Pope Francis greets the crowd at his Sunday Angelus address on Jan. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media. See CNA article for full slideshow.
Vatican City, Feb 26, 2023 / 06:15 am (CNA).
On the first Sunday of Lent, Pope Francis warned of three “widespread and dangerous temptations” that the devil uses to separate us from God and divide us from each other.
In his Angelus address on Feb. 26, the pope said that the devil uses three “powerful poisons” to attack and divide Christian communities: attachment to material things, mistrust, and the thirst for power.
“[These] are three widespread and dangerous temptations that the devil uses to divide us from the Father and to make us no longer feel like brothers and sisters among ourselves, to lead us to solitude and desperation. This is what he wanted to do to Jesus and what he wants to do to us, to lead us to despair,” Francis said.
Pope Francis delivers the Angelus address on Feb. 26, 2023. Vatican Media
The pope pointed to the Gospel of Matthew to offer advice for how to overcome the three types of temptations, as Jesus did when he was tempted by the devil after 40 days of fasting in the desert.
“Jesus defeats the temptations. But how does he conquer them? By avoiding discussion with the devil and responding with the Word of God,” he said.
Pope Francis explained that Jesus resisted the devil “by opposing him in faith with the Divine Word.”
To counteract the temptations of attachment to material things, mistrust, and the thirst for power, Jesus quotes three phrases from Scripture that speak of freedom from goods, trust, and service to God.
“In this way, Jesus teaches us to defend unity with God and among ourselves from the attacks of the divider,” he said.
The pope encouraged people to turn to the Word of God in their spiritual struggles and in times of temptation.
“If I have a vice or a recurring temptation, why not obtain help by seeking out a verse of the Word of God that responds to that vice?” he said. “Then, when temptation comes, I recite it, I pray it, trusting in the grace of Christ.”
“May Mary, who welcomed the Word of God and with her humility defeated the pride of the divider, accompany us in the spiritual struggle of Lent,” he said.
After Pope Francis prayed the Angelus in Latin with the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, he asked people to pray for the Holy Land, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Syria, and Turkey.
Pilgrims at the pope’s Angelus address on Feb. 26, 2023. Vatican Media
“Dear brothers and sisters, Painful news is still coming from the Holy Land, where so many people have been killed, even children,” the pope said.
“How to stop this spiral of violence? I renew my call for dialogue to prevail over hatred and revenge, and I pray to God for the Palestinians and Israelis to find the path of fraternity and peace with the help of the international community.”
The pope also said that he was pained to hear on Sunday morning of a migrant boat shipwreck on the coast of southern Italy. At least 43 people died in the shipwreck on Feb. 26 near Steccato di Cutro in Calabria. Eighty people survived, according to Reuters, and the coast guard is still searching for survivors.
“This morning I learned with sorrow of the shipwreck that occurred on the Calabrian coast near Crotone. Already forty dead have been recovered, including many children. I pray for each of them, for the missing, and for the other surviving migrants,” the pope said.
“I thank those who have brought relief and those who are giving shelter. May Our Lady support these brothers and sisters of ours.”
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New Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogotá, Colombia, receives the biretta cap from Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 24, 2012, in Vatican City, Vatican. / Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Vatican City, Jan 3, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger demonstrated faithfulness, said Pope Paul VI in his address during the consistory of June 27, 1977, in which Ratzinger, then archbishop metropolitan of Munich and Freising, was created a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.
Paul VI pointed to Ratzinger’s “theological teaching in prestigious university seats in his Germany and in numerous and worthy publications.”
Ratzinger, Paul VI continued, “has made apparent how theological research — in the main way of the ‘fides quaerens intellectum’ — cannot and should not be ever disconnected from the profound, free, creative adherence to the Magisterium, which authentically interprets and proclaims the Word of God; and that now, from the archiepiscopal seat of Munich and Freising he, with so much of our confidence, leads an elect flock on the paths of truth and peace.”
