Showing posts with label Fr. Schilebeeckx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fr. Schilebeeckx. Show all posts

Friday, January 1, 2010

Sandro Magister on Holland

Holland was once called the showcase of the Church and now, after almost half a century of the Vatican Council, the deleterious effects of the Jesuits and liberals within the Church, the Dutch Church is almost completely dead. Nothing underscores this more than the recent death of the Dominican, Fr. Schilebeeckx.

In Holland, There's No More Room for the Child Jesus. Or Then Again, There Is


ROME, December 30, 2009 – Until half a century ago, Dutch and Flemish Catholicism seemed to be in solid shape, strong in its traditions, active in mission. One of its symbols was Fr. Jozef Damiaan de Veuster (1840-1889), an apostle to the lepers on an island in the Pacific, who was proclaimed a saint by Benedict XVI last October 11.

A few days ago, just before Christmas, another great symbol of this Catholicism died at the age of 95 in Nijmegen, Dominican theologian Edward Schillebeeckx, Flemish by birth, Dutch by choice.

However, this is a symbol not of the flourishing but of the astonishing deterioration that the Church of Flanders and of Holland has experienced over the past half century.

Schillebeeckx reflected this metamorphosis in his own life as a theologian. In the years of Vatican Council II and of the period immediately after the council, he was a star of worldwide impact, a champion of the new theology in step with the dominant culture. But then he was almost forgotten, even by the Catholics who had acclaimed him.

The disregard that fell over him went hand in hand with what was happening in the meantime in Dutch Catholicism, increasingly more forgetful of itself, increasingly secularized, increasingly in danger of disappearing.

The survey reproduced below is a snapshot of the current profile of the Catholic Church in Holland. A country in which today 41 percent of the population say that they have no religious faith, and 58 percent no longer know what Christmas is. A Church in which there are Dominicans and Jesuits who are theorizing and practicing Masses without priesthood or Christian sacrament, in which those present "consecrate" collectively, around a "table that is also open to people of different religious traditions."

All of this while at the same time, a city like Rotterdam has been thoroughly Islamized, as www.chiesa showed in a shocking article a few months ago.

The survey that follows is by Marina Corradi, and was published on December 23 in "Avvenire," the newspaper owned by the Italian bishops' conference. Its epicenter is Amsterdam.

The reportage is accompanied by an interview with Cardinal Adrianus Simonis, archbishop emeritus of Utrecht.

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Read the remainder of the article with an interview by a Liberal Prelate at the end.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Revolutionary Theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) deceased

Radbound University Nijmegen
Yesterday, on the 23rd of December 2009, the internationally renowned theologian Edward Schillebeeckx died. Dr Schillebeeckx was Professor of Dogmatics and History of Theology at Nijmegen University from 1957 to 1983. Edward Schillebeeckx has been of major importance to twentieth century and contemporary theology. Many recognize him as a pioneer who connected faith, church and theology with modern humanity in a secular society. He has been an iconic figure for Radboud University Nijmegen.

Edward Schillebeeckx was born in Antwerp, on 12 November 1914. In 1934, he entered the order of the Dominicans and in 1941 he was ordained as a priest. Late in 1957, Schillebeeckx was appointed Professor of Dogmatics and History of Theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, now known as Radboud University Nijmegen.

Second Vatican Council
Schillebeeckx accompanied the Dutch bishops as their advisor during the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965). In 1960 he wrote a pastoral letter for the bishops informing the faithful about the Council. This letter attracted international attention because of the way in which Schillebeeckx described the relationship between the faithful and the hierarchy of the Church: he believed it is the task of the bishops and the Pope to express the live of the faithful, rather than the other way around.

Faith can change the world
In 1974, Schillebeeckx published Jezus, het verhaal van een levende, (translated in 1979 as Jesus: an experiment in Christology), and in 1977 Gerechtigheid en liefde, genade en bevrijding translated in 1980 as Christ: the Christian experience in the modern world). In these books, Schillebeeckx presented Christian faith as a source of inspiration for those who wish to stand up for the poor and oppressed and change the world for good. These books have broken new ground for twentieth-century theology and are still widely read and studied.

Church authorities
Schillebeeckx continued to be involved in the internal affairs of the church after the Second Vatican Council. In addition to his earlier works on the sacraments of the Church (De sacramentele heilseconomie, 1953), his later publications deal with priesthood and the role of the faithful in the Church (Kerkelijk ambt, 1980 and Pleidooi voor mensen in de kerk, 1985, translated as The Church with a human face: a new and expanded theology of ministry). As a result of the innovative character of his works, Schillebeeckx was asked to justify himself to the Church authorities on three occasions. Shortly before his retirement in 1983, he received the prestigious European Erasmus prize. Schillebeeckx’ work is still widely studied, particularly in the United States and Great Britain.

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