Tag: Pope Francis

The Dangers of Moral Therapeutic Deism

 

Yesterday, Pope Francis tweeted that we must “learn from the meekness of plants” in dealing with the ecosystem and environment. To wit:

Pope Francis Finally Weighs In on the Overturning of Roe v Wade

 

Faithful Catholics all over the US have been waiting to hear from Pope Francis on the recent SCOTUS decision on Dobbs and the overturn of Roe v Wade. Receiving a joyous and heartfelt message from the Pope would be a great gift to all those who have prayed and sacrificed and worked for this day.

However, it wasn’t what we expected. As one has heard, a picture tells a thousand words.

Pastoral Failure or Council of the Wicked?

 

John Paul II and FrancisPope Francis is no John Paul II. This past weekend, an image of Pope Francis with Nancy Pelosi called to mind a famous image of Pope John Paul II with a Nicaraguan priest and Daniel Ortega. Ernesto Cardenal was a Roman Catholic priest serving as the minister of culture in the Marxist government. He and the dictator in designer glasses, Daniel Ortega, expected a great visual as they welcomed the Pope on the tarmac. Nancy Pelosi expected the same from Pope Francis. History did not repeat itself, and this pope appears to be steadily undoing the work and teaching of his prominent predecessor.

Not only was Ernesto Cardenal wrapping up Marxism in priests’ robes, he was part of a small group of leftist clerics who were collaborating with Ortega in the Sandinista government’s suppression of the official Catholic leadership. Pope John Paul II invoked “dark ages,” referring to the anticlericalism of the Mexican Revolution and other leftist Latin American movements earlier in the 2oth century. In this context, John Paul confronted the errant priest and the priest’s real boss, the dictator in designer sunglasses.

When confronted with the subversion of sound Christian doctrine by socialists, appending “liberation” to “theology,” John Paul responded forcefully both in official writings and in his wise use of the media. He avoided giving the Sandinistas and their heretical pet priest a world media victory, instead generating an unmistakable photographic image of the Church rejecting liberation theology. Caring about a priest, or any other member of the body, who has persistently strayed and refuses correction, means more than another gentle conversation.

Pope Francis Drops a Bomb on the Church

 

Friday, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio” entitled, Traditionis Custodes.(TC)

This letter severely restricts the use of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM), effectively throwing Benedict XVI and his issuance of Summorum Pontificum (SP), under the bus. Pope Benedict XVI issued SP in order to help those faithful who “continued to be attached with such love and affection to the earlier liturgical forms which had deeply shaped their culture and spirit.” Apparently, Pope Francis doesn’t think that’s necessary anymore.

Vatican Denies ‘Very Catholic’ Biden a Mass with Pope Francis

 

From taxpayer-funded abortion to suing the Little Sisters of the Poor, the dogma lives loudly in our very Catholic president. So, Tuesday morning, he’s popping into the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis. Never wanting to miss a photo-op, Team Biden asked that the president attend mass with the Pontifex Maximus. Maybe Joe could make intercessory prayers to St. Margaret Sanger and Pachamama.

The Vatican, however, wasn’t too keen on the idea. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Wednesday to create a committee to write a document about “Eucharistic coherence.” That’s already a tense enough issue without a pro-abortion politician receiving communion with Pope Francis. They informed Biden that a mass wasn’t going to happen.

The issue has jumped to the fore with Biden’s election because one is not supposed to participate in the Eucharist when in a state of sin. I mean, it’s right there in the Book:

If I Were the Pope, I’d Deal with China Differently

 

The Catholic Church, in her long and storied history, has lots of experience dealing with dictatorial powers that see her as a rival.

Throughout much of European history, bishops were a different class of wealthy noblemen. Rulers rightly saw bishops as potential threats. Many kings and princes attempted to control the ability to appoint the bishops within their rule. The response of the Church varied over time and place, but the essential lesson is that the Church should not, can not, cede her power to appoint bishops to the local authorities. When she does, it goes badly.

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I haven’t studied this topic but wanted to throw out small observations I’ve had. The sample size is small but I wanted to see what Ricochet thought about the topic. Recently, someone here on Ricochet recommended the book The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I just finished it and it’s an interesting read. A radio […]

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Back to the Pews

 

In honor of this special day, I thought I’d write a brief (edit: I tried to keep it brief, I really did!) response to a post @westernchauvinist put together some time ago. Here, she asked the Ricochetti what it would take to bring them back to church. Though it elicited many thoughts at the time, I’m finally getting back to you, WC.

