A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
Click on photo for this corporal work of mercy!

Friday 8 July 2016

O Lord our God, grant your divine protection to those who serve and protect

May the souls of the five police officers assassinated in Dallas rest in the peace of God.

O Almighty and Eternal God, Whose great power and eternal Wisdom embraces the universe, Watch over all police and Law enforcement officers everywhere.
Protect them from harm in the performance of their duty to stop evildoers who commit crime, robbery, riots. murder and violence.
We pray, O Lord, to help them keep our streets and homes safe, day and night.
We commend them to your loving care because their duty for us is dangerous to them.
Grant them strength and courage in their daily assignments. Dearest God and Father, protect your children, these brave men and women.
Grant them your almighty protection, Unite them safely with their families after Duty has ended through Our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
Amen.


The blood of these police is on the hands of Barack Hussein Obama. 

He has created a racial crisis in the United States of America. 

He is a divisive, destructive malefactor unworthy of the Office of President.

Barack Hussein Obama is a diabolical narcissist.  

Thursday 7 July 2016

Is Our Lord Jesus Christ not for "indigenous" peoples too? Then where is He in this video?

Nowhere does he mention Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why is this; do "indigenous" peoples not deserve to be saved?

These videos are sickening and blasphemous. How does the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ sit down to do this and never, ever mention the Holy Name?



Cardinal Schönborn is either mistaken or is a manipulative liar!

According to reports on OnePeter5, Cardinal Schönborn has stated that Amoris Laetitia is "binding doctrine." 

In the actual document, Francis, Bishop of Rome, or someone on his behalf, writes:

Since “time is greater than space”, I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it.

It is then perhaps this paragraph of Francis that Raymond Cardinal Burke has used to state that the document is not magisterial. In fact, Francis says it is not.

In addition to being a liturgical nincompoop, the Cardinal from Vienna is either deluded, mistaken or a liar.

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Justin Trudeau disgraces the Office of Prime Minister at the Pride Goeth Before the Fall Parade in Toronto - will legalise anal sodomy for minors!

UPDATED: TRUDEAU PROMISES TO DECRIMINALIZE ANAL SEX FOR 16 YEAR-OLDS!
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trudeau-promises-to-decriminalize-anal-sex-for-16-year-olds?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com

The man is a Catholic. Pray for him lest he burn in Hell.








Sadly, he has sold his soul.

One wonders if he still has that rosary and if he remembers how to use it.


John Paul Shimek and the National Catholic Register - mocking faithful Catholics and supporting the notion that, "gay is good and godly"

The screed that follows below is from a writer at the National Catholic Register. John Paul Shimek is pictured at the right. 

He enjoys spending his time on Facebook and Twitter mocking faithful Catholics, tradition and the faith in general whilst purporting to be a faithful Catholic and professional journalist He has the temerity to call himself on Twitter, a "catholic theologian." 

John Paul Shimek is as much a theologian as this writer is a Doctor of the Church. What a self-indulgent, narcissist.

He promotes that Holy David and Holy Jonathan were sodomites blest and honoured by God. Not only an outright lie, but a blasphemy. He is also believes that "gay is good and godly" and that traditional or rather, faithful Catholics should be "driven out of the Church.

Who is this effeminate, disgrace for a Catholic journalist? 

Why is he writing in the National Catholic Register?

John Paul Shimek's diatribe could have been written by Thomas J. Rosica, CSB. You can read it below where it is copied, lest you give his work at NCRegister (notice they downplay Catholic) a hit and feed the bear. 

I have provided these two screenshots lifted from Hilary White. If anyone has any others, please forward them to voxcantoris@rogers.com.

Shimek convicts himself. 

So too does the National Catholic Register.

UPDATE: AS REPORTED IN THE COMBOX, THE NCREGISTER HAS DELETED HIS POST.






