Fr Chad Ripperger quote: I'd like some help understanding it

[Lyle Bright]

I think a lot of us in the TLM movement have had problems with authority, because of our strong wills, AND because we have been harmed by misuse of Roman Catholic authority.

In one of the articles linked to above:

"This is the influence within the Church of a conception of authority as a form of tyranny, rather than as being based on and constituted by law. This essay will present the nature of this conception, describe how it came to be influential, and explore some of its more significant results."

Such a curious problem and question. One absolutely requires a will, and the stronger of a will the better, to follow the commands of Christ and the teaching of the Church.

I suppose this is a 'Protestant' issue: that to make a moral choice requires an act of the will and a personal engagement. One who is compelled to act in some certain way, but whose will is not committed to it, is not really acting morally (or so the argument goes).

But the issue today seems to have become that the will in some has been aroused to oppose not the legitimate authority of an ecclesiastical figure, but that of evil and abuse.

And when traditionalists complain of corruption in the Church (Michael Matt is a good example) they do so because of a strong will, that is clear, but simultaneously because their will has been activated by a sense of higher justice and right and to remediate a grievous error and sin.

Quite a bit of difference to merely being rebellious against proper authority.

[Elizabeth.2]

Yes, and this is why studying the Virtues is so helpful. The Four Cardinal Virtues by Josef Peiper is pure gold.  I really had no idea what Prudence is at all. 

[Lyle Bright]

Yes, and this is why studying the Virtues is so helpful. The Four Cardinal Virtues by Josef Peiper is pure gold.  I really had no idea what Prudence is at all.

I ordered each of those titles (I prefer to have the separate volumes as they were originally published in English). Thanks for the reference.

I'll have to share a few of the titles that have especially impressed and moved me. (I had never heard of Pieper).