{"id":188,"date":"2012-02-11T21:38:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T04:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"\/?page_id=188"},"modified":"2017-01-27T15:09:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T22:09:00","slug":"de-ja-vu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/blog-2\/de-ja-vu\/","title":{"rendered":"Deja Vu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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\u00a9\u00a0Copyright 2012, T. Stanfill Benns<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As a barely more than a child,<\/span><\/div>\n
I stood in the shadows as the wrecking ball<\/span><\/div>\n
of \u201caggiornamento\u201d shattered the Church I loved.<\/span><\/div>\n
Out of what seemed to be the blue sky of forever,<\/span><\/div>\n
it demolished overnight the work of Divinity.<\/span><\/div>\n
Emerging from the rubble, dazed survivors<\/span><\/div>\n
scattered to the four corners of the earth,<\/span><\/div>\n
taking shelter in the remnants of its greatness.<\/span><\/div>\n
All too soon, even the ruins were barely discernible.<\/span><\/div>\n
To rebuild we were not able; to continue alone<\/span><\/div>\n
proved more than its victims could bear.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Bruised and broken, we took comfort where we could.<\/span><\/div>\n
But even the crumbs we scraped from the holy table<\/span><\/div>\n
turned bitter in our mouths and scorched our souls.<\/span><\/div>\n
Imprisoned in our silent, virtual catacombs,<\/span><\/div>\n
robbed of the Guardian\u2019s presence, we miserably coexist.<\/span><\/div>\n
And now even freedom\u2019s eagle, that lingering guarantee<\/span><\/div>\n
is plummeting from darkening and menacing heights.<\/span><\/div>\n
We see again the approaching demolition<\/span><\/div>\n
witnessed so long ago, when we were helpless to object.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The very same forces, rulers of this world of darkness<\/span><\/div>\n
are manning the crane and wielding the wrecking ball.<\/span><\/div>\n
We cry out and no one hears; we gnash our teeth.<\/span><\/div>\n
But entombed long ago and shrouded in silence,<\/span><\/div>\n
we cannot warn the others of their impending doom.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cStrike the Shepherd,\u201d the Scriptures say<\/span><\/div>\n
“and the flock shall be dispersed;” this is our lot.<\/span><\/div>\n
And as the Church goes, so goes the world, one sage opines.<\/span><\/div>\n
What fragile freedoms to worship God that yet remain<\/span><\/div>\n
will soon become burnt offerings at the dusky idol\u2019s feet.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The points of light still flicker, love\u2019s burning flame;<\/span><\/div>\n
extinguished here on earth to blaze forever in Heaven.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9\u00a0Copyright 2012, T. Stanfill Benns As a barely more than a child, I stood in the shadows as the wrecking ball of \u201caggiornamento\u201d shattered the Church I loved. Out of what seemed to be the blue sky of forever, it demolished overnight the work of Divinity. Emerging from the rubble, dazed survivors scattered to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":211,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202,"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions\/202"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}