Excepting the funeral masses I’ve worked this year, this has been the first I attended all year – before I’m accused of being one of those who steals the seats of you regular attendees during the holidays, I’ll admit that I haven’t gone to a Christmas Mass in years. I wasn’t raised in the Catholic Church, but I’ve known for some time that the church of my mother’s family is the one I belong to, and that any return to a hospital for sinners would be to a Catholic hospital.

The Pope, Pachamama, Politics, and the Periphery: Everything Is Connected

 

In a previous post, I characterized the currently ongoing Amazonian Synod as “one of the more bizarre (and potentially very destructive) events of the Francis pontificate.” Little did I know of the horrors that were about to occur when I wrote that.

On Friday, October 4, to get the festivities rolling, a “tree-planting” ceremony took place in the Vatican Gardens to consecrate the synod to St. Francis of Assisi. But what we got was a pagan ritual centered around the now infamous Pachamama.

What Does One Do When the Pope Is Woke?

 

One of the more bizarre (and potentially very destructive) events of the Francis pontificate will take place October 6-27 in Rome. It is a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, entitled Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology. The lead-up to this synod consisted of talk about the lack of priests in the Pan-Amazon region and that, without priests, the Sacraments were not available on a regular basis. This is a serious concern for a Church given the mission by Jesus Christ to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

A story like this, wherein the Institute of the Consolata for Foreign Missions – a Catholic mission, mind you – has had priests and laypeople working among the Yanomamis in Brazil but have failed to baptize one single soul, gives a face to this serious concern.

One might think that a Jesuit pope would look to the Society of Jesus to find a good missionary priest or two cut from the mold of St. Francis Xavier or Matteo Ricci or St. Isaac Jogues or St. Jean de Brebeuf to go to the Amazon region and preach the Gospel. Or one might think that this special gathering of bishops in Rome to (allegedly) deal with a priest shortage might be about evangelization and an increase in missionary activity.

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Remember Uncle Ted? Theodore McCarrick? Former cardinal of the Catholic Church and money man/glad hander for Pope Francis? If you don’t, he is the despicable homo-predator and poster boy for the sex abuse crisis in the USA. And other than being forced to live a life of prayer and penance, and relegated to the lay […]

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Pope Francis has just completed a 3-day Apostolic Journey to the United Arab Emirates. This trip comes 800 years after the meeting of St. Francis of Assisi with the Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. It made history for the fact that Pope Francis prayed the first papal mass on the Arabian Peninsula and for the signing, by Pope […]

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Pope Francis marked World Day of the Sick this week by meditating on Matthew 10:8: “Freely you have received, freely give.”  Some of his thoughts: Volunteer work passes on values, behaviours and ways of living born of a deep desire to be generous. It is also a means of making health care more humane. A […]

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The 90’s came and went. The priestly abuse scandal came, went and returned. Little was done to fix the problem. As has been discussed here, those who tried to act meaningfully were marginalized. Now, of all people, it looks like Francis is taking action. https://nypost.com/2018/12/03/pope-francis-says-gay-men-shouldnt-join-catholic-clergy/   Preview Open

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As a confessional Lutheran, I have followed the discussions here concerning the latest cascade of scandals from the Roman Catholic Church. I have sat silently on provocative observations on the daggers that Martin Luther thrust into the corpulent target of  the 16th Century papal rule and conduct. Those responses are not constructive today. Those sheep […]

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In his 1987 Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope St. John Paul II, deviated from the custom of giving a year-in-review address and instead spoke of a new vision for the Church. The work of the great Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar had suggested that four biblical images of the Church, based on […]

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‘To Bear Witness to Corruption in the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church Was a Painful Decision’

 

So begins the third “testimony” of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, on the ongoing sexual abuse/coverup scandal in the Church (h/t @9thdistrictneighbor). With this latest installment of “he said”/”he said,” Archbishop Viganò restates the key points of his original testimony and also answers the rebuke he received from Marc Cardinal Ouellet.

It was good to have the key points listed succinctly and to have an answer to Cardinal Ouellet’s letter, but what touched me most were the reasons Viganò gave for writing his testimonies. He strikes me as a man of great faith (which is in direct contrast to how I view those involved in this scandal).