Pope: Half-hearted Catholics aren't really Catholics at all

cns ^ | June 5, 2014 | Cindy Wooden

[NYer]

The Church isn’t a rental unit... it’s a home .... Ping!

[dartuser]

But half-hearted Protestants are still Protestants ...

[ConservingFreedom]

those with alternative teachings and doctrines

That group thinks that their critics are excessively and invalidly "rigid." Anybody know where I can find the Pope's complete remarks?

[fwdude]

But half-hearted Protestants are still Protestants ...

I'm not sure who has made that contention here.

[ebb tide]

The second group, those with alternative teachings and doctrines, "has a partial belonging to the church. These, too, have one foot outside the church," he said. "They rent the church," not recognizing that its teaching is based on the preaching of Jesus and the apostolic tradition.

The Pope just described Cardinals Kasper and Maradiaga, two of his top henchmen, to a "T".

Why doesn't he get rid of them?

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

I have heard over the years from some fellow Catholics stuff like...

If you don’t attend Mass said in Latin, it’s not a legitimate Mass....

Or...here’s another one...if receive Holy Communion in your hand (as opposed to the tongue) you’re not really a Catholic.

Then there are some scriptural and theological differences as well. I know some Catholics who believe that Mary was ALWAYS a virgin, even though the Bible clearly states that she was married to Joseph and that Jesus had brothers and sisters.

[OpusatFR]

“But half-hearted Protestants are still Protestants ...”

What does that have to do with Francis’ statement?

[The Iceman Cometh]

But half-hearted Protestants are still Protestants ...

As soon as the Catholic church kicks out apostates like Nancy Pelosi, you can start throwing stones at others. Until then, STFU.

[dartuser]

lol ... i forgot the sarcasm tag ...

[Dick Vomer]

he's correct. I'm a fallen Catholic. I've never been able to come home even though the church from my youth brought me comfort. The hand holding, Glee musical singing from start to finish, the political propaganda and the sheer hypocrisy of sitting on billions of dollars of real estate, bonds and cash but tsk-tsking those that chase gold. puhleeze. I pray that God forgives me and finds me worthy to somehow join him but the RC isn't really anything special to me other than a place where I am familiar with the ceremony but have become disillusioned by what I perceive as the changes in the church and doctrine.

How else can we explain the Kennedy's multiple annulments, Pelosi and the other faux catholics receiving the sacrements and all the infiltration by homosexuals and communists.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Members of the third group "call themselves Christians but don't enter into the heart of the church," they use the church "for personal profit," the pope said. "We have all seen them in parish or diocesan communities and religious congregations; they are some of the benefactors of the church."

This would describe an endless stream of Democrat politicians who continuously make a point out of showing up at Mass, Parish Carnivals and K of C dinners, despite the fact that there's never been an abortion they would not vote for.

[YHAOS]

Pelosi, et al; take note.

BEEP!

[areukiddingme1]

You nailed it!

I actually was unfortunate enough to have sat through a mass where the priest (a visiting priest) basically told everyone there that day back in 2008 that “social justice” trumped “sanctity of life.”

I sat through that mass — But the next time it came up myself and two dozen other parishioners actually got up and left — Along with our check books.

Two things happened after that, that priest was never invited back and collection basket donations went way down until they started talking about protecting the truly vulnerable and innocent amongst us was far more important than social justice. We will only see how long that lasts.

[NYer]

Anybody know where I can find the Pope's complete remarks?

The following is from the Vatican News Service and is as close as you can come since his homilies are all in Italian.

---

2014-06-05 L’Osservatore Romano

“Uniformists, alternativists and advantagists” are three buzz words that Pope Francis coined [in Italian] — “martyring the Italian language a bit” as he himself admitted — in order to describe the 3 types of Christians who create divisions in the Church. The Pope spoke of this in his homily during Holy Mass on Thursday, 5 June, wherein he also reflected upon the day’s reading from the Gospel of John (17:20-26).

With the Gospel as his starting point, the Holy Father paused on the image “of Jesus in prayer: he prays for his disciples; he prays for all those who will be coming, coming to hear the preaching of the Apostles; he prays for the Church. And what does the Lord ask of the Father?”, the Pope asked himself. The response was, “the unity of the Church. That the Church may be one, that there be no divisions, that there be no battles”. For this, he remarked, “the Lord’s prayer is essential, because [creating] unity in the Church isn’t easy ”. He then referred to the “many” who “claim to be in the Church, but have only one foot inside”, while the rest remains “outside”.

“For these folks —explained Pope Francis — the Church isn’t really their home”. This means those people who live like renters — “a little here, a little there”. Actually “there are some groups who rent the Church, but don’t consider her their home.”

Among them, the Bishop of Rome identified 3 precise categories, starting with “those who want everyone to be equals in the Church”: the “uniformists”, whose manner is to “‘uniformize’ everything: everyone as equals”. These people have been present from “the very beginning”, that is, from “when the Holy Spirit willed that the pagans be allowed to enter the Church”, recalled the Pope, referring to the many who demanded that pagans become Hebrews before they could join the Church. This shows that uniformity goes hand in hand with rigidity; and it was not without reason that Pope Francis described these Christians as “rigid”, because “they don’t have the freedom that the Holy Spirit bestows. And they confuse what Jesus preached in the Gospel [with] their doctrine of equality”, although “Jesus never wanted his Church to be rigid.” Therefore, because of their “attitude, they don’t enter the Church. They call themselves Christians, they call themselves Catholics, but their rigid attitude distances them from the Church”.

