"Mercy" Trumps Judgement, Excommunicating the Fundamentalists? & Environnmentalist Propaganda
Comprehensive blog covering the latest from the Vatican II "cult of man"...
All in preparation for the New Age's Paganism
Cardinal Turkson: If climate talks stall, Pope Francis may gently intervene
LE BOURGET, France — If international climate talks really stall, don’t be surprised if there might be an ever-so-slight intervention by "Pope" Francis.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace who helped draft the pope’s June encyclical on global warming, said the pontiff has “deep trust” that negotiators in Paris will get the job done. But just in case they don’t, the pope might possibly send a gentle message, he said.
“If it gets to a stalemate or whatever, he may utter a statement or make a comment or whatever, but he will refrain from exercising any coercive power on the things over here, because that would not belong to his style,” Turkson told The Associated Press after a press conference by Vatican officials Tuesday at the Paris climate talks.
If the pope did intervene with a gentle statement if negotiations bog down, it would “show the gravity of the situation and highlight what’s at stake,” said Jennifer Morgan, global climate program director for the World Resources Institute.
Joe Ware, a protestant spokesman for Christian Aid, welcomed the remark, saying such action “would just give that final nudge to the negotiations.”
There appeared to be no need for that just yet at the talks, where government ministers wrapped up Tuesday’s session with no signs of the animosity that have plagued negotiations in the past. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said a new draft agreement would be prepared by 1 p.m. (1200 GMT) Wednesday, reflecting the progress made so far. That would leave two days for ministers to work out the most difficult issues, like how to spell out who should do what.
Turkson said the Vatican has great interest in seeing the negotiations succeed, especially getting the world to stop using carbon power by mid-century to save the Earth, especially for the world’s poorest people.
“We cannot profess love of God when we cannot love what God has made,” Turkson said.
However, Turkson weighed in on a temperature goal, which could be a sticking point.
Surprisingly, Turkson said the Vatican supports the more lenient goal of limiting global warming to “2 degrees (Celsius) and below if it can be pushed down.” That goal is 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times or about 1 degree Celsius from now, while some island nations are pushing for a tighter 1.5 degree Celsius overall goal.
The Vatican is also seriously considering joining the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, eventually signing an agreement out of Paris and then coming up with a plan to reduce emissions for the Vatican City itself, said Archbishop Bernadito Auza, the acting head of the Vatican delegation observing climate talks.
If the Vatican went from an outside observer to a member state that “could bring some sense of the moral side of the story, which often gets lost in the talk,” Morgan said.
Duluth diocese latest to file for bankruptcy over abuse payouts
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth announced on Monday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection following a jury verdict last month that held the Minnesota diocese responsible for more than half of an $8.1 million judgment on behalf of a victim of sex abuse by a priest.The Chapter 11 filing makes Duluth the 13th of nearly 200 US Catholic dioceses to file for bankruptcy since 2004 because of the clergy sex abuse scandals. Regional organizations of two religious orders have also sought bankruptcy protection.
The Duluth award was one of the highest single monetary compensations for a survivor of clergy abuse, experts said. It was made possible due to a Minnesota law that lifted the statute of limitations on civil claims for sex abuse.
The plaintiff is a 52-year-old man who was a 15-year-old altar boy when the abuse happened in 1978.
The diocese has an annual operating budget of about $3 million and Church officials said that even with insurance and savings it could not cover its $4.9 million share of the overall award.
The abuser was the Rev. James Vincent Fitzgerald, a priest with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate religious order. But jurors who deliberated for just a day following a trial last month said the diocese failed to supervise the priest, who worked in one of its parishes, and said that it should have known that he was dangerous.
The Rev. James Bissonette, vicar general of the diocese, said in a statement that negotiations on a settlement had failed and the diocese had to file for bankruptcy to keep the diocese operating and to be able to provide payments to other abuse victims.
“There is sadness in having to proceed in this fashion,” Bissonette said. “The decision to file today safeguards the limited assets of the Diocese and will ensure that the resources of the diocese can be shared justly with all victims, while allowing the day-to-day operation of the work of the Church to continue.
“This decision is in keeping with our approach since the enactment of the Child Victims Act, which has been to put abuse victims first, to pursue the truth with transparency and to do the right thing in the right way,” he said.
Recent research estimates that the Catholic Church in the US has paid out between $3 billion and $4 billion in awards, settlements and abuse-related costs over the past 65 years.
Experts say most payouts to victims are in the $1 million range and are usually agreed to in negotiated settlements outside court because the statute of limitations on criminal and civil claims expired years earlier.
Opening the Holy Year, Francis says mercy always trumps judgment
ROME — Pope Francis opened his Jubilee of Mercy on Tuesday, saying that this year will be one in which Catholics are called to grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy, which should always come before judgment.
“How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy,” he said as he celebrated a Mass in St. Peter’s Square that marked the opening of the jubilee.
“We have to put mercy before judgment,” he added.
After Mass, Francis opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica.
At the invitation of Francis, a noticeably frail Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI was present during the ceremony. He arrived in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica 20 minutes before the end of the Mass, where he waited for his successor, who gave him a hug before heading toward the door.
The Holy Door is traditionally bricked up until it’s opened to mark the beginning of a jubilee year. This was the first time in history that two popes were present for the ceremony.
In the past, popes would traditionally strike the door three times with a silver hammer before throwing it open. However, St. John Paul II decided to eliminate that ritual for the opening of the jubilee in 2000, and Francis followed suit.
Explaining the Holy Year to a square that was mostly full despite cold temperatures and light rain, Francis said that it’s a gift of grace.
“To enter through the Holy Door means to rediscover the deepness of the mercy of the Father, who welcomes all and goes out to meet everyone personally,” he said.
The Jubilee of Mercy begins on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and will close on Nov. 20, the Solemnity of Christ the King.
After opening the door, Francis went to the window of the Apostolic Palace to pray the Angelus with the faithful, with his focus on the Marian feast.
“Celebration of this feast involves two things,” Francis said. “Fully accepting God and his merciful grace in our lives, [and] becoming, in turn, artisans of mercy through an authentic evangelic path.”
He said that the feast becomes a celebration only if Catholics give a daily “yes” that aims to “overcome our selfishness, and make the life of our brothers happier by giving them hope, wiping a few tears and donating a little joy.”
Later on Tuesday, Pope Francis was scheduled to visit a square in downtown Rome where he’ll pray in front of a monument dedicated to the Immaculate, and from there visit St. Mary Major, a basilica in Rome he visits before and after every international trip.
Francis is not expected to attend “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home,” an artistic projection onto St. Peter’s that’s being presented as a “a gift of contemporary public art” to the pontiff by a coalition of production companies and charitable foundations, including the World Bank’s “Connect4Climate” group.
On Sunday, for the first time in this 700-year old tradition, dioceses around the world are to open their own Holy Doors. At the request of Pope Francis, bishops had to select a door in local cathedrals or significant churches, such as a Marian shrine, for the faithful to go through.
There will be three other Holy Doors opened in Rome, one at each major basilica. Francis will open St. John Lateran’s on Sunday, St. Mary Major’s Jan. 1, and St. Paul Outside the Walls on Jan. 26.
With the proper preparation, the passage through these doors gives faithful what’s known as a “plenary indulgence.” According to the teachings of the Catholic Church, these indulgences grant remission of all temporal punishment due to sins that have already been forgiven through the sacrament of Confession. They can also be offered for the souls in purgatory.
St. Peter’s Square became steadily more crowded throughout the Mass, though it was never at full capacity. During recent papal events, including the Wednesday audience and Sunday Angelus prayer, thousands of people were left outside because they hadn’t arrived early enough to go through the tight security controls now in place around the Vatican.
Checkpoints worked better on Tuesday, with dozens of volunteers directing pilgrims and the 2,200 priests who began arriving around 5 a.m., but as the Mass started, several thousand were still trying to enter the square.
PAPAL CRITICS THREATENED WITH EXCOMMUNICATION AS “YEAR OF MERCY” BEGINS
PAPAL CRITICS THREATENED WITH EXCOMMUNICATION AS “YEAR OF MERCY” BEGINS
Archbishop Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
the New Evangelization, has stirred controversy by suggesting that some
criticisms of Pope Francis might result in automatic excommunication.
Archbishop Fisichella made his remarks
while explaining how Pope Francis’s new “Missionaries of Mercy” will
operate. The 800 “missionaries” will have the power to absolve from
penalties previously reserved to the Holy See.
In reference to
Canon 1370, which imposes automatic excommunication for “physical
violence” against the Roman Pontiff, Archbishop Fisichella said:
“I
would say that we need to understand well ‘physical violence,’ because
sometimes words, too, are rocks and stones, and therefore I believe some
of these sins, too, are far more widespread than we might think.”
Archbishop
Fisichella’s comments will be interpreted by many as an attempt to
silence faithful Catholics who are deeply concerned by the direction
currently being taken by those who hold offices at the highest levels of
the Church. Serious concerns have been raised over the last two and
half years concerning:
The alleged manipulation of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod and the 2015 Ordinary Synod
The publication of a heterodox Relatio Synodi of the Extraordinary Synod
The publication of a heterodox Instrumentum Laboris for the Ordinary Synod
The publication of a heterodox Relazione Finale of the Ordinary Synod
The radical reforms to the canonical procedures governing declaration of nullity of marriage
The open collaboration between the Holy See and leading global advocates of population control
The confusing remarks made by the Holy Father about who is able to receive Holy Communion
The confusing remarks made by the Holy Father about the relationship between condoms and AIDS
The confusing remarks and actions of the Holy Father on the subject of homosexuality
The endorsement, by official bodies of the Holy See, of pro-abortion, pro-contraception UN Sustainable Development Goals
The endorsement of the environmental agenda in the encyclical letter Laudato Si, without sufficient recognition of the profound connection between environmentalism and the population control movement
The public association of Laudato Si with the most radical elements of the environmental/population control movement and dissent from the doctrine of Humanae Vitae
The
appointment, promotion or elevation to ecclesiastical offices or to
positions of influence, by the Holy Father, of many openly heterodox
prelates including, but not limited to: Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, Archbishop Blaise Cupich, Godfried Cardinal Danneels, John Cardinal Dew, Walter Cardinal Kasper, Bishop Heiner Koch, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn and Donald Cardinal Wuerl.
