Regular visitors to this blog already have a sense for the mission of my apostolate, but I’ll state it here for any newcomers:
My work is broadly ordered toward defending the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine, authentically understood as the Faith that comes to us from the Apostles, transmitted over the course of the centuries “in its entirety and preciseness … pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion.” (Quote taken from the instructions given to the Council Fathers of Vatican II by Pope John XXIII)
Unfortunately, threats to the doctrine of the faith in our day, invited by way of imprecision and ambiguity, are all-too-often the result of what the Director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, recently described as a “new genre of papal speech that’s deliberately informal and not concerned with precision.”
In the process, a deeply troubling pattern has repeatedly emerged:
– Pope Francis delivers, in either word or deed, a message that is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with Catholic thought
– Widespread confusion and unrest ensues; the mainstream media exploits the opportunity to do the Devil’s bidding, while neo-con commentators explain away the pope’s irresponsible rhetoric, attacking anyone who dares to compare what the Pontiff actually said with what the Church actually believes
– In the aftermath of these now common occurrences, the pope does not issue corrections and clarifications intended to bring his comments back in line with the authentic doctrine; on the contrary, he often trumps himself with new and even more unsettling rhetoric
The attentive observer will have noticed that the pope isn’t so much committing “gaffes” as in a series of unrelated, ill-worded statements; rather, over time his comments reflect a noticeable consistency, wherein one envisions the pope weaving together the threads of thought from which the fabric of his papacy will eventually emerge.
For example, when Pope Francis proclaimed, “Proselytism is solemn nonsense,” those who are paying close attention immediately recognized the following consistent line of thought dating all the way back to the General Congregation of Cardinals just days before the conclave:
– Cardinal Bergoglio gives a reflection in the pre-conclave gathering on the topic of evangelization, wherein he makes it clear that he imagines that the world has something to offer the Church (life) as opposed to the Church having something to offer the world (eternal life by way of conversion to the one true faith)
– The newly elected pope met on the first full day of his papacy with 6,000 journalists and their families. The Holy Father withheld the Sign of the Cross and refused to invoke the Blessed Trinity “out of respect for the consciences of all,” a reference to the non-Catholics in the room
– The pope referred to religious diversity as “a gift”
– The pope stated in a General Audience, “Do you need to convince the other to become Catholic? No, no, no!”
You get the point; all of these statements are interrelated.
It occurs to me that one can only fully grasp the “mind of the pope” and the direction in which he intends to take the Church if his individual statements of questionable orthodoxy are viewed in context with the growing body of similar, previous comments.
In the process, one comes to realize that what Fr. Lombardi attempted to excuse as a “new genre of papal speech … not concerned with precision” is really nothing of the sort; rather, this pope appears to be quite concerned with delivering precisely the message he wishes to deliver.
As a writer, ready access to a depository of such commentary would be of great value both to me and to others.
This is the purpose of the Defensor Doctrinae Project, and I am requesting your kind assistance in launching it.
What I would like to do, with your help, is to build a depository of the pope’s doctrinally questionable statements, properly referenced, dated, and sourced with links to reliable outlets (e.g, the website of the Holy See, CNS, CNA, etc.).
I would also like to catalog those statements wherein the Holy Father makes his hostility toward tradition known; e.g., disparaging the Rosary counting “Pelagians,” and those who seek doctrinal security, etc.
To that end, I would like to invite you to record entries of this nature in the comment section below.
NOTE: I am interested in your thoughts, pro and con, on the project itself, and I have created a separate post specifically for such feedback and discussion. I would ask that you please limit your comments in this post to Defensor Doctrinae entries only, keeping them brief and to the point.
EXAMPLE:
“Each one of us has his own vision of the Good and also of Evil. We have to urge it [the vision] to move towards what one perceives as the Good.” Scalfari interview October 1, 2013
In time, I will organize the entries on a separate page on this site along with a process for submitting updates. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Yes! This is a great idea. I have been wanting to do this for several months, but haven’t had the time to keep up with his rapidly growing repertoire. Perhaps you could organize it along topical lines, such as liturgy, ecumenism, collegiality, etc. You could also add a quote from Church doctrine which counters his statements, from encyclicals, papal proclamations, the Summa, etc.
A monumental project, indeed. The Remnant article by Ferrara might be a good starting point.
“Many times I think of Saint Peter. He committed one of the worst sins, that is he denied Christ, and even with this sin they [sic] made him Pope.” Press conference on the flight back from World Youth Day, July 28, 2013
I think this is a very necessary project, sadly. One observation on the Latin: If you’re going for Defender of Doctrine, I believe it would be Defensor Doctrinae. If you’re going for Defense of Doctrine, I believe it would be Defensio Doctrinae.
a triumphalist church and the “failure” of the cross:
“Triumphalism in the Church halts the Church. The triumphalism of us Christians halts Christians. A triumphalist Church is a half-way Church”. A Church content with being “well organized and with… all the offices in good order and efficient”, but which denied the martyrs would be “a Church which thought only of triumph and success”, and was alien to “Jesus’ rule: the rule of triumph through failure. Human failure, the failure of the cross. And we all have this temptation”.
MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THEDOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE, Wednesday, 29 May 2013
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/cotidie/2013/en/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130529_triumphalism-christians_en.html
Gossip, the Pope said, “is destructive to the Church”. Jesus often spoke of this to Peter and to all the others, as the Pope recalled. He asked Peter several times “if he loved him, if he loved him more than the others. Peter said ‘yes’, and the Lord gave him his role: ‘feed my sheep’”. This was “a real, loving conversation”. However, at a certain point, the Holy Father explained, Peter was tempted to interfere in the life of someone else (cf. Jn 21:20-25).
Peter, the Bishop of Rome said, was a human being and so could not but likewise be tempted to interfere in the life of others, “as the vulgar expression says, to ‘stick his nose into other people’s affairs’”.
MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE
Saturday, 18 May 2013
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/cotidie/2013/en/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130518_gossiping-christians_en.html
The question “Domine, quis est qui tradet te?” is to“stick his nose into other people’s affairs’”?
BTW: The Pope possesses full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church, not merely in matters of faith and morals, but also in Church discipline and in the government of the Church. (De fide.)
“(…) In my parish community, in my movement, in the place where I am part of the Church, is there gossip? If there is gossip, there is no harmony but rather conflict. And this is not the Church. The Church is everyone in harmony: never gossip about others, never argue! (…)”
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/audiences/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20131009_udienza-generale_en.html
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Not only those members who are holy but the sinners also belong to the Church. (De fide)
“I also greet and cordially thank all of you, dear friends who are followers of other religious traditions; first Muslims, who worship God as one, living and merciful, and invoke him in prayer, and all of you.”
AUDIENCE WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CHURCHES AND
ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES AND OF THE DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/speeches/2013/march/documents/papa-francesco_20130320_delegati-fraterni_en.html
Turning to mutual respect in interreligious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values. Particular respect is due to religious leaders and to places of worship. How painful are attacks on one or other of these!
It is clear that, when we show respect for the religion of our neighbours or when we offer them our good wishes on the occasion of a religious celebration, we simply seek to share their joy, without making reference to the content of their religious convictions.
Regarding the education of Muslim and Christian youth, we have to bring up our young people to think and speak respectfully of other religions and their followers, and to avoid ridiculing or denigrating their convictions and practices.
We all know that mutual respect is fundamental in any human relationship, especially among people who profess religious belief. In this way, sincere and lasting friendship can grow.
MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS TO MUSLIMS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD FOR THE END OF RAMADAN (‘ID AL-FITR)
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/messages/pont-messages/2013/documents/papa-francesco_20130710_musulmani-ramadan_en.html
John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News, did an excellent interview regarding Pope Francis.
http://www.voiceofcatholicradio.com
1. a) “I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers…”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
1. b) “Truth, according to the Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship.”
[ibid.]
1. c) “The truth is an encounter – it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet [it].”
Homily, Domus Sanctae Marthae, May 8th, 2013
[cf. Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et Spes”:
“The word ‘atheism’ is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him…. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth.”]
2. a) When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
2. b) [On the miracle of the loaves and fishes]
“This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer.”
Homily, Castel Gandolfo, June 2nd, 2013
2. c) “God – and this is my thinking and experience, shared by many from past and present! – is not an idea….”
Letter to a Non-Believer [op. cit.]
[cf. First Vatican Council:
“If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men should be drawn to the faith only by their personal internal experience or by private inspiration, let him be anathema.”]
3. “I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit.”
Homily, Lampedusa, July 8th, 2013
[cf. Pascendi Dominici Gregis:
“On what grounds can Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? Will they claim a monopoly of true experiences for Catholics alone?”]
1. a) “I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers…”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
1. b) “Truth, according to the Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship.”
