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Pope Francis Says He’s Not Afraid of Schism
“I pray that there be no schism,” Pope Francis said on Tuesday, in response to a query regarding “strong criticisms” he has faced and the possibility of US Catholics breaking communion, “but I am not afraid.” The Pope made his remark during the in-flight press conference en route to Rome from Mauritius, where he had just concluded a visit that had seen him also in Mozambique and Madagascar.
The Rome bureau chief for the New York Times, Jason Horowitz, asked the question, point blank: “Are you afraid of a schism in the American Church?” It’s not exactly surprising that schism should be on the Pope’s mind. After all, his office is given for the unity of the Church. It is, however, his job to fear schism above everything else, and to do anything except compromise the integrity of the faith in order to avoid it.
Cardinals Burke and Brandmüller Say Amazon Synod Challenges Deposit of Faith
Two cardinals have sent letters to fellow members of the College of Cardinals, raising concerns about the working document for an upcoming synod of bishops on the pan-Amazonian region.
“Some points of the synod’s Instrumentum laboris seem not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it,” Cardinal Walter Brandmüller wrote to fellow cardinals in an Aug. 28 letter obtained by CNA.
“The nebulous formulations of the Instrumentum, as well as the proposed creation of new ecclesial ministries for women and, especially, the proposed priestly ordination of the so-called viri probati arouse strong suspicion that even priestly celibacy will be called into question,” the cardinal wrote.
Liberation Theologians Push to Overthrow Catholic Doctrine at Amazon Synod
A group of aging priests and theologians associated with Latin American “liberation theology” who are involved in the preparation for Pope Francis’ upcoming “Pan-Amazon Synod” have produced a document arguing for the overthrow of Catholic doctrine in a variety of areas, LifeSite has learned.
The document, called “Towards the Pan-Amazonian Synod: Challenges and Contributions from Latin America and the Caribbean,” was produced in April of this year as a result of a meeting in Bogota, Colombia, by theologians from two organizations promoting liberation theology: “Amerindia,” and “REPAM.” The synod’s working document refers explicitly to the Bogota meeting as part of the preparatory process for the synod. It can be found here in its original Spanish.
German Cardinal Warns About Country Entering Into ‘Schism’
Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the archbishop of Cologne, describes in a new interview his recent visit to the United States, his impressions, and his many conversations with Catholics during his trip. Speaking to the local diocesan newspaper, Kirchenzeitung Köln, Woelki says that he feels “encouraged” by his visit in the U.S., but that also many people showed their concern about the developments in Germany.
“Everywhere I was confronted with concern about the current developments in Germany,” he explains. “In many encounters, the concern was palpable that the ‘synodal path’ leads us onto a German separate path [“Sonderweg”], that we, at worst, even put at risk the communion with the Universal Church and become a German national church.” “Nobody can want this,” Woelki adds, “and so we should take seriously this warning.”
Many of those with whom he spoke in the U.S. “shook their heads” when seeing “that we in Germany seem to be ready willfully to change the deposit of the Faith as it has been entrusted to us, because we demand it so loudly,” the German prelate stated.
Cardinal Woelki’s interlocutors in the U.S. spoke “openly” about the “fear that thereby, it could come to a schism within the Universal Church or even to a schism within the Church in Germany.”
Benedict XVI: Response from Critics Confirm that Apostasy at Heart of Abuse Crisis
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has responded to criticism of his essay on the abuse crisis, saying many negative reactions have confirmed his central thesis that apostasy and alienation from the Faith are at the heart of the crisis – by not even mentioning God in their critique of his essay.
In a brief statement in reaction to such criticism published in German magazine “Herder Korrespondenz,” the former pope pointed to a “general deficit” in the reactions to his essay, saying that many critical responses missed the very point he was making.
Published in April by Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and in the original German by CNA Deutsch as well as other media, Benedict’s essay described the impact of the sexual revolution as well as – independent from it – a collapse of moral theology in the 1960’s, before suggesting how the Church should respond by recognizing that “only obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way.”
Reactions to the essay have been particularly strong in Germany, where insiders say the former pope, a native Bavarian, has long been subject to sustained criticism from certain quarters.
Former UK Vatican Ambassador Calls For Women Priests
A former Vatican ambassador to the United Kingdom says the fact women can’t be ordained to the priesthood is “intolerable.”
Spanish Archbishop Pablo Puente, 88, was speaking Aug. 25 during a Mass in honor of Ginés de la Jara, patron of the local fishermen brotherhood, in the Spanish coastal region of Cantabria.
“We cannot tolerate this flagrant discrimination against women by the Church,” Puente is reported to have said.
Bishop Schneider: Vatican is Betraying ‘Jesus Christ as the Only Savior of Mankind’
The Vatican’s decision to implement a document affirming that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God,” without correcting this statement, is tantamount to “promoting the neglect of the first Commandment” and a “betrayal of the Gospel,” Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said.
The spread of this document in its uncorrected form will “paralyze the Church’s mission ad gentes” and “suffocate her burning zeal to evangelize all men,” Bishop Schneider said.
He added: “Attempts at peace are destined for failure if they are not proposed in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Jesuit Superior General: Satan is a ‘Symbolic Reality’, Not a Real Person
The superior general of the Society of Jesus said Aug. 21 that the devil is a symbol, but not a person.
The devil, “exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because is not a person, is a way of acting evil. He is not a person like a human person. It is a way of evil to be present in human life,” Jesuit Father Arturo Sosa said Wednesday in an interview with Italian magazine Tempi.
“Good and evil are in a permanent war in the human conscience and we have ways to point them out. We recognize God as good, fully good. Symbols are part of reality, and the devil exists as a symbolic reality, not as a personal reality,” he added.
Bishop Marian Eleganti
I am very grateful to Cardinal Müller for his prophetic statements concerning questions of the Faith and of the proclamation at a time of confusion and of bewilderment among many faithful and those who are seeking.
Bishop Thomas Tobin
Highly quotable, and an excellent summary of the faith.
