Posted on 01/18/2012 3:19:15 PM PST by NYer
.- Pope Benedict XVI said today that achieving Christian unity requires more than “cordiality and cooperation” and that it must be accompanied by interior conversion.
“Faith in Christ and interior conversion, both individual and communal, must constantly accompany our prayer for Christian unity,” said the Pope to over 8,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall on Jan. 18.
The Pope’s comments mark the start of the 2012 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that runs until Jan. 25. It will be observed by over 300 Christian churches and ecclesial communities around the globe.
The Pope asked for “the Lord in a particular way to strengthen the faith of all Christians, to change our hearts and to enable us to bear united witness to the Gospel.”
In this way, he said, they “will contribute to the new evangelization and respond ever more fully to the spiritual hunger of the men and women of our time.”
The Pope explained that the concept of a week of prayer for Christian unity was initiated in 1908 by Paul Wattson, an Episcopalian minister from Maryland. One year later, he became a Catholic and was subsequently ordained to the priesthood.
Pope Benedict recalled how the initiative was supported by his predecessors Pope St. Pius X and Pope Benedict XV. It was then “developed and perfected” in the 1930s by the Frenchman Abbé Paul Couturier, who promoted prayer “for the unity of the Church as Christ wishes and according to the means he wills.”
The mandate for the week of prayer, the Pope underscored, comes from the wish of Christ himself at the Last Supper “that they may all be one.” He observed that this mission was given a particular impetus by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) but added that “the unity we strive for cannot result merely from our own efforts.” Rather, “it is a gift we receive and must constantly invoke from on high.”
The theme for 2012 Week of Prayer – “All shall be changed by the victory of Jesus Christ our Lord” – was crafted by the Polish Ecumenical Council. Pope Benedict said it reflects “their own experience as a nation,” which stayed faithful to Christ “in the midst of trials and upheavals,” including years of occupation by the Nazis and later the Communists.
The Pope tied the victory the Polish people experienced over their oppressors to overcoming the disunity that marks Christians.
He said that the “unity for which we pray requires inner conversion, both shared and individual,” and it cannot be “limited to cordiality and cooperation.” Instead, Christians must accept “all the elements of unity which God has conserved for us.”
Ecumenism, the Pope stated, is not an optional extra for Catholics but is “the responsibility of the entire Church and of all the baptized.” Christians, he said, must make praying for unity an “integral part” of their prayer life, “especially when people from different traditions come together to work for victory in Christ over sin, evil, injustice and the violation of human dignity.”
Pope Benedict then touched on the lack of unity in the Christian community, which he said “hinders the effective announcement of the Gospel and endangers our credibility.” Evangelizing formerly Christian countries and spreading the Gospel to new places will be “more fruitful if all Christians together announce the truth of the Gospel and Jesus Christ, and give a joint response to the spiritual thirst of our times,” he explained.
The Pope concluded his comments with the hope that this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will lead to “increased shared witness, solidarity and collaboration among Christians, in expectation of that glorious day when together we will all be able to celebrate the Sacraments and profess the faith transmitted by the Apostles.”
The general audience finished with Pope Benedict addressing pilgrims in various languages, including greeting a group of men and women from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, before leading the crowd in the Our Father and imparting his apostolic blessing.
And your church? Or is it just you in front of a computer?
Perhaps those actually witnessing to muslims, like Pope Benedict in his homily, can sympathize with Catholics whose Churches are being burned and those being bombed and shot - rather than joining with you in upside down history of the Church’s struggle.
The Church fought the Soviet state, was instrumental in its downfall, continues the fight against the Chinese government - and is actively engaged against Islam throughout the world, as it has been since the beginning. The current pope is also working to preserve religious freedom, the sanctity of marriage and life against radical secularism and relativism. (I doubt you have any knowledge of this.)
But I’m sure *your church* supports these efforts rather than joining Islam and secularists in attacking the Church at every opportunity.
From completely misreading Pope Benedict to seeming total ignorance of history, your posts are…
Hopeless and shameless.
Thank you. I’ll cherish it forever. :o)
None of us has ever claimed we were infallible, only that God's word, the Bible, is. The word infallible means:
All these attributes describe Holy Scriptures because they alone are Divinely inspired - God breathed - and God will not mislead, disappoint or deceive. He never errs, makes mistakes or fails us. He keeps all his promises. Attributes which, by the way, are impossible human qualities. It would help in our discussions if you could remember this very important distinction.
Where is that distinction when each individual claims his or her own authority in determining and interpreting scripture?
Indeed, the Church deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-semitism levelled at any time or from any source against the Jews — Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, “Nostra Aetate,” Oct. 28, 1965
The crucifiers of Christ ought to be held in continual subjection.(Pope Innocent III, “Epistle to the Hierarchy of France,” July 15, 1205)
It would be licit, according to custom, to hold the Jews in perpetual servitude because of their crime. (St. Thomas Aquinas, “De Regimine Judaeorum”)
Therefore, the Church reproves as foreign to the mind of Christ any discrimination against people or any harrassment on the basis of race, color, condition in life, or religion. — Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, “Nostra Aetate,” Oct. 28, 1965
Religious communities have the right not to be prevented from publicly teaching and bearing witness to their beliefs by the spoken or written word. — Declaration on Religious Freedom, “Dignitatis Humanae,” December 12, 1965
It is insanity to believe that liberty of conscience and liberty of worship are the inalienable rights of every citizen. From this stinking fountain of Indifferentism flows the erroneous and absurd opinion, or rather derangement, that liberty of conscience must be asserted and vindicated for everyone. This most pestilential error opens the door to the complete and immoderate liberty of opinions which works such widespread harm both in Church and State. (Pope Gregory XVI, “Mirari Vos,” August 15,1832)
That every man is free to embrace and to profess that religion which he, led by the light of reason, thinks to be the true religion is hereby CONDEMNED as ERROR. (Ven. Pope Pius IX, “Syllabus of Modern Errors,”December 8, 1864)
(http://peacebyjesuscom.blogspot.com/2011/09/contradictions-in-roman-catholicism.html
Your ignorance of history continues.