[ibid.]
1. c) “The truth is an encounter – it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet [it].”
Homily, Domus Sanctae Marthae, May 8th, 2013
[cf. Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et Spes”:
“The word ‘atheism’ is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him…. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth.”]
2. a) When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
2. b) [On the miracle of the loaves and fishes]
“This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer.”
Homily, Castel Gandolfo, June 2nd, 2013
2. c) “God – and this is my thinking and experience, shared by many from past and present! – is not an idea….”
Letter to a Non-Believer [op. cit.]
[cf. First Vatican Council:
“If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men should be drawn to the faith only by their personal internal experience or by private inspiration, let him be anathema.”]
3. “I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit.”
Homily, Lampedusa, July 8th, 2013
[cf. Pascendi:
“On what grounds can Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? Will they claim a monopoly of true experiences for Catholics alone?”]
“Back at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, I had no time for” charismatics, the pope told reporters on the plane returning from Rio July 28. “Once, speaking about them, I said: ‘These people confuse a liturgical celebration with samba lessons!'”
“Now I regret it,” he said. “Now I think that this movement does much good for the church, overall.”
“I don’t think that the charismatic renewal movement merely prevents people from passing over to Pentecostal denominations,” Pope Francis said. “No! It is also a service to the church herself! It renews us.”
“The movements are necessary, the movements are a grace of the Spirit,” the pope added, speaking of ecclesial movements in general. “Everyone seeks his own movement, according to his own charism, where the Holy Spirit draws him or her.”
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1303443.htm Pope Francis discovers charismatic movement a gift to the whole church Aug-9-2013
“The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1303991.htm Sep-20-2013 Pope condemns abortion as product of ‘throwaway culture’
— People need to learn from the “shipwreck culture” and salvage the past to build the future: “The shipwrecked castaway faces the challenge of survival with creativity,” he said.
“He needs to begin building a hut using the boards from the sunken ship, together with new things found on the island he’s washed up on.”
“In every new era, one can apply the image of the shipwreck because there are things that we no longer need, temporary things, and (eternal) values that get expressed in another way.” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1301525.htm Apr-4-2013
Master of metaphor: Pope Francis can weave a vivid tale
“The council was a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “But after 50 years, have we done everything the Holy Spirit in the council told us to do?”
The pope asked if Catholics have opened themselves to “that continuity of the church’s growth” that the council signified. The answer, he said, is “no.”
Catholics seemed willing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the council’s opening in 1962, he said, but they want to do so by “building a monument” rather than by changing anything.
At the same time, Pope Francis said, “there are voices saying we should go back. This is called being hard-headed, this is called wanting to domesticate the Holy Spirit, this is called becoming ‘foolish and slow of heart,'” like the disappointed disciples on the road to Emmaus. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1301701.htm Apr-16-2013 Pope Francis says Catholics still need to enact teachings of Vatican II
“Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace,” Pope Francis said. “But there is no peace without truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth.” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1301340.htm Mar-22-2013 Pope Francis to diplomats: Moral relativism endangers peace
“A church closed in on itself and its past, a church concerned only with its little rules, customs and attitudes is a church that betrays its identity”
*
*
“Through the centuries, the church preserves this precious treasure, which is the sacred Scriptures, the sacraments and the ministry of its pastors so that we can be faithful to Christ and participate in his life” http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1304351.htm Oct-16-2013 Church is ‘apostolic’ when it shares Gospel with the world, pope says (he left out non-scriptural oral teaching in enumerating the precious treasures.)
Vatican City, 18 October 2013 (VIS) – The International Commission on English in the Liturgy celebrates today its fiftieth anniversary. Founded as part of the implementation of the liturgical renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Divine Liturgy, over the past fifty years, the Commission has carried out the enormous task of providing English translations of the texts of the liturgy, and has also contributed to the study, understanding and appropriation of the Church’s sacramental and euchological tradition.
The Pope received the members of the Commission in audience this morning, and remarked that the fruits of their labours “have not only helped to form the prayer of countless Catholics, but have also contributed to the understanding of the faith, the exercise of the common priesthood and the renewal of the Church’s missionary outreach, all themes central to the teaching of the Council”.
The Commission, “by enabling the vast numbers of the Catholic faithful throughout the world to pray in a common language … has helped to foster the Church’s unity in faith and sacramental communion. That unity and communion, which has its origin in the Blessed Trinity, is one which constantly reconciles and enhances the richness of diversity” concluded the Holy Father, imparting his Apostolic Blessing to those present. ~ Vatican Information Service
http://www.romereports.com/palio/pope-when-faith-becomes-an-ideology-it-can-make-christians-hostile-and-arrogant-english-11368.html#.UmRXi1Md6x4October 17, 2013. (Romereports.com) In his daily morning Mass, Pope Francis talked about Christians who turn their faith into an ideology. He explained that this makes people hostile and arrogant, and pushes them away from their peers. The root of such behavior, the Pope said, is a lack of prayer.
POPE FRANCIS
“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens. Ideology chases away the people. It creates distances between people and it distances the Church from the people. But it is a serious illness, this Christian ideology.”
Pope Francis also added there is a difference between praying and simply saying prayers. People carried away by ideology, he concluded, do not pray, rather they repeat memorized prayers.
EXCERPTS FROM THE POPE’S HOMILY
Source: Vatican Radio
“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.”
“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens. Ideology chases away the people. It creates distances between people and it distances the Church from the people. But it is a serious illness, this ideology in Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh? Already the Apostle John, in his first Letter, spoke of this. Christians who lose the faith and prefer the ideologies. His attitude is: be rigid, moralistic, ethical, but without kindness. This can be the question, no? But why is it that a Christian can become like this? Just one thing: this Christian does not pray. And if there is no prayer, you always close the door.”
“When a Christian does not pray, this happens. And his witness is an arrogant witness.” He who does not pray is “arrogant, is proud, is sure of himself. He is not humble. He seeks his own advancement.” Instead, he said, “when a Christian prays, he is not far from the faith; he speaks with Jesus.” And, the Pope said, “I say to pray, I do not say to say prayers, because these teachers of the law said many prayers” in order to be seen. Jesus, instead, says: “when you pray, go into your room and pray to the Father in secret, heart to heart.” The pope continued: “It is one thing to pray, and another thing to say prayers.”
“These do not pray, abandoning the faith and transforming it into moralistic, casuistic ideology, without Jesus. And when a prophet or a good Christian reproaches them, they the same that they did with Jesus: ‘When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him’ – they are ideologically hostile – ‘and to interrogate him about many things,’ – they are insidious – ‘for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.’ They are not transparent. Ah, poor things, they are people dishonored by their pride. We ask the Lord for Grace, first: never to stop praying to never lose the faith; to remain humble, and so not to become closed, which closes the way to the Lord.”
http://videos.huffingtonpost.com/pope-francis-punking-the-catholic-church-517809026 June 7, 2013
Today is World Mission Day. What is the mission of the Church? To spread throughout the world the flame of faith that Jesus has lighted in the world: faith in God who is Father, Love, and Mercy. The method of the Christian mission is not proselytism, but that the sharing of the flame that heats up the soul. I thank all those who through prayer and concrete help sustain the work of the missions, in particular the solicitude of the Bishop of Rome for spread of the Gospel. On this Day, we are close to all men and women missionaries, who work without making noise, and who give their lives. [Missionaries] like the Italian Afra Martinelli, who worked for many years in Nigeria: one day she was killed in a robbery; everyone wept, Christians and Muslims. They really loved her! She announced the Gospel with her life, with the works she accomplished, a centre of instruction; in this way she spread the flame of faith, she fought the good fight. Let us think about this our sister, and greet her with applause, all of us!
After the Angelus
2013-10-20 Vatican Radio
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-pray-always-without-growing-weary
Homily, April 19, 2013:
“The ‘doctors’ answer only with the head. They do not know that the Word of God goes to the heart … They are the ‘scientists,’ the great ‘ideologues,’ those who do not understand that the word of God … is directed to the heart … because it is the beautiful word that brings love and makes us love. …
“The ‘ideologues’ are the ones in the Gospel who discuss among themselves: ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ It is a problem of the intellect! And when ideology enters the Church, we do not understand anything of the Gospel. …
“The ideologues falsify the Gospel. Every ideological interpretation, no matter the source, is a falsification of the Gospel. And these ideologues – as we have seen in the History of the Church – end up as intellectuals without talent, moralists without goodness. They do not speak of beauty because they do not understand it. Instead, the way of love, the path of the Gospel is simple: It is the road understood by the Saints! …
“Let us pray to the Lord for the Church to be free from any ideological interpretation and to open her heart to the simple, pure Gospel that speaks of the gate of love and so much beauty! …
From this excellent article:
http://www.traditioninaction.org/bev/156bev05_29_2013.htm
1. a) “I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers….”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
1. b) “Truth, according to the Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship.”
