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.
....so you join a church where the magisterium and the pope tell you what is to be taught and believed by the "faithful"...Yes, that's SOME independent streak you have there, with all that thinking for yourself, with the CC that Rome has given you to "think" and believe.
Oh, the irony.
I’m not a relativist unlike some people. Truth doesn’t depend on me.
Protestants are relativists. And the God they worship is a constitutional monarch who is subject to their own wills.
I think it’s a joke to presume your superiority because your sectarians just follow the crowd like sheep to the slaughter.
I’d rather be a Catholic than a relativist.
Each local Church (diocese) headed by its bishop is fully the Catholic Church unto itself.
And the Church of Rome headed by the Successor of St. Peter has been universally acknowledged as being first and at the center since the early centuries.
“As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.”
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1:10(A.D. 180),in ANF,I:331
“Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre- eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.”
Irenaeus,Against Heresies,3:3:2 (A.D. 180),in ANF,I:1415-416
“Now all these [heretics] are of much later date than the bishops to whom the apostles committed the Churches; which fact I have in the third book taken all pains to demonstrate. It follows, then, as a matter of course, that these heretics aforementioned, since they are blind to the truth, and deviate from the [right] way, will walk in various roads; and therefore the footsteps of their doctrine are scattered here and there without agreement or connection. But the path of those belonging to the Church circumscribes the whole world, as possessing the sure tradition from the apostles, and gives unto us to see that the faith of all is one and the same ... And undoubtedly the preaching of the Church is true and stedfast, in which one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout the whole world. For to her is entrusted the light of God; and therefore the “wisdom” of God, by means of which she saves all men, ‘is declared in [its] going forth; it uttereth [its voice] faithfully in the streets, is preached on the tops of the walls, and speaks continually in the gates of the city.’ For the Church preaches the truth everywhere, and she is the seven-branched candlestick which bears the light of Christ.
Those, therefore, who desert the preaching of the Church, call in question the knowledge of the holy presbyters, not taking into consideration of how much greater consequence is a religious man, even in a private station, than a blasphemous and impudent sophist. Now, such are all the heretics, and those who imagine that they have hit upon something more beyond the truth ... not keeping always to the same opinions with regard to the same things, as blind men are led by the blind, they shall deservedly fall into the ditch of ignorance lying in their path, ever seeking and never finding out the truth. It behoves us, therefore, to avoid their doctrines, and to take careful heed lest we suffer any injury from them; but to flee to the Church, and be brought up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord’s Scriptures. For the Church has been planted as a garden (paradisus) in this world; therefore says the Spirit of God, ‘Thou mayest freely eat from every tree of the garden,’ that is, Eat ye from every Scripture of the Lord; but ye shall not eat with an uplifted mind, nor touch any heretical discord.”
Irenaeus,Against Heresies,5:20 (A.D. 180),in ANF,I:547-8
“But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst Of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,—a man, moreover, who continued stedfast with the apostles. For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter. In exactly the same way the other churches likewise exhibit (their several worthies), whom, as having been appointed to their episcopal places by apostles, they regard as transmitters of the apostolic seed. Let the heretics contrive something of the same kind. For after their blasphemy, what is there that is unlawful for them (to attempt)? But should they even effect the contrivance, they will not advance a step. For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for its author neither an apostle nor an apostolic man; because, as the apostles would never have taught things which were self-contradictory, so the apostolic men would not have inculcated teaching different from the apostles, unless they who received their instruction from the apostles went and preached in a contrary manner. To this test, therefore will they be submitted for proof by those churches, who, although they derive not their founder from apostles or apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine. Then let all the heresies, when challenged to these two tests by our apostolic church, offer their proof of how they deem themselves to be apostolic. But in truth they neither are so, nor are they able to prove themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful relations and communion by such churches as are in any way connected with apostles, inasmuch as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of their diversity as to the mysteries of the faith.”
Tertullian,Prescription against the Heretics,33(A.D. 200),in ANF,III:258
” Our Lord, whose precepts and admonitions we ought to observe, describing the honour of a bishop and the order of His Church, speaks in the Gospel, and says to Peter: I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Thence, through the changes of times and successions, the ordering of bishops and the plan of the Church flow onwards; so that the Church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is controlled by these same rulers.s Since this, then, is founded on the divine law, I marvel that some, with daring temerity, have chosen to write to me as if they wrote in the name of the Church; when the Church is established in the bishop and the clergy, and all who stand fast in the faith.”
Cyprian,To the Lasped,Epistle 26/33(A.D. 250),in ANF,V:305.
Biblical is in the eye of the beholder. Socialism is condemned by the Catholic Church in no uncertain terms.
