OUR RENEWAL: RESCUING HUMILITY FROM SHAME (PART 2)

(Posted by Glaucon Jr)

       (FYI: not my child)

All of us here at in the JungleWatch Nation seek the renewal of the Church on Guam, and we all have to re-learn that at its heart is the need for genuine humility. Yet, with decades of bad catechesis that substitutes self-loathing in the place of humility as the proper response to shame, a lot of poor souls have actually been spiritually poisoned (whether their catechists know it or not). 

That's why we have these short pieces on JungleWatch about renewal--to complement the fight we must all fight. We must get back to what we know is of Christ, not just our opinion or assumption. It's not enough to fight without knowing the Faith we fight for, and if we proclaim the Faith without that kind of moral virility that the other JW writers have (all apologies to LaPaz) would make me just plain slothful.  So read if you have a few minutes to reflect, or don't if you're not of the mind.  Better yet, comment and tell them what excites you, what you want to know, what the Faith needs. Tell your friends. Whatever it takes.

Either way, our subject: shame is what we feel--what we know--when we sin. It can go two ways from there. Our fallen nature drives us to self-hatred. Humility drives us to love, of God and our neighbor and ourselves.

So now that we’ve looked in part one at how and why self-loathing is such an evil, we turn to the antidote: genuine humility and its companion magnanimity. 

OPEN LETTER TO PRIESTS ON GUAM

(Posted by Glaucon Jr)

My dear fathers in the Faith,

Coming on the heels of many years of pastoral murkiness and bullying, we the laity see the need for a great renewal in the Church on Guam, and so this letter is written in that spirit of renewal needed by every single one of us.

As our pastors and confessors, you are the men whom God has called to serve in Holy Mother Church to make the sacramental and pastoral life a reality. Without you, it is impossible. Such is the dignity of your vocation.

As the flock entrusted to your care, we count on you to make the sacraments present for us, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation. You are revered by us and loved by us, for you truly are “other Christs” and you act in persona Christi.  Because of that relationship--that bond of love between Christ and ourselves-- I must speak to you now. This is in no way a condemnation, but rather an adjuration grounded in and inseparable from your vocation. So it is in the name of these two sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession that I appeal to you in hopes even one of you might hear.

OUR RENEWAL: RESCUING HUMILITY FROM SHAME (PART 1)

(Posted by Glaucon Jr)

If we want to aid in the renewal of the Church on Guam, we have to deal with Kiko’s misuse of shame.

With two decades of NCW influence on Guam, his teachings have soaked in on levels most haven’t even noticed yet. Sure, the heresies themselves are in-your-face and must be combatted, but there’s the stuff that’s unsaid that Kiko and his catechists teach that prepares the ground for the seeds of such evil. To my mind, there is one core Luther-an belief that is particularly destructive: that man is evil  in everything he is and does, and Kiko himself is the way out of that evil.

HOLINESS AND THE TRADITION

(Posted by Glaucon Jr)

(A Monstrance: This is God, not a menorah)

We who write for and read JungleWatch  stand firm in our commitment to rid the poor, suffering Church of the greatest abuses by whatever means are legally and morally available to us. But no matter what anyone says, the removal of the errors and corruptions of the Catholic Faith by the NCW is not and cannot be the end-game. The removal of NCW as the dominating force in the Church on Guam is really just the end of the storm. But how will we start again to rebuild after such a long tempest?

Since we flatly reject the NCW vision of spiritual bondage, we must make clear for everyone the alternative in this war for the salvation of souls. The answer is found in the Tradition of the Faith. How this is done is where discernment is called for. But we do know what the key is: holiness.