[ibid.]
1. c) “The truth is an encounter – it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet [it].”
Homily, Domus Sanctae Marthae, May 8th, 2013
[cf. Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et Spes”:
“The word ‘atheism’ is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him…. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth.”]
2. a) When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
2. b) [On the miracle of the loaves and fishes]
“This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer.”
Homily, Castel Gandolfo, June 2nd, 2013
2. c) “God – and this is my thinking and experience, shared by many from past and present! – is not an idea….”
Letter to a Non-Believer [op. cit.]
[cf. First Vatican Council:
“If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men should be drawn to the faith only by their personal internal experience or by private inspiration, let him be anathema.”]
3. “I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit.”
Homily, Lampedusa, July 8th, 2013
[cf. Pascendi:
“On what grounds can Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? Will they claim a monopoly of true experiences for Catholics alone?”]
1. a) “I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers….”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
1. b) “Truth, according to the Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship.”
[ibid.]
1. c) “The truth is an encounter – it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet [it].”
Homily, Domus Sanctae Marthae, May 8th, 2013
[cf. Second Vatican Council, “Gaudium et Spes”:
“The word ‘atheism’ is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him…. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth.”]
2. a) When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
2. b) [On the miracle of the loaves and fishes]
“This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer.”
Homily, Castel Gandolfo, June 2nd, 2013
2. c) “God – and this is my thinking and experience, shared by many from past and present! – is not an idea….”
Letter to a Non-Believer [op. cit.]
[cf. First Vatican Council:
“If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men should be drawn to the faith only by their personal internal experience or by private inspiration, let him be anathema.”]
3. “I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit.”
Homily, Lampedusa, July 8th, 2013
[cf. Pascendi:
“On what grounds can Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? Will they claim a monopoly of true experiences for Catholics alone?”]
[On “the historical experience of Jesus of Nazareth”]
“[I]t is important to dwell on…who Jesus was and is for us. The letters of Saint Paul and the Gospel of Saint John…are founded in fact upon the messianic ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, which reaches its culmination in the Pasch of his death and resurrection.
It is necessary, therefore, to look at Jesus from the point of view of the actual circumstances of his existence, as narrated by the oldest of the Gospels, Saint Mark.”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
[cf. “Lamentabili”, Decree of the Holy Office, July 3rd, 1907:
“[B]y this general decree, [the following propositions] are condemned and proscribed….
16. The narrations of John are not properly history, but the mystical contemplation of the Gospel; the discourses contained in his Gospel are theological meditations on the mystery of salvation, devoid of historical truth.”]
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=52824VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) – On Monday, October 21, 2013, Pope Francis met with members of the Lutheran World Federation and representatives of the Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity. Like his predecessors, Blessed John Paul II and His Holiness Benedict XVI, Francis is a Pope of Christian unity.
His words to the Lutheran leaders are further evidence of his intention to continue the work of authentic ecumenism. After some personal reflections on our call to promote authentic Christian collaboration, I set them forth in full below.
On June 19, 2013, during his teaching on the Church as the Body of Christ, Francis made an extemporaneous comment of importance. It showed he carries the Prayer of Jesus Christ in his heart, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:21)
Francis said: Divisions among us, but also divisions among the communities: evangelical Christians, orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, but why divided? We must try to bring about unity. Let me tell you something, today, before leaving home, I spent 40 minutes more or less, half an hour, with an evangelical pastor. And we prayed together, seeking unity.
But we Catholics must pray with each other and other Christians. Pray that the Lord gift us (with) unity! Unity among ourselves! How will we ever have unity among Christians if we are not capable of having it among us Catholics, in the family, how many families fight and split up? Seek unity, unity builds the Church and comes from Jesus Christ. He sends us the Holy Spirit to build unity!
Pope Francis is speaking to you and me! He demonstrates what I am calling “Big Hearted Ecumenism”. The comfortable way in which he shared with the faithful that he had prayed with an evangelical protestant pastor before giving his Wednesday Catechesis in St. Peters square made my heart jump!
Lest my interlocutors think I am speaking merely of an emotional reaction, the heart means much more in Catholic teaching than the emotions. It is the “seat of the moral personality.” (See, CCC#2517) Francis knew precisely what he was saying – and exactly what he was doing. We should follow his example.
When I write articles on this topic I am now regularly assailed by some fellow Catholics who do not like the efforts at authentic ecumenical collaboration which have been undertaken by the last three Popes. Some take strong umbrage at my own words.
For example, at the end of August I wrote an article entitled, Comfortable in our Catholic Skin: Reject Triumphalism, Embrace the Call to Christian Unity A fellow Catholic writer, a man I like, had a very strong reaction to my use of the term triumphalism.
He singled out my article and wrote what he suggested was a response. In the article he lumped me in with those whom he personally claims do not understand the real teaching of the Church or how to properly interpret the Second Vatican Council. Of course, I take exception to his analysis and worry about the path he seems to be taking.
He wrote me a personal E mail about his article and sent me to the link. His E mail was cordial. In it he suggestedthat we engage in some kind of verbal debate online over the issues which he raised. I have no interest in doing so. However, I think it is noteworthy that less than two weeks later Pope Francis gave another homily in which he once again called for rejecting triumphalism.
I have spent many years praying and working with evangelical Protestants and Orthodox Christians on the great social and cultural challenges of our age. Over those years I have learned much from my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I believe they would say the same of their own experience with me and other Catholic Christians. This kind of cooperation is a work of the Holy Spirit and should not cause anyone alarm.
I was happy to have Pope Francis make clear once again that this kind of ecumenical effort is part of our mission as Catholic Christians. For those who followed the selection of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope, this should be no surprise.
Pope Francis is comfortable being with other Christians, including evangelical Protestants. That is because he knows that we really are brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are Christians together. Of course there are real and important differences which separate us. However, the Savior who joined us together through our Baptism should take primacy of place in the way we relate to one another.
One of the Pope’s evangelical protestant friends from Argentina, evangelist Luis Palau, was straightforward and enthusiastic about his friendship and prayer with Pope Francis. Timothy George, the dean of Beeson Divinity School wrote a piece in June entitled, Our Francis, Too: Why we can enthusiastically join arms with the Catholic leader.
Dean George wrote: Francis succeeds two men of genius in his papal role. John Paul II was the liberator who stared down communism by the force of his courage and prayers. Benedict XVI was the eminent teacher of the Catholic Church in recent history. Francis appears now as the pastor, a shepherd who knows and loves his sheep and wants to lead them in love and humility.
The new Franciscan moment is the season of the shepherd. Catholics and evangelicals are the two largest faith communities in the body of Christ. Without forgetting the deep differences that divide us, now as never before we are called to stand and work together for the cause of Christ in a broken world.
Francis is particularly dedicated to working toward some form of full communion between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Our relationship with orthodox Christians is distinct from our relationship with the communities which descend from the protestant Reformation in the West. We recognize the Orthodox Churches as full Churches – and we recognize their sacraments – what they often call, using the Greek, the mysteries. (See, CCC #838)
On March 20, 2013 Pope Francis spoke these words to delegates of the Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and Ecclesial Communities of the West: Let us all be intimately united to our Savior’s prayer at the Last Supper, to his invocation: ut unum sint. We call on the merciful Father to be able to fully live the faith that we have received as a gift on the day of our Baptism, and to be able to it free, joyful and courageous testimony. The more we are faithful to his will, in thoughts, in words and in deeds, the more we will truly and substantially walk towards unity.
The Catholic Church proclaims that, in and through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, authentic unity with God the Father – and with one another – is the plan of God for the entire human race. The Church is the way toward that unity. We should want to walk toward that unity and not fear it.
The Church is meant to become the home of the whole human race. For the Church to continue the redemptive mission of Jesus most effectively, she must be one. It was not the Lord’s plan that Christians be separated. It is His Plan that the Church be restored to full communion. His prayer will someday be answered.
Catholic teaching on the Church is rooted in an ecclesiology of communion. All who are validly Baptized already have a form of imperfect communion with the Catholic Church. We who are in full communion with that Church are invited to make the prayer of Jesus for the restoration of full communion and visible unity our own in the way in which we relate to other Christians.
We need to learn from the words and witness of Benedict, John Paul and Francis and begin to act differently. One way we can do this is by using the language of communion which the Catholic Church now encourages. For example, St. John Paul II wrote in his encyclical letter on unity, Ut Unum Sint :
It happens for example that, in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, Christians of one confession no longer consider other Christians as enemies or strangers but see them as brothers and sisters. Again, the very expression “separated brethren” tends to be replaced today by expressions which more readily evoke the deep communion linked to the baptismal character which the Spirit fosters in spite of historical and canonical divisions.
