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For Francis, Saving the Amazon is Evangelization in Motion
Crux ^ | 9/17/19 | John Allen Jr

Posted on 09/19/2019 6:18:12 PM PDT by marshmallow

ROME - A persistent line of criticism heading into next month’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, generally coming from more conservative and traditional quarters of Catholicism, is that the whole exercise is a distraction from the Church’s core mission of evangelization, meaning bringing souls to Christ.

That, for instance, was the gist of a complaint by German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, who’s pointedly asked, “What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church?”

What’s sometimes overlooked is that for Pope Francis, such subjects do not constitute an alternative to evangelization. As he sees it, they are evangelization, or at least an essential prolegomenon to it. When Christians stand with people as they face such struggles, the pope believes, they’ll eventually wonder why we’re doing it, and that’s when the conversation begins.

One of the clearest expressions of Francis’s vision came in a Saturday audience with members of the Community of Abraham, a charismatic group founded in northeastern Italy in 1989 and today present in Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Hungary as well. The audience was to mark the community’s 30th anniversary.

“The meekness that the Holy Spirit gives us makes us witnesses, because the path of the Holy Spirit isn’t proselytism, it’s witness,” Francis told the group. “If someone comes to proselytize, that’s not the Church, it’s a sect.”

(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ministry/Outreach; Theology
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 09/19/2019 6:18:12 PM PDT by marshmallow
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To: All

Remember the good old days when the business of the Pope was saving souls?


2 posted on 09/19/2019 6:24:41 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: LegendHasIt

Wherever this ideology shapes Catholic priorities, the Church withers and collapses. It’s happening right now in the US, just as it happened already in Europe, especially in the most liberal northern countries. If the Africans have any sense, they’ll keep it as far as possible from their bustling churches.


3 posted on 09/19/2019 6:30:15 PM PDT by madprof98
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To: marshmallow

No, this is nothing more than the actions of a lowlife scumbag Marxist thug joining up with the one-world globalists.


4 posted on 09/19/2019 6:32:11 PM PDT by AlaskaErik
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To: AlaskaErik

Lightening bolt, lightening bolt lightening bolt... Send now please, Lord! Amen.


5 posted on 09/19/2019 7:05:26 PM PDT by KierkegaardMAN (This is the sort of stuff up with which I shall not put!)
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To: marshmallow

It’s so much easier to focus on an abstract distant and unobtainable goal rather than at those gathered at the church’s steps.

They weaken the church in Brazil with this nonsense.


6 posted on 09/19/2019 7:18:19 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: marshmallow

Making excuses about being a political organization.

I reject.


7 posted on 09/19/2019 7:37:29 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (The internet has driven the world mad.)
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To: marshmallow

The False Pope Speaks more lies. The RCC is dead.


8 posted on 09/19/2019 7:55:59 PM PDT by Cyclops08
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To: SaxxonWoods

Then they need to be taxed as a political organization.


9 posted on 09/19/2019 7:57:24 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

This!


10 posted on 09/19/2019 8:21:41 PM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (Ban liberals, NOT guns.)
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To: marshmallow
the good news is that the Evangelicals are there evangelizing these people.

Some of them are even saving the children of the “indigenous” who are slated for infanticide because they are imperfect.

And, of course, “saving the Amazon” ignores that this area supported millions before 1492, and these tribes are not “pristine” types but the survivors who degenerated from their farmer ancestors who traded with other tribes.

then there is the problem that “saving” the Amazon means throwing out the poor people who moved there to get jobs in forestry, mining, or farming. Screw the “mestizos” and “Mulattoes”: Only the politically correct poor people count.

11 posted on 09/19/2019 10:13:25 PM PDT by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
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To: Cyclops08
"The False Pope Speaks more lies. The RCC is dead."

Only of the laity bails out of the fight. The RCC is under major attack by the evil one. If the RCC was dead, this level of effort would not be expended. I, for one, am in it until MY end.

12 posted on 09/19/2019 11:20:41 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: marshmallow; Al Hitan; Coleus; DuncanWaring; ebb tide; Fedora; Hieronymus; irishjuggler; Jaded; ...

Ping


13 posted on 09/20/2019 6:42:18 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome)
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