Posted on 01/03/2018 8:27:37 PM PST by ebb tide
Pope Francis, left, embraces Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI before opening the Holy Door to mark the opening of the Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, on Dec. 8, 2015. Photo courtesy of Osservatore Romano/Handout via Reuters
(RNS) — Conservative Catholic dissidents, who have been attacking Pope Francis, showed their true colors recently by attacking retired Pope Benedict, calling his writings “subversive” and “modernist.” That’s right, they think Benedict is a heretic.
In his new book, “Al Cuore di Ratzinger, Al Cuore del Mondo,” the Italian philosopher Enrico Maria Radaelli goes after Joseph Ratzinger’s “Introduction to Christianity,” one of Pope Benedict’s most popular books. Radaelli accuses him of embracing modern subjectivism by dabbling in Kant’s transcendentalism and Hegel’s “dialectical idealism.”
Radaelli is joined in this attack by Monsignor Antonio Livi, dean emeritus of the faculty of philosophy of the Pontifical Lateran University. What is noteworthy is that last summer both of these academics signed a letter of correction addressed to Pope Francis asking him to change his “erroneous” views.
These folks are unhappy with everything that has happened in the church since the death of Pius XII in 1958 and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Livi thinks that “neo-modernist” theology (a slur used by conservatives to describe anything they don’t like) has enveloped the church, infiltrating its seminaries, bishops’ conferences and even the Vatican itself. This “heretical” view has infected all the documents of Vatican II and the teachings of post-conciliar popes, Levi argues.
The problem with these philosophers is that they see the world as ideologues with rigid categories and rules. They have absolute certitude in their views and are not open to new questions. They are incapable of dialogue or learning from others.
They remind me of the joke: What is the difference between a scientist and a philosopher? If a scientist’s theory does not fit reality, he changes his theory. If a philosopher’s theory does not fit reality, reality must change.
Luckily, Pope Francis does not take these critics seriously. In a talk to the Italian Theological Association on Friday (Dec. 29), he laid out what he believes is the true vocation of a theologian. Theologians must always refer back to Vatican II, where the church recognized its responsibility to “proclaim the Gospel in a new way.”
The pope spoke of “faithful creativity” in responding to a rapidly changing world. The job of a theologian is to show people what lies at the heart of the Gospel.
“There is need of a theology that helps all Christians to proclaim and to show, above all, the saving face of God, the merciful God,” he said, “especially in the presence of some unheard-of challenges that involve the human today.” Among these challenges, he listed the environmental crisis, technologies that can alter human beings, social inequalities, mass migration and relativism in theory and practice.
He even calls on theologians to work together to “reimagine the church so that it may conform to the Gospel that it must proclaim.”
A worker covers with a banner reading “illegal poster” a poster depicting Pope Francis and accusing him of attacking conservative Catholics, in Rome, on Feb. 5, 2017. Photo courtesy Reuters/Max Rossi/File Photo
The problem with conservatives is that they treat the great theologians of the past as a treasure chest of quotes rather than as examples of how to do theology. St. Augustine, for example, took Neoplatonism, the elite philosophical thought of his period, and used it to explain Christianity to the people of his age. St. Thomas Aquinas took the newly rediscovered writings of Aristotle — the avant-garde thinking of his time — and used it to explain Christianity to his 13th-century contemporaries.
The task of theologians is not to simply quote Augustine and Aquinas but to imitate them, to take the best secular thought of our time and use it to explain Christianity to 21st-century men and women. After all, how many Neoplatonists or Aristotelians have you met lately? Do we really expect contemporary people to master Plato and Aristotle before we can talk to them about Christ?
Sadly, the church does expect seminarians to learn Greek philosophy before studying theology, which results in them spouting unintelligible concepts like “transubstantiation” and “consubstantial.”
What theology needs today are thinkers like Augustine and Thomas who want to engage the thinkers of today, not yesteryear. Such creative thinking can get you in trouble in the church. Thomas’ books were burned by the bishop of Paris. Likewise, in the last century, creative theologians were persecuted and silenced by the hierarchy. Thankfully, Pope Francis is not afraid of theological creativity. In fact, he encourages the theological discussion and debate that are essential to the development of theology.
Catholic conservatives were brought up in a church that presented itself as unchanging because in Greek philosophy the perfect cannot change. Such an approach is not only ahistorical, it is doomed to failure. When such conservatives not only attack Pope Francis but also Benedict, they show that they are true ideologues, out of touch with reality, who should not be taken seriously.
Forgot the link:
The author of the article is clearly a modernist heretic who showed his true colors from the first sentence of this piece.
With all due respect Rev. Reese, this is sophistry cranked up to 11.
News flash: there is this great thing called a SEARCH ENGINE. Pretty much everyone in the USA has access to one. Anyone with a web browser can use one of these things, and read the Wikipedia entry for Transubstantiation and Consubstantiality.
Indeed, I remember when these words were put back into the vernacular, and the weeping and gnashing of teeth that arose was stunning. Some people actually thought the flock would have trouble pronouncing the words.
Guess what? We're all a little wiser. Maybe we upped our game a bit.
I remember reading in a traditionalist paper a few years ago, something to the effect of We are supposed to be lifted up by Our Lord during the Mass. We are not supposed to drag Him down here to be with us.
C'mon Father...I understand not everyone is happy with the current state of play, and Pride is a sin. But I think some of us dopey parishioners are capable of comprehending the odd $10 word here or there.
After all, Peter was a pretty ignorant fisherman...
Makes me a “dissident” I guess.. because I remember a Pope who actually fought to help bring DOWN the communists, not help them.
I remember the days when a Pope, a President, and a Prime Minister teamed up to fight an Evil Empire... and broke it to pieces.
Frankie the Red, you ain’t half the man Johnny was, fer sure...
#ProudtobeaDissident
Reese is the guy who was fired from editorship of America magazine at request of the pope. Imagine how wacky a priest must be to be kicked off the most extremist leftwing Catholic journal.
I remember vividly Bp Trautman (Erie, PA) complaining about this: “How will John and Mary Catholic relate to the new words of the Creed: ‘consubstantial to the Father’ and ‘incarnate of the Virgin Mary’? Will they understand these words from the various new Collects: ‘sullied,’ ‘unfeigned,’ ‘ineffable,’ ‘gibbet,’ ‘wrought,’ ‘thwart’?”
Why, yes! Yes, they would, with some assistance from the pulpit/bulletin/diocesan newspaper/etc.
This might not be a problem were it not for the fact that the very notion, embodied in Sacrosanctum Concilium ¶36, that “the use of the Latin language is to be preserved,” is conveniently ignored by the likes of Bp Trautman and those who persist in entertaining the Episcopal service. Words have meaning—in dead languages. In today’s languages, words change in meaning: “gay” and “queer,” for instance, hardly have the same meaning today as they did a mere 50 years ago.
When applied to prayer, it is that much more important to be precise. And this is to say nothing of the fact that prayer, ipso facto, is meant to elevate our minds and hearts to Almighty God. To speak, therefore, in modern vernacular, may indeed be pious, but it hardly causes one’s heart to “soar up to God.”
Garbage from RNS’s Thomas Reese who’s concluding paragraph tells us where he’s coming from.
lol...”pope” Francis could have written this himself.
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.