AM+DG

The English Denzinger site (which was run by (20) priests, and which (strangely??) has not been active for a few years, was invaluable and priceless in terms of comparing everything Francis claimed to what authentic Church Teaching says.

The following is an example of one article I had saved. It is very long, so I will post just a few bits every day. The following continues from yesterday’s post.

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Benedict XVI…

…judges Francis’ idea on proclaiming the Gospel only with gentleness

• It is our mission to proclaim the whole of God’s will, in its totality and ultimate simplicity – even when inconvenient

This is important; the Apostle did not preach an ‘à la carte’ Christianity to suit his own inclinations, he did not preach a Gospel to suit his own favourite theological ideas; he did not shrink from the commitment to proclaiming the whole of God’s will, even an inconvenient will and even topics of which he was personally not so enamoured. It is our mission to proclaim the whole of God’s will, in its totality and ultimate simplicity. But it is important that we teach and preach, as St Paul says here, and really propose the will of God in its entirety. (Benedict XVI. Lectio Divina given at the meeting with the parish priests of the Rome diocese, March 10, 2011)

• Christian admonishment is always moved by love and mercy

I am thinking of all those Christians who, out of human regard or purely personal convenience, adapt to the prevailing mentality, rather than warning their brothers and sisters against ways of thinking and acting that are contrary to the truth and that do not follow the path of goodness. Christian admonishment, for its part, is never motivated by a spirit of accusation or recrimination. It is always moved by love and mercy, and springs from genuine concern for the good of the other. (Benedict XVI. Message for lent, 2012, no. 1, November 3, 2011)

…judges Francis’ idea on proclaiming the Gospel

• The hermeneutic of discontinuity: a split between the pre-conciliar and the post-conciliar Church. This is to fundamentally misunderstand what a Council is

What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done? […] The question arises: Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult? Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or – as we would say today – on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarreled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit. On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call ‘a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture’; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the ‘hermeneutic of reform’, of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God. The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. […] The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. (Benedict XVI. Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005)

• We must see the Council in this perspective of continuity

This point is also important with regard to the Council. We need not, as I said to the Roman Curia before Christmas, live the hermeneutic of discontinuity, but rather the hermeneutic of renewal, which is the spirituality of continuity, of going ahead in continuity. […] We must accept newness but also love continuity, and we must see the Council in this perspective of continuity. (Benedict XVI. Address to the members of the Roman clergy, March 2, 2006)

• The Church, both before and after the Council, was and is the same Church

The Church, both before and after the Council, was and is the same Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, journeying on through time; she continues ‘her pilgrimage amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God’, proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes (cf. Lumen Gentium, no. 8). (Benedict XVI. Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005)

• Proclaim the Gospel without fear or reticence, never yielding to the conditioning of the world

The truth about Gospel love concerns every person and the whole person, and involves the Pastor in proclaiming it without fear or reticence, and never yielding to the conditioning of the world in season and out of season (cf. 2Tim 4:2). Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, in a time such as our own, marked by the growing phenomenon of globalization, it is ever more necessary to make the truth about Christ and his Gospel of salvation reach everyone. (Benedict XVI. Address to the members of the 11th Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, June 1, 2006)

• The Church of love is also the Church of truth and fidelity to the Gospel

The Church of love is also the Church of truth, understood primarily as fidelity to the Gospel entrusted by the Lord Jesus to his followers. It was being made children of the same Father by the Spirit of truth that gave rise to Christian brotherhood: ‘For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God’ (Rom 8:14). However, if the family of God’s children is to live in unity and peace, it needs someone to keep it in the truth and guide it with wise and authoritative discernment: this is what the ministry of the Apostles is required to do. (Benedict XVI. General audience, April 5, 2006)

…judges Francis’ idea on new forms of poverty

• …but there are those who have totally destroyed their desire for truth

There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in certain figures of our own history. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell. (Benedict XVI. Encyclical Spe salvi, no. 45, November 30, 2007)

• It is not enough to care for the body, we must adorn the soul with the divine gifts acquired through Baptism