Should Good Catholics Read Far-Right Catholic Blogs?by John Paul Shimek   
Last weekend, Ines San Martin of Crux reported that Pope Francis “has vowed in a new interview that he won’t be slowed down by resistance from ‘ultra-conservatives’ in the Church who ‘say no to everything,’ insisting, ‘I’m going ahead without looking over my shoulder.’”
Good Catholics everywhere cheered the words of the Holy Father, the Successor of St. Peter.
You see, they readily understood that a handful of far-right ideologues do not get to determine the course of Christ’s Church. It doesn’t matter if those ideologues represent semi-schismatic enclaves or write popular blogs. Christ the Lord has empowered the Church’s Magisterium in communion with the Successor of St. Peter to lead the People of God. Not them.
Nonetheless, sometimes it can be instructive to read these far-right ideologues. Doing so, reveals some things worth noting about the signs of the times; and, taking stock of those things, helps us to perform better the work of the New Evangelization.
Just what do these blogs reveal?
At first brush, it would seem that there has been a shift in the tectonic plates. At the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Francis, only a small minority of ‘radical traditionalists’ teetering on the edge of schism opposed the man ‘from the ends of the earth.’ Middle-of-the-road ‘conservative Catholic’ types withheld judgment about him, biding their time as he got to know his new flock. Since then, the climate has changed and the sands have shifted.
As a variety of far-right or ultra-conservative Catholic writers make clear, now the ‘in thing’ among their number seems to be to ‘distrust and vilify’ the Pope, not to ‘trust and verify’ him. Thus, far-right Catholic writers get their Catholic ‘street cred’ by maligning the Pope as a chief plotter against the faith.
That this is their modus operandi becomes clear after a moment’s inspection of the kind of blogs where they tend to gather on-line. They never seek to read the pontificate of Pope Francis through the lens of charity. Their first instinct is to punch first.
Thus, they eschew charity and ecclesial union, preferring division and animosity. That does not bespeak a Catholic ethos.
This surfaces a second point: The far-right has radicalized. A small number of blogs have sent a direct signal to no doubt well-meaning ‘conservative Catholics’ that it is now open season on Francis. In effect, these blogs have allowed themselves to become little more than sleeper cells of ‘ultra-conservative Catholic’ ideologues, sounding the alarm to arise and take up arms in a bitter civil war where victories are won only by way of resisting the Pope.
Scripture tells us that we will know Christians by their fruits. Yet so often the fruit of reading the blogs of far-right and ultra-conservatives Catholics is anger, not peace, sadness, not joy, and ecclesial division, not unity in Christ’s Spirit. Aren’t these the marks of the Evil One? Certainly, they’re not the traits of spiritually mature Catholics.
Thirdly, all this effectively means their program of radicalization is carried out in an extra-ecclesial context. On the frontlines of this new battle for the soul of Catholicism, self-appointed gate-keepers of Catholic orthodoxy fill the ether in concerted attempts to marginalize the voice of the Church’s duly appointed pastors. Lacking episcopal consecration and any claim to Apostolic succession, they constitute among themselves a sort of ‘parallel magisterium’ that determines for itself the prerogatives of the Pope, the content of authentic Catholic teaching, and the future direction of the Church’s pastoral ministry.
None of that is Catholic. But it might well be deeply Congregationalist.Of course, they carry on their war against the ‘Francis Revolution’ while claiming to launch their missives from the secure tactical ground of established Magisterial teaching. But, ironically, they balk if you point out that they lack the credentials, rank, and profile to command their territory.
Cherry-picking the bishops to whom they adhere, and dividing the Church into political parties, they profess a libertarian ecclesiology that selectively adheres to the Church’s authority when it serves their spiritual preferences. Thus, far-right Catholic agitators entirely side-step serious theological questions about the nature of Catholic tradition, the definition of heresy, the extent of the Church’s canon law, the balance between doctrine and pastoral practice, the prerogatives of the pope, the meaningfulness of ecclesial communion, and the need for continental and lay consultation, opting instead for simplistic political drama.
Instead, they deal in innuendos, slander, and calumny. Those are their trademarks, not respect for the hierarchy of the Church and reverence for the truth.
And so, the fourth point: With their radicalization and de-ecclesialization comes their de-rationalization. They eschew the heavy-lifting of theology in preference for the sensationalism of political theater that finds no place for the common dialogue of parrhesia. Against any kind of synodality characterized by mutual listening, the discernment of spirits, or pastoral accompaniment, they opt for something Pope Francis has termed ‘declarationist nominalism’ – a form of political resistance theater to the ‘culture of encounter’ by way of a monologue in the form of one-dimensional pious platitudes.
When Pope Francis calls for a synodal Church that leaves no one outside the warm embrace of mercy, they envision a new Siege of Masada. They take on the guise of militants, perceiving themselves as the last defenders of Catholicism. Yet their war cries and battle slogans leave them sounding like un-catechized Catholics in great danger of slipping into Protestant forms of thinking.
Let us pray for them even as we continue to pray for His Holiness Pope Francis as he pursues the course the Holy Spirit reveals to him.

Cardinal Sarah calls for "ad orientem" worship and kneeing for Holy Communion. Is it enough?

 
“It is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction – eastwards or at least towards the apse – to the Lord who comes.” ... “I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible.”

He said that “prudence” and catechesis would be necessary, but told pastors to have “confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people”.
“Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’.

With these words, Robert Cardinal Sarah has pushed further the argument for a "reform of the reform" of the modernist liturgy forced upon the Catholic faithful by Paul VI.

What are we to think of this?

First, a suggestion is worthless, except that it may indicate a future command to come and that this is to soften up the troops, so to speak. You can count on objections and vehement fights against it. All we in the English speaking world need to do is to recall the fight over the correct translation of the Latin modernist liturgy into English.

Second, it is not going to save what Pope Benedict XVI called, the "Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite" because it is not enough.

