The Faithful remnant, for the most part, want clarity, want vigor and want culture warriors to name it as it is and get the troops fired up, not placated. Well, if that is what you want in a bishop or pope, we may have it in Cardinal Robert Sarah.
The only question I pose is this. Is Cardinal Sarah a remnant of an old hermeneutic of being "Christ against the Culture" when the new hermenuetic under Pope Francis is "Christ transforming the culture by being a part of it?" This means confirming what is good and only indirectly condemning this, that and the other.
In terms of Pope Francis ambiguity as it concerns his exhortation, "The Joy of Love" we should all be grateful. This exhortation is 99% wonderful. The 1% that is ambiguous is that, ambiguous but it isn't infallible.
Another pope, let's say one like Cardinal Sarah, could easily clear up the ambiguity of this document or even the current Holy Father could do it subsequently. Nothing is in stone but could have been if the exhortation had been an encyclical which it isn't.
But here is the culture warrior from Africa who doesn't mince His Eminence's words and no hint of ambiguity can be found!
Vatican Cardinal to Americans: ‘In Your Nation, God Is Being Eroded, Eclipsed, Liquidated’
Cardinal
Robert Sarah, keynote speaker at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast
in Washington, D.C. on May 17, 2016. (CNSNews/Hollingsworth)
(CNSNews.com) -- "In your nation, God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated," Cardinal Robert Sarah, who was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis in 2014, told hundreds of prominent Catholic clergy and lay people attending the 12th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Tuesday in Washington.
In what he called "portentous times" for the Catholic Church and for the world, Cardinal Sarah condemned same-sex marriage, transgender bathroom laws, and attacks on the family as "demonic".
“All manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, it is even promoted as a social good,” the African cardinal said. “The result is hostility to Christians and increasingly, religious persecution.”
“This is not an ideological war between competing ideas,” Sarah told the D.C. gathering. “This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from the demonic idolatry that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off an entire generation from God.”
“The entire world looks to you, waiting and praying to see what America resolves on the present unprecedented challenges the world faces today. Such is your influence and responsibility,” said the archbishop emeritus of Conakry, Guinea.
“I encourage you to truly make use of the freedom willed by your founding fathers lest you lose it,” he warned his American audience.
Quoting St. John Paul II that “the future of the world and the Church pass through the family,” Sarah pointed out that “this is why the Holy Father openly and vigorously defends Church teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, the education of children, and much more.”
“The generous and responsible love of spouses made visible through the self-giving of parents who welcome children as a gift of God makes love visible in our generation. It makes present the perfect charity of eternity. ‘If you see charity, you see the Trinity,’ wrote St. Augustine,” the cardinal noted.
However, a broken family can also be the source of deep psychological wounds, he said.
“The rupture of the foundational relationship of someone’s life through separation, divorce or distorted imposters of the family such as co-habitation or same-sex unions is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love into death, and even leads to cynicism and despair. These situations cause damage to the little children through inflicting upon them deep existential doubt about love….
"This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given anthropological foundations, and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving good news of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.”
“Sadly, the advent of artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, so-called homosexual marriage, and other evils of gender idolatry will inflict even more wounds in the midst of the generation we live with,” said Sarah, who is also the author of God or Nothing.
“Advanced societies including, I regret, this nation, have done and continue to do anything possible to legalize such situations….This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church in every society.”
The cardinal warned that “hidden” forms of religious persecution are just as damaging to believers as physical attacks.
"This form of religious persecution is equally damaging, yet more hidden. It does not destroy physically, but spiritually… This is the will of the Evil One: to close Heaven out of envy.
“Do we not see signs of this insidious war in this great nation of the United States?" Sarah asked.
"In the name of tolerance, the Church’s teaching on marriage, sexuality and [the] human person are being dismantled. The legalization of same-sex marriage, your beginning to accept contraception within healthcare programs and even bathroom bills that allow men to use the women’s restroom and locker rooms.
“Should not a biological man use the men’s restroom? How simpler can that concept be?” the cardinal asked to applause and laughter from the audience.
“How low we are sinking for a nation built on a set of moral claims about God, the human person, the meaning of life and the purpose of society, even by America’s first settlers and founders….
“George Washington wrote that the establishment of civil and religious liberty was the motive that induced him into the field of battle. Today we find ourselves before the battle of sickness…. I call this sickness the liquidation, the eclipse of God.”
The Church’s challenge today is to “fight with courage and hope… and not be afraid to raise her voice to denounce the hypocrites, manipulators and the false prophets” who would lead the faithful astray.
“The battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge the world has faced since its origins,” Sarah said.
