Tag: a Eucharistic Faith

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 absolute truth

• Love, caritas, originates in Absolute Truth

Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. (Benedict XVI. Encyclical, Caritatis in Veritate, June 29, 2009)

…judges Francis’ idea on new customs among today’s youth

• Jesus’ mercy was not expressed by putting moral law in parentheses – mercy does not change the nature of sin and demands correspondence

To avoid any misunderstanding, it should be noted that Jesus’ mercy was not expressed by putting moral law in parentheses. For Jesus, good is good and evil is evil. Mercy does not change the connotations of sin but consumes it in a fire of love. This purifying and healing effect is achieved if within the person there is a corresponding love which implies recognition of God’s law, sincere repentance and the resolution to start a new life. The sinful woman in the Gospel was pardoned greatly because she loved greatly. In Jesus, God comes to give love to us and to ask love of us. (Benedict XVI. Eucharist Concelebration at the Lower Square of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, June 17, 2007)

…judges Francis’ idea on God

• The plenitude of Revelation is found in Jesus Christ – There is no other Word of God

In all of this, the Church gives voice to her awareness that with Jesus Christ she stands before the definitive word of God: he is ‘the first and the last’ (Rev 1:17). He has given creation and history their definitive meaning; and hence we are called to live in time and in God’s creation within this eschatological rhythm of the word; ‘thus the Christian dispensation, since it is the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (cf. 1Tim 6:14; Tit 2:13) (Dei Verbum, 4). Indeed, as the Fathers noted during the Synod, the ‘uniqueness of Christianity is manifested in the event which is Jesus Christ, the culmination of revelation, the fulfilment of God’s promises and the mediator of the encounter between man and God. He who ‘has made God known’ (Jn 1:18) is the one, definitive word given to mankind’ (Prop. 4). Saint John of the Cross expresses this truth magnificently: ‘Since he has given us his Son, his only word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything at once in this sole word – and he has no more to say… because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has spoken all at once by giving us this All who is his Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty’ (St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22). (Benedict XVI. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church Verbum Domini, September 30, 2010)

…judges Francis’ idea on First Holy Communion

• The Church’s faith is essentially a Eucharistic faith

The mystery of faith! With these words, spoken immediately after the words of consecration, the priest proclaims the mystery being celebrated and expresses his wonder before the substantial change of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, a reality which surpasses all human understanding. The Eucharist is a ‘mystery of faith’ par excellence: ‘the sum and summary of our faith’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1327) The Church’s faith is essentially a Eucharistic faith, and it is especially nourished at the table of the Eucharist. […] For this reason, the Sacrament of the Altar is always at the heart of the Church’s life: ‘thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is reborn ever anew!’ (Benedict XVI, Homily at the Mass of Installation in the Cathedral of Rome – 7 May 2005): AAS 97 (2005): 752). The more lively the eucharistic faith of the People of God, the deeper is its sharing in ecclesial life in steadfast commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to his disciples. (Benedict XVI. Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, no.6, February 22, 2007)

• Christ comes to meet men and women, and becomes their food

In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us, men and women created in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27), and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free (cf. Jn 8:32), Christ becomes for us the food of truth. (Benedict XVI. Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, no.2, February 22, 2007)

• The Eucharist is at the root of the Church as a mystery of communion

This is why Christian antiquity used the same words, Corpus Christi, to designate Christ’s body born of the Virgin Mary, his Eucharistic body and his ecclesial body. This clear datum of the tradition helps us to appreciate the inseparability of Christ and the Church. The Lord Jesus, by offering himself in sacrifice for us, in his gift effectively pointed to the mystery of the Church. It is significant that the Second Eucharistic Prayer, invoking the Paraclete, formulates its prayer for the unity of the Church as follows: ‘may all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.’ These words help us to see clearly how the res of the sacrament of the Eucharist is the unity of the faithful within ecclesial communion. The Eucharist is thus found at the root of the Church as a mystery of communion (cf. STh, III, 80, 4). (Benedict XVI. Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, no. 15, February 22, 2007)