Today we speak of “other Christians”, “others who have received Baptism”, and “Christians of other Communities”. The Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism refers to the Communities to which these Christians belong as “Churches and Ecclesial Communities that are not in full communion with the Catholic Church. The broadening of vocabulary is indicative of a significant change in attitudes” There is an increased awareness that we all belong to Christ.
Relations between Christians are not aimed merely at mutual knowledge, common prayer and dialog. They presuppose and from now on call for every possible form of practical cooperation at all levels: pastoral, cultural and social, as well as that of witnessing to the Gospel message. Cooperation among all Christians vividly expresses that bond which already unites them, and it sets in clearer relief the features of Christ the Servant.
This cooperation based on our common faith is not only filled with fraternal communion, but is a manifestation of Christ himself. Moreover, ecumenical cooperation is a true school of ecumenism, a dynamic road to unity. Unity of action leads to the full unity of faith: “Through such cooperation, all believers in Christ are able to learn easily how they can understand each other better and esteem each other more, and how the road to the unity of Christians may be made smooth. In the eyes of the world, cooperation among Christians becomes a form of common Christian witness and a means of evangelization which benefits all involved.
I fully embrace the Catholic teaching that the fullness of truth is found in the Catholic Church. (subsists is the theological term) I returned to full participation in the Church of my childhood, the Catholic Church, after a youth filled with wandering and searching for truth. I followed the oft repeated pilgrimage of many like me in those days. Had I not been raised in a Catholic home, I would have become a Catholic Christian as the answer to that pilgrimage. Some would call me a revert, indicating I returned to the Church. However, I never formally left the Church.
I am, what I prefer to call, a Catholic by Choice. Some of the expressions used these days,such as “cradle Catholic”, touch the myriad of problems we have within the Catholic Church, requiring a New Evangelization. Cradles do not make one Catholic. This ancient but ever new faith is a wonderful treasure, given as a gift in the Waters of Baptism – which one must then find for themselves and fully embrace over a lifetime. I have also had the joy of helping many Christians from other communities find their way home to this beautiful Church called Catholic. I love the Catholic faith and have spent years in formal theological study, filling myself with its rich truths.
However, it is precisely because of my understanding of the beauty and fullness of the Catholic Christian faith that I also carry an immense burden to see the Prayer of Jesus in John Chapter 17 fully answered. There is a connection here. Into a world that is fractured, divided, wounded, filled with sides and camps at enmity with one another, the Catholic Church is called to proclaim, by both word and deed, the unifying love of a living God. Yet, the Body of Christ is broken – and that should break our hearts.
Of all Christians, Catholics have the highest obligation to work toward healing the divisions – and promoting an authentic path toward Christian unity. There is an adage in the Gospels which has a special application in this arena, “To those to whom much is given, much more will be required” (Luke 12:48). If the fullness of truth subsists in the Catholic Church, ( see, n.8, Lumen Gentium) that should not make us haughty, but humble in our relationship with other Christians.
Now, I offer the words which Pope Francis addressed to the Lutheran leaders, our brothers and sisters in Christ, who gathered in Rome on Monday, October 21, 2013.
*****
Message from Pope Francis
Dear Lutheran brothers and sisters,
I warmly welcome you, the members of the Lutheran World Federation and the representatives of the Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity. This meeting follows upon my very cordial and pleasant meeting with you, dear Bishop Younan, and with the Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, the Reverend Junge, during the inaugural celebration of my ministry as the Bishop of Rome.
It is with a sense of profound gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ that I think of the many advances made in relations between Lutherans and Catholics in these past decades, not only through theological dialogue, but also through fraternal cooperation in a variety of pastoral settings, and above all, in the commitment to progress in spiritual ecumenism.
In a certain sense, this last area constitutes the soul of our journey towards full communion, and permits us even now a foretaste of its results, however imperfect. In the measure in which we draw closer to our Lord Jesus Christ in humility of spirit, we are certain to draw closer to one another. And, in the measure in which we ask the Lord for the gift of unity, we are sure that he will take us by the hand and be our guide.
This year, as a result of a now fifty year old theological dialogue and with a view to the commemoration of the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation, the text of the Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity was published, with the significant title: From Conflict to Communion. Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017.
I believe that it is truly important for everyone to confront in dialogue the historical reality of the Reformation, its consequences and the responses it elicited. Catholics and Lutherans can ask forgiveness for the harm they have caused one another and for their offenses committed in the sight of God. Together we can rejoice in the longing for unity which the Lord has awakened in our hearts, and which makes us look with hope to the future.
In light of this decades-long journey and of the many examples of fraternal communion between Lutherans and Catholics which we have witnessed, and encouraged by faith in the grace given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, I am certain that we will continue our journey of dialogue and of communion, addressing fundamental questions as well as differences in the fields of anthropology and ethics. Certainly, there is no lack of difficulties, and none will lack in the future.
They will continue to require patience, dialogue and mutual understanding. But we must not be afraid! We know well – as Benedict XVI often reminded us – that unity is not primarily the fruit of our labors, but the working of the Holy Spirit, to whom we must open our hearts in faith, so that he will lead us along the paths of reconciliation and communion.
No cell is isolated so as to exclude the Lord, Not one!: He’s there, crying with them, he works with them, hopes with them. His paternal and maternal love reaches everywhere.
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/10/23/pope_expresses_concern_for_prisoners/in2-739947
of the Vatican Radio website
[On the Resurrection]
“Jesus did not return to his former life, to earthly life, but entered into the glorious life of God and he entered there with our humanity, opening us to a future of hope.”
“Urbi et Orbi”, Easter Sunday, March 31st, 2013
[cf. “Lamentabili”, Decree of the Holy Office, July 3rd, 1907:
“[B]y this general decree, [the following propositions] are condemned and proscribed….
37. Faith in the resurrection of Christ was from the beginning not so much of the fact of the resurrection itself, as of the immortal life of Christ with God.”]
The “NGO-Church ” theme, only three examples there are much more on the Vatican Radio website .
Pentecost Vigil:
2013-05-19
Pope Francis responded “I will pick up again from the subject of witness. First of all, the main contribution we can make is to live the Gospel . The Church is not a political movement, or a well-organized structure: it is not that. We are not an NGO, and when the Church becomes an NGO it loses its salt, it has no taste, it’s just an empty organization. And this – be clever! Because the devil deceives us, because there is the danger of hyper – efficiency. One thing is to preach Jesus, effectiveness, being efficient is another thing: no, that’s another value. The value of the Church, basically, is to live the Gospel and give witness to our faith.
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/19/pentecost_vigil:_the_church_must_bring_jesus_to_a_humanity_in_crisis/en1-693591
of the Vatican Radio website
Pope Francis on Thursday met with young people from Argentina gathered in Rio’s Cathedral to greet him.
2013-07-25
To a cheering congregation, many of whom were dressed in the blue and white colours of Argentina, Pope Francis said: “I would like to tell you what my expectations are regarding this World Youth Day” said Pope Francis “I would like us to make noise, I would like those inside the Dioceses to go out into the open; I want the Church to be in the streets; I want us to defend ourselves against all that is worldliness, comfort, being closed and turned within – Parishes, colleges and institutions must get out otherwise they risk becoming NGOs, and the Church is not a Non-Governmental Organization”.
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/25/pope_francis_to_the_youth_and_to_the_aged:_do_not_allow_yourselves_to/en1-713868
of the Vatican Radio website
4. Some temptations against missionary discipleship
2. Functionalism. Its effect on the Church is paralyzing. More than being interested in the road itself, it is concerned with fixing holes in the road. A functionalist approach has no room for mystery; it aims at efficiency. It reduces the reality of the Church to the structure of an NGO. What counts are quantifiable results and statistics. The Church ends up being run like any other business organization. It applies a sort of “theology of prosperity” to the organization of pastoral work.
5. Some ecclesiological guidelines
and 2. The Church is an institution, but when she makes herself a “centre”, she becomes merely functional, and slowly but surely turns into a kind of NGO. The Church then claims to have a light of her own, and she stops being that “mysterium lunae” of which the Church Fathers spoke. She becomes increasingly self-referential and loses her need to be missionary. From an “institution” she becomes a “enterprise”. She stops being a bride and ends up being an administrator; from being a servant, she becomes an “inspector”. Aparecida wanted a Church which is bride, mother and servant, a facilitator of faith and not an inspector of faith.
