Posted on 02/07/2014 6:29:19 PM PST by ebb tide
"It is fascinating to see how Pope Francis is encouraging, reviving and renewing the church. Our meeting with him was an excellent lesson on how to live the Gospel today," Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna said after a 90-minute audience with the pope during the Austrian bishops' "ad limina" visit to the Vatican in the last week of January.
The Austrian bishops took the results of the recent Vatican questionnaire to Rome with them. Responses showed that 95 percent of those who had filled out the questionnaire in Austria were in favor of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments.
The subject of family relationships today and how the church should deal with them played an important role at the Jan. 30 meeting with the pope, Schönborn said. "We cannot speak about people without speaking about families," Francis said, explaining that was why the subject of the coming Synod of Bishops in October had been altered from bioethics to the family.
Francis spoke of his experiences in Latin America, where the situation of marriage and the family was, to a certain extent, "far more dramatic" than in Europe, Schönborn said. It is important to realize that today many couples live together without getting married and have children, then later marry in a registry office, with some opting for a church marriage, the pope explained. The church must take this way of life seriously and accompany the couples on their way, Francis underlined. His basic message was "Don't judge, but look closely and listen very carefully," Schönborn said.
In several interviews shortly before leaving Vienna, Schönborn advocated a more rational, down-to-earth approach toward family relationships. "For the most part, the church approaches the [family] issue unhistorically," he said. "People have always lived together in various ways. And today, we in the church tacitly live with the fact that the majority of our young people, including those with close ties to the Catholic church, quite naturally live together. The simple fact is that the environment has changed."
Schönborn "in no way" wanted to advocate changing canon law but merely to show how difficult it was to bring the ideal family model into line with reality. "The decisive point is not to condemn the way most people actually live together, but to ask, 'How do we cope with failure?' " he said.
While most people's "wishes, hopes and longings often largely correspond to what the Bible and the church say about marriage and the family" and they longed for a successful relationship and a successful family life, real life told a different story, the cardinal said. "The great challenge is to span a bridge between what we long for and what we succeed in achieving." It was a case of bringing truth and mercy together, he said.
Schönborn said he regretted that the Austrian bishops haven't dared to speak out openly on necessary church reforms in the past. They haven't had the courage to address the need for greater decentralization and to strengthen local churches' responsibilities, he said. "We were far too hesitant. I beat my own breast here. We certainly lacked the courage to speak out openly."
The Austrian bishops also discussed with the pope the Austrian Priests' Initiative, which has called for the ordination of married men and women, and their "Call to Disobedience," Schönborn said. The pope advised them that the most important thing for bishops is always to be in close contact with their priests, the cardinal said.
Schönborn said he was convinced that far-reaching church reform was on the way, "but it will not be achieved through big words and programs but through people like Pope Francis." One could already see that the pope has become a role model, Schönborn said. "The atmosphere is changing and his behavior is making itself felt," he said. What impressed him most about the pope was his charisma. "You can feel his inner devotion to God from which his compassion, his warmth and his infectious sense of humor emanates," the cardinal said.
[Christa Pongratz-Lippitt is the Austrian correspondent for the London Catholic weekly The Tablet.]
Straight from the National Catholic Dishwrap.
In other words....the old church was the better church. It was reverent and comforting.
Rather, straight from Cardinal Schönborn. I agree with you on the fish wrap, but Schönborn is one rotten fish, himself.
Agreed. Which is why the NCR is working so closely with him to try to tear down the Church.
And for those of us who like both statues and guitars?
its such a disconnect...
not that other religions don't do this...the Mormons turn away from a Harry Reid and the Baptists have celebrated Clintoon....
“...but to ask, ‘How do we cope with failure?”
Learn from it and ask for the grace to fail in yet smaller ways.
You do not cede territory.
You do realize that is just your opinion, that not everyone agrees with you. Where is the downside of understanding what is being said at Mass? Why would a Mass said in Latin make it holier than said in the vernacular where the congregation can understand every word?
Our churches here have not done away with statues and crosses. Also, many people enjoy guitar music, even in church. Guitarists received their talent from God just as organists have. Does it always have to be an organ?
In the area where I live, we have the option of attending a Mass said in Latin and/or one where guitars provide the music. I respect everyone's preferences. They're all good.
I like guitar music!
Darn. Seems to me, that JPII and BXVI did a very poor job in vetting their selections to the cardinalate. Very disturbing.
the rock music museum in seattle?
If only the only difference between the NO and the TLM was the language.
But it’s not.
It’s not where I go for sacraments. Jack Black might.
This is nothing recent or unique to Latin America. It was not uncommon among the German peasant class in the 19th century, for instance.
The church must take this way of life seriously and accompany the couples on their way, Francis underlined. His basic message was "Don't judge, but look closely and listen very carefully," Schönborn said.
"Don't judge". A vague utterance which implies a permissive attitude or even tacit approval. That is how it will be understood by the world at large and by those within the Church who already ignore Church teachings.
Disregard anything that is reported by the uber liberal National Catholic Reporter. If you want to know the official Catholic position it will be polar opposite from what this leftist site reports.
Is not Cardinal Schönborn a Prince of the Catholic Church?
Pope Francis is very fond of Cardinal Schonborn; so where do you go to get your “official Catholic position”?
>>Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna told Vatican Radio January 27 that 1.8 million people live in Vienna and “only 2 percent of them frequent Sunday Mass.”<<
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