Posted on 10/17/2018 10:34:18 AM PDT by ebb tide
“If you want to help me, act to carry forward the Council in the Church. And help me with your prayer. I need a lot of prayer”. So Francis responded to a young Jesuit who asked him how to support the Pope in his mission. Civiltà Cattolica published the transcript of the one-hour dialogue that took place in Vilnius with Jesuits from the Baltic countries during the recent papal visit.
“I don’t know what to ask for - Francis replied- but what we need to do today is to accompany the Church to a profound spiritual renewal. I believe that the Lord is asking for a change in the Church. I have said many times that a perversion of the Church today is clericalism. But 50 years ago, the Second Vatican Council clearly said it: the Church is the people of God. Read number 12 of Lumen Gentium. I feel that the Lord wants the Council to make its way into the Church. Historians say that it takes 100 years for a Council to be applied. We are halfway there. So, if you want to help me, act so as to carry forward the Council in the Church. And help me with your prayer.
Speaking of the action of the Jesuit and thinking of the clandestine state of being in which for decades religious had to hide in the former Soviet empire, Bergoglio said: “I believe that it is not difficult for a Jesuit to work in secrecy . Father Hugo Rahner said that the Jesuit must be able to discern both in the field of God and in the field of the devil. I believe that discernment gives us this ability, this sense of the supernatural: the sense of the divine and the devilish in relation to the events of human life and history. We must ask to be introduced both to the intentions of the Lord and to those of the enemy of human nature and its deceptions. Even in bad times the Jesuit must know how to walk”.
Responding to the Jesuit bishop Sigitas Tamkevičius, who was imprisoned in the KGB prison visited by the Pope shortly before, Francis said: “I want to tell you this: we say that Jesus descended into hell, and I advise you not to be afraid to descend into people personal inferno. At times, this even means entering the devil’s field. But human suffering, social suffering, the suffering of consciences... we must go down to the underworld, we must go down there. Touch the wounds. And touching the wounds of people, you touch the wounds of Christ. The Jesuit must not be afraid of this. It is a grace that is received from the hand of the Lord. And these wounds were not only opened in Vilnius and in past times. The same thing happens today in many socio-political situations in the world. I am thinking of a video that testifies to the situation of some prisons in North Africa set up by people traffickers. When governments send back those who managed to save themselves, the traffickers put them in those prisons, where the most horrible tortures happen. That’s why it’s important that you talk about your experience of imprisonment”.
“People – Francis added - must know what it means. It’s good that you talk about it. Today we tear our clothes off for what the Communists, the Nazis and the Fascists did... but today? Doesn’t it happen also today? Of course, you do it with white and silk gloves!... I always carry this pocket Way of the Cross with me, to remember the passion of the Lord [and he pulls it out of his pocket]. It is the passion of so many people who today are imprisoned, tortured. It is good for me to meditate on the Way of the Cross. Thank you, Father! Thank you for your testimony”.
The Pope then spoke of the “closeness” of God. “Closeness is God’s oldest attitude. He presents Himself as follows: close... And then he became even closer: He became one of us. The synkatabasis: God became docility, close in the flesh. Any pastoral work that forgets this is doomed to failure. Jesus became close to the marginalized, to the dead - who then rose again -, to sinners, to publicans, to prostitutes.. . The pure ones, the professionals of religion were scandalized. If a priest chases away a penitent in a bad way, the bishop must ask himself if it is appropriate to take away his license to confess, because the confessor must express paternity. The confessor is there to embrace the prodigal son, the lost daughter. And always, always, always, if you are a father, always find a way to forgive”.
Finally, Francis spoke of education. “We have to get out of the Enlightenment’s negative legacy that consists in imagining education as filling the head with ideas. Today there are schools and universities whose sole purpose is to prepare students for “success”. And they do it by filling them with notions. Education involves the whole person, not just the head. I have said it many times, and here I repeat it: there is the language of the head, but there is also the language of the heart, of feelings. We need to educate the heart. We need an education in feeling. And there is also the language of the hands. These are three languages that must be kept together. The young are called to think about what they feel and do, and they must feel what they think and do, and do what they feel and think. Ours is a human unity, and that’s where everything comes in, where feeling restlessness for others comes in, involvement. Let’s not forget the feeling, the feelings. Ignatius was a great educator of feelings. And this must be the way of education. Clearly the task of Jesuits working in schools is also to train capable educators. They must build an educational community that is able to discern situations and learn to bring education on these three languages: of heart, head and hands. But please do not let the Jesuits leave the road of education! Society must not abandon this mission, because it is a solid road”.
I believe that the Lord is asking for a change in the Church.
Here we go again with Francis and his "god of surprises".
Ping
I think what he needs is salvation from his sins...
Says the biggest clericalist in the world, who sees himself as an oracle who can change Catholic teachings and traditions according to his whims, who rules like a Latin American dictator, who ridicules and berates his critics rather than responding to them.
Francis seems incapable of expressing a concrete thought, barfing up a steaming pile of bafflegab instead.
That may not be the same as pursuing "the Council in the Church".
Pray for his being cast down from his perch of power, and/or his conversion and redemption, which God has never stopped willing for him.
“Bafflegab” is a word I hope will enter many people’s lexicons. “Ecclesiatical bafflegab” says it all.
Indeed it does. After the beautiful clarity of thought of both JPII and BXVI, Francis is a severe comedown.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola would be embarrassed/outraged that Bergoglio has the audacity to speak for him today.
But, hey, Saint Ignatius was pre-conciliar. For Papa Franciscus, everything that pre-dated the Second Council is completely irrelevant.
Ora pro nobis
I believe that the Lord is asking for a change in the Church.
....
Well, Bergoglio, every day in my morning prayers, I ask the Holy Spirit to replace you with a good and faithful shepherd. That would be a great change.
“Bafflegab”
...
I learned a new word. Thank you.
Don’t kid yourself. JPII and Benedict XVI were also men of “the Council”.
Sorry, but I don't buy the meme that "all evil comes from Vatican II", or that the Novus Ordo is "illegitimate".
Of course you don’t.
This says it all. Those with eyes will see.
He needs to head out to Salt Lake City and pick up a set of seer stones. Doesn't he know the Lord always sends his instructions in Reformed Egyptian?
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