Posted on 03/03/2013 10:30:28 AM PST by NYer
.- An American cardinal said Sunday that the Catholic Church is undergoing a lot of changes.
“The Church is in the business of change big time,” Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said at St. Peter’s Basilica during a Mass he celebrated for U.S. journalists at 10:30 a.m. local time.
He said that many journalists had been asking him if he believed the new pontiff would make changes within the Church.
“Jesus calls us first and foremost not to change structures, but to let God change us inside,” he said at the Basilica’s catacombs in the Hungarian Chapel.
The 63-year-old cardinal said he himself needs the changes of “conversion, repentance and spiritual renewal” to better reflect “the heart of the Gospel.”
“What we’re doing right now is what makes the Church live and it’s more important than electing a Pope,” said Cardinal Dolan during his homily. “It’s a lot more important for the lives of the hundreds of millions of Catholics who went to Sunday Mass this morning.”
Cardinal Dolan said it is Mass that helps Catholics understand “the very nature of the papacy.”
“Saint Paul says ‘I hand down to you what I myself have received’,” he said. “That is the very nature of the papacy, to hand on faithfully what God told Jesus, what Jesus told his apostles and what his apostles hand on to us traditionally.”
Turning to the day's Gospel reading, the cardinal explained that the people of the time were trying to understand what God was telling them when they had tragedies.
“They were trying to figure it out just like we try to figure out tragedies, sickness and suffering in our life,” said the prince of the Church.
Jesus, he said, “brings us back to the basics" by stressing the need for repentance and the need to hear everyone.
“Don’t always try to figure out God’s will all the time, but try to figure out what God is asking you to do inside,” he advised.
“It is a call to renew your life, to repentance of heart and to conversion of soul.”
No way will an American Cardinal be named Pope.
No, I don’t think so. Join us in prayer to the Holy Spirit.
But God is not.
I agree with that, especially the “conversing about God” part. Instead of us all worshipping God together, the priest becomes the center of attention.
Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, said that this was the worst post-conciliatory mistake, or something to that effect.
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With all due respect I doubt you are asking me to define it for others. I suspect your motivation lies in hopefully exposing my ignorance and therefore discrediting my hypothesis. I can assure you I am quite familiar with papal infallibility and knowingly used the term outside of its strict Catholic definition. It was used to highlight the potential severity of the problem of a Pope advocating positions that are anathema to God and the RCC. IMO that is what is coming. The reverence/deference that is given to the man that holds the office will be a huge problem in countering such a travesty.
In focusing on an error in terminology, I think you (and others) make a distinction without a difference. It is sophistry, on the order of “ it depends on what the definition of is is. “ The hierarchy of the Church combined with two thousand years of tradition and habit make the Pope “infallible” in all things, not just when he is speaking on doctrine of faith or morals. They do not have to claim it infallible for it to be seen as so. When that happens, it will be a horrific situation for devout Catholics.
There seems to be a problem with understanding exactly what ‘papal infallibility’ actually entails. Every utterance of the Pope is not infallible. The decisions that are considered ‘infallible’ are not made by the Pope alone, but along with the Magesterium, which includes all the Bishops in the world, and only after much prayer and thought.
Oh my goodness, I certainly hope not.
I'd also humbly advise him to refrain from attacking the 2nd Amendment (in unison with that other guy in the picture above) while he is actively seeking increasing broad-based support for the preservation of the 1st Amendment.
And, I'd further recommend he stay clear of showing any support for any inconsequential variations of Harry Reid's "Dream Act" for excessively rewarding illegal immigrants, citing these two important Catholic sources:
"Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants' duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens." Catechism of the Catholic Church - Paragraph 2241
"At the same time, States have the right to regulate migration flows and to defend their own frontiers, always guaranteeing the respect due to the dignity of each and every human person. Immigrants, moreover, have the duty to integrate into the host Country, respecting its laws and its national identity. 'The challenge is to combine the welcome due to every human being, especially when in need, with a reckoning of what is necessary for both the local inhabitants and the new arrivals to live a dignified and peaceful life'" MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 97th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2011) - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
I posed the question based on your statement: "This is one of the greatest problems with papal infallibility." You acknowledge that you understand the terminology but chose to expand its use outside its proper definition. In all fairness, you should have stated so in your original comment and supplied your definition of papal infallibility.
As for the possibility that a pope might issue a doctrine on faith or morals that is anathema to God and the Catholic Church (which is comprised of 22 churches, not just the Latin Church), in its 2000 year history, not one pope has ever erred on such pronouncements. Perhaps one of the best examples of this in recent history is Pope Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae Vitae. In it, he predicted that marriages and society would suffer if the use of contraception became widespread. 50 years later, we can look back and see how those 4 predictions played out:
HAVE HUMANAE VITAE'S BOLD PREDICTIONS COME TRUE?
As Catholics, we trust in our Lord's promise that "the gates of hell will not prevail" against His Church. You should, too.
Right. Formerly, we saw the back of the priest and where there was no sermon, you barely saw his face. Of course, I liked the dialogue mass where the congregation was in effect the choir.
Indeed. And where the pope declares a teaching to be dogma. he is simply saying that it is a fundamental teaching, one that consistent with the most basic doctrines of the Church. This is like it used to be with, say, English law, where the king and Parliament did not “make” law but declared one. Declaring that a certain rule has existed from time immemorial and was now being codified. Nowadays, our legislatures make up rules right and left with little thought of how it will fit into the existing system of laws. The Church and pope are infallible because they are just passing on what they have received.
Indeed. And where the pope declares a teaching to be dogma. he is simply saying that it is a fundamental teaching, one that consistent with the most basic doctrines of the Church. This is like it used to be with, say, English law, where the king and Parliament did not “make” law but declared one. Declaring that a certain rule has existed from time immemorial and was now being codified. Nowadays, our legislatures make up rules right and left with little thought of how it will fit into the existing system of laws. The Church and pope are infallible because they are just passing on what they have received.
Humanae Vitae was not an infallible statement but an explication of Catholic doctrine based on the fundamental teaching of the Church on matrimony. What contraception does is to rupture, or threaten to rupture, the marital bond. The way that a couple comes closest to being of one flesh is when they have a child. After all, the blood of each, so to speak, flows in his/her veins. Now modern science has shown that father and mother contribute equally to a child’s physical make-up.
Right. Let’s continue liberalizing the rubrics based on pre-school notions like “you need to see his face”.
Actually, the Mass is not intended to be like a five year old’s birthday party, Little Robby.
Did I say we needed to see his face? However, in a large church, a high mass had some of the aspects of a theatrical production, with the congregation as mere audience. If the music was up to that standard, it could have a great effect. Jacques Maritain was converted at a midnight mass he just happened to attend. On the other land, it could be like the concert like quality of many a mega church.
I could swear I heard this morning that the U.S. Bishops were going to consecrate the country to the Immaculate Conception.
If true, this is great news indeed!!
I could swear I heard this morning that the U.S. Bishops were going to consecrate the country to the Immaculate Conception.
If true, this is great news indeed!!
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