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The Keys of the Kingdom
  Keys of the Kingdom

by Philip D. Ropp
August, 2005
     "It seems that people don't need us. All we do seems useless." Pope Benedict XVI was speaking to140 priests, religious and deacons of the Diocese of Val d'Aosta at the Church of Introd, near Les Combes, where the Holy Father was spending his summer vacation.  He was referring to the so called "crisis of religious indifference" that, in one form or another, plagues Western society and manifests itself in the widespread desertion of mainstream Christianity -- both Catholic and Protestant.

     Into this vacuum has rushed the sexual/homosexual revolution, which has infiltrated and is perverting the Christian religion in the same way that the political and social institutions of theWest have been perverted in the recent decades past. The very fact that the Roman Catholic Church suffers such indignities as this is not indicative of merely a "crisis of religious indifference" among the faithful but, more profoundly and more dangerously, a crisis of belief in the eternal truth of the Christian faith within the hierarchy of the Church itself. If the Church in the West truly believed in and loved and served Christ in the way that she has vowed and professed, then she would uphold God's law accordingly, and we would not be witness to the rampant sexual sin, corruption, hypocrisy and apostasy that  makes headlines on a daily basis.

     The Holy Father continued, "The pope is not an oracle; he is infallible in very rare situations, as we know." 

     The Pope is, by definition, he that occupies the Chair of Peter.  He is descended in unbroken succession from the original apostle and holds all of the power and authority that was vested in the original Peter by Christ himself.  In Matthew 16 verse 13 and continuing we read:
"When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But you, he said, "who do you say I am?" Then Simon  Peter spoke up, "You are the Christ," he said, "the Son of the living God." Jesus replied "Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man!  Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.  So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.  And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven."
     It is in this passage that Jesus establishes his intention to build his Church based upon the merging of earthly and heavenly authority in the personage of Simon Peter and his spiritual descendants: the popes. The symbol of papal authority throughout the history of the Church has been that of Peter holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven. A statue depicting this image overlooks the faithful that gather in St. Peter's Square to recognize and acclaim the pope in this very authority.

     It was Peter that was chosen for this role precisely because he did answer the question posed by Jesus as an oracle   of God: "Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven."  Peter's prominence among the disciples is proclaimed and signified by the promise of the keys of the kingdom of heaven precisely because it is he that demonstrates this deep, supernatural connection with the Lord. Jesus then informs him that, "whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven."  With the keys of the kingdom comes the gift -- and the burden -- of infallibility.  

     While the dogma of infallibility as an official statement of belief was not established until the19th century, it should be noted that the formalization of the concept was merely to define and clarify what the Church had always recognized as factual: that the words of the pope, when spoken in his official capacity as Supreme Pontiff, carry the weight of profound and ineffable truth. To carry the stamp of infallibility, the pope must speak "ex cathedra," which means, quite literally, on or from the chair of Peter: that is, in his official role as the rock-foundation of the Church as so designated by Christ in the above cited Scripture, and as passed down to the current holder of the Divine Office as determined by apostolic succession. Pronouncements made in this way must be identified as such and, in turn, the Christian faithful are expected to consider these words as truth from the mouth of God Himself. When the Pope speaks ex cathedra, and thus infallibly, he is, in fact, speaking as a true oracle of God. As we see in the example above, this practice was originally set down by Christ Himself in Scripture. It is, further, in keeping with the Tradition of the Church, and it has been formalized in the Church's own dogma.

     While it is clearly within the context of his official capacity as pope (i.e. "ex cathedra") that the Holy Father made reference to his infallibility in "rare situations," it is worth noting that, in the larger context, we should respect most all of what the pope says as if officially pronounced infallible. To the contrary, it must be the "very rare situation" indeed when he does not speak infallibly. Whenever the Holy Father quotes or speaks in accordance with the revealed truth of God as presented in the Scriptures and as witnessed by the Tradition of the Church, it may be assumed that what is said is, indeed, infallible even if not deemed so officially. Therefore, it is always to our benefit and edification to consider and accept the words of our Supreme Pontiff as truth within whatever context they are spoken. And, conversely, it is always the responsibility of the pope to speak to our benefit and edification infallibly even when done without the pronouncement of ex cathedra. To all of us, whether in the hierarchy of the church, clergy, religious or laity, he represents Christ and should thusly be respected. If the world does not respect him as such then recall the way in which the world respected Christ.

     When the Holy Father himself openly disclaims his role as oracle and claims his God given infallibility as only rarely exercised, then it is little wonder that he does so within the context of  a "crisis of religious indifference."  No one could possibly question the pope's intellectual or academic credentials. He is obviously a very erudite, well educated and sophisticated man. He has to his credit a number of books that are considered  among the theological masterworks of his time. Without question, generations of religion students to come will be handed Ratzinger as required reading for any number of courses in theology, ethics, morals and Church history.  The question that must now be answered concerns his spiritual credentials.  And it is a question that Pope Benedict must find the answer to within himself.

     Pope John Paul II, like Pope Benedict XVI, was also a very intelligent and highly accomplished and respected scholar. However, these attributes were not the source of his greatness.  The source of his greatness was found in his deep and abiding spirituality and his connection to the mystical realities of the Catholic Religion.  By witnessing openly and candidly to his own personal faith and experience, the message that he communicated to the faithful was simply that, though there may be many problems within the Catholic Church, there is no doubting the anciently revealed truth of the Catholic Faith. During his tenure, the visions of Jesus experienced by Sister Faustina Kowalska were authenticated, the good sister was canonized, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy was encouraged throughout the Church. The Fatima seers were beatified, the enigmatic "third secret" was revealed, and John Paul II identified himself as the man in white mentioned in the secret's text and associated prophetically with the attempt on his life that was made on May 13, 1981.

