Amazon Synod Working Document Released Today, and It Confirms There’s Trouble on the Horizon

Waffle words. Miasma and obfuscation. Full of sound and "slurry" and signifying nothing.(apologies to Shakespeare)
This is a foreign organism. An invasive species that has invaded the Churc h and like every invasive plant species it is twisting its way up the beautiful tree encroaching and encroaching and choking off the oxygen. I hope I live long enough to see what God does. Like the wheat and the tares, tearing it loose will cause incredible damage but at this point what else can be done.

 

Imagine you were Pope and had certain, generally unacceptable, ideas you wanted to promote . You couldn't very well promote the ideas because it would start rioting in the pews. People generally just wouldn't accept them. How might you promote them.

The obvious, rather devious answer is to use someone as a lightening rod, a friend. Place the ideas forward with him in, 'private' conversation to see how the duck flies. Then simply stand back and wach the fireworks.

You don;t even have to actually deny you said it, the Vatican Press Office will deny it for you.

Thus you get your views aired and are at a safe distance from the consequences of having aired them.

Personally I believe these are the genuine opnions of the Holy Father.

 

I had never heard of Romano Guardini and had to look him up. According to Wikipedia, he was a German priest whose book "The Spirit of the Liturgy" had a major influence on the Liturgical Movement in Germany and by extension on the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis had begun a doctoral dissertation in the 1980s on Guardini but didn't complete it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romano_Guardini

Also according to Wikipedia, Guardini had a strong influence on Christian Socialists in Europe, including Bishop Vekoslav Grmič, a Marxist who was very much a supporter of Liberation Theology and the political-religious thought of Hans Kung. Pope John Paul removed him from office although he continued to hold the title of Bishop and to teach theology at university. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vekoslav_Grmič

Bringing souls to Christ had nothing to do with this Synod or, indeed, this papacy. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It's about using Christ's Church to promote a political, secular humanist agenda.

 

It's not really what Pope Francis and his friends are doing that concerns me mot.

Its that the rest of the CHurch for the most part are either accpeting it or staying silent about it.

This gives cause for very grave concerns.

 

I think they are afraid. This "Catholic Spring" was years in the planning and the foot soldiers were ready to go as soon as the Conclave was a done deal. They're all over the internet on every Catholic forum stressing how Pope Francis hasn't changed any Doctrine and that all he's doing is following the Holy Spirit to reform unnecessary disciplines. With every new abomination they are quick off the blocks to attack the messenger, blaming the reporters, bad mouthing Bishops or anyone who dares so much as to ask a question. Any Bishop or prominent Catholic who dares speak out needs to have a squeaky clean record or he will be annihilated by the mercy brigade.

 

Oct. 9, 2019
Key Synod Father: Pan-Amazon Synod ‘Maybe a Step to’ Women Catholic Priests
Bishop Erwin Kräutler, understood to be the principal author of the synod’s working document, supports women’s ordination and also says he believes two-thirds of Amazonia’s bishops are in favor of ordaining married men to bring the Eucharist to remote areas without priests.
Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/key-synod-father-says-pan-amazon-synod-is-maybe-a-step-to-women-catholic-pr

VATICAN CITY — One of the key figures behind the Pan-Amazon Synod’s working document admitted Wednesday that he supports the ordination of women as priests and that he sees this month’s meeting as one possible step towards achieving that goal.

Asked in English by the Register after Wednesday’s synod press briefing if he supported the ordination of women as priests, Austrian-born Bishop Emeritus Erwin Kräutler of Xingu, Brazil, said: “I tell you that for me there is no …” and he struggled to find the right word before adding: “Why female, women now are able, not are able to be ordained? Why?”

Asked if he would therefore like women to be ordained priests, he replied. “Si [yes], logically.”

When it was put to him whether he sees this synod as a means to achieve that, he again struggled to answer, and a communications official appeared to usher for him to end the interview, yet he replied: “Maybe a step to.”

“Many of the bishops [at the synod] are in favor of women deacons,” he asserted.

Speaking at the press briefing earlier, he said that most of the Amazon communities are “coordinated and directed by women and so we have to think about this.”

“We hear a lot about the role of women, but what are we going to tell her? ‘Yes, you’re very good, but …’ We need concrete solutions, and so I’m thinking of the female diaconate.”

Bishop Kräutler, a missionary who has spent many years in Brazil defending the rights of indigenous peoples and the poor in the region, is widely known to have been the principal author of the synod’s contested working document, or instrumentum laboris.

The Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon Region continues through Oct. 27.

A member of the synod’s preparatory council in the months leading up to this month’s meeting, and a member of the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM), Bishop Kräutler is a key figure behind the synod. He was elected Monday a member of the synod’s Commission for Information.

The retired bishop is also a leading proponent of the ordination of married men “of proven virtue” (viri probati) as priests, in order to bring the sacraments, primarily the Eucharist, to remote Amazonian areas where there is a shortage of priests.

Bishop Kräutler told reporters today he estimates “two-thirds” of bishops in the Amazon support the ordination of viri probati.

“There’s no other option,” he said during the press conference a short while earlier. “Indigenous people don’t understand celibacy,” he added, and he recalled many times he would go to a village and that the first thing they asked him was: “Where is your wife?”

“I had to explain I’m not married, and they almost felt sorry for me, saying: ‘Oh poor man.’” He added that a second time that happened, he replied: “She’s far away” and was “thinking of my mother.”

