Archbishop Fernandez quotes Pope Benedict XVI about who and what saves us and it isn’t doctrine, but Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and glorified and the Christ event, beginning with creation.
In my RCIA classes, I have always taught that a person could learn everything about what the Church teaches about God, the Most Holy Trinity and the Church His Divine Son, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, founded and yet remain unsaved, remain an atheist.
It was during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI that I had the largest RCIA classes at Saint Joseph Church in Macon. Many who became inquirers did so by watching EWTN and praying the Holy Rosary when it was televised and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. They watched the cable cast of the daily and Sunday Mass.
I had others who loved Pope Benedict’s writing, especially the books he wrote as pope. They loved his clarity of thought and willingness to express in a charitable way the unique role and mission of the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ and that she is the fullness of the Church God desires.
Pope Benedict had the personal faith which Archbishop Fernandez holds up as a model but he also had the academic, theological, doctrinal chops to be taken seriously by the world of academics, many of them skeptical of Catholics claims about Christ and His doctrines.
Neither Pope Francis nor Archbishop have the secondary “chops” of Pope Benedict, although they may have a strong faith and offer good works in the social justice area, more so than Pope Benedict.
Thus Archbishop Fernandez quotes Pope Benedict in his most recent interview to calm the waters of the Curia and the world about Archbishop Fernandez perceived heterodoxy and worldliness. Yet we are in an unprecedented moment in Church history in the last 100 years, many Catholics and evangelical Protestants don’t trust this pope or his appointees. No one is to blame but this pope and his appointees.
I personally think it would be far more beneficial for the Church of today, in the now, to hear from Pope Francis and Archbishop Fernandez, not so much that doctrine does not save but also Vatican II and Syndodality don’t save either. These last two have been deified by the heterodox for years, first Vatican II was and still is and now Synodality is the new idol of the heterodox!
This is what Archbishop Fernandez says:
From Vatican News, read the full interview HERE.
Question: What is the meaning and relevance of the words that Benedict XVI placed in the introduction of the encyclical Deus caritas est: 'Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction'?
Answer: It is appropriate to remember these words today. No religious doctrine has ever changed the world unless there has been an event of faith, an encounter that re-orients life. And this does not only apply to Christianity, but can be seen in the history of religions. For example, in the crisis of Hinduism and its subsequent renewal, with hymns to Krishna and many other occasions.
Without an experience of the living Christ who loves and saves, we cannot shape our 'being Christian', and concentrating on arguing, and debating with everyone, will not help mature this development in people. This statement by Benedict XVI invites us to develop a solid and well-founded theology that is clearly oriented towards the service of this event.
11 comments:
I hope our boys in Rome don't see this, it might give them more looney ideas!
"The Archbishop of York announced in a recent address to the Church that the 2,000-year-old Lord’s Prayer may be “problematic” because of its patriarchal association.
The Lord’s Prayer opens with “Our Father” – Archbishop Stephen Cottrell believes Jesus made a mistake."
Politicizing religion is an ugly thing.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
239 By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. the language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.
TJM’s quote gives no sense of the context of the Archbishop’s speech in which he very briefly discussed the use of the word “Father.” The source that TJM consulted (The Gateway Pundit perhaps?), and from which he quotes, doubtless seeks yet again to stoke outrage over a genuinely important and serious theological issue. For example, it does not seem that the Archbishop suggested Jesus “made a mistake”; instead, this appears to be a gloss added by the source:
Fort more context, see e.g., https://www.foxnews.com/media/anglican-archbishop-declares-father-problematic-oppressively-patriarchal
Mark,
The article you cite is even harsher on the faux Archbishop. His statements are psychobabble on steroids. Ordinary men and women are sick of this nonsense and underscores why the Anglican Church is on life support and will likely not survive in a meaningful sense. But cheer up. The current papacy seems to be going in the same direction.
TJM:
The FOX News article discusses both the Archbishop’s concern about the use of gendered language as well as those who defended him and those who criticized him. The position in the CCC seems to bridge the divide by making it clear that when we use the word “Father” and other male gendered language we are not being literal but metaphorical.
"Although the statement is widely attributed to him, Albert Einstein never said, ”The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.” Einstein appears to have occasionally made passing references to the Buddha in conversation. Yet something compelled someone to concoct this statement and attribute it to Einstein, the Buddha of the Modern Age. And since the time when Einstein didn’t say this, intimations of deep connections between Buddhism and science have continued, right up until today."
- Donald S. Lopez Jr. "Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed"
Father McDonald said..."Protestants don’t trust this pope or his appointees. No one is to blame but this pope and his appointees."
At least among American non-Catholics:
One survey after another that I have just read had shown that over the years, Pope Francis, as compared to Pope Benedict XVI, was viewed more favorably.
The following is from a 2018 Gallup report:
"Views of Francis among non-Catholic Americans have dropped substantially during the same period. Among these Americans, 45% now hold a favorable view of the pope, compared with 63% last month and 72% in 2014."
"While Americans' views of Francis have clearly taken a substantial hit, he is still more popular than his immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, was before he left the papacy. In Gallup's final reading on Benedict, in 2010, 40% of Americans viewed him favorably and 35% unfavorably.
Here are Gallup Poll results in regard to Pope Benedict XVI favorable status among United States non-Catholics. I do not have results from 2011-2013:
Percentage of United States non-Catholics who viewed Pope Benedict XVI favorably:
-- 2005 A.D: 51 percent. 2006 A.D: 44 percent. 2007 A.D: 47 percent. 2008 A.D: 58 percent. 2009 A.D: 35 percent.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
For those who have confidence in Pew Research Surveys:
June 25, 2021 A.D:
-- Americans, including Catholics, continue to have favorable views of Pope Francis
"Pope Francis’ popularity dropped in the United States a few years ago amid a sex abuse crisis in the U.S. Catholic Church. But Americans’ opinions of the pontiff have since rebounded..."
-- White Protestant non-Evangelicals..............70 percent favorable.
-- White Protestant Evangelicals..................45 percent favorable.
-- Black Protestants..............................60 percent favorable.
-- Unaffiliated....................................61 percent favorable.
I find it difficult to believe that Protestants do not trust Pope Francis supposedly...as his favorability ratings are substantial among Protestants.
I am opening to reading surveys that demonstrate otherwise.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
I wish to state please that I am not keen to pit Popes Benedict XVI, as well as Francis, against each other. I have great love and respect for each Pope in question.
Pope Francis experienced a temporary drop in regard to favorable ratings when that garbage, discredited, Pennsylvania Report was released to the public.
An initial, intense wave of false news stories within (from the Pope Francis haters), and without (Catholic Church-hating secular forces) the Church, attempted to pin the Pennsylvania Report to Pope Francis.
Other than during that period, the claim that Protestants do not trust Pope Francis does not correspond to that which I have read via yearly survey results.
Thank you.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
The Mark Thomas Clown Car has arrived with a myriad of non sequiturs!
The Archbishop is spewing bilge, Mark, and you know it. It turns normal folks off. Why didn’t the Archbishop say what the CCC said?
The archbishop in question is Anglican not Catholic.
Indeed. Taking the Roman Catholic approach would seem to defuse this particular feud within the Anglican Church!
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