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Views on the Synod right now (Catholic Caucus)
WDTPRS ^ | October 18, 2014 | Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted on 10/18/2014 1:18:26 PM PDT by NYer

Another day, another Synod post. Yes, it’ll be over soon. For a while. Then it will fire back up in full fury before next year’s Synod.

Today the bishops are working on the final Relatio. They will use electronic voting during their session. What could go wrong?

Meanwhile, let me throw a few items at you, in no particular order, for your consideration. Some differing perspectives. Listen for the premises.

From Corriere della Sera, my translation:

An imprudent move. This is what the publication of the report following the first week of the Synod was considered: the one that had the openings toward the divorced and remarried and homosexuals. When the Pope saw the texts in L’Osservatore Romano[the Vatican daily] and Avvenire[the Italian Bishops Conference's daily... yes, they have one], the Pope immediately expressed his concern about the impact they would have. A well-founded fear. The impression sent to the bishops and cardinals was that it was not a document to be studied and discussed, but a preview of the outcome of the meeting.

[...]

The Pope saw the texts in L’Osservatore Romano and Avvenire? Really? That’s stretches credulity beyond the breaking point.

A friend of mine in Rome sent me his take on this piece in Corriere, which I share with a little editing:

They [the MSM] are scrambling to blame Baldisseri etc. to preserve His Holiness. And yet the article is not by Vecchi, a vaticanista, but by Massimo Franco, a political analyst of Corriere and a bunch of other liberal organs and institutions, but was for years with Avvenire.

He has published books on the Church and has been pushing the image of Francis finally ending the chasm between the Church and the world. But normally he writes about intricate Italian parliamentary politics and international affairs. If he decided or they asked him to write something about this instead of the run of the mill vaticanista it is because they sense a BIG problem and needed someone who could make phone calls and not just speculate and spin the obvious.

Now, something in the tone of the article makes me wonder if this isn’t also a warning shot, signalling that maybe The Bishop of Rome is not fully in charge and may not be able to steer the Church in the “right” direction after all.

Could this, and not some affirmation of Catholic doctrine, be the possible beginning of the media forsaking him? I don’t know, probably not. But they are wondering. Now they’re seeing that episodes like [The Five Cardinals Book] or Muller voicing opposition to Kasper were not just desperate cries of a kook fringe but in fact representative of a more widespread than expected discomfort with the current state of affairs and the undignified mobster style of running the Curia, of which the Robber Synod was the catalyst.

I am reminded of when the media and church intellectuals revolted against Paul VI and started to return to their evergreen tune: that the problem is not so much of who is the Pope but the institution of the papacy in itself.

[...]

We’ll see. Servi inutiles sumus, but this article proves the good guys scored big the other day and that, with the help of Our Lady, we can succeed more than we believe.

Provocative food for thought.

Meanwhile, there is a statement, in English, from the Synod Fathers at the Vatican website. Some of it is pretty good. HERE

An excerpt:

First, the ordinary Germans are correct. The Catholic Church is Germany’s second-largest employer with 690,000 employees. (That’s 7 times the size of Mercedes Benz, folks.) Bishops take home between $10,000 and $15,000 per MONTH, and they don’t pay for their residence, their cars or their upkeep. You can read all about it here, but suffice to say that the German Catholic Church has been a gravy train for clerics for the last 60 years.

Second, the gravy train is about to come to an end. Fully 140,000 Germans leave the Church every year. Plus, a demographic cliff looms, and the Germans — world masters at corporate planning — can see the end coming very clearly. Estimates vary, but basically in 15-20 years the well will run dry. The old people will die. The young people won’t pay.

Third, the Germans are playing to a German audience. The German Bishops care about what the German media wants. In turn, the German media wants eyeballs — plus they want to see the Church completely de-fanged for the usual ideological reasons.

Fourth, there’s the embarrassment factor. Also — and this is really a very minor point — it is a bit uncomfortable when nosy foreigners and the occasional naive media pundit asks why the richest Church in the world is such an utter failure. If and when this is admitted, it must never be attributed to the thoroughly modern German approach to Catholicism, but should be blamed on Rome at all costs.

Meanwhile, there’s this approach.

The moderation queue is definitely ON!

UPDATE: Beverley DeSoto of Regina Magazine has a take on the German views of the Synod. HERE


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: synod

CATHOLIC CAUCUS

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1 posted on 10/18/2014 1:18:26 PM PDT by NYer
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To: Tax-chick; GregB; Berlin_Freeper; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 10/18/2014 1:18:53 PM PDT by NYer ("You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears." James 4:14)
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To: NYer

Yeah reason is there is church tax when somebody want leave Cathoic church they have pay a tax that what I saw on DW Journal on PBS few years go


3 posted on 10/18/2014 2:04:38 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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To: SevenofNine

HHuh?


4 posted on 10/18/2014 3:45:07 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: NYer
Good Summary. Kasper clearly got caught with his pants down in the NCR interview. Apparently the interviewer was with two other members of the media who Kasper considered friendly and therefore was more frank. But his comments about the Africans will be remembered.

I thought it was interesting that in Pope Francis' speech at the end, the first group he called out were the "traditionalists."

I think he now groups many in the Catholic conservative groups at the same level as SSPX.

5 posted on 10/18/2014 4:13:23 PM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)
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To: SevenofNine

Yeah, my husband (a convert) and I are trying to save up the money to get out of the Catholic Church. Maybe we should start a GoFundMe account. (Can’t believe I have to type this but: /s.)

Please, do your homework before you post on a subject you obviously know nothing about!


6 posted on 10/18/2014 4:38:55 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Be Breitbart, baby. LIFB.)
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To: Prince of Space

I saw it on PBS DW Journal it is EU mouthpiece I think best known in the US as Euro journal this story came around 5 years ago one of hit piece that EU Journal like do on tradiontal catholic teaching


7 posted on 10/18/2014 4:45:39 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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To: SevenofNine

your recollections are bad, you got it backwards. European church taxes are for those who are members of a recognized church. you pay a govt. tax that supports your church. You leave the church no tax. Germans are leaving the Catholic Church in droves and saving on their taxes. Thats why German Cardinals are amongst the vanguard of liberal changes in this synod.

Like the other poster more or less said, if you repeat everything you hear or someone tells you without verifying your are a source of error. Validating something you heard once is just so easy nowadays with the internet. The days of “someone told me” are over and gone.


8 posted on 10/18/2014 7:53:27 PM PDT by RBStealth (--raised by wolves, disciplined and educated by nuns.)
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To: SevenofNine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax


9 posted on 10/19/2014 10:55:33 AM PDT by RBStealth (--raised by wolves, disciplined and educated by nuns.)
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To: RBStealth

WOW thanks that intersesting I didn’t realize that veryyy common in Europe


10 posted on 10/19/2014 1:41:22 PM PDT by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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