chimpanzee said:
"Parallel church"
Commentary on statement
Vigano was the papal ambassador (Nuncio) to the U.S., I believe. He's sounding a lot like the SSPX folks these days. Hard to argue that there was not accelerated fragmentation of the RCC following Vatican II, the conspiratorial stuff seems a bit offputting to me and less likely than a church leadership going along with the prevailing winds of the secular society.
I'm still waiting to see what comes of the German Synodal Path stuff, that could be bigger than anything since VII.
Read through Vigano's statement and the commentary. Here are my thoughts as a somewhat, so-called "left leaning Catholic":
1. That he seems to be denouncing Vatican II from the outset is telling. I do not doubt that there are factions within the RCC. My hope as a lay person was that the hand of God would always win out and I still believe that to be the case. As I recall, Vatican II was a "breath of fresh air" without changing the authentic truth that the RCC has always professed. At least that is how I was formed as an adult since 1996 (Dominican 3rd Order).
2. I remember encountering Liberation Theology for the first time and not really understanding where it was coming from. I had the initial knee jerk reaction because of its Marxist underpinnings, especially when it comes to economics. The temptation to reject it wholly because of my misconceptions is where I find a lot of my brothers and sisters. Instead, I read "The Power of the Poor in History." It has been a while, however, a few of the points that have stuck with me are:
A. We should not impose, as it were, a "grid" or "cookie cutter" westernized spirituality onto the people, particularly the poor and marginalized in the Americas. Now this presumes you are in active ministry and preaching in some capacity to folks in your area. This is of particular relevance to my neck of the wood where we have many "communidads de base" - base communities or neighborhood prayer group.
B. In the past, going as far back as the first missionary priests from Spain and Portugal - we have had the westernization of the Americas by Europeans. It has been brutal to (my ancestors) indigenous people from California to the Andes in South America. I also believe it is the main reason many Hispanics have been leaving the RCC faith for other Christian denominations where their language is celebrated through song and not holding up white, European Saints as what you should strive to be more like. This is why Our Lady of Guadalupe, Miguel Pro, San Martin de Porres, and few other western examples have made in-roads.
C. I remember, Fr. Ralph Rogowski OP, telling us that, what Gutierrez and others proposed is that we should look at spiritually from the "people up" and not from the "church down." For the first time, in my life at least, I was being told that not only does God love me, but that he made me to be an instrument of his grace to the people in my time and place. We (Lay Dominicans) studied parts of the Vatican II documents to better understand what was meant to be "Priest, Prophet, and King."
In summary, when I see the "pachamamma" figurine present at a prayer service - I do not see an idol being adored - but rather an aspect of a people search for truth - being included in the presence of the one, true God.
Not sure if any of this makes sense to y'all - but I hope it helps explain the other side.
+pablo