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German bishop criticizes methods used to oppose Eucharistic hospitality
La Croix ^ | May 17, 2018 | Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

Posted on 05/17/2018 3:32:37 PM PDT by ebb tide

A German bishop has criticized a small minority in his nation’s episcopal conference for questioning the orthodoxy of the vast majority of bishops who favor a pastoral plan to allow non-Catholic spouses in inter-confessional marriages to receive the Eucharist at Mass.

“We must get out of this way of argumentation which uses insinuation and suspicion and acts as if the position of the majority is out of line with church teaching,” said Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz.

“I feel personally affected when, in their letter to Rome, the seven bishops warn that my vote and that of the majority of my fellow bishops is endangering the deposit of the faith and church unity,” he said in an interview published May 12 in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger.

The 51-year-old Kohlgraf, who just last year succeeded Cardinal Karl Lehmann as bishop of Mainz and is Germany’s youngest bishop, said he did not believe Pope Francis saw this as a danger either.

He said that, on the contrary, Francis praised the German bishops’ ecumenical commitment and signaled how they could proceed. He said the pope has often pointed out that ecumenism is not a case of black or white or yes or no.

Bishop Kohlgraf said Francis now expects the bishops to reach a consensus on Eucharistic hospitality that is “as unanimous as possible.”

But he emphasized that this does not mean fully unanimous. He said it was his understanding, however, that dealing with this issue was within the competence of the German bishops.

Their task now, he said, was to explain their interpretation of shared communion to those mixed marriage couples who still had a problem with receiving the Catholic Eucharist or had already made up their own minds.

“Let’s be honest. People vote with their feet. And while I’m the last person to say, ‘OK, we must follow the crowd,’ conversely I ask myself if we really think we must protect God by deciding who may go to communion and who may not?” the bishop said.

Asked what would happen if the bishops could not agree on the communion handout, Kohlgraf said in that case every bishop would be free to allow Eucharistic hospitality in his diocese or not.

“But I do wonder what would happen if the ruling in Cologne were different to the one in Aachen. I’m quite sure that that would further increase incomprehension and resentment among the faithful. In fact I can positively hear people saying ‘we can’t take what the bishops say seriously any longer,’” he said. 

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is president of the German bishops’ conference, said on May 13 that he would be informing his fellow bishops extensively “in the next few days” on what he and a small delegation of German bishops discussed with Vatican officials in Rome. 

The cardinal told the German Catholic news agency KNA that he hoped the bishops could re-start their discussions on the issue next month when the episcopal conference’s permanent council meets.

He said he was confident that a “consensual” agreement would be found. However, he also added this caveat: “We want to find as great a consensus as possible but one cannot go on discussing and re-discussing the issue until a unanimous decision is reached.”

Cardinal Marx said that, in the end, it would be up to each diocesan bishop to decide whether or not to allow Eucharist hospitality in his diocese.

But he stressed that all the bishops, and not just the two opposing groups, should therefore approach one another and make a concerted effort to seek common ground.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: francisbishops; francischurch; germany; heresy
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To: Marchmain
Maybe it’s just a game for them to zero in on the only sinless woman who ever lived, the purest, the truest, the sweetest, the Mother of God who nursed Jesus as a babe and stood by him at the cross... and make jokes and pathetic comments about her.

No sinless woman ever lived.

Romans 3:21-25 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

61 posted on 05/18/2018 6:01:28 AM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: ealgeone; ebb tide
The dire warning from Our Lady of Akita is being fulfilled worldwide

You mean this idolatrous thing????

July 6, 1973 Sr. Agnes encounters her guardian angel and subsequently a three-foot high wooden statue of the Virgin (Our Lady of All Nations) ablaze with light. The statue was created in 1963 by Saburo Wakasa, a sculptor based in Akita. The statue spoke to Agnes and asked her to pray for the reparation of the sins of humanity and to follow her superior. After the apparition, Agnes and the other nuns discover a bleeding wound in the hand of the statue.

In the events of Akita, there was no "apparition" of the Virgin. Agnes reported the apperance of her guardian angel but the messages attributed to Mary were said to emanate from a bleeding 3-foot high wooden statue. The wooden statue in the convent at Akita was carved by a Buddhist woodcarver from an identical image of The Lady of All Nations.