In
the face of these and other scandals Catholics have not only the right
but also the duty to offer respectful, but forceful, criticism. This
grave duty is outlined in Canons 211 and 212 of the Code of Canon Law:
Can.
211 All the Christian faithful have the duty and right to work so that
the divine message of salvation more and more reaches all people in
every age and in every land.
Can. 212 §1. Conscious of their own
responsibility, the Christian faithful are bound to follow with
Christian obedience those things which the sacred pastors, inasmuch as
they represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or establish as
rulers of the Church.
§2. The Christian faithful are free to make
known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual
ones, and their desires.
§3. According to the knowledge,
competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and
even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion
on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their
opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice
to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their
pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.
Voice
of the Family is confident that Catholics at every level of the Church
will continue to fulfil their duty of defending the Catholic faith
throughout the “Year of Mercy” and during the years ahead.
Canonist to Vatican archbishop: No, Church law doesn’t excommunicate papal critics
Canonist to Vatican archbishop: No, Church law doesn’t excommunicate papal critics
John-Henry Westen
December 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A controversy launched by Vatican Archbishop Rino Fisichella over the possibility of automatic excommunication for those who, the archbishop claims, use words as “physical violence” against the pope [Papal critics threatened with excommunication as Year of Mercy begins], has been answered by well-known canonist Edward Peters.
In a blog post today, Peters says Fisichella “was speaking in the context of faculties to absolve from automatic excommunications, and as there is an automatic excommunication against those who employ physical force against the pope (1983 CIC 1370 § 1), I am guessing that Fisichella might be thinking that ‘harsh language’ against the pope is a canonical crime that makes one liable to excommunication. If so, he is mistaken.”
Archbishop Fisichella made his remarks at a Vatican press briefing while explaining how Pope Francis’s new “Missionaries of Mercy” will have the power to forgive penalties previously reserved to the Holy See. In reference to Canon 1370, which imposes automatic excommunication for “physical violence” against the Roman Pontiff, Archbishop Fisichella said: “I would say that we need to understand well ‘physical violence,’ because sometimes words, too, are rocks and stones, and therefore I believe some of these sins, too, are far more widespread than we might think.”
Peters points out that Canon 18 “requires penal canons to be read strictly (i.e., as narrowly as reasonably possible).” He notes that Canon 1370 criminalizes ‘vim physicam’ against the pope, not ‘verba aspera’ or variants thereon, and I know of no canonical commentary that includes ‘words’ as a species of ‘physical force’ in this context.” Rather, Peters points to four canon law commentaries which all “expressly exclude ‘verbal violence’ from the range of actions penalized under Canon 1370.”
See Dr. Ed Peters’ full blog post here.
“We Are Experiencing the Best Moments in the History of Freemasonry”
(Madrid) “We live in one of the best moments of Freemasonry.” This was confessed by the Grand Lodge of Spain in the latest issue of El Oriente.
El Oriente, is the press organ of the Grand Lodge with the words of Oscar de Alfonso, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Spain. In a Masonic meeting in Santiago de Compostela, which was (the way to the light) under the slogan “El Camino Hacia la Luz”, the Grandmaster said: “We are experiencing one of the best moments in the history of Freemasonry.”
At the end of October in Santiago de Compostela an international Masonic conference the beaproned brothers gathered from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. The result of the Sixth Conference of the Inter-American Masonic Confederation is a “Masonic Charter”, which was adopted by the lodges delegates.
Decided “Masonic charter”
Represented in Santiago de Compostela were the Grand Lodge of Spain, the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Bolivia, the Grand Lodge of Argentina, the Grand Orient of Brazil, the Grand Lodge of Chile, the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Paraguay, the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of the Republic of Peru, the Legal Grand Lodge of Portugal and the Grand Lodge of Freemasonry of Uruguay.
According to the Grand Lodge of Spain combine the mentioned grand lodge includes “10,400 lodges with 350,000 Freemasons”. They are aligned with the Scottish Rite Grand Lodge of England.
What exactly the “Carta Masonica” includes was not released by the lodges. El Oriente provides only some hints in a report. How meaningful they are decided about the actual content of the Charter, therefore, can not be said. The “Masonic Charter” finds, however, that the society stands before new problems.”Fundamentalism, intolerance, the penetration of economic crime in the republican sense of community, which produces social hostility” were explicitly mentioned.
Demanded Are New “Steering Forms” in Politics
The Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Oscar de Alfonso (with chain)
The Inter-American Masonic Conference also spoke out in favor of legalizing the killing of unborn children by abortion in Chile and therefore supports the efforts of former UN Women Director and UN Under-Secretary General of the reorganized Socialist Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
El Oriente, the publication of the Spanish Grand Lodge is published by the Communications Secretariat of the Grand Lodge.
From 18-21 November 2015, the meeting in San Francisco in the US,, the XIVth World Conference of the regular Masonic Grand Lodge, like the Scottish Rite, under the motto “The Chain of Union: Strengthening Fraternal Bonds in a Changing World”.
Attacks on Jews are anti-Semitism, as are attacks on Israel,’ Pope Francis tells Jewish leader
‘Attacks on Jews are anti-Semitism, as are attacks on Israel,’ Francis tells Jewish leader
Wed, 28 Oct 2015
Pope Francis welcomed over a hundred leaders of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Wednesday and issued a strong condemnation of anti-Semitism. At a private audience with WJC President Ronald S. Lauder in the morning, the pontiff made it clear that outright attacks against Israel’s existence is a form of anti-Semitism.
Wed, 28 Oct 2015
Pope Francis welcomed over a hundred leaders of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Wednesday and issued a strong condemnation of anti-Semitism. At a private audience with WJC President Ronald S. Lauder in the morning, the pontiff made it clear that outright attacks against Israel’s existence is a form of anti-Semitism.
“To attack Jews is anti-Semitism, but an outright attack on the State of
Israel is also anti-Semitism. There may be political disagreements
between governments and on political issues, but the State of Israel has
every right to exist in safety and prosperity,” Pope Francis told
Lauder and his delegation.
Jews and Catholics today marked the anniversary of the 1965 declaration Nostra Aetate, which condemned anti-Semitism and completely transformed and improved relations between Jews and Catholics.
Lauder praised the Pope for this powerful message and said relations between the two faiths were stronger than they had ever been before. The WJC president added: “Pope Francis does not simply make declarations. He inspires people with his warmth and his compassion. His clear and unequivocal support for the Jewish people is critical to us.”
Nearly 150 delegates and observers from the World Jewish Congress Governing Board took part in the public audience with the Pope in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. The delegates were in Rome for the Board’s annual meeting.
Recalling Nostra Aetate, a declaration adopted on 28 October 1965 by the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis told the crowd in the square: “Indifference and opposition were transformed into cooperation and benevolence. Enemies and strangers have become friends and brothers. The Council, with the declaration Nostra Aetate, paved the way. It said yes to the rediscovery of the Jewish roots of Christianity, and no to any form of anti-Semitism and condemnation of any insult, discrimination and persecution derived from that.”
On Tuesday, the WJC Governing Board, representing over 100 Jewish communities around the world, held discussions which focused on the implications facing Jewish communities in light of the various conflicts in the Middle East, including the threat of jihadist terrorism.
The Governing Board reaffirmed its continued support of a two State solution and urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume peace talks without preconditions as soon as possible.
The Board also called on the international community to maintain and, if necessary, expand sanctions on Iran until there is verification and international acceptance of Iran’s compliance with all the conditions of the nuclear deal.
Concerning the refugee crisis, the delegates passed a resolution calling on the international community to provide refugees with sanctuary irrespective of origin or religion, recalling the Talmudic maxim that says “He who saves a single life saves the whole world.”
Jews and Catholics today marked the anniversary of the 1965 declaration Nostra Aetate, which condemned anti-Semitism and completely transformed and improved relations between Jews and Catholics.
Lauder praised the Pope for this powerful message and said relations between the two faiths were stronger than they had ever been before. The WJC president added: “Pope Francis does not simply make declarations. He inspires people with his warmth and his compassion. His clear and unequivocal support for the Jewish people is critical to us.”
Nearly 150 delegates and observers from the World Jewish Congress Governing Board took part in the public audience with the Pope in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. The delegates were in Rome for the Board’s annual meeting.
Recalling Nostra Aetate, a declaration adopted on 28 October 1965 by the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis told the crowd in the square: “Indifference and opposition were transformed into cooperation and benevolence. Enemies and strangers have become friends and brothers. The Council, with the declaration Nostra Aetate, paved the way. It said yes to the rediscovery of the Jewish roots of Christianity, and no to any form of anti-Semitism and condemnation of any insult, discrimination and persecution derived from that.”
On Tuesday, the WJC Governing Board, representing over 100 Jewish communities around the world, held discussions which focused on the implications facing Jewish communities in light of the various conflicts in the Middle East, including the threat of jihadist terrorism.
The Governing Board reaffirmed its continued support of a two State solution and urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume peace talks without preconditions as soon as possible.
The Board also called on the international community to maintain and, if necessary, expand sanctions on Iran until there is verification and international acceptance of Iran’s compliance with all the conditions of the nuclear deal.
Concerning the refugee crisis, the delegates passed a resolution calling on the international community to provide refugees with sanctuary irrespective of origin or religion, recalling the Talmudic maxim that says “He who saves a single life saves the whole world.”
