Thank you for your usual defense of the Holy Father. (/sarcasm). It's Lent! Give the attacks a break .. or don't the SSPX schismatics celebrate this season any more? No mention of the growth in the Catholic Church, especially in 3rd world countries.
He's pope in a world awash with with the philosophies of self-affirmation, self-assertion and independence. It's a world whose leaders balk at allowing themselves to be photographed in physically compromised situations, looking weak, vulnerable and dependent on others. Yet, the Pope comes before crowds week after week, barely able to move, needing help sometimes even to finish his remarks.
And still the crowds come - because this man's message is the message of Christ, the man of sorrows who came to deliver us from sorrow.
Despite the secularism that has gripped the Western world, we are under his watch, as pontiff. He signed the Catechism that has given our faith such clarity. His teachings have stood as signs of contradiction in the world. He has himself been the central attraction at events like the World Youth Day, and the Jubilee festivals that sparked so man initiatives throughout the Church. We learned how to be Catholics from this master and his words. Last week, from his hospital bed, the Holy Father said: "One must have confidence in life!"
Granted there are aspects of the Church with which you may disagree. You are not the pope, nor do you shoulder the burden that he has assumed, until death. Please take your misplaced screed somewhere else. It doesn't belong on a thread where the pontiff has upheld Church teaching with regard to Homosexual Marriage.
What a bunch of angry, bitter people.
Just putting things in perspective lest you guys get carried away by a few apt words about gays. Catholics have been too easily gulled in the past by such papal nostrums--duped by the Pope's conservative morality into accepting outrages against the faith like Assisi. And by the way, just for the record--how is it the Pope doesn't back up his words with actions? The last I heard Rome had decided to drop its officially-declared 1961 prohibition against gays entering the seminaries. Granted it was widely ignored anyhow--but it was a good idea, given the scandals that mushroomed following the Council.
Celebrate Lent? Is it all a party with you guys? Everything's a "celebration" in New Church. Trads "observe" Lent and mortify themselves, prepare themselves to be united to Christ on the Cross. Stations of the Cross, Fast and abstinence etc.
No mention of the growth in the Catholic Church, especially in 3rd world countries.
Growth of what? The same errors that plague the Church in the post conciliar period?
He's pope in a world awash with with the philosophies of self-affirmation, self-assertion and independence.
As the Catholic Church goes: So goes the world.
It's a world whose leaders balk at allowing themselves to be photographed in physically compromised situations, looking weak, vulnerable and dependent on others.
He is heroic as he combats his pains. That can be worked towards his redemption. I firmly believe that God removed his prodigious vitality and physical powers that he had early in his papacy in order to teach him that the "showbiz" won't work. I also firmly believe that God in his truest mercy is keeping the man alive until he actually does what God wants him to. I'm sure JPII has wished to be taken at any number of times. I think God is saying, "Not yet. Do what you know deep down to be right, renounce the stubborness of your errors. Use the power I've given you and then you'll be ready to come home to me."
Despite the secularism that has gripped the Western world, we are under his watch, as pontiff.
Yep. And the traditionalists are encouraging him to stand up against it. Instead of praising the "inculturation" of a pagan world. We want him to clearly articulate that the Catholic Church is the ONLY thing that beats back the darkness.
He signed the Catechism that has given our faith such clarity
The CCC is a scam. It has destroyed the clarity of the faith as expressed in the Catechism of Trent.
His teachings have stood as signs of contradiction in the world.
His teachings are actually his "reflections" as he calls them. They are not signs of contradiction, they are contradictory.
He has himself been the central attraction at events like the World Youth Day, and the Jubilee festivals that sparked so man initiatives throughout the Church.
All trash. Experiments and disrespect for sacred things. Our Lord's body strewn across the ground, burned in heaps, distributed in cardboard boxes etc.
We learned how to be Catholics from this master and his words.
