Friday, April 8, 2016

"Revolution" Amoris Laetitia: the -- "Pastoral Realignment" of the Church




(Rome) The "pastoral reorientation" of the Church was stressed at the press conference for the presentation of the Apostolic Letter Amoris Laetitia , which summarizes the results of the double Synod on Marriage and Family from 2014 and 2015, the "pastoral reorientation."  There is no lack of disappointed voices  over a "a missed revolution." Is it actually failed or is it sneaked in, albeit subliminally in the new document? One thing is certain: The document allows a variety of interpretations. Some of "The revolution, which really isn't" to "A revolution, but  it does not call itself that." The document contains valuable information about the beauty of marriage and the importance of family. Yet in the current dispute they are not the focus of attention.
What exactly was in the Post-Synodal Exhortation, and what does it communicates to the public, are two different things. For the actual impact is expected, as experience shows, to be more significant in the communicated content. Is there anyone who actually reads a nearly 200-page Vatican document?

Schönborn: "Francis wants a church in which all have their place"

The tenor of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (Archbishop of Vienna) cited press conference expressed in the following sentences: "Francis wants a church, in which all people have space and in which the conscience is of great importance." Tone is the mother of the music, where Cardinal Schönborn's thrust is lodged.  In the first sentence, without further explanation, there are already more than enough explosives included.
His appointment to present the letter in Rome, is not only an acknowledgment by Pope Francis. It is also an attempt to satisfy the most obstreperous German-speaking Church. The spokesman for the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, frankly threatened beforehand that they would act on their own in case of the non-fulfillment of their expectations. This refers to the de facto recognition of divorce and remarriage by giving Communion to remarried divorcees and the acceptance of aberrosexuality. That is already the the de facto situation, and how well the Catholic Church in Germany fits into the political consensus on aberrosexuality, which was demonstrated last April 2nd in the "ecumenical memorial service" for the late former Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. The funeral service for the self-confessed homosexual and Protestant Westerwelle took place in Cologne in a Catholic basilica.

The central message: communion for remarried divorcees "In Certain Cases"

The central message of today's press conference for the presentation of Amoris Laetitia  which was  announced by Cardinal Schönborn, was the fact that the sacraments for divorced and remarried was possible "in certain cases." [Sure, if it's sacrilegious.]
This is sufficient to avert the latent question floating around the schism of the German church, and yet directs the Church to "new pastoral paths".
The German schism threat had overshadowed the final phase of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. It will even be the task of historians to shed light on the relationship between that pressure and its significance on the unexpected resignation of the German pope.  In 2017  the Protestant part of the German area will celebrate 500 years of Reformation. Within a hair's breadth,  the Reformation commemoration would "fittingly"  coincide with a second schism. It might have been the best for the Church. But who wants to accept that responsibility? [Me?] Benedict XVI. did not want it anyway.

The German threat of schism






 Press Conference led by Cardinal Schönborn  at the Vatican

The pressure in the boiler is vented on the present day.  But are the problems really solved? As it stands, neither the practical and certainly not the theological. For half a century the world church is under a baleful protestantizing German influence. There coresponds then that there is an internal logic that there are also Germans who oppose this influence. The election of Benedict XVI. should, for this logic, complete the countermovement. It was a task, ultimately, that he could not cope  with despite the effort. The "practical" success through the schism threat cemented the commencement of the "Rheinische Alliance"  and its influence on the overall alignment of the universal Church in 1963. Has Rome been blackmailed? This can not be formulated so drastically. Things are a lot more complex and interwoven. There is  the risk of conditioning in any case.
Theologically in the past two years, since Pope Francis newly set the new course and gave a free pass to the "German train", considerable effort has been expended by the defenders of ecclesiastical marriage and morality of the traditional to deepen the understanding of marriage sacrament and related indissolubility. This will bear rich fruit.
As much as Pope Francis has given room since his election, to the new progressive "alliance" on the Rhine and Danube,  and opened the door, he can not be said to be in lockstep  with the German episcopate. The papal sympathies for Cardinal Walter Kasper are known and real. They secured the former bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart as the late unexpected "comeback". After all, he is likely to have been the "masterpiece" of the German cardinal, the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Francis has less sympathy for the mighty man of the German Church, for the Munich Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx. This is probably do e ti the different characters involved. This explains the closeness between the Pope and the Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Schönborn.

The Schönborn interview: "Love more important than norms"

A native of an  ancient family, Dominican Schoenborn is also a representative of the German-speaking world, but in his skilful, diplomatic way, is much closer to the Pope. In order to understand the intricacies of the "message",it is noted in an interview that Schönborn already have a press conference to the Roman press  for his  own press agency Kathpress. The interview and press conference shall be read as a unit.
In the interview, the programmatic statement was:
"Firstly it is not the norms that are important, but in the first place is the focus on the love."
That was the "special logic" that was behind the entire papal letter.