The future Pope Benedict XVI wore the red cassock for almost 28 years and always carried out, with the utmost dedication, the functions of a cardinal called for by canons 349 and 353 of the Code of Canon Law: “The cardinals of the Holy Roman Church constitute a special college which provides for the election of the Roman Pontiff according to the norm of special law. The cardinals assist the Roman Pontiff either collegially when they are convoked to deal with questions of major importance, or individually when they help the Roman Pontiff through the various offices they perform, especially in the daily care of the universal Church,” and “The cardinals especially assist the supreme pastor of the Church through collegial action in consistories in which they are gathered by order of the Roman Pontiff who presides. Consistories are either ordinary or extraordinary.”
Paul VI assigned Ratzinger the titular church of Santa Maria Consolatrice in Casal Bertone. In 1993, Pope John Paul II established his promotion to the order of bishops with the assignment of the title of the Diocese of Velletri-Segni, a suffragan diocese of Rome. In 1998, Ratzinger became vice deacon of the Sacred College, and after the resignation of Cardinal Deacon Bernardin Gantin in 2002, he was elected deacon of the College of Cardinals and assigned the titular Diocese of Ostia, also a suffragan diocese of Rome.
As cardinal deacon, in April 2005 Ratzinger presided over the funeral of John Paul II, the general congregations, and the conclave that then saw his election to the pontificate.
But what did being a cardinal mean to Ratzinger? Pope Benedict XVI himself responded several times to the question.
The red cap, the pope said during his first consistory in March 2006, was above all a responsibility. To the new cardinals he said: “More closely linked to the Successor of Peter, you will be called to work together with him in accomplishing his particular ecclesial service, and this will mean for you a more intense participation in the mystery of the cross as you share in the sufferings of Christ. All of us are truly witnesses of his sufferings today, in the world and also in the Church, and hence we also have a share in his glory. And so you will be able to draw more abundantly upon the sources of grace and to disseminate their life-giving fruits more effectively to those around you.”
At the November 2010 consistory, Benedict added that “the special communion and affection that bonds these new cardinals to the pope makes them his unique and precious cooperators in the lofty mandate to tend his sheep, which Christ entrusted to Peter in order to unite peoples with the solicitude of Christ’s love. From this same love the Church was born, called to live and to journey on in accordance with the Lord’s commandment, which sums up the whole of the law and the prophets. Being united with Christ in faith and in communion with him means being ‘rooted and grounded in love,’ the fabric that unites all the members of Christ’s Body.”
At his last consistory to create cardinals, in November 2012, Benedict repeated that “situated within the context and the perspective of the Church’s unity and universality is the College of Cardinals: it presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church. In this consistory, I want to highlight in particular the fact that the Church is the Church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents. She is the Church of Pentecost: amid the polyphony of the various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God.”
He reminded the new cardinals that, “from now on, you will be even more closely and intimately linked to the See of Peter: the titles and deaconries of the churches of Rome will remind you of the bond that joins you, as members by a very special title, to this Church of Rome, which presides in universal charity. Particularly through the work you do for the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, you will be my valued co-workers, first and foremost in my apostolic ministry for the fullness of catholicity, as pastor of the whole flock of Christ and prime guarantor of its doctrine, discipline, and morals.”
In the course of his pontificate, Benedict presided over five consistories in which he created 90 cardinals originating from 37 countries.
This article was originally published in ACI Stampa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Saint Peter’s Chapel and Native American Museum at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. / Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site
Chicago, Ill., Jul 13, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Shrines to various saints can be found in every part of the world, including every state in the U.S. Each one is dedicated to faith and prayer, but one shrine in the northeastern United States also has a distinct mission of connecting pilgrims with Native American culture and sharing the fascinating history of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first American Indian to be canonized a saint.
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York, honors not only the life of St. Kateri, whose feast day is July 14, but also the life and history of the local Indigenous people to whom she belonged.