Sep 28, 1981 Her guardian angel shows her a vision of the Bible and asks her to read Genesis 3:15: "I will place enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman (Mary), between thy seed and hers. She will crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." [a corrupt translation*]

The first tests on the samples of blood, tears, and sweat from the statue were performed by Professor Eiji Okuhara, a Catholic physician in the Akita University Department of Biochemistry and a former Rockefeller Foundation fellow. Professor Okuhara, who had witnessed the weeping statue himself, also passed the samples on to a non-Christian forensic specialist, Dr. Kaoru Sagisaka. The scientists confirmed that the samples were of human origin- the blood was found to be type B and the sweat and tears were type AB. - http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/akita/

If true, prophesy indeed:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

*

Some Catholics do assert that it is Mary who crushes the head of the serpent, based on a translation which reads “her seed,”but this crushing is what Christ did.

The Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission explains the controversy:

The Hebrew text of Genesis 3:15 speaks about enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between the offspring of both. The personal pronoun (hu’) in the words addressed to the serpent, “He will strike at your head”, is masculine. In the Greek translation used by the early Church (LXX), however, the personal pronoun autos (he) cannot refer to the offspring … but must refer to a masculine individual who could then be the Messiah, born of a woman. The Vulgate (mis)translates the clause as ipsa … This feminine pronoun supports a reading of this passage as referring to Mary which has become traditional in the Latin Church.

Note that the Neo-Vulgate (Nova Vulgata), the revised Latin version authorized by the Vatican, corrected the error and changed it from ipsa to ipsum in the Latin. (http://reformedapologeticsministries.blogspot.com/2012/02/catholic-misuse-of-genesis-315.html)

The Catholic Encyclopedia remarks:

"and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and her seed; she (he) shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her (his) heel" (Genesis 3:15). The translation "she" of the Vulgate is interpretative; it originated after the fourth century, and cannot be defended critically. The conqueror from the seed of the woman, who should crush the serpent's head, is Christ…” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Immaculate Conception)

In the Hebrew there is no “the” in “enmity between you and the womanand it can refer to or include women in general and all women, (Gn. 14:16; Ex. 25:22; Est. 1:17) with the Lord speaking to Eve but including all women.

The approved notes in the official New American Catholic Bible (1970 ver.), while also allowing the Marian view, explains this verse,They will strike…at their heel: the antecedent for “they” and “their” is the collective noun “offspring,” i.e., all the descendants of the woman. Christian tradition has seen in this passage, however, more than unending hostility between snakes and human beings. The snake was identified with the devil (Wis 2:24; Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9; 20:2), whose eventual defeat seemed implied in the verse. Because “the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8), the passage was understood as the first promise of a redeemer for fallen humankind, the protoevangelium. Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. A.D. 130–200), in his Against Heresies 5.21.1, followed by several other Fathers of the Church, interpreted the verse as referring to Christ, and cited Gal 3:19 and 4:4 to support the reference. http://usccb.org/bible/genesis/3

Another Catholic argument is that "spermatos" is not seen elsewhere in Scripture, but what the Catholic does not say is that we will not find it anywhere in the Hebrew, as it is Greek, and in which there is no “her” in the phrase “her seed.” Instead, spermatos for “her seed” comes from the Vulgate by way of a translators choice in the LXX, in which “sperm” is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word for “seed.”

The Septuagint also has the same word, “sperma,” for the serpent and speaks of the "spermatos" of the woman and the "spermatos" of the serpent, while there are only 7 words with two repetitions out of the 17 word sentence which is translated "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;" shi^yth (put/place) 'e^yba^h (enmity/hatred) be^yn (between) 'ishsha^h / na^shi^ym (wife/woman) be^yn (between) zera? (seed) zera? (seed), which illustrates the degree of interpretation this verse is open to.

62 posted on 05/18/2018 6:25:26 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: daniel1212
It's refreshing to see a Catholic who wants to uphold the values of Catholic teaching. If the Catholic Church would truly follow the teachings of the Catholic Church, the distinction between Catholicism and Protestantism would become apparent and make our job so much easier.
63 posted on 05/18/2018 7:25:49 AM PDT by HarleyD ("There are very few shades of grey."-Dr. Eckleburg)
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To: daniel1212

And your belief is exactly why we Catholics do not allow non-Catholics who follow a different interpretation of the NT to receive the Eucharist.

The point is: You respect my faith by not doing what we believe is wrong. I will respect your faith in not receiving what I discern is truly Christ in the Eucharist.

Capeesh?