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/28/pope_francis:_address_to_celam_leadership_/en1-714819
of the Vatican Radio website 2013-07-28 22:06:43
“The Church – Pope added – is not an NGO: it is something else, more important, and this is the result of gratuity. “Poverty, reiterated the Pope, “is one of the signs of this gratuity.” Another sign, he added “is the ability of praise. When an apostle does not live this gratuity, he loses the ability to praise the Lord.”
“These two are the signs of an apostle who lives this gratuity: poverty and the ability to praise the Lord. And when we find the apostles who want to make a Church rich and a Church without the gratuitousness of praise, the church ages, the Church becomes an NGO, the Church has no life. Today we ask the Lord for the grace to acknowledge this generosity: “Freely you have received, freely you give.” Let’s go forward recognizing this gratuity, gift of God, concluded Pope Francis.
during the Mass he celebrated at the Casa Santa Marta
2013-06-11
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/in2/articolo.asp?c=700628
of the Vatican Radio website
Citing Benedict XVI, he said that “the Church grows not to proselytize, but to attract”. And this attraction, he said, comes from the testimony of “those who proclaim the gratuity of salvation”:
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/in2/articolo.asp?c=700628
of the Vatican Radio website 2013-06-11
Vatican City, 20 October 2013 (VIS) – In his greetings after the Angelus prayer, the Holy Father mentioned that today is World Missionary Day, and commented that the “mission” of the Church is “to spread throughout the world the flame of faith, which Jesus ignited in the world: faith in God who is the Father, Love and Mercy. The method of the Christian mission is not proselytism, but rather the sharing of a flame that warms the soul. … On this Day we are close to all missionaries who work tirelessly and quietly, and who give their lives”.
http://www.visnews-en.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-method-of-christian-mission-is-not.html
From the Scalfari interview, October 2nd, 2013:
“[SCALFARI] – In his preaching, Jesus said that agape, love for others, is the only way to love God. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.
[FRANCIS] – You are not mistaken…. Agape, our love for one another – from those who are closest to us to those who are furthest away – is in fact the only way that Jesus indicated to us to find the way of salvation”.
[cf. Denzinger (Systematic Index, XI d):
“God is to be loved more than one’s neighbor”.
See also – Aquinas, ST, II-II, Q.26, Art. 2:
“A thing ought to be loved more, if others ought to be hated on its account. Now we ought to hate our neighbor for God’s sake, if, to wit, he leads us astray from God, according to Luke 14:26: ‘If any man come to Me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters . . . he cannot be My disciple.’ Therefore we ought to love God, out of charity, more than our neighbor”.]
[Note: This comment attempts to find a common thread in some of the quotes already on this page.]
A) Main quote: “Saint Peter…denied Christ, and even with this sin they [sic] made him Pope” (quoted by Sine Nomine, October 19, 2013 4:54 pm).
B) Question: “Why ‘they’ and not ‘He'”?
C) Possible path of Francis’ reasoning:
1) “The…Gospel of…John…[is] founded in fact upon the messianic ministry of Jesus…. It is necessary, therefore, to look at Jesus from the point of view of the actual circumstances of his existence, as narrated by…Mark”
(quoted by Dumb_ox, October 23, 2013 5:04 pm).
2) [At the Resurrection] “Jesus did not return to his former life, to earthly life” (quoted by Dumb_ox, October 24, 2013 4:59 pm).
If,
We have it from John’s Gospel that “upon Peter alone Jesus after His resurrection conferred the jurisdiction of the highest pastor…over his entire fold…[John 21:15 ff.]” (First Vatican Council),
Therefore,
The conferring of the primacy on Peter by the risen Christ is not part of the “actual circumstances of [Jesus’] existence”, His “earthly life”.
Hence the statement,
“they made him Pope”?
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope:-the-devil-is-powerless-against-the-union-of-love-between-Jesus-and-those-who-welcome-him-with-faith-29446.html
» 11/04/2013 13:06
VATICAN
Pope: the devil is powerless against the union of love between Jesus and those who welcome him with faith
Francis says Mass for cardinals and bishops who died during the year. “Only human sin can break this bond, but even in this case God will always go in search for him to restore that union that lasts even after death.”
Vatican City ( AsiaNews) – “Nothing will ever separate us from the love that Christ himself gained for us, giving of himself completely. Even evil powers that are hostile to man are powerless in the face to the intimate union of love between Jesus and those who welcome him with faith”. This “reality of the faithful love that God has for each of us” was remembered today by Pope Francis, who celebrated Mass for the repose of the cardinals and bishops who died during the year this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Pope commented on the phrase from the Letter to the Romans, where Saint Paul says : “I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”
“The Apostle speaks of the love of God as the deepest, most invincible motive for our trust in Christian hope. He lists the opposing and mysterious forces that can threaten the path of faith. But he states with confidence that even if our entire existence is surrounded by threats, nothing will ever separate us from the love that Christ himself gained for us, giving of himself completely”.
“Only the sin of man can break this bond, but even in this case God will always go in search for him to restore that union that lasts even after death, it is indeed a union that in the final encounter with the Father reaches its climax. This certainty gives a new and full meaning to earthly life and opens us to hope for life beyond death”.
Because those who have left this world, as the Book of Wisdom says ” are in God’s hands! The hand is a sign of welcome and protection, it is the sign of a personal relationship of respect and loyalty: to offer one’s hand, to shake hands”. “Our sins are also in God’s hands, those merciful hands with their “wounds” of love. It is not by chance that Jesus wanted to preserve the wounds on his hands to make us feel his mercy. This is our strength and our hope! This reality, which is full of hope, is the prospect of final resurrection, of eternal life, to which the “righteous”, those who accept the Word of God and are obedient to His Spirit are destined”.
And , the Pope concluded , “Let us also pray that the Lord may prepare us for this encounter. We do not know the date, but that encounter will take place!”.
[This example is indirectly related to the defense of doctrine.]
“It is necessary, therefore, to look at Jesus from the point of view of the actual circumstances of his existence, as narrated by the oldest of the Gospels, Saint Mark.”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
Comment: Another problem with papal interviews seems to be a lack of Magisterial footnotes such as typically accompany encyclicals.
The assertion that Mark is the oldest Gospel is inconsistent with my 21st-century apologetics text, which maintains the tradition that “Matthew probably wrote first”.
It is important to know the Church’s mind on such matters, particularly when secular critics argue that Mark 16:9-20 was added from another source, and that the Gospel proper ends with the discovery of the empty tomb.
[On the Resurrection]
“Jesus makes himself present in a new way, he is the Crucified One but his body is glorified; he did not return to earthly life but returned in a new condition.”
General Audience, April 3rd, 2013 (emphasis added)
[cf. Pope Innocent III, Letter Eius exemplo:
“He suffered in the true passion of His flesh; He died in the true death of His body, and He arose again in the true resurrection of His flesh and in the restoration of His soul to the body in which, after He ate and drank, He ascended into heaven”.
Source: Denzinger (30th ed.), para. 422]
[On “Gospel proclamation”]
“This is what Gospel proclamation is: it is saying with my words, with my witness: ‘I have a Father. We are not orphans. We have a Father’, and means sharing this sonship with the Father and with everyone else. ‘Father, now I understand: it is a question of convincing others, of proselytizing!’. No: it is nothing of the kind. The Gospel is like seed: you scatter it, you scatter it with your words and with your witness. and then it is not you who calculate the statistics of the results; it is God who does.”
Address to participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome, June 17, 2013 (emphasis added)
[On the miracle of the loaves and fishes]
“Jesus fed the multitude with five loaves and two fish. And the end of this passage is important: ‘and all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over, twelve baskets of broken pieces (Lk 9:17). Jesus asked the disciples to ensure that nothing was wasted: nothing thrown out! And there is this fact of 12 baskets: why 12? What does it mean? Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel, it represents symbolically the whole people. And this tells us that when the food was shared fairly, with solidarity, no one was deprived of what he needed, every community could meet the needs of its poorest members. Human and environmental ecology go hand in hand.”
General Audience, June 5th, 2013 (emphasis added)
On the same subject, see also above comment posted by Dumb_ox, October 22, 2013 4:55 pm (item 2b).
[Contradictory statements on Revelation]
1) “Muslims…worship God as one, living and merciful, and invoke him in prayer”
Audience with Representatives of the Churches and
Ecclesial Communities and of the Different Religions, March 20, 2013
Compare:
2) “[R]evelation was fulfilled with the New Testament.”
Morning Meditation, September 7, 2013
[Conflicting statements on faith]
1) “Faith in Jesus Christ is not a joke, it is something very serious…. Please do not water down your faith in Jesus Christ. We dilute fruit drinks – orange, apple, or banana juice, but please do not drink a diluted form of faith. Faith is whole and entire, not something that you water down.”
