Little balls of fur....
Insured Christians, still Christians
Grr! Grr! Grr!
“Lazy Christians, Christians who do not have the will to go forward, Christians who don’t fight to make things change, new things, the things that would do good for everyone, if these things would change. They are lazy, “parked” Christians: they have found in the Church a good place to park. And when I say Christians, I’m talking about laity, priests, bishops… Everyone. But there are parked Christians! For them the Church is a parking place that protects life, and they go forward with all the insurance possible. But these stationary Christians, they make me think of something the grandparents told us as children: beware of still water, that which doesn’t flow, it is the first to go bad.”
Pope Francis, 17 January 2017
...and if I find out which Christian has been parking his Fiat 500 in MY spot outside Santa Marta there will be trouble!
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteFor once I actually think I know what the Pope is saying - a small miracle. And I definitely know the types he's talking about. They're usually the ones who set up little rules in the parish and then defend them like they're Tradition. But in the same go, where did this assertion that new=good/better?
ReplyDeleteI think that's the essence of progressivism.
DeleteOh my. This is really unprecedented. It all feels like a really bad dream. All the AL garbage aside, when has a Pope ever spent so much time rudely criticizing and calling his flock names?
ReplyDeleteHis examples don't even make sense. The Church does protect life! It does give insurance/assurance (or hope!) of salvation.
And what are these wonderful new things that will be so good for everyone? Getting rid of all the sacraments, open communion for all?
Please keep writing on these topics! It's good to know there are others out there that are not complacent about all this.
There are a number of blogs that write critically about this pontificate every day, and I am not sure that I want to follow in their train. However, the Maltese bishops' take on Amoris Laetitia has shown that the Church really is in a state of crisis. We are in a serious emergency. Quite beyond the appalling warping of doctrine concerning three sacraments (Marriage, the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation), there is a growing apostasy. Apparently the number of Catholics in Brazil has shrunk by NINE MILLION in two years. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/12/27/brazil-jesus-catholic-datafolha-survey/#171c940cd22d
DeleteWhat does all this mean for souls?
I hope that you will be well soon, Dorothy! I personally always like your balanced view of things, and that you do not just rant and rant about how awful everything is. Peace be to you, Heather, I do understand your point of view. But for me personally, just emphasizing what is bad does not help in the current crisis. Instead, what always helps me is focusing on the good, the true, and the beautiful. So I think what I want to say is that I support Dorothy in not following in the train of other blogs. (Loving your enemy and not gossiping about other people also holds true for a Pope you don’t like, is what I think…)
DeleteYou recently wrote that you freelance theologians should start yelling your lungs out, and perhaps you are right with that. The question is, how do you do that in a constructive way?
Well, that is a very good question. Speaking as a writer, my first question is "Who is my audience?" My Toronto audience doesn't necessarily read blogs or have any interest in Vatican news. My Toronto audience might not know that many good people are unhappy with what has been happening in this pontificate, so even just telling them could be pushing their boundaries. I seem to be the only columnist who addressed the Maltese crisis in this week's issue of the Catholic Register: I started by saying the news made me cry. And I tied in the whole problem with Fatima. I was originally going to write about Fatima this week.
DeleteI think mercy is telling the truth, in love. At this point (and I thought about this a lot), I think I owe my Toronto readership the truth--in love--that not all is well in Vatican City and that Amoris Laetitia has caused a tsunami. I don't want to shock them or make them angry or even sad. I just want them to have the information and to ask their own questions after they're read mine. For example, they may wonder what "the sin of solicitation" means.
I normally hesitate to ascribe anyone's intellectual tendencies to his biography, but it is hard to resist doing so in the case of Pope Francis. Having read a little more about him I believe he was warped first at the hands of the Argentinian left, who tried to smear him or co-opt him, and the Argentinian right, whose enforcers insisted that any expression of compassion for the poor, as opposed to emphasis on sacraments and liturgy, made one a leftist. I think he has reached a stage in which he regards anyone who utters words like 'liturgy' or 'communion' or 'sins of the flesh' as equivalent to the men who fly you out over the ocean in helicopters for a little corrective conversation. I can't know that I'm right, but that's a plausible explanation for this Pope's passive-aggressive attitude towards 'conservative' Catholics.
ReplyDeleteClio
My pet intellectual theory is that he really looked up to all those smart German guys at Sankt Georgen. I would bet my Christmas tube of lipstick that Francis' German wasn't up to the job and, indeed, he did not last long. But his championing of the most liberal of the German cardinals does make me wonder if there isn't some S. Georgen connection.
DeleteAs I said to a Teutonophile (I paraphrase), "The Germans! So clever! So efficient! Their music! Their buildings! Their trade schools! Their engineering! Excellent! Superlative! Why do they cause so much TROUBLE?!"
It's an unending nightmare for Teutonophiles. Can you imagine, there you are eating maultaschen so good you could cry with an amazing Reisling in a fantastic German restaurant after a truly glorious performance of Fidelio, and your witty, urbane, entirely lovable host slams the table and cries, "And that is why Poland must take in 50,000 of our Muslim refugees!"
And naturally he will be voting for Merkel AGAIN.
If it is any help, I as a German am constantly asking myself why it is that we cause so much trouble. I mean, even if we look at other centuries than the last one, for example at the century that brought us Luther and the reformation. Or is it perhaps the reformation itself that twisted German mentality and brought us all this trouble? (Then there certainly is the everlasting trauma of the second world war which makes a healthy relationship to our own nationality impossible. You don’t like that so many refugees come here? You must be a N*zi! Really, we cannot talk about these subjects like normal people.)
DeleteI mean, poor Teutonophiles, I can assure you that you are not alone when you are wondering what is wrong with us.
DeleteI know. It must be so awful--especially is that there is so much GOOD about Germany! There's so much to celebrate. I mean, the work ethic, the attention to detail, the pride in good work, the Swabian housewives...and even some pretty amazing football! On the one hand, Saint Edith Stein. But on the other, Kasper&Marx. It's like a Greek tragedy played over and over again. ARGH!
DeleteIf it is any comfort, someone told me the problem was unification of the German states in the first place. If so, Bismarck is to blame. Blame all the bad stuff on Bismarck. Although Luther was also pretty bad. So bad, in fact, theat the Vatican state is going to release his image on a stamp....Waaah!..... Why not just put Sankt Georgen on a stamp? It's such a pretty campus.