The Necessary Activity of Peter

VATICAN - THE WORDS OF DOCTRINE: 

Rev Nicola Bux and Rev Salvatore Vitiello - 

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Clemente Romano, narrating of the death of the apostles Peter and Paul, observes that it was facilitated by the envy of certain members of the Christian community. Two thousand years later, sin is still present in man. There are those who rejoice at the papal Magisterium because it has stopped an “inconsistent” interpretation of Vatican II, explaining that diffused disputes in the fields of doctrine, education and liturgy are the result of misunderstanding whereas the Council spoke clearly.
The Pope is “Peter”, head of the apostles. And his brother bishops can only legitimately care for the flock of Christ if they are in effective and affective unity with the Chair of Peter. Otherwise we would return to the experience of the 4th century, when most of the bishops in the world bowed to the will of an Arian emperor. Only the Pope, and a handful of bishops faithful to him, preserved the Catholic faith. The Pope is there to remind us that the Church is no human structure. This is also one of the reasons why so many different cultures and peoples find their identity in the Church.

As it was often recalled by the Servant of God John Paul II, we are in the midst of a “silent apostasy”, which is becoming ever less silent and ever more blatant. In the history of the Church there has never been such a widespread lack of faith. The adversary is subtle and he shoots arrows deep into the hearts of men, so profound that they are almost invisible. Think of the prophet Daniel, who warned that the adversary would have obtained power over all nations peacefully and with flattery.

Cardinal J. H. Newman was of the opinion that apostasy among the people of God, in different epochs and places, is always preceded by the coming of “antichrists”, tyrants such as Antiochus and Nero, Julian the Apostate, leader of the atheists of the French revolution, each one a “type” or “presage” of the antichrists, who would come until the end of history, when the mystery of iniquity would have revealed its final and terrible senselessness. The incapacity of believers to live their faith, Newman warned, as in earlier epochs, would have led “to the kingdom of man of sin, who would have denied the divinity of Christ and raised himself up in his place ” (M.D.O’Brien, Il Nemico, Cinisello Balsamo 2006, pp. 175-176).

There is an attempt to reduce the Church to one of the world's humanitarian agencies and the utopia that the unity of nations can be achieved by international organisations not by Christ. However even if the Lord sleeps in the boat during a storm, at the final moment He will awaken and He calm the waves. He will then return to us and we will wonder why we had such little faith. In the meantime we carry the cross. We see betrayal. We suffer.

Once again it is Newman who writes: “The goal of the devil, when he spreads revolution in the Church, is to throw her into confusion, to distract her attention and disperse her energies. In this way we are weakened precisely in a time in history when we should be strongest ” . “Why does the Holy Father not react? Can he not impose obedience on these prelates?”. “He has done so repeatedly and in a most Christian manner. But he does not lead a police force or an army. Recently he has shown greater firmness with dissidents […] However the solution is not authoritarianism, since this would only throw petrol on the fire of the revolt. The Holy Father works as long as there is light. He calls us all to the One who carried the cross and who died on the cross. In his hands he carries only this, a cross; he speaks always of the triumph of the Cross. Those who refuse to listen will have to answer to God ” (Ivi, p 402-403). (Agenzia Fides 2/7/2009; righe 41, parole 599)

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