“Be prophetic, be faithful, pray” for the soul of America and to “help stem the tide of evil that is spreading throughout the world,” the cardinal exhorted. “For in the end, it is God or nothing.”
50 comments:
Pontifex subito!
Listen......DO NOT GET YOUR HOPES UP. Cardinal Sarah will not be the next pope. The same bunch that supposedly validly elected Bergoglio are still there. Not only that Francis has increased the numbers of heterodox or if you prefer apostates to the college of cardinals. The next pope will be worse than this one. It's going to get any better but much worse. Much much worse. My crystal ball tells me hat the next pope will not walk out onto the balcony but into the square of St. Peter's wearing a tab shirt and black suit. All the liberals have to make a bigger splash than their predecessors. That pope will end clerical celibacy, ordain women deacons, permit contraception, bless gay unions etc. it's going to get worse. Most Catholics are like the commenter on this blog who was more than happy that "for the most part" Pope Francis was obedient to most of what Jesus said. Jesus who said a married man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Yes the same adultery that Francis doesn't really have a problem with. But when you have a pope who equates the great commission of Christ with Islamic jihad that kind of what happens.
I do not expect to see a conservative Pope. I think the hierarchy is terrified of the African Bishops because the African Bishops actually believe in God and take the Creeds seriously and the Faith seriously. We'll get someone much like Francis with the exception that he knows how to keep his mouth shut.
The dilemma is that a truth-loving pope will simply be ignored at best, or vilified at worst, by the lukewarm Catholics and the larger society. Pope Francis, on the other hand, is able to soften the hearts of the lukewarm and the world, not enough to lead the lukewarm to repentance or the world to conversion, but enough to delay the inevitable showdown between the West and the Church. Which is better?
A Pope who can soften the hearts of the lukewarm is, in every respect, to be preferred to one who quenches the smoldering wick, n'est-ce pas?
Dialogue, serious questions for you: Which of the approaches that you mentioned do you think the apostles took? How about the evangelists who traveled to the new world and throughout Asia in more recent centuries?
Based on the results those groups were able to obtain, do you think there is evidence to suggest that whatever approach they took should be emulated in our time?
If the world situation (culture, communication, self-awareness, education levels, etc) were today the same today as it was in the time of the Apostles and Missionaries of "more recent centuries," then, yes, use the same methods.
But, the situation is not the same - in many places it is vastly different. Hence, I think the methodology for contemporary evangelization must necessarily be different, while maintaining the core message of the Gospel.
Lulu, re the final eight words of your 9:59 post: what would you define as "core message" and what can we safely exclude from it? Can we exclude, for example, judgment, hell, priestly celibacy, limitations on birth control, a male-only priesthood, and denial of Communion to those who are publicly embracing an ongoing state of mortal sin?
Sometimes the pendulum swings back and forth further and further in chaotic times. In which case we might expect the successor of Francis to be more conservative than Benedict, and then the next pope to be . . .
In support of which I heard someone seemingly close to the pulse of the hierarchy say the majority of the bishops (at least in the U.S.) are secretly horrified by the present pope's apparent encouragement of heteordoxy among the unwary faithful, and that in a do-over of the last conclave, he wouldn't get more than 10 votes.
What does "self-awareness" mean in this context? And what does it have to do with evangelization?
That is an excellent point, Lulu. I have been trying to think about these differences and their implications recently. This could be the occasion for a very interesting and illuminating discussion. As a starter, are you aware of any sources that already examine these differences and what they mean for Catholics today?
Also, was the world situation the same at the time of the apostles as it was at the time of the missionaries? Did those two groups, separated by so much time, employ the same or different methods? If they employed the same methods, then why did the passage of time not change the effectiveness of the methodology?
"Christ transforming the culture by being a part of it"? Give me a break. Pope Francis, like his favorite serene theologian Kasper, wants nothing so much as to transform the Church to take on the moral beliefs of the world, ditch Catholic teachings on morality, and embrace all the politically correct left wing nostrums, like socialism, the climate change scam, massive government redistribution and control, borderless unrestrained immigration, coddling of Islamic terrorists, etc., etc., etc.
The medium is often the message. What do you consider the "core message" of the Gospels?
If Pope Francis is doing all this to say "nice doggie" to the increasingly atheistic, secularist post-Christian West with the idea that he's buying time for the Remnant to gather strength then he's a greater master than anyone. Of course it could be that this is what the Holy Spirit is doing regardless of his intent or planning because it IS what's going on. The secular western world is much like the USSR was in the 1980s: it has a lot of well founded reasons to believe a little more time, a little more subversion, a little more undermining will result in a collapse of the Church/Christendom without open hostilities being needed. In the end, the Communists were the ones who lost not the West. So long as we don't get open hostilities, we stand a chance - or so the thinking goes.