The liturgy forced upon the Church by Paul VI was so far and removed from anything the Council Fathers desired in Sacrosanctum Concilium as to be nothing more than a complete break with the past. The problem with this Novus Ordo Missae is the Novus Ordo Missae. It is fundamentally flawed.

Nothing in the Council called for Mass facing the people and in fact, the ability to face liturgical east is already in the Missal where the priest is directed at the Orate Fratres and the Pax vobiscum, to face the people. This presumes that he is not. The Missal and its Graduale Romanum already provides for Gregorian chant, Latin Ordinary and text, incense, beauty, and so on. Why is it not done?

The ability to reform the reform is already there in every Missal and no priest needs permission to do it.

Fundamentally, turning the priest will fix little without more.

The Offertory of the Mass is nothing more than a minor Talumudic table blessing

Baruch atah Adonai Elohainu melech haolam hamotzli lechem min haaretz.Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.
Baruch atah Adonai Elohainu melech haolam borai pri haaitz.Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree.

It was put in the Mass by Anibale Bugnini after an outrage by Paul VI because there was to be no resemblance of an Offertory in Bugnini's, "Presentation of the Gifts." The priest would receive the bread and wine from a contrived procession, prepare them and then say the "Prayer over the Gifts" leading directly into the Preface. No offertory prayer. No orate fratres. Paul VI demanded an Offertory and this is what we got. A Jewish talmudic table blessing which replaced this:

Accept, O Holy father, Almighty and Eternal God, this spotless host, which I, Your unworthy servant, offer to You, my living and true God, to atone for my numberless sins, offences, and negligences; on behalf of all here present and likewise for all faithful Christians living and dead, that it may profit me and them as a means of salvation to life everlasting. Amen.
O God,  Who in creating man didst exalt his nature very wonderfully and yet more wonderfully didst establish it anew; by the Mystery signified in the mingling of this water and wine, grant us to have part in the Godhead of Him Who hath deigned to become a partaker of our humanity, Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, entreating Thy mercy that our offering may ascend with a sweet fragrance in the sight of Thy divine Majesty, for our own salvation, and for that of the whole world. Amen.
Come Thou, the Sanctifier, Almighty and Everlasting God, and bless this sacrifice which is prepared for the glory of Thy holy Name.

How do you even begin to compare these prayers? Can an ardent defender of the modernist liturgy please explain it?

We are to believe that simply turning the priest around will fix what is wrong?

The problems of the penitential rite options, the Canon (Eucharistic Prayer) options and the actual orations themselves, changed or deleted entirely from the ancient Missal are even greater problems with the liturgy.

Until these options are removed, by order and the I Confess, Offertory and Roman Canon are mandated by law, then there can be no reform.

At the same time, we are to accept that girls and women should still assist at the altar, women should have their feet washed and communion should be given in the hand.

The Cardinal also said that people should return to communion, kneeling.

Has he tried that in a typical parish?

I applaud Cardinal Sarah for this beginning. The reality is, this, the bishops will ignore it and priests who take this on without the leadership of their Ordinary will be pilloried. 

It is a beginning. 

It is not enough.

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Once again Francis disgraces the Church in collusion with the secularist manipulators!

Tancred, at the Eponymous Flower, has a full translation of the latest secular media interview with the occupant of the Chair of the Holy Apostle, St. Peter. It comes through the original German at Katholisches, titled: "Pope Francis' spectacular interview: Was Pope Benedict XVI, "the problem" of the Church."

As reported here a few days ago, this is where Jorge Bergoglio made his reference to pushing on in spite of the "ultra-conservatives" also known as faithful and orthodox Catholics, who always say "no" to his radical reformist-globalist agenda.

A Pope is not a political leader. He is not to be a captive of secular media and sound bites. That any Pope should submit himself to secularists in this manner is a disgrace upon the papacy and a standard that is beneath the dignity of the Vicar of Christ. He foments confusion and heresy in these interviews. He feeds the Church's enemies robustly. He scandalises the faithful and sets up faithful and orthodox Catholics for mock and ridicule.

When will the cardinals and bishops and theologians of sound faith and reputation say to this Bishop of Rome, "Enough!" 

When will they find the courage to denounce these scandalous and delinquent comments in the secular world?

When will they hold this man to account for his own words in newsprint and heretical notions in exhortations? 

When will they hold him to account for those who act in his name and undermine the faith?

Cowards. Effeminates, nearly all of them.

We are waiting.





(Rome / Buenos Aires) A spectacular newspaper interview with Pope Francis was published on Sunday in which the Pope uses an unusual dialectic. Is the Catholic Church leader to understand that his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was a "problem" for the Church?" Indicates Francis in addition that "ultraconservative" Church representatives, according to context meaning the defender of Catholic marriage and morality and the Discipline of the Sacraments, actually "beheaded" include?

