Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.

I saw this little post over at Rochester Catholic, and couldn't help commenting here in some depth.

I will quote a bit of Chestertonian wit throughout, as in the title.

“The word ‘adult faith’ has in recent decades become a popular slogan. It is often used to refer to the attitude of those who no longer adhere to the Church and her pastors, but choose for themselves what they want to believe and not believe - a kind of do-it-yourself faith.” - Pope Benedict XVI

It's true, ladies and gentlemen...the pope just called out Cafeteria Catholics! The fact of the matter is that as a Roman Catholic, it is just fine to question anything, to say that you do not understand something, why it is, how it is, what it is, etc. Dissent is quite another matter.

But, the heterodox will argue, we need to search for unity! It's minutia! Who cares if they:

Fail to properly vest themselves for Mass
Randomly add greeting time during Mass
Sing Happy Birthday during Mass
Use He's got the whole world in His hands as an offertory hymn
Stand for the Consecration
Dance in the aisles during Mass
Omit the Sanctus
Allow laypeople to preach the homily
Ad-lib the prayers
Read the Gospel from the Epistle side of the Altar
Hide the Tabernacle
Don't use a Tabernacle Candle
Include their favorite sports team or cartoon character into a homily
Play some popular music from an ipod during the Homily

"I understand that you love the liturgy but when you begin to love the liturgy more than you love your neighbor...well I think you now the rest." These words from a dissenting Youth Minister in the Diocese shed some light on an entire attitude. It's not the ad-libbed prayer, really, it's not the crappy music, really, nor is it any of these things alone...it's that this behavior conveys an entire attitude--one that believes that the magisterium matters not. But without the magisterium, what authority do we have? None, really. Without apostolic succession, an uninterrupted line, we cannot say things with authority. But the church is not simply an group of men who control things. This is not about politics, it is about truth.

But, then, people will say, you need to celebrate the diversity! You should be impartial. I argue, as Chesterton did, that "Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance." Diversity is wonderful, I agree...there is so much diversity among particular churches! Greek Catholics, Maronite Catholics, The Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form within the Latin Rite, there's the Anglican Use...the list goes on, and all in full communion with the Bishop of Rome! But all of this unity must be, as Father Corapi has put it, a subset of TRUTH.

“Rather it takes courage to adhere to the faith of the Church, even if it contradicts the ’scheme’ of the contemporary world,” said the Pope. Just as Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they are fashions.

-Arialdus