“Indigenous peoples, at least those I’ve met, cannot understand this thing that man is not married,” he said.

Quoting Scripture, Bishop Kräutler said he believes it more important to bring the Eucharist to people than maintain mandatory celibacy.

The issue has been raised many times so far during the synod, but has also received considerable opposition, with some seeing evangelization as the answer rather than promoting a change in the nature of the priesthood.

 

Thank goodness I have no contact with any of them. I would loose my tmeper and take a swing at them. I couldn'thelp myself. I want nothing to do with any of them. If they choose to go to hell that's there choice. I just want to keep them far away from me.

Thank God I don't live in Rome.

 

If only we had more Bishops like Cardinal Sarah. If only Cardinal Sarah were the Bishop of Rome. https://www.catholicworldreport.com...ogical-push-in-amazon-synod-an-insult-to-god/

Cardinal Sarah: Ideological push in Amazon synod an ‘insult to God’
“This synod has a specific and local objective: the evangelization of the Amazon. I fear that some Westerners are seizing this assembly to advance their plans,” Sarah told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera Oct. 7.

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2019 / 08:56 am (CNA).- The push by some Westerners to use the Vatican’s Amazon synod to advance their personal agendas is an insult to God and his plan for the Church, Cardinal Robert Sarah said in an interview published this week.

“This synod has a specific and local objective: the evangelization of the Amazon. I fear that some Westerners are seizing this assembly to advance their plans,” Sarah told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera Oct. 7.

The cardinal mentioned in particular synod discussion of the ordination of married men, the creation of women’s ministries, and the jurisdiction of the laity.

“These points touch the structure of the universal Church. Taking advantage to introduce ideological plans would be an unworthy manipulation, a dishonest deception, an insult to God who guides his Church and entrusts to it his plan of salvation,” he stated.

Sarah, who is participating in the Amazon synod in his capacity as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, noted that he has heard that some people want this synod assembly to be a “laboratory” for the universal Church, and others think after the meeting everything will have changed.

“If this is true, this is dishonest and misleading,” the cardinal commented.

He added that he was “shocked and indignant that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon was used as an excuse to support typical projects of bourgeois and worldly Christianity. It is abominable.”

The proposal of combatting priest shortages in the Amazon by ordaining married, respected men — so-called viri probati, Sarah called “theologically absurd” and implying “a functionalist concession of the priesthood…”

The proposal contradicts the Second Vatican Council’s teaching, he said, by seeming to separate within the priesthood participation in Christ’s identity as priest, prophet, and king.

He added that to ordain married men “would mean in practice to question the obligatory nature of celibacy as such.”

Sarah said no one fears the viri probati proposal, but the synod will study it and Pope Francis will draw his conclusions, though he noted Francis’ use of a quote from St. Pope Paul VI in a speech in January: “I prefer to give my life before changing the law of Celibacy.”

Sarah said “the question is another: to understand the meaning of the priestly vocation. Ask yourself why there are no more people willing to give all of themselves for God, for the priesthood and for virginity.”

He argued that people prefer to think of “ploys,” instead of addressing the larger, more right problems.

The idea, he said, that instituting the married priesthood would end pedophilia, or that because there are few vocations lay ministries should be expanded is the “presumption of men.”

“And frankly it does not seem to me that the churches where priestly celibacy does not exist today are much more prosperous than the Catholic Church, if that is the purpose,” he said.

 

Oct. 9, 2019
Cardinal Urosa: Some Pastoral Suggestions for the Pan-Amazon Synod
COMMENTARY: The Synod for Amazonia: Comments Concerning the Instrumentum Laboris; Part 3 of a Series
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...pastoral-suggestions-for-the-pan-amazon-synod

This third installment of my commentaries upon the instrumentum laboris, or working document, for the Pan-Amazonian Synod, analyzes the third part of the text, which is “The Prophetic Church in Amazonia, Challenges and Hopes.” I will center it mainly on some of its pastoral proposals, not all of them.

One important observation to start: It is quite astonishing that the replies and facts supplied by the faithful consulted in Amazonia deal very little with the specifically religious, pastoral or ecclesial reality of the Amazonian missions.

Also astounding is that the majority of the recent comments I have read about the synod made by the ecclesiastics close to its preparation, touch only, or mainly, on the ecological aspects and the social and economic problems of the Amazonian peoples. Sure, it is fine they touch them. But they hardly mention the religious and spiritual aspects of the mission of the Church, to announce the words of life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The working document gives the same impression. Is that okay? Can we leave that in a second level? Is it not the main mission of the Church?

During the synod itself, this third part should be corrected, focusing on the centrality of evangelization and pastoral action in the mission, in order to revitalize the Church in Amazonia, which should be the main goal of the synod — so we hope.

Another special remark: The instrumentum laboris (IL) seems to think that all of the population of Amazonia is indigenous, Indians or “originary.” In Venezuela that is true only in the apostolic vicariates, not in the dioceses established in our Amazonian region, where the majority of the population live in cities like Ciudad Bolivar and Ciudad Guayana and are criollas, that is, white or mestizo (mixed race) Venezuelans, or Afro-Venezuelans, not Indians. Not all of the Amazonian people are original Indians.

Preferential Option for the Poor and Inculturation

The document quite rightly reminds us of the option for the poor as a line of action and a real requirement of the Latin American Church and Amazonia. Benedict XVI said in Aparecida that “the preferential option for the poor is implicit in Christological faith, in the God who became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty” (see 2 Corinthians 8:9). (His Holiness’ speech at the inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, 3).

