Oh, we are in deep, deep trouble

Here is the full video of Pope Francis' first Mass in the Sistine Chapel.

The consecration of the Host happens at 51:47. The consecration of the Chalice happens at 52:32.

I cannot believe I am about to type these words.

The Pope DID NOT GENUFLECT after either consecration. He did a weird bow thing, but didn't feel the need to bend his knee to God Almighty, physically present in his hands upon the altar.

HE. DID. NOT. GENUFLECT.

This is absolutely stunning. And unprecedented.

Oh yeah, we're in deep, deep trouble.

But hey, all of you guys who are sending me emails whining about how I'm not nice, or something, go ahead and explain this one. He is perfectly physically sound. He FREELY CHOOSES to not reverence Our Lord in the Eucharist upon the altar.

Oh, and he also didn't genuflect to Our Lord in the Tabernacle when he went to Santa Maria Maggiore on Thursday morning, either. Um, how can a man truly love Our Lady if he doesn't first show even the slightest respect to her Son? Someone please explain that one to me.

Hey! I have an idea! Let's do a Pope watch. First one to see the Pope genuflect to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and not to a Superfun Rockband church pastor, wins! In the mean time, everyone should pray for Pope Francis and that he learns to show Our Lord the tiniest bit of respect and GENUFLECT to Him after He comes down onto the altar, and whenever he approaches or crosses the plane of a Tabernacle in which Our Lord is physically present. I think that would be a great prayer intention for one and all.

I never occurred to me that my desire to do penance in reparation to Our Lord for the sacrileges of the world would include the consecration rubrics of THE POPE.

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

What does the Bible have to do with it? Ann’s the Official Pontificator of Phariseeville. Ain’t that authoritative ‘nuff for you? Get with the program. Genuflect to Ann. No, prostrate yourself before her. Bow and scrape and grovel for

Ann
is
the
Delphic Oracle
the Messiah-ess and the Popess all rolled into one.

Don’t you dare disagree with her.

Fundamentally, together with councils, he resolves disputes, especially the ones that threaten to divide the Church. Since even a council can be divided and split, there has to be a buck-stops-here office or else abysmal fragmentation.

The abysmal fragmentation is what happened to those Christians who abandoned a clear authority structure and responsibility. Maybe Jesus didn’t really mean it when he insisted on unity (John ch. 17) but if you want unity, you have to have a way to resolve good faith disputes over how to interpret Scripture. If you don’t like that approach, each preacher gets to interpret Scripture for himself and we end up with 10,000 different “churches.”

Sorta like marriage: either you find a way to resolve disputes or you split up.

‘cuz the one thing you can count on is that disputes will arise. And every single one of the disputants will insist that his position is The Biblical One. So “the Bible as the authority” won’t cut it. Those who took that line now are divided into 10,000 different denominations (some say 30,000 but 10,000 is more accurate).

Actually he’s not CEO. Each bishop in his diocese has responsibility for governing, if you want to call that being “CEO.””

The pope is NOT a superbishop. He’s the Bishop of Rome and because he’s bishop of Rome he has the added-on role as successor of Peter of resolving disputes as I explained in a previous comment. But he does not and cannot “run” the whole Church around the world. That would be utterly impossible. The individual bishops together with him at their head, collegially govern.

First among equals, not superbishop.

I genuflect in Church when I have something to hold onto so I can get back up, but left on my own with Arthritis I cannot get back up.<

Same here, but for me it works on only one side. If I can't push myself back up with my right hand, I can't do it at all.

Also, in my case it's kidney failure, not arthritis. At a glance I appear relatively young and healthy. Someone like this skank would look at me and say, "He can genuflect. Why doesn't he?"

I am only 70. The Pope is 6 years older than me.

I am 49.

I think this author needs to rethink her blast.

Definitely. She would not like to be judged by the measure she is using.

In addition to resolving disputes (that’s his unique role as bishop of Rome as far as governing is concerned), which is a governing role, he has a teaching role and a sanctifying role. But all bishops have all three roles (and all priests by extension and delegation from their bishop have all three roles). All bishops govern in their diocese (and, when a council is called, govern the universal Church), all teach in their diocese authoritatively, all sanctify (bring the sacraments to the people). They all delegate various aspects to priests, even deacons. And every father and mother also have governing, teaching, sanctifying roles.

All of these roles go on with varying degrees of autonomy in their spheres. The pope does them at the highest level but not as big Boss, rather as the one out in front leading all the others who do these same things in varied ways.

He does have authority to appoint bishops but only since the breakdown of the church into Protestant national churches—in England or parts of Germany there were no local authorities who were still Catholic who could appoint bishops as had been done for centuries, so it was centralized in the Pope’s office, for the sake of holding the Church together against the centrifugal pressure of nationalism and Protestantism (same thing, more or less).

It struck me as odd the other night when our neighboring priest who was celebrating mass with our priest walked to the lectern and told us that if we criticize a priest we will bring a curse upon ourselves!!! To put it mildly I was shocked and told my husband that I wondered what St. Catherine would say about that.

Admonishing sinners is a spiritual work of mercy and if a priest is sinning then he needs to be admonished.

Where in the Bible does it say that anyone should venerate “Our Lady” in order to respect her son

It says so exactly in Luke 1 (Mary says “all generations will call her blessed” and in Luke 11:27-28 where Jesus tells the woman in the crowd that his mother, being the one who more than anyone else, hears the word of God and keeps it, should be honored as a way of honoring him.

Somehow I have a feeling that you will say, “but that’s a wrong interpretation of those passages.

Yep. You have a different interpretation. Fancy that. We disagree on interpretation of what the Bible says.

Like I wrote earlier, disputes over interpretation of the Bible . . . .

Yes but rash judgment and calumny are sins. Criticism must be based on accuracy, honesty, fairness, genuine listening to what the person we are criticizing said or did.

I’ll take your Catherine of Siena and raise by a St. Francis. Read what he said about respect for priests.

There’s a place for both. Knowing which is needed when is called wisdom, prudence, discernment. Pope St. Gregory I wrote a book about it. You might want to read it before you do your critiquing. It’s called The Pastoral Rule.

Actually, the Bible guys tended to go more for prostration, falling totally flat on their faces before Almighty God. Since they thought that was normal, you guys who think a little baby step like genuflection is foreign to the Bible probably should start practicing prostration in your worship services.

As I recall, in the tiny Fundamentalist Church I grew up in, we knelt to pray during Wednesday night prayer meetings and on other occasions. Too bad we weren’t following the Bible but were adding human sinful traditions. If only we had prayed while prostrate. Then, like you, we’d have been true Bible Believers.

Since I’m sure you, being a real Bible follower, prostrate yourself every ten minutes in Church, could you give me some tips on how you get the grime out of your Sunday go-to-meetn’ clothes? Oh, I forgot, that’s not in the Bible either. But then neither does it say in the Bible that we should wear flip-flops and shorts and sit in theater-seats like the Willow Creek super-evangelist Christians do.

I’ll just stick with a few genuflections, I guess.

Just curious. How do you do your prostrations, being Biblical and all, in those theater seats??

Did they have theater seats on Mars Hill or in that Church Ephesus (was it Ephesus) where the guy fell out of the window listening to St. Paul?

And where in the Bible does it say anything about projecting ditties onto screens with computers so everyone can sing along with the Praise Band?

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