lundi 31 août 2009

Tykhon and Pius XII ...

Both had to deal with Communists who were dogmatically for evolution. Both had to deal with them when they were destroying the Church, like murdering Russian Orthodox or like imprisoning Cardinal Mindszenty. Both (unless it was the successor of Tykhon in the case of Patriarchate of Moscow) allowed their flocks to not oppose evolution.

Also, Communists were for contraception. Patriarchate of Moscow allowed the pill in 1970's. Pius XII allowed periodical abstinence in the fertile periods. They broke with the past and with each other there.

ROCOR, notably Fr Seraphim Rose, opposed the Patriarchate of Moscow on precisely these two, among other accounts. Pius XII not only helped Wojtyla, but also Ratzinger to become famous theologians bending down to fashion - and later bishops and popes. The problem is: after two evolutionist popes, evolution starts to feel normal for Catholics, just as it feels normals for the Orthodox adhering to clergy until recently under Communism. And so do the deviations from traditional marital practise which not only is against pill (et c) but also for periodical abstince precisely the other way round, in infertile periods - when both spouses agree - or unrelated, when it is for prayer - like nights before a Sunday (especially if receiving Holy Communion) and so on.

But if deviation from the normal feels normal on both subjects and because ultimately of Communist persecutions ... how is truth being kept in Church? It seems to me, small groups on both sides of the schism preserve truth intact on both these issues. And both Paul VI and a recent Russian synod each preserved their half of the truth in what they condemned: the pill and the periodical abstinence imposed on the other spouse for sake of contraception. But Vatican and Moscow still feel evolution as something normal for a Christian to believe. Which it is not.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
ut supra

3 commentaires:

  1. http://o-x.fr/lsf is index to this series in English against Evolution.

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  2. Pius XII may have thought accepting the possibility of Darwinism a parallel to accepting Heliocentrism, which was indirectly condoned by his predecessor Benedict XV near the end of passage four of his encyclical on the anniversary of Dante

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