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."
To his own state of what? I'm not catching your drift here.
His emphasis is that he has given up just about everything, far more than most.
While Peter certainly started off with a wife, he does seem rather emphatic just before they hit Jerusalem that he has left her behind.
While Paul contrasts himself with “super apostles” living the life of Riley, he doesn’t name any names, and certaily doesn’t single out Peter in this instance.
I'm sorry, I don't read it that way. In fact it seems he's saying he is continuing to take along a believing wife. I know that goes against what Catholics are taught but I'm just reading the words as they appear.
And you dont know farm animals.
Well, if you said get as far away as possible from the antichrist-pope I could accept that as good advice, because that’s certainly not where Catholicism resides.
European and American priests are suspicious. African and Asian priests are not.
Well you certainly like reminding me. Thanks for your comments. You seem smart.
A boat where an effort is made at sanitation (which I believe was the case with the ark) will be better off than a boat where no such effort is made.
You are right in the Corinthians passage that Paul is pushing forward a specific type of equity with Peter in some degree and not an inferior apostle—my bad for going from memory. And the Greek of first Corinthians does speak of being accompanied by a female companion (9:5).
I was thinking specifically of the passage built around Peter’s comment of Mark 10:28 where he speaks of having left everything, —with parallels in Matthew 19:27 and Luke 18:28, The Lukan passage in Christ’s response uses the same term in Greek that Paul does, which is often translated wife, but it means woman generically and wife depends on context.
In Matthew specifically the passage follows fairly shortly upon becoming Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, and that is the heart of the Catholic tradition—embracing celibacy on a permanent basis (as opposed to the temporary basis required for service in the Jewish priesthood). The Eunuch state is most easily conceived of, and in some ways lived, as being far apart from women, but through the Church’s history the relations have been more varied.
Pope Benedict had a group of four consecrated laywoman who lived in the Vatican who took care of his needs and the needs of his immediate “household.”
Life is complex and how people get through it varies. From Paul’s account, most of the apostles to some degree at some time led lives that were somewhat more complicated than what was done on the road to Jerusalem.
Paul does claim to employ a smaller support staff (or arguably no support staff that was not also self supporting).
That the other apostles are no longer as unsupported as they were when travelling with Christ is not per se a problem, but does set up a world that has details to get bogged down in it one wants to know all the minutiae about everyone.
Having the support staff also requires more self-discipline and/or structure if one is to live as a consecrated eunuch.
Gonna totally disagree, so you might not even want to continue.
NOTHING “existed” before ANY Prophetic Word came. God Himself spoke prophecy when he talked about the “seed of the woman” crushing the seed of the serpent.
Jesus spoke prophecy, both about Jerusalem 40 years later and about the end times.
So you can’t pull that. The Catholic Church is I think without any doubt the Great Whore.
When Revelation was written, on about 95 AD, the center of the church was Jerusalem.Pella, and its region, called by the Romans, Decapolis, to where Christians fled during the destruction of Jerusalem, remained a more important Christian center, even after the return of Christians to Jerusalem in 135 AD. During the late 1st and 2nd centuries, the entire region was subordinate to the Bishop of Caesarea, who in turn was subordinate to the bishop of Antioch. Jerusalem only regained Christian prominence under Constantine, but never again as a larger Church seat.
To find the truth, look for who or what is attacked the hardest by evil.
The gates of hell will not prevail.
May all of us, Catholic or not, follow God’s will for us and love each other.
This creep is only repeating what fake pope Bergoglio has said many times. He has also it’s a sin to try and convert anyone to Catholicism because all faiths are the same. It’s called a one world religion and fake pope Frank is a big proponent of it.
Yes you are. And you know what they say about fans. They're always stirring and blowing things up.
jk
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