“We have cultivated strong ties to both the Catholic Mohawk community and the traditional Mohawk community,” said Melissa Miscevic Bramble, director of operations at the St. Kateri Shrine, in an interview with CNA. “We see it as our mission to educate about her Mohawk culture as well as her Catholic faith.”
Who was St. Kateri?
Called the Lily of the Mohawks, Kateri Tekakwitha was the child of a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother but was orphaned at age 4 when the rest of her family died of smallpox. Her own early bout with the illness left lasting scars and poor vision.
She went to live with an anti-Christian uncle and aunt, but at age 11 she encountered Jesuit missionaries and recognized their teaching as the beliefs of her beloved mother. Desiring to become a Christian, she began to privately practice Christianity.
Beginning at about age 13, she experienced pressure from her family to marry, but she wanted to give her life to Jesus instead. A priest who knew her recorded her words: “I have deliberated enough. For a long time, my decision on what I will do has been made. I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary, I have chosen him for husband, and he alone will take me for wife.”
At last, she was baptized at about age 19, and her baptism made public her beliefs, which had been kept private up until then. The event was the catalyst for her ostracism from her village. Some members of her people believed that her beliefs were sorcery, and she was harassed, stoned, and threatened with torture in her home village.
Tekakwitha fled 200 miles to Kahnawake, a Jesuit mission village for Native Amerian converts to Christianity to live together in community. There, she found her mother’s close friend, Anastasia Tegonhatsiongo, who was a clan matron of a Kahnawake longhouse. Anastasia and other Mohawk women took Kateri under their wings and taught her about Christianity, and she lived there happily for several years until her death around age 23 or 24.
Although she never took formal vows, Tekakwitha is considered a consecrated virgin, and the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins took her as its patron. She is also the patron saint of traditional ecology, Indigenous peoples, and care for creation.
A shrine with a special mission
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site has a unique mission of archaeological and historical research related to Kateri Tekakwitha and her people. Welcoming several thousand visitors per year, the shrine ministers not only to Christians but also to all American Indians.
According to its website, the shrine and historic site “promotes healing, encourages environmental stewardship, and facilitates peace for all people by offering the natural, cultural, and spiritual resources at this sacred site.” Describing itself as a sacred place of peace and healing with a Catholic identity, its ministry and site are intended to be ecumenical and welcome people of all faiths.
In keeping with this mission, the shrine’s grounds include an archaeological site, the village of Caughnawaga, which is the only fully excavated Iroquois/Haudenosaunee village in the world. St. Kateri lived in this village, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can also visit the Kateri Spring, where Kateri Tekakwitha was baptized.
“The water from the Kateri Spring is considered holy water by the Catholic Church,” Bramble said. “People are welcome to come take the waters, and we regularly get reports of healing. We’ve sent that water all over North America to folks who have requested it.”
Besides the archaeological site, the main grounds of the shrine include St. Peter’s Chapel, housed in a former Dutch barn built in 1782; museum exhibits of Native American culture and history; St. Maximilian Kolbe Pavilion; a Candle Chapel dedicated to St. Kateri; Grassmann Hall and the Shrine office; a friary; a gift shop; an outdoor sanctuary; and maintenance facilities. The 150-acre property includes hiking trails that are open to the public year-round from sunrise to sunset.
Peace Grove at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine and Historic Site
Outside the Candle Chapel, which is always open for prayer, visitors can participate in a ministry of “Kateri crosses.”
“St. Kateri was known for going into the forest, gathering sticks, binding them into crosses, and then spending hours in prayer in front of crosses she created,” Bramble said. Sticks are gathered from the shrine grounds and visitors are invited to make their own “Kateri crosses” and take them home to use as a prayer aid. Bramble shared that the shrine sends materials for Kateri crosses to those who aren’t able to visit, including recently to a confirmation group.
The feast day weekend
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine has a schedule of special events planned for St. Kateri’s feast day on July 14. Bramble said they anticipate several hundred visitors for the feast day events this year, which include Masses, a healing prayer service, and talks. (A listing of the full schedule can be found here.)
