Here’s the “money quote”, which could have been lifted directly from +John Chrysostomos’ “On Wealth and Poverty”.
“This perspective draws attention to some of the most critical social problems of recent decades, such as the growing awareness – which has in part arisen with globalisation and the present economic crisis – of a flagrant contrast between the equal attribution of rights and the unequal access to the means of attaining those rights. For Christians who regularly ask God to “give us this day our daily bread”, it is a shameful tragedy that one-fifth of humanity still goes hungry. Assuring an adequate food supply, like the protection of vital resources such as water and energy, requires all international leaders to collaborate in showing a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the natural law and promoting solidarity and subsidiarity with the weakest regions and peoples of the planet as the most effective strategy for eliminating social inequalities between countries and societies and for increasing global security.”
No support in this lecture for the recent heresy spread by some American Roman Catholic bishops that their imagined dogma of being anti-abortion supersedes all other dogmas of The Church. And one wonders how much support the Papal call to international social activism will find among the those who have bought into that peculiar American heresy because it furthers their anti-Obama political agenda.
No support in this lecture for the recent heresy spread by some American Roman Catholic bishops that their imagined dogma of being anti-abortion supersedes all other dogmas of The Church. And one wonders how much support the Papal call to international social activism will find among the those who have bought into that peculiar American heresy because it furthers their anti-Obama political agenda.Kolokotronis - please amplify, what is the 'heresy' you allege and why should anyone not be "anti-Obama", in your opinion?
It doesn't supercede any other dogma, like like you and I discussed a few times now.
***No support in this lecture for the recent heresy spread by some American Roman Catholic bishops that their imagined dogma of being anti-abortion supersedes all other dogmas of The Church.***
The general air of being anti abortion is a recent discovery of the USCCB.
***And one wonders how much support the Papal call to international social activism will find among the those who have bought into that peculiar American heresy because it furthers their anti-Obama political agenda.***
The misapplication of international social activism has gotten us into much of the mess that we find ourselves in.
***For Christians who regularly ask God to “give us this day our daily bread”, it is a shameful tragedy that one-fifth of humanity still goes hungry. Assuring an adequate food supply, like the protection of vital resources such as water and energy, requires all international leaders to collaborate in showing a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the natural law and promoting solidarity and subsidiarity with the weakest regions and peoples of the planet as the most effective strategy for eliminating social inequalities between countries and societies and for increasing global security.”***
The world overproduces food. The problem in the last two centuries have all been either directly manmade such as the mass starvation in Ukraine, or enhanced by the authorities such as the mass starvation in Biafra. The mistakes made in the past century have often centered on revolutionary theology where the clergy took on the role of Che Guevara. Either that, or we have gone in with guns to overthrow the current dictator and replace him with a worse one.
BXVI is right; we have the entire doctrine of the Church to obey, and not just the current headlines.
Just to clarify, there is no primacy given among Church dogma to that dogma which seeks to end genocide? Hardly believable, especially inasmuch as the Pope again has enumerated this, as well as the freedom of conscience, among the “Non-Negotiable Human Rights.”
-—”For Christians who regularly ask God to “give us this day our daily bread”, it is a shameful tragedy that one-fifth of humanity still goes hungry.”-—
To the extent that Christians are permitted to help, yes this would be a shame. Just as it would be a shameful tragedy for Christians who regularly ask God to “help the most vulnerable and least fortunate among us,” that millions upon millions of the most vulnerable would face slaughter in the womb, the genocide itself often enumerated as a basic human right. If it is a shame that nearly 20% of humanity goes hungry - oftentimes because their countries/leaders prevent assistance that would otherwise help - it is not more shameful that so many children should face outright slaughter, a fate even worse than hunger, especially in a world which condemns hunger and seeks mercy for the hungry, yet sees fit to put its blessing on the holocaust of the unborn?
Where do we need to win hearts and minds more - convincing the rest of the world to feed the hungry, or convincing them to stop the slaughter of the unborn? Which moral lesson needs to be taught more in this day and age? Which lesson demands the stand of a martyr, and which will face no worldly rebuke?
Your is a mistaken sentiment, seeking to relegate to less significance a dogma specifically enumerated among the absolutely non-negotiatable rights recognized by the Church. Your compartmentalizing reveals much as well (-—”And one wonders how much support the Papal call to international social activism will find among the those who have bought into that peculiar American heresy because it furthers their anti-Obama political agenda”-—), for what Catholic could separate the Right to Life and protection of the unborn from the category of international social activism? It is one in the same.
-—”...respecting the natural law...”-— Again, one cannot compartmentalize so-called “natural law” from God's law(s). If one is to state that environmentalism and eliminating social inequalities is compelled of the believers by the Church, one needs to make a better case than creating a fictional, worldly term in the hopes of diverting people from the fact that one is claiming it as God's law (”natural law”). The Church has no problem asserting Truths with the Authority of the Spirit, so one needs to claim the same Authority when trying to assert a new, or perhaps inadequately recognized, moral law. Is it the claim here that God cedes nature laws independent of His own? Or is the claim that God requires environmental activism and the active elimination of social inequalities among nations as part of our Communion with Him?
Yes, there is primacy given to enumerated Human Rights of the Church; and one needs to speak with Godly Authority when suggesting that the dogma of stopping genocide be relegated to equal-to or less-than-equal-to other considerations - and back it up with the Word.
Dogma's don't supersede,dear brother.Dogma's come directly from Christ and are perfect teaching
Obama's political agenda's are anti Christ just the same as those who say america is great because we have a freedom to do whatever we please and choose evil because of political power
Obama is evil based on abortion alone and having political power to want it
Kolo, I went to a prolife prayer service yesterday with my husband, and it gave me something to think about.
The service began with some simple hymn-singing and a short introductory prayer, and then there were two speakers: first, the woman who runs the local Crisis Pregnancy Center, and second, a woman who had an abortion 17 years ago.
It’s all what I’ve heard so many times in the last 30 years. You always start with prayer. You always hear from the motherly woman who is on a mission of mercy to the gals who are facing an untimely or difficult pregnancy. You always listen carefully to a post-abortive woman’s account of her long journey through numbness, denial, broken relationships, troubled conscience, sadness, anger, grief, repentance -— and healing: the theme is healing, as it has been since the late 70’s when I first got involved in prolife, as it has been since the days of the first abortion abolitionists, like Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, over a century before that.
It is all rooted in the commandment of Christ to care for “the least” of his brethren, the needy ones, and among the most needy are the child untimely conceived and his troubled mother; all rooted in Christ’s identification with the child, for “whoever receives this child receives Me, and receives not only Me but Him who sent Me.”