On the other hand, the undeniable historical fact remains that the overwhelming majority of robust Catholic communities are the immediate or recent witnesses of martyrs in their midst at the hands of hostile secular regimes. No one likes being a second class citizen, no one likes paying the price of martyrdom or social scorn to chose Christ over Mammon or Christ over some Idol, but in the end, that either/or challenge does result in a small but densely packed Catholic community full of heroic folk. Once the open hostilities end, these folk and their immediate children almost always go on to produce a boom in every sort of ministry until the cycle starts over again.
Here's what I know: since 1965 the 'institutional church' has seen incredible declines in almost every category except Deacons. Almost all Catholic hospitals and higher education have been subverted and taken over by anti-Catholic zealots. Catholic school enrollment is down, participation is down, etc.... BUT.... BUT those Catholic colleges that remain authentically Catholic have grown incredibly more influential than their relative size would suggest. When 12% of annual ordinands (newly ordained priests) in the ENTIRE COUNTRY can credit having gone to a Franciscan University of Steubenville youth conference as a reason for discerning their vocation you can see how that David is filling Giant shoes.
Homeschooling now has more total students than exist in private schools and is growing by 5-7% annually.
The off-grid movement, local farmer co-op movement, the NRA and other movements are all reactionary to be sure but they're growing by leaps and bounds each year as people lose faith in the current institutions of social, political and economic power.
So if the West does decide to go for open hostility (which I've long claimed that THEY WILL), it will not be an action based on confidence but on DESPERATION. The Nazis' final solution wasn't one of confidence but of terror. Just as the current spate of ISIS and other Muslim groups' behavior isn't the action of people who sincerely believe the very warp and woof of reality "is on their side" because if that were the case, they'd not be in a hurry.
If you don't believe in your side's ability to calmly and patiently persuade people to the righteousness of your position, you will necessarily seek to 'speed history up' by state mandates and force.
I don't look forward to carrying the cross or crucifixion. I don't look forward to open persecution because I know I will stand to pay a heavy price. But if and when it comes we shouldn't consider it "the end" but the beginning of the beginning.
To back up my thinking on socio-political open hostilities leading initially to a smaller Church and then a new spring time, I turn to two chief sources besides the historical record.
1) All the Marian apparitions of the past 300 years speak of a general apostasy, general decline in faith, morals, civility, and respect for the weak, elderly, children, clergy, and innocents....but then after the darkest days, a restoration of grace to the world in a new spring time of faith, hope, and charity.
2) modern day theoreticians point to the fragility of the social compact which allows governments to keep order with relatively few police or internal security forces in that the vast majority of people believe both people and government are playing by the same set of rules. Once people begin to not just think but are convinced that the state operates by a double standard, no amount of whiz-bang surveillance and no amount of militarized police and security agents will be enough to keep Humpty Dumpty together again. One very popular fictional account (written by a former SEAL) is here: http://sillysheeple.com/blog-archive/article/-matt-bracken-what-i-saw-at-the-coup-
Basically, Bracken accepts as a given that some would-be Napoleon or Hitler or Mao would score impressive and certain victories over hated ideological opponents in the initial stages of open hostilities. But once more and more people wake up to the new set of rules, the shooting gallery will become a two way street and the US, unlike any other similar country on earth is absolutely awash in people capable and equipped as genuine snipers (i.e. capable of 1 shot, 1 kill from over 400 meters - where targets are so small you can't identify them with the naked eye and certainly can't track the direction of a single gunshot). If the social compact breaks down, there won't be enough bunkers and security minions to defend the low level minions and the whole shebang will disintegrate.
Prosaically it's because an open hand can hold more sand than a closed fist. The more a government treats its people with contempt and they feel this contempt, the less secure that government becomes.
1.2 billion Catholics organized in 5000 dioceses hold together despite there not being a global Vatican Police force to 'hold the line'. Meanwhile 310 million people have 2.5 million soldiers, sailors, marines, etc. plus another 1 million police and 1 million private security people and STILL are vulnerable.
Marc - We know specifically the time frame of the Apostles and their missions of evangelization. Although we don't know the time frame of "more recent centuries," I think it would be safe to think that there would be great similarities between the peoples of 1st century communities in the regions around the Mare Nostrum and the 15th century inhabitants of, for example, sub-Saharan Africa and most regions of South America. Not a lot changes come until 1) full-scale European colonization, 2) the Enlightenment, and 3)the industrial revolution arrives on the scene.
