Pope Francis at his weekly General audience, which I did not attend as we are being kept very busy in the sabbatical program at the moment, said the following, which is a reiteration of what he has said before:
Dear Brothers and Sisters: today I wish to continue our catechesis on the Church by reflecting on an image used by the early Fathers and the Second Vatican Council: the Church as our Mother. By reflecting on the human experience of maternity, we understand that the Church is like our own Mothers. First, like our Mothers, the Church gives us the gift of life. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we are reborn as children of God and receive his life. While faith is a personal act, we also recognize that faith comes to us through others – our families and communities who teach us how to believe. Second, like our Mothers, the Church nourishes us, helps us to grow, teaches us the path to follow, and accompanies us in life, especially in our illnesses and sufferings, through the Sacraments and the Word of God. Third, it is also our mission to go forth and share in the maternity of the Church by bringing others to a life of faith. And so we ask ourselves, do we love the Church as our Mother, who helps us to grow as Christians? And how do we go beyond ourselves in order to bring Christ to others? As faithful children, let us bring the light of Christ to the ends of the earth.
MY COMMENTS: Our new Holy Father is such an enigma. One really can't read him thoroughly, either through Benedict or anyone else and in some ways he seems like a throw back to the 1970's and in other ways he seems to be correcting the Church's course through the hermeneutic of continuity as it concerns the devotional life of the Church and the language of popular devotions.
TIme and time again, His Holiness refers to the Church as Mother. He wants nuns/sisters to act as mothers not ideologues praising Mother Earth and other goddess ideas. The Holy Father has criticized some of them for being old maids, spinsters.
He wants us to have a profound love for our Blessed Mother and a profound devotion to her.
He wants us to realize the devil is real and the sourse of all lies. This hasn't gotten him into trouble yet, but just wait.
Talk of the devil in imitation of Pope Francis has gotten His Excellency Most Reverend John Nienstedt, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis into hotwater with those who are promoting the homosexualist agenda.
He has some tough-love comments for proponents of same-sex “marriage”.
Today, many evil forces have set their sights on the dissolution of marriage and the debasing of family life. Sodomy, abortion, contraception, pornography, the redefinition of marriage, and the denial of objective truth are just some of the forces threatening the stability of our civilization. The source of these machinations is none other than the Father of Lies. Satan knows all too well the value that the family contributes to the fabric of a good solid society, as well as the future of God’s work on earth.
If any priest were bold enough to preach these words today, either in imitation of His Holiness Pope Francis or His Excellency Archbishop Nienstedt, they would be crucified by their parishioners and if the press got a hold of it by the press itself.
So we have Pope Francis helping to rehabilitate "Liberation Theology" but not as a political movement, but as a movement of the Church to liberate us from the devil, to liberate us from same sex marriage, oppressive government regimes, from hatred of our brothers and sisters and toward helping the needy, the refugees, and those who live on the periphery of society.
This is Catholicism in its purist sense. God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Blessed Mother as Mother of God and of the Church, the Blessed Mother as the first Christian and praying to Her son on behalf of her children all the baptized.
The devil is here to thwart us from God, from the Church, from the Blessed Mother and from the truth. Make the connections. This is all about orthodoxy but said in a way, a coded way, that gets the truth across for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. Pope Francis teaches as Jesus did and almost in a parable form.
7 comments:
The Pope also seems to have said that Atheists can get to Heaven by being people of good conscience because God's Mercy is all encompassing. So if I get that reasoning straight there's really absolutely for me to try and live the life of a faithful Catholic. I mean Mass, Communion, Devotions, Sacrifice, Fasting, Confession, Mortification, and all the countless things that Catholics do are really meaningless trappings of a deluded people who believe in God, and that if I spend my days renouncing such people as loons, but live a life of good conscience (I assume here we're just going to follow the 10 commandmants as "social rules") then *poof* I'm in.
So, tell me again Holy Father, why should I be a Catholic?
If any priest were bold enough to preach these words today . . . they would be crucified by their parishioners . . ."
Actually, Fr. John A. Orr has said these same things in his EF sermons in Knoxville (and, I assume, also in his OF sermons) and has not yet been crucified for it (at least, not literally).
'What must I do to be saved?"
"Believe on Him who was sent."
"I am the Resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
The Pope needs to review Scripture a bit. It is fine and good to emphasize the love of Christ and His desire to bring everyone into his fold...but, God's mercy does, indeed, have limits...unless Scripture is lying.
Also, a review of Augustine will remind us that our "conscience," though able to lead us to some realization of God's existence and creative power, is darkened by sin and cannot, by itself, lead us to belief in Christ.
This was always a contention between Catholics and Calvinists...Catholics charging Calvinists with denying the imago Dei, and Calvinists charging Catholics with being soft on sin and giving too large a role to human initiative. The struggle continues...
Henry, Fr. Riehl said much of this at SJN in Farragut, to much criticism (though mostly from his pastor, I think.) In my own parish, Fr. Okeke always gave strong homilies, with hard teachings, and I know he received many complaints from the laity. He was in his first assignment after ordination, so has been reassigned, but happily, only a few miles away.
Templar: You ask an excellent question. I have asked myself this question too. I think there are several possible answers that could be given but for the moment I want to mention the simplest and most direct one: Because God called me to be a Catholic. Whatever other more sophisticated answers may be given, this simple one suffices, at least for me. It is the one I give when I am asked why I remain a Catholic, even though I sometimes give other more elaborate reasons too.
The Pope did NOT say that atheists can get to heaven by "having a good conscience." For many years now the media is likely to get it wrong when reporting on the Church. http://www.catholicvote.org/what-pope-francis-really-said-about-atheists/
I read the entire letter. It is still careless theological language leaning toward indifferentism.
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