Through treatment, which includes medical, psychological and educational assistance, and through much prayer, manual work and discipline, many people – especially young people –have already succeeded in freeing themselves from alcohol and drug dependency, thereby recovering meaning in their lives. I wish to express my appreciation for this work, which has the charism of Saint Francis and the spirituality of the Focolare Movement as its spiritual foundation. Reintegration in society undoubtedly demonstrates the effectiveness of your initiative. Yet it is the conversions, the rediscovery of God and active participation in the life of the Church which attract even greater attention and which confirm the importance of your work. It is not enough to care for the body, we must adorn the soul with the most precious divine gifts acquired through Baptism. Let us thank God for all those who have set out along the path of renewed hope, with the help of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the celebration of the Eucharist. (Benedict XVI. Address to the Community of Fazenda da Esperança, no. 4, May 25, 2007)

• The Church’s charitable activity is not just another form of social assistance

For this reason, it is very important that the Church’s charitable activity maintains all of its splendour and does not become just another form of social assistance. (Benedict XVI. Encyclical Deus caritas est, no. 31, December 25, 2005)

…judges Francis’ idea on the ‘Bread of Life’

• In the Eucharist Jesus offers his own body and pours out his own blood

In the Eucharist Jesus does not give us a ‘thing,’ but himself; he offers his own body and pours out his own blood. He thus gives us the totality of his life and reveals the ultimate origin of this love. He is the eternal Son, given to us by the Father. In the Gospel we hear how Jesus, after feeding the crowds by multiplying the loaves and fishes, says to those who had followed him to the synagogue of Capernaum: ‘My Father gives you the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world’ (Jn 6:32-33), and even identifies himself, his own flesh and blood, with that bread: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh’ (Jn 6:51). Jesus thus shows that he is the bread of life which the eternal Father gives to mankind. (Benedict XVI. Apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, no. 7, February 22, 2007)

• By receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ we become sharers in the divine life in a more conscious way

The Lord Jesus, who became for us the food of truth and love, speaks of the gift of his life and assures us that ‘if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever’ (Jn 6:51). This ‘eternal life’ begins in us even now, thanks to the transformation effected in us by the gift of the Eucharist: ‘He who eats me will live because of me’ (Jn 6:57). These words of Jesus make us realize how the mystery ‘believed’ and ‘celebrated’ contains an innate power making it the principle of new life within us and the form of our Christian existence. By receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ we become sharers in the divine life in an ever more adult and conscious way. Here too, we can apply Saint Augustine’s words, in his Confessions, about the eternal Logos as the food of our souls. Stressing the mysterious nature of this food, Augustine imagines the Lord saying to him: ‘I am the food of grown men; grow, and you shall feed upon me; nor shall you change me, like the food of your flesh, into yourself, but you shall be changed into me’ (VII, 10, 16: PL 32, 742). It is not the eucharistic food that is changed into us, but rather we who are mysteriously transformed by it. Christ nourishes us by uniting us to himself; ‘he draws us into himself’. (Benedict XVI, Homily at Marienfeld Esplanade, 21 August 2005 (Benedict XVI. Apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, no. 70, February 22, 2007)

• With the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus announces the Eucharistic Bread

Afterwards, the people, seeing this miracle [the multiplication of the loaves], that seemed to be the much-awaited renewal of a new ‘manna’, of the gift of bread from heaven, wanted to make him king. But Jesus does not accept and withdraws into the hills by himself to pray. The following day, on the other side of the lake in the Synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus explained the miracle – not in the sense of a kingship over Israel with a worldly power in the way the crowds hoped, but in the sense of the gift of self: ‘The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh’ (Jn 6: 51). Jesus announces the Cross and with the Cross the true multiplication of the loaves, the Eucharistic bread – his absolutely new way of kingship, a way completely contrary to the expectations of the people. (Benedict XVI. General audience, May 24, 2006)

• The Eucharist is nourishment for the soul

Let us give thanks to God for the gift of bread; for the Eucharist, nourishment of the soul, as well as for our daily bread, nourishment for the body. May God bless the harvest of this year and all of those working for it. (Benedict XVI. General audience, greeting to the Polish pilgrims, August 19, 2009)