Dutch bishop: Amazon Synod’s ‘politically correct’ agenda ignores Christ

  • Thread starter Thread starter abucs
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Wow, he does not hold back on this terrible synod. Great to see a bishop with a backbone stand up for Christ, the Church, and the people of the Amazon.

For those triggered by lifesite, they just translate his two articles. The originals are here if you read Dutch (or want to have your browser translate instead).

vitaminexp.blogspot.com

Paarse Pepers

Paarse Pepers Voorheen publiceerde ik de pepers onder elkaar op deze aparte pagina. Maar omdat het er toch wel erg veel werden en het...
vitaminexp.blogspot.com vitaminexp.blogspot.com
 
Last edited:
What he says is basically what I have been thinking about the approach of the church since francis was elected pope. Jesus seems to be an after thought and they are doing what they can to get around catholic doctrine. Maybe they can’t officially sanction gay marriage, but by focusing on ‘accompaniment’ they seek to get around it. They can receive all the sacraments. We are to pretend like nothing is wrong. At that point the doctrine of marriage is practically meaningless. It is just words on a piece of paper that we pretend doesn’t exist.
 
This article bothered me quite a lot. Specifically, the statement below…
Celibacy, it is suggested, would be incomprehensible to indigenous men, and that’s why we’re introducing the married priesthood. How strange, after all, that for more than a thousand years, people of all times, races and cultures have accepted celibacy, but the Amazonian people would be incapable of comprehending it? Are they just too stupid? Is that what is being suggested? What kind of strange discrimination is this?
Click to expand...
I wish we could have an honest conversation about celibacy’s history. The discipline of celibacy gave Martin Luther endless ammunition for his reformation. Many historians say that the discipline of celibacy was about as important as the issue of indulgences. To say that people have accepted celibacy for a 1000 years simplifies European history into nonsense…in my opinion.

I see the reformation as one of history’s greatest tragedies. I wish Martin Luther would have stayed and addressed his concerns and slowly fought it out. It is interesting to think about what history would have been like if Martin Luther didn’t have the discipline of Mandatory celibacy to give his cause endless ammunition.
 
Funny, I thought he was pretty much echoing St. Paul VI’s 1967
SACERDOTALIS CAELIBATUS

ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI
ON THE CELIBACY OF THE PRIEST

JUNE 24, 1967

To the Bishops, Priests and Faithful of the Whole Catholic World.

Priestly celibacy has been guarded by the Church for centuries as a brilliant jewel, and retains its value undiminished even in our time when the outlook of men and the state of the world have undergone such profound changes.

Amid the modern stirrings of opinion, a tendency has also been manifested, and even a desire expressed, to ask the Church to re-examine this characteristic institution. It is said that in the world of our time the observance of celibacy has come to be difficult or even impossible.
  1. This state of affairs is troubling consciences, perplexing some priests and young aspirants to the priesthood; it is a cause for alarm in many of the faithful and constrains Us to fulfill the promise We made to the Council Fathers. We told them that it was Our intention to give new luster and strength to priestly celibacy in the world of today. (1) Since saying this We have, over a considerable period of time earnestly implored the enlightenment and assistance of the Holy Spirit and have examined before God opinions and petitions which have come to Us from all over the world, notably from many pastors of God’s Church.
 
part 2
Some Serious Questions
  1. The great question concerning the sacred celibacy of the clergy in the Church has long been before Our mind in its deep seriousness: must that grave, ennobling obligation remain today for those who have the intention of receiving major orders? Is it possible and appropriate nowadays to observe such an obligation? Has the time not come to break the bond linking celibacy with the priesthood in the Church? Could the difficult observance of it not be made optional? Would this not be a way to help the priestly ministry and facilitate ecumenical approaches? And if the golden law of sacred celibacy is to remain, what reasons are there to show that it is holy and fitting? What means are to be taken to observe it, and how can it be changed from a burden to a help for the priestly life?
  2. Our attention has rested particularly on the objections which have been and are still made in various forms against the retention of sacred celibacy. in virtue of Our apostolic office We are obliged by the importance, and indeed the complexity, of the subject to give faithful consideration to the facts and the problems they involve, at the same time bringing to them—as it is Our duty and Our mission to do—the light of truth which is Christ. Our intention is to do in all things the will of Him who has called Us to this office and to show what we are in the Church: the servant of the servants of God.
 