Sure enough, the working document reminds us that the evangelical mission of the Church is something that was done through the centuries and is valid and urgent in our time (IL, 115). It also indicates that to maintain it today in Amazonia, a pastoral and missionary conversion is now necessary (IL, 119). This, among other things — and it is a novelty — implies to “understand what the Holy Spirit has taught these peoples … faith in the Father-Mother Creator … the living relationship with nature and Mother Earth (making a distinction between them?) the rites and religious expressions, and the sacral sense of the territory (IL, 121). It also proposes to recognize indigenous spirituality as a source of riches for the Christian experience (IL, 123 b).

These are expressions that for those of us who are not familiar with them seem extremely strange and utterly foreign to Catholic beliefs about the created world and its relation with human beings. They do, in fact, bring to mind a sort of Christian-animist syncretism. That is unacceptable. In this sense we certainly hope that the Synod Fathers will clarify this and use profound discernment about possible recommendations.

Along the same lines of pastoral conversion, the text speaks of the inculturation of the faith, giving an almost absolute value to the original cultures, without valuing, or proposing, the evangelization of the culture. This latter is the transformation of human existence and the religious, social, cultural and family life of peoples through the Gospel of Christ, and through biblical and Christian and Catholic morality. And again, let us remember that — except in the apostolic vicariates — the majority of the population are not Indians; take, for instance, Manaus and Belem in Brazil.

These proposals of the instrumentum laboris also lead on to the suggestions of inculturated liturgy, which is to say, a liturgy adapted to the mentality and traditions of the people, as is suggested in the document Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican Council II (37-40). In this area it remains to be seen what could actually be proposed during the synod for that “healthy decentralization of the Church” (IL, 126 d). Of course this adaptation would have to assure the preservation of the integrity of the faith, as well as the moral and spiritual conditions and prerequisites for a lively and fruitful participation in the sacred liturgy.

continued...

 

continued from above...

Organization, Pastoral Service and the Priesthood

In its search for new paths for the life of the Church, the instrumentum laboris examines the organization of the community and the pastoral service (IL, 127). Along these lines it proposes leaving out the idea that the exercise of jurisdiction — power of governance — should always be connected in the various areas, sacramental, judicial, administrative, in a permanent way with the sacrament of holy orders. It would seem to be proposing, in other words, that these functions could be performed by diverse persons, not sacramentally ordained. Here, once again, one would have to understand exactly what is meant by this proposal.

But we know that the religious, spiritual and pastoral faculties of bishops and priests are not like various functions of some pastoral staff, of “functionaries” or employees. These faculties are the expression of the priestly service of bishop and priest, men configured to Christ, the High and Eternal Priest, by the sacrament of holy orders. These are actions of Christ, who makes himself present in the bishop and priest through sacramental ordination. These are faculties conferred and assigned in solidum, as a whole, through the sacrament of holy orders. These faculties are not activities attributed collectively or separately to a person through a document nor through a legal or administrative action, an assignment … like any other appointment or job. These pastoral, sacramental, legal and magisterial faculties are the actions of the sacramental representative of Christ, Priest, Prophet and King.

A priest is a sacrament-person of Jesus, a man configured through the sacramental ordination to Christ, the Good Shepherd and High and Eternal Priest, in the service and for the benefit of the holy People of God. These faculties, apart from the material administration, are not functions that can be delegated individually. They are conferred only through sacramental ordination. This proposal implies a false, functionalist idea of the priesthood and does not consider their connection with the three munera Christi: prophet, priest and king.

Ordination of Married Elders

In the very necessary and desirable wish to have a greater pastoral presence, that is to say, a pastoral presence rather than just visits (128), the text proposes priestly ordination of married older people (IL, 129 a, 2). Notice a detail here: The text does not use the well-known and popular term viri probati, or “men of proven virtue.” It uses the expression “older persons,” leaving open the possibility of sacramental ordination of women. Let us not enter now into discussion about this second possibility. It has already explicitly been rejected many times by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II, as well as recently by Pope Francis. For now, let us listen to St. John Paul II:

“Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (see Luke 22:32), I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (St. John Paul II, apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 1994).

The text affirms very clearly the valid discipline of priestly celibacy as a gift to the Church. This is correct. In effect, in imitation of Christ, celibate and spouse of the Church, priests of the Latin Rite and many of the Oriental Churches, freely elect to consecrate our lives to God and to the Church. For this we renounce marriage, and we commit ourselves religiously before God to a life of perfect chastity. This is something which corresponds perfectly with the nature of the priesthood, which is configuration with Christ, High and Eternal Priest and Good Shepherd.

Sure enough, the issue of ordaining older, married men is a matter of discipline, of religious and pastoral convenience. Priestly celibacy is not a dogma fidei and admits weighing the pros and cons. Of course they could be ordained. But we must think about what kind of priests they would be. Some second-class priests? Won’t they perhaps be like the famous “Mass and meal priests” of the past? What kind of preparation would they have? Permanent deacons require a rigorous preparation, generally of at least four years. And once ordained, they are not on their own; they generally work closely with some bishop or some priest. And what would their ministry be, simply celebrating the sacraments? From whom would they depend, that is to say, who would be their immediate superiors? Would there not be conflicts between these older sacraments-only priests and the parish priests and episcopal vicars? How would their economic and administrative regimen be set up, that is, who would support them in the extremely poor dioceses and missionary vicariates?