Newspaper interviews as a new papal "magisterium"

With his first interview that was published in the leftist daily on October 2013 by La Repubblica, Pope Francis revolutionized the communication policy of the papacy. The atheist from a Masonic Lodge, Eugenio Scalfari, gave it the title: "The Pope: 'Thus, I Will Change the Church'". With Francis a new communication strategy of a pope was introduced. For Pope Francis, interviews are part of the Magisterium: "All the time I submit declarations, keep preaching, and that is teaching," he said in December 2014 in his first interview with a Latin American newspaper, the Argentine La Nacion.

With his recent interview, which was published in Argentina yesterday, again by the daily newspaper La Nacion, Pope Francis continued with his special "magisterium".

The interview has an Argentina focus and addressed recent polemics in the Pope's home country. The Pope has been accused of having a disturbed relationship, since December 2015 with incumbent President Macri. The pope had supported the left-Peronist rival candidate in the election campaign.

The interview was meant to smooth the waves, hence the title: "I have no problem with Macri. He is a noble man. "

The Pope and the "Ultraconservatives", "I want an open Church. They say no to everything "

However, some questions concern the entire Church. So the Pope was asked by Joaquin Morales Solá how he gets along "with the ultra-conservatives in the Church."

The tendentious exaggeration of the term "ultra-conservatives", as it is known by left journalists, was neither corrected nor rejected by the Pope. The Pope responded by implicitly adopting it. In his own words about the "Ultraconservatives":

"They do their job and I do mine. I want an open, understanding Church that accompanies the injured families. They say no to everything. I follow my path, without looking to the left and right. I don't want to behead anybody. That's what I never liked. I repeat: I do not support the conflict.' With a broad smile he concludes: 'nails are pulled by making upward pressure. Or one puts them quietly to the side when they reach retirement age.'"

Astonishingly, Pope Francis made a direct connection between "Ultraconservatives" and "heads." He said he's never "chopped off anyone's head" because that still doesn't appeal to him. At the same time, the Church leader actually suggested that "ultra-conservatives" were actually "beheaded." And by that the Pope does not mean any special marginal groups, but apparently, high-ranking employees of the Roman Curia.

Resignation of Benedict XVI. "Has made all the problems of the church visible"

Another question from the interview which took place on the June 28th relates to the health of Benedict. Pope Francis confirmed his reply that there actually was no compelling health reason for the resignation:

"He has problems in moving, but his head and his memory are perfectly intact."

Simultaneously Francis presented, however, that the resignation was clearly Pope Benedict XVI's "last act of government." Recently, there were discussions after a lecture by Curial Archbishop Georg Gänswein about a type of dual papal authority in an "almost common" exercise of the papacy by an "active" and a "contemplative" Pope.

Pope Francis said of Pope Benedict XVI. for La Nacion: "He was a revolutionary. In the meeting with the cardinals just before the conclave of May 2013, he told us that one of us will be the next pope, and he did not know his name. His behavior was impeccable. His resignation made visible all of the problems of the Church. His resignation had nothing to do with the personal. It was a governmental action, his last governmental action."

Pope Benedict XVI. a "revolutionary"? The statement made with the excessively used word "revolution" which seems to be meant as a compliment, but is rather outlandish in characterizing the German pope.

On the other hand, the statement, Pope Benedict XVI. has "made visible all the problems of the Church" with his resignation is truly noteworthy. In connection with the next statement, his resignation had "nothing to do with anything personal," but was a "governmental action", Pope Francis himself opens the floodgates to new speculation that Benedict XVI. may have been pressured to vacate the Chair of Peter in order to eliminate "all the problems of the Church."

Does Pope Francis himself adopt the opinion as it was represented in 2012 by the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini? He even demanded the resignation of Benedict XVI. shortly before his death, because he saw in the German pope a "problem" for the Church, rather even, "the problem."
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La Nacion (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Sunday 3 July 2016

Catholics who leave "gays" in their sin are no different than the Mohammedan, Omar Mateen

If you do not know who Joseph Sciambra is, you will after reading this.

Perhaps the Bishop of Rome should ask Joseph what he thinks about apologies to "gays".

But first, Pope Bergoglio should apologise for calling them "gay" and affirming them in their sin.

Mohammedans, such as the terrorist in Orlando, want to send "gays" to Hell. 

Catholics want to save them from it. Catholics who preach the truth, that is. 

Those who do not, those who are closet sodomites in clerical garb, those who want to meet them where they are and affirm them there, are no different than that pathetic Mohammedan, Omar Mateen.

If Bergoglio, Marx, Cupich, clergy such as James Martin, S.J., Edward L. Beck and others wish to leave these men where they are, they are also terrorists and they will burn in Hell right along with them.

Joseph Sciambra is not one of these men.

He is, no doubt, hers!



Should the Catholic Church apologize to gays?

