The Holy Father Draws A Line In The Sand
Roger the Dodger... are you listening?
Helmet tip to PreVat2
This is amazing stuff. The letter proper from Pope Benedict to the world's bishops has already been published, and here are some of the more stunning sections. Hold on to your hats. (Emphasis and underlines, mine)Dear brethren in the Episcopal ministry!
The lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 without a mandate of the Holy See has led, both within and outside the Catholic Church, for a variety of reasons, to a discussion of such vehemence as we had not experienced for a long time.
I myself, in the years after 1988, have experienced how by the return of communities previously separating themselves from Rome the interior climate there has changed, how the return to the great, wide and common Church overcame onesided-ness and lessened tensions, so that now they have become positive forces for the whole. Can a community leave us totally indifferent in which there are 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university institutes, 117 brothers, 164 sisters? Should we really calmly leave them to drift away from the Church? I am thinking, for example, of the 491 priests. The plaited fabric of their motivations we cannot know. But I think that they would not have made their decision for the priesthood, if next to some askew or sick elements there had not been there the love of Christ and the will to proclaim Him and with Him the living God. Should we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical marginal group, from the search for reconciliation and unity? What will then be?
Sometimes one has the impression that our society needs at least one group for which there need not be any tolerance; which one can unperturbedly set upon with hatred. And who dared to touch them - in this case the Pope - lost himself the right to tolerance and was allowed without fear and restraint to be treated with hatred, too. All I can say is -- Viva il Papa.
Roger the Dodger... are you listening?
Helmet tip to PreVat2
This is amazing stuff. The letter proper from Pope Benedict to the world's bishops has already been published, and here are some of the more stunning sections. Hold on to your hats. (Emphasis and underlines, mine)
The lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 without a mandate of the Holy See has led, both within and outside the Catholic Church, for a variety of reasons, to a discussion of such vehemence as we had not experienced for a long time.
I myself, in the years after 1988, have experienced how by the return of communities previously separating themselves from Rome the interior climate there has changed, how the return to the great, wide and common Church overcame onesided-ness and lessened tensions, so that now they have become positive forces for the whole. Can a community leave us totally indifferent in which there are 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university institutes, 117 brothers, 164 sisters? Should we really calmly leave them to drift away from the Church? I am thinking, for example, of the 491 priests. The plaited fabric of their motivations we cannot know. But I think that they would not have made their decision for the priesthood, if next to some askew or sick elements there had not been there the love of Christ and the will to proclaim Him and with Him the living God. Should we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical marginal group, from the search for reconciliation and unity? What will then be?
Sometimes one has the impression that our society needs at least one group for which there need not be any tolerance; which one can unperturbedly set upon with hatred. And who dared to touch them - in this case the Pope - lost himself the right to tolerance and was allowed without fear and restraint to be treated with hatred, too.
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
5:21 AM
5 Comments:
+JMJ+
Go get 'em, Holy Father! =D
If Rome is to have ANY semblance of Orthodoxy it needs the SPPX. The Eastern Rites just keep to themselves therefore the SPPX and the other Traditionalist groups are the only ones who can bring any sanity back and push this monstrosity called Novus Ordo out.
So Bp. Williamson is a wing-nut? He's a red-herring.
Sometimes one has the impression that our society needs at least one group for which there need not be any tolerance; which one can unperturbedly set upon with hatred. And who dared to touch them - in this case the Pope - lost himself the right to tolerance and was allowed without fear and restraint to be treated with hatred, too.
Read that and tell me the Holy Father is "out of touch" or "doesn't get it."
Go, Your Holiness, go!
Sometimes I wish the Holy Father would kick some ecclesiastical ass, yet when I read the article I am nonetheless stunned by the holy wisdom of Pope Benedict acting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In a very gentle manner, he has shamed more than a few Catholic bishops.
I'm sure Papa Benedetto won't mind me paraphrasing Scripture a bit to back up what he is saying to all those who preach inclusiveness & tolerance. "They say tolerance, tolereance, when they have no tolerance."
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