Meeting with Young People from Argentina, July 25, 2013
2) “What must we do, Father? Look, read the Beatitudes: that will do you good. If you want to know what you actually have to do, read Matthew Chapter 25, which is the standard by which we will be judged. With these two things you have the action plan: the Beatitudes and Matthew 25. You do not need to read anything else.”
Ibid. (emphasis added)
And:
3) “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
[On salvation; emphases added]
“[A] genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation…. Then you have to do catechesis. Then you can draw even a moral consequence.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
(cf. Council of Toledo XI, Creed of Faith:
“[The Redemption]…we believe according to the truth of the Gospels that He was conceived without sin, born without sin, and died without sin, who alone for us became sin [II Cor. 5:21], that is, a sacrifice for our sin.”
Source: Denzinger, 30th ed., para. 286)
Comment: The statement of the Council implies that morality, rather than being a consequence that we may draw from salvation, is in fact its logical antecedent.
[On the order of the Gospels]
This comment continues my point above about Francis’ description of Mark as “the oldest of the Gospels” (posted: November 6, 2013 6:56 pm).
In contrast with this statement, one can quote the following two lines from a 2006 audience of Benedict XVI:
1) “The first canonical Gospel, which goes under his [Matthew’s] name….”
2) “[L]et us remember that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel.”
General Audience of Benedict XVI, August 30, 2006
[On the Resurrection]
“Jesus tells Thomas to put his hand in the wounds of his hands and his feet, and in his side. We too can enter into the wounds of Jesus, we can actually touch him. This happens every time that we receive the sacraments with faith.”
Pope Francis, Homily at Papal Mass for the Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, April 7, 2013
Comment: The distinction between the historical, empirical proof of the bodily Resurrection, on the one hand, and the doctrine of Transubstantiation, on the other, needs to be maintained at all times.
Compare the above statement on the sacraments with the following statement from the 2004, XI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (on The Eucharist):
“At the beginning of [Jesus’] earthly life he had a mortal body bound by space and time; now he has a risen body no longer bound by them. In fact, the risen Lord passes through locked doors, overcomes unspeakable distances in a lightning flash so as to make himself known, heard, seen and touched by his own. From the moment of his resurrection and ascension, his presence is a new reality. The First Letter of St. John seems to make reference to this divine manner of reaching people throughout history: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…we proclaim also to you so that you might have fellowship with us” (1 Jn 1:1-3).”
Comment: This, in my opinion, is a false reading of 1 John.
Compare Aquinas, ST, III, Q.55, Art. 5:
“Christ is said to have demonstrated His Resurrection by proofs, inasmuch as by most evident signs He showed that He was truly risen…. Now Christ showed these signs of the Resurrection to His disciples…that their testimony might be rendered more efficacious through the signs shown them, according to 1 John 1:1-3.”
[Conflicting statements on doctrine and “nuance”]
1) “The view of the church’s teaching as a monolith to defend without nuance or different understandings is wrong”.
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
2) (According to Vatican Radio, Francis made the statement below after having remarked that every time we judge our brothers in our hearts – or worse still when we speak ill of them with others, we are Christian murderers):
“A Christian murderer…. It’s not me saying this, it’s the Lord. And there is no place for nuances“.
Homily, Domus Sanctae Marthae, September 13, 2013 (emphasis added)
[On proselytism (ctd.)]
“The Church grows, but not through proselytizing: no, no! The Church does not grow through proselytizing. The Church grows through attraction, through the attraction of the witness that each one of us gives to the People of God.”
Pastoral Visit to Assisi, October 4, 2013
[cf. Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri (quoting Pope Pius IX):
“[T]he Church ‘has been established by her divine Founder as the pillar and foundation of truth, to teach all men the divine faith, to guard its deposit given to her whole and inviolate, and to direct and fashion men in their public and private actions unto purity of morals and integrity of life, according to the norm of revealed doctrine.”]
[On dogma and “human self-understanding”; emphases added]
From the Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013:
I ask Pope Francis about the enormous changes occurring in society and the way human beings are reinterpreting themselves. At this point he…reads me a passage from the Commonitorium Primum of St Vincent of Lerins: “Even the dogma of the Christian religion must follow these laws, consolidating over the years, developing over time, deepening with age.”
The pope comments: “…The view of the church’s teaching as a monolith to defend without nuance or different understandings is wrong…. When does a formulation of thought cease to be valid? When it loses sight of the human or even when it is afraid of the human or deluded about itself.”
(Cf. Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis:
“But [for the Modernist] the object of the religious sentiment…possesses an infinite variety of aspects of which now one, now another, may present itself. In like manner, he who believes may pass through different phases. Consequently, the formulae too, which we call dogmas, must be subject to these vicissitudes, and are, therefore, liable to change. Thus the way is open to the intrinsic evolution of dogma. An immense collection of sophisms this, that ruins and destroys all religion.”)
[Conflicting statements on “doubt”]
1) “The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
2) “Paul acted because he was sure, sure of Jesus Christ. He had no doubt of his Lord”.
Morning Meditation, May 8, 2013
[On the laity]
“[T]he people have a ‘nose’! The people scent out, discover, new ways to walk, it has the ‘sensus fidei,’ as theologians call it. What could be more beautiful than this? During the [diocesan] Synod, it will be very important to consider what the Holy Spirit is saying to the laity, to the People of God, to everyone.”
Pastoral Visit to Assisi, October 4, 2013
[cf. Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi:
“[T]he force which attracts to progress and responds to the inner needs, lies hidden, and works in the consciences of individuals, especially of those who attain life, as they say, more closely and intimately. – Behold here, Venerable Brethren, we perceive that most pernicious doctrine raise its head, which introduces into the Church the members of the laity as elements of progress.”]
On Judaism]
“Moreover, persevering with faith in the God of the Covenant, [the Jews] remind everyone, including us Christians, that we wait unceasingly as pilgrims for the return of the Lord, and that therefore we should be open to him”.
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
[cf. Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, March 6, 1982:
“Jesus affirms [Jn. 10:16] that ‘there shall be one flock and one shepherd’. Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to Christ as the Redeemer for all”.]
[Inconsistent statements on the Resurrection and the Ascension; emphases added]
From the papal Catecheses for the Year of Faith:
1) “[At the Resurrection,] Jesus makes himself present in a new way…; he did not return to earthly life…” (“non è tornato alla vita terrena”).
Pope Francis’ first catechesis, April 3, 2013
2) “Jesus’ earthly life culminated with the Ascension“ (“La vita terrena di Gesù culmina con l’evento dell’Ascensione”.
Third catechesis, April 17, 2013
[On fear of the Lord and penitence; emphases added]
Compare these two statements:
1) “Dear brothers and sisters, may looking at the Last Judgement never frighten us“.
, General Audience, April 24, 2013
2) “As Jonah went through the streets prophesying Nineveh’s imminent destruction, the Ninevites ‘began to pray with words, with their hearts and with their bodies’.”
Morning Meditation, October 8, 2013
Comment: Note that putting the fear of God into them was actually of salutary benefit to the Ninevites.
See also: Council of Trent, Session XIV, Chap. 4 (On Contrition):
“And as to that imperfect contrition, which is called attrition, because that it is commonly conceived either from the consideration of the turpitude of sin, or from the fear of hell and of punishment, [the Synod] declares that if, with the hope of pardon, it exclude the wish to sin, it…is even a gift of God, and an impulse of the Holy Ghost…. For, smitten profitably with this fear, the Ninivites, at the preaching of Jonas, did fearful penance and obtained mercy from the Lord”.
[On conversion; emphasis added]
From Morning Meditation, October 14, 2013:
Pope Francis described what he termed “the Jonah syndrome”. He explained: “[Jonah] did not want to travel to Nineveh, and so he fled to Spain. In his mind: the teaching is this, you have to believe this. If they are sinners, they can sort it out for themselves; I have nothing to do with it!”. “This is the Jonah syndrome,” he said,… He continued: “The Jonah syndrome afflicts those without zeal for the conversion of others”.
Comment: Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. What Francis is referring to here is the equivalent today of converting non-Catholics.
Compare the above description of “the Jonah syndrome” with the following much-quoted passage from the La Repubblica interview (October 1, 2013), which as of the time of writing is still published on the newspaper’s Web site:
The Pope comes in and shakes my hand, and we sit down. The Pope smiles and says: “Some of my colleagues who know you told me that you will try to convert me.” It’s a joke, I tell him. My friends think it is you want to convert me. He smiles again and replies: “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense”.
[On the Church and civil and political society; emphases added]
“While the Church is called to introduce the leaven and be the salt of the Gospel, that is, the love and mercy of God which reach all men and women, and which point to the heavenly and definitive goal of our destiny, it falls to civil society and political society to articulate and build a life which is more humane, through justice, solidarity, law and peace.”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
Comment: If the Church should not proselytise, as Francis has said repeatedly, then surely that must include not attempting to convert the (non-Catholic) state. In this context it is clearly possible that the “humane life” that political society should choose to “articulate” could be oblivious, and thereby detrimental, to the necessities of salvation.
