The True Jesus – “Up until the Enlightenment, and even beyond, there was no doubt that God shone through the world; it was somehow evident that behind this world there stands a higher intelligence, that the world, with all that it contains – creation with its richness, reasonableness, and beauty – reflects a creator Spirit.” That Jesus Whom Today’s Man Has Lost. A Never-Before-Published Interview With Joseph Ratzinger (Diakonos.be)
The Definitive Study Bible – “Under the vision and guidance of Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, principal editors Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch gathered a team of theologians and biblical scholars to produce the definitive study Bible for Catholics.” The new Ignatius Catholic Study Bible is a remarkable labor of love (Our Sunday Visitor)
Synodal Committee – “Organizers of Germany’s “synodal way” are expected to draw up draft statutes for a “national synodal body” in the coming months, after the Vatican rejected an initial blueprint for a permanent decision-making institution composed of bishops and lay people.” German Church to draft statutes for ‘national synodal body’ (Pillar Catholic)
Teach Me Virtue – “I fell quickly and completely in love with the college, over which Eva—or Miss Brann, as we called her—presided.” The Practical Wisdom of Eva Brann (The Lamp Magazine)
Because, the Pope – “[T]he present pope seems to be nothing more than a liberal Protestant in a white papal robe. And as a Protestant, I am acutely aware of the damage such people do.” Why I am Not Catholic (First Things)
The Catholic New Left and EWTN – “I call them the Catholic New Left. And they are back in the news. Or, at least, they are back on my newsfeed.” Dawn Eden Goldstein wants to sue EWTN: thoughts on the Catholic New Left (Catholic Culture)
Sanctity Seeming Sinister – “Holiness is a notion we struggle to make sense of now. Confronted with claims to holiness, we instinctively seek to discredit them.” Challenge and Scandal of Sanctity (Life Illumined)
Forcing a Homosexual Conclusion – “A book recently published by Yale University Press and much hyped by the media for promoting a “biblical” case for homosexual unions falls woefully short … ” 12 Disqualifying Errors In Richard Hays’ ‘Biblical’ Case For Gay Relationships
The Battle with Woke – “Wokeness is only the latest manifestation of what Eric Voegelin called ‘modernity without restraint.’ Is Woke Losing? (Civitas Institute)
Real Life Spotlight – “Pope Francis removed Argentine Father Justo José Ilarraz of the Diocese of Santísima Concepción in Tucumán from the priesthood on Dec. 11, in a surprising gesture that brought solace to the victims, who had been denouncing the priest since the 1990s.” Pope Laicizes Argentine Priest for Multiple Cases of Child Abuse (Catholic Herald)
(*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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“The Catholic New Left and EWTN ”
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How sad.
Satan likes nothing better than to see the Body of Christ busy away at bickering, splintering off, & provoking each other.
@The Catholic New Left and EWTN
Of the Catholic Old Left, Wolfgang asks: “Are you old enough to remember, say, Richard McBrien?”
Yes, indeed! I recall one of his columns where he twisted ten selective entries in the Vatican II Documents to justify his theological deceptions. As just a street-level reader, it took less than ten minutes to locate ten other entries that clarified his hot-button issues (!) and even refuted his misrepresentations.
Selective reading, and worse…
Today, it would be something like peddling compassion at the expense of truth, or the pastoral at the expense of the dogmatic, or signaling at the expense of evangelization, or local assemblies at the expense of universality, or concreteness at the expense of the so-called “abstract,” or immanence at the expense of transcendence, or the “universal call to holiness” at the expense of the Apostolic Succession, or “walking together” at the expense of contemplation, or proportionalism/consequentialism at the expense of moral absolutes, or forwardism at the expense of alleged “backwardism,” or a unisex clergy at the expense of both Holy Orders and the Marian, or Germaniac synodism and a Roman variant the expense of the Church.
Sure glad that the Old-Catholic-Left McBrien is on the back shelf now, and none of this selective reading stuff is going on anymore!
@ Because, the Pope
Carl Trueman, contributor to First Things, Protestant fully equipped to know one when he sees one. Trueman is Catholic beginning with the Church Fathers, John Paul II [presumably Benedict XVI]. But it’s there that he stops.
Many of us have similar sentiments yet have remained Catholic, declined SSPX incarceration, or refugee status with the Orthodox.
For those of us aware of reality we may say What else is new? That’s to an extent. We can learn more about the dynamics of modern heresy. Trueman’s critique of Immanentism v transcendentalism. It’s obvious but we may miss the breadth of its significance. One, not the denial of the resurrection, rather its subversion as an instrument for success. Trueman brings this out regarding the happiness, wealthiness Christian people. Aside from environmental global interests, equanimity, concern for the health of planet earth is certainly a responsibility, but not if it becomes the primary agenda.
As a confessional orthodox Protestant Trueman sees the size and wealth of Catholicism an important barrier to the radical, liberal world trend. What Trueman loses sight of is the preeminent position of Catholic Christianity as the focal point of Christ’s revelation and promises. If all falls true to prediction the Church will be the ground for a last stand against Antichrist heresy. The spirit of martyrdom instilled by the Holy Spirit in baptism will become evident if the current fall from grace continues.