Was there much difference between, say, Vercingetorix's slaves and serfs in the Loire Valley in the 12th century? Probably not too much. Was there much difference between 12th century Loire Valley serfs and and Fort Walton Culture natives in Florida, the Lucayans of the Bahamas, or the Totonac of eastern Mexico? Probably not.
Self-awareness means, to me, self-image or self-understanding.
I don't know of any sources that speak to the implications of changes in anthropological circumstances on Catholicism. Sociologists working on matters dealing with evangelization tend, I think, to focus on how to accomplish the task today.
Now, the archives of the Franciscan missions - and they are LEGION - would be an exceptional place to study "methods" of evangelization in times past. But I don't think those methods would be especially applicable today, given the vastly different cultures we seek to imbue with Christianity.
The core of the Gospels can be found in the ancient creeds.
Lulu: the same ancient creeds that are recited by millions of Protestants who thereby mean a host of non-Catholic things?
Lulu, again...what do you consider the core message of the Gospels?
Also, the First Century inhabitants of the Mare Nostrum had the benefits of Greco-Roman civilization. Those in sub-Saharan Africa did not. There are many differences.
Marc,
The right answer is clear enough, but a zealous pope is going to lead us into a clash, given the speed with which the West is embracing darkness. Therefore, putting off our having to face persecution a few more years is okay with me. But God's will be done.
The core of the Gospels can be found in the ancient creeds.
I don't think there was much difference between the average "beneficiary" of Greco-Roman civilization and the average sub-Saharan African. The African may have had the advantage of not paying taxes to support unsustainable empire expansion/defense.
I don't think that non-Catholic Christians have a significantly different understanding of the meaning of the Creed(s) than we Catholics.
Dialogue, I agree that putting off persecution is okay!
I'm not so sure it'll be a zealous pope that leads us to that clash given that we have prophecies from Our Lady telling us that the pope will essentially leave the faithful abandoned. It seems more likely to me that the clash will be between a small number of the faithful (laity, priests, and bishops) and the pope, who will be aligned with the world. That message has been repeated many times by Our Lady.
DeTocqueville's L'acien regime and the French Revolution does compare 12th century French serfs with their 18th century descendants and discovered a lot of proof that the 12th century serfs had more liberty and property than their descendants on account of the relatively smaller central bureaucracy and more local rule and decision making.
One example was a bridge constructed over a river in the 12th century. The townsfolk decided they needed a bridge after a flood so they immediately set about gathering stone and wood. The local church and nobles assisted and within a year they had built a new stone bridge.
By the 18th century that bridge was in disrepair so the town first sent a letter asking for PERMISSION to Paris, asking for a new bridge. A series of bureaucrats then came to the town over a decade to 'study' and then belatedly some meager funds were appropriated for the task and then after much graft and corruption a wooden span was put over the water.
Centralized command and control economies are always less effective and responsive to local situations than local free economies are. Even in military affairs, those armies that allow the local troops to have freedom of initiative are more effective than those who guide their units like robots.
"I don't think that non-Catholic Christians have a significantly different understanding of the meaning of the Creed(s) than we Catholics."
So you think that non-Catholics' understanding of "I believe one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church" does not differ significantly from the Catholic understanding?
Did anybody mention that in all of history there have been three African Popes? The last one was 492 to 496. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for #4. I don't think Cardinal Sarah will be passed over because he's too conservative...but because he's too "African". (I think you know what I mean...)
Clerical celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine. Small "T" tradition vs. " Big T." Wasn't our first pope, St. Peter, married? Anyway, we already have married priests, in the Eastern Rite and for former Anglican clergy who have come our way. I don't view celibacy as a liberal or conservative question. It should not be equated with the really big things like abortion and same-sex marriage. Also it should be noted that a lot of the bad social change in this country has come via the courts...you know, like Roe v Wade, and same-sex marriage. While some states adopted same-sex marriage in the democratic process, most states overwhelmingly rejected it when put to the test. In Georgia for instance, 76% voted to ban same-sex marriage in 2004---18 points higher than the percentage George W. Bush got in the Peach State that year---so it wasn't just Republicans supporting the ban. That is why the presidential election is so important, even though we could certainly do better than Trump v. Clinton.
The core message of the Gospel is to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind and to love one another as yourself. Love of God and love of each other. So, the task in making that our core purpose in life is to discern, and then live, what it truly means to love God and to love one another.
Loving God sounds so easy doesn't it? But what does it mean to love God? After all, the radical Muslims do what they do because they love their fake "god."
It turns out that the specifics of doctrine matter when it comes to loving God. So all those doctrines after the core of the Gospel.
"after" = "are"
Stupid iPhone.
