Posted on 09/30/2004 7:31:35 PM PDT by Land of the Irish
My friend Jan was not convinced that the latest papal apology for the Inquisition (see last article) was really so harmful to the Church.
“Even if the Inquisition was not as bad as historians have portrayed it, there were still some abuses. Doesn’t it show humility and honesty on the part of the Pope to ask pardon for the wrong things the Church may have done?” Jan argued. “Doesn’t it set a good example for us, since that’s what we teach our children to do – apologize when we do something wrong?”
JPII at a Request for Pardon religious service on March 12, 2000. He asked pardon for the Church's past hostility toward followers of other religions, for the Crusades, Inquisition, etc.
Inside the Vatican, January 2001
Her comment unknowingly illustrates the exact point I would like to highlight. This apology, as well as the more than 100 others that John Paul II has made for the supposed wrongdoings of the Church, are presenting a new and false progressivist notion of what the Church is. The Church, in fact, does not “do wrong things,” as papal apologies induce the faithful to think.
The Church, as an institution, is pure and sinless, founded by Christ and preserved by God to be free of error, both in the past and in the present. It is only individual Church members, be they Popes, Bishops or the simple faithful, who sin.
This is the authentic teaching of the Church, Jan, as you and I learned it. But do your children or their friends realize this? Or is there some confusion in their minds caused by the constant papal apologies for the past “sins of the Church”? If you analyze these apologies carefully, you can see that most of them insert a short line, a footnote, or a parenthetical phrase attributing the fault to the members of the Church. For the scholars and theologians, therefore, the rule is maintained: no error of the Church but only of her members. However, it is the general line of the apology that normally remains in the minds of the faithful: the Church is sinful. In face of this contradiction, one cannot help but wonder: Is it the Vatican’s intention to cause this second impression?
At any rate, what sticks in the mind of so many Catholics, especially young ones schooled in “Vatican II catechism,” is that the Church made mistakes and even sinned in her past, so now the correct action for the Church is to repent and do penance. This would justify the continuous reform in customs and institutions we have seen since Vatican II. It explains why the Church would supposedly need new structures, because the old would be inherently flawed.
If we had a contaminated Church, which we do not, then we have a Church in need of evaluation and change, uncertain in her teaching. Yesterday she made a mistake. Today she corrects it and repents for her past. Tomorrow, well, who knows what tomorrow will bring as the Church evolves?
At the same ceremony Cardinal Ratzinger lights a lamp asking pardon for sins of intolerance, one of the seven petitions for forgiveness.
Inside the Vatican, January 2001
This notion of a sinning Church that the progressivists inculcate in the spirit of the naïve faithful, is affirmed in documents of Vatican II. Lumen gentium, for example, states the Church is “at the same time holy and always in need of being purified,” that she must always pursue “the path of penance and renewal.” (LG 8).
It is not difficult to understand from this that the Church would need a continual reform, as interpreted by Karl Rahner and Yves Congar and so many other progressivist ecclesiastics. Such theologians, suspect for heresy before Vatican II, have suddenly become the experts who cannot be questioned, even though their bad theology did not change. They are the ones who need to make apologies for their past and repent. But they have not. Instead, they are demanding the Church do exactly that: make apologies for her past and repent.
When the Pope apologizes for the past sins of the Church, he does not appear at all like one being humble and honest. He is implicitly affirming a new conception of the Church, and also the Faith, one constantly reforming, changing, and evolving.
I hope this explains, Jan, why there is something profoundly wrong with the Pope’s apology for the Inquisition and for so many other past militant actions of the Holy Catholic Church.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/m005rpPapalApology_Jan04.htm
Ping
Secular or theological, there's one rule that will see you right.
Progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive=Satan=progressive...et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
For "progressive," one may substitute "liberal," "socialist," "communist," "third way," or any of the numerous terms that have been advanced to obscure the provenance of Satan's whispering.
Apologizing for Church 'sins' of the past was a massive blunder considering how many enemies the Church has in this generation, and how they seized upon the 'apologies' as proof that the RCC is evil. That aside, how can one man really apologize for the sins of another man hundreds of years later? We apologize for our own sins, not the alleged sins of the long dead. These apologies must ring very hollow to the ears of those resentful people who hang onto hatreds passed down to them from earlier generations. The Holy Father apparently thinks very highly of himself to have thought his apology would heal ancient wounds that Church enemies don't want to see healed anyway. And where is his grande apology for thousands of sins heaped upon young Catholics by pervert 'priests' under his own watch?
Furthermore, his incessent apologies have actually resurrected old wounds, and they lend legitimacy to the many lies that Catholic-hating revisionist 'historians' have perpetrated against the Church regarding the Spanish Inquisition. I think some future Pope may be apologizing to Catholics for the great harm this present heirarchy have done to us by embracing homosexuals, fostering liberalism and modernism, and by creating a very dangerous atmosphere brought about by these endless public admissions that the RCC hurt innocent people. Wasn't it Pope Paul VI who said the Church is in "auto-destruct mode"? Well it still is.
"I think some future Pope may be apologizing to Catholics for the great harm this present heirarchy have done to us by embracing homosexuals, fostering liberalism and modernism"
There's still no light at the end of the tunnel, but fortunately we know Who wins in the end.
I disagree, things will change unexpectedly and rapidly when God decides it will happen. Don't forget, prior to Vatican II things looked bleak for the modernists and liberals in the Church, and then, like lightening, everything went went Satan's way in a flash. Things can go the other way, back to orthodoxy, just as quickly. But if it takes a very long, hard fight, then so be it. Keep the faith and God bless you.
Apologies need to be given to laity and corrctive measures should have been taken years ago for looking the other way while seminaries and parishes were larded with homosexuals and communists whose duty it was to destroy the Church from the inside.
Well, God will balance the books in the case of the popes who squandered a God-gven opportunity and either acted as sycophants or just looked the other way.
Apparently some of these popes, including the present one, thought that God wouldn't care about the loss of innocence on the part of the children at the hands of bogus, satanist priests. John Paul II and his predecessors thought that all the satan and communist inspired changes being wrought in the Church included introduction to the monster: homosexuality!
Whew, if it was for Marin and Attila, I'd be lost listening to the successor of Peter.
Sounds like it's not doing much good for you if you have such a terrible time trying to be chaste.
I'm glad you're not a priest, or are you?
That comment about chastity has been made more than once on more than one thread.
LOI loves Jesus so much that she thinks sliming reputations are required by divine revelation.
What's more, the high-fives she gets from the rad-trad amen chorus a major adrenalin pump!
**LOI loves Jesus so much that she thinks sliming reputations are required by divine revelation.**
But LOI will also be judged by God as she claims we will be judged. Go figure??
I am not quite sure what that has to do with this topic of Papal apologizes. Maybe your point is if we had a Pope that you apporoved of my passions would be less troublesome? I doubt it. It is my Cross to bear.
Am I a priest? Yes.
Apoc; 1:6 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood
6 And hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God and his Father. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.
Thanks, Sandy. God Bless
I don't appear to have many issues with (Pride). Thanks be to God I understand I have nothing to feel Prideful about. Other than my sins, I have no accomplishments of my own.
As for (Envy), I don't have a problem with that. I am happy with all that God has given me. I have recieved far more than I deserve.
I hope I have provided you with enough matter for the next time you desire to comment upon my posts.
I know this post reflects only my major weaknesses (and not specific sins),and it doesn't even admit I sin in those ares (only my Confesor knows for sure) but, there is enough matter here to cast into doubt the wisdom of my obedience to the Pope so feel free to use this matter as you desire.
I am not part of the Ministerial Priesthood though.
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