The weekend Masses, which include special blessings and the music of the Akwesasne Mohawk Choir, “incorporate American Indian spiritual practices in keeping with the Catholic Church,” Bramble said. “The Akwesasne Mohawk Choir is made up of descendants of St. Kateri’s community who lived in the area historically.”
Bramble described numerous events each year that partner with the local American Indian community, such as the fun-filled “Three Sisters Festival” in May (celebrating corn, beans, and squash — the “three sisters” that were staples of Native cuisine), healing Masses during Indigenous Peoples’ Week in October, and a recent interfaith prayer service with Mohawk elders.
“There is a reestablished traditional Mohawk community a few miles west of the shrine, and we feel very blessed that we’ve been able to cultivate a very cooperative and mutually respectful relationship with the folks there,” Bramble said.
The Saint Kateri Shrine is also a great place for families. Events often include activities and crafts for children, there is an all-ages scavenger hunt available at the site, and the shrine’s museum is “a phenomenal educational opportunity.”
Bringing together American Indian archaeology and history with the story of St. Kateri, the shrine and its programs shed light on the saint’s story and keep alive the traditions and history of her people.
Vatican City, Mar 12, 2020 / 05:15 am (CNA).- The suffering of the poor cannot be ignored during the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis said Thursday in his televised morning homily.
“Worried about my things, we forget the hungry children,&rdquo… […]
8 Comments
Pope Francis must retract his published idea that “homosexual civil union” can be “legalized” because -as he alleges- homosexualism “is not a crime but a sin”.
Unless and until he does this people will pay a terrible price by dint of the evil presumptions and obstinacies, over and over again -but on account of him.
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Mt 4: 8-9). Satan then left.
This final temptation implies Satan’s suzerainty over all world authorities. Does it refer to kingdoms at the time, or at any time? Another scenario would be to employ Christ as Satan’s proxy. Assuming in this that Satan was not fully aware of Jesus’ divine nature as well as his human. Whatever might be the case, it would’ve been the ultimate subversion of good.
A distant parallel was Alexander the Great taught the virtues by Aristotle. Alexander employed those virtues to attain power, eventually conquest of the world [east and south of Rome]. Scripture says the world fell silent before him. What extension of authority would have been available to the most virtuous Jesus of Nazareth? Likely unlimited power.
Virtue can be employed for evil. That is the tragic anomaly we have in the Church. How many, from presbyter to pontiff have exercised the form of virtue in their lives and with that gained, seized opportunity to seduce and subvert the innocent? Perhaps the ultimate evil. Using Christ’s gifts for nefarious opportunity. Judas Iscariot possessed those virtues, evident when Christ first chose the Twelve and sent them out to raise the dead, heal the sick, expel demons, and preach the Word.
Judas was chosen. Christ in his divine knowledge knew his betrayer, although similar to the creation and foreknowledge of the Fall that prescient knowledge cannot limit the divine will to carry out good. The betrayer may have become corrupted in time, like so many young, fervent priests who when facing trials and adversity, unexpected temptations of the flesh fall. How many when made bishop? Pontiffs we know are not exempt. How needed are we for the prayers of the faithful? Of our cloistered Sisters? Beyond estimate.
Our present pontiff Francis is aware of this terrible dynamic calling it clericalism. Francis seems to fight the good fight on paper to employ an adage, yet belies words with confounding acts [no need to remind the reader of the litany of contradictory actions]. High authority, in the Church among churchmen the highest authority carries with it immense power. Virtues are evident. As well as application contrary to their ordination.
Got to thinkin’ about the three temptations: (1) material, (2) mistrust, and (3) power.
Yes, but another temptation, even more of a triad, is the ideological periodization of the human substance into three self-sufficient and ascending historical ages:
(1) Ancient,
(2) Middle Ages, and
(3) Modernity–C.S. Lewis’s “chronological snobbery”…
Likewise, the Middle Age theologian Joachim de Fiore’s triadic partitioning of:
(1) the age of the Father (Old Testament),
(2) the age of the Son (until his 13th century), and
(3) the age of the Holy Spirit (beginning in the 21st century, according some agendas).