Fiftieth Anniversary of Vatican II Closing
I have chosen the date of 8 December because of its rich meaning in the recent history of the Church. In fact, I will open the Holy Door on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. The Church feels a great need to keep this event alive. With the Council, the Church entered a new phase of her history. The Council Fathers strongly perceived, as a true breath of the Holy Spirit, a need to talk about God to men and women of their time in a more accessible way. The walls which for too long had made the Church a kind of fortress were torn down and the time had come to proclaim the Gospel in a new way. It was a new phase of the same evangelization that had existed from the beginning. It was a fresh undertaking for all Christians to bear witness to their faith with greater enthusiasm and conviction. The Church sensed a responsibility to be a living sign of the Father’s love in the world.http://www.catholiclane.com/fiftieth-anniversary-of-vatican-ii-closing/
Not a Parody: Pope Remotely Lights Nativity Scene Built Onto ISIS Amphibious Landing Craft
After reading the text below, ask these questions:
What "massacres" (those that are not easy to forgive) is the Pope referring to? And who committed them?
And who is "the prophet"?
Luke?
Look up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near (21: 28).
Luke was referring to those who follow Christ. Who is the Pope referring to?
How does the Pope know that those drowned at sea, the vast majority of whom were Muslims, are "with the Lord now?"*
How does the Pope know that those drowned at sea, the vast majority of whom were Muslims, are "with the Lord now?"*
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday evening lit – remotely from the Vatican – the Christmas tree and nativity scene in the lower piazza of the Basilica San Francesco in Assisi.
The nativity scene has been built into a seven-meter boat used by migrants to travel from Tunisia to the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2014. The ceremony was attended by 31 refugees from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Nigeria and Syria being hosted by Caritas Assisi.
The Italian State Railway and Italian Navy also distributed toys to families in need.
Below is a translation of the Pope's words in English:
Watching that boat ... Jesus is always with us, even in difficult times. How many brothers and sisters have drowned at sea! They are with the Lord now. But He came to give us hope, and we must take this hope. He came to tell us that He is stronger than death, that He is greater than any evil. He came to tell us he is merciful, all mercy; and this Christmas I invite you to open your hearts to mercy and forgiveness. But it is not easy to forgive these massacres. It's not easy.
I would like to thank the [members of the] Coast Guard: the good men and women. I thank you, for you were the instrument of hope that brings us Jesus. You, among us, you have been sowers of hope, the hope of Jesus. Thank you, Antonio, you and all your teammates and all that this land of Italy has so generously received: the South of Italy is an example of solidarity for the whole world! For everyone who looks at the crib, they can say to Jesus: "But, I also have lent a hand because you are a sign of hope."
And to all refugees, I say a word, that of the prophet: Raise your head, the Lord is near. And with him is strength, salvation, hope. The heart, perhaps, [is] sorrowful, but the head [is] high in the hope of the Lord.
Jihadist: There Will Be Mass Beheadings in St. Peter’s Square
ISIS is hoping to "hold mass beheadings in St. Peter's square." That's the recent boast of one jihadist, according to Islamic terrorist expert Robert Spencer. In an interview last week on "Mic'd Up—Isis Crisis," Spencer said the beheading threat comes from a jihadist who is a Polish Catholic converted to Islam. Spencer, a veteran jihad consultant for U.S. Intelligence, is the director of Jihadwatch.org, an investigative website "dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology play in the modern world and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts."
Pro-Homosexual Priest to Speak at Catholic Theological Union
Suggests homosexual acts can be "eucharistic"
A dissident theologian and pro-homosexual is scheduled to speak in February at a conference on religious life.The Catholic Theological Union is allowing Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP, to give the keynote address at its Consecrated Life Symposium on February 5–6.
Father Radcliffe is a Dominican friar, notorious for his heterodox theology including his approval of homosexual relations and the ordination of women to the priesthood. In 2013 he wrote of "gay" sexuality:
We cannot begin with the question of whether it is permitted or forbidden! We must ask what it means, and how far it is eucharistic. Certainly it can be generous, vulnerable, tender, mutual and non-violent. So in many ways, I would think that it can be expressive of Christ's self-gift.In 2006 he said in a talk titled "The Church as Sign of Hope and Freedom": "We must accompany them. ... This means watching "Brokeback Mountain," reading gay novels, living with our gay friends and listening with them as they listen to the Lord."
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered and acts of "grave depravity" — meaning they can never have any good value to them, no matter what the situation.
Father Radcliffe is a popular speaker at officially sponsored Catholic events across North America and Europe, but he's never been officially disciplined by the Dominicans or the Vatican for spreading bad theology or promoting homosexuality.
Catholic Theological Union is a graduate school of theology started in 1968 after the Second Vatican Council, geared towards lay and ordained ministry, with a faculty that is Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim. It's home to the Bernardin Center of Theology and Ministry, inspired by the theology of Cdl. Joseph Bernardin, one of the most powerful and influential prelates in the American Catholic Church in the late 20th century, who coined the phrase "seamless garment" with reference to social justice issues.
Two Popes together at Holy Door in the spirit of the Council?
Before opening the Holy Door Francis went up to Benedict XVI who was sitting in a corner of the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica, on a white upholstered chair. They embraced. Joseph Ratzinger was smiling. Then, Francis returned to his place. For the first time, the Pope pronounced the prayer and the formula specific to the ritual, in Italian instead of Latin, asking for the “door of justice” to be opened. The heavy panels of the Holy Door were steered by the “sampietrini” (the labourers who are, in the contemporary Church, responsible for the maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica) were opened at 11:11 am. Prior to yesterday, they had remained shut for fifteen years. The Pope stood alone on the threshold, praying, with his head bowed and his hands crossed. The Pope’s cope rippled slightly as the icy wind from St. Peter’s Square snuck in. He was the first to enter the lit, empty Basilica. But he stopped immediately, stepping to the side to wait for Benedict XVI to enter too. The Emeritus Pope struggled a little on the steps but was assisted by his black walking stick and his personal secretary, Bishop Georg Gänswein.
And so it was that the Holy Door of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy was opened by the Pope, with his predecessor crossing the threshold immediately after him. Just a few steps and Benedict XVI was once again by Francis’ side. Both smiled and the peace on the face of Joseph Ratzinger – who accepted the Pope’s invitation to join him and wanted to be present despite the weakness in his legs – says a great deal about the relationship between the two men.
NEW BUT NOT SO NEW
The new situation that took shape in 2013 following Ratzinger’s historic resignation due to old age – the first Pope to resign in 2000 years – has got us used to the image of the Pope embracing his predecessor. Yesterday, a new and unprecedented chapter was written: the Pope crossed the threshold of the Holy Door of the Jubilee of Mercy, followed by a former Pope who has stayed put in the Vatican simply to accompany his successor’s ministry with prayer.
There was talk right up until the very end of the possibility that Ratzinger would be at Francis’ side when the latter opened the Holy Door. Bergoglio, who sees his predecessor as a “wise grandfather” and thus as an asset, would have liked this. In the end, however, a less innovative ceremonial procedure was followed, which nevertheless prevented confusion.
At the Angelus, Francis was eager to remind his audience of what had happened earlier: “At the start of today’s event, Pope Benedict also passed through the Door, let’s send him our greetings from here, everyone!” he said, attracting loud applause from the big crowd of faithful in the Square.
THE CHURCH’S ARCHITRAVE
“Mercy is the architrave (main beam) that supports the life of the Church”, Francis said. Benedict XVI in turn had also explained that “mercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel message” and in the “Deus caritas est” encyclical wrote that experiencing God’s mercy and forgiveness makes it possible to practice mercy and forgiveness among men and women. The increasing centrality of this message in Francis’ pontificate, until it became its heart, is present in his predecessor’s magisterium.
But there is another aspect that united the Church’s two most recent Popes. Bergoglio, who was ordained a priest after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, decided to inaugurate the Jubilee on the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of that event which marked the history of the Church in the 20th century. Ratzinger himself had participated in the Council as a theological advisor. Despite the attempts of some to get him on the side of those in the Church who wanted to backtrack on Vatican II, Benedict XVI always saw it as a compass. Yesterday morning, in the homily he pronounced at the mass for the Immaculate Conception, which preceded the opening of the Holy Door, Francis called it “a genuine encounter between the Church and the men and women of our time. An encounter marked by the power of the Spirit, who impelled the Church to emerge from the shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey”. Francis being a Pope who is less interested in interpreting the Council and more interested in implementing it and living it. “It was the resumption,” Francis concluded, “of a journey of encountering people where they live: in their cities and homes, in their workplaces. Wherever there are people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the joy of the Gospel.”
Francis Effect: Cardinal Turkson says don’t breed like rabbits in order to save Mother Earth
We will avoid editorializing on whether the Church has “never been against birth control” as this type of statement is simply a symptom of the horrific state of modern religious formation. Prelates and priests preach incorrect ideas, sadly, on a daily basis. They are not infallible — even on issues of faith and morals.
The primary issue is, once again, that Pope Francis led the way to this dangerous thinking, both in the insensitive and simpleminded way he lambasted large Catholic families (see here) and in his fixation on new religion called “climate change” (see here).
Cue Peter Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Francis’ lead on so-called climate issues, on why Catholics should shun accepting God’s will in order to save Mother Earth:
From the BBC:
COP21: Cardinal says birth control may offer climate ‘solution’
One of the Catholic Church’s most senior prelates has said that birth control could “offer a solution” to the impacts of climate change.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Pope’s leading adviser on climate issues, told the BBC that the Church had never been against natural family planning.
Speaking in Paris, the cardinal called for a strong agreement that would protect the most vulnerable nations.
He said climate change was a looming ecological disaster.
Cardinal Turkson is believed to have played a significant role in the drafting of “Laudato Si”, the Pope’s encyclical on climate change.
Mouths to feed
The Catholic Church has recently adopted a more active role on the issue, encouraging churchgoers to join global climate marches before the start of COP21. The Church has also increased its engagement with the UN climate negotiation process itself, here in Le Bourget.
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, Cardinal Turkson suggested that birth control could help alleviate some of the impacts of climate change, particularly the lack of food in a warmer world.
“This has been talked about, and the Holy Father on his trip back from the Philippines also invited people to some form of birth control, because the church has never been against birth control and people spacing out births and all of that. So yes, it can offer a solution,” he said.
“Having more mouths to feed is a challenge for us to be productive also, which is one of the key issues being treated over here, the cultivation and production of food, and its distribution.
