Lambeth Update: A Catholic Cardinal speaks the Truth in Love

Ivan Cardinal Dias is the kind of leader which the Church needs as we begin this Third Christian Millennium. He spoke the truth in love to our Anglican Friends.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - Damien Thompson of the Daily Telegraph and the Catholic Herald of London is one of the most accurate journalists covering the unfolding events in the Anglican Communion.

In his daily report entitled "Holy Smoke", published online for Wednesday, July 23, he wrote the following:

"A senior Vatican Cardinal visiting the Lambeth Conference has delivered an incredible rebuff to its 650 Anglican bishops, telling them they are heading towards "spiritual Alzheimer's" and "ecclesial Parkinson's".

"The comments by Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization, must count as one of the rudest things a Vatican prelate has said to Anglicans since the dawn of the ecumenical era.

"It can mean only one thing: Rome - and therefore the Pope - has given up on the Anglican Communion. Here is the quote, from Cardinal Dias's address to the conference yesterday evening:

"Much is spoken today of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. By analogy, their symptoms can, at times, be found even in our own Christian communities. For example, when we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer's. And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson's."

Diaz is one of those Cardinals who favors welcoming traditionalist Anglicans into the Catholic Church. I reckon that liberals will be deeply insulted by his barbs - not least on grounds of political correctness - but that traditionalists will be nodding their heads in agreement."

Thompsons' report is only one of multiple reports concerning this extraordinary address given by Ivan Cardinal Dias, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide) at the Lambeth conference.

Here are some further selected words from this powerful, prophetic and deeply honest address given to brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing the promotion of heresy in their ranks.

It was given by a member of the Vatican Congregation charged with ensuring that the true faith is proclaimed and who is generally concerned for their own well being:

"The spiritual combat, described in the Books of Genesis and Revelation, has continued unabated all down the ages. St Paul described it in very vivid terms:

"We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12).

"This combat rages fiercely even today, aided and abetted by well-known secret sects, Satanic groups and New Age movements, to mention but a few, and reveals many ugly heads of the hideous anti-God monster: among them are notoriously secularism, which seeks to build a Godless society; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel.

"All of these seek to efface any reference to God or to things supernatural, and to supplant it with mundane values and behavior patterns which purposely ignore the transcendental and the divine.

"Far from satisfying the deep yearnings of the human heart, they foster a culture of death, be it physical or moral, spiritual or psychological. Examples of this culture are abortions (or the slaughter of innocent unborn children), divorces (which kill sacred marriage bonds blessed by God), materialism and moral aberrations (which suffocate the joy of living and lead often to profound psychic depression), economic, social and political injustices (which crush human rights), violence, suicides, murders, and the like, all of which abound today and militate against the mind of Christ, who came that "all may have life, and have it in abundance" (Jn 10:10).

"Two vital institutions of the human society are particularly vulnerable to such a culture of death: the family and the youth. These must, therefore, receive the special attention, guidance and support of those whom the Holy Spirit has placed as shepherds of the flock entrusted to their pastoral care."

Ivan Cardinal Dias is the kind of leader which the Church needs as we begin this Third Christian Millennium. This is a new missionary age and the most loving thing which the Shepherds of the Church can do for the faithful is to speak the truth in love.

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