Posted on 07/28/2014 2:52:04 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- His voice breaking with emotion, Giovanni Traettino, a Pentecostal pastor in southern Italy and longtime friend of Pope Francis, welcomed the pope, "my beloved brother," to his partially built church in Caserta.
Pope Francis said he knows some people were shocked that he would make a special trip outside of Rome to visit a group of Pentecostals, "but I went to visit my friends."
Traettino told the pope his visit was "unthinkable until recently," even though, he said, "even among evangelicals there is great affection for you. Many of us pray for you, every day. Many of us, in fact, believe your election as bishop of Rome was the work of the Holy Spirit."
Pope Francis told the Pentecostals that "the Holy Spirit is the source of diversity in the church. This diversity is very rich and beautiful. But then the same Holy Spirit creates unity. And in this way the church is one in diversity. To use a beautiful Gospel phrase that I love very much, reconciled diversity" is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In addition to the visit, the pope fulfilled one specific request of the Italian evangelical community by recognizing the complicity of some Catholics in the fascist-era persecution of Italian Pentecostals and evangelicals.
"Among those who persecuted and denounced the Pentecostals, almost as if they were crazies who would ruin the race, there were some Catholics. As the pastor of the Catholics, I ask forgiveness for those Catholic brothers and sisters who did not understand and were tempted by the devil," Italian news agencies quoted the pope as saying.
The Vatican had described the visit as "strictly private" and, except for Vatican media, reporters were kept on the roof of a nearby apartment building. In the new worship space of the Pentecostal Church of Reconciliation, still under construction, Pope Francis met with about 200 people, including members of Traettino's congregation, other Italian evangelicals and representatives of Pentecostal ministries in Argentina and the United States, the Vatican said.
The pope and Traettino first met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the late 1990s when Traettino was establishing ties between charismatic Catholics and Pentecostal Protestants. The then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio and Traettino also appeared together at a large ecumenical charismatic gathering in Buenos Aires in 2006. Traettino was present June 1 in Rome's Olympic Stadium when Pope Francis spoke to an international gathering of Catholic charismatics.
Meeting with Caserta's Catholic priests and bishops from the Campania region July 26, the date originally scheduled for his visit with the Pentecostals, Pope Francis said he had not known that date was the city's big celebration for the feast of St. Anne.
If he had gone to the Pentecostals that day, without celebrating the feast with Catholics, "the newspaper headlines would have been 'On the patron feast of Caserta, the pope visits Protestants,'" he said. So, he asked an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State to help organize the Mass "to remove this noose from around my neck."
Pope Francis also gave the priests a glimpse into his thoughts about Catholic relations with the Pentecostals, which some people have found surprising, especially given how many Catholics in the pope's Latin America have joined evangelical communities.
Ping!
What does that mean? Freeper Catholics with disgronificators should explain this. :p
In addition to the visit, the pope fulfilled one specific request of the Italian evangelical community by recognizing the complicity of some Catholics in the fascist-era persecution of Italian Pentecostals and evangelicals.
"Among those who persecuted and denounced the Pentecostals, almost as if they were crazies who would ruin the race, there were some Catholics. As the pastor of the Catholics, I ask forgiveness for those Catholic brothers and sisters who did not understand and were tempted by the devil," Italian news agencies quoted the pope as saying.
Related threads:
Pope in Caserta asks pardon for persecution of Pentecostals
Pope Francis Meets Evangelical Delegation
Why Did Copeland, Robison Meet With Pope Francis?
Pope Francis meets US televangelists, and the first-ever ‘papal high-five’ follows
All I know is that Pope Benedict XVI said the phrase “reconciled diversity” was really pushed by the Lutherans.
I don’t know. I lost my papal decoder ring.
Thanks for Links This what I was Looking for Copeland..
I knew he was here somewhere..
Ask a Jesuit. I attended a retreat last year directed by Fr. James Kubicki, SJ, director of the Apostleship of Prayer. He said that shortly after Pope Francis was selected, he and another Jesuit were rejoicing that we finally had a Pope that they could understand.
If that is how he truly feels, perhaps he would be happier joining the Pentecostals.
Some 473-year-old Jesuit humor. :o)
Bene omnia sunt.
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