And another thing: Ordaining older married priests in mission territory would not mean placing them in a kind of isolated territory. These missionary lands are neighbors of established dioceses. And the older married priests would move around. How could married priests in the missions combine with the celibate priest of the neighboring diocese? And then, this opening in the discipline: Would it be limited to Amazonia? Would it not debilitate the celibate priesthood in the rest of the world? There are many serious questions about the ordination of good married elders. And it would perhaps not solve the problem that we are facing. I do not think it suitable nor useful.

I believe that the solution to attending to these communities lies in an ever greater activity of evangelization and sanctification, so as to strengthen the faith in those Christian communities that have no priest. Evangelization and vocations produce fruits in the long run. We have seen that happen in many dioceses of Venezuela.

Certainly the labor of our beloved missionaries has been, and is, magnificent, of great sacrifice and worthy of all respect, recognition and praise. That is why we must study the reasons why preaching the Gospel and all the missionary work there has not produced more fruits, such as native vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. Now: Would the ordination of some older men to the priesthood, good only for liturgical functions, really inject the necessary energy into the Church? There are many questions that need answers. And, finally, the subject of married elders ordained to the priesthood is too important and serious to be decided for the universal Church by a regional synod.

Other Ministries

We find in the text another proposal to strengthen the pastoral activity in Amazonia: an official ministry for women (IL, 126 a,3). Today, all over the Church, women already serve in many ministries: lectors, altar servers for the Eucharist, extraordinary ministers of Communion, catechists. And they perform so many other functions of great importance in the schools, in diocesan or parish administration, in ecclesial communications media and in the health centers of the Church, not forgetting as social workers, and so on. We would have to see what those who are proposing this new official ministry have in mind. Pope Francis has already made a pronouncement against a female diaconate. We will see what happens during the synod.

Consecrated life is, fittingly, very well presented in the working document (IL, 129 d). It is with enormous self-donation and dedication that the sisters and brothers of consecrated life are accomplishing a beautiful labor in Amazonia. May they continue to reinforce the specifically evangelical and religious aspects of their work to stimulate and revitalize the life of the Church in those lands!

Conclusion

Now, during the synod, we raise our prayers to the Lord, that he may pour out his Holy Spirit abundantly upon the Synod Fathers. They have the task of showing the new paths for the revitalization of the Church, as well as to protecting the peoples of Amazonia and its territory, and for an ecological conversion.

This synod, then, must welcome all the strengths of the working document and must necessarily overcome its faults and omissions, so as to give impetus to an ever greater work of evangelization of the Church, not only in Amazonia, but in the whole world.

May the Most Holy Virgin Mary, mother of God and our Mother, bless and inspire all those beloved and assiduous missionaries of Amazonia: bishops and priests, deacons, consecrated men and women and lay apostles. Thanks for their beautiful work and lives offered up to the Lord and to the Church!

May they continue their wonderful apostolic work of announcing Jesus Christ to all the Amazonian people. He is the only One in whose name we have “redemption and the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14). Amen.

 

Oct. 10, 2019
Bishop Discusses the Catholic Church’s ‘Ministry of Presence’ in the Amazon
‘What has been a major theme — and this gets tied not just [to] the Eucharist, but the larger sacramental life — is how can the Church have a ministry of ‘presence’ rather than a ministry of ‘visit’?” Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego said.
Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...ic-churchs-ministry-of-presence-in-the-amazon

VATICAN CITY — Arguments for and against ordaining married men in the Amazon, calls to avoid syncretism, and a balanced approach to inculturation were just some of Bishop Robert McElroy’s early observations of the Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon Region, which he shared with the Register on Thursday.

Speaking after the first meeting of small groups, the bishop of San Diego — one of three U.S. bishops taking part in this special international assembly of bishops — said it was too early to give more than general impressions, but he noted a “unifying theme” has been how the Church can be pastorally present, rather than merely visitors, to the Amazon people.

The synod will continue through Oct. 27.

Bishop McElroy said he welcomed the fact that various other solutions have been proposed as an alternative to ordaining viri probati (“men of proven virtue”) to the Catholic priesthood to help resolve a regional priest shortage, acknowledged that some may see women deacons as a step towards women priests but has not heard that as an overt wish, and said that before giving his intervention (talk), he wanted to listen to what participants from the region had to say.

Your Excellency, what particular issues have been the most important to you, so far?

What has been at the center of the debate and discussions has been the pastoral situations in the vast expanses and how the Church can effectively be present [in those]. What has been a major theme — and this gets tied not just [to] the Eucharist, but the larger sacramental life — is how can the Church have a ministry of “presence” rather than a ministry of “visit”?

There’s not a set of specific solutions that has emerged, there are ones that have been composed, of course, but there’s great variety to the proposed solutions because people have different views of what is most necessary, because part of it is there’s already a presence in so many communities of the faith who are there.

Christ is present and the Church is present, and, often, you’ll have a catechist present, and so there is some degree of lay leadership already there in the community, so there’s presence. But then you have the sacramental presence, and not just the Eucharist, of course, but that there’s the baptisms, the marriages, and all these different questions.

So those have been very powerful and moving, and I’d also just say that this theme of presence is tied to how to be with the people when they’re being victimized, which brings all the other questions, of course, of the criminalization of indigenous leaders trying to protect their lands and martyrdom.

