Vatican City, Aug 9, 2018 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis’ trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families will be likely his first international trip not to include the “sostituto,” or deputy, of the Vatican Secretariat of State am… […]
Vatican City, Aug 9, 2018 / 01:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In an interview with Vatican News marking the 25th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis splendor, Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella said that “the magisterium must never be used instrumentally to place a contrast in the development of the doctrine.”
Veritatis splendor, written on some fundamental questions of the Church’s moral doctrine, encouraged a renewal of moral theology and taught that there are intrinsically evil acts, that absolute truths exist across various cultures. It also urged sharp caution against moral relativism and the misuse of conscience to justify false or subjective morals.
Archbishop Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, stated that “when we speak about the truth, we must always have a dynamic concept.”
“The truth is not a ‘fixistic’ dimension. The truth, for the Christian, is first of all that living Word that the Lord has left us. Let us not forget Jesus who says: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’,” the archbishop said.
“Therefore, the dimension of truth opens to a personal encounter: it is the truth of the Gospel, it is the truth represented by the person of Jesus Christ. All that is the content that Jesus wanted to transmit to His disciples, and that comes from the Apostles to us, is a truth that opens up more and more to a discovery of the mystery that has been revealed.”
He said that “There are some fundamental points that remain as milestones in the dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church. These are elements that remain in their immutability,” and that
“All this then requires from the theologians … a great work of interpretation,” Archbishop Fisichella stated.
Immutuable norms “must, however, be continuously opened through the discovery of the truth of the Word of God.”
The archbishop said that in his opinion, the Church “cannot accept an idea of truth closed in on itself. Truth, by its very nature, refers to fidelity and also to freedom: ‘The truth will set you free.’ A truth that opens up more and more is a truth that makes every believer, every man, discover a more profound freedom. However, this also requires fidelity. The link between fidelity and truth is a typical link in the biblical conception of truth.”
Asked about fidelity to truth and those who criticize Pope Francis for, they believe, diverging from Catholic doctrine, and who refer to Veritatis splendor, Archbishop Fisichella said that “I don’t think there are any grounds that justify challenging the teaching of Pope Francis in the light of the previous Magisterium.”
The question is an implicit reference to the ‘dubia letter’ sent by four cardinals to Pope Francis in September 2016. The letter asked the Pope to clarify some passages of Amoris laetitia, and four of the five dubia quoted Veritatis splendor and noted that Francis’ apostolic exhortation could be interpreted as contrasting with St. John Paul II’s encyclical.
Pope Francis has not responded to the dubia.
The Vatican News interview also comes on the heels of a change to the text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding capital punishment, which has been widely interpreted as a change in doctrine.
Archbishop Fisichella said that “when there is an instumental use” of the Magisterium, “then I fear there is no desire for a discovery of the truth, and also that there is no fidelity to the tradition of the Church. I don’t think there are any grounds that justify challenging the teaching of Pope Francis in the light of the previous Magisterium. On the contrary, we need to reiterate how much continuity there is in development.”
“I think, however, that it is also important to carefully consider the whole teaching of Pope Francis and not just a single particular aspect of it: the mosaic is produced by the whole deck, not by a single card.”
For Archbishop Fisichella, the teaching of Pope Francis is “a great openness in the work of evangelization” without “anticipating the norm of the proclamation.”
According to the prelate, Francis’ pontificate is about “being able … to accompany our contemporaries, to walk beside them in order to help them understand, to really understand its application, and sometimes also, perhaps, to take a step back. And so this dimension emerges together with the need for mercy. The Jubilee of Mercy was the concrete sign of how Pope Francis identifies and orients his Pontificate.”
Vatican City, Aug 8, 2018 / 04:37 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Attachment to idols is a failure to trust totally in God – and to reject them, Catholics must accept their weaknesses, inviting Christ to heal their hearts, Pope Francis said Wednesday.
Heal… […]
London, Canada, Aug 8, 2018 / 12:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Canadian man suffering from an incurable disease claims that despite asking for home care, the medical team at an Ontario hospital would offer him only medically assisted suicide.
Roger Foley,… […]
Vatican City, Aug 6, 2018 / 03:09 pm (CNA).- Pontifical diplomacy took on a new approach in 1914, with the election of Benedict XV as pontiff. The viewpoint of that moment is captured in a snapshot: a report from the Secretariat of State on papal diplo… […]
Vatican City, Aug 6, 2018 / 10:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis made a private visit Monday morning to pray at the tomb of Bl. Paul VI, on the 40th anniversary of his death.