“So yes it engages us in food security management, so we ensure that everybody is fed and all of that. The amount of population that is critical for the realisation of this is still something we need to discover, yet the Holy Father has also called for a certain amount of control of birth.”
Cardinal Turkson was at pains to stress that artificial birth control methods such as the contraceptive pill were still beyond the pale as far as the Church was concerned.
“You don’t deal with one good with another evil: the Church wants people to be fed, so let’s do what the Church feels is not right? That is a kind of sophistry that the church would not go for,” he said.
The question of birth control has long been controversial within the Catholic Church.
The issue is especially controversial in relation to climate change. The global population of 7 billion people is expected to grow to 9.7bn by the middle of the century according to the UN. However, efforts to limit family size in developing countries have been criticised as a form of imperialism.
As well as reiterating the Church’s belief in natural methods of birth control, as a way of dealing with some impacts of climate change, Cardinal Turkson said a strong agreement at the Paris climate talks would be critically important in tackling the causes of the problem.
“For us, one thing must dominate. We need to look at the front line states and what they are going through now, and in the light of concern for what they are feeling now, to simply adopt a measure that can ensure the existence of all of us.
“Our profession of love for God must necessarily lead to our love for the handwork of God, for what God has made, so let’s have some love for creation and for the human beings.”
The Next Synod Is Already in the Works. On Married Priests
The Next Synod Is Already in the Works. On Married Priests
In mid-February Pope Francis will go to Chiapas, where hundreds of deacons with their wives are pushing to be ordained as priests. And in the Amazon as well the turning point seems to be near. It was all written down in the agenda of [the late Jesuit] Cardinal Martini
[Why go through the motions of another synod? FrankenPope can add the “conclusions” of such a synod to the already written apostolic exhortation supposedly based on those of the last synod, or he can arbitrarily issue an apostolic constitution changing Church law on this matter – as he did for annulment procedures immediately before the last synod]
http://angelqueen.org/2015/12/09/the-next-synod-is-already-in-the-works-on-married-priests/
Francis' Jubilee of Mercy kicks off
...with the groping of nuns
Vatican cardinal claims Pope called for control of birth
PARIS, December 9, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – In an interview this morning, Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that Pope Francis “has called for a certain amount of control of birth,” while specifying that this would not include methods like the birth control pill.
Speaking to the BBC outside of the climate change talks in Paris, the cardinal suggested that limiting births can “offer a solution” to difficulties such as water and food shortages that are said to come from overpopulation and climate change.
Cardinal Turkson, described by the BBC as the Vatican expert on climate change, said while the critical level of population remains to be determined, the pope has nevertheless called for control of births.
"Having more mouths to feed is a challenge for us to be productive also, which is one of the key issues being treated over here, the cultivation and production of food, and its distribution," he said.
"So yes it engages us in food security management, so we ensure that everybody is fed and all of that. The amount of population that is critical for the realisation of this is still something we need to discover."
"This has been talked about," he added, "and the Holy Father on his trip back from the Philippines also invited people to some form of birth control, because the church has never been against birth control and people spacing out births and all of that. So yes, it can offer a solution."
The cardinal was referencing Pope Francis’ in-flight interview on the return from Manila where the pope urged “responsible parenthood,” and chastised a woman as irresponsible for having seven children by C-section. The pope said Catholics should not breed “like rabbits.”
While advocating control of births, Turkson specified that he was not endorsing the birth control pill. "You don't deal with one good with another evil: the Church wants people to be fed, so let's do what the Church feels is not right? That is a kind of sophistry that the church would not go for," he said.
The cardinal was likely referring to natural family planning, a method of birth regulation which allows a couple to know when the fertile times of the woman are so that they might either achieve or avoid a pregnancy.
Vatican revives dialogue with Jews 50 years after the Council
Just a few weeks before the Pope’s visit to the synagogue in Rome,
the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews headed by
Cardinal Koch has released a new document on the unresolved theological
questions at the heart of Christian-Jewish dialogue. The text rejects
anti-Semitism and proselytism
The Vatican aims to revive Christian-Jewish dialogue, on the
occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra
Aetate declaration (28 October 1965), with a document by the Commission
for Religious Relations with Jews, which was published today, just a few
weeks before the Pope is due to visit the Great Synagogue of Rome (on
17 January). Against the backdrop of some controversies that have
emerged over recent years (the Latin rite Good Friday prayer for the
conversion of Jews, Pius XII’s beatification, the situation of the
“Christian minority” in Israel) the text emphasises the thumbs down to
“anti-Semitic tendencies” and underlines that THE Catholic Church
neither leads nor encourages any institutional mission aimed
specifically at Jews.
Because “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29),” the document reads, “the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God’s Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah.” The final section of the document, titled “The goals of dialogue with Judaism”, clarifies that “the first goal of the dialogue is to add depth to the reciprocal knowledge of Jews and Christians,” underlining that “it is important that Catholic educational institutions, particularly in the training of priests, integrate into their curricula both Nostra Aetate and the subsequent documents of the Holy See regarding the implementation of the Conciliar declaration.”
In terms of “the common concern for justice and the development of peoples,” “in the past,” the text adds, “it may have been that the different religions - against the background of a narrowly understood claim to truth and a corresponding intolerance - contributed to the incitement of conflict and confrontation. But today religions should not be part of the problem, but part of the solution. Only when religions engage in a successful dialogue with one another, and in that way contribute towards world peace, can this be realised also on the social and political levels. Religious freedom guaranteed by civil authority is the prerequisite for such dialogue and peace. In this regard, the litmus-test is how religious minorities are treated, and which rights of theirs are guaranteed. In Jewish-Christian dialogue the situation of Christian communities in the state of Israel is of great relevance, since there - as nowhere else in the world - a Christian minority faces a Jewish majority. Peace in the Holy Land - lacking and constantly prayed for - plays a major role in dialogue between Jews and Christians.”
“Another important goal of Jewish-Catholic dialogue consists in jointly combatting all manifestations of racial discrimination against Jews and all forms of anti-Semitism, which have certainly not yet been eradicated and re-emerge in different ways in various contexts. History,” the text goes on to say, “teaches us where even the slightest perceptible forms of anti-Semitism can lead: the human tragedy of the Shoah in which two-thirds of European Jewry were annihilated. Both faith traditions are called to maintain together an unceasing vigilance and sensitivity in the social sphere as well. Because of the strong bond of friendship between Jews and Catholics, the Catholic Church feels particularly obliged to do all that is possible with our Jewish friends to repel anti-Semitic tendencies. Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed that a Christian can never be an anti-Semite, especially because of the Jewish roots of Christianity.”
The document – which is not a magisterial text or a doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church but a Catholic reflection signed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, Mgr. Brian Farrell and Fr. Norbert J. Hoffmann, respectively President, Vice President and Secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Jews – “is intended to be a starting point for further theological thought with a view to enriching and intensifying the theological dimension of Jewish-Catholic dialogue”. At the Vatican press conference for the presentation of the document, to which Rabbi David Rosen, the director of Interreligious Affairs, American Jewish Committee and Edward Kessler, director of the Woolf Institute, Cambridge.
The Good Friday prayer, which proclaims the future salvation of Jews, “is misinterpreted”, said Cardinal Koch in response to a question. It is an “eschatological prayer” and “a text that is intended for the extraordinary rite. The ordinary rite prayer can be used as it does not create these misunderstandings”.
Rabbi Rosen, in turn, underlined that a “small number of faithful” followed the old rite and focused his attention on the title for the “conversion” of Jews, which can be “misinterpreted and misunderstood” and could thus be modified.
As far as the controversies that emerged in previous years between the Catholic Church and Jewish faith, Cardinal Koch mentioned “the discussion over the construction of the Carmine church in Poland,” the saga involving Richard Williamson, the holocaust-denier, which emerged after the remission of the Lefebvrian excommunication by Benedict XVI, which constitutes “a big problem but thanks to Cardinal Kasper, universal dialogue has facilitated a quick resolution”. Then there is Pius XII’s beatification, a contentious issue not only in Catholic-Jewish relations but also among the Jewish people themselves, as “some say we cannot accept his beatification, while others say we must give Pius XII the recognition he deserves.”
According to Koch, this “is an internal issue within the Catholic Church but the Catholic Church clearly can be cautious in making sure it does not harm Catholic-Jewish relations. I am certain,” the Swiss cardinal said, “that Pope Francis is very open about the question of opening up the archives in order to clarify situations”.
Both Rosen and Kessler were cautious in dealing with the question of Messianic Jews, who believe in the “messiah” Jesus Christ. The rabbi, in particular, underlined the suspicion – which stems also from a Jewish “hypersensitivity”, that they represent a form of “proselytism” in disguise. In general, the Pope,s “visit to the Holy Land and his upcoming visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome,” “are an even more powerful manifestation of a transformation in Catholic-Jewish relations, than documents.”
Jews can secure eternal salvation without converting to Christianity, senior Catholic theologians say in a report published Thursday, in the latest refinement of their stance on a vexed theological issue. Addressing a question that has long blighted relations between the two faiths, the report also unequivocally states that the Church should not actively seek to convert Jews to Christianity, echoing the stance outlined by former Pope Benedict XVI in a 2011 book.
The report, drawn up by the Church’s “Commission for religious relations with the Jews,” goes further than Benedict however in effectively affirming that Jews can be saved independently of Christ. “Although Jews cannot believe in Jesus Christ as the universal redeemer, they have a part in salvation, because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” the report concludes, according to a summary released to the media. The belief that the only way to salvation is through belief in Christ is a fundamental tenet of every strand of Christianity. But it has also been blamed for creating an evangelical tendency responsible for some of the darkest periods in the history of religion, that are tainted with violent anti-Semitic violence and persecution such as the crusades of the Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms and more. READ MORE
The Vatican released a document Thursday addressing relations between Catholics and Jews. Some outlets have reported that the statement includes an "unprecedented" finding that Jews can achieve "salvation" without being converted to belief in Jesus. Is this really a groundbreaking doctrinal change for the church? And can Jews (according to Catholics) really go to heaven?