…judges Francis’ idea on God’s presence in a sinner’s life

• There are people who have totally destroyed their possibility of being with God

There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people n 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)

…judges Francis’ idea on the harmony of all christian faiths

• The unity operated by the Spirit is visibly manifest in the profession of the faith in its entirety

It is the Holy Spirit, the principle of unity, which establishes the Church as a communion (cf. LG, 13).  He is the principle of the unity of the faithful in the teaching of the Apostles, in the breaking of the bread and in prayer (cf. ibid; Acts 2:42). The Church, however, analogous to the mystery of the Incarnate Word, is not only an invisible spiritual communion, but is also visible (cf. LG 8; Communionis notio, 4); in fact, ‘the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality formed from a two-fold element, human and divine’ (LG, 8). The communion of the baptized in the teaching of the Apostles and in the breaking of the eucharistic bread is visibly manifested in the bonds of the profession of the faith in its entirety, of the celebration of all of the sacraments instituted by Christ, and of the governance of the College of Bishops united with its head, the Roman Pontiff. (Benedict XVI. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, November 4, 2009)

…judges Francis’ idea on selling off churches to feed the poor

• Gestures of authentic devotion to Christ benefit the entire Church

Mary’s gesture is the expression of great faith and love for the Lord; it is not enough for her to wash the Teacher’s feet with water; she sprinkles on them a great quantity of the precious perfume which as Judas protested it would have been possible to sell for 300 denarii. She did not anoint his head, as was the custom, but his feet: Mary offers Jesus the most precious thing she has and with a gesture of deep devotion. Love does not calculate, does not measure, does not worry about expense, does not set up barriers but can give joyfully; it seeks only the good of the other, surmounts meanness, pettiness, resentment and the narrow-mindedness that human beings sometimes harbour in their hearts. Mary stood at the feet of Jesus in a humble attitude of service, the same attitude that the Teacher himself was to assume at the Last Supper, when, the fourth Gospel tells us, he ‘rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet’ (Jn 13: 4-5), so that, he said, ‘you also should do as I have done to you’ (v. 15): the rule of the community of Jesus is that of love which knows how to serve to the point of offering one’s life. And the scent spread: ‘the house’ the Evangelist remarks, ‘was filled with the fragrance of the ointment’ (Jn 12: 3). The meaning of Mary’s action, which is a response to God’s infinite Love, spreads among all the guests; no gesture of charity and authentic devotion to Christ remains a personal event or concerns solely the relationship between the individual and the Lord. Rather, it concerns the whole Body of the Church, it is contagious: it instills love, joy and light. (Benedict XVI. Eucharistic Celebration on the fifth anniversary of the death of John Paul II, March 29, 2010)

• To be preserved from perversion of heart it is necessary to assume Jesus’ point of view

In effect, the possibilities to pervert the human heart are truly many. The only way to prevent it consists in not cultivating an individualistic, autonomous vision of things, but on the contrary, by putting oneself always on the side of Jesus, assuming his point of view. We must daily seek to build full communion with him. (Benedict XVI. General Audience, October 18, 2006)

• In the Church, charity is not a kind of social assistance

The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being. (Benedict XVI. Encyclical Deus caritas est, no. 25, December 25, 2005)

• Charity involves spiritual actions accomplished in the light of the Holy Spirit

Charity and justice are not only social but also spiritual actions, accomplished in the light of the Holy Spirit. We can thus say that the Apostles confronted this situation with great responsibility. They took the following decision: seven men were chosen; the Apostles prayed the Holy Spirit to grant them strength and then laid their hands on the seven so that they might dedicate themselves in a special way to this ministry of charity. Thus in the life of the Church, the first steps she took, in a certain way, reflected what had happened in Jesus’ public life at Martha and Mary’s house in Bethany. Martha was completely taken up with the service of hospitality to offer to Jesus and his disciples; Mary, on the contrary, devoted herself to listening to the Lord’s word (cf. Lk 10:38-42). In neither case were the moments of prayer and of listening to God, and daily activity, the exercise of charity in opposition. Jesus’ reminder, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her’ (Lk 10:41-42) and, likewise, the Apostles’ reflection: ‘We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word’ (Acts 6:4), show the priority we must give to God. […] In any case activity undertaken to help one’s neighbor, ‘the other’, is not to be condemned, but it is essential to stress the need for it to be imbued also with the spirit of contemplation. (Benedict XVI. General Audience, April 25, 2012)