64 posted on 05/18/2018 8:29:04 AM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: OpusatFR; daniel1212
If you check out the link daniel1212 provided you'd see that what Roman Catholicism espouses as truth is not truth.
65 posted on 05/18/2018 10:32:26 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: ealgeone

Been there, done that.

As I said, you keep your interpretation, and I will keep to the One True Faith.


66 posted on 05/18/2018 1:38:18 PM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: OpusatFR
Been there, done that.

As I said, you keep your interpretation, and I will keep to the One True Faith.

Romans don't like it when their false beliefs are brought to light.

You've been shown the Truth but elect to stay in the dark.

67 posted on 05/18/2018 1:54:12 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: FatherofFive

And Rome says that IT is the head of it.

I may have to invoke the Elijah model...

1 Kings 19:10


68 posted on 05/18/2018 2:06:06 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ebb tide
On October 13 of that year (1973), Our Lady of Akita revealed to a pious nun this impending crisis in the Church:

Anyone ever wonder why "Mary" never appears to the POPE with a message?

Is there no chain of command in the Roman Catholic Church?

What good is a title like Vicar of Christ if His MOM won't even talk to you??

69 posted on 05/18/2018 2:09:10 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ebb tide
 "I suddenly felt that the wooden statue came to life and was about to speak to me . . .
http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/akita.htm
 
 
Isaiah 44:12-17 NLT 
  
12 The blacksmith stands at his forge to make a sharp tool, pounding and shaping it with all his might. His work makes him hungry and weak. It makes him thirsty and faint.
13 Then the wood-carver measures a block of wood and draws a pattern on it. He works with chisel and plane and carves it into a human figure. He gives it human beauty and puts it in a little shrine.
14 He cuts down cedars; he selects the cypress and the oak; he plants the pine in the forest to be nourished by the rain.
15 Then he uses part of the wood to make a fire. With it he warms himself and bakes his bread. Then—yes, it’s true—he takes the rest of it and makes himself a god to worship! He makes an idol and bows down in front of it!
16 He burns part of the tree to roast his meat and to keep himself warm. He says, “Ah, that fire feels good.”
17 Then he takes what’s left and makes his god: a carved idol! He falls down in front of it, worshiping and praying to it. “Rescue me!” he says. “You are my god!”
 

 

70 posted on 05/18/2018 2:14:55 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ebb tide
Again??

The EO wasn't enough?

How about the Prots and their heresies??

71 posted on 05/18/2018 2:17:00 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ealgeone
You will inform your superior.

"Mary" goes outside the chain of command.

72 posted on 05/18/2018 2:19:08 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

One can see why Roman Catholics don’t cover much OT in their readings. This one pretty much captures what Rome authorizes with their idols of Mary.


73 posted on 05/18/2018 2:20:04 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: ealgeone
I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach.

Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.



74 posted on 05/18/2018 2:25:17 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Marchmain
Believing in “apparitions” is not a requirement of the Catholic religion.

But it is a damned good way to hedge yer bets!!

Better safe than sorry!

75 posted on 05/18/2018 2:28:27 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

And yet the Romans cannot see the deception. The next several verses in Isaiah describes why I believe.


76 posted on 05/18/2018 2:28:31 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: Marchmain
What happened to respecting other faiths?

Darned good question!!


"One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours."

--Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215)

77 posted on 05/18/2018 2:29:52 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Marchmain
Maybe it’s just a game for them to zero in on the only sinless woman who ever lived, the purest, the truest, the sweetest, the Mother of God who nursed Jesus as a babe and stood by him at the cross... and make jokes and pathetic comments about her.

Please act like you are paying attention.

We ZERO in on the 'lady' that ROME has invented; not the sinful woman of the bible who bore our Savior.

78 posted on 05/18/2018 2:32:30 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: metmom

Yes, teacher.


79 posted on 05/18/2018 2:34:15 PM PDT by Marchmain (good night)
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To: Marchmain
... not the sinful woman of the bible who bore our Savior.

ARRRGH!!!!


 

 
 
 
Luke 2:22-24
 
When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord  (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”),  and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
 

Leviticus 12:7-8
 
Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female.
'But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"
 
 
 
 
Sinless Mary??
  Not according to Rome's Book;    1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
 
That's the way it is WRITTEN.
 
THIS is the way it is TAUGHT:  1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; the only exception being Mary, Mother of GOD, of course.
 Rome has made IT's 'Mary' into a HYPOCRIT, by painting her as SINLESS, yet writing of her going into the temple to make a SIN offering.

80 posted on 05/18/2018 2:35:50 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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