Archbishop Cupich again insists people in homosexual unions can receive Communion
Steve Weatherbe
CHICAGO, December 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has proved himself again the leading American exponent of the German school of theology, telling an ABC interviewer that it was up to divorced and remarried Catholics and homosexuals to decide for themselves if they took Holy Communion, not their priests or bishops.
The archbishop also reaffirmed his general opposition to Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, which requires ministers of the Eucharist to withhold Communion from those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin.” The canon has been relevant most prominently in relation to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.
Cupich first outlined his views on Communion for active homosexuals at a press conference during the recent Synod where he insisted such matters were for the individual to decide using his or her own conscience.
Now, back from that event, he told Alex Krashesky of ABC Eyewitness News the same thing, modifying his previous remarks only slightly to reflect conditions attached to the Synod’s Final Report – that every person’s conscience must be formed “according to the teaching of the Church.”
Krashesky asked for an explanation of the archbishop’s comments during the Synod. Cupich responded, “We expressed an aspiration that people who are stuck in a system who need to be reconciled to the Church … might have another opportunity to have their case considered through what we would call an internal forum rather than the external forum of the annulment process. That was presented to the Holy Father. The mechanism for that has not been defined yet.”
When asked if the same “internal forum” could be used to secure Communion for sexually active homosexuals, he said that it could. “When people who are in good conscience working with a spiritual director come to a decision, then they need to follow that conscience. That’s the teaching of the Church. So in the case of people receiving Communion in situations that are irregular that also applies. The question then was: Does that apply to gay people? My answer was: they’re human beings too. They have a conscience. Thy have to follow their conscience.”
He continued: “They have to be able to have a formed conscience, understand the teaching of the Church, and work with a spiritual director and come to those decisions. And we have to respect that.”
“It’s not up to any minister who is distributing the Eucharist to make a decision about a person’s worthiness or lack of worthiness. That’s on the conscience of those individuals,” he added.
But they did — and the two families cautiously made contact with each other. By the end of the reception, the ice was broken and the first of many hurdles cleared.
“I told the couple their love had made this possible,” said the Rev. Vincent Feroldi, the Catholic priest who helped prepare the marriage. “This is the best testimony one can give the day after these attacks. They showed this horror will not win.”
It wasn’t only the couple’s love that made this possible. Behind them was a loose network of Catholic and Muslim volunteer counselors who meet regularly to help young interfaith couples prepare for marriage problems most other French their age can hardly imagine.
The issues start with where to hold the wedding — in a church, a mosque, both or neither? — and who might not show up. Couples often imagine the priest and imam can co-celebrate, but the two faiths have very different concepts of marriage.
It gets even more complicated when the children come. Should they be brought up in one or both religions? Should boys be circumcised? What about giving first names like Mohammad or Christine?
The volunteer counselors have now published a 48-page handbook for other marriage counselors helping prepare young Muslims and Catholics not only for their wedding day, but also the predictable and unexpected problems they may face as they try to live together and raise a family while respecting both religious traditions.
“Our aim was to respond as closely as possible to the questions we get on our website and in our counseling sessions,” said Agathe Henniart, editor of the guidebook “Islamic-Christian Marriage — Catholic and Muslim: questions about a project for life.”
Henniart is general delegate for the Marriage Preparation Centers, a service of the Roman Catholic Church, which requires couples to take a class before marrying in a church. The centers network produced the guidebook in cooperation with the Group of Islamic-Christian Homes (GFIC), an association of mixed couples who meet to discuss issues their unusual marriages bring up.
“GFIC started in 1977 and back then it was mostly binational couples who met as students or development aid workers abroad,” said Dominique Fonlupt, a Catholic journalist married to a Moroccan for the past 25 years. “Now both spouses are mostly French and that changes things. Now religious differences are more important than cultural ones.”
France’s 5 million-strong Muslim minority, made up mostly of families from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, is the largest in Europe. About two-thirds are French citizens, born, raised and educated in the traditionally Catholic country.
Nobody knows how many mixed couples there are in France because religion is not registered in official documents. There are probably a number of unions of secularized Catholics and Muslim that go unnoticed, as well as some where a Christian man goes through the motions of converting to Islam in order to marry a Muslim woman.
GFIC only deals with couples who contact it for advice on living with both religions; it is currently advising about 15 couples. Feroldi said there were 10 Muslim-Catholic marriages in Lyon last year.
“Our society is mostly secularized, but deep down, France remains the ‘eldest daughter of the Church,’” wrote Bordeaux imam Tareq Oubrou in the guidebook. “Theology separates us, but our hope, our values and our morals unite us.”
The first hurdle is the concept of marriage itself, which is a sacrament for Catholics but only a contract for Muslims. That implies a church ceremony led by a priest for Catholics but a simple ceremony for Muslims that might but need not include an imam and a prayer of blessing.
All couples marrying in France must hold a civil ceremony at the local town hall, which is the legal marriage, and may then hold a religious ceremony if they wish. Unlike in the United States, a priest, minister, rabbi or imam cannot officiate as a justice of the peace at a religious ceremony in France.
Since Muslims sometimes refuse to attend a Christian ceremony, this legal necessity provides a neutral ground for both families to come together, the guidebook advises. Sounding out relatives in advance is crucial if the couple plans a religious ceremony in a church or a mosque.
“Many Muslim women want an imam to be there to assure their family they are not leaving the Muslim community,” Fonlupt said. Sometimes, it’s the imam who persuades the Muslim family to attend a ceremony in a church.
At the presentation of the guidebook this week in Paris, a mixed couple in their mid-30s, Lucie and Adel, told about the problems they faced.
“We didn’t talk about religion much at first. We’re both French,” said Adel, who was born in France to Algerian immigrants. “It wasn’t an issue until our first child came.”
Their child was a boy, Lucie said, so the first question was whether he would be circumcised according to Muslim custom, baptized as a Catholic or both. They chose both.
Then came the question of a name, which they wanted to work in Arabic, French and Spanish, since Lucie’s family is part Spanish. “It’s very hard, especially for boys. We finally chose names of prophets,” she said. They now have three boys: Daniel, Elias and Zachary.
They celebrate Christmas and Easter as well as both Eid holidays. Adel observes Ramadan. “You can belong to two religions. You can be religiously bilingual,” Lucie said, reflecting the fact they speak French and Arabic at home.
The Rev. Christian Delorme, a Lyon priest long active in Catholic-Muslim dialogue, said Vatican teaching said mixed couples should educate their children as Catholics, but in real life, raising them as both seemed to work out.
“The Catholic-Muslim couples who deal best with their religious differences are those who openly profess their religious adherence and have open and not rigorous approaches to their respective faiths,” he wrote in the guidebook
Fr
Cantalamessa began his sermon by drawing a link between the recently
inaugurated Jubilee Year of Mercy and the Second Vatican Council.
Because “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29),” the document reads, “the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God’s Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah.” The final section of the document, titled “The goals of dialogue with Judaism”, clarifies that “the first goal of the dialogue is to add depth to the reciprocal knowledge of Jews and Christians,” underlining that “it is important that Catholic educational institutions, particularly in the training of priests, integrate into their curricula both Nostra Aetate and the subsequent documents of the Holy See regarding the implementation of the Conciliar declaration.”
In terms of “the common concern for justice and the development of peoples,” “in the past,” the text adds, “it may have been that the different religions - against the background of a narrowly understood claim to truth and a corresponding intolerance - contributed to the incitement of conflict and confrontation. But today religions should not be part of the problem, but part of the solution. Only when religions engage in a successful dialogue with one another, and in that way contribute towards world peace, can this be realised also on the social and political levels. Religious freedom guaranteed by civil authority is the prerequisite for such dialogue and peace. In this regard, the litmus-test is how religious minorities are treated, and which rights of theirs are guaranteed. In Jewish-Christian dialogue the situation of Christian communities in the state of Israel is of great relevance, since there - as nowhere else in the world - a Christian minority faces a Jewish majority. Peace in the Holy Land - lacking and constantly prayed for - plays a major role in dialogue between Jews and Christians.”
“Another important goal of Jewish-Catholic dialogue consists in jointly combatting all manifestations of racial discrimination against Jews and all forms of anti-Semitism, which have certainly not yet been eradicated and re-emerge in different ways in various contexts. History,” the text goes on to say, “teaches us where even the slightest perceptible forms of anti-Semitism can lead: the human tragedy of the Shoah in which two-thirds of European Jewry were annihilated. Both faith traditions are called to maintain together an unceasing vigilance and sensitivity in the social sphere as well. Because of the strong bond of friendship between Jews and Catholics, the Catholic Church feels particularly obliged to do all that is possible with our Jewish friends to repel anti-Semitic tendencies. Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed that a Christian can never be an anti-Semite, especially because of the Jewish roots of Christianity.”
The document – which is not a magisterial text or a doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church but a Catholic reflection signed by Cardinal Kurt Koch, Mgr. Brian Farrell and Fr. Norbert J. Hoffmann, respectively President, Vice President and Secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Jews – “is intended to be a starting point for further theological thought with a view to enriching and intensifying the theological dimension of Jewish-Catholic dialogue”. At the Vatican press conference for the presentation of the document, to which Rabbi David Rosen, the director of Interreligious Affairs, American Jewish Committee and Edward Kessler, director of the Woolf Institute, Cambridge.
The Good Friday prayer, which proclaims the future salvation of Jews, “is misinterpreted”, said Cardinal Koch in response to a question. It is an “eschatological prayer” and “a text that is intended for the extraordinary rite. The ordinary rite prayer can be used as it does not create these misunderstandings”.
Rabbi Rosen, in turn, underlined that a “small number of faithful” followed the old rite and focused his attention on the title for the “conversion” of Jews, which can be “misinterpreted and misunderstood” and could thus be modified.
As far as the controversies that emerged in previous years between the Catholic Church and Jewish faith, Cardinal Koch mentioned “the discussion over the construction of the Carmine church in Poland,” the saga involving Richard Williamson, the holocaust-denier, which emerged after the remission of the Lefebvrian excommunication by Benedict XVI, which constitutes “a big problem but thanks to Cardinal Kasper, universal dialogue has facilitated a quick resolution”. Then there is Pius XII’s beatification, a contentious issue not only in Catholic-Jewish relations but also among the Jewish people themselves, as “some say we cannot accept his beatification, while others say we must give Pius XII the recognition he deserves.”
