Father’s job is to say “No.”
I have been saying for a very long time now that the Pope’s first job is to say “No.”
The job of bishops, priests, fathers in general, is to say “No.”
Whether your children are plotting to make a go-cart that should be able to sail off the roof or your children are plotting to confuse the people of God with aberrant notions about the two natures of Christ (or Communion for the… well…), Father’s job is to say “No.” And as the erring children insist more loudly, Father’s response becomes more firm.
Sometimes I have been in situations wherein I have have to challenged to perform liturgical abuses. At first, I give them short answer: “No.” As the ex-nun liturgy coordinatrix continues to insist that that’s-how-they-do-it-here, I lengthen my explanation to “Noooooooo!”
And so I turn to Fr Hunwicke (whose prose is delightful). He has a great piece today wherein in riffs on Pope Francis’s now famous “Who am I to judge?” HERE
Here is a sample:
I feel supremely comfortable with these words; and I note that Newman is making exactly the same point as that advanced by Professor de Mattei. I have no problem with the idea of a pope who keeps anathemas under his camauro. A pontiff who issues a Syllabus of Errors seems to me a pontiff who is earning his paycheck. When Pio Nono, with the assent of Vatican I, issued his admirable negative, “The Holy Spirit was not promised to the Successors of Peter so that by his revelation they should reveal new teaching”, I would have applauded. Three cheers for the author of Pascendi Dominici gregis. Cardinal Ratzinger’s insistence that the Pope is but the humble servant of Tradition had me raising my glass to drink his toast. (Indeed, during his Pontificate I was rarely sober.)
I really wanted to post the whole thing, but I also want to force you over to his place to read the rest.
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