Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Tradition: Dissent over the Papal Throne

Here's an excerpt from another homily [MP3] from Holy Family Parish, from the Feast of Christ the King:
One of the worst things that happened to Christianity was when Constantine made Christianity the state religion, the Church then looked at pagan Rome and said, "Well, that's the structure we should have for the Church," and they sprinkled Holy Water over a pagan system. ...

The Church has become a monarchical system. [Fr.] Richard Fragomeni told me that the last couple Popes have had just a simple chair in the Vatican... but they've restored the Papal Throne. And our Cardinals are called "Princes of the Church", and the new Cardinals today get gold rings from the Pope, and they wear purple, and they wear red: symbols of monarchy. There's the throne of Jesus Christ, right there in the center of the church. The symbols of leadership in contemporary Catholicism are in stark contrast to that throne from which he led the Church and leads the Church today, on that throne he emptied himself and allowed the power of God to fill him...
Oy vey. While Fr. Brennan makes a nice point about the altar (and therefore the cross) being the (earthly) throne of Jesus, he neglects the heavenly throne of Jesus.

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