According to Koch, this “is an internal issue within the Catholic Church but the Catholic Church clearly can be cautious in making sure it does not harm Catholic-Jewish relations. I am certain,” the Swiss cardinal said, “that Pope Francis is very open about the question of opening up the archives in order to clarify situations”.
Both Rosen and Kessler were cautious in dealing with the question of Messianic Jews, who believe in the “messiah” Jesus Christ. The rabbi, in particular, underlined the suspicion – which stems also from a Jewish “hypersensitivity”, that they represent a form of “proselytism” in disguise. In general, the Pope,s “visit to the Holy Land and his upcoming visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome,” “are an even more powerful manifestation of a transformation in Catholic-Jewish relations, than documents.”
HERESY -Vatican Says Jews don’t need Christ to be saved
Jews can secure eternal salvation without converting to Christianity, senior Catholic theologians say in a report published Thursday, in the latest refinement of their stance on a vexed theological issue. Addressing a question that has long blighted relations between the two faiths, the report also unequivocally states that the Church should not actively seek to convert Jews to Christianity, echoing the stance outlined by former Pope Benedict XVI in a 2011 book.
The report, drawn up by the Church’s “Commission for religious relations with the Jews,” goes further than Benedict however in effectively affirming that Jews can be saved independently of Christ. “Although Jews cannot believe in Jesus Christ as the universal redeemer, they have a part in salvation, because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” the report concludes, according to a summary released to the media. The belief that the only way to salvation is through belief in Christ is a fundamental tenet of every strand of Christianity. But it has also been blamed for creating an evangelical tendency responsible for some of the darkest periods in the history of religion, that are tainted with violent anti-Semitic violence and persecution such as the crusades of the Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, pogroms and more. READ MORE
Slideshow: Vatican projections light up St. Peter’s to promote climate awareness
https://www.rt.com/in-vision/325264-vatican-projections-climate-awareness/
Papal Appointee Enzo Bianchi Calls Fatima a "Swindle"
(Rome) For one of the darlings of Church light, Fatima is only
a "swindle". Enzo Bianchi, the "monk" and "Prior" of "monastic,
interconfessional monastery" Bose, who is a layman in fact, holds the
Angelic and Marian apparitions in 1917 in Fatima for a "swindle"
because, so says Bianchi, a God , "who talks about the persecuted
Christians, but forgets the six million Jews annihilated in Germany is
not a credible God". Bianchi's opinions thus twists and turns, and the
bottom line of the self-proclaimed Prior is to consistently follow the
Mainstream.
Bianchi, the Papal Consultor
Enzo Bianchi kept at a distance by Benedict XVI. but under Pope
Francis, Bianchi is feeling an updraft for promoting a "horizontal,
anthropocentric Christianity" (Msgr. Antonio Livi). The "false prophet"
(Msgr. Antonio Livi) was recently the subject of an editorial in an
edition of Credere, the official weekly newspaper for the Jubilee of Mercy, along with photo on the front page.
Pope Francis appointed Bianchi in July 2014 as Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Bianchi
is the "prophet" of a "demagogic search for peace, according to an
illusory, universal amity and a secular solidarity," said Msgr. Livi of
the friend of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who was one of Bianchi's
patrons.
Bianchi calls for overcoming of the papacy and its reduction to a
symbolic and representative primacy. This does not prevent him from
scattering roses before the reigning Pope and celebrating him as a "new
Psalmist" and "new Bernard of Clairvaux."
Bianchi, however, thinks that the Mother of God is "not a suitable
model for the promotion of women in the Church". According to Bianchi,
Christ "said nothing about homosexuality, and thus the Church should
remain silent on it." The family was only "a form that society gives
it," which is why it can be changed at any time by the society.
"A God Who Spoke About Christianity in 1917, But Not about Persecution of the Jews is Not Credible"
The Bian
chi-utterances, wrote the well-known Catholic journalist Vittorio
Messori: "For the Prior of Bose the phenomena of 1917 is a swindle
because a God who speaks about persecuted Christians, but forgets the
six million annihilated Jews in Germany is no credible God. However
Bianchi should remember that Communism (Lenin seizes power in 1917) has
at least 100 million deaths on its conscience, and there would not have
been Hitler, if there had not previously been Lenin."
Vittorio Messori wrote a 1985 interview book with the then CDF Prefect
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: "On the Situation of the Faith." It's a book
that is considered an essential turning point in the perception of the
post-conciliar period, because it articulated a diffuse discomfort and
lent a voice to it.
Messori has now presented a new edition of a book first published in
2005, "I potesi su Maria" (Hypotheses on Mary). He is to expand it 13
chapters and 150 pages, wherein Messori shall point to Bianchi's
criticism of Fatima, to which refers to other critics, including the
Dominican Jean Cardonnel.
Criticism of the Dominican Jean Cardonnel on Fatima
In the year 2000 just as Pope John Paul II published the Third Secret
of Fatima, or -. According to some - at least one part of it, the
left-leaning daily Le Monde released an article in France by
Father Cardonnel, who was at this time of his life, the head of
clerical dissidents and political opposition. Cardonnels idols were
Mao, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh and even the destroyer of the Cambodian
people, Pol Pot, had place at the summit for the French Dominican.
Though he was a nuisance to his brothers with his eternal 'no' to
everything that was sacred to the rest, he was allowed to live in the
monastery of Montpellier. Cardonnel, who cared about no dogma and no
Church law, forbade under outbursts of anger for anyone call him
"Father". The prior of the monastery eventually took advantage of a trip
the already 90 year old Cardonnel was on, and had packed his things
neatly and quartered him in the nursing home. Cardonnel cried "scandal",
portrayed himself as a victim and finding he had squandered time on a
frivolous case appealing to the Canon Law, then called on the French
government to help. He accused the Prior of trespassing. After a long
negotiation, the court agreed with his case and sentenced the Prior. The
court asserted an absolute precedent into legal history, a monastic
cell was a private room. A provocative and dangerous decision, because
it restricted and limited the ecclesiastical of authority over their own
areas.
Cardonnel: "The Supposed 'Secret' of Fatima is a Fake"
This Cardonnel wrote in 2000 in Le Monde: "This alleged
'secret' is a fake. It is as fake as the Donation of Constantine, which
was designed to justify a diabolical absurdity: a Christian empire. A
great Italian theologian - one should not forget his name: Enzo Bianchi,
the founder of a new monastic community - has the superstition and seen
immediately immediately through what the Vatican is doing with
Fatima. In the daily La Repubblica, Brother Bianchi put his finger
inexorably into the wound. He wrote: 'A God
who thinks in 1917 that there will be a persecution of Christians, but
does not speak of the Holocaust and the six million Jews annihilated, is
not a credible God '. Yes,
you have disclosed this wound: what more glaring evidence does one
need not recognize that the so-called Third Secret of Fatima is a fake
and can not come from God? It's a fake, which discredited the Eternal. A
credible God, I repeat Bianchi, the God of Catholic racism who cares
only for his family, for his Catholic race, while the kin of Jesus may
fall prey to oblivion. "
According to Bianchi, only God who would have predicted and condemned the Shoa is "Credible"
As far as the Dominican Cardonnel, who died in 2009. Bianchi never
disagreed Cardonnel but rather confirmed him. Messori writes: "In the
meantime, there also circulated among certain Christians the conviction
that the persecution of Jews by the Nazis during the twelve years 1933
to 1945 does not know any comparison and no comparison was possible. It
would involve the absolute evil of the greatest crime of the entire
history to the most radical example of human malignancy. It is no
coincidence that the guilt of the Nazis as inexpiable why even today at
ninety years old, if not even to hunt and condemn centenarians, because
they are made responsible for it in any way, that which is referred to
with the religious term, 'Holocaust', in any case, for the
Holocaust. For this crime, and only for this, no statute limitations is
provided. Following Cardonnel and Bianchi, I repeat, even God must - if
he wants to speak to us through Mary - recognize the Shoah and
especially curse it, otherwise he is not a credible God.' He is not a
true God when he explicitly blames Auschwitz," said Messori. A
revelation, message, vision or appearance in the required connection
with the Shoah or Auschwitz , has been neither been here nor elsewhere
mentioned in connection with Fatima.
Without Communism, No Nazism without Lenin in 1917 no Hitler in 1933
It should be unnecessary, but for safety's sake, he'll do it yet, and
emphasize that it is not about going to trivialize the crimes of
National Socialism in any way: "The swastika was a tragic perversion of
the Christian cross. One can therefore only connect the condemnation. It
is nevertheless paradoxical to reject Fatima on these grounds, because
the Mother of God in 1917 had not predicted the German camps and
condemned it in the name of the Son and of the whole Trinity. 1917 was
the year in which Lenin came to power and the Communist monstrosity was
allowed free rein, which devoured at least 100 million people and in
implementing the most brutal and bloodiest repression of religion
throughout history into action. A repression that took place in the name
of the atheist state, because as such the Soviet Union and its
satellites had been declared in their Constitutions.
And as demonstrated by the studies of the German historian Ernst Nolte,
that Nazism arose essentially as a direct response to Marxism-Leninism
Without Lenin in 1917, there would have been no Hitler in 1933 without
the October Revolution of St. Petersburg, the ideology of the Austrian
painter would have remained limited to a small fanatical group in the
back room of Munich's restaurants. In as much as Our Lady warned of
Communism at Fatima, she also warned of the other deadly ideologies,
which go back directly or indirectly to Communism or stand in an
interaction with this."
