Posted on 05/29/2019 2:47:36 PM PDT by ebb tide
May 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – In his recent marathon interview with a Mexican journalist, Pope Francis said “relations with China are good, very good” and that two Chinese bishops – one Vatican-appointed from the “underground” Church and one appointed by the Communist government – with whom he recently met “know that they must be good patriots.”
For decades, the Catholic Church in China largely existed underground. It faces persecution from Communist authorities. Pope Francis’ controversial deal with China allows the government to nominate clerics from its state-run “church,” the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, for the Vatican to make bishops.
The bishops and priests in the “underground” Catholic Church are validly ordained.
Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has repeatedly spoken out about the Vatican-China deal, decrying it as a betrayal of the Catholic faithful in that country.
“My dream is China. I love the Chinese very much,” Pope Francis told Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki. Catholic News Agency (CNA) translated his remarks. “Relations with China are good, very good.”
“The other day two Chinese bishops came to me, one who came from the underground church and the other from the patriotic church, already recognized as brothers,” the pontiff said. “They came here to visit us. This is an important step. They know that they must be good patriots and that they must take care of the Catholic flock.”
CNA’s report continued:
When asked if some Catholics “felt sidelined” by the Sino-Vatican agreement signed in September 2018, the pope responded, “Catholics in general no. Catholics are happy to be united now.”
“In fact Easter was celebrated all together, all together and in all the churches. There were no problems this year,” he said.
Chinese government officials detained Father Peter Zhang Guangjun, an underground priest of the diocese of Xuanhua, after Palm Sunday Mass on April 14. Guanjun was one of three priests held in detention by authorities in China in April 2019.
Pope Francis also told Alazraki that he takes accusations of heresy “with a sense of humor.”
“I also pray for them because they are wrong and poor people, some are manipulated,” he said. “And who are those who signed...?”
That question was an apparent reference to a recent open letter accusing the pontiff of heresy. The letter was issued as “a last resort to respond to the accumulating harm caused by Pope Francis’s words and actions over several years, which have given rise to one of the worst crises in the history of the Catholic Church,” according to its signers. One of the original signers was Father Aidan Nichols, one of the most respected theologians in the English-speaking world.
Another signer, Dr. John Rist, told LifeSiteNews that he is now barred from all Pontifical Universities.
There have been numerous other efforts calling out Pope Francis for seemingly contradicting Catholic teaching on adultery, the sacraments, hell, the death penalty, and other significant topics. These include a letter from 45 academics asking the pontiff to correct errors in Amoris Laetitia and a “Filial Correction” accusing him of spreading seven heresies, at least by omission, about “marriage, the moral life, and the reception of the sacraments.”
The dubia of four cardinals asking Pope Francis to formally clarify whether Amoris Laetitia contradicts Catholic morality has been unanswered since the pontiff received it in September 2016. It has gone unanswered for 982 days. Two of the cardinals who submitted it to the Pope are now dead.
During the same interview with Alazraki, Pope Francis compared President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall to the Berlin Wall that separated communist East Germany from freedom in the west. He also said he was “angry” over media reports that he suggested that parents should consult a “psychiatrist” for counseling children with same-sex attraction and that if Christians “were to convince” themselves that homosexuals and those in “irregular” relationships are “children of God, things would change a lot.”
China is a repressive totalitarian Marxist regime and the pope loves it. *slam is a repressive totalitarian theocratic regime and he loves it.
When was the last time he taught Catholic doctrine... or mentioned Jesus?
But totalitarian regimes cannot tolerate any alternative focus of allegiance whatsoever. They need the country to be an undifferentiated anthill.
That’s why I’m surprised they even let the Pretense of allowing Catholicism to exist.
Maybe he was elected to get rid of the papolatry that seems to afflict so many Catholics.
That’s right inform on your fellow Catholic brothers and sisters, says the Pope???
If God leads all popes why did Pope Benedict XVI lift the suppression that Paul VI had placed on the Tridentine Mass; or why is Francis now going after Humanae Vitae, issued by Paul VI, whom Francis hss just canonized?
The Vatican is Coming After Humanae Vitae: Time to Fight Back
Face it, CM, Bergoglio follows some "god of surprises", but it is not the Holy Trinity.
