Posted on 07/10/2023 12:38:23 PM PDT by ebb tide
"Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Known as "the Great Commission," spreading the Gospel and making converts is a basic duty of all Christians, as set forth by Our Lord in sacred scripture. At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis reiterated this call in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.
But the results of the Church's evangelization efforts during Francis's pontificate have been disappointing, to say the least. In Francis's native South America, Catholicism has been losing members in large numbers to Pentecostalism. Francis's home country of Argentina has seen the biggest decline, with the Catholic share has plummeting from 76% to 49% in the last decade. Germany, which has fulsomely embraced Francis's "synodality" and repudiated core Catholic teachings, has seen a record 500,000 leave the Church just in the last year. And due to the Vatican's financial difficulties and incompetent administration, it can no longer fund missionary activities.
It does not help that Pope Francis's teachings increasingly emphasize religious indifferentism. Yesterday, Francis announced that he was appointing 49-year old Lisbon Auxiliary Bishop Americo Aguiar as a Cardinal, despite the fact that he is still only an auxiliary bishop and the appointment means that Lisbon now has two cardinals at the same time. Bishop Aguiar, who was a Socialist city council member in Portugal in the 1990s, recently set forth a worldview that denies the need for evangelization. Speaking of World Youth Day, which he is helping to organize, Bishop Aguiar denied that the purpose of the event was to convert souls to the Church: "We don't want to convert young people to Christ or to the Catholic Church or anything like that." Instead, he said that the "main message" of the event was, "I think differently, I feel differently, I organize my life differently, but we are brothers and we are going to build the future together." He drove home the point that atheism was part of cultural "richness" that the event promotes. He connected his message to that of Pope Francis and his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, "which the Pope has made a megalomanic effort to make echo in the hearts of all." And indeed, this message strongly echoes Pope Francis's recent "Declaration on Human Fraternity," which exalt 'fraternity' and vague social goals, but contain no mention of Christ or the Gospel-- and give hearty, unqualified praise to religious pluralism. Whatever one might make of this message, it is one that seems to prioritize social harmony over evangelization and conversion-- and thus is not the message of Christ.
Similar theological threads can be found in the writings of Fr. James Martin, whom Francis recently named to the Synod on Synodality. Fr. Martin has said that Christ may even command people to apostatize in the name of serving "the greater good." Fr. Martin again connects these views to Francis, who (Fr. Martin states) "emphasizes discernment for people facing complicated situations, where a black-and-white approach seems inadequate" and the "normal rules seem inadequate to the situation." These heterodox views also find favor with others close to Francis, such as Cardinal Hollerich (relator general of the Synod on Synodality) and soon-to-be-Cardinal Tucho Fernandez (the new head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith).
Thus, a pontificate that began by proclaiming the need for evangelization ends by embracing something that seems disturbingly close to the "dictatorship of relativism" denounced by Cardinal Ratzinger: "Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be 'tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine,' seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires. We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism." It remains to be seen whether Francis's approach will "bear fruit that will endure."
You are IGNORANT.
Bi-polar Bob makes some good points, although he should have quoted you more extensively, as your post 10 states
The CATHOLIC Church is PERFECTION , except for some of the people in it!
At the moment, so far as I know, everyone perfect in the Catholic Church is in heaven, and it has been that way since the Assumption.
As you seemed to be referring to the Church Militant (those people baptized Catholic who have not yet died, FYI Bob), I believe I accurately quoted you, did not lie, and am spot on in my theology.
Whether or not that makes me a bigot or evil, I leave for you to judge.
He connected his message to that of Pope Francis and his encyclical Fruti TuttiWell, it all make more sense now.
I’d rather be Ignorant than a bigot, uncharitable, or a bad theologian.
me too. I suppose I shall wear label of ignorance as a badge of honor.
Fruti Tutti, oh Rudy!
Pope Francis is the first anti-Catholic Pope just like Obama was the first anti-American President.
I won’t step foot inside a Catholic Church until Francis is gone and hopefully replaced with someone who isn’t a pro-Muslim tool.
You are ALL THOSE THINGS!!!!
Maybe. Out of curiosity, who do you think has been perfect on earth since the Assumption, and why? Perhaps I missed an encyclical or two.
I think that bipolar bob just might have a point or two that you might benefit from listening to.
I generally find the Church to be amazing not because of what has been accomplished by the people who belong to her, but what has been accomplished inspite of the people who belong to her.
That in the end the mess that is the present college of cardinals will be swept asside and the Church will continue on is going to be pretty amazing. Pretending that most Catholics are incredible and that by some fluke we have a number of people that I wouldn’t trust with a theology course running around the Vatican, many with red hats, seems a bit disingenous.
I notice one poster doesn’t really use logic or rationale and obviously wasn’t the captain of her debate team but she has LOTS OF EMOTION!!!
I suspect there may be more than one, but who am I to judge?
(one of my favourite lines from the Holy Father).
LOL!
When Revelation was written, on about 95 AD, the center of the church was Jerusalem. A Catholic Church by any reasonable definition did not exist at that time. Context makes it clear that the Whore of Babylon was the Roman Empire , then under Domitian. I have heard some protestants say they thought the Whore of Babylon was the Catholic Church. They were wrong but then a lot of protestants say a lot of things about the Catholic Church.
You are aware that Jerusalem got kind of trashed after the rebellion in the late 60’s? Tradition has it that no Christians were killed because they all cleared out first.
If you read Acts, you will discover that while the Apostles were sent first to Jerusalem, after they spent a decent amount of time there, they skipped town and got working on the “whole world” part.
I Peter was written from “Babylon” if you know what i mean, not Jerusalem.
And weren't all those sinners in the same boat?
Stinkin' sin is always the battle, Bob...
And we ALL sin one way or another,
so we ought not reconcile ourselves by pointing
fingers at the sins of others... any of us.
No matter how good it makes one feel about oneself...
It is Catholic tradition that Peter was at Rome but there is no concrete evidence of it. But at the same time Babylon did not have a large population in his time, so who can tell? Apparently he had his wife with him in his travels. (1 Cor. 9:5) and they traveled extensively.
If you follow the string, I think that you’ll find Bob rather justified in this particular instance.
I rather doubt that the Ark was as bad as the slave ships, FWIW
There is decent enough evidence for Rome. Paul isn’t pointing to Peter in particular but rather to his own state, FWIW.
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