Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Retracting My Book?

Someone recently commented on my book:

“And if the canonization does come about, you'll have to retract the entire book, I would imagine, or at least remove it from the market, as canonizations are infallible.”

One evening when my book was being prepared by my publisher the interior designer of the book gave me a call. He was very frustrated that evening because his formatting software wasn’t cooperating with my text. He said to me, “Mark, do you know how many footnotes you have in this book?” I said I had lost count. He said, “You have almost 1600 footnotes in this book!” I tell you the story because those footnotes are mostly in reference to the quotes of the popes, fathers, doctors, saints, councils, and the Scriptures. What part of those writings do you wish me to retract? You see my book is more than a book about Mother Teresa; it is a book about the qualifications for a Saint and canonization. It is, also, a catechism of the faith.

I learned a long time ago that it is vital to have confessional parameters that are sacrosanct. If I did not have confessional parameters that are sacrosanct I would have been an ordained priest living in a religious community long ago. My vocation was confirmed by liberal, conservative, and traditional priests and religious alike. Many of the men I knew whose vocations were confirmed had the idea that it was their duty to get ordained and thought they could play the game to get through seminary. They were not the same men when their day of ordination arrived. They had become, or were on the way to becoming, the very people they saw as the destroyers of the Church when they entered seminary or religious life. What happened? Simply, they made the vocation an idol. A priestly or religious vocation is for the service of God, it is not end in itself. A Catholic is not called to the priesthood or religious life to see God be mocked it those environments only to say, “Someday I will defend you Lord!” That day is the day God give you the grace to know that he is being mocked; and if you are banned from the ordained priesthood or religious life because of your fidelity that is the will of the Lord and your vocation. Because these men rejected the grace of fidelity when given, God rejected them as his servants.

This same principle applies when addressing the larger picture of confessional fidelity. Dogmas and doctrines of the faith are not mysteries that a Catholic needs some special Gnostic knowledge to figure out. The dogmas are assessable to everyone; and the historic understanding of how they have always been understood takes a little work but is not outside the ability of someone who wants to know. I know what the dogmas of the faith are and how they have always been understood. I have drawn a line in the sand and will not cross it. I will not engage in tortured mental gymnastics to reconcile a teaching of a pope not in union with the declarations of the Holy Spirit just because he is pope. If that makes me not a Catholic then praise God, I am not a Catholic! We all have to decide of ourselves were viability dwells. Each of us will stand before the Lord and have to give an account for ourselves. Today could be that day. My conscience is informed and clear on this issue.

If you are a Catholic, how far will you go in obeying Rome? Where do you draw the line?

What do you do when the Church teaches that God is not God? Can’t happen? The Church is already teaching error about God, look at Nostra Aetate 3:

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.


What will you do if Rome teaches and defines:

Canon 666. If any one saith, that Moslems do not adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; let him be anathema.

If these hypothetical decrees and canons of Rome are heretical hypothetical decrees and canons, now and forever, then so is a St. Mother Teresa, for she embodies all those errors in her person.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The book should not have been allowed to be published, it should have been revisted after her sanctification. I am afraid after reading your letter I find just as much confusion. Your letter quoted and made good facts but did not address the question was Mother Teresa heroically charitable and that is all that matters. Did her Charity in the Church's mindset be seen to be stronger than her ignorance of her spiritual life? I mean a spiritual life that had no one explain to her what she was suffering. I think her spiritual guidance was abyssmal.

Mark Michael Zima said...

Thank you for you comment Anonymous.

“The book should not have been allowed to be published, it should have been revisted after her sanctification.”

I have no idea what you mean by her “sanctification.”

“Your letter quoted and made good facts but did not address the question was Mother Teresa heroically charitable and that is all that matters.”

“To be canonized, witnesses must be called ‘to recount concrete facts on the exercise of Christian virtues considered heroic, that is, the theological virtues: faith, hope and charity, and the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude’ (Holy See Press Office—Vatican City, Sept 12, 1997).” Quote taken from Mother Teresa: The Case for The Cause, p. 3, n. 23.

More is needed than charity.

“I mean a spiritual life that had no one explain to her what she was suffering. I think her spiritual guidance was abyssmal.”

Ultimately, Jesus is the spiritual director of his elect. St. Peter said:

“For you were as sheep going astray: but you are now converted to the shepherd and bishop of your souls (I Pet. 2:25).”

Let us hope she is in heaven. However, there are substantive problems with her worldview that if she was a sheep Jesus would have corrected her.

Deep South Reader said...

Nostra Aetate 3

Michael, how is this "error about God".

And why do you believe Mother Teresa's statement that Moslems worship the one true God is error? It is one thing to worship the one true God. It is another to be erroneous in what you think is REVEALED about the one true God. Correct?

Mark Michael Zima said...

Deep South Reader,

It is nice to see that you have a zeal for the spreading of the faith.

“It is one thing to worship the one true God. It is another to be erroneous in what you think is REVEALED about the one true God. Correct?”

You seem to be making a distinction that an erroneous understanding of an object will give you a true know knowledge of that object. Do you not see an implied logical contradiction in what you are stating? You could have a limited knowledge of an object but you cannot have erroneous knowledge as to the essential characteristics of that object and still be referencing the same object. Let us apply the principle of identity to this issue: “A thing is, what it is, no matter what I think it is.” Christians are not theological Nominalists. If I say you are a woman when you are a man and that you are a Protestant when you are a Catholic I am way off on essential characteristics about you. Muslims believe the one true God is not triune (Sura 5:73) and that Jesus is not God incarnate (Sura 5:17, 5:72). Their knowledge of the one true God is not just limited but is essentially fallacious. Keep in Mother Teresa said we should help a Muslim become a better Muslim. The Arians where a lot closer to the proper doctrine of God than the Muslims but you didn’t hear St. Athanasius praise the Arians about how they worshipped the same God as him or try to help them become better Arians. It is even comical to even think that he would say or do such things. He referred to the Arians as idolaters. Applied to Nostra Aetate 3:

“The Church regards with esteem also the Arians. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Arianism takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.”

Do you see how easy just the change of two words reduces this statement to absurdity in light of Church Tradition?

However, by biblical standards, it takes a lot more than just correct knowledge of the one true God to really and truly be worshipping the one true God. St. James said, “Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble” (James 2:19). The devils have a correct knowledge of the one true God and the Muslims do not. Jesus said, “Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men” (Mt. 15:7-9). The Jews had a limited but correct knowledge of the one true God and the Muslims do not. Both rejected what was revealed to them from heaven and both do not worship the one true God nor are they saved. Jesus was constantly demonstrating to the Jews that they did not understand the revelation they had been given and did not apply it correctly. What were the Saints saying about Islam? Not good stuff. Well did Solomon say, “Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us. There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end” (Eccles. 1:10-11).

There is so much wrong in that statement of Nostra Aetate that I could be here all night. I hope my words elucidate what I said in my post. Pax et Gratia.