When I was a conflicted and scared boy growing up within the confusing confines of the post-Conciliar Church of the 1970s, I needed someone, anyone, to teach me and to tell me that Jesus wanted to be more than just my friend, that He wanted to be my Savior – that He wanted to save me from myself. I knew, even from a young age, that something was going incredibly wrong within me – I was terrified and I needed help. However, the Jesus they offered was a mere historical figure; a guy who meant well, but who was dead and distant; he was the hippie-Christ from “Godspell” in a Superman shirt – with the Bible as a superhero comic-strip.

When I was teenager, quickly swerving towards homosexuality, a few noticed, but did nothing to help. At school, a sort of pandemic relativism was extolled as an individual rule of life: custom-made for every human person on earth. The detached Jesus from my youth cared little about our daily drudgery or our personal proclivities.

On the verge of accepting my homosexuality, I was told by a Catholic priest that I needn’t worry as every homosexual is born gay; he sent me on my way with a socially responsible warning about the dangers of unsafe sex.



Pope Francis to move forward against the will of "ultra-conservative" but promises not to follow the pattern of Mohammed

When people use the words "ultra-conservative" or "radical traditionalist" to describe faithful Catholics they actually reveal themselves for what are:

Dissenters.

Modernists.

Heretics.

Take this writer for example, I follow the Catholic faith which I was taught by my mother and father. Growing up in the 1960's I was taught the faith in school by good Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph and faithful priests. That faith, is what I continue to practice.

Yet, it is that faith that these dissenters, modernists and heretics condemn as "ultra-conservative" and other such insults and epithets. 

According to Inés San Martín , Pope Francis has vowed in a new interview that he won’t be slowed down by resistance from “ultra-conservatives” in the Church who “say no to everything,” insisting, “I’m going ahead without looking over my shoulder.”

The pontiff also suggested he has no intention of launching a crackdown on the opposition, saying, “I don’t cut off heads. That was never my style. I’ve never liked doing that.”


Thank you, Pope Bergoglio, for not following the paths of the Mohammedan practice.

Severed skulls of the Saint Antonio Primaldi and Companions of Otranto

I am sorry to "Gays"


I am sorry to all "gays."

I am sorry that Pope Francis said the words "who am I too judge" and because he did not understand that the media would leave out the first part and only concentrate on the second. I am sorry that this made you think that it is okay to continue on in a life choice that will result in your spending an eternity cut off from God, in Hell.

I am sorry to "gays" that the Pope has called you "gay." You see, you are not "gay" any more than you are a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple-people eater. You are a man or a woman made in the image of God and destined for something greater than what you think yourself to be.

I am sorry that Jesuits such as James Martin and bishops such as Blase Cupich and countless others preach that the best way to minister to you is to meet you where you are in the sewer of sodomy and leave you there to die and spend an eternity in Hell.

I am sorry that the priests and prelates of the Catholic Church abused many of you physically and now continue to do so spiritually.

I am sorry that Raymond Lahey, a man who was once the Bishop of Antigonish was a chronic masturbator and did so by exploiting boys through the purchase of child pornography.

I am sorry that you "gays" will die sooner, be sicker, suffer from the most disgusting diseases as a result of perverted behaviour against God and nature and will be more susceptible to drug abuse, partner-abuse, mental health issues and suicide and then you will spend an eternity in Hell.


I am sorry to "gays" that you have been swindled and lied to by a corrupt and degraded culture and society that has not been challenged by the Truth of Christ and His Church.

I am sorry that you think it hate speech to say that your same-sex desires are "objectively disordered" against nature and that the acting out on these desires is "intrinsically disordered" because it is not hate speech but love speech meant to educate to prevent people from going to Hell.

I am sorry that Mohammedans want to kill you and send you to Hell.


I am sorry that you hate Catholics who want you to convert so that you do not go there.

I am sorry that you suffer loneliness but I am not sorry to tell you that the loneliness can be filled by Our Lord Jesus Christ who alone can save you from your sins.

I am sorry that you will ignore this writing and not heed it and then will spend an eternity in Hell.

The number 7 is mentioned nearly 500 times in the Holy Scriptures. It is the number of divine perfection and completion; and it is the number of colours in God's rainbow. 

The rainbow was a promise from God. It has become a symbol of the sin which cries out to heaven for vengeance.

That rainbow is six colours. It is inferior to everything. It is an inferior number, less than whole, less than perfect. It is a lie.

And it will be burnt, in God's good time.





Friday 1 July 2016

Jesuits demand Holy Communion for all!

From the magazine published by Anthony Spadaro, S.J., a particularly close  Bergoglian confidant.


