Posted on 08/19/2016 2:02:35 PM PDT by ebb tide
In an op-ed at Crisis, Steubenville professor Timothy J. Williams argues that the Church should spend less time apologizing for Christians’ alleged past sins, and instead own up to its indifference to the moral evils of our own day.
In particular, Williams is concerned by Pope Francis’ recent remarks that Christians seek forgiveness “from the poor, from exploited women, [and] from children exploited as laborers.” The remarks came after the pope had said he agreed with Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s call for the Church to apologize to homosexuals.
While these apologies have been a mainstay of the last three popes, starting with Pope St. John Paul II, he says Francis has gone beyond his two immediate predecessors:
Pope Francis has taken this cult of “eorum culpa” to new heights, issuing strangely worded apologies that condemn Christians for the very things that are praiseworthy in Christianity. For example, according to the Pope, Christians should beg forgiveness “from the poor, from exploited women, [and] from children exploited as laborers,” even though, historically, no religion or other organization of any kind has ever done more for the poor, the exploited, women, and children.
Of what, ultimately, consists this fondness for issuing apologies on behalf of Christians (and specifically Catholics) of other eras? Sometimes, I ask myself whether these gestures are not just a kind of pharisaical prayer of self-praise and thanksgiving for one’s moral superiority: “The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican” (Luke 18:11). (Just add the prefix “Re-” to the last word, and voila!—moral aggiornamento.)
He then offers a better approach than merely apologizing "on behalf" of past Christians:
Let us apologize on our behalf to future generations who will never have a chance to be, because of the indifference to the crime of abortion on the part of many present-day Catholics. We have just witnessed a very public Catholic, one Sen. Tim Kaine, receiving a standing ovation from his fellow parishioners and a vote of moral approval from his pastor, despite Kaine’s strong endorsement of the most pro-abortion position ever taken by an American political party. Although a handful of bishops have spoken out against Catholics voting for pro-abortion politicians, too often politicians like Kaine will suffer no consequences for their collaboration with absolute evil.
The Catholics of the Middle Ages would not have understood this paradox, this profusion of apologies coupled with pious indifference. They had the habit of speaking bluntly about evil, and finding it in themselves, rather than in others. We would do well to follow the light of their example, living as we are in the true dark ages of humanity.
Read Williams’ full article at Crisis here*.
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/apology-catholics-past
Islam should apologize for their 700 year crime of dominating Southern Europe and nearly extinguishing Christianity.
Thank you Charles Martel....
I don’t apologize for being right.
I do no apologize for things I haven’t done to others.
I do not apologize for things I have done that were the right things to do.
I don’t apologize for what anyone else has done.
I am tired of this crap. All they want is either money and/or told whatever perversion they fancy is wonderful.
“Islam should apologize for their 700 year crime of dominating Southern Europe and nearly extinguishing Christianity.
Thank you Charles Martel....”
And some Austrians and Poles I think....
Our own longest war (Author there of — LBJ) should be ended too—War on Poverty...
The ones who should apologize are those cherubic little fatties in the College of Cardinals who selected this noisy clown. They knew he was both a Jesuit lefty and a Peronista from his youth.
Ever noticed how Moslems never apologize for historical sins?
Or Mongols?
Or Huns (Hungarians)?
Need to have a little more pride ourselves.
Apologizing for the past faults of people one does not know is the same as vilifying them and exonerating oneself. It is absurd. Frankly, so are the papal condolences to every apparent tragedy under the sun with an assurance of 'closeness', it simply becomes meaningless blather falling on deaf ears and unbelieving hearts: It reeks of insincerity.
Pope Francis and the majority of Bishops and Priests need to apologize to God and their flocks for not handing on to them the Catholic Faith but rather a modernistic pseudo Catholicism that leaves them mired in sin, confused in what they believe, devoid of a genuine sense/experience of Reverent, Holy and Sacrificial Worship and divided in their hearts.
Scorn this Antipope like the feeble-minded South American Marxist he is.
They need to apologize for turning it into Chrislam.
Apologizing for the Crusades is like the detective who caught John Wayne Gacy apologizing for arresting him.
When are the islamics gonna apologize for destroying priceless historical artifacts?
They have the Church, just like they hate this country. Anything that was done in the past by the Church or this country, they believe renders it evil down to the present day.
This is the real point. The Pope's apologies go beyond tiresome and self-serving. They are actually dangerous, since by their wording and implication, they invariably portray the Church as evil, which may actually be his intention, as ridiculous as it may seem.
A good example is his recent apology to former prostitutes where he asked forgiveness on behalf of all Christians for the violence and suffering these women had been through. Christians should not require forgiveness for this violence unless they inflicted it, should they?
If anyone deserves an apology from the Pope it's long-suffering Catholics who've endured 5 decades of ecclesiastical chaos at the hands of heretics and homosexuals. It won't be forthcoming, though. Quite the contrary. From Francis' trash talk about "doctors of the law", "rigid Catholics" and "rosary counters" etc., it's clear that he thinks we all deserve a good kicking.
It’s called “Virtue Signalling”.
O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men who exploit the poor, the women and the children, but instead, in my infinite humility, beg forgiveness for their sins.
If individual Christians did indeed exploit someone then they do owe only those people they exploited an apology.
But I do NOT go in for this group guilt trip thing.
I will not be held accountable for the actions of others just because they claim to believe the same things I do.
These are the folks he is apologizing for.
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