At the front of the hall each day are the names of various martyrs, lay, priests, women religious, who in very recent times have all been murdered. So there’s the mystery of the presence in that way, too — how to be with the people when they’re being victimized, either by internal groups in the country, or globalization interests, which come in to cause deforestation. Then it gets to the question of ecology. So I’d say those have been the main issues. The pastoral one has been dominant, so far.

What about the issue of viri probati (the ordination to the priesthood of mature, married “men of proven virtue”)?

I can’t tell where that’s going to go.

Has it been discussed a lot?

A number of people have proposed that, a number of important points, but it hasn’t reached a state yet where it’s clear what exactly the parameters are.

Other options are also being put forward?

Yes, that’s what I mean; the viri probati are one of many options, tied to that broader question of presence: How can the Church be present in this community? One of the bishops was saying he has a vast region and that if the per capita number of priests in his diocese were applied to Italy, there would be 64 priests in Italy. Well, that’s a way of bringing home what the situation is, but there’s a much more wide-ranging set of options on the table that I thought were going to be the focus, and I think that’s a good thing.

Many concerns have been raised about this synod — what do you think about these, not only viri probati, but also, for example, a women’s diaconate, which some, including Bishop Erwin Kräutler, a key figure of the synod, believe may be a step towards women priests?

There are some people who do see it as a means to bringing about women priests, but I don’t hear that as dominant. Even the voices I have heard have been proposing women as permanent deacons; that’s what they’re suggesting — they’re not suggesting it’s a step all the way to the ordination of women to priesthood. I don’t mean they’re not, but that’s not what I’m hearing, even from those who are suggesting that.

[Other topics concern] economic and justice questions within the region itself and then what the implications are for the wider Church in this synod. It’s not clear how those pieces, to me, are going to fit together. So I have to say it’s a much more fluid situation than I would have thought. Where we’re going to come out at the end, I don’t have a sense of that, at this point. But there’s a lot more diversity to the options being suggested than had been expected, or at least than what I had been discerning.

The instrumentum laboris, the synod working document, was, of course, a concern. Have you seen those issues being brought up?

Viri probati has been brought up, but, again, that’s among a menu of different options being proposed. The unifying theme is: How can the Church be pastorally present? How can the sacramental life of the Church take place in these communities?

What have been the discussions regarding inculturation?

We’ll have to see how it goes, but it seems, to me, the questions of inculturation, as they have been proposed, in general — now there are a few outliers — are genuinely in keeping with the traditional approach of inculturation.

It’s more about bringing the faith to them, would you say, rather than an overemphasis on listening?

It involves both, of course, but it isn’t so much that we’re bringing it to them. It’s Christ brings the faith — the Church brings the Gospel faith. It’s developed in the Latin Church, and that becomes the seed; but then they interact with the local culture. Particularly within the liturgical life, say, or the social life of the community, certain cultural forms are helpful in doing that, and then you have to be very careful not to tip the balance of that. There’s a point at which, and several mentioned this — that we want to avoid syncretism.

They did mention that?

Oh, yeah; people said we want to avoid syncretism.

Was the controversial prayer event in the Vatican Gardens on Saturday brought up?

That has not been mentioned. The Pope mentioned the question of the headdress, people who mocked that, but that event has not come up.

I have to say I have found the inculturation discussions to be sober, in keeping with the tradition — you know, of the last 50 years — and to be aware that there are dangers of unfocused inculturation, and yet there’s a necessity for inculturation. So my ideas have been to talk about how, within the liturgy, can we have a meaningful set of rituals that complement the core liturgical life of the Church, that are consistent with it, yet reach deep into the culture and traditions?

Were you a little disturbed by that event on Saturday?

I saw it alluded to, but I’m not clear what exactly happened, so I’d hate to comment because that one I don’t know. I was, of course, at the ceremony here [in St. Peter’s Basilica] at the beginning; but that, of course, is not what people are talking about.

You spoke out strongly recently about combating climate change and on environmental issues. Is this something you have mentioned or will mention at the synod?

I haven’t spoken yet, it will come into it, but won’t be the centerpiece of what I’m going to focus on. I wanted to listen first a lot, because I’m not from the region, so I want to see first what the people from the region, the leaders, are saying and then draw from that.

For me to come in from California and say: “Here’s how things should be done,” or even: “Here are the implications of what you wrestle with here for the rest of us in the world,” that would not be proper.

 

Two more videos from Michael Matt:

"THE SHAM IS ON: Women Priests and Global Warming
Published on Oct 9, 2019
The Vatican jumps the shark.

In the press hall today in Rome, an official spokesman for the Amazon Synod—Bishop Krautler—admitted, incredibly, that he wants women ordained as priests. And as Michael Matt reports, this was AFTER the same bishop had told the press that the Amazon people can’t even begin to understand the concept of a celibate priesthood. Well of course they can’t, Excellency. (No racism here, of course!)

Chris Lamb of The Tablet apologized in the press conference today for what he called 'racist' and 'insensitive' comment by journalists who aren’t buying the exploitation of the indigenous peoples going on over here. (Nice virtue signally, Chris! Seriously.)

But, there’s more. The press was also informed that over eighty percent of the Amazonian people don’t even live in the jungle, but rather hail from the big cities of South America. So, what with the feathers and cultural appropriation?

Are these people serious? Drug addiction is bigger problem in the Amazon than anything else. So, shall we listen to the drug addicted of the Amazon and learn something from them, too?