part 3 OBJECTIONS AGAINST PRIESTLY CELIBACY
  1. It may be said that today ecclesiastical celibacy has been examined more penetratingly than ever before and in all its aspects. It has been examined from the doctrinal, historical, sociological, psychological and pastoral point of view. The intentions prompting this examination have frequently been basically correct although reports may sometimes have distorted them.
Let us look openly at the principal objections against the law that links ecclesiastical celibacy with the priesthood.

The first seems to come from the most authoritative source, the New Testament which preserves the teaching of Christ and the Apostles. It does not openly demand celibacy of sacred ministers but proposes it rather as a free act of obedience to a special vocation or to a special spiritual gift. (2) Jesus Himself did not make it a prerequisite in His choice of the Twelve, nor did the Apostles for those who presided over the first Christian communities. (3)

The Fathers of the Church
  1. The close relationship that the Fathers of the Church and ecclesiastical writers established over the centuries between the ministering priesthood and celibacy has its origin partly in a mentality and partly in historical circumstances far different from ours. In patristic texts we more frequently find exhortations to the clergy to abstain from marital relations rather than to observe celibacy; and the reasons justifying the perfect chastity of the Church’s ministers seem often to be based on an overly pessimistic view of man’s earthly condition or on a certain notion of the purity necessary for contact with sacred things. In addition, it is said that the old arguments no longer are in harmony with the different social and cultural milieus in which the Church today, through her priests, is called upon to work.
Can’t do more than 3 posts at a time but the entirety is found on the Vatican web site at Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (June 24, 1967) | Paul VI
 
Last edited:
Ok…let’s keep going with St. Paul VI’s 1967 SACERDOTALIS CAELIBATUS…specifically part 13.
Testimony of the Past and Present
Click to expand...
  1. The sum of these objections would appear to drown out the solemn and age-old voice of the pastors of the Church and of the masters of the spiritual life, and to nullify the living testimony of the countless ranks of saints and faithful ministers of God, for whom celibacy has been the object of the total and generous gift of themselves to the mystery of Christ, as well as its outward sign. But no, this voice, still strong and untroubled, is the voice not just of the past but of the present too. Ever intent on the realities of today, we cannot close our eyes to this magnificent, wonderful reality: that there are still today in God’s holy Church, in every part of the world where she exercises her beneficent influence, great numbers of her ministers—subdeacons, deacons, priests and bishops—who are living their life of voluntary and consecrated celibacy in the most exemplary way.
Click to expand...
Today we have a radically different situation. What I bolded is no longer true. We no longer have a great number of celibate ministers in every part of the world. In some places, like the Amazon, we hardly have any celibate ministers.

The thing is to evaluate whether to continue mandatory celibacy, St. Paul VI looked at the present conditions and testimony. 52 years ago the Catholic church did not have a vocation crisis. Scores of men all of a sudden had educational opportunities open to them after WWII that hadn’t been available to previous generations. These men became priests because that’s what was done back then. Just like St. Paul VI, Pope Francis is looking at the present landscape and seeing something very different. Pope Francis is doing his job courageously and looking in different directions.
 
And I think you are overlooking the fact that when St. Paul was speaking, the churches in Africa and Asia were beginning–just beginning–to explode in numbers. Where the large numbers of religious have shrunk, in Europe and the US, they have greatly expanded in Africa and Asia.

Did you miss all the other parts of the encyclical? or are you focusing on one area where you say it was all about ‘great numbers then, not so much now’ and ignore all the other times throughout history, which St. Paul VI references, where celibacy even when difficult was such an example that it led to greater glory?

And when was the Church ‘all about numbers’ anyway?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top