What Vienna has "long practiced", was "fully accepted" by the Pope

Schönborn also gave his interpretation of the letter in the  interview. He sees in Amoris Laetitia  confirmation what "in Vienna has been lived as pastoral practice for over 15 years." What Vienna has long practicing, had been "fully accepted" by the Pope. That applies to obedience and German unilateralism.
The letter, says Schönborn, should actually be prefixed by the phrase "Love and do what you will."  The Vienna archbishop strove not only to explain this nowadays easily misunderstood sentence of St. Augustine. A certain misunderstanding seems intended. Schönborn repeated in other words, the concise thesis "Love is Love", which he had already expressed at the Synod of Bishops, 2014.

Schönborns disassembly: Is there an objectively irregular situation?

In particular, the cardinal warned against rash judgments about so-called "regular" or "irregular" situations. In the papal document the word "irregular" had almost always been written in quotes, which is "especially important". Schönborn said:
"Whether someone is in a regular or irregular situation, is first of all only an external view of the situation."
This is therefore, for the Archbishop of Vienna, not an objective state.  "The inside view of the situation of marriages and families is that we all have to face difficulties and  all are in need of God's mercy"

Schönborn: "Liberating and soothing message"

"No couple and no family" are therefore likely to say: "We are the ordinary and you are the messy" That was for him, a "liberating and beneficial" message "because it is in reality even so," said Schoenborn,  "Liberating" for whom and what?
The post-synodal letter includes 190 pages. One should "not hastily" read it, commended the Pope today.  Nevertheless, the number of 1.3 billion Catholics who read it will be completely manageable.
By now the race is on, to make the search, according to which the document can meet their own positions or to monopolize it. For decades, it was also analogous to the factions of the Protestant Synod parliaments, even in the Catholic Church one speaks of "conservative", "progressive", "traditionalists", "modernists" or "moderates". It's a distorted perspective, because that's not in the Catholic Church.  Anyway, that is not what it should not be about. There should be no question thy one faction triumphs over another, but to learn the truth revealed by God. And that is what all factions are committed to when we assume ourselves to be Catholic. Again, it should be at least that.

Methodology of the imprecise wording

Is the result of the Synod as outlandish as they had expected it? Ultimately, yes.  It did, as several high church officials, including Curial Archbishop Georg Gänswein, assured, not come to a startling break. Yet one can clearly deduce the fracture on closer inspection of the details. Therein lies the confirmation of expectations. The changes, the "revolution", the "revolutionary change" (words of Cardinal Kasper) happens when it happens, subtle in  inaccurate word sausage formulations. In this respect therefore, there is nothing new under the sun. The method used already on the Second Vatican Council, to dissolve the clarity in the obscurity of the wording, will be continued. The Jesuit Karl Rahner, whose Jesuit brother is the reigning pope, found t language methodology  as downright brilliant because it ultimately always allowed whatever reading or interpretation was wanted.
It is the method that revolutionaries, who lack  the majority or the armies, wish to impose its will directly and quickly. It is even more the technique of pseudo-revolutionaries who do have radical ideas, but where the final drive is missing, in openly professing the Revolution. The popular theology, whose representative Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was, and his rejection of the armed struggle of his confreres  for Marxist liberation theology offers several approaches to understanding this pontificate.
Utterly irritating, though it was mentioned only in passing, is the largely uncritical "yes, to sex education", pronounced by Pope Francis. Given the experience of school sex education and government "education campaigns", given that the gender ideology wants school sex education to put their stamp on a massive scale, given the appropriate "curricula" of Baden-Württemberg, Vienna or Bavaria, to name just a few, it's a  wonder just what "reality" the  Pope and his ghostwriter have in mind on this issue.

Where the "pastoral reorganization" leads, is in the stars

Where the "pastoral reorientation," will lead the church in Western Europe, is completely in the stars. One thing is certain: The German church tax system persists with its downsides, which represent a disproportionately bad influence on the whole Church.  At least that is likely to be for some prelates a relief which may, -in case of doubt-  be more important than the battle for "liberal" openings.
If at the end the question: Was it worth it that Pope Francis made  marriage and family the subject of a Synod of Bishops in 2013 to replace the post-synodal letter Familiaris Consortio from 1981? If the chronology of the previous three years could be seen in fast motion, the impression remains ambivalent. On one hand, a quarrel was picked and it was carried out by Francis into the Universal Church who gave undue latitude unnecessarily to the intolerant German church. How many shards there will yet be to  picked up can not yet be judged. At the same time, the double Synod when it was conceived as a revolution - and with some evidence - become the starter. The Church speaks less than ever with a unitary voice. The pontificate of Francis promotes discord. The real inner renewal of the Church is not  undergoing any real impetus. It must continue to wait.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: MiL

24 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Folks, listen. Yes, Francis left the divorced and civilly remarried couples participation in the Sacraments up to the bishops in a case by case basis. And this is from what we have read skimming the surface of this exhortation. I would like to also show a video by William Tapley, a Catholic, who pinpoints another humongous error with this exhortation. Interestingly enough, this particular issue has been overlooked by everyone.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD4OpbWKD6g

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    1. Worse than that, it is between the pastor and the person in an 'irregular' situation. All the talk about more collegiality and then go on to undermine his brother Bishops. AL is a demolition job on so many levels and has within explosive bombs.

