BOMBSHELL! POPE FRANCIS CALLS RELIGIOUS SISTERS NOT TO BE IDEOLOGUES, BUT FAITHFUL TO THE MAGISTERIUM, THE BISHOPS INCLUDING THE BISHOP OF ROME! IT DOESN'T GET ANY MORE CATHOLIC THAN THAT!

MY COMMENT FIRST: THOSE WHO PROMOTE THE POST-CATHOLIC AGENDA IN THE LCWR (AND THIS IS NOT ALL SISTERS UNDER THEIR UMBRELLA) WON'T LIKE THIS POPE AT ALL. HE CALLS THEM TO FIDELITY TO THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH, TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH AND TO THE BISHOP OF ROME! HE INTERPRETS PROPERLY THE VOWS OF OBEDIENCE, POVERTY AND CHASTITY, NOT IN SOME EGO-CENTRIC WAY AS IT IS "RE-IMAGINED" BY SOME RELIGIOUS TODAY. SO, JUST WHAT IS FIDELITY TO THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH? IN THE MATTERS WHERE SOME GROUPS OF SISTERS HAVE BEEN TRYING TO RE-IMAGINE NOT ONLY THEIR LIVES, BUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, IT MEANS NO TO FEMALE PRIESTS, NO TO THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE THAT OPPOSES CHASTITY AND NO TO A REINTERPRETATION OF THE THE VOWS OF CHASTITY, POVERTY AND OBEDIENCE. IT MEANS YES TO GOD'S PLAN AND NOT TO THE PLANS OF IDEOLOGUES THAT HAVE EMERGED IN THE CHURCH UNDER THE FALSE SPIRIT OF VATICAN II, THAT SPIRIT THAT IS IN A BREACH WITH THE MAGISTERIUM AND WHAT PRECEDED VATICAN II. FOLLOWING THE MAGISTERIUM MEANS THE HERMENEUTIC OF CONTINUITY, REFORM IN CONTINUITY! I ASK THE QUESTION IN ALL HONESTY, WHAT DO YOU THINK THE POPE MEANS WHEN HE SPEAKS TO RELIGIOUS SISTERS AND SAYS, "CAREERISTS AND CLIMBERS DOING "GREAT HARM" TO THE CHURCH?

RELIGIOUS SISTERS ARE TO BE MATERNAL; THEY ARE TO BE MOTHERS! RELIGIOUS ARE ICONS OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH!!!!!

CAREERISTS AND CLIMBERS DOING “GREAT HARM” TO THE CHURCH

Vatican City, 8 May 2013 (VIS) – “The men and women of the Church who are careerists and social climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and ambitions … are doing great harm to the Church.” This is what Pope Francis asserted in his address to the participants in the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) whom he received in audience this morning.

The pontiff spoke to the sisters of obedience, poverty, and chastity: “Obedience as listening to God's will, in the interior motion of the Holy Spirit authenticated by the Church, accepting that obedience also passes through human mediations. … Poverty, which teaches solidarity, sharing, and charity and which is also expressed in a soberness and joy of the essential, to put us on guard against the material idols that obscure the true meaning of life. Poverty, which is learned with the humble, the poor, the sick, and all those who are at the existential margins of life. Theoretical poverty doesn't do anything. Poverty is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ in the humble, the poor, the sick, and in children.”

“And then chastity, as a precious charism, that enlarges the freedom of your gift to God and others with Christ's tenderness, mercy, and closeness. Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has its place in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world, to make God's primacy shine forever. But, please, [make it] a 'fertile' chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not 'spinsters'! Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity of consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important! May this joy of spiritual fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the images of the Mother Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot understand Mary without her motherhood; you cannot understand the Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of Mary and of the Church.”

Continuing, Pope Francis spoke to the superiors about service. “We must never forget that true power, at whatever level, is service, which has its bright summit upon the Cross. … 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them ... But it shall not be so among you.'—This is precisely the motto of your assembly, isn't it? It shall not be so among you.—'Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave'.”

[THE MOST IMPORTANT BOMBSHELL!:]“Your vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church's journey and it isn't possible that a consecrated woman or man might 'feel' themselves not to be with the Church. A 'feeling' with the Church that has generated us in Baptism; a 'feeling' with the Church that finds its filial expression in fidelity to the Magisterium, in communion with the Bishops and the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, a visible sign of that unity,” the pontiff added, citing Paul VI: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the formation of your Institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit.”

“The centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of love, and 'feeling' in and with the Mother Church: [these are] three suggestions that I wish to leave you, to which I again add my gratitude for your work, which is not always easy. What would the Church be without you? She would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness! A Mother's intuition.”


EARLY IN THE MORNING THE HOLY FATHER PREACHED A HOMILY AT HIS VATICAN MOTEL 6 PLACE OF RESIDENCE CHAPEL AND GAVE A WONDERFUL PRESCRIPTION FOR THE PASTORAL ASPECT OF THE CHURCH THAT APPLIES TO ALL CATHOLICS, CLERGY, RELIGIOUS AND LAITY. IT IS A PASTORAL BOMBSHELL BUT QUITE WELCOME TO HEAR A POPE SAYING THIS:

“The Christian who would bring the Gospel must go down this road: [must] listen to everyone! But now is a good time in the life of the Church: the last 50 or 60 years have been a good time - for I remember when as a child one would hear in Catholic families, in my family, ‘No, we cannot go to their house, because they are not married in the Church, eh!’. It was as an exclusion. No, you could not go! Neither could we go to [the houses of] socialists or atheists. Now, thank God, people do not says such things, right? [Such an attitude] was a defense of the faith, but it was one of walls: the LORD made bridges. First: Paul has this attitude, because it was the attitude of Jesus. Second, Paul is aware that he must evangelize, not proselytize.

“Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith, not sure of Jesus Christ.” The Pope exhorted Christians to do as Paul did and begin to “build bridges and to move forward”:

MY COMMENT ON THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE HOLY FATHER'S HOMILY: The Holy Father makes clear that we must lead those in error to the truth, not by proselytizing, but by witness, not by forcing, but by inviting. Implicate in the last paragraph is that many people are in error for they "dialogue with the devil." We can't dialogue with the devil, but we can dialogue with those in error and we must, even if we make some mistakes in the process:

"Paul teaches us this journey of evangelization, because Jesus did, because he is well aware that evangelization is not proselytizing: it is because he is sure of Jesus Christ and does not need to justify himself [or] to seek reasons to justify himself. When the Church loses this apostolic courage, she becomes a stalled Church, a [nice] tidy Church, a Church that is nice to look at, but that is without fertility, because she has lost the courage to go to the outskirts, where there are many people who are victims of idolatry, worldliness of weak thought, [of] so many things. Let us today ask St Paul to give us this apostolic courage, this spiritual fervor, so that we might be confident. ‘But Father,’ [you might say], ‘we might make mistakes…’ ... ‘[Well, what of it,’ I might respond], ‘Get on with you: if you make a mistake, you get up and go forward: that is the way. Those who do not walk in order not to err, make a the more serious mistake.