Posted on 10/11/2012 4:54:12 PM PDT by markomalley
Pope Benedict urged lapsed and lukewarm Roman Catholics on Thursday to rediscover their faith but acknowledged there are "bad fish" in the Church itself.
The pope made his comments at two large events before thousands of people in St. Peter's Square on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, a far-reaching event in the Church's 2,000-year history.
"Recent decades have seen the advance of a spiritual desertification," he said in his sermon of a morning Mass, opening a worldwide "Year of Faith".
"We see it all around us ... the void has spread," he said.
The mass was attended by hundreds of Roman Catholic bishops as well as representatives of other Christian churches, such as Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The bishops are in Rome for a synod, or conference, at the Vatican aimed at building a strategy to bring lapsed Catholics back to the faith.
IMPROMPTU ADDRESS
Later, on Thursday evening, the pope made an impromptu address from the window of his apartment overlooking the square and made references to the sexual abuse scandal and conflict within the 1.2-billion-member Church.
"In these years, we have seen that there is discord in the vineyard of the Lord, we have seen that in the net of Peter (St Peter, the first apostle) there are bad fish, that human fragility exists even in the Church," he said.
"The ship of the Church is navigating in strong headwinds, in storms that threaten the ship and sometimes we have gone as far as thinking that God is sleeping and he has forgotten us," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Now the question is, what is best done with bad fish?
The three that smell the most rotten are Pelosi, Biden, and Sebelius.
Why hasn’t the Pope thrown out the “bad fish” that are stinking up the U.S....Pelosi, the Kennedys, Biden, etc etc etc? They are an offense to the Catholic church and Christians everywhere.
-— Why hasn’t the Pope thrown out the “bad fish” that are stinking up the U.S....Pelosi, the Kennedys, Biden, etc etc etc? -—
He probably knows who they are, but they fall under the jurisdiction of their local bishop.
Keep in mind that the Vatican has an administrative staff that is smaller than the administrative staff of the University of Notre Dame, but oversees a flock of 1.2 billion.
Did the “bad fish” give the 5,000 indigestion?
Of course there are - in every Church. Wheat and tares grow up together. The Lord will sort it out.
Is the druid one of the bad fish or one of the lapsed Catholics?
What should have been done in the first place: march them out to the curb to the waiting arms of the police. (Re: pedophile priests.)
I left the Catholic church years ago over that exact issue, for that exact reason.
You shouldn’t let the scandal of notorious sinners in the Church cut yourself off from the saving grace of Christ in the sacraments. Please consider coming home.
If you think that the police were “waiting,” then you would be wrong. The clergy was part of the class of citizens who enjoyed immunity. Like the local banker, the priest/pastor caught in a whore house was seldom sent to jail.
If you think that the police were “waiting,” then you would be wrong. The clergy was part of the class of citizens who enjoyed immunity. Like the local banker, the priest/pastor caught in a whore house was seldom sent to jail.
The way I see it, the priest even at a mass is a minister to the entire community of priests -- you and me. The true, High Priest is present at every Eucharist -- Jesus Christ.
Whoever that minister priest it, whether good or bad, his significance is to assist in the celebration led by the High Priest and one-time Sacrifice, Jesus Christ
You assume the Catholic church is the only place to find Christ? Is that right? Let me tell you this: I have a much deeper, more meaningful relationship with my Lord and Savior now than I ever did in the Catholic church. I say that as someone who was baptized as an infant, attended CCD, received my first communion, attended faithfully, and was married in the Catholic church to my soulmate (also a Catholic) by the Priest who knew the both of us while we were in high school and through our courtship.
And you missed my point. The cops—and prosecutors— wanted no part in this. As for the dioceses, they dealt with these guys the way they had dealt with the alcoholics and philanders. Pull them from the parishes, shape them up and re-assign them. Little did they guess that there were enough gays in the church to let them get by with repeated offenses, because what they did was no longer thought of as an offense. Society has changed. The same people who jump all over the pederastic priests, no longer think it awful when their own kids come out. The gays themselves are delighted, because they blame their Church for their former low status in society, and here we have all these priests revealed as hypocrites, and their bishops as incompetent supervisors, or even worse.
If your Catholic faith was less meaningful, then that may explain why you could not stand the shock when its leaders disappointed you. But I don’t understand why you think it couldn’t happen again. My grandmother belonged to a small “Bible Baptist” church in East Texas, which was founded by a bright young preacher. He began to collect money for a new and better church building, and my grandmother donated maybe fifty dollars all told—this was sixty years ago and that was about two months of her income at the time. Then one day he was gone and with the building fund. It happens.
Sorry you feel that way. I don’t know your situation, but I find a lot of lapsed Catholics were not very well catechised to begin with and were never really taught what the Church teaches. My experience is just the opposite from yours. I have never felt closer to Christ than since coming into the Church founded by Christ himself on the basis of the Apostles from Protestantism, which does have substantial elements of Christian truths taught by Our Lord’s revelation, but not all of it. The personal relationship to Christ is very important to me, but we meet him not only in Sacred Scripture but also in keeping close to his sacraments in the Church, especially his real presence in the Eucharist. God bless!
Have you renounced your citizenship and left the United States because of Obama, yet?
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.