As to Forcing A Homosexual Conclusion, article failed to cite Leviticus 18:22 that is upheld in the New Testament not made diminished there.
So without more, we can’t know how Lev. 18 is treated in the 2-Hays book. The Pope’s joke about driving the limo comes to mind. In that, the whole thing was set up in advance by the chauffeur and the policeman who are “married” and hatched the plan to steal the Pope away to their own special moment and hook him to sfiducia them. Unknowingly the Pope walked right into it taking over the driver’s seat “flushed with the spirit”!
Actually the whole of Lev. 18 speaks to unnatural sexuality and would be read as including condemnation of perversity from Sodom and Gomorrah.
In passing, speaking of Lev. 18 in its entirety, untranslated parts of the Koran endorse and adapt sexual liaison between and among heterosexual relatives and with minors and hold related encounters and subsequent marrying as legitimate. Nobody’s spouse is off-limits. Not only is that wide practice in the Mohammedan societies but it is the daily counsel quietly disseminated from among the acknowledged scholars and select imams. As far as I know the Holy Father has been broadcasting an unqualified fraternity with all of that “based on friendship not merely declarations”.
Koran directly contradicts OT here as in other areas neither well know nor widely translated but typically out of reach and kept beyond access in its own intimacy.
‘ In all this hatred, however, the Pope found a light of hope in his March 6 meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, an encounter that “the Holy See had prepared for decades.”
Held in a spirit of fraternity in al-Sistani’s home, it was “a gesture eloquent in the East, even more than declarations or documents, as it signifies friendship and belonging to the same family,” the Pope explains. “It did my soul good and made me feel honored.”
He recalls the Ayatollah’s joint appeal to the great powers “to abandon the language of war, prioritizing reason and wisdom.” The Pope expresses appreciation for a phrase from their meeting: “Human beings are either brothers in religion or equals in creation.” ‘
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-12/pope-francis-autobiography-hope-excerpts.html
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/leviticus/18
This is the first I’ve heard that the Qur’an is not fully translated. My copies in parallel Arabic and English are complete. The Greek came in the 9th century, and the attested complete translation was in Persian in the 10th and 12th centuries. Latin in the 12th. French in the 17th and 18th. English in 1649. The Muslim claim remains, however, that only the “ideas” in the Qur’an can be translated from the Arabic, not the real “recitations” as received only in Arabic.
About capturing each other’s spouses, this possible derivation from the Qur’an and the Hadiths probably traces back to Muhammad’s revelation (!) awarding to him a personal exemption late in life and allowing him to claim the desired wife of a cousin (one of several polygamous and intertribal wives in only the last ten years of his life, A.D. 622-632).
About the phrase “human being are either brothers in religion or equals in creation.” A typically elastic expression! If not “brothers in religion” (as with everyone being either originally or eventually a Muslim), then “equals in creation” (implying an unfulfilled lowest-common-denominator kind of fraternity—remotely like the natural law?—which according to Muslim cosmopolitanism does not recognize, need, or accept the Self-disclosing and incarnate Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of real revelation and the center of universal human history).
@ The Catholic New Left and EWTN
is a hot item. So I think I’ll join in. Prior to Pope Francis liberal and conservative lines were easily drawn. Francis jumbled that. So we have conservatives who are not adopting a Left or disengaged posture with this papacy and those who were hostile to recent Popes who are now enthralled. Then we have conservatives who defend a liberal Pope tooth and nail, and conservatives who similarly oppose him. Then they’re some you can’t figure out.
Author Peter Wolfgang calls himself an ordinary garden variety conservative Catholic. Is he? What he really is, is an honest broker who will recognize the good Francis has claim to, love of the poor, kindness toward all. Even the environment. And oppose him where it’s warranted. He’s like those of us who don’t appreciate being pegged into a slot, because our faith demands we recognize what is good and true whoever promotes it.
@ The True Jesus
If Veritatis Splendor is John Paul’s masterpiece of moral theology Jesus of Nazareth is equally Benedict’s masterpiece of biblical Christology. The historical critical method [exegesis] of interpreting the Bible is really scientific methodology reflecting the mind [zeitgeist] of the time rather than what scripture conveys, or speaks to us as Ratzinger says to philosopher Habermas. For “the courage to resist apparent certainties”, he urges we reference the faith of the Church as our guide.
It’s true that to understand the Eucharist we must comprehend scripture – I would add scripture as revelation. “The Canon certainly did not form on its own. This require[s] a legitimate authority to decide. Apostolic authority which was present in the office of succession. Canon — Scripture — apostolic succession, as well as the episcopal office, are inseparable” (precis of Ratzinger).
The trend is to be scientific rather than orientation to revealed truth. The written word essentially means what it says. Having read Jesus of Nazareth the upshot comes across clearly that the Real Jesus is conveyed by the permanent spiritual intention of the scriptural written word, not a transient exegesis.