Abortion is a huge problem down there. How about we listen to the cry of the aborted?

Plus, Edward Pentin hits one out of the park at today's Synod press conference. "


"AMAZON SYNOD: Buzzword Generator

Published on Oct 10, 2019
Michael Matt loses patience.

Reporting from Rome, Michael hits maximum Amazon overload during his daily video report earlier this evening.

Why? Watch and see.

As the situation here in Rome heated up dramatically this week--with Synod spokesmen openly admitting they are in favor of women priests--we have decided to stay here in Rome through next week.

If you're enjoying these daily "synodal" updates, please consider a little donation to help get the RTV crew out of the Papal Twilight Zone and back home to their families.

DONATE HERE: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/inde..."
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PS - The World Over is on right now with the Papal Posse.

Here it is:

"Published on Oct 10, 2019
THE PAPAL POSSE...FR. GERALD MURRAY, canon lawyer and priest of the Archdiocese of New York and ROBERT ROYAL, editor-in-chief of TheCatholicThing join us from Rome to discuss the Amazon Synod that began this week, the upcoming Canonization of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, and much more. SHARON ROBINSON, daughter of Major League Baseball great and civil rights activist Jackie Robinson, talks about growing up with her famous father at the dawn of the civil rights movement and her new book, Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963."

PS - Once again, I am reminded of Our Lady of Revelation when she spoke of priests not wearing their cassocks.

 

The Cardinal Baldisseri spoke a few days ago that the Synod is for the whole Church, I think this is an incentive for episcopal conferences to adopt their own conclusions about it. I think in a few months we may miss Holy Mass in many places, because this Amazonian rite they are trying to create will be an incentive for each conference to have their own liturgy.

 

How I Went to Brazil to Petition for a Catholic Amazon
October 9, 2019 | Evan Olwell


How I Went to Brazil to Petition for a Catholic Amazon

When I heard about the Pan-Amazon Synod earlier this year, I was concerned about the future of the Church. I heard about strange doctrines and practices that aimed to give the Church an “Amazonian face.” When asked if I would like to go to the Amazon region to see for myself what was happening, I jumped on the opportunity.

The Brazil-based Plinio Corrêa de Oliviera Institute (IPCO) extended an invitation to members of Tradition, Family and Property to join a “caravan” in July. We would visit several cities of the Brazilian Amazon region to collect signatures to defend the sovereignty of the Brazilian Amazon. The petition, addressed to the secretary of the Amazon Synod, also asked that the traditional evangelization of the Indians continue.

Thus, I was honored to be part of a delegation of young Americans that joined other young volunteers from Brazil. From July 8-27, we collected signatures in over 22 cities in 4 different Brazilian states. We also circulated the petition in the Amazon region of Peru.

A “caravan” is a group of forty young Catholic men, all well dressed, traveling from place to place in four large vans. It attracts much attention. Wherever we went—gas stations, restaurants or churches, people wanted to know who we were, where we were from, and what we were doing. This attention also helped us to spread the word about our petition. Unfortunately, many Brazilians in the Amazon region weren’t even aware of the October Synod in Rome that will be discussing their future!

The daily schedule of the caravan consisted of traveling to a new city each day, where the volunteers would enter the respective city plaza and any surrounding shops. These central places were almost always bustling with people, and the eye-catching golden standards of the IPCO were hard to miss. The youthful volunteers with clipboards were also accompanied by their own musical band. Patriotic and religious Brazilian hymns such as Viva Mae de Deus e Nossa and the Hymno da Bandeira inspired many of the public to approach us and inquire about our petition.

As we traveled, the Brazilian terrain changed enormously. Every day was a new adventure. The Amazon region of Brazil has a lot of variety; it’s not just rainforest. We saw enormous fields, massive buttes, forests, swampland and even desert-like scrubland. The weather was mostly very hot and dry, averaging 100 degrees. This changed drastically when we went to Peru, crossing the Andes Mountains with its elevation of 14,000 feet. There, we encountered freezing temperatures forcing us to change into warm winter gear.

What most impressed me about Brazil were the constant reminders of its Catholic identity. Roadside shrines to Our Lady were everywhere along the highways. Gas stations had advertisements for Catholic Masses targeting truck drivers. Farmers’ fields had statues of Christ the Redeemer watching over their crops and cattle. Pharmacies were named after saints. Every city plaza was built in front of a church or cathedral. The soul of Brazil is Catholic. Our caravan aimed to keep the Amazon region Catholic!

During the caravan, we spoke with thousands of people. It would be difficult to record every conversation. However, here are some stories of what happened.

• One volunteer explained the purpose of the caravan to the local priest. After a Mass, the priest called upon the volunteer, saying, “We would like to invite Michael of the Plinio Corrêa Society that is doing a campaign in the city that is very important for the Church and Brazil.”
• A volunteer approached an older woman, who stopped a nearby young man and asked the volunteer to explain the petition to him so he could help her to decide to sign. When the volunteer started to explain, the young man interrupted him and asked, “Is this from the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute?” The volunteer replied affirmatively. The young man told the woman that “if it’s from IPCO, you can sign it because their things are always good.” The young man then explained that he had read the working document of the Amazon Synod and saw that it was absurd. He warned the volunteer that there are a lot of liberation theology priests in the diocese.
• Many Protestants declared they were against the idea of married priests.
• After signing the petition, one woman said, “You should tell this to the whole country. No! You should tell this to the whole world because nobody knows about this.”