And then, cutting through the ages, the threefold dismantling of Christ and his Church:
(1) Arianism (the notion that the incarnate Christ is not really divine),
(2) Islam/Protestantism (as cousins, the notion that either Christ is only a prophet foretelling Muhammad; or the succession of other human-founded “ecclesial communities” replacing the sacramental and Apostolic Succession), and
(3) the opposite of Arianism: polyhedral Synodality exaggerated such that Christ is not really human either—as in the obscuring of natural law/moral absolutes (the redefinition of indissoluble marriage, and all of sexual morality reflected in the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor).
In our Apostolic Age, once again, isn’t the mission of real synodality (“communion, participation, mission”) to clearly proclaim?…
(1) the transcendent Mystery of the relational Triune Oneness, and
(2) the Self-disclosing (!) Incarnation, who is totally Divine and totally Human, both (part of but also more than, say, the Abrahamic branch theory), and
(3) Who is also the Central Event within the flow and collage of all human history.
You state, ” Islam/Protestantism (as cousins, the notion that either Christ is only a prophet foretelling Muhammad; or the succession of other human-founded “ecclesial communities” replacing the sacramental and Apostolic Succession)”
How you arrived at that conclusion is something to consider, yet you will want to offer a Koran medley of confusion!?
Yes, do tell us about the “Religion of Peace” and allow yours truly to give a nod to Holy Scripture as a counterpoint!
1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
2 Timothy 3:15 And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
Allow me to help you out on this one and offer a verse or two from the Koran:
Quran 18:86 Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu’l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.
Quran 41:11-12 Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. Then He ordained them seven heavens in two Days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower.
In the name of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords,
Saturday 25 February 2023, the day before this Angelus message on first Lent Sunday 2023, Pope Francis addressed professors and students of the Roman Pontifical Universities.
The presentation he gave them is a literalistic synthesis of the 4 aphorisms in Evangelii Gaudium about time, unity, whole, reality. Not to bite at error, but I am having difficulties on three levels with it.
First , I find it impossible to gain a mere literary appreciation of it.
So much of what he says is figurative, speculatory, experimentive and exhortatory, save and except reference to the Eucharist of course. The trouble I am having is that the elements in the composition are muddled up because of the attempt to go from one figure into the other: from hands personified with intelligence via Aristotle and Kant, to fingers pointing in accusation at one another, to the consecration, to singing as one in harmony as a choir after Ignatius of Antioch but with no soloists, to unprecedented action undertaken like a seed with mandates from Pope Francis. Topping it off he says this all has to be in keeping with the understanding that “reality is more important than an idea” -when the effort being made is obviously to affect reality, ostensibly by the Pope, through a composition in ideas, in the first place. If I was there listening I would have had to be resetting my attention too many times and it could be I would have been so distracted doing it that I would have not gleaned from the talk anything worthy of the anyone.
Second, VATICAN II does admit of special apostolates.
Third, Pope Francis in a most outstanding manner was pointing a finger at Cardinal Pell, in the sign of a swinging pendulum, very ominous. What is this? I am deeply troubled by seeing it and my heart is in a turmoil on it every time it comes to me. It is hurting me I say. I am in pain. This is shown in the video in the CWR link, “Pope Francis greets cardinals one-by-one”, March 15 2013, report by Catherine Harmon.
How will knowing that help anything! Are we supposed to know it!
January 2023 the Church of England blesses “same sex unions” and its head Welby goes in a “joint mission” abroad with the Pope to use it to say it is a “sign from Benedict XVI”. On their return Welby publicly “rebukes” Sam Margrave for speaking up about “LGBTQI+” (see Welby’s letter); and, no sooner, the world Anglican confederation separates itself from Welby.
So Welby may do the rebuking now?
The 4 dicta can’t lead Catholics through that.
Pope Francis can’t issue an instruction manual how the 4 dicta would lead through it.
