Quid Quid

Dr dear Dr: If the previous papacy was so hard on something called the Imperialismus of Relativismus, why are we seeing so much woke theology surfacing in the moderne churches abroad in the world?

Quite a lot of church-watchers were pretty well shocked to their boots and shaken badly out of their complacency when they saw Cardinale Ratzinger calmly exit from the Vestry in the Vatican at the funeral of the philosopher pope and then give a long sermon about the coming advent of the dangers of a new imperialism, the Imperialism of Relativismus, as he called it at the time. We do not see so much of this over involved play arena of philosophies here in the Atlantic islands, since we live beyond the periphery of Roman empire and Greek empire civilisation as they still like to put it in Athens, and even if we did we would say that somebody has to censure such relativismus when it occurs as it does threaten the foundations of religion. If some young person keeps saying that it is all relative and that his truth is just as valid as anybody else’s truth without putting it through the tests of logic or dogmatic science, then that whole drift to relativise truth is a threat to all religion - hence the interest of the German philosopher. That is entirely understandable, much like our own princes in the palaces censuring the Imperialism of the Young at the local gymnasia. But there is a form of relativismus which is quite legitimate when practised inside the confessionals of Catholicism for instance, or on their therapeutic couches of many many church psychologists official and unofficial in the many studios of the world say in Argentina especially since the wars of the Malvinas, and this is the relativismus of the face of compassion, hate the sin, love the sinner, kind of thing. Also in the medieval philosopher called Aquinas there was a limited species of the legitimate kind of Pastoral Relativism provided for in counselling and spiritual direction, according to the principle of the medieval philosopher - quid quid recipitur, recipitur secund modum recipientis - that which is received is received according to the mode of the receiver. So even Aquinas had his woke moments when he sowed the seeds of a new softer approach to religion in general, and especially through the softly softly couches and confessionals of the parishes. Certainly that is how the Aquinas principium was explained to us by the holy monks of the mountains in Ireland near Lismore Castle. This new approach might yet start something new once the papal theologians have some time to grasp the full import of what the medieval genius had to say - “quid quid….” is an important corrective to the stodgy right wing diktats of the present era, when if there are moderne heresies that are new, these can be found just as much on the right as on the old left too - quaedam impressio on the journeys of many souls into the mind of God, as Bonaventure has it. Francis too, not St Francis of Rome at the moment, the much maligned but much misunderstood present day Beatissimo, but St Francis of Assisi liked to cast the human spirit as essentially melancholic when exiled from its good God, and this is why just as light itself can bend in space or in liquid mediums, so too the good and gracious God likes to infuse his soft and gentle light into the individual mind generally through the impression of just this sort of perception based light - quid quid recipitur. There is a place for a Christianity-guided Legitimate Pastoral Relativism. Thank you Frs Dominic and Michael of Lismore. Fr Dominic’s Relativism was a marvel to behold when deployed in his many counselling and spiritual direction assignments. A wonder indeed, leading to many many miraculous healings- even of deep rooted spiritual malaises - he was a marvel, and who knows, maybe one day will be canonised a saint once this new pope gets going on the road to the future. He built his whole therapeutic philosophy on the Principium Aquinatis - quid quid recipitur, recipitur secundum modum recipientis.