…judges Francis’ relations with  ‘ordained’ women of the christian churches

• Ecumenical dialogue must not lead to indifferentism and false irenism

The coherence of the ecumenical endeavour with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and with the entire Tradition, has been one of the areas to which the Congregation has always paid attention, in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Today we can note the many good fruit yielded by ecumenical dialogue. However, we must also recognize that the risk of a false irenism and of indifferentism – totally foreign to the thinking of the Second Vatican Council – demands our vigilance. This indifferentism is caused by the increasingly widespread opinion that truth is not accessible to man; hence it is necessary to limit oneself to finding rules for a praxis that can better the world. And like this, faith becomes substituted by a moralism without deep foundations. The centre of true ecumenism is, on the contrary, the faith in which the human being finds the truth which is revealed in the Word of God. Without faith the entire ecumenical movement would be reduced to a form of ‘social contract’ to which to adhere out of common interest, a ‘praxeology’, in order to create a better world. The logic of the Second Vatican Council is quite different: the sincere search for the full unity of all Christians is a dynamic inspired by the Word of God, by the divine Truth who speaks to us in this word. The crucial problem which marks ecumenical dialogue transversally is therefore the question of the structure of revelation – the relationship between Sacred Scripture, the living Tradition in Holy Church and the Ministry of the Successors of the Apostles as a witness of true faith. And in this case the problem of ecclesiology which is part of this problem is implicit: how God’s truth reaches us. Fundamental here is the discernment between Tradition with a capital ‘T’ and traditions. (Benedict XVI. Address to participants in the Plenary Meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, January 27, 2012)

…judges Francis’ idea on responsible parenthood

• Example of generosity and confidence in God

I wish to express my closeness and to assure my prayers for all the families that bear witness to fidelity in especially difficult circumstances. I encourage large families who, at times living in the midst of setbacks and misunderstandings, set an example of generosity and trust in God, in the hope that they will not lack the assistance they need. (Benedict XVI. Address by Videoconference at the conclusion of the Mass closing the sixth World Day of Families held in Mexico City, January 18, 2009)

• Beautiful to listen to couples about their large families – the problem of Europe penetrated my soul

The visit to Valencia, Spain was under the banner of the theme of marriage and the family. It was beautiful to listen, before the people assembled from all continents, to the testimonies of couples – blessed by a numerous throng of children – who introduced themselves to us and spoke of their respective journeys in the Sacrament of Marriage and in their large families. They did not hide the fact that they have also had difficult days, that they have had to pass through periods of crisis. Yet, precisely through the effort of supporting one another day by day, precisely through accepting one another ever anew in the crucible of daily trials, living and suffering to the full their initial ‘yes’, precisely on this Gospel path of ‘losing oneself, they had matured, rediscovered themselves and become happy. Their ‘yes’ to one another in the patience of the journey and in the strength of the Sacrament with which Christ had bound them together, had become a great ‘yes’ to themselves, their children, to God the Creator and to the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Thus, from the witness of these families a wave of joy reached us, not a superficial and scant gaiety that is all too soon dispelled, but a joy that developed also in suffering, a joy that reaches down to the depths and truly redeems man. Before these families with their children, before these families in which the generations hold hands and the future is present, the problem of Europe, which it seems no longer wants to have children, penetrated my soul. (Benedict XVI. Address to the members of the Roman Curia at the traditional exchange of Christmas Greetings, December 22, 2006)

…judges Francis’ idea on the obedience of a Religious

• Admonishing sinners is an act of mercy

The Church’s tradition has included ‘admonishing sinners’ among the spiritual works of mercy. It is important to recover this dimension of Christian charity. We must not remain silent before evil. 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. (Benedict XVI. Message for Lent 2012, November 3, 2011)