Regarding the second group, the “alternativists”, the Pope categorized them among those who think, “I’ll enter the Church, but with this idea, with this ideology”. They propose conditions “and their membership in the Church is thereby partial”. They too “have one foot outside the Church; they’re renting the Church” but don’t really experience it; and they too have been present from the very outset of evangelical preaching, as testified by “the agnostics, whom the Apostle John harshly lambasted: ‘We are... yes, yes... we are Catholics, but with these ideas’”. They seek an alternative, because they don’t share the common experience of the Church.

Finally, the third group includes those who “look for advantages”. They “go to Church but for personal advantage, and wind up conducting business in the Church”. These are the Swindlers, who have also been around since the very start — such as Simon the magician, Anania e Saffira, who “took advantage of the Church for their own profit”. Modernizing the discourse, Pope Francis denounced those characters of the type often found “in community or diocesan parishes, and in religious congregations”, disguising themselves as “benefactors of the Church”. We’ve seen many of them, he said, essentially “parading about as benefactors and in the end, under the table, running their scams”. They too, obviously, “don’t believe sense the Church as mother”.

But Christ’s message is quite different: to all these types, the Pontiff continued, Jesus says that “the Church isn’t rigid, it’s free! In the Church there are many charisms, there’s great diversity in people and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says: in the Church you must give your heart to the Gospel, to what the Lord has taught, and never have an alternative for yourself! The Lord tells us: if you want to enter the Church”, do so “for love, to give all, all your heart and not for doing business for your benefit”. Indeed, “the Church is not a house for rent” for all those who “want to do as they please”; on the contrary, “it is a home to live in”.

And to those who object that “it’s not easy”, to keep both feet in the Church, because “there are so many temptations”, the Rome’s bishop recalled that he who “creates unity in the Church, unity in the diversity, in the freedom, in the generosity” which is the Holy Spirit, whose specific “duty” is to actually create “harmony in the Church”. Because “unity in the Church is harmony. Everyone — he added with a joke — we’re different, we’re not equal, thank God”, otherwise “it would be hell!” But “we are all called to be docile to the Holy Spirit”. And this is exactly the virtue that will save us from being rigid, from being “alternativists” and from being “advantagists” or swindlers in the Church: docility to the Holy Spirit, he who “builds the Church”.

And this docility which transforms the Church from a house “for rent” into a house in which everyone feels at home. “I’m at home — explained the Pope — because the Holy Spirit gives me this grace”. He then invited the request during mass for “the grace of unity in the Church: to be brothers and sisters in unity”, feeling “right at home. Unity in the diversity of everyone” but “free diversity”, without imposing conditions. “May the Lord send us the Holy Spirit — was Pope Francis’ closing invocation — and create this harmony in our communities, parishes, dioceses, movements, so that, as said by a father of the Church: “The Spirit, he himself is harmony”.

[irishjuggler]

I have heard over the years from some fellow Catholics stuff like...
If you don’t attend Mass said in Latin, it’s not a legitimate Mass....
Or...here’s another one...if receive Holy Communion in your hand (as opposed to the tongue) you’re not really a Catholic.

And what about the priests, bishops and cardinals (including a few inside the Vatican) who actually suppress the Traditional Latin Mass? There are FAR MORE prelates trying to hinder the Traditional Latin Mass than vice versa. I doubt that there's a single bishop or cardinal who is actively trying to suppress the Novus Ordo (aka Ordinary Form). So who exactly is guilty of demanding uniformity.

Most TLM attendees don't deny the validity of legitimacy of the Novus Ordo (aka Ordinary Form), but they do believe that the TLM (Extraordinary Form) more fully and completely expresses the Catholic faith. Why deny them the right to that opinion?

Finally, I don't believe that even those who oppose Communion in the Hand as an abuse or a sacrilege or otherwise problematic claim that receiving as such somehow makes one 'not really Catholic' (i.e., effectively invalidates one's baptism).

[NYer]

Then there are some scriptural and theological differences as well. I know some Catholics who believe that Mary was ALWAYS a virgin, even though the Bible clearly states that she was married to Joseph and that Jesus had brothers and sisters.

Because neither Hebrew nor Aramaic (the language spoken by Christ and his disciples) had a special word meaning "cousin," speakers of those languages could use either the word for "brother" or a circumlocution, such as "the son of my uncle." But circumlocutions are clumsy, so the Jews often used "brother." These “brothers” are never once called the children of Mary, although Jesus himself is (John 2:1; Acts 1:14).

Mary was and remained a virgin. See the Protoevangelium of James.

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

As a person who regularly attends Mass in the vernacular, I have no objection to those who attend Mass said in Latin.

As a person who regularly receives Holy Communion in the hand, I have no objection to those who receive it on the tongue.

[oh8eleven]

Half-hearted Catholics aren't really Catholics at all.
Does that include the pro-abortion "Catholics" like the divorced Andy Cuomo, Nancy Pelosi, etc?
Waiting for the public excommunications, still waiting ...

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

By this logic we could claim that Aaron was not really Moses’s brother, he was a cousin. Same with Cain and Abel.