Compare: Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas –
“Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether collectively or individually, are under the dominion of Christ. In him is the salvation of the individual, in him is the salvation of society. ‘Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved’ [Acts 4:12].”
[On morality and conscience; emphases added]
“Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”
Pope Francis, quoted in La Repubblica interview with professed atheist Eugenio Scalfari, October 1, 2013
Compare:
1) Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris –
“But the Creator of the world has imprinted in man’s heart an order which his conscience reveals to him and enjoins him to obey: This shows that the obligations of the law are written in their hearts; their conscience utters its own testimony [Romans 2:15].”
2) Pope Pius XI, Mit Brennender Sorge –
“It is on faith in God, preserved pure and stainless, that man’s morality is based. All efforts to remove from under morality and the moral order the granite foundation of faith and to substitute for it the shifting sands of human regulations, sooner or later lead these individuals or societies to moral degradation. The fool who has said in his heart ‘there is no God’ goes straight to moral corruption (Psalms xiii. 1), and the number of these fools who today are out to sever morality from religion, is legion.”
[On salvation and the Church; emphases added]
The following two quotes are from the Address of Pope Francis to Participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome, June 17, 2013:
1) “We are all sinners! But the grace of Jesus Christ saves us from sin: it saves us!”
2) “‘Father, now I understand: it is a question of convincing others, of proselytizing!’. No: it is nothing of the kind. The Gospel is like seed: you scatter it, you scatter it with your words and with your witness. and then it is not you who calculate the statistics of the results; it is God who does. It is he who makes this seed germinate but we must sow it with the certainty that he will water it, that he gives the growth. And we do not gather in the harvest. Some other priest will do this, some other lay person, a man or woman, someone else will do it.”
Compare: Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi –
“[F]rom the very beginning of Our Pontificate, We have committed to the protection and guidance of heaven those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic Church, solemnly declaring that after the example of the Good Shepherd We desire nothing more ardently than that they may have life and have it more abundantly…. We ask each and every one of them to correspond to the interior movements of grace, and to seek to withdraw from that state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation. For even though by an unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of the Redeemer, they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church.”
[On the Kingship of Christ; emphases added]
“The question which arises repeatedly in the Gospel of Mark, ‘who is this that…?’, concerning the identity of Jesus, arises from the recognition of an authority that is not of this world, one which is not intended to impose itself on others but rather is directed to the service of others, to give them freedom and fullness of life.”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013
[cf. Council of Trent, Session VI, Canons on Justification –
“CANON XXI.-If any one saith, that Christ Jesus was given of God to men, as a redeemer in whom to trust, and not also as a legislator whom to obey; let him be anathema.”]
[Contradictory statements on the Old Covenant and Judaism; emphases added]
“As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.”
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, #247
“‘Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad’ (Jn 8:56). According to these words of Jesus, Abraham’s faith pointed to him; in some sense it foresaw his mystery. So Saint Augustine understood it when he stated that the patriarchs were saved by faith, not faith in Christ who had come but in Christ who was yet to come, a faith pressing towards the future of Jesus. Christian faith is centred on Christ; it is the confession that Jesus is Lord and that God has raised him from the dead (cf. Rom 10:9). All the threads of the Old Testament converge on Christ; he becomes the definitive ‘Yes’ to all the promises, the ultimate basis of our ‘Amen’ to God (cf. 2 Cor 1:20).”
Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, #15
[Apparently conflicting statements on the Old Covenant]
1) “We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29).”
Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, #247
2) “We are no longer slaves of the Law [of Moses]: we are free, because Jesus Christ liberated us, he gave us freedom, the full freedom of God’s children, which we live under grace.”
Address of Pope Francis to Participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome, June 17, 2013
[cf. Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, March 6, 1982 (Vatican Web site, op. cit.):
“Jesus affirms [Jn 10:16] that ‘there shall be one flock and one shepherd’.
Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to Christ as the Redeemer for all”.]
[On the Church’s knowledge of God’s relationship with non-Christian religions]
“[D]ue to the sacramental dimension of sanctifying grace, God’s working in [non-Christians] tends to produce signs and rites, sacred expressions which in turn bring others to a communitarian experienceof journeying towards God. While these lack the meaning and efficacy of the sacraments instituted by Christ, they can be channels which the Holy Spirit raises up in order to liberate non-Christians from atheistic immanentism or from purely individual religious experiences.”
Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, #254
[Cf. Pope Pius IX, Allocution, Singulari quadem:
“Far be it from Us…to presume on the limits of the divine mercy which is infinite; far from Us, to wish to scrutinize the hidden counsel and ‘judgments of God’ which are ‘a great deep’ and cannot be penetrated by human thought. But, as is Our Apostolic duty, we wish…that you will strive as much as you can to drive from the mind of men that impious and equally fatal opinion, namely, that the way of salvation can be found in any religion whatsoever.”
Source: Denzinger, 30th ed., para. 1646]
[Conflicting statements on “the door”; emphases added]
“Jesus tell us that there is a door which gives us access to God’s family, to the warmth of God’s house, of communion with him. This door is Jesus himself (cf. Jn 10:9). He is the door. He is the entrance to salvation. He leads us to the Father and the door that is Jesus is never closed. This door is never closed it is always open“.
Pope Francis, Angelus, August 25, 2013
“The Lord Jesus is very very good and never tires of forgiving us. Even when the door that Baptism opens to us in order to enter the Church is a little closed, due to our weaknesses and our sins. Confession reopens it, precisely because it is a second Baptism that forgives us of everything and illuminates us to go forward with the light of the Lord.”
Pope Francis, General Audience, November13, 2013
Note: The following is the Gospel reading for August 25th, 2013 upon which Francis gives the “always open” homily above –
Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
‘Lord, open the door for us.’
He will say to you in reply,
‘I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
Then he will say to you,
‘I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”
(Luke 13:22-30, as published on the USCCB Web site)
[Conflicting statements on salvation]
1) [Baptism] actuates that birth by water and the Spirit without which no one may enter the Kingdom of Heaven (cf. Jn 3:5).
General Audience, November 13, 2013
2) “Non-Christians, by God’s gracious initiative, when they are faithful to their own consciences, can live ‘justified by the grace of God’, and thus be ‘associated to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ’.”
Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, #254
Cf. Pope Pius IX, Allocution, Singulari quadem:
“[I]t is necessary to hold for certain that they who labour in ignorance of the true religion, if this ignorance is invincible, are not stained by any guilt in this matter in the eyes of God. Now, in truth, who would arrogate so much to himself as to mark the limits of such an ignorance…?…; but, as long as we are on earth, weighed down by this mortal mass which blunts the soul, let us hold most firmly that, in accordance with Catholic teaching, there is ‘one God, one faith, one baptism’; it is unlawful to proceed further in inquiry.”
Source: Denzinger, 30th ed., para. 1647
[Contradictory statements on “slapping”]
1) God’s hands, the Pope continued, “are hands that are wounded from love” and who [sic] heal us. “I could never imagine those hands giving us a slap, Never. Never.”
Homily, as reported by Vatican Radio, November 12, 2013
2) “These sad Christians,” said Pope Francis, “do not believe in the Holy Spirit, do not believe in the freedom that comes from preaching, which admonishes you, teaches you – slaps you as well“.
Homily, as reported by Vatican Radio, December 13, 2013
[Contradictory statements on “slapping”]
1) God’s hands, the Pope continued, “are hands that are wounded from love” and who [sic] heal us. “I could never imagine those hands giving us a slap, Never. Never.”
Homily, as reported by Vatican Radio, November 12, 2013
2) “These sad Christians,” said Pope Francis, “do not believe in the Holy Spirit, do not believe in the freedom that comes from preaching, which admonishes you, teaches you – slaps you as well“.
Homily, as reported by Vatican Radio, December 13, 2013
[Puzzling statement on the moral precepts of the Old Law]
“The people of that time [i.e. the time of Matthew 11:16-19] preferred to take refuge in a more elaborate religion: in the moral precepts, such as the group of Pharisees; in political compromise, as the Sadducees; in social revolution, as the zealots; in gnostic spirituality, such as Essenes.”
Homily, as reported by Vatican Radio, December 13, 2013
Question: What is “more elaborate” about the moral precepts?
Compare Aquinas, ST, II-I, Q.100 (“The moral precepts of the old law”),
Article 1:
“The moral precepts, distinct from the ceremonial and judicial precepts, are about things pertaining of their very nature to good morals. Now since human morals depend on their relation to reason, which is the proper principle of human acts, those morals are called good which accord with reason, and those are called bad which are discordant from reason.”
