Compare and contrast
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Sandro Magister has some interesting background on the recent history of the Secretaries of the CDW.
He ends:
It is a change that could represent the same problems as the previous ones. In fact, the incoming English bishop Roche, 62, is a protégé of the cardinal emeritus of Westminster, the "liberal" Cormac Murphy O’Connor, whose auxiliary he was as well. And already in the past, with great preoccupation in the more conservative circles of the Roman curia, his name had been circulated for the office he has now obtained. But it must be said that the firm manner in which Roche, as president of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy from 2003 until 2012, defended the new translation of the missal in English, composed under the banner of greater actual fidelity to the Latin "editio typica," won him the hostility of the more progressive component of the Anglophone episcopate. When he arrives in Rome, Roche, who studied spiritual theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in the early 1990's, will have an opportunity to make his stance known more clearly. It will be interesting, for example, to see how he deals with the congregation's task of giving its own "recognitio," the green light after a revision, to the Italian translation of the missal, which, in the version approved by the bishops of the CEI, strays farther from the original Latin than the one in English does. Without counting, obviously, that it will also be curious to verify if – after the four failed attempts of Tamburrino, Sorrentino, Ranjith and Di Noia – Roche will finally succeed in bringing his own five-year term to its conclusion.One of the important things that Bishop Roche might well bring to the CDW are efficient administrative skills, which apparently are lacking at the moment. I know that there have been criticisms of aspects of his leadership in Leeds but I think that it should be remember has been two full-time jobs: Bishop of Leeds and both overseeing but also fighting for the new translations. A Roman friend described the present Prefect as, "very kind, very intelligent, very learned, very Spanish and not very good with a diary".
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Thanks to Fr Zed for the link, the American Pro-Choice Vice President Biden visit some nuns under the charge of the the Dubuque location is the motherhouse of LCWR president Sr. Patricia Farrell, OSF. The article based on the Vice President's press release doesn't say whether the strident Sr Pat was there, in fact it carefully avoids it but the picture, is a traditional(ish) looking nun, with a cardigan and veil, not a business suit, not a trouser suit, but a veil!
Isn't it interesting that when even the British press when the want to damn the Vatican's condemnation of the LCWR they choose pictures of Europeans looking like, err nuns, yet I have never seen an image of a veil at the LCWR, ever.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
A load of old nonsense is talked about the idea of "'heirarchy' of truths" by many who do not really understand Catholicism
When comparing doctrines with one another, they should remember that in Catholic doctrine there exists a "hierarchy" of truths, since they vary in their relation to the fundamental Christian faith.It is not that some "truths" are less true than others, or that some "truths" can be dispensed with but rather that truth itself is heirarchic. The doctrine of the Trinity, for example, is dependant on the doctrine that God exists, the doctrine the doctrine of the Incarnation is dependant on the doctrine of the Trinity, part of which says God is active in his creation.
Unitatis Reditegratio 34
In the same way the doctrine that the Catholic Church is the "True Church" is dependant on a whole number of other doctines, for example: the acceptance that Jesus Christ is God, that he speaks the Truth, that his words are unchanging, that scripture is true, that the Holy Spirit does indeed guide the Church, all these come together stating quite clearly that the Church was built by God himself on the Rock at Caesarea Philipi and has been guided by the Holy Spirit from the first Pentecost.
It is not that any doctrine is more true or less true than any other but rather that Catholicism is an integral whole, for so many doctrines are interrelated. Take one away, or damage it, and the whole edifice begins to crack and collapses. An obvious example that seems prevalent at the moment, damage the doctrine of the Real Presence and the whole Catholic concept of the intimacy of God with his people is seriously wounded. The Real Presence gives us an understanding of the doctrine of God that is significantly different from a Protestant understanding of the doctrine of God.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Today the Holy See has announced the appointment of Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg is going to the CDF as Prefect
From Bishop Muller's Wiki entry
Clerical celibacyIn response to controversial reactions to comments by Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg that, while clerical celibacy is a gift but not theologically necessary, but that it would be a "revolution" if the celibacy tradition within the Latin Rite Catholic Church were abandoned, Müller said: "The Second Vatican Council made clear in Article 16 of the "Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests" what the decisive requirements are".
EucharistIn 2002, bishop Müller published the book "Die Messe - Quelle des christlichen Lebens" (St. Ulrich Verlag, Augsburg). In the book, he says : "In reality, the body and blood of Christ do not mean the material components of the human person of Jesus during his lifetime or in his transfigured corporality. Here, body and blood mean the presence of Christ in the signs of the medium of bread and wine."
