Posted on 10/25/2009 7:06:58 AM PDT by La Lydia
...In less than five years Pope Benedict has shown himself to be quietly yet deliberately engaged in reshaping Catholicism. Even more surprising are the remarkably liberal means he has used to achieve his ends -- means that could lead to places the pontiff may not intend to go.
A case in point is last week's stunning announcement...that the pope is creating a novel "church within a church" so that Anglicans can join with Catholics without giving up their rites and traditions...
In another development last week, one that drew far less notice but could have a profound impact, the Vatican opened a dialogue with the leadership of a traditionalist, right-wing sect that split with Rome in 1988 over what its members saw as dangerous and even heretical trends resulting from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s...
Many observers say a rapprochement could require Benedict to make compromises on some of those issues, which could further encourage a critical reinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council...
In 1988, under the direction of then-Cardinal Ratzinger, the Vatican had already created a special provision to allow the schismatic group (called Lefebvrists after their late leader, rebel Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre) to continue to use the old Latin Mass and other pre-Vatican II rites if they would stay connected to Rome in some fashion...That created, for the first time in Catholic history, two parallel rites in the Western church...Now, with the new provision for Anglicans, there could be three versions of the Mass for different constituencies. As Reese says, "Once we have three versions, it is more difficult to argue against more."...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Pope Benedict is not a liberal but a true man of faith who shows the love of Christ for his brothers and sisters in the Lord and recognizes the fact that Christians need to be united as Christ commanded.
As usual, the reporter is clueless.
The same charge was given to Pope John XXIII when he formed the Vatican II council that effectively changed the way masses were said worldwide.
Even today, you still have a minority of Catholics who refuse to embrace the changes made by Pope John XXIII.
Charges like these aren’t new.
The invitation that he extended to the C of Es was to rescue them from liberalism.
Why do liberals (like those who write for the Washington Post) feel compelled to attach labels to people? It seems they can’t handle independent thought that doesn’t fit into any convenient, mind-reassuring box, whose boundaries have been set by themselves.
More important, with the latest accommodation to Anglicans, Benedict has signaled that the standards for what it means to be Catholic -- such as the belief in the real presence of Christ in the Mass as celebrated by a validly ordained priest -- are changing or, some might argue, falling. The Vatican is in effect saying that disagreements over gay priests and female bishops are the main issues dividing Catholics and Anglicans, rather than, say, the sacraments and the papacy and infallible dogmas on the Virgin Mary, to name just a few past points of contention.
That is revolutionary -- and unexpected from a pope like Benedict. It could encourage the view, which he and other conservatives say they reject, that all Christians are pretty much the same when it comes to beliefs, and the differences are just arguments over details.
And that could be the final irony. For all the hue and cry over last week's developments, Benedict's innovations may have glossed too lightly over the really tough issues: namely, the theological differences that traditional Anglicans say have kept them from converting, as they could always do.
The author is full of it here, as well.
Bingo. You hit the nail on the head. The guy who wrote this is so blinded by his own liberalism that he is unable to recognize anything else. He probably thinks potato salad is liberal and could write a 600-word essay to prove it.
He really doesn’t get it. At all. I wonder if the guy isn’t an atheist.
The next Obama target..
If it comes down to a contest between BO and the Holy Father, I am betting on Pope Benedict. Bring it on.
I wonder if the writer is not a friend of “bishop” GEne Robinson. Wa Po would rather see the Anglicans become another gay church lead by Islam embracer and half wit Rowan Williams.
- The Anglicans that cannot accept Catholic teachings, full and complete, are not being brought into the Church under this provision. The TAC and others involved here have already assented to Catholic doctrine.
- Mass in the Extraordinary Form as was made widely available by the Pope had that prayer in it already - it was the one that John XXIII had placed in the Missal in 1960 (to replace the one that used the word which translates to "perfidious" in reference to the Jews)
Most importantly, the liturgical opinion of Fr. Reese (who should not be quoted by any publication that professes to be unbiased), is completely off. In the West, there is currently permission for the use of several rites/uses in addition to the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Latin Rite (though many are geographically restricted):
Anglican Use (US), Rite of Braga (Portugal), Ambrosian Rite (Milan - OF and EF), Dominican - and these are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head; I know several other religious orders have their own rites, but I can't recall which ones offhand.
This is not going to open up the Do-Whatever-You-Darn-Well-Please Liturgies again like ran rampant in the early days after the Council. The Pope might be a liberal, but only in the classical sense.
Or worse...he may be a liberal "Catholic" -- see here or here for examples
Please. Don’t ruin my breakfast. I deal with those folks on a weekly basis.
Seriously, if you take abortion and the homosexual agenda off the table, they have a lot in common. Sadly, you can't take those things off the table, and those are BIG things taking up much of the table.
(*)not exactly, but you know what I mean.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
NO
What do you mean “closet”?
It is interesting the guy can’t even discuss the Pope without using gay references.
The next minute he's a liberal.
So goes the blather in the secular press where heroes become villains and vice versa depending on the whims of the copywriter.
This writer simply misunderstands everything. What’s liberal about inviting the Anglicans who reject the heresies of their “tradition” (he calls it that rather than “church”) to leave them behind and come to orthodoxy?
All of the Anglican clergy who come in will have to be ordained, after of course formally accepting Catholic doctrine on Transubtantion; they’re not being allowed to bring their errors with them, contrary to the author’s wishful thinking. I suspect, in fact, that there will be some of them who won’t want to take the final step and believe as the Church believes.
Exactly. But of course not many know what a classical liberal is. Least of all an under-educated journalist writing articles full of misconceptions and errors.
That's an incredibly ignorant statement. I mean it's like multi-tiered ignorance with frosting and a little plastic bride and groom of ignorance on top.
Mozarabic Rite, Gallican Rite, Sarum Use, York Use, Ambrosian Rite, Carthusian Rite, Tridentine Rite, Novus Ordo (do I need to keep going?)
The guy is clueless, what can I say? And he’s writing for the Washington Post, what can I say? Is your screen name taken from the detective, the poet or the saint?
The saint!
**Is Pope Benedict a closet liberal?**
They have to be kidding. No way!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.