Communists reject God and private property rights. Countless papal encyclicals have defended the the right to private property.
Calvinism, by contrast, believes in the survival of the fittest and that being poor is a sign of being unelect.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19310515_quadragesimo-anno_en.html';
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/L13APOST.HTM
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum_en.html
Bigotry knows no bounds.
Fixed it for you.
Repent, protestants, while you still have time.
That's the "God's word" of truth that you depend on. What the "Church" says is truth in God's word. That's not what an "independent thinker" would accept. An "independent thinker" would search the scriptures to see if what the "Church" says lines up with what God says. And if it didn't, that "independent thinker" would know something isn't right. Either the Church is wrong, or God is wrong. THAT would be true "independent thinking".
And the Church of Rome headed by the Successor of St. Peter has been universally acknowledged as being first and at the center since the early centuries.
And with that I would ask again ... why did Jesus not address the "Church of Rome" or the "Successor of St. Peter" in Revelation?
The "argument from silence" is meaningless in light of the claims being made here, namely, the universally acknowledged primacy of Rome and the pope.
And with that I would ask again ... why did Jesus not address the “Church of Rome” or the “Successor of St. Peter” in Revelation?
>>You are begging the question. And frankly,the Book of Revelation is irrelevant to the argument here.
There is plenty of evidence from the historical record. The trouble is you would have to re-evaluate your position were you to accept that record.
The problem is not papal primacy, but rather with papal supremacy.
Either the Church is wrong, or God is wrong
>>False dilemma.
Being an independent thinker means questioning the tripe I was taught in Sunday School and looking for how the earliest Christians interpreted scripture.
If you want to be a liberal then that’s your problem.
Question what you have been taught about the Bible. Don’t be small-minded.
You might want to actually study the subject rather than depending on what others say. See:
Catholic Social Justice: Not What You Think It Is
http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/social-justice-not-what-you-think-it-is ^ | December 2009 | Michael Novak
Posted on Wed Jan 18 2012 05:54:41 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time) by stfassisi
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2834364/posts
Questioning the tripe you were taught in Sunday School is hardly "searching the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so". Tripe doesn't end when you're 8 years old. Tripe can be given to a person for a lifetime. All it takes is one individual who is willing to let someone else tell him what to believe.
On the contrary, the historical record begins with the Bible, since the Bible itself is an historical record from apostolic sources. If the Bible refutes your position, which it does, ... then we are done.
If you have Biblical evidence why, if Rome was primary, that Jesus did not address the church at Rome or the current pope in the book of Revelation ... I am willing to listen. So far, you have merely ignored the question with a cut-n-paste.
You can't be serious!!!
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) is an apostolic congregation of the Catholic Church. Since our founding in Issoudun, France, in 1854 by Fr. Jules Chevalier, we have spread the Gospel to 54 countries, accompanying others on their spiritual journeys, working for social justice/human rights, and serving the poor who are alienated and often without hope. The MSC came to United States in 1876 to serve French-speaking parishioners in Watertown, NY and the MSC USA was established as a Province in 1939.
Odd that you respond to a question of honesty with a reading list - non sequitur.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website page dealing with Issues and Actions. This site is quite revealing on the stance of the Catholic church's positions on climate change, unions, immigration,equality, etc. It sure sounds like they prefer a more socialist position to me.
3 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,
3 show the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,
5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
6 This mystery is1 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs,members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Please note, verse 5.
St. Paul’s gospel, is that of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Peter, Phillip, Jude, James etc..
Furthermore, Paul states, CERTIFIES, that the gospel he preached was NOT preached before.
"But I certify you, brethren, that THE GOSPEL PREACHED OF ME IS NOT AFTER MAN. For I neither RECEIVED IT OF MAN, neither was I TAUGHT IT, but BY THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST." Gal. 1:11,12. If it hasn't been taught to him by man, or received of him by man, then it isn't the same. Otherwise, why would Christ bother to give it to Paul by REVELATION? WHy not just send him to the 12 to be taught the gospel they preached?
Instead of letting God's Word plainly say what it says, you seem to be attempting to make it say something it clearly does not. The Scriptures you gave were about the Mystery, hid in God, from the foundation of the world. That we would be fellowheirs with Israel through the gospel. But you did not give us what that gospel is.
What local church declares this? This is your church assembly?
Only God can strike someone out.
I am serious. Any Catholic apostolate that advocates socialism runs contrary to Catholic teaching.
Might I remind you that the current Pope, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, condemned Liberation Theology as a heresy.
http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df84lt.htm
Read the church documents I sent you. Or are you afraid to because they might contradict your prejudices?
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