…judges Francis’ idea on all being saved

• ‘God will be kind to us all’: a beautiful hope, but murderers cannot suddenly sit down at God’s table together with their victims

As the great Marxist Adorno said, only the resurrection of the body, which he claimed as unreal, would be able to create justice. We believe in this resurrection of the body in which not all will be equal. Today people have become used to thinking: what is sin? God is great, he knows us, so sin does not count; in the end God will be kind to us all. It is a beautiful hope. But both justice and true guilt exist. Those who have destroyed man and the earth cannot suddenly sit down at God’s table together with their victims. God creates justice. (Benedict XVI. Meeting with the Parish Priests and the Clergy of the Diocese of Rome, February 7, 2008)

…judges Francis’ idea on the teaching of moral issues

• The responsibility of constantly proclaiming non-negotiable values

Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one’s children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms (Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium Vitae: AAS 87(1995),401-522; Benedict XVI, Address to the Pontifical Academy for Life – 27 February 2006: AAS 98(2006), 264-265). These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature (Cf. Cong. for the Doct.of the Faith, Doctrinal note on questions regarding participation of Catholics in political life: AAS 96(2004),359-370). There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1Cor 11:27-29). Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them (cf. Propositio 46). (Benedict XVI. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, no. 83, February 22, 2007)

…judges Francis’ idea on Catholic Education to the Youth

• Integral education cannot omit religious teaching

The above-mentioned religious indifferentism and the easy temptation of lax morals, as well as the ignorance of the Christian tradition with its rich spiritual patrimony, exert a powerful influence on the new generations. Young people have the right, from the beginning of the process of their formation, to be educated in faith and sound morals. For this reason, the integral education of the youngest cannot omit religious teaching at school as well. A solid religious formation will also serve as an effective shield against the advance of sects or other religious groups widespread today. (Benedict XVI. Address to members of the Bishops’ Conference of Puerto Rico on the ad limina visit, June 30, 2007)

• Religious teaching may not be reduced to a generic sociology of religions

And the teaching in question cannot be reduced to a generic sociology of religions, because there is no such thing as generic, non-denominational religion. Thus, not only does denominational religious teaching in state schools do no damage to the secularism of the State, but in addition it guarantees the right of their parents to choose the education for their children, thereby contributing to promote the common good. (Benedict XVI. Address to the new ambassador of Brazil to the Holy See, 31 October, 2011)

• Religious teaching is a necessary value for the person’s integral formation.

Among these areas of mutual collaboration I would like to stress here, Mister Ambassador, that of education to which the Church has contributed with countless educational institutions whose prestige is recognized by society as a whole. The role of education cannot, in fact, be reduced to the mere transmission of knowledge and skills that aim to form a professional but must include all the aspects of the person, from his social side to his yearning for the transcendent. For this reason it is appropriate to reaffirm, as was confirmed in the above-mentioned Agreement of 2008, that far from implying that the State assumes or imposes a specific religious creed, denominational religious teaching in state schools, means recognition of religion as a necessary value for the person’s integral formation. (Benedict XVI. Address to the new ambassador of Brazil to the Holy See, October 31, 2011)

• The religious dimension makes it possible to transform knowledge into wisdom

The religious dimension is in fact intrinsic to culture. It contributes to the overall formation of the person and makes it possible to transform knowledge into wisdom of life. (Benedict XVI. Speech to the Catholic religion teachers, April 25, 2009)

• The teaching of the Catholic religion capacitates the person to discover goodness

Thanks to the teaching of the Catholic religion, school and society are enriched with true laboratories of culture and humanity in which, by deciphering the significant contribution of Christianity, the person is equipped to discover goodness and to grow in responsibility, to seek comparisons and to refine his or her critical sense, to draw from the gifts of the past to understand the present better and to be able to plan wisely for the future. (Benedict XVI. Speech to the Catholic religion teachers, April 25, 2009)