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JimR-OCDS
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Jim
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Jim
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TCEL
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Heh. The Holy Spirit was asking me in High School to be docile and submit to God’s laws, and I knew there was no feasible way out. It was a real kind of crucible. I think these kinds of statements are highly contextual.
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Randolph
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In the current world of enamored with headlines and isolated quotes, let’s not allow them misrepresent, or mislead, Pope’s Francis statement. I am quite sure the Church continues to obey and will never abandon the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the petitions in the Our Father, the Scriptures, the Magisterium, and the sacred Tradition. These are divine gifts from God. Good things come from them.
Jim
The call to obedience to Christ and His bride–the Holy Catholic Church, involves us carrying the cross with humility and love everyday. We need to also walk away from paths of sins and occasions for sins. We are all sinners and need God to mend the broken pieces in our lives. Let’s remind ourselves of our Baptismal vows to renounce Satan, all his works and all his promises.
May God’s will be done–not ours.
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Hoosier_Daddy
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If that’s true then I assume we are experiencing the most rapid growth of the faith in history?
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JimR-OCDS
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Randolph
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I read the article. Pope Francis was absolutely correct.
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JimR-OCDS
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Beautiful
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Perseverance plays an important role too…not to confuse rigidity with perseverance.
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Randolph
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Indeed…
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fencersmother
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I always worry when I hear any cleric criticizing others for “rigidity.” Usually, this translates to intolerance for those with more conservative views (no women priests, or women on the altar at all; no communion in the hand, etc.). I know seminarians who support conservative views are labeled “rigid” and many times, denied ordination.
Maybe we need a new vocabulary…
Maybe we need a new vocabulary…
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Beautiful
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I always worry too…we are conditioned by and knocked around by liberal political talk…beat down with words. We’ve become conditioned to flinch.
…maybe not so much a new vocabulary as much as better communication…thorough communication. So many communications from Pope Francis are translated in snippets with interpretations from others…frustrating.
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Don_Ruggero
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It is, indeed, an excellent homily, Jim. Thank you for posting it.
Jim
The imagery Pope Francis uses when he speaks I find especially to be splendidly chosen.
When he says “A rigid person only has masters”…I can certainly attest to it, having seen it across decades in my priesthood.
What an incredible gift Pope Francis is to the Church as well as those beyond the Church.
The Spirit has greatly blessed us in the person of this Pope.
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irishpatrick
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Is this true? In a world in which we need many more Priests, some valid candidates are denied?
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KSU
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Yes, I recall how the word “rigidity” was used in not a few U.S. seminaries for purposes of denying ordination to orthodox seminarians.
It seems obvious that all the Pope is saying is use your reason, and don’t go to extremes like the Pharisees. The OP translation, however, makes it appear that the Pope would have us choose between “rigidity” and Christ’s words:
“Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place."
“And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna.”
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fhansen
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The pope is explaining, in different words, how we’re to obey by the Spirit rather than by the letter of the law.
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JimG
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I don’t think that Pope Francis was downplaying Church doctrines in referring to “rigidity.” Rigidity is inflexibility in personal interactions. It is used as an opposite of welcoming. Doctrine and dogma are adherence to truth. We don’t want to take away the idea that adhering to truth is a bad thing.
“Alas, dogmas and doctrines are often viewed as chains that bind rather than keys that free. And when such is the case, we are in danger of being imprisoned and bound by our weaknesses and passions, as Chesterton warned: “Instead of the liberty of dogma, you have the tyranny of taste.”
–from the Liberty of Dogma vs the Tyranny of Taste
“Alas, dogmas and doctrines are often viewed as chains that bind rather than keys that free. And when such is the case, we are in danger of being imprisoned and bound by our weaknesses and passions, as Chesterton warned: “Instead of the liberty of dogma, you have the tyranny of taste.”
–from the Liberty of Dogma vs the Tyranny of Taste
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pnewton
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In case anyone was wonder, CNS is legitimate connected to the Catholic Church, operating as a self-sustaining branch of the USCCB.
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Don_Ruggero
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And indeed we are. In my lifetime, above all since Vatican Council II, I saw the faith grow in a matter of a span of years by several hundred million, as the Church and her liturgy experienced reform and renewal under the guidance and operation of the Holy Spirit. Presently, the world’s Catholic population is over 1.2 billion.
It’s most dramatic growth, not surprisingly, has been in Africa. The African liturgies, fully inculturated, are at once so beautiful and so vibrant. Of all my decades as a priest, it is the African liturgies that I found the most remarkable and the most memorable – the wonderful fruit of the Liturgical Movement of my youngest days.
We are grateful to have a Pope as wonderful as Pope Francis.
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Don_Ruggero
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Well, Deacon, to be perfectly honest…in my experience, I have not seen a “great demand” for the vetus ordo anywhere. The numbers are very small…which is what Pope Benedict said they would be in the letter he wrote to the world’s Catholic bishops when he issued Summorum Pontificum.
You’re very kind to say it was a remarkable range of experience…from my perspective, it was simply my life, as I went from obedience to obedience.
I remember when the diocesan bishop at the time received a petition from a handful of people for the indult Mass (we are speaking of years ago) and I was the one given the task of offering it; the number attending it was so small that it was simply not sustainable. We had far more present at the novus ordo Mass that was celebrated in Latin.
There are places in Europe where the numbers can certainly sustain maintaining, at least minimally, a stable community attached to the vetus ordo but they are “here and there” and are normally drawing from a large population.
As far as Africa…no, there is not demand of any significance.
On the other hand, I really had such limited contact with both Latin America and Oceania across my years as not to be able to speak about there, at least from the perspective of first hand knowledge and experience as you have requested.
You’re very kind to say it was a remarkable range of experience…from my perspective, it was simply my life, as I went from obedience to obedience.
I remember when the diocesan bishop at the time received a petition from a handful of people for the indult Mass (we are speaking of years ago) and I was the one given the task of offering it; the number attending it was so small that it was simply not sustainable. We had far more present at the novus ordo Mass that was celebrated in Latin.
There are places in Europe where the numbers can certainly sustain maintaining, at least minimally, a stable community attached to the vetus ordo but they are “here and there” and are normally drawing from a large population.
As far as Africa…no, there is not demand of any significance.
On the other hand, I really had such limited contact with both Latin America and Oceania across my years as not to be able to speak about there, at least from the perspective of first hand knowledge and experience as you have requested.
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ringil
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fencersmother;14244878 (no women priests said:
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