[Contradictory statements on truth]
1) “But Truth itself, the truth which would comprehensively explain our life as individuals and in society, is regarded with suspicion…. In the end, what we are left with is relativism, in which the question of universal truth — and ultimately this means the question of God — is no longer relevant.”
Lumen Fidei, #25
2) “I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers….”
Letter to a Non-Believer, Sept. 11, 2013 [op. cit.]
[On the Mother of God, conceived without sin; emphasis added]
“The Gospel does not tell us anything: if [Our Lady] spoke a word or not… She was silent, but in her heart, how many things told the Lord! ‘You, that day, this and the other that we read, you had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and now I see him there!’ Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’‘”.
Homily as reported by Vatican Radio, December 12, 2013
[On the Mother of God; emphases added]
“The Mother of God. This is the first and most important title of Our Lady. It refers to a quality, a role which the faith of the Christian people, in its tender and genuine devotion to our heavenly Mother, has understood from the beginning.”
Homily, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, January 1, 2014
Cf. The Penny Catechism:
“How is the Blessed Virgin Mother of God?
The Blessed Virgin is Mother of God because Jesus Christ, her son, who was born of her as man, is not only man, but is also truly God.”
[Conflicting statements on “doubt”]
1) “On this point,” Pope Francis said, “there is no shadow of a doubt. A battle exists, a battle in which the eternal salvation of us all is at stake”. There are no alternatives, he said, even if at times we hear about “pastoral proposals” that seem more accommodating. “No! Either you are with Jesus or you are against him”.
Morning Meditation, Domus Sanctae Marthae, October 11, 2013
2) “The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica” [op. cit.]
[On the Truth, the Way and the Life; emphases added]
“A battle exists, a battle in which the eternal salvation of us all is at stake…. Either you are with Jesus or you are against him“.
Morning Meditation, Domus Sanctae Marthae, October 11, 2013
“[T]here are many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, who ‘lose their lives’ for truth. And Christ said ‘I am the truth’, therefore whoever serves the truth serves Christ”.
Angelus, June 23, 2013
“You are wrong because you cannot possess truth“.
Address to the Young People from the Italian Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, August 23, 2013
[On the priority between the soul and the body; emphases added]
“How can I find the wounds of Jesus today?… I find them in doing works of mercy, in giving to the body – to the body and to the soul, but I stress the body – of your injured brethren, for they are hungry, thirsty, naked, humiliated, slaves, in prison, in hospital. These are the wounds of Jesus in our day.”
Morning Meditation, Domus Sanctae Marthae, July 3, 2013
Compare how, in the following extract from Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII manages to “stress the body” without appearing to invert the priority between it and the soul:
“Hence, though the Church’s first care must be for souls, how she can sanctify them and make them share in the gifts of heaven, she concerns herself too with the exigencies of man’s daily life, with his livelihood and education, and his general, temporal welfare and prosperity.”
[On philosophy; emphases added]
POPE FRANCIS: “The church has experienced times of brilliance, like that of Thomas Aquinas. But the church has lived also times of decline in its ability to think. For example, we must not confuse the genius of Thomas Aquinas with the age of decadent Thomist commentaries. Unfortunately, I studied philosophy from textbooks that came from decadent or largely bankrupt Thomism.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
POPE PIUS XII: “If one considers all this well, he will easily see why the Church demands that future priests be instructed in philosophy ‘according to the method, doctrine, and principles of the Angelic Doctor,’ since, as we well know from the experience of centuries, the method of Aquinas is singularly preeminent both of teaching students and for bringing truth to light….
How deplorable it is then that this philosophy, received and honored by the Church, is scorned by some, who shamelessly call it ‘outmoded’ in form and rationalistic, as they say, in its method of thought. They say that this philosophy upholds the erroneous notion that there can be a metaphysic that is absolutely true“.
Humani Generis
POPE FRANCIS: “To begin with, I would not speak about ‘absolute’ truths, even for believers….”.
“Letter to a Non-Believer”, 9/11/2013
[On the validity of other religions; emphases added]
1) POPE ST. PIUS X:
“On what grounds can Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? Will they claim a monopoly of true experiences for Catholics alone? Indeed, Modernists do not deny, but actually maintain, some confusedly, others frankly, that all religions are true.”
Pascendi Dominici Gregis
2) FRANCIS:
a) “Engaging in dialogue <does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the claim that they alone are valid or absolute.”
Message for the 48th “World Communication Day”, January 24, 2014
b) “Sharing our experience in carrying that cross, to expel the illness within our hearts, which embitters our life: it is important that you do this in your meetings. Those that are Christian, with the Bible, and those that are Muslim, with the Quran. The faith that your parents instilled in you will always help you move on.”
Meeting with immigrants at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, January 19, 2014 (quoted, with video, on harvestingthefruit.com, January 21st)
[Contradictory statements on certainty; emphases added]
1) “You are wrong because you cannot possess truth“.
Address to the Young People from the Italian Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, August 23, 2013
2) “I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life.”
Interview with Pope Francis for “Civilta Cattolica”, Sept. 21, 2013
[Contradictory statements on the presence of God; emphases added]
1) “And I ask you, here in this diocese, are there children who do not know how to make the Sign of the Cross? Think about it. These are true outskirts of existence where God is absent.”
Pastoral visit to Assisi, October 4, 2013
2) “[D]ue to the sacramental dimension of sanctifying grace, God’s working in [non-Christians] tends to produce signs and rites, sacred expressions which in turn bring others to a communitarian experience of journeying towards God.”
Evangelii Gaudium, #254
[On Marxism and Marxists]
1) “The Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people”
Interview with La Stampa, December 14, 2013
2) “I never shared the Marxist ideology because it’s false, but I knew many good persons who professed Marxism.”
Interview with Corriere della Sera, ZENIT translation, March 5, 2014
Compare Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, #24 (emphasis added):
“In making these observations it is no part of Our intention to condemn en masse the peoples of the Soviet Union. For them We cherish the warmest paternal affection. We are well aware that not a few of them groan beneath the yoke imposed on them by men who in very large part are strangers to the real interests of the country. We recognize that many others were deceived by fallacious hopes. We blame only the system, with its authors and abettors who considered Russia the best-prepared field for experimenting with a plan elaborated decades ago, and who from there continue to spread it from one end of the world to the other.”
[On the historical value of the Book of Jonah; emphases added]
“Go and re-read the Book of Jonah! It is short, but it is a very instructive parable, especially for those of us in the Church.”
Address, September 27, 2014
Compare the above with the following two statements:
1) from the Catholic Encyclopedia (on “Jonah”) –
“Christ makes no distinction between the story of the Queen of Sheba and that of Jonah (see Matthew 12:42). He sets the very same historical value upon the Book of Jonah as upon the Third Book of Kings”; and,
2) from Pope Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus, #29 –
“[Christ] refers without any discrimination of sources to the stories of Jonas and the Ninivites, of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, of Elias and Eliseus, of David and of Noe, of Lot and the Sodomites, and even of Lot’s wife”.
[On doctrine; emphases added]
“Am I like those leaders who went the next day to Pilate and said, ‘Look, this man said that he was going to rise again. We cannot let another fraud take place!’, and who block life, who block the tomb, in order to maintain doctrine, lest life come forth?”
Homily, Palm Sunday, 2014
Compare Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi, #13:
“And so [Modernists] audaciously charge the Church…with clinging tenaciously and vainly to meaningless formulas whilst religion is allowed to go to ruin.”
[On the Church; emphases added]
“Many thinkers in the Church were persecuted, as well. I think of one, now, at this moment, not so far from us: a man of good will, a prophet indeed, who, in his writings reproached the Church for having lost the way of the Lord…. Today the Church, who, thanks be to God knows repent [sic]….”
Homily, April 4, 2014
Compare Pope Pius XII:
“And if at times there appears in the Church something that indicates the weakness of our human nature, it should not be attributed to her juridical constitution, but rather to that regrettable inclination to evil found in each individual, which its Divine Founder permits even at times in the most exalted members of His Mystical Body, for the purpose of testing the virtue of the Shepherds no less than of the flocks, and that all may increase the merit of their Christian faith.”
(Mystici Corporis Christi, #66)
[On the Church; emphases added]
“Great” is His love for the Church, said Pope Francis, adding, “Jesus married the Church for love.” She is, he said, “His bride: beautiful, holy, a sinner, He loves her all the same.”
Homily, June 2, 2014
Compare Pope Pius XII:
“[T]he Church itself…is the Mystical Body of Christ without stain or wrinkle [Ephesians 5:27]”.
(Munificentissimus Deus, #36)