So you honestly believe the Pope and the majority of Cardinals are corrupt and are leading the Catholic Church and you still call yourself a Catholic and give money to the Catholic Church?
I believe that God leads, not only the Pope, but all who call upon His name. Scripture says we are called to different gifts, to different works, by one Holy Spirit.
Being led is always contingent upon our consent, because none of us are automata. God's will is not contingent upon our performance, but His will shall prevail, through us or despite us.
The same goes for the conclave that elects a pope. Surely everyone is praying for the Spirit's guidance, but just as surely Cardinals can make bad choices. You may note that only 83 out of 266 popes are officially canonized saints (roughly 1/3), and some of those chosen were incontestably scoundrels.
By my count (I am not the Judge, but I have my opinions!) about 10 or 11 were criminally bad. I would say ---my opinion --- under 5%. Jesus' personal picks turned out 8% criminal (speaking of Judas) so I supposed 5 - 8 percent bad apples may be par.
A great many more popes were well-intended, but variously flawed, smart, dumb, ambitious, lazy, naive, cowardly, mediocre, many merely adequate and yet to some extent derelict in their duties. But they didn't lead the whole Church into error: Men, thank you for your service.
Not only that, but there were some 30-40 antipopes in history, which means the elections were contested, resulting in two claimants. (These weren't all villains: some of this was just a result of political vagaries and electoral glitches, and I think one of the antipopes is now a canonized saint.)
There was one particularly bumpy stretch in the early 15th century (the Western Schism) when for 40 years there were two, and sometimes three simultaneous claimants to the papacy. This produced crippling historic consequences that are still plaguing us even to this day.
That is not to say that the Holy Spirit has failed to protect the Church. On the contrary, the survival of the Church, the honest, loyal Christ-honoring and civilization-creating faith of her millionfold members and the incomparable glory of her saints--- despite clerical malpractice going right up to the top--- constitutes a historically unique example of Divine Providence.
In the early 1800's, Cardinal Ercole Consalvi served as Vatican Secretary of State under Pope Pius VI, who had a long-running dispute with Napoleon. At one point, Napoleon burst out in anger, "I will destroy the Church!" Consalvi replied, "Your Majesty, with all due respect, if we clergy haven't been able to destroy the Church in 1800 years, what makes you think you could do it?" `
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At one point the majority of bishops were Arians.
I think Conservative Mind is just being provocative. (Amirite, CM?) But that is OK. Abrasives scrub, after all. It serves a legitimate heuristic function.
Anybody who gives money to the USCCB's numerous solicitations or Bergoglio's Peter's Pence is a fool.
Good post. Thanks.
Cardinal, now laicized Mr. McCarrick the sodomite of seminarians and fellow priests, under the auspices of Pope Francis was part of the negotiations to throw the underground Chinese Church under the bus. The heroic Chinese Cardinal Zen who was involved with the underground Church pleaded with Francis to no avail, not to sell out the underground Church. Francis who publicly condemns Western Nationalism is all for the Communist Chinese to “be good patriots” in opposition to the Church. The Father of Lies rejoices. Resign Francis!
Anyone who thinks otherwise is a heretic.
Nine hundred and eighty-one days ago, four cardinals, from AROUND THE WORLD, presented, in private, a respectful dubia to Pope Francis. After several months without a response, the cardinals made their dubia public. To this day, Bergoglio has not answered the dubia.
Do you consider those four cardinals to be "ungodly" and "heretics".
Do you believe that any cardinal who did not vote for Bergoglio in the conclave to be "ungodly" and a "heretic"?
It is the Pope who is the true leader of the Catholic Church. Only he went through the amount of review and approval—not these four cardinals of whom you speak.
God did not allow them to be Pope.
You need to stop posting anti-Catholic threads. People have been banned from doing what you are doing.
No, you are wrong. Jesus Christ is the True Leader of the Catholic Church; Bergoglio is only His vicar.
When Bergoglio decides to follow Jesue Christ, and not his little "god of surprises", I'll let you know.
So you are saying Jesus Christ allows Satan to reign over His Church on Earth?
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