Infinite, Living Love – “June is the month the Church devotes to honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And in my mind, when understood in its deep profundity, it is the most important of the Church’s various devotions.” The Valor of Christ’s Unshielded Sacred Heart (What We Need Now – Substack)
Law as Teacher – “A society in which abortion is not only legal, but common and easily available, teaches people to regard it as not a big deal.” The Way Forward for Pro-Lifers (Public Discourse)
Swimming the Tiber – “I was going to tell my dad, but I was petrified. How would I do it? How could I tell him that I was leaving the faith of our family? That I was going to convert to Catholicism?” I’m A Disappointment (Word on Fire)
Very Human Inconsistency – “It is one of the odd—but in the long run potentially fruitful—features of the current pontificate that a great emphasis on synodality in theory has emerged under a Pope who tends to act unilaterally.” In the midst of confusion: Rethinking the “synodal way” (Catholic Culture)
On Papal Primacy – “The proposals from the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity feel quite distant from the actual reality of Christian unity today.” Vatican’s ‘Bishop of Rome’ Document Has an ‘Ivory Tower’ Feel (National Catholic Register)
Self-Induced Ideological Hysteria – “Lilla wants all Christians to give up and let self-admitted liberal failures like himself have their way in politics.” This Liberal Academic Wants Christians To Leave Politics To Leftists (The Federalist)
Seeking the Best Narrative – “Ultimately, this pontificate will probably be characterized between what was before Fiducia Supplicans and what was after.” Pope Francis, another key to understanding (MondayVatican)
Broadcaster, Author, Missionary – “Even as he faced a terrible diagnosis at the end, he remained true to the joy of being a Christian and embodying all he had written and lived.” Remembering Al Kresta (National Catholic Register)
Notwithstanding Biden’s Abortion Stance – “Intimate dealings with the Pope do not seem to have shifted his position on abortion in any respect but President Biden has been the gainer from them.” The Pope must not give credence to the radical abortion agenda of President Biden (Catholic Herald)
Pope Francis on AI – “Pope Francis gave an endorsement for Artificial Intelligence at the G7 summit in Italy, but warned politicians that although machines can make choices only human beings are ‘in their hearts are capable of deciding.'” Pope endorses Artificial Intelligence (Catholic Herald)
Africa, The Church’s Best Hope – “Catholicism is everywhere in Uganda, but the Church faces challenges there as elsewhere.” Catholicism in Uganda (Crisis Magazine)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ On Papal Primacy
Based on cases, we read: “Synodality is likely going through the greatest crisis in its history. The urgent task for Christian pastors is to contain the damage, not expand its impact.”
Some further observations based on the study document itself:
Christian unity needs to face disintegrative Secularism and Islam which has twice as many members as all of Protestant ecclesial communities combined. Is the consensus of SYNOD 2024 to be provisional, like the consensus of Islam (ijma and ijtihad) which is not bound by past consensus nor are binding on the future?
Does the working document tend to conflate the terms (Orthodox) “church” and (Protestant) “ecclesial communities”? And, about “historical and cultural context,” also, are the points explored in the study document to be understood within the context of Ut Unum Sint, or are the clarifications in Ut Unum Sint now to be understood within pre-emptive consensus building?
About national and continental synodal aggregates, where is the personal accountability of each successor of the apostles (Apostolos Suos, 1998)? Does the ecumenical reference to Scripture and gospel values tend to discount Tradition—and imply sola Scriptura? And, apart from papal primacy of jurisdiction, is there distinct clarity on Church/papacy infallibility in definitions (not private) of “doctrine concerning faith or morals,” and on the natural law, about which the Church is neither the “author” nor the “arbiter” (Veritatis Splendor)?
SUMMARY: Like councils, the synodal “style” is what the institutional/charismatic Church DOES, not what the Church IS.
A hard look at the ideology of a Professor of Sacramental Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome (and Professor of Liturgy elsewhere) reveals the depth of animus toward the TLM. This professor’s thinking informed Traditionis custodes. His thought is now rumored as foundational for future, more hardline, suppression of the TLM.
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2024/06/andrea-grillo-astonishing-interview
@ Infinite, Living Love
Larry Chapp offers us an in-depth translation of devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus wherein he finds impregnable solace. It deserves reading and rereading. My comment here is philosophical, although conducive to that solace.
Aquinas in his earliest treatise Essence and Existence concludes that while man’s existence cannot be explained by his essence [a controversial premise repudiated by some Jesuits] consequently requiring esse, understood as God’s gift, the act of existence, it is exclusively in God that his essence is identical with his existence. So to know the love of God in what Chapp calls the premier devotion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we are directed in our affection to that very inner depth of God’s love. Who he is.
@ Notwithstanding Biden’s Abortion Stance
The Catholic Herald questions the optics of meetings between Biden and Pope Francis and whether any good is gained regarding Catholicism and abortion. The reality is begged by the question, that silence from the pontiff and positive remarks by Biden speak to accommodation.
@ On Papal Primacy
Having read Larry Chapp’s more favorable opinion in the NCR as compared to Fr de Souza’s less confident appraisal there doesn’t appear a clear pathway to Christian unity unless the Church compromises its identity as the one true Faith.
Discussion whether in Synodal form or otherwise can only lead to agreement on a cooperative effort. That has already been achieved on a limited level. Realistically in order to remain faithful to the institution founded on the rock of Peter lessening of authority on what comprises revelation and the deposit of faith will subject Catholicism to Protestantization as merely one religious body among many. That essentially is a denial of Christ’s institution of the universal Church. Our efforts as a Church are better served in a spiritual doctrinal revival more in line to the vision of the early Church Fathers.
BREAKING NEWS!! The Vatican has put archbishop Vegano on trial charged with schism. He replied immediately with a frenzy of denunciations of the church and its leadership. For details go to reason and theology.com and be prepared for a shock. He will be out very fast. It is as I keep saying:”Beware the wrath of a patent man.”