Communion For All, Even For Protestants


In addition to the divorced and remarried, for Luther’s followers as well there are those who are giving the go-ahead for the Eucharist. Here is how “La Civiltà Cattolica” interprets the pope’s enigmatic words on intercommunion

by Sandro Magister

http://www.chiesa
ROME, July 1, 2016 – In his way, after encouraging communion for the divorced and remarried, in that it “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,” Pope Francis is now also encouraging Protestants and Catholics to receive communion together at their respective Masses.

He is doing so, as always, in a discursive, allusive way, not definitional, leaving the ultimate decision to the individual conscience.

Still emblematic is the answer he gave on November 15, 2015, on a visit to the Christuskirche, the church of the Lutherans in Rome (see photo), to a Protestant who asked him if she could receive communion together with her Catholic husband.

The answer from Francis was a stupefying pinwheel of yes, no, I don’t know, you figure it out. Which it is indispensable to reread in its entirety, in the official transcription:

“Thank you, Ma’am. Regarding the question on sharing the Lord’s Supper, it is not easy for me to answer you, especially in front of a theologian like Cardinal Kasper! I’m afraid! I think the Lord gave us [the answer] when he gave us this command: ‘Do this in memory of me’. And when we share in, remember and emulate the Lord’s Supper, we do the same thing that the Lord Jesus did. And the Lord’s Supper will be, the final banquet will there be in the New Jerusalem, but this will be the last. Instead on the journey, I wonder – and I don’t know how to answer, but I am making your question my own – I ask myself: “Is sharing the Lord’s Supper the end of a journey or is it the viaticum for walking together? I leave the question to the theologians, to those who understand. It is true that in a certain sense sharing is saying that there are no differences between us, that we have the same doctrine – I underline the word, a difficult word to understand – but I ask myself: don’t we have the same Baptism? And if we have the same Baptism, we have to walk together. You are a witness to an even profound journey because it is a conjugal journey, truly a family journey, of human love and of shared faith. We have the same Baptism. When you feel you are a sinner – I too feel I am quite a sinner – when your husband feels he is a sinner, you go before the Lord and ask forgiveness; your husband does the same and goes to the priest and requests absolution. They are ways of keeping Baptism alive. When you pray together, that Baptism grows, it becomes strong; when you teach your children who Jesus is, why Jesus came, what Jesus did, you do the same, whether in Lutheran or Catholic terms, but it is the same. The question: and the Supper? There are questions to which only if one is honest with oneself and with the few theological lights that I have, one must respond the same, you see. ‘This is my Body, this is my Blood’, said the Lord, ‘do this in memory of me’, and this is a viaticum which helps us to journey. I had a great friendship with an Episcopalian bishop, 48 years old, married with two children, and he had this concern: a Catholic wife, Catholic children, and he a bishop. He accompanied his wife and children to Mass on Sundays and then went to worship with his community. It was a step of participating in the Lord’s Supper. Then he passed on, the Lord called him, a just man. I respond to your question only with a question: how can I participate with my husband, so that the Lord’s Supper may accompany me on my path? It is a problem to which each person must respond. A pastor friend of mine said to me: ‘We believe that the Lord is present there. He is present. You believe that the Lord is present. So what is the difference?’ – ‘Well, there are explanations, interpretations…’. Life is greater than explanations and interpretations. Always refer to Baptism: “One faith, one baptism, one Lord”, as Paul tells us, and take the outcome from there. I would never dare give permission to do this because I do not have the authority. One Baptism, one Lord, one faith. Speak with the Lord and go forward. I do not dare say more.”

It is impossible to gather a clear indication from these words. Of course, however, by speaking in such a “liquid” form Pope Francis has brought everything into question again, concerning intercommunion between Catholics and Protestants. He has made any position thinkable, and therefore practicable.

In fact, in the Lutheran camp the pope’s words were immediately taken as a go-ahead for intercommunion.

But now in the Catholic camp as well an analogous position statement has come, which presents itself above all as the authentic interpretation of the words Francis said at the Lutheran church of Rome.

Acting as the pope’s authorized interpreter is the Jesuit Giancarlo Pani, in the latest issue of “La Civiltà Cattolica,” the magazine directed by Fr. Antonio Spadaro that has now become the official voice of Casa Santa Marta, meaning of Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself, who reviews and adjusts the articles that most interest him before their publication.

Taking his cue from a recent joint declaration of the Catholic episcopal conference of the United States and of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Fr. Pani dedicates the entire second part of his article to the exegesis of the words of Francis at the Christuskirche in Rome, carefully selected from among those most useful for the purpose.

And he draws the conclusion from them that they marked “a change” and “a progress in pastoral practice,” analogous to the one produced by “Amoris Laetitia” for the divorced and remarried.

They are only “small steps forward,” Pani writes in the final paragraph. But the direction is set.

And it is the same one in which Francis moves when he declares – as he did during the return flight from Armenia – that Luther “was a reformer” with good intentions and his reform was “medicine for the Church,” skipping over the essential dogmatic divergences between Protestants and Catholics concerning the sacrament of the Eucharist, because – in the words of Francis at the Christuskirche in Rome – “life is greater than explanations and interpretations.”

