Posted on 11/29/2015 7:06:15 PM PST by ebb tide
Björn Odendahl, an editor at Katholisch.de, writes the following in the course of commenting on the Popeâs plans for Africa in a piece entitled âThe Romantic, Poor Churchâ:
So also in Africa. Of course the Church is growing there. It grows because the people are socially dependent and often have nothing else but their faith. It grows because the educational situation there is on average at a rather low level and the people accept simple answers to difficult questions(of faith) [sic]. Answers like those that Cardinal Sarah of Guinea provides. And even the growing number of priests is a result not only of missionary power but also a result of the fact that the priesthood is one of the few possibilities for social security on the dark continent.
We all know that the German Bishopsâ Conference is one of the most progressive in the world. But it nevertheless beggars belief that such a statement would appear on the Conferenceâs official website, with its lazy slander of African Christians and priests as poor and uneducated (Odendahl might as well have added âeasy to commandâ) and its gratuitous swipe at Cardinal Sarah; they must really fear him. (The link goes to a Katholisch.de report on Cardinal Sarahâs bracing words on homosexual practice at the recent Synod on the Family.)
Continue reading âGerman Bishopsâ Conference Says Church in Africa Growing Only Because of Ignorance and Povertyâ at firstthings.com.
Church history shows the persecuted church is a growing church.
But never before has the Catholic Church been persecuted by Her own Pope to this extreme. The Franciscan Friars on the Immaculate were a great example of a "growing church" and Bergoglio demolished the order. He has demanded the resignation of traditional bishops and has elevated the most evil heretics to high office.
The Church was established by God in Christ. Popes are His instruments to accomplish God’s ways in His time, as are we all. When a Pope strays from his calling, the Lord will make it right in some way we may not ever know or understand. Although we sometimes wonder, the Triune God is always in control.
I am not an RC but my denomination has strayed from what I believe is the faith handed down from the saints who went before. However, I do believe I see some movement as the pendulum appears to be swinging back to the right - slowly, maybe minutely, but movement is there.
Being an octogenarian, I have watched the drifting away for many, many years.
Yes. Yes they do.
Although they'll let it slide if you believe something in the NT actually happened. But believe in the events of Genesis 1-11, the books of Esther and Daniel, or the prophecy of Jonah and you're out. But I'm sure none of the Catholics of Africa believe any of that. That's "the redneck heresy!!!"
I'm not aware of the current infallibility status of the currently popular Catholic position that what really happened in the "drowning of the Egyptians" in Exodus is that Pharaoh's chariot got stuck in the mud.
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