Posted on 11/14/2011 12:50:34 PM PST by NYer
.- The U.S. bishops must work to “renew the appeal of the Church,” which has wounds, like Christ did, said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan in his first presidential address to the bishops' conference.
“Christ and his Church are one,” said Archbishop Dolan.
“Perhaps, brethren, our most pressing pastoral challenge today is to reclaim that truth.”
Archbishop Dolan gave his first presidential address to the United States bishops at their three-day fall General Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 14.
In the address, he emphasized the “sacred duty” of the bishops to shepherd the Church and encouraged them to lead their flocks to embrace “Jesus in and through His Church.”
Archbishop Dolan pointed to “chilling statistics” that show fewer and fewer Catholics believe that Jesus and the Church are one.
He said he is concerned at the growing number of people drifting away from the Church and warned that the problem must be taken seriously.
The U.S. bishops must “reclaim the role of fishermen” as they carry out the work of the New Evangelization, inviting the world to see Christ and his Church as one, he said.
The archbishop explained that the mission of the New Evangelization requires an authentic turn to the Lord.
“Jesus prefers prophets, not programs; saints, not solutions,” he said.
He recalled the exhortation of Pope John Paul II, “Love for Jesus and His Church must be the passion of our lives.”
Archbishop Dolan also spoke of the sins of Church members.
“Since we are a spiritual family, we should hardly be surprised that the Church has troubles,” he said.
He acknowledged that in a world fixated on the sinfulness of Church members, temptations might come to run and hide from sin. But the bishops must fight this temptation and instead lead the faithful in acknowledging their sinfulness and recognizing their great need for the Church, he said.
The archbishop explained that the Church has wounds, just as Christ did, and must show them as Christ did on the first Easter night.
Despite the threats to the Church, Archbishop Dolan also noted that glimmers of hope can be seen in young people, new converts and Catholic immigrants.
He encouraged the U.S. bishops to reach out to these and all people, strengthening “the Catholic conviction that Christ and His Church are one.”
To do this, he explained, they must lead people into an encounter with the person of Jesus.
Archbishop Dolan noted that the world sees the Church as an outdated organization, but the bishops must work to show the truth that “the Church invites the world to a fresh, original place.”
The Church must not be viewed as a mere “system of organizational energy and support,” he said.
“The Church is Jesus – teaching, healing, saving, serving, inviting.”
Have been listening and watching the live coverage of the conference today. EWTN just played the press conference that took place earlier. Dolan and the other bishops handled the questions very well! Let’s see how the media skews their coverage.
“The U.S. bishops must work to “renew the appeal of the Church,” which has wounds, like Christ did”
The “wounds” the Catholic Church has received of late have been self inflicted and due to it’s unwillingness to deal with the gross sin within it.
Any comparison to Christ’s wounds is utterly revolting.
Maybe the church should institute a don’t ask don’t tell policy.
As long as the church has homosexuals and pedophiles as part of their clergy as well as those members of the clergy that that supported or turned a blind eye to the behavior over the past thirty years, the church will not be saved. The church has demonstrated that it has other more worldly priorities that prevents it from being Christ center.
The Catholic Church needs another Council of Trent to clean out the stables.
I concur whole heartily. Any church or religion that compares their "self image" to that of our Messiah and what he suffered is out right blasphemy.
So you’d condemn Paul who said that the Church is the bride of Christ?
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God's powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew first...
Why? because they didn't replace God's doctrine for their own. Christendom & Judaism are still blind ion part. Judaism to the Messiah because Christendom teaches that through Messiah, God rebuked the Jews thereby putting in place new religious doctrine. FYI...our God never changes and neither does His doctrine which was given by "The Word" to Moses to write down. When God says something is forever, HE means it. Period!
He was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. -Isaias 53:5
That’s great but the Lord didn’t rape children and then cover it up. The public’s lack of confidence in the church is due to its actions or in this case inaction.
Good way of missing the point
The “wounds” the Catholic Church has received of late have been self inflicted and due to it’s unwillingness to deal with the gross sin within it. Any comparison to Christ’s wounds is utterly revolting.
Here's what Dolan actually said on the subject of "wounds":
"We know what you're going through," Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told a news conference in Baltimore where hundreds of bishops have gathered for their national meeting.Dolan declined to offer advice to Penn State University on how to deal with its scandal, because the church "has not been a good example of how to deal with this in the past," he said. "No one has suffered more than the Catholic community."
"Whenever this issue has come into public view again as it has with Penn State, it opens a wound," Dolan said."
“It is Christendom that has perverted the words of Paul who was a Messianic Jewish Rabbi.”
How so? Paul argues very explicitly that the Church (singular), he uses the word, Ekklesia, is the bride of Christ.