"Did anybody mention that in all of history there have been three African Popes?"
Well Cardinal Sarah, if he was to be elected, would be the first pope from Sub-Saharan Africa. The three prior popes from that continent were from North Africa. Pope Miltiades was possibly from the berber people of North Africa. Nothing certain is known about Pope Gelasius I or Pope Victor I as far as what people thay came from. The denizens of North Africa prior to the Moslem invasion were more closely related to thosse in other Mediterranean cultures.
"Was there much difference between, say, Vercingetorix's slaves and serfs in the Loire Valley in the 12th century? Probably not too much. Was there much difference between 12th century Loire Valley serfs and and Fort Walton Culture natives in Florida, the Lucayans of the Bahamas, or the Totonac of eastern Mexico? Probably not."
Well, Lulu, I would choose to be a serf in the Loire Valley in the 12th century, since at least they had the Church, a not insignificant difference.
"Not a lot changes come until 1) full-scale European colonization, 2) the Enlightenment, and 3)the industrial revolution arrives on the scene."
A lot of changes did come about, but Reading Dickens and Upton Sinclair, we find that even into the 19th and 20th centuries,life for many people was hardly a bed of roses.
Up until the 20th century in the United States for example, conditions for workers in the U.S. were such that the labor movement was without much power; there were no child labor laws, there was no 40 hour work week, 10 to 14 hour days were the norm, there was no time and a half for overtime, no paid time off, no employer provided medical insurance, no "cost-of living" raises, no workers comp, no unemployment insurance, no food stamps, and no Social Security and retirement pensions.
Lulu, you are merely pointing to the Creeds in a general sense. Let me ask it this way, What do you, personally, believe is the core message of the Gospels?
I, personally, believe that, "The core of the Gospels can be found in the ancient creeds."
George, The rich of the Loire Valley also had the Church. But today's lesson from the Letter of St. James notes that having the Church is not always a basis for Christian living:
"Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.
You like evasion, no?
Today's Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles tends to indicate that the teaching of Christ unites the people in the Truth of Christ so that the people can be freed from enslavement to satan and his demons. And that is the core of the Gospel: repentance and freedom from sin leading to life-everlasting for the elect who persevere in the faith.
"In those days, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached the Christ to them. And the crowds with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, listening to him and seeing the miracles that he worked. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, went out of many possessed persons, and may paralytics and cripples were cured. So there was great joy in that city."
What lesson from Sacred Scripture doesn't, "indicate that the teaching of Christ unites the people in the Truth of Christ so that the people can be freed from enslavement to satan and his demons"?
That's a rather general statement, one that does not reflect the specificity James seems to have intended regarding the dangers of a disordered desire for wealth and possessions.
Ah, James...the Epistle of Straw. Perhaps the weakest link in the Canon.
Lola,
Your theory is that the "core of the Gospel" is found in the ancient Creeds. Yet, you're now talking about disordered desire for wealth, which is not mentioned in any of those Creeds. So, it seems you've disproved your own point, if you even had a point to begin with.
Marc, Lulu (whoever he or she is) has an agenda which, I'sure, will eventually come out.
Gene, you need to listen to The Kinks more.
Marc, why...do they write songs about people who have a cursory understanding of Church history and sociology and who speak in vague generalities regarding theology and the Creeds?
Lulu:
Yes I know , "you can lead a horse to water..."
Having the Church and her sacraments available still surpasses whatever advantage any the other people you mentioned may have had.
Marc - The core of the Gospels is found in the ancient creeds. That there are other elements of Sacred Scripture not mentioned in said creeds does not lessen the authority of the creeds or the authority of those other passages. Nor, actually, does it disprove any point I have made.
Cool story, Lola. Good luck with your ancient creeds.
Marc - I don't think luck has anything to do with creeds and I don't know why you think it does. Be that as it may, one of the reasons the Church has creeds was to express the True Faith in the face of heresies and dissention. In short order, the creeds became teaching tools - witness the contemporary use of the Nicene Creed as the outline for the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
No one ever intended the creeds to be complete expressions of Christian faith. To look to them with that expectation is fruitless.
The creeds do, however, express that which is essential, that which is at the core of God's revelation.
Okay.
Did you have fun typing all of that?
Lulu:
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, you are being given “the treatment” by Gene, joined by Marc it seems with his mocking references to you as “Lola” (from the Kinks of course). Please don’t let them drive you away. Some of us welcome fresh voices on this blog, whatever their substantive positions may be.
"The treatment?" How about your passive-aggressive, rationalizing verbosity that drones onandonandon in ambiguous torrents of academic speak and other horse puckey...you and Lola/Lulu should get along famously.
QED.
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