Seeing firsthand the impact of the petition amongst Catholics in the Amazon was an enormous privilege and an experience I will never forget. The caravan raised a cry of alert in the Amazon region regarding the discussions taking place in Rome on the future of the Church. The discomforts and hardships we faced during our travels reminded us of the trials of the early missionaries who worked so hard to civilize and cultivate an authentic Catholic Brazil. Instead of trying to give the Church an “Amazonian face,” maybe the Synod should respect the work of those missionaries, many of whom gave their lives as martyrs. They should follow the example of the Jesuit missionary and Saint José de Anchieta who worked so hard to give Brazil and the Amazon a “Catholic face.”

How I Went to Brazil to Petition for a Catholic Amazon - The American TFP

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• Another woman signed and said, “They want to do this in the Church? What they want to do is create a new church. This is not what the Church has always taught.”
• One man was very shocked that a Church synod would be discussing the internationalization of the Amazon. He asked the volunteer for all the names of the bishops and others involved so that he could warn everyone in his neighborhood and parish.
• A young man became very excited upon hearing about our petition. He said that everything to be discussed in the Synod was absurd. He also said he was perplexed by the way Pope Francis has been doing things. It doesn’t seem natural, yet seemed to be following a deliberate plan.
• When one volunteer explained the petition to a young couple on the street, the man interrupted, saying, “So, you are against the synod?” When the volunteer gave his objections, the man replied, “You don’t have to explain anything else, give me the clipboard I want to sign.” He also lamented the unfortunate state of decay inside the Church.

After spending three weeks on the road and traveling 4,000 miles through rural Brazil, we had successfully collected 20,000 signatures in twenty days. When asked to see who was willing to continue, everyone in the group raised their hands. However, most had to return to school because the school vacations came to an end.

 

Oct. 10, 2019
Brazilian Bishop Says Infanticide in Amazon ‘Shocking’ But Largely Eliminated by Church
Bishop Wilmar Santin of Itaituba compared the practice among the indigenous tribes to abortion in developed countries.
Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/amazon-synod-day-4

VATICAN CITY — A bishop of a diocese in Brazil has said reports about infanticide being carried out by some indigenous peoples were “shocking,” but that he was unaware of any such practices continuing among the indigenous people who are part of his flock.

Speaking to reporters at the Vatican today during a break in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, Bishop Wilmar Santin of Itaituba, Brazil, acknowledged infanticide was a practice of the past, and that although he has not witnessed it in his diocese, was unable to say if it continues “for other peoples.”

The issue of infanticide has become a focus of discussions in the media after it emerged that the practice is continuing among possibly as many as 20 indigenous peoples in the Amazon.

Amazonian chief Jonas Marcolino Macuxí also told the Register and a Rome conference this month that infanticide is still practiced, and that it had been dying out until liberation theologians arrived in the region in the 1970s.

Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimenez told reporters Tuesday he was unaware the practice was still occurring, and challenged the media to produce evidence.

Swiss Vatican journalist Giuseppe Rusconi then published four pieces of documented evidence (translated here in English by Italian Vaticanist Sandro Magister).

Among them are details of a bill passing through the Brazilian parliament to prohibit infanticide in indigenous areas, and an article, posted on a missionary website associated with the Brazilian bishops’ conference, which appeared to defend the practice on the grounds that it was not for outsiders to tell the indigenous people how to “protect their children.” The article was quickly removed after Rusconi’s article appeared.

In his comments, Bishop Santin explained how serious the practice was among the Munduruku people of his diocese until religious sisters, many working as nurses, “slowly made sure the practices disappeared completely.” He said the Munduruku people are a “bellicose” people who, before the missionaries arrived, “cut off the heads” of enemies and “took them as trophies.”

If a child was “born with a defect, they would be immediately killed,” he explained, and in the case of twins, one would be considered “evil and the other good” and so “sometimes they killed the second or killed both.”

But he also made a comparison with the West: “What about the abortions carried out here in civilized countries?” the Carmelite bishop asked, adding that it's “very easy to be horrified at this when certain hospitals (in civilized places) are real slaughterhouses.”

Bishop Santin said he has seen twins and children with defects and so believes the practice is “no longer happening there.”

Bishop Medardo de Jesús Henao Del Río, the apostolic vicar of Mitú, Colombia, told reporters that before missionaries arrived in his diocese in 1914, children with defects were “left to die, eaten by animals or ants.” Then the Church arrived and set up “shelters for these children” and priests started “visiting communities and forming people on these topics.”

They tried to show them, he said, “that there wasn’t an evil spirit that had damaged the child, and so they then stopped carrying out these practices.”

Bishop Del Río said “semi-nomadic groups” also welcome and no longer reject twins or children with Down syndrome, although he recalled the case of a girl with epilepsy and another who had a tumor on her ear where the parents would not let priests visit them.

“We had to report this case,” he said. “We asked where they were but they’d already died,” he added, one of malnutrition, the other “fell into a fire at home.”

Colombian Sister Gloria Liliana Franco Echeverri, the president of the Confederation of Latin American Religious, said atrocities “are all over the world” such as violence against women, human trafficking caused by migration and the sexual exploitation of women, and so no one is free of them. Sister Gloria recalled the religious women who gave their lives to “protect the poor” and became martyrs.