So here are the main passages of the article by Fr. Pani in “La Civiltà Cattolica.”

____________

On intercommunion between Catholics and Protestants

 
by Giancarlo Pani, S.J.

On October 31, 2015, the feast of the Reformation, the Catholic episcopal conference of the United States and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America published a joint declaration that summarizes the history of ecumenism over the past half century. [. . .] The text was released after the closing of the synod of bishops on the family and in view of the shared commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. [. . .]

The document concludes with a significant positive proposal: “The possibility of occasional admission of members of our churches to Eucharistic communion with the other side (communicatio in sacris) could be offered more clearly and regulated more compassionately.” [. . .]

The visit of Pope Francis to the Christuskirche of Rome

Two weeks after the promulgation of the declaration, last November 15, Pope Francis visited the Christuskirche, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Rome. [. . .]

During the meeting, there was also a conversation between the pope and the faithful. Among the various contributions was that of a Lutheran lady, married to a Catholic, who asked what could be done so that she could participate together with her husband in Eucharistic communion. And she specified: “We have lived together happily for many years, sharing joys and pains. And therefore we are very much hurt by being divided in faith and not being able to participate together in the Lord’s Supper.”

Responding, Pope Francis posed a question: “Is sharing the Lord’s Supper the end of a journey or is it the viaticum for walking together?”

The answer to this question was given by Vatican II, in the decree “Unitatis Redintegratio”: “Yet worship in common (communicatio in sacris) is not to be considered as a means to be used indiscriminately for the restoration of Christian unity. There are two main principles governing the practice of such common worship: first, the bearing witness to the unity of the Church, and second, the sharing in the means of grace. Witness to the unity of the Church very generally forbids common worship to Christians, but the grace to be had from it sometimes commends this practice. The course to be adopted, with due regard to all the circumstances of time, place, and persons, is to be decided by local episcopal authority.”

This position is reiterated and expanded by the instructions for the application of the principles and norms on ecumenism of 1993, approved by Pope John Paul II, where it says: “The sharing of spiritual activities and resources must reflect this twofold reality: 1) the real communion in the life of the Spirit that already exists among Christians and is expressed in their prayer and in liturgical worship; 2) the incomplete character of this communion on account of differences of faith and because of ways of thinking that are irreconcilable with a full sharing of spiritual gifts.”

The instructions therefore place the accent on the “incomplete character of the communion” of the Churches, from which follows the limitation of access to the Eucharistic sacrament. But if the Churches recognize each other to be in apostolic succession and admit each others’ ministers and sacraments, they enjoy greater access to the sacraments themselves, which in any case, according to the document, must not be general and indiscriminate. Sacramental sharing instead remains limited for the Churches that do not have a communion and unity of faith on the Church, apostolicity, ministers, and sacraments.

Nonetheless, Catholic theology wisely maintains guidelines of ample breadth, in such a way as to consider case by case – as the decree “Unitatis Redintegratio” recalls – with a discernment that belongs to the local ordinary. In this sense, at least after the promulgation of the instructions, it can no longer be said that “non-Catholics can never receive communion in a Catholic Eucharistic celebration.” It is interesting to note how the same logic of “pastoral discernment” has been applied by Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” (nos. 304-306).

Can there be shared participation in the Lord’s Supper?

At this point it comes back to Pope Francis, who continues: “But do we not have the same baptism? And if we have the same baptism, we have to walk together. You [the pope is referring to the lady who posed the question] are a witness to a journey that can be profound, because it is a conjugal journey, truly a family journey, of human love and shared faith. [. . .] When you feel that you are a sinner – I too feel I am quite a sinner – when your husband feels that he is a sinner, you go before the Lord and ask forgiveness; your husband does the same  and goes to the priest and requests absolution. They are ways of keeping baptism alive. When you pray together, that baptism grows, it becomes strong. [. . .]  The question: and the Supper? There are questions to which only if one is honest with oneself and with the few theological lights that I have, one must respond the same. [. . .] ‘This is my body, this is my blood,’ said the Lord, ‘do this in memory of me,’ and this is a viaticum that helps us to journey.”

But then can there be shared participation in the Lord’s Supper? In this regard the pope has made a distinction: “I would never dare give permission to do this because I do not have the authority.” Then he added, recalling the words of the apostle Paul: “One baptism, one Lord, one faith (Eph 4:5), and he exhorted, continuing: “It is a problem to which each person must respond. [. . .] Speak with the Lord and go forward.”

Here there comes into play the Church’s main mission, also formulated in the Code of Canon Law as “salus animarum, quae in Ecclesia suprema lex esse debet” (cf. 1752). The necessity of a concrete evaluation on each individual case is absolutely reiterated from that which is the primary mission of the Church, the “salus animarum.” By virtue of which, in the face of extreme cases, access to the life of grace that the sacraments guarantee, above all in the case of the administration of the Eucharist and of reconciliation, becomes a pastoral and moral imperative.