You say we are supposed to look for the devil in Pope Francis’ understanding, “because it is necessary” to go through all that with the 4 dicta plus find the ways to make allowances?
Here you most definitely do not speak for me Brian Young.
It is an easy task to rebuke Welby for he is an unprofitable servant wandering from the precepts of Christ.
Though my query about Papa was somewhat ironic, is Papa a stalwart defender of the faith?
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis must retract his published idea that “homosexual civil union” can be “legalized” because -as he alleges- homosexualism “is not a crime but a sin”.
Unless and until he does this people will pay a terrible price by dint of the evil presumptions and obstinacies, over and over again -but on account of him.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253749/shipwreck-leaves-more-than-50-migrants-dead-in-italy-the-church-expresses-pain
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Mt 4: 8-9). Satan then left.
This final temptation implies Satan’s suzerainty over all world authorities. Does it refer to kingdoms at the time, or at any time? Another scenario would be to employ Christ as Satan’s proxy. Assuming in this that Satan was not fully aware of Jesus’ divine nature as well as his human. Whatever might be the case, it would’ve been the ultimate subversion of good.
A distant parallel was Alexander the Great taught the virtues by Aristotle. Alexander employed those virtues to attain power, eventually conquest of the world [east and south of Rome]. Scripture says the world fell silent before him. What extension of authority would have been available to the most virtuous Jesus of Nazareth? Likely unlimited power.
Virtue can be employed for evil. That is the tragic anomaly we have in the Church. How many, from presbyter to pontiff have exercised the form of virtue in their lives and with that gained, seized opportunity to seduce and subvert the innocent? Perhaps the ultimate evil. Using Christ’s gifts for nefarious opportunity. Judas Iscariot possessed those virtues, evident when Christ first chose the Twelve and sent them out to raise the dead, heal the sick, expel demons, and preach the Word.
Judas was chosen. Christ in his divine knowledge knew his betrayer, although similar to the creation and foreknowledge of the Fall that prescient knowledge cannot limit the divine will to carry out good. The betrayer may have become corrupted in time, like so many young, fervent priests who when facing trials and adversity, unexpected temptations of the flesh fall. How many when made bishop? Pontiffs we know are not exempt. How needed are we for the prayers of the faithful? Of our cloistered Sisters? Beyond estimate.
Our present pontiff Francis is aware of this terrible dynamic calling it clericalism. Francis seems to fight the good fight on paper to employ an adage, yet belies words with confounding acts [no need to remind the reader of the litany of contradictory actions]. High authority, in the Church among churchmen the highest authority carries with it immense power. Virtues are evident. As well as application contrary to their ordination.
Got to thinkin’ about the three temptations: (1) material, (2) mistrust, and (3) power.
Yes, but another temptation, even more of a triad, is the ideological periodization of the human substance into three self-sufficient and ascending historical ages:
(1) Ancient,
(2) Middle Ages, and
(3) Modernity–C.S. Lewis’s “chronological snobbery”…
Likewise, the Middle Age theologian Joachim de Fiore’s triadic partitioning of:
(1) the age of the Father (Old Testament),
(2) the age of the Son (until his 13th century), and
(3) the age of the Holy Spirit (beginning in the 21st century, according some agendas).
And then, cutting through the ages, the threefold dismantling of Christ and his Church:
(1) Arianism (the notion that the incarnate Christ is not really divine),
(2) Islam/Protestantism (as cousins, the notion that either Christ is only a prophet foretelling Muhammad; or the succession of other human-founded “ecclesial communities” replacing the sacramental and Apostolic Succession), and
(3) the opposite of Arianism: polyhedral Synodality exaggerated such that Christ is not really human either—as in the obscuring of natural law/moral absolutes (the redefinition of indissoluble marriage, and all of sexual morality reflected in the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor).