Bianchi's Grotesque from the "God of the Catholic Racism"
Bianchi and Cardonnel are "Grotesque" when they denounce Fatima as an
expression of "a God of Catholic racism". "What kind of gossip is this?"
asks Messori. Which apart from the fact that the vast majority of the
victims of Lenin through Stalin to Gorbachev (who in his youth was also a
persecutor) were not Catholics, but Orthodox, forget that the all
religions were present. The papists were massacred like the priests,
rabbis just as imams or Buddhist masters. The same thing happened
wherever communism came to power. And that happened exactly in that
fateful year of 1917, when the Blessed Mother warned against this
perverse ideology, precisely because then - just as now - presented
itself in a noble guise with evangelical sounding words of justice,
liberation, equality and fraternity. Words that were understood by the
Communist, however, were proven without exception as demons, including
the German regime, which even introduced itself by the name of
socialism. "
The Austrian Example and the Atonement Crusade
What is valid for Fatima is what applies to all ecclesiastically
recognized private revelations. One need not believe in them. They can
therefore also be criticized."But this should be done in more informed
and in more subtle ways," than as it is done by Bianchi.
"And when speaking of Fatima and Communism, then Bianchi would do well
to remember also Austria in the period between 1945 and 1955. Because
throughout the war, the Soviet Union had shifted their influence far to
the west and brought huge parts of Europe under its control, with
permission first of Hitler, then with the permission of the western
powers. At the end,, the Red Army had occupied Berlin and Vienna. The
Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, who had signed the Hitler-Stalin Pact
in the summer of 1939, allowed Hitler the war against Poland, explained
and repeated that the Soviet Union would not give up territory they
occupied. It was therefore expected that in Austria the Communists would
use military force to stay in power just as they had done in Prague
and Budapest, would usurp power by military force. Even in the western
chancelleries this seemed to be assumed. No one wanted to start a new
war on the other hand. But a Franciscan had not given up: Father Petrus
Pavlicek. He first heard of Fatima in captivity. For his safe return
from the war he undertook a pilgrimage of thanksgiving in 1946 and heard
within the voice that told him, 'Do what I tell you, and there will be
peace.'" Pavlicek saw it as a connection with the apparitions of Fatima
and founded the Expiatory Rosary Crusade for peace in the world and for
the freedom of Austria.
Hundreds of thousands of Austrians joined him and prayed day and night
for these intentions. Years went by, but the petitioners did not abate
in their zeal. In 1955, suddenly Austrian Chancellor was summoned by
the Kremlin, where he was informed of the withdrawal of the Red Army
from Austria. The western chancelleries were surprised by
the decision which was so unexpected and above all was unprecedented
and would not be repeated afterwards until the collapse of the Soviet
bloc in 1989 in any other country. The signing of the State
Treaty on 15 May 1955 brought the re-establishment of an independent and
sovereign Austria. Politicians, diplomats and military around the world
marveled. Those who had led the Expiatory Rosary Crusade praying for
years, however, were not amazed. The date on which the Austrian
Chancellor announced the withdrawal of the Red Army, was the 13th of May
the anniversary of the first apparition of Fatima. The withdrawal of
Soviet troops, which most reluctantly granted such a beautiful and
strategically important country, was completed in October of the same
year, that same month which Catholic tradition dedicates to the Holy
Rosary, since the Battle of Lepanto. "
Vatican Reaffirms That Jews Can Go to Heaven,
Though It’s Not Sure Why That’s True
The Vatican released a document Thursday addressing relations between Catholics and Jews. Some outlets have reported that the statement includes an "unprecedented" finding that Jews can achieve "salvation" without being converted to belief in Jesus. Is this really a groundbreaking doctrinal change for the church? And can Jews (according to Catholics) really go to heaven?
Not quite and yes, says James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of America magazine. The new statement, Martin says, is a "refinement of Nostra Aetate,
the Second Vatican Council's great document on relations with
non-Christian religions, which revolutionized the Vatican's relationship
with the Jewish people." Nostra Aetate, released in 1965, was a landmark statement of reconciliation. An excerpt:
Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Even apart from the 1965 statement, the idea that salvation—eternal
life in heaven—can be available to those who did not declare a belief in
Jesus' divinity during their lifetimes is one that Catholics are open to.
How exactly does that work, given that the belief that Jesus is the
Messiah has been the defining characteristic of the Catholic Church's
idea of salvation for millennia? Well, the new Vatican document says:
That's a mystery. It literally says that:
That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery.
Martin spoke in similar terms. "My Jewish friends who live good and
holy lives, I believe, will achieve salvation," he told me. "How that
can happen without professing faith in Jesus Christ is a mystery." Per
Martin, the 2015 document makes explicit a belief in potential Jewish
salvation that was laid out by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans
(read the sixth paragraph here
for more on that) but was ignored during the long period of
Jewish-Catholic antagonism that the church has now repudiated. "It comes
from St. Paul, it was lost for centuries, it was recovered by the
Second Vatican Council and it now it’s being refined by this document,"
Martin says. In other words, the church says that Catholics should have always believed in possible Jewish salvation, even if they didn't always say they did because of anti-Semitism.
By the way, this was also part of Nostra Aetate:
The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems ... Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.
Mutual understanding and peace—just some concepts to consider thinking about right now.
Pope: Reform of marriage annulments applies to all, trial should be free
Francis has issued a rescript abolishing all previous laws,
including Pius XI’s motu proprio – mentioned explicitly – which
instituted regional tribunals in Italy. The Roman Rota will have to
evaluate cases “according to the gratuity of the Gospel, that is, with
ex officio legal aid”
Archbishop Cupich again insists people in homosexual unions can receive Communion
Steve Weatherbe
CHICAGO, December 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has proved himself again the leading American exponent of the German school of theology, telling an ABC interviewer that it was up to divorced and remarried Catholics and homosexuals to decide for themselves if they took Holy Communion, not their priests or bishops.
The archbishop also reaffirmed his general opposition to Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, which requires ministers of the Eucharist to withhold Communion from those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin.” The canon has been relevant most prominently in relation to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.
Cupich first outlined his views on Communion for active homosexuals at a press conference during the recent Synod where he insisted such matters were for the individual to decide using his or her own conscience.
Now, back from that event, he told Alex Krashesky of ABC Eyewitness News the same thing, modifying his previous remarks only slightly to reflect conditions attached to the Synod’s Final Report – that every person’s conscience must be formed “according to the teaching of the Church.”
Krashesky asked for an explanation of the archbishop’s comments during the Synod. Cupich responded, “We expressed an aspiration that people who are stuck in a system who need to be reconciled to the Church … might have another opportunity to have their case considered through what we would call an internal forum rather than the external forum of the annulment process. That was presented to the Holy Father. The mechanism for that has not been defined yet.”
When asked if the same “internal forum” could be used to secure Communion for sexually active homosexuals, he said that it could. “When people who are in good conscience working with a spiritual director come to a decision, then they need to follow that conscience. That’s the teaching of the Church. So in the case of people receiving Communion in situations that are irregular that also applies. The question then was: Does that apply to gay people? My answer was: they’re human beings too. They have a conscience. Thy have to follow their conscience.”
He continued: “They have to be able to have a formed conscience, understand the teaching of the Church, and work with a spiritual director and come to those decisions. And we have to respect that.”
“It’s not up to any minister who is distributing the Eucharist to make a decision about a person’s worthiness or lack of worthiness. That’s on the conscience of those individuals,” he added.
New guide [published under Catholic auspices] helps French Catholic-Muslim couples preparing to marry
The cover of a French Catholic magazine for volunteers who prepare young couples for marriage. The headline says: “Islamic-Christian Marriage – Catholic and Muslim: questions about a project for life”.
PARIS (RNS) A day after Islamic extremists massacred 130 people in Paris last month, a Muslim-Catholic couple married in Lyon. It had to be a civil ceremony because the Muslim family refused to enter a church. Shocked by the attacks, some relatives even asked whether they should go ahead with the ceremony at all.But they did — and the two families cautiously made contact with each other. By the end of the reception, the ice was broken and the first of many hurdles cleared.
“I told the couple their love had made this possible,” said the Rev. Vincent Feroldi, the Catholic priest who helped prepare the marriage. “This is the best testimony one can give the day after these attacks. They showed this horror will not win.”
It wasn’t only the couple’s love that made this possible. Behind them was a loose network of Catholic and Muslim volunteer counselors who meet regularly to help young interfaith couples prepare for marriage problems most other French their age can hardly imagine.
The issues start with where to hold the wedding — in a church, a mosque, both or neither? — and who might not show up. Couples often imagine the priest and imam can co-celebrate, but the two faiths have very different concepts of marriage.
It gets even more complicated when the children come. Should they be brought up in one or both religions? Should boys be circumcised? What about giving first names like Mohammad or Christine?
The volunteer counselors have now published a 48-page handbook for other marriage counselors helping prepare young Muslims and Catholics not only for their wedding day, but also the predictable and unexpected problems they may face as they try to live together and raise a family while respecting both religious traditions.
“Our aim was to respond as closely as possible to the questions we get on our website and in our counseling sessions,” said Agathe Henniart, editor of the guidebook “Islamic-Christian Marriage — Catholic and Muslim: questions about a project for life.”
Henniart is general delegate for the Marriage Preparation Centers, a service of the Roman Catholic Church, which requires couples to take a class before marrying in a church. The centers network produced the guidebook in cooperation with the Group of Islamic-Christian Homes (GFIC), an association of mixed couples who meet to discuss issues their unusual marriages bring up.
“GFIC started in 1977 and back then it was mostly binational couples who met as students or development aid workers abroad,” said Dominique Fonlupt, a Catholic journalist married to a Moroccan for the past 25 years. “Now both spouses are mostly French and that changes things. Now religious differences are more important than cultural ones.”
France’s 5 million-strong Muslim minority, made up mostly of families from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, is the largest in Europe. About two-thirds are French citizens, born, raised and educated in the traditionally Catholic country.
Nobody knows how many mixed couples there are in France because religion is not registered in official documents. There are probably a number of unions of secularized Catholics and Muslim that go unnoticed, as well as some where a Christian man goes through the motions of converting to Islam in order to marry a Muslim woman.
GFIC only deals with couples who contact it for advice on living with both religions; it is currently advising about 15 couples. Feroldi said there were 10 Muslim-Catholic marriages in Lyon last year.
