This interview with a Chicago television station by Archbishop Blase Cupich is encouraging actually.
When he says the critics of the pope are the conservatives, I think he means this in a political way and not just religious. Political conservatives who aren't even Catholic do not like Pope Francis' theology of the economy or his encyclical Laudato Si. In fact in one of my classes on the encyclical I pondered out loud that some of this stuff could get him killed by those in power in governments and financial institutions and I mean that quite literally. They are the new communists trying to destabilize the pope and Church.
While Archbishop Cupich is very pastoral, he isn't selling the Catholic farm out to the fads and trends of today's political and economic world. He's saying no to cafeteria Catholics. Even though this is heavily edited, it is very hopeful I think:
6 comments:
"While Archbishop Cupich is very pastoral, he isn't selling the Catholic farm out to the fads and trends of today's political and economic world."
Father, sometimes you make me wonder just what planet it is that you live on.
Marc, please beam me up...
"While Archbishop Cupich is very pastoral, he isn't selling the Catholic farm out to the fads and trends of today's political and economic world."
https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/abp-cupich-conscience-decides-whether-divorced-remarried-and-homosexual-couples
Asked if he would likewise accompany homosexual couples into receiving the sacraments according to their consciences, Archbishop Cupich replied: “Gay people are human beings, too; they have a conscience, and my role as a pastor is to help them to discern what the will of God is by looking at the objective moral teaching of the Church.”
But he added that, “at the same time,” his role as a pastor is to help them “through a period of discernment, to understand what God is calling them to at that point, so it’s for everybody.”
“We have to be sure we don’t pigeonhole one group as though they’re not part of the human family, as though there’s a different set of rules for them,” he said. “That would be a big mistake.”
On both contentious issues — holy Communion for the divorced and remarried and for those in same-sex unions — the archbishop appeared to be essentially placing the importance of conscience above the Church’s teaching.
During the press briefing he gave last week at the Vatican, Archbishop Cupich said that he had given Cardinal Kasper's book to all the priests of his archdiocese (he had done the same when he was in Spokane) "I wanted them to read that because I thought it was very rich theologically," he said.
He brought up the "The inviolability of the conscience" but he, to my understanding,(from other things he has said) is mis-applying that principle. If one held to that principle as an absolute, could Communion be denied to even a heretic?
He also said (as with DJR's comment above):
"I think that it's for everybody," he said. "I think we have to make sure that we don't pigeonhole one group as though they're not part of the human family, so there's a different set of rules for them. That would be, I think, a big mistake."
We need to make sure to pray for Archbishop Cupich and all the priests under him.
There is no "different set of rules" separating one group from another. As one learns from Scripture, God' s laws apply equally to everyone.
This is also true with many of man's laws, at least in principle (man's justice being imperfect). It is required by state law that in order to legally drive, one must pass an exam and pay for a driver's license, and additionally, one must secure and pay for an insurance policy. This law applies to everyone who wishes to drive - rich and poor alike. Are not God's precepts more important than man's? Because of God's Mercy, the consequences of breaking Divine law are not immediate. " If thou, O Lord, will mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it."
God gives us a chance to repent, confess and atone for our transgressions. Unfortunately, there are far too many today, who because of their presumption and sinfulness, stand little chance of being the beneficiary of God's clemency, benevolence and solicitude.
For these we must pray also.
Given Archbishop Cupich's history of timidity masquerading as pastoral sensitivity, and his restrictive measures against pro lifers in his former diocese (Spokane)—http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2011/09/i-dont-get-bp-cupich.html—I am not inclined to include him in the reliable-witness-to-the-Gospel file.
Yes, Father, I am inclined to agree that those (self declared progressives) who have amply demonstrated a marked propensity to obfuscate and bear false witness are certainly capable of engaging in the kind of intrigue you suggest.
I think Fr Ray Blake sums up Cupich rather well:
"The more I read from the Synod, the madder it all seems Who let Archbishop Cupich make his first Holy Communion, let alone ordained him, have you read him on individual conscience? I can't recogise it as being Catholic. Substitute pederast or necrophile or bestiophiles, along with mass murderers, Klu Klux Klan members, people traffickers and members of the Mafia for the categories of people he would 'accompany' (what does that really mean?) and admit to Holy Communion and see where his thesis leads, "the individuals conscience is supreme" - lunacy!"
And talking of the state of the Church he notes that morale among the clergy in Rome is very low:
"I had a long conversation with a priest friend who told me his former boss now acts as a spiritual director amongst the Roman diocesan clergy and is deeply worried about their low morale. I can well imagine that those Sta Martha sermons, which have been published in a huge volume, tend to be critical and finger pointing rather than up building, even in their modified Vatican Radio form."
He talks about the problems the Church is facing and hits the nail on the head:
"it is to the Person of Jesus that we must return to, which was the concept that Ratzinger based his papacy on. Christ is our only hope. there is no hope for us but Christ. This is what the African bishops and the powerful voices at the Synod seem to be saying. This is possibly not what observers see in Pope Francis. Francis articulates well the call to mercy, a call that is heard among the peripheries, but in the heart of the Church what people seem to be searching for is the Person of Jesus Christ, not a simple phenomena like mercy, but the Mercy of Jesus in His Incarnation and the power of His grace to transform.
Nigerian Cardinal John Onaiyekan has said he would not be surprised to see an African pope in his lifetime.
Confusion ('hagan lio') tends to destroy trust rather than build it up. Faith is dependent on trust. People believed the Apostles because they found them trustworthy witnesses. They were called not to have faith in the Apostles but Jesus Christ.
Is one of the problems of the Francis papacy that we are called to trust him, rather than his Master. Is one of the problems with the Francis papacy that will inevitably lead it to its doom, that he has surrounded himself with men who prove themselves to be untrustworthy. A dreadful truth is you can tell a man by his friends.
Will we be able trust the Papacy after it all?"
http://marymagdalen.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/the-synod-of-mistrust.html
I personally think, no, it is too late now that Pope Francis because of his liberal appointments to the synod.
Jan
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