In our Apostolic Age, once again, isn’t the mission of real synodality (“communion, participation, mission”) to clearly proclaim?…
(1) the transcendent Mystery of the relational Triune Oneness, and
(2) the Self-disclosing (!) Incarnation, who is totally Divine and totally Human, both (part of but also more than, say, the Abrahamic branch theory), and
(3) Who is also the Central Event within the flow and collage of all human history.
Dear Peter:
You state, ” Islam/Protestantism (as cousins, the notion that either Christ is only a prophet foretelling Muhammad; or the succession of other human-founded “ecclesial communities” replacing the sacramental and Apostolic Succession)”
How you arrived at that conclusion is something to consider, yet you will want to offer a Koran medley of confusion!?
Yes, do tell us about the “Religion of Peace” and allow yours truly to give a nod to Holy Scripture as a counterpoint!
1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
2 Timothy 3:15 And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
Allow me to help you out on this one and offer a verse or two from the Koran:
Quran 18:86 Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu’l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.
Quran 41:11-12 Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. Then He ordained them seven heavens in two Days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower.
In the name of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords,
Brian
Saturday 25 February 2023, the day before this Angelus message on first Lent Sunday 2023, Pope Francis addressed professors and students of the Roman Pontifical Universities.
The presentation he gave them is a literalistic synthesis of the 4 aphorisms in Evangelii Gaudium about time, unity, whole, reality. Not to bite at error, but I am having difficulties on three levels with it.
First , I find it impossible to gain a mere literary appreciation of it.
So much of what he says is figurative, speculatory, experimentive and exhortatory, save and except reference to the Eucharist of course. The trouble I am having is that the elements in the composition are muddled up because of the attempt to go from one figure into the other: from hands personified with intelligence via Aristotle and Kant, to fingers pointing in accusation at one another, to the consecration, to singing as one in harmony as a choir after Ignatius of Antioch but with no soloists, to unprecedented action undertaken like a seed with mandates from Pope Francis. Topping it off he says this all has to be in keeping with the understanding that “reality is more important than an idea” -when the effort being made is obviously to affect reality, ostensibly by the Pope, through a composition in ideas, in the first place. If I was there listening I would have had to be resetting my attention too many times and it could be I would have been so distracted doing it that I would have not gleaned from the talk anything worthy of the anyone.
Second, VATICAN II does admit of special apostolates.
Third, Pope Francis in a most outstanding manner was pointing a finger at Cardinal Pell, in the sign of a swinging pendulum, very ominous. What is this? I am deeply troubled by seeing it and my heart is in a turmoil on it every time it comes to me. It is hurting me I say. I am in pain. This is shown in the video in the CWR link, “Pope Francis greets cardinals one-by-one”, March 15 2013, report by Catherine Harmon.
https://zenit.org/2023/02/26/the-intelligence-of-the-hands-popes-reflection-to-students-and-professors-of-the-roman-pontifical-universities/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013/03/15/watch-pope-francis-greets-cardinals-one-on-one/
What would Papa know about the devil?
How will knowing that help anything! Are we supposed to know it!
January 2023 the Church of England blesses “same sex unions” and its head Welby goes in a “joint mission” abroad with the Pope to use it to say it is a “sign from Benedict XVI”. On their return Welby publicly “rebukes” Sam Margrave for speaking up about “LGBTQI+” (see Welby’s letter); and, no sooner, the world Anglican confederation separates itself from Welby.
So Welby may do the rebuking now?
The 4 dicta can’t lead Catholics through that.
Pope Francis can’t issue an instruction manual how the 4 dicta would lead through it.
You say we are supposed to look for the devil in Pope Francis’ understanding, “because it is necessary” to go through all that with the 4 dicta plus find the ways to make allowances?
Here you most definitely do not speak for me Brian Young.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/church-of-england-synod-member-rebuked-by-welby-for-publicly-opposing-same-sex-blessings/
Dear Elias:
It is an easy task to rebuke Welby for he is an unprofitable servant wandering from the precepts of Christ.
Though my query about Papa was somewhat ironic, is Papa a stalwart defender of the faith?
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Brian