Add ignorant to hopeless and shameless in regards to your posts.
Or do some actual research.
Hitler attacked the Church, he would have appreciated your support.
Islam attacks the Church, they appreciate your support.
Congratulations.
Watch out for the company you keep in spreading myths:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=8415
http://spectator.org/archives/2006/08/18/hitlers-pope
David G. Dalin, professor of history and political science at Ave Maria University, Naples, Florida — and an ordained rabbi — demonstrates in his recent book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, that this is a false and distorted portrayal. He also shows its long pedigree, starting more than 40 years ago, in 1963, with Rolf Hochhuth’s play The Deputy.
I await your companion piece on the Reformers with baited breath.
Scripture teaches its own sufficiency as God’s revelation, and it possesses the innate ability to communicate clearly and understandably the necessary truths for faith and morals for every Christian. Irenaeus said:
Since, therefore, the entire Scriptures, the prophets, and the Gospels, can be clearly, unambiguously, and harmoniously understood by all, although all do not believe them; and since they proclaim that one only God, to the exclusion of all others, formed all things by His word, whether visible or invisible, heavenly or earthly, in the water or under the earth, as I have shown from the very words of Scripture; and since the very system of creation to which we belong testifies, by what falls under our notice, that one Being made and governs it—those persons will seem truly foolish who blind their eyes to such a clear demonstration, and will not behold the light of the announcement [made to them]; but they put fetters upon themselves, and every one of them imagines, by means of their obscure interpretations of the parables, that he has found out a God of his own. (ANF, Vol. I, Irenaeus, Against Heresies II.27.2)
He also stated:
To which course many nations of those barbarians who believe in Christ do assent, having salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit, without paper or ink, and, carefully preserving the ancient tradition, believing in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and all things therein, by means of Christ Jesus, the Son of God; who, because of His surpassing love towards His creation, condescended to be born of the virgin, He Himself uniting man through Himself to God, and having suffered under Pontius Pilate, and rising again, and having been received up in splendor, shall come in glory, the Savior of those who are saved, and the Judge of those who are judged, and sending into eternal fire those who transform the truth, and despise His Father and His advent. Those who, in the absence of written documents, have believed this faith, are barbarians, so far as regards our language; but as regards doctrine, manner, and tenor of life, they are, because of faith, very wise indeed; and they do please God, ordering their conversation in all righteousness, chastity, and wisdom. If any one were to preach to these men the inventions of the heretics, speaking to them in their own language, they would at once stop their ears, and flee as far off as possible, not enduring even to listen to the blasphemous address. Thus, by means of that ancient tradition of the apostles, they do not suffer their mind to conceive anything of the [doctrines suggested by the] portentous language of these teachers, among whom neither Church nor doctrine has ever been established (ANF, Vol. I, Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.4.2).
So, it is not a matter of "each individual claims his or her own authority in determining and interpreting Scripture", but of those whose hearts are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in illuminating the truths of God set forth in Holy Scripture that he clearly reveals EVEN to those who have not read them.
"I gather that..some arrangement has been worked out with the Vatican and Argentina...protecting not only Quislings but also [those]..guilty of terrible crimes committed in Yugoslavia. I presume we must protect our agents even though it disgusts me..we are conniving with Vatican and Argentina to get guilty people to haven in latter country." - John Moors Cabot. American Ambassador to Belgrade. June 1947.
"The Vatican's [Ratlines] were supposed to remain hidden forever. But beneath the sleepy town of Suitland, Maryland, there are twenty underground vaults, each an acre in size, crammed..with classified documents..hidden from public scrutiny. As the decades passed, the successors to the orginal custodians had no idea what awful secrets lay buried..until piece by piece they lifted the veil of Vatican secrecy. By the time the intelligence chiefs read this book it will be too late..The Vatican's Ratlines have passed from SECRECY to HISTORY. It is an ugly legacy of spies, scandals, and Nazi smuggling." - From the preface to "Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis and Soviet Intelligence".- Mark Aarons and John Loftus, Unholy Trinity: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets (New York,19910, preface, p.x.
I'm sure we non-Catholics just don't understand it. We somehow have it wrong...again.
Wrong?
Gullible and ignorant is a better fit.
Where would that be?
As for Irenaeus, from your cite: Thus, by means of that ancient tradition of the apostles, they do not suffer their mind to conceive anything of the [doctrines suggested by the] portentous language of these teachers, among whom neither Church nor doctrine has ever been established
o, it is not a matter of "each individual claims his or her own authority in determining and interpreting Scripture", but of those whose hearts are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in illuminating the truths of God set forth in Holy Scripture
And whose hearts would that be: Calvin or Arminius? Zwingli? Darby? Koresh? You?
Who decides? In your scheme each individual decides on his/her own authority. A faith of one; a church of one. Your distinction is without a difference.
Sola scriptura is not scriptural and fails miserably in practice resulting in a fractured and feeble Church. Not what Christ or His Apostles desired, advocated or taught.
I apologize for that multiple posting. My cat, Beaux, decided to jump up on the table to get some lovin’. Little did I know he was leaning against the keypad on my laptop and when I hit post, it DID! Sorry.
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