Liberation theologyMüller was also a pupil of Gustavo Gutiérrez, the “father” of Latin-American liberation theology, with whom he has a long and close friendship. Commenting on Guitierrez, Müller stated: "The theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, independently of how you look at it, is orthodox because it is orthopractic and it teaches us the correct way of acting in a Christian fashion since it comes from true faith." It is important to note that Gutiérrez’s thoughts were never censored by the Holy See although it was asked that he modify a few of his writings.[5]
MariologyIn his 900-page work "Katholische Dogmatik. Für Studium und Praxis der Theologie" (Freiburg. 5th Edition, 2003), Müller says that the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is "not so much concerned with specific physiological proprieties in the natural process of birth [...], but with the healing and saving influence of the grace of the Savior on human nature."
Status of Protestant communitiesIn a speech he gave in October 2011, Müller said that "the Catholic Magisterium is far from denying an ecclesial character or an ecclesial existence to ‘the separated Churches and ecclesial Communities of the West".[7]
The relics of the Curae d'Ars are arriving in England this week. I know many clergy were surprised by the huge turnout of people for the visit of St Therese. Catholics are indeed fascinated and attracted by "things" recently the "Holy Coat of Trier" brought thousands of pilgrims the shroud continues to fascinate and intrigue. Of course we are equally fascinated by persons, the Papal visit really did exceed all expectations. Catholics who never come to Mass come to these events.
Last weeks talk here by Fr Sherbrooke (sorry there is no video) was interesting, he spoke about the "magnetic attraction" of the Blessed Sacrament, of how people from the Soho School of Evangelism would be sent our from St Patrick's simply to invite people to come and be in the presence of the Real Presence.
I think that this is an important religious phenomena, that is indeed a significant part of Catholicism, it is part of the idea of prayer as "he looks at me and I look at him" akin to the "mutter of the Mass"; it is beyond words and certainly beyond the idea of religion as moral improvement, and not quite explainable to modern sensitivities. One "hyper-rationalist" bishop who, when offered St Theresa's relics for his diocese said that he couldn't see the value of such a visit and suggested we had moved on from that type of thing, later he was surprised, and possibly like Bishop Hollis of Portsmouth delighted by what he witnessed.
I suppose what talking about is religious experience. Since the Council of Trent we have tended to be a little suspicious of it, since Vatican II we have become more suspicious of it, regarding it as pietistic or even superstitious. Ladies who do courses on Liturgy and priests who re-order churches despise it! It is essentially about a "feeling" a "sense", New Agers might call it "energy" or find some other word to define such as "otherness", Catholics might describe it as "an encounter with the Holy". It is essentially about "experience" beyond words, beyond explanation. Indeed the there seems to be a diminishing of the "experience" if it is over explained or rationalised because it is essentially something that happens deep in the soul and is beyond words.
I am convinced that we need to find ways to allow people to "experience" God: teaching prayer, sharing ritual gestures, teaching reverence, teaching silence and sense of awe, all these help to give a "vocabulary" that enable people come to and share in this experience. It is unfortunate that so much has been done to undermine, negate and cheapen this experience in recent years.
I would go so far as to suggest the catastrophic failure in Catholic education has been that rather than teaching people to "know" in the sense of experiencing God we have given people knowledge about him. God desires to "be known" and after knowing him we then have a need to understand him. Having first received the experience of faith we then, and only then, want to understand it: faith seeks understanding. To understand without having the experience faith seems disastrous and probably leads to atheism.
I would suggest that teaching a child to say prayers, to genuflect, to kneel, to bow, to hold their hands together in prayer, to be silent and whisper in Church, how to reverently make the sign of the Cross, to light candles, to bring flowers to a statue, to wear a miraculous medal, to use a Rosary, to put a crucifix and holy pictures in his room, to use Holy Water, to make sacrifices and fulfil promises to God, to keep the Commandments as best he can and later to receive Holy Communion with as much reverence as possible are all things that should precede the giving of religious knowledge in any academic sense because these things all provoke the question: "Why?". Doctrine and dogma are ways of understanding what we actually intuit which is the first of God's gifts. In the Gospels people wanted simply to see Jesus or be in his Presence before they came to know him and his teaching, the experience of Him led to the desire
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