     In more ways than one, the assassination attempt that nearly resulted in the pontiff's death was the turning point of his papacy. Certainly, it would ultimately prove to be the impetus for a Vatican foreign policy that would help the Soviet Union implode upon itself like a rotting peach in the hot summer sun.  But more importantly, it would serve to reconnect the pope himself with the mystical element within the Church. The "true believers," if you will. Though the secular media, not to mention the liberal wing of the Church, knew not what to make of the event and, therefore, did not report it, the story, nonetheless, circulated that the Holy Father, while struggling for life in an Italian hospital, had, in a near death experience, been met by the Blessed Mother herself at the gates of heaven and was returned to life with a new sense of mission. The recovered John Paul asserted himself as a spiritual leader the likes of which the Church had not seen since, perhaps, the time of Peter himself. Undoubtedly, we have witnessed nothing like him in modern times. Human union with the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was returned to well deserved prominence and respect as centerpiece and purpose of the Mass. Mary and the Saints were reemphasized as an interactive spiritual presence in our lives, as opposed to the Vatican II reductionism that had attempted to subvert their role to that of mere pious examples. Piety and the ancient mysteries and spiritual truths that had been the foundation of the Catholic Faith for two millennia were expertly woven into a theological tapestry that made the Church relevant to itself and, at the same time, reasserted its role as a major player within the modern world.

     Even the detractors of John Paul II will admit that his is a tough act to follow.  He was not even cold before the appellation "The Great" had been attached to him and the cause for his immediate canonization was up and running.  The late Holy Father continues to amaze us, for as we see the seeds of rebellion growing so quickly to full flower in the vacuum of his absence, we realize how firmly in control of his faculties and the Church he was right up to the time of his death.

     Perhaps the new Holy Father has allowed this time of uncertainty purely for the purpose of allowing the more radical factions within the Church to reemerge and expose themselves for what they are: a creeping apostasy that cloaks itself in the false compassion of the affirmation of sin and does so at the expense of the faithful. At best, it waters down the symbology and liturgy of the faith with a secular neo-modernism that bears more resemblance to the spiritual void of the mainstream Protestant denominations than it does the deep and abiding mystery of the Catholic Faith. It seems lost on the so called "progressives" that the ranks of the Catholic Church have been swelled in recent years by Protestants looking for something more real than the feel good nothingness that is espoused from Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and Episcopal pulpits. And it seems equally lost on those of the liberal persuasion that most of those that sit in the pews and pay the bills and the salaries will not stand for such travesties as the Holy Sacraments administered by renegade women priests falsely ordained by apostate bishops.

     Should it be the case that the pope has feigned an uncharacteristic weakness in order to more fully expose the problem areas within the Church, then a glance at the daily news should convince anyone that the ploy has been wildly  successful. The sexual abuse scandal within the American Church continues to unravel like a cheap sweater, and on almost a daily basis we learn of new accusations and of bishops' cover-ups and of lawsuits that reach into the pockets of parishioners to extract the money to pay for this horror. Every dollar thus paid is a dollar that can no longer be used to feed the hungry, clothe the naked or take the gospel to the needy. And while we do not hear about this aspect of this abomination, we certainly do hear the shrill cry of the homosexuals demanding the Church not only embrace the sinner but the sin as well. Suffice it to mention that the secular media, while so adamant in reporting the sins of Church personnel, are equally committed to providing a broad and sympathetic shoulder for the self proclaimed persecuted gays to cry on, while totally ignoring the obvious interconnectedness of these two stories.

     The believing laity, those of us that comprise the vast majority of practicing Catholics, cheered wholeheartedly at the selection of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to replace our beloved Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.  We truly believed that he was not only the best man for the job but ordained by the Holy Spirit in true Catholic Tradition to lead the Church in these treacherous and tumultuous times. Most of us still do.  However, it is disconcerting and disturbing to even the most faithful of the Holy Father's supporters to hear remarks such as "It seems that people don't need us. All we do seems useless."  This kind of talk is uncomfortably reminiscent of the spiritual malaise that the Church endured during the reign of Pope Paul VI and is a far cry from the spiritual dynamism we experienced with John Paul II. It is, frankly, a more defeatist attitude than we expected to hear from the man once called "God's Rottweiller."  

     No doubt the days that lay ahead will be difficult ones.  In the United States, where only a few short years ago we thought our biggest crisis was a shortage of priests, we now seem to be faced with no alternative but to purge our apostate bishops and clergy and to clean the homosexuals from the ranks of the priesthood and the seminaries. And so the sexual abuse crisis will exacerbate the clergy shortage crisis.  However, in light of the latter crisis the former now seems a bargain. What this means is that it is time for all of us to give more of ourselves wherever we are needed and to refuse to stand for anything but Orthodox Catholicism as called for in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Canon Law, the Roman Missal and the Magisterium of the Church. And to expect the same from our clergy and religious.  

      Pray that the Holy Father will come to realize how desperately the people do need the Catholic Faith. Not just Catholics but the whole sorry and pathetic world out there that needs the healing Gospel of Jesus Christ now more than it ever has. Pray for him that he may find the strength and the faith to draw upon the full power of his Divine Office, both temporally and spiritually, to do the difficult things that must be done. Pray that we will have the strength to stand with him and support him when he does them.

     We would do well to remember the promise of Christ, "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it."  If all we do seems useless then clearly we are doing something wrong.