The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ's faithful to share in his communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them, recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist, in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God, that they may 'bear much fruit.'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 737).

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: conclave, new pope, legacy, ex corde ecclesiae, interregnum, new pope, cardinals, Deal W Hudson, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 10 of 15 Comments

Fred
3 months ago
Whether the cardinals, bishop and priest agrees to gay, lesbian, it is still an abormimation before GOD our maker. People should be careful and put GOD first before anything
Charles
3 months ago
The liberal media ,progressives all follow the same agenda founded by Stalin, hitler, Mao now comes Mohammed terrorist they all want to destroy the Catholic Church. That will never happen. The Lord said. The gates of hell will not prevail against my church Satan and his army of demons will be destroyed along will all its followers. It would be better if they were never born
Bob Hugelmeyer
3 months ago
Writing in the 50's, Pope Benedict the XVI predicted the Church would be smaller in number. It is time as Jesus said to be for Him or against Him but that one should not sit on the fence. An attempt should be made to persuade those against Him and His teachings that come to us through the Holy Spirit to return to the fold. If not, then regardless of a bishop's power to alter their behavior, he should acknowledge their apostasy and declare them in error which would result in clarifying their use of the label Catholic with a capital C.
Deidra
3 months ago
I am simply appalled by what the public is ranting on about. They want the church to basically say it's ok to sin, so what if God didn't say same sex marriages were alright. The bible clearly states this is a sin yet here we are trying to force a future pope to make a choice one that is morally wrong. What happened to values and believing in Gods written word? As a nation we condone things we know are morally and ethecially wrong, and treat the Gospel as something not to be trusted. We place more emphasis on mans written laws than we do the laws of God!! I am also opposed to the lets just hand out contraception so our young can go sin and not worry about having babies,and if they do get pregnant well what is a life? Well just abort it and give them more contraception!! This is what our world has turned to? Take the easy way out.. Rather than be RESPONSIBLE PARENTS and teach our sons and daughters to be chaste we just enable them by saying well if you are going to sleep with so and so use....this has to stop! While I do think at times perhaps allowing priests to marry would be ok, I am not for female priests.. the apostles were all males and I think it should stay that way.What the people want for a pope really saddens me, basically in a nutshell they want the pope to say it's ok to break this commandment(s) so long as the public is happy.Dear God people it's like telling your child hood friend you can't be in our club unless you get in mom and dads liquor cabinet.. and bring us a bottle.. What are world has come to seriouslly scares me at how morarlly corrupt we really are. May God have Mercy on us all..
abey
3 months ago
Revelations Ch 2 unto the Church of Thyatira(in general the Catholic Church) said the Son of God ,who hath His eyes like unto a Flame of Fire & His feet like fine Brass "---that which ye have already, hold fast till I come & he that overcometh & keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, & he shall rule them with a Rod of Iron: as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers:even as I received of My Father" Now that indeed is the Iron Fist.
"For there shall come one from behind the doors as lightening, powerful & ferocious, thundering & sliding, dashing the Multicolored idol into pieces''
yasmn
3 months ago
Thank you I agree wholeheartedly with Albert J Marek
Manuel Morales
3 months ago
Probably the most difficult thing is to act as we speak. If we are a catholic person WE MUST act as a catholic person. Otherwise we have to stop saying: "I am a catholic".
Same applies to Colleges and I do really wish that someone declares that a College is not a "catholic" College if it doesn't obey to our Dear Lord Jesus Christ doctrine. That has nothing to do with an "iron fist"; its just a result from reasoning.
Manuel.
DLL
3 months ago
The crowd freed Barabbas to crucify the Christ. The criminal is always more interesting than the saint and gets more media coverage even justice. The criminal can be understood better by the sinner than any saint can be understood by the clearly criminal media itself. The Church will suffer crucifixion because it is the Church of Christ,as will its members who support the teachings of the Catholic Church. The Church is not wrong in what it teaches. It is the arrogant pride of its critics that would dare to advocate that it must change its catechism so that women become Priests(woman's liberation movement),gay marriage is just fine(GBLT movement),as is abortion(Planned Parenthood),euthanasia,pornography as free speech(sexual liberation movement)',sex trafficking,gun smuggling you name it what ever becomes socially tolerated and in vogue is all fine,so do whatever you want. The devil is its critic. If gay marriage is considered a right than a gay priest could not have been wrong to show young boys that mutual homosexually shared behaviour was normal,so abuse is not abuse,it is just the way it is because there is no such thing as perverse behaviour? Of coarse that is absurd,but is it in a world that calls poor behaviour good and good behaviour bad? In the end all must deny the existence of God(secular humanist and atheist movements)accepting secular belief systems as well as legally mandated secular imposed judicial ones.On and on it will go in the abuse of loyal Christians who support the teachings of the Catholic Church,until all it's members become hated as so called hate criminals because they believe the current catechism as it has been written. The Church is not wrong in what it teaches,the laity and the secular world is in what it chooses to condemn,as it is Pride that drives the critics and it is humility that must be the force to govern the faithful. It is enough to be a faithful Christian and then let God be the guiding force in ones life,as it is His will be done and not ours. "We become all things in Christ and without him we are as if we were nothing at all". Praise be to God and also may we all give Him thanks. May the next Pope be as good a leader as the last few have been. Orthodoxy is not so bad it is the humble way to teach the faithful. The new age? It becomes very old very quickly as it simply becomes out dated,or burned out,if it be evil because evil,in itself is planned obsolescence,so that nothing has any meaning,because ultimately evil,renders all to be used and eventually useless.
Doug Knowles
3 months ago
The Iron Fist is too much associated with Communism/ SOCIALISN, etc, not good Christians and the Catholic Church. Please USE A DIFFERENT PICTURE.
mike
3 months ago
Scottish Cardinal O'Brien's admission of a secret homosexual sex life - and the horrible hypocrisy that necessarily accompanies it - DOES INDEED undeniably send a jolt through the pre-conclave proceedings. It is hard to say that it is not the work of the Holy Spirit unmasking a dangerous situation prior to the turning of the key on the actual election. America could well see something similar. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has always seemed to style himself as the architect and standard bearer of acceptance to gays into the priesthood, and has sponsored many to the seminaries in this dioceses in the past (under promise of celibacy). It is hoped that in this last week before the conclave that anyone who has certain knowledge of maleficence of this "Prince of the Church" come forward, and not count the cost. Amen.

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