“Our society is mostly secularized, but deep down, France remains the ‘eldest daughter of the Church,’” wrote Bordeaux imam Tareq Oubrou in the guidebook. “Theology separates us, but our hope, our values and our morals unite us.”
The first hurdle is the concept of marriage itself, which is a sacrament for Catholics but only a contract for Muslims. That implies a church ceremony led by a priest for Catholics but a simple ceremony for Muslims that might but need not include an imam and a prayer of blessing.
All couples marrying in France must hold a civil ceremony at the local town hall, which is the legal marriage, and may then hold a religious ceremony if they wish. Unlike in the United States, a priest, minister, rabbi or imam cannot officiate as a justice of the peace at a religious ceremony in France.
Since Muslims sometimes refuse to attend a Christian ceremony, this legal necessity provides a neutral ground for both families to come together, the guidebook advises. Sounding out relatives in advance is crucial if the couple plans a religious ceremony in a church or a mosque.
“Many Muslim women want an imam to be there to assure their family they are not leaving the Muslim community,” Fonlupt said. Sometimes, it’s the imam who persuades the Muslim family to attend a ceremony in a church.
At the presentation of the guidebook this week in Paris, a mixed couple in their mid-30s, Lucie and Adel, told about the problems they faced.
“We didn’t talk about religion much at first. We’re both French,” said Adel, who was born in France to Algerian immigrants. “It wasn’t an issue until our first child came.”
Their child was a boy, Lucie said, so the first question was whether he would be circumcised according to Muslim custom, baptized as a Catholic or both. They chose both.
Then came the question of a name, which they wanted to work in Arabic, French and Spanish, since Lucie’s family is part Spanish. “It’s very hard, especially for boys. We finally chose names of prophets,” she said. They now have three boys: Daniel, Elias and Zachary.
They celebrate Christmas and Easter as well as both Eid holidays. Adel observes Ramadan. “You can belong to two religions. You can be religiously bilingual,” Lucie said, reflecting the fact they speak French and Arabic at home.
The Rev. Christian Delorme, a Lyon priest long active in Catholic-Muslim dialogue, said Vatican teaching said mixed couples should educate their children as Catholics, but in real life, raising them as both seemed to work out.
“The Catholic-Muslim couples who deal best with their religious differences are those who openly profess their religious adherence and have open and not rigorous approaches to their respective faiths,” he wrote in the guidebook
"Catholic" diocese ‘respects’ decision to host openly gay judge as St. Patrick’s Parade grand marshal
Another U.S. city has officially introduced open homosexuality into its St. Patrick’s Day parade. And again, the Catholic diocese is continuing to stand by the parade.
The committee for the Stamford, Connecticut, parade announced its choice of state Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald as its 2016 grand marshal November 22.
McDonald is openly gay, his biography
on the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Website closing with the
statement, “Justice McDonald and his husband, Charles, live in
Stamford.”
The local Catholic diocese has indicated it has no issue with the move to have the openly homosexual judge lead the parade, according to the local news outlet the Stamford Advocate.
McDonald
was at odds with the Catholic Church in Connecticut in 2009 when as a
state senator he proposed controversial legislation along with another
lawmaker to regulate the Church’s finances.
SB
1098 was specific to the Catholic Church, and would have removed parish
priests and the bishop from their oversight positions, giving power to a
lay board. The bill was ultimately tabled, but not before significant
backlash for its apparent violation of the Fourteenth Amendment ban on
discriminatory legislation.
“We
are deeply concerned about statements made by elected officials
suggesting that Connecticut's existing religious corporation statutes,
including those applicable to the Roman Catholic Church, are
unconstitutional and should be amended,” the Diocese of Bridgeport,
under Bishop William Lori, said in a report from Catholic News Agency at the time. “These statements are misinformed.”
The spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport said current Bishop Frank Caggiano
was not asked about the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee’s choice of
McDonald as grand marshal, saying as well it would not dispute the
decision and calling the St. Patrick’s celebration a day of
inclusiveness.
“The
diocese respects the decision of the committee,“ Brian Wallace said.
“It’s a day of inclusiveness. It’s a day people drop their differences.
We hope people have a good day and enjoy the parade.”
The diocese did not respond to LifeSiteNews' request for comment by press time.
Stamford St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee Chair Michael Feighan told
the Stamford Advocate that McDonald, who aside from being a judge, has
served on municipal boards and already been involved with the parade,
met all the criteria for grand marshal role.
He is thought to be the first openly gay grand marshal in the U.S. selected to lead a St. Patrick’s Day parade, the report said.
In 2013 McDonald was confirmed as the first openly gay justice to the Connecticut Supreme Court, according to the Connecticut Mirror.
St.
Patrick’s Day is the feast day honoring Ireland’s leading patron saint,
and the annual Catholic observance holds substantial cultural
significance for the Irish community, with parades and countless other
festivities across the U.S. each year.
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan upset Catholics earlier this year when he served as grand marshal for the 2015 New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade,
after the parade committee allowed an openly homosexual activist group
march in the parade with its identifying banner, breaking the event’s
previous two-hundred-plus-year stance of only allowing Irish themed
groups to participate in the parade honoring the Catholic saint.
The
New York City parade committee’s agreement to allow the homosexual
activist group after decades of pressure from gay activist groups was
supposed to also mean a pro-life group would take part in the Catholic
event, but no pro-life group has been allowed, and earlier this past fall the parade committee voted to allow a second homosexual group.
A
Massachusetts Catholic school pulled out of its local St. Patrick’s Day
parade this year after it learned a homosexual activist group would be
allowed to march while openly identifying its homosexuality, its
principal at the time citing Catholic Church teaching.
“Catholics
are forbidden to sponsor or even participate in an event which openly
promotes unnatural and immoral behavior,” Immaculate Heart of Mary
School’s Brother Thomas Dalton said. “The Church will never accept nor
condone same sex marriage and the homosexual lifestyle.”
Secrets of the G-spot unravelled… by the Vatican: Catholic university overseen by the Church to host conference about the secrets of the female body
Fr Cantalamessa speaks of the universal call Vatican 2 style to holiness
Fr
Cantalamessa began his sermon by drawing a link between the recently
inaugurated Jubilee Year of Mercy and the Second Vatican Council.
He quoted St John XXIII in his opening address for the council when
he said “The Church… prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather
than that of severity” when dealing with errors.
The focus of the homily was on Chapter 5 from Lumen genitum, a key
document from Vatican II, the key message of which was the call to
holiness.
Fr Cantalamessa noted, however, that holiness was the one
accomplishment of the council “at most risk of being neglected, since it
is only God and one’s conscience that require it… rather than pressures
or interests from any particular group in the Church”.
He went on to say that the first thing that needs to be done when
speaking about ‘holiness’ is to “free this word from the apprehension
and fear that it strikes in people… Holiness can involve extraordinary
phenomena and trials, but it is not to be identified with these things”.
He continued saying “If all people are called to holiness, it is
because it is within everyone’s reach”.
To exemplify this further, he compared saints to flowers: “there are
more of them than just the ones that get put on the altar. How many of
them blossom and die hidden after having silently perfumed the air
around them!”
Speaking of God’s holiness, he said it is the summary of all of God’s
attributes. He explained that the biblical word, quadosh suggests the
idea of separation or of difference. God is transcendent, and is fully
pure. Fr Cantalamessa then explained how Old Testament ideas of
holiness have a ritualistic edge, suggesting that in order to be holy,
one needs to follow a code of laws.
However, moving forward into the New Testament, Jesus demonstrates
that holiness is no longer a legal or ritualistic matter, but a moral
one; an ontological one. “The mediators of God’s holiness are no longer
places (the temple of Jerusalem), rituals, objects or laws but one
person, Jesus Christ. In this vein, being holy does not mean being
separated from God but in being united with Jesus.
In the third section of his address, Fr Cantalamessa emphasized the
fact that holiness is “not an imposistion… but a privilege, a supreme
honour”. To illustrate this, he referred to Blaise Pascal’s principle of
the three levels of greatness: the level of bodies and material things,
the level of intelligence, and the level of holiness. He also quoted
the musician Charles-François Gounod who said “A drop of holiness is
worth more than an ocean of genius”.
His fourth section spoke about resuming the path towards holiness. He
said the pursuit of holiness “is a journey consisting of continuous
stops and fresh starts”. “On special occasions like the Jubilee Year of
Mercy… the time of setting out again on our march towards holiness
occurs when we sense within ourselves the mysterious call that comes
from grace”.
New evangelization in the Netherlands
Catholics and Jews come together at Vatican to reflect on 50 years of progress
The relationship between Catholics and Jews hasn't always been strong,
to say the least. But during a press conference held at the Vatican,
leaders from both faiths reflected on the tremendous progress that has
been made after the Second Vatican Council.
They came together to discuss a new document from the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, "The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable.” But the conversation was about much more.
The text recalls that the alliance with God is valid and that the Catholic Church should not try to convert Jews.
A major focus was on how Catholics and Jews can work together on some
of the most pressing issues of our time through dialogue.
FR. NORBERT HOFMANN
Secretary, Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews
"When
you read the document, you see the goals listed up. It's to know each
other better, of course for collaboration for peace, for justice, for
the preservation of the creation and for reconciliation. These are,
let's say, the great goals of the dialogue.”
The document was prepared to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of "Nostra aetate.” The historic declaration set the basis for dialogue between Catholics and other religions.
One
Jewish representative suggested that his presence at the Vatican was
itself proof of progress. He noted that a group of Orthodox rabbis had
also recently published a document about their relationship with Christianity. He quoted from it.
RABBI DAVID ROSEN
American Jewish Committee
"'Christianity
is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed outcome of divine
will and a gift to the nations.' And it calls for us, as indeed this
document issued by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations
with the Jews, to work together as partners to address the moral
challenge of our era.”
Since fifty years
have passed since the landmark declaration about Catholicism's
relationship with other faiths, some wondered whether it was time for
second "Nostra Aetate.” The participants didn't give a definitive
answer, though they suggested that publications like these were steps on the way to such a statement.