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  3. Pope Francis: "No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves."

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  4. As bad as Pope Francis is, and he is possibly the worst Pope in the history of the Church, Cardinals Marx, Kasper Balldiseri, and Schoenborn are far worse.
    This document is bad, very bad. But I have read that many divorced/remarried as well as LGBT people are very disappointed...some angry at the document and at Pope Francis for not going very far.
    If this is the case, especially if the LGBT people are angry and disappointed, then perhaps....and only perhaps... this document (bad as it is), is not the disaster many feared, for if thee people are upset....that's not a bad thing after all.
    Damian Malliapalli

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  5. Oh my God! What do we do now? He has changed the teaching of the Church! He has destroyed the Faith! Church teaching and doctrine were never supposed to change! What do we do now?!

    Please God help us!

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    1. Here's the addresses for Cardinals Mueller, Burke, Sarah, Pell and Napier:

      His Eminence Gerhard Cardinal Mueller
      Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
      Address: Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11, 00193 Roma, Italy
      Phone: 06.69.88.33.57; 06.69.88.34.13

      His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke,
      Sovereign Military Order of Malta
      Magistral Palace
      Via Condotti, 68 – 00187 Rome –Italy

      His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah,
      Prefect, Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
      Palazzo delle Congregazioni, 00193
      Roma, Piazza Pio XII, 10 Italy

      His Eminence George Cardinal Pell,
      Prefect, Secretariat of the Economy
      Palazzo Apostolico, 00120 Citta del Vaticano

      His Eminence Wilfred Fox Cardinal Napier, O.F. M.
      Archbishop of Durban, South Africa,
      Street address:
      154 Gordon Road, Morningside, Durban, South Africa
      Postal address:
      P O Box 47489,
      Greyville, 4023 , Durban, South Africa

      I hope this helps you.

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    2. Pointless. People might as well write them letters on toilet paper and then flush it.

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    3. Good idea, let those who have despaired do their thing.

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  6. It's not only bad, it's a catastrophe, the Waterloo or Adrianopolis of the CC. Miserere nostri, Domine.

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    1. This is from Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online:

      Origin of catastrophe

      Greek katastrophē, from katastrephein to overturn, from kata- + strephein to turn

      St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher, pray for us!

      All you Holy Martyrs pray to God for us sinners!

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  7. "Where the "pastoral reorientation," will lead the church in Western Europe, is completely in the stars."

    I disagree. Earlier you ask how the message of Amoris Laetitia will be disseminated. Obviously few will read it. Will any Bishop or Priest preach about it? I doubt it. Most everyone, Catholics included, will get their message from the media such as the BBC etc. And that message is that the Pope says you can do anything you want and it is not a sin. So what will happen to the Church in Western Europe? It will continue its downward spiral but at a greater speed. Only a faithful remnant will remain.

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  8. Pope Francis should be forced to resign.
    Damain Malliapalli

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    1. Show him the way to disappear Damian.

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  9. In light of this open betrayal of the Faith think, in the silence of you soul, about the man who had the bright idea of bringing the Church closer to the world, the man who started it all (at least formally, even if it all had been brewing before): "St." John XIII. Elvira

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    1. Pius XII made many catastrophic changes from 1951-1958.

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    2. Pius XII suspect.

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  10. It's all down the drain. It's all in ruins. I can't believe that this has actually happened. If doctrine can change, even by way of a subtle or implicit chance, then why take doctrine seriously?

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    1. We haven’t seen anything yet. Wait for October 31st 2016 in Sweden.
      Francis and company will fly to Sweden to celebrate the commemoration of the “Holy Reformation” with the Lutherans.
      As previous VaticanII popes, he already went to a synagogue, mosque, etc, now he will legitimize the Reformation in a joint “Catholic-Lutheran” celebration.
      The new heretical joint book of common prayer has been out for quite some time. It will be read. “From conflict to…Communion”.
      https://www.lutheranworld.org/news/press-release-joint-catholic-lutheran-common-prayer-500-years-reformation
      http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/lutheran-fed-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_2013_dal-conflitto-alla-comunione_en.html

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  11. I think Pope Francis is for a big fight....to keep his job. But in the end I think he will loose it.

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  12. Amoris Laetitia and Laudato "save-the-whales" SI should join the "Divine mercy" devotion in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

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