“Paul never compared himself to Messiah, nor did he ever compare the ecclesia to Messiah.”
He said that the Church was united with Christ like a wife is united to her husband. All there in Ephesians.
“The bride is NOT Messiah and the church as we know it today is so far removed from the definition of the bride it is no wonder the church’s image is so damaged.”
According to whom? You?
“Why? because they didn’t replace God’s doctrine for their own.”
The problem is that Paul explicitly affirms the Church and the relationship between the Church and Christ. You can’t argue that Paul was right in Romans and wrong in Ephesians. I agree that the duty of the Church is to preach the word, first and foremost.
“FYI...our God never changes and neither does His doctrine which was given by “The Word” to Moses to write down. When God says something is forever, HE means it. Period!”
So what does it means when He himself teaches that the gates of Hell will never prevail against his Church?
When Paul speaks of the church as a wife he is quoting Jer 3
1 [ADONAI] says: "If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and marries another man, then if the first one marries her again, that land will be completely defiled. But you prostituted yourself to many lovers, yet you want to return to me?" says ADONAI ...... 8 I saw that even though backsliding Isra’el had committed adultery, so that I had sent her away and given her a divorce document(in context, the entire chapter)
This is parallel to Romans 7, the “if you do not know or understand Moses, I am not speaking to you” chapter.
Paul explicitly affirms
Paul by his actions, following Moses, keeping Sabbath and the appointed convocations and NOT adding or taking away from them, was following Messiah who never strayed from his Father's doctrine. Messiah came to reaffirm it, not change it.
John 5:46 For if you really believed Moshe, you would believe me; because it was about me that he wrote. 47 But if you don't believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
The body of Messiah which is the bride is made up of individuals, not buildings filled with individuals. There is only one true Temple and that Temple is Messiah.
So what does it means when He himself teaches that the gates of Hell will never prevail against his Church
First, the word ‘church’ is NOT capitalized. Second, it is the Greek word for ecclesia which 1st appears in Judges when the ‘assembly of God’ gathered to go into battle and it from there that we must get the meaning of the word. The only reference to actual religious buildings in the 1st century writings are to the Temple & synagogues. In Rev 3:9 they take the Greek word and transliterated it to say synagogue thereby showing the utter bias & hatred of the translators when in fact the 1st use of this word appears in Exodus 12:
47 The whole community of Isra’el is to keep it. 48 If a foreigner staying with you wants to observe ADONAI’s Pesach, all his males must be circumcised. Then he may take part and observe it; he will be like a citizen of the land. But no uncircumcised person is to eat it. 49 The same teaching(law) is to apply equally to the citizen and to the foreigner living among you.”
One God, one people, one doctrine which is Torah. Messiah was the Torah made flesh, to deny Torah is to deny Messiah. And Christendom wonders why the Jews don't believe in their Messiah? If Christendom kept Torah, their wouldn't be such corruption in the priesthood but since they follow doctrine of man and not God, they will remain under the curse of Deut 28.
Hebrew means 'crossed over'. It is the same concept as one who immigrates then does what the law requires to become a citizen. Did not Paul also say that we have now become "fellow" citizens? If so, we had better be following YHVH's law, the law that our Messiah followed and taught and not that of man.
Messiah is not taking the “assembly” as we know it to be his bride because they have replaced His covenant with one they made up themselves. Repent is “turning BACK to the ways of YHVH” not making up your own way by twisting His Word.
FYI, Torah means 'instruction', not 'law' as the Roman-Greco-English would have one think. They had to pervert the meaning of the Scriptures in order to sustain the lies. Jer 16
19 ADONAI, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, saying, "Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, futile idols, completely useless."
God's Sabbath, Holy days and appointed convocations are just that, God's. They are not Jewish but because the house of Judah came back after captivity and preserved the Scriptures, the biggest lie perpetrated on God's children is the lie that the Books of Moses and its instructions are only for Jews. There are going to be a lot of shocked Christians the day the Messiah comes back because they refuse to grab hold of the true light.
The Catholic Church has had very serious problems throughout its history. Many schisms and many sinners.
So do we need to be so negative about a few leaders and many sinners? The Catholic Church is to help sinners to be with God. We are all responsible for ourselves in our spiritual path to God. We all need to lead by example in following the path of Jesus.
The Catholic Church has many needs and opportunities to bring people to Jesus and salvation, but the members of the Church need to support its leaders and the Church in following the path of Jesus.
Is this the same Archbishop Dolan that gave Obama perhaps the biggest plus of his 2012 campaign by recently meeting with Obama,the baby-killer?What a dagger in the pro-life movement.
A meeting is just a meeting. It's not an endorsement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.