Posted on 07/29/2014 4:47:36 PM PDT by ebb tide
A priest looking for advice on how to advance the Church in a fast-paced world so often embroiled in conflict recently approached a well-placed cleric who had been a religious order priest and bishop for many years. In response, the bishop answered, in part, by sharing the following true story:
A priest went as a missionary to an area where for years they had no priest, and evangelicals had arrived. He told me that he went to a woman who had been the teacher of the people and then the principle of the village school.
This lady sat him down and began to insult him forcefully saying, “You abandoned us, left us alone, and I, who in need of God’s Word, had to go to Protestant worship and I became Protestant.”
This young priest, who is meek, who is one who prays, when the woman finished her discourse, said, “Madam, just one word: forgiveness. Forgive us, forgive us. We abandoned the flock.”
The tone of the woman changed. However, she remained Protestant and the priest did not go into the argument of which was the true religion. In that moment, you could not do this. In the end, the lady began to smile and said, “Father, would you like some coffee?”
“Yes, let’s have a coffee,” he replied.
Afterwards, when the priest was about to leave, she said, “Stop here, Father. Come.”
And she led him into the bedroom, opened the closet and there was the image of Our Lady.
“You should know that I never abandoned her. I hid her because of the pastor, but she’s in the home,” the lady said.
It is a story which teaches how proximity, meekness brought about this woman’s reconciliation with the Church, because she felt abandoned by the Church.
And I asked a question of this priest that you should never ask, “And then, how did things turn out? How did things finish?”
But the priest corrected me, saying, “Oh, no, I did not ask anything; she continues to go to Protestant worship, but you can see that she is a woman who prays. She faces the Lord Jesus.” And it did not go beyond that. He did not invite her to return to the Catholic Church.
What is one to make of this “advice” and the bishop giving it? Three things can be said with certainty:
1) This bishop has a very twisted understanding of what it means to be reconciled with the Church. In his mind, a woman who hides her supposed devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary for fear of rebuke from a heretic “pastor,” and who is steadfast in “worshiping” in a heretical community, has undergone a “reconciliation with the Church” presumably because she set her anger aside long enough to have a cup of coffee with a Catholic priest.
2) This bishop has a deficient understanding of the Church’s mission. His inquisitor has been given to believe that priestly work is well done apart from inviting heretics to return to the Catholic Church and the sacraments. He furthermore has been given to believe that he can determine on his own that one outside the Church, with no possibility of being absolved from his or her sins “faces the Lord,” the presumption being that such a person is fine where they are; outside of the solitary Ark of Salvation.
3) This bishop is the current Bishop of Rome; a pope who has demonstrated time and time again an appalling lack of concern for even the most basic duties of his exalted office.
The story above was shared by Pope Francis during a Q&A session with the priests of Caserta that took place on July 26th; it’s just one of a number of things said that day by a Roman Pontiff whose prolific public discourse so often betrays his indifference to the Catholic faith. You may read the exchange in its fullness on the Vatican News website linked above, but be forewarned, it is a gut wrenching experience.
Clearly, the priests of Caserta would have done far better to email their questions to just about any commenter on this blog. (Small compliment, I know.)
Nice story. Thanks for sharing!
Teach God's Word. He will build His Church.
But Catholics never post threads that belittle Protestants.
His Word, is His Church given to Peter and His disciples.
Well that's just ducky... spifferific even.
Oh, no. Never.
Not even when the writer of the article includes this in his article.
In his mind, a woman who hides her supposed devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary for fear of rebuke from a heretic “pastor,” and who is steadfast in “worshiping” in a heretical community,
Another hit piece on non-Catholics and Catholics will still be wondering what we object to......
And just what the heck is "the solitary Ark of Salvation"?
Besides another term never found in Scripture.
Salvation is through Christ and faith in Him and nowhere is He called *the Ark of Salvation*.
As much as the writer dislikes Protestants, he dislikes the bishop too. Perhaps even more (as he should know better). It is a wonder that God chose this bishop to be Pope! (I guess He didn’t consult with the author of this piece about it.)
God didn't choose the pope any more than He chooses the POTUS. We've had bad popes and good popes, we've had bad presidents and good presidents. A bad president doesn't mean we should start pledging our allegiance to a foreign flag just like a bad pope doesn't mean we bail on the Church.
Well, here we have another *No salvation outside the Catholic church* statement.
And for all the grief I keep getting for stating that, when a Catholic does, it's no big deal.
OK.
So then what? It's a popularity contest?
Should they go back to drawing lots and hope for the best?
Catholics claim the church is necessary for salvation, that they're Christ's representatives on earth, that the Holy Spirit guides them thorough the clergy and God didn't choose the pope?
Who then? Satan? Blind luck?
And Catholics expect people to convert to Catholicism as being the OTC when God doesn't choose the leadership it has?
That's following men if ever I saw it.
You can keep your man-made and man led religion.
Here then is a possible answer to a perplexing mystery! After approx. 2,000 years of searching the Scriptures for at least one prayer addressed to Mary or another saint in Heaven, we may have to postulate that the early church did so, but in secret!
Blasphemous, as an unique attribute of God is that He is the only one ever addressed in prayer to Heaven, His throne, to which Christ gained direct access for us by His sinless shed blood, and only God is ever shown able to hear and respond to the multitudinous incessant prayers to Heaven.
But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. (Jeremiah 44:17)
As for the charge of evangelical pastor being a heretic,that belongs to Rome, as she is the invisible church in Scripture, as her distinctives, from pastors titled "priests" to a perpetual infallible magisterium, are simply not seen therein.
Nice combo effect. Excelific, in fact. :o)
You answered your own question in your Posts 11 and 12.
Take it easy. The primary target of this article is a Catholic Pope who hasn't and still doesn't practice his faith and refuses to exercise his role as a shepherd of souls.
Papa Tango is your friend!
Just how old are you, Moses?
And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Luke 1:28
And she [Elizabeth] cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Luke 1:42
Did Luther exclude the above from your bible?
Show us one prayer to anyone but God or one command or even permission given to pray to anyone but God.
I just did.
After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. John 19:27
Just part of the institutional hypocrisy that is Rome.
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