Posted on 12/24/2022 6:40:00 AM PST by ebb tide
In his annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis claimed that “true heresy” involved not only “preaching another Gospel” but in neglecting to “translate it into today’s languages and ways of thinking.”
The 86-year-old Pontiff made his comments to the assembled members of the Roman Curia – both clerical and lay – on Thursday morning in the Vatican. Some of his regular themes were referenced in the speech, including Synodality and praise for Vatican II, along with veiled comments appearing to criticize devotees of the traditional liturgy of the Church.
READ: Rigid Catholics who won’t change are imbalanced, says Pope Francis in Christmas address
Linked to this, Francis warned the Curia against “immobility,” which he said was the “secret belief that we have nothing else to learn from the Gospel.”
Such “immobility,” stated Francis, equated to the “error of trying to crystallize the message of Jesus in a single, perennially valid form.”
Rather than having the teachings of Christ as a “perennially valid form,” Francis argued that they should adopt a form that is “constantly changing” rather than remaining constant for all ages.
“Instead, its form must be capable of constantly changing, so that its substance can remain constantly the same,” he stated.
Reiterating his argument for some kind of development of doctrine in “form,” Francis employed the words of Scripture and placed his own interpretation on them, stating:
True heresy consists not only in preaching another gospel (cf. Gal 1:9), as Saint Paul told us, but also in ceasing to translate its message into today’s languages and ways of thinking, which is precisely what the Apostle of the Gentiles did. To preserve means to keep alive and not to imprison the message of Christ.
The Pontiff did not expand on what imprisoning the message of Christ might look like, or how the Roman Curia was to change the “form” of the Gospel while somehow keeping the “substance” the same.
However, he did use the address as a means to promote both the Second Vatican Council and his current Synod on Synodality, both of which marked a key moment of change for the Church, according to Francis.
“What was the Council if not a great moment of conversion for the entire Church?” he asked. “As Saint John XXIII observed, ‘The Gospel does not change; it is we who begin to understand it more fully.’ The conversion that the Council sparked was an effort to understand the Gospel more fully and to make it relevant, living and effective in our time.”
This process is evidenced through “synodality,” the Pope continued, saying that “our current reflection on the Church’s synodality is the fruit of our conviction that the process of understanding Christ’s message never ends, but constantly challenges us.”
Pope Francis has used such language – describing the Church as needing to accompany changing times in its approach to doctrinal issues – with increasing regularity over the past years.
READ: Pope tells theologians to consult ‘non-Catholics,’ avoid ‘going backward’ in Tradition
In his recent address to the International Theological Commission, Francis urged them to avoid “going backward” in “Tradition” instead asking them to promote the Gospel by consulting non-Catholic “experts.”
Such a call he has issued on many occasions, along with his now regular attacks on “indietrists” or “rigid” Catholics who attachment to the traditional liturgy seems to anger Francis.
READ: Pope calls for an end to ‘intransigent defense of tradition’
The Pope has often relied on a regularly misrepresented quotation of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, canonized by Francis himself, in order to substantiate his argument that the Church must reform in accordance with “epochal changes.” In his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Newman wrote, “Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, editor of “Newman on Worship, Reverence, and Ritual: A Selection of Texts,” told LifeSiteNews in 2019 that, while a “favorite line with modern Jesuits because for them it means progressivism: continual change, evolution, doctrinal creativity,” Newman himself meant something altogether different.
Kwasniewski explained that Newman was not advocating for justifying actions contrary to traditional morality or any other such reversal of ancient teachings. Instead, “[h]e is talking about how the ‘idea’ (as he calls it) of Christianity expands, develops, diversifies, and enriches itself as it engages and is engaged with the world around it. It becomes more perfect in its self-understanding and self-expression through this interchange.”
“One need only think about how the challenge of heresies brought forth the great Church Fathers to defend the deposit of faith,” Kwasniewski added.
READ: Pope Francis is encouraging dissident bishops to spread error and sinful teaching
Meanwhile, Pope Francis’ promotion of such themes is being evidenced through the agenda of his Synod on Synodality – which is pushing for female deacons and wider “inclusion” – along with his firm support for dissident bishops’ conferences across Europe.
Ping
Frankie is a far-left fruitcake.
Kind of like the folks who think the Constitution is a living document. There is a way to modify the Constitution but its painful so it gets circumvented.
Can a Pope be sued for Malpractice??
Jesuits- SPIT!!!
Translation "Maybe Martin Luther was misunderstood in his time".
Was he worse than this commie fraud?
“Pope Francis claims it’s ‘heresy’ not to ‘translate’ Gospel into modern ‘ways of thinking’”
How about this alternative?:
“U S Supreme Court claims it’s ‘heresy’ not to ‘translate’ the U S Constitution into modern ‘ways of thinking’”
If there were an antichrist come in our times…what different technique would he use to weaken the faithful than chastising them for not adapting to ‘modern times”?
Global warming, capitalism, and homophobia seem to be the only sins religious liberals will recognize. Maybe the “New Bible For A More Modern Audience” should reflect that.
GMTA except yours is quicker—see #9.
Merry Christmas!
Modern words....yes. modern thinking? Nope. Just nope.
A woke bible is a big 180 from God’s way.
Francis the Fraud is an incarnation of Heresy, spawned from the ass of Baal himself.
Frank, SOLA SCRIPTURA, you heretic!
Pro 14:12 - There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
/\
Has This guy even read our book ?
I get the impression this man is in for a very bad awakening when he passes from this life. It’s often amazing to me when people who are supposedly of such high religious thought pronounce things that any Sunday school student could refute.
Pope Francis is the reed swaying in the wind, not prophetic like John the Baptist.
Here’s hoping Saint Nick comes down the Vatican chimney with a couple rolls of nickels for Jorge’s stocking, takes it down from the mantel and offers him his present personally.
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