Francis made a similar visit to Bl. Paul VI’s tomb last year.
Pope Francis’ visit to the tomb took place in an absolutely private manner, said vice-director of the Holy See press office, Paloma Garcia.
She told EWTN Aug. 6 that Pope Francis prayed for about 10 minutes at the tomb, which is located in the Vatican Grottos, the crypt beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.
Bl. Paul VI, to whom Francis referred Sunday as a “pope of modernity,” was the author of the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae, which reaffirmed Church teaching against contraception.
Bl. Paul VI will be canonized with Bl. Oscar Romero Oct. 14, during the synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment.
At the end of his Angelus address Aug. 5, Francis recalled the blessed, calling him a “great pope of modernity,” and remembering him “with much veneration and gratitude.”
“From heaven may he intercede for the Church and for peace in the world,” the pope said.
Pope Francis unofficially confirmed the news of Paul VI’s canonization during his annual meeting with the priests of Rome Feb. 17. “Paul VI will be a saint this year,” he said Feb. 15.
After a long question and answer session, the pope gave texts containing meditations by Bl. Paul VI as a gift to each of the priests. “I saw it and I loved it,” Francis said about the book.
Vatican City, Aug 6, 2018 / 09:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent his prayers and condolences to the people of Indonesia Monday, after nearly 100 people were killed and thousands evacuated in the aftermath of a strong earthquake Sunday.
“… […]
Vatican City, Aug 5, 2018 / 05:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It is not wrong to be concerned with the daily necessities of life, but strengthening one’s relationship with Jesus is of far greater importance, Pope Francis said in his Sunday Angelus addre… […]
Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2018 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- Catholic theologians have weighed in on changes Pope Francis has made to the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty, pointing to some unresolved questions about what, exact… […]
Vatican City, Aug 2, 2018 / 10:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met with a group of Jesuits Wednesday urging them to help youth who are unemployed, and who might be at risk of suicide, drug addiction, or of joining a terrorist organization.
Answering a question from a participant of a “European Jesuits in Formation” course, during a private audience in the anteroom of the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall Aug. 1, the pope said youth unemployment “is a problem of dignity,” and stressed it is an issue Jesuits should be working to help solve.
Unemployment, he said, may be “one of the most acute and painful problems for young people, because it goes right to the heart of the person. The person who has no work, feels [themselves to be] without dignity.”
“This is important: understand the problem of young people,” help them feel that you understand them, and “then move to solve this problem,” he said.
Francis encouraged those taking part in the Jesuit formation course to get their “hands dirty” looking for a solution to the problems of unemployment, suicide, and drug use among young people, as well as the issue of youth joining terrorist organizations.
He went on to say he believes one cause of the high unemployment rate among young adults is an attention on what he called intangible “finance,” rather than the economy, which can be more easily oriented toward the dignity of the person.
During the meeting, Pope Francis also indicated his desire for Jesuits to read two speeches: one by Bl. Paul VI at the 32nd general congregation in 1974, and one by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, former superior general of the Society of Jesus, whose cause for sainthood was recently opened in Rome.
“In these two speeches there is the frame of what the [Jesuits] must do today: courage, going to the peripheries, to the intersections of ideas, problems, of the mission…” he said.
“It takes courage to be a Jesuit. It does not mean that a Jesuit must be irresponsible, or reckless, no. But have courage. Courage is a grace of God…”
At the unscripted meeting, Francis also asked for their prayers, and made a comment about the difficulty of being pope, saying the work “is not easy.” Noting that perhaps that statement could sound like “heresy,” he added that it is also “usually fun.”
He recalled that it was said once that the primary role of the general superior was to “put to pasture the Jesuits,” meaning the general superior should be like a shepherd to the members of the congregation.
Francis said another person responded to this idea, saying, “‘Yes, but it is like putting to pasture a herd of toads:’ one from here, one from there…” because toads are not as easily shepherded as sheep.
This is a beautiful thing, however, the pope continued, “because it requires great freedom, [and] without freedom one cannot be a Jesuit.”
He pointed out that it also requires “great obedience to the shepherd; who must have the great gift of discernment to allow each of the ‘toads’ to choose what he feels the Lord is asking him [to do].”
“This is the originality of the Society [of Jesus]: unity with great diversity,” he said.
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