The pastoral approach of Pope Francis

The pope’s position seems to be a reaffirmation of the instructions of Vatican II. But there is no overlooking the fact that a change has taken place, and it can even be understood as progress in pastoral practice. In fact Francis, as bishop of Rome and pastor of the universal Church, in reiterating what was affirmed by the Council inserts that practice within the historical journey that the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue carried out with regard to the sacrament of reconciliation and of the Eucharist. The 1993 instructions already noted that “in certain circumstances, by way of exception and under particular conditions, admission to these sacraments can be authorized and even recommended for Christians of other Churches and ecclesial communities.”

Moreover, ten years before, the Code of Canon Law dictated the conditions under which the faithful of Churches born from the Reformation (Lutherans, Anglicans, etc.) can receive the sacraments in particular circumstances: for example, if they “cannot approach a minister of their own community and seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed” (can. 844 § 4).

Pope John Paul II, in the 2003 encyclical letter “Ecclesia de Eucharistia,” clarified several points in this regard, asserting that “these conditions, from which no dispensation can be given, must be carefully respected, even though they deal with specific individual cases,” like that of “the danger of death or some other grave necessity.” The intention of these clarifications is always the pastoral care of persons, with special attention that this not lead to indifferentism.

Here it must be made clear that if on the one hand the prudential and restrictive measures that the Church set up in the past were based on sacramental theology, on the other its pastoral mission and the salvation of souls that it has at its heart reveal the value of the Lord’s grace and the sharing of spiritual goods. Pope Francis has expressed particular attention for the problems of persons in the “communicatio in sacris,” in the light of the developments in Church teaching from the Council to the 1993 instructions on principles and norms of ecumenism, from the 1999 joint declaration on the doctrine of justification to the 2013 text “From conflict to communion,” up to the latest declaration of 2015.


This is a matter of small steps forward in pastoral practice. Norms and doctrine must be guided ever more by the evangelical logic of mercy, by the pastoral care of the faithful, by attention to the problems of the person and by the enhancement of the conscience illuminated by the Gospel and by the Spirit of God.

Benedict XVI admits "gay lobby" power in Vatican

Joseph Ratzinger should have outed these filthy rats. Now, Jorge Bergoglio has become their best friend.


pope-benedict_cfn

In memoirs, ex Pope Benedict saysVatican 'gay lobby' tried to wield power: report

By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions, a leading Italian newspaper reported on Friday.
The book, called "The Last Conversations", is the first time in history that a former pope judges his own pontificate after it is over. It is due to be published on Sept. 9.
Citing health reasons, Benedict in 2013 became the first pope in six centuries to resign. He promised to remain "hidden to the world" and has been living in a former convent in the Vatican gardens.Italy's Corriere della Sera daily, which has acquired the Italian newspaper rights for excerpts and has access to the book, ran a long article on Friday summarizing its key points.
In the book, Benedict says that he came to know of the presence of a "gay lobby" made up of four or five people who were seeking to influence Vatican decisions. The article says Benedict says he managed to "break up this power group".
Benedict resigned following a turbulent papacy that included the so-call "Vatileaks" case, in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters and other documents that alleged corruption and a power struggle in the Vatican.
Italian media at the time reported that a faction of prelates who wanted to discredit Benedict and pressure him to resign was behind the leaks.
POPE'S DIARY
The Church has maintained its centuries-long opposition to homosexual acts.
But rights campaigners have long said many gay people work for the Vatican and Church sources have said they suspect that some have banded together to support each other's careers and influence decisions in the bureaucracy.
Benedict, who now has the title "emeritus pope," has always maintained that he made his choice to leave freely and Corriere says that in the book Benedict "again denies blackmail or pressure".He says he told only a few people close to him of his intention to resign, fearing it would be leaked before he made the surprise announcement on Feb. 11, 2013.
The former pope, in the book-long interview with German writer Peter Seewald, says he had to overcome his own doubts on the effect his choice could have on the future of the papacy.He says that he was "incredulous" when cardinals meeting in a secret conclave chose him to succeed the late Pope John Paul II in 2005 and that he was "surprised" when the cardinals chose Francis as his successor in 2013.
Anger over the dysfunctional state of the Vatican bureaucracy in 2013 was one factor in the cardinal electors' decision to choose a non-European pope for the first time in nearly 1,300 years.Benedict "admits his lack of resoluteness in governing," Corriere says.
In the book, whose lead publisher is Germany's Droemer Knaur, Benedict says he kept a diary throughout his papacy but will destroy it, even though he realizes that for historians it would be a "golden opportunity".
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/memoirs-ex-pope-benedict-says-vatican-gay-lobby-105129237.html