As a non-traditionalist friend told me: "For a man who can speak so many languages, I'm amazed that he can't really say anything." This is idolatry. How ever did the Church teach anybody before 1978? C'mon, this Church is in a state of desolation. And this Pope has sewn confusion with his "Hell is a state and not a "place" comments. They are tailor made to confuse and shake people's faith as public statements.
Last week, from his hospital bed, the Holy Father said: "One must have confidence in life!"
Just what does that mean? How about confidence in Christ? But maybe the name that no one can go to Heaven without, the name that every knee in Heaven, Hell and Earth shall bend to is too "divisive" for his humanist message.
Granted there are aspects of the Church with which you may disagree.
Not just us. The great Popes of this century and prior.
You are not the pope, nor do you shoulder the burden that he has assumed, until death.
This is another form of poisoning the well. I suppose I can't speak out against Abortion because I'm not a woman? I can't engage in politics because I'm not the President? Sorry, it doesn't fly.
By doing what Popes are supposed to do, his yoke will be easy and his burden light.
Maybe if he had the perspective of St. Pius X he would know this; "My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I CAN DO ALL IN HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME. HIS POWER IS INFINITE, AND IF I LEAN ON HIM, IT WILL BE MINE. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, AND IF MY TRUST IS STAYED IN HIM, I SHALL NOT BE ABANDONED.
Sorry, but when I've got that to comfort me and you show us, "One must have confidence in life!" Forgive me, if I fail to be impressed or moved but rather saddened at the state of degradation in papal teaching.
Please take your misplaced screed somewhere else. It doesn't belong on a thread where the pontiff has upheld Church teaching with regard to Homosexual Marriage.
It belongs right here. A bunch of Rah Rahs! on an absolute "no-brainer" is astonishing. Neos have been so mongrelized that the slightest scrap of right thinking from this Pope is treated like manna from Heaven. It's appreciated by trads but we DEMAND more! We DEMAND he speak JESUS CHRIST and the Roman Catholic Church as the ONLY way to salvation. Nothing else! No compromises! No half-truths about false religions! No more Apologies that are always misunderstood and condemn the dead who have no defense against his attacks.
It's Lent. Suffer.
"Give the attacks a break .. or don't the SSPX schismatics celebrate this season any more?"
You need to quit the Catholic bashing.
"No mention of the growth in the Catholic Church, especially in 3rd world countries."
The discussion didn't involve any of that.
"He's pope in a world awash with with the philosophies of self-affirmation, self-assertion and independence."
Sounds all-American to me.
"Despite the secularism that has gripped the Western world, we are under his watch, as pontiff. He signed the Catechism that has given our faith such clarity."
That catechism has raised more questions than it has answered.
"His teachings have stood as signs of contradiction in the world."
Nobody can ever name the exact teachings the are referring to when they say things like this. Can you name just one? Pretty please? I've been asking this question for what, I think 5 years now. No one has yet provided an answer. Not one person.
"He has himself been the central attraction at events like the World Youth Day, and the Jubilee festivals that sparked so man initiatives throughout the Church."
Here you start getting fuzzy. "Sparked initiations? What does that mean? Like what, and what was accomplished?
"We learned how to be Catholics from this master and his words."
We did? Not from the rich history of available texts of the 2,000 years worth of saints and of the Church herself? Not from our good friends in the faith and from our parents?
Last week, from his hospital bed, the Holy Father said: "One must have confidence in life!"
This is... what, ...? The small business owners down at your local business park could have told you this. That's basic positive-attitude talk you can buy just about anywhere. Is there something Catholic about an incessant desire to be uplifted?
"Please take your misplaced screed somewhere else. It doesn't belong on a thread where the pontiff has upheld Church teaching with regard to Homosexual Marriage."
I don't think it's misplaced at all. I think it's completely goofing to start jumping up and down because someone condemned homosexual marriage. That's basic stuff; so basic that to see people get all excited about it kind of makes you wonder.
A real absorption of the Catholic Faith doesn't really lend itself to some cheerleader's kind of ra ra pom pom whoopie deal.
That kind of stuff, that's just an embarrassment.