Snapshots of Indigenous Life

All three panelists at today’s briefing gave snapshots of life for indigenous peoples in their dioceses and countries. Sister Gloria spoke of the importance of “encounter and caring” so that the Church has a “new face” in dealing with such issues as poverty and migration.

“We have to build bridges, expand relations without so many barriers,” she said. “We have to have this daring fraternity to bear witness to brotherhood.”

Bishop Del Río shared how remote his diocese is, a place only accessible by plane and with few amenities and resources. He explained how a pregnant mother had to perform a Caesarean section on herself but together with her husband miraculously managed to save herself and her child. The bishop also spoke of the destructive effects of multinationals on the region, and how mining areas have caused brain diseases in children because their mothers had drunk polluted water.

On Church relations with the indigenous generally, he said: “We don’t just want to form these communities, but want to understand what they want.” He added, “There are myths and rituals that for them must be accepted in communion with the Church.”

Bishop Santin said he and his priests “try to intensify indigenous pastoral ministry” by walking with them and helping indigenous people to “shape the Amazonian Church.” One way of doing that, he said, is for them to have their own ministers, especially of the Eucharist.

He said he has recently appointed 48 ministers, including eight women, to preach the word of God, though not during the Mass. He also recalled a story of an evangelical who had been Catholic but left the Church because he “wanted to listen to the word of God.”

“We need to change the structure of the Church so it can become more flexible, move forward faster,” Bishop Santin said.

Thursday was the first day of the circoli minori (small groups). According to details released by the Vatican, they will consist of 12 groups divided into languages (two Italian, four Portuguese, five Spanish, and one English/French).

As is customary, each will have a relator and moderator.

Among the moderators for this synod is close papal aide Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, who will be part of one of the Spanish language groups. Newly elevated Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, president of the bishops’ conference of the European Union, will be the moderator for the English/French group.

 

Check out an outfit called the Pachamama Alliance. It's an Amerian non-profit registered in San Francisco founded about 20 years ago. It's a save the rain forest, save the earth, reverse climate change, citizens of the world organisation with a New Age religious flavour incorporating the religion of the Amazonian indigenous people. Their language and methods are almost identical to the language and methods surrounding this Synod. They have a channel on youtube.

 

The Amazon synod is permeated by a spirit of neo-Lutheranism.

https://panamazonsynodwatch.info/fe...-would-abandon-church-by-changing-priesthood/

The goal is the further protestantisation of the Church.

 

Interesting take on environmentalism in the blog Essays in Idleness

https://www.davidwarrenonline.com/

The contemporary university student has, typically, no knowledge of history or historical time, and is a moral and spiritual vacuum, inflamed by passions he also does not understand.

My own view is not that it’s the end of the world; rather that we are entering, internationally, another of these progressive “dawns.” The latest ideology is Environmentalism, or we might call it Deep Ecology (a rejection of humanity itself, but using the conceits of a superannuated humanism). It is the new promise of a “liberty” detached from such old-fashioned restraints as human decency, and the sane. The century ahead should be very interesting, in the sense of the old Chinese proverb.

I watch today’s international “Extinction” marches with fairly lively contempt. It is a demonstration for — What? The young (including the compulsively senile) declare what they are against, but can never coherently explain what they are for. They will let Fate take care of that, meanwhile they make, once again, their quickly developing abstract demands, in little irruptions of malignity, currently symbolized by a strident Swedish teenager with Asperger’s syndrome. (Pray she will be cured!)

This overwhelmingly white “rebellion,” whose participants are inclined to accuse all opponents of “white supremacy,” is defined more generally by the abandonment of Reason. This follows universally from the abandonment of Faith: it is an old story.

As in the past, those responsible for public order look on with growing cowardice. This was my own second formative political experience: watching the custodians of order retreat and dissolve during the riots of 1968. (The first, was being caught in a bloody riot at Lahore, as a younger child, trying to get home from school.)

An auld acquaintance, with a gift for irritating me, tells me he is making (another) “documentary” with my tax money — a film about how the world is coming to an end, and how this is making people in Montreal unhappy. I imagine the Capitalists will be the culprits. They invariably are.

The world, as I mentioned, is not coming to an end, until God wills it. We are merely making it more miserable for ourselves to live and die here.

Perhaps gentle reader is already aware that I am a fervent Reactionary, and an enemy of all Change and Revolution that cannot lead to Heaven. A Reactionary must, after all, “accentuate the positive.”

The paradox is that these people can only be defeated by joy, and a love that cannot be reduced to lubricity. I invite gentle reader to look on joyfully: for notwithstanding the occasional inconvenience, the Kingdom of God is always at hand, today as yesterday and forever.

 

Good research Dolours. Hard not to start making connections. NWO by any other name....

 

I got to watch a little of the Papal Posse this morning and was a little perplexed.

Raymond Arroyo , a great here of mine dismissed the Papal Comment to Scalfari with a guffaw and a shrug as though the whole thing was a fairy tale.

Robert Royal who is a superbly intelligent and insightful man dismissed it as a non story, though he did ask the good question; if it is false then why does the Pope keep giving him interviews? Something Robert seemed to have no answers too.

Perhaps it is my imagination but Fr Gerry Murray appeared very quiet on it. Doing a lot more listening than talking.....I wonder........

But it reminds my that the truth has two sides. There is the truth itself on the one hand. On the other hand there is our readiness to take the truth in. Some truths are too big and too uncomfortable to swallow.