Bishop issues decree prohibiting hand communion. Consultation with the Bishops' Conference is not necessary.
By: Created by Gero P. Weishaupt on February 4, 2020 at 3:19 p.m.
chalice
The body of Christ should no longer be given to the hand. This was determined by the archbishop of Kampala, Cyprian Lwanga, the capital of Uganda, according to the internet portal katolisch.de in a "Decree on the proper celebration of the Eucharist". The prescribed oral communion should prevent abuse with the Holy Host. "In addition, the distribution should only be done by priests in proper official garb. Cohabiting but unmarried couples are excluded from the Eucharist,” it says.
Contrary to other statements of the Internet portal, an agreement with the Bishops' Conference is not necessary. Each bishop is his own and responsible top shepherd of his diocese and is not bound by any instructions from a bishops' conference. A diocesan bishop would only be bound by a general decree adopted by the majority of the conference and reviewed by the Apostolic See (can. 455). Even if agreements within a bishops' conference make sense for a uniform pastoral approach by the bishops, a bishop ultimately only has to follow God and his conscience in his pastoral service. The next higher instance of a diocesan bishop is not the Episcopal Conference, but the Apostolic See.
Photo: Kelch - Image source: C. Steindorf, kathnews
Edit: I could have said, bishop of the margins, but he’s much bigger than that.
Auxiliary Bishop Barron (Los Angeles) and Auxiliary Bishop Schneider (Astana) represent censorship versus frankness.
(Rome) Cardinals against cardinals and bishops against bishops are currently taking place in the Church. And the vast majority of the pastors are silent - not necessarily elegant, but overwhelmed or cowardly. The most recent example is two auxiliary bishops who take completely opposite positions on the same subject. On one side is Msgr. Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, on the other side Msgr. Athanasius Schneider of Astana.
"It is time to introduce a permit"
Monsignor Robert Barron was appointed Titular Bishop of Macriana and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2015 by Pope Francis. He is quite well known in the English-speaking world for his publishing activities as the founder of the non-profit organization Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. He recently advocated the introduction of a Nihil obstat by the bishops for everyone who publishes on social networks. According to Bishop Barron, online activities by Catholics should be subject to approval. What he brings up is the ecclesiastical variant of a tightened network enforcement law and coincides with the aspirations of certain secular circles in the left political spectrum since the election victory of US President Donald Trump in November 2016 to try to restrict the Internet.
The justification for the required Internet censorship is also congruent with worldly endeavors. There is "hate speech," Auxiliary Bishop Barron said, and positions that "move away from the theology of the Church." What is meant by this seems less clear today than one might think at first glance. What exactly is “the theology of the Church” today that does not tolerate a dissenting opinion? Theology is not the same doctrine. Which theology should you not “move away from” in order not to lose the episcopal permission to publish on the Internet?
The U.S. Catholic National Catholic Register published an interview with Auxiliary Bishop Barron on January 29.
Question: Do you think the Church needs to develop its vision and social teaching in relation to social media?
Auxiliary Bishop Barron: I would like to make a proposal in this regard, knowing that as a little backbencher to the Bishops' Conference I have absolutely no authority to do that. But like John Paul II in Ex corde ecclesia the bishops are called upon to exercise greater oversight of the universities under the aegis of the church, I would recommend that we bishops exercise some authority over those who claim to teach for the Church in social media space. To be honest, there is a troubling number of such people on social media who deal with hateful, divisive speech, who often contradict the theology of the Church and, unfortunately, have a strong influence on God's people. I think that the shepherds of the Church who oversee the magisterium can and should point out when people damage the body of Christ on social media. I wonder if it's time to introduce something like a permit for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online
"It is our right to express our concern"
Msgr. Athanasius Schneider, who was founded in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI. Titular Bishop of Celerina and Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda. In 2011 the same Pope appointed him as Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Astana. In September 2019, Bishop Schneider, together with Diane Montagna, published the conversation book "Christus Vincit: Christ's Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age " in the United States. Diane Montagna is the courageous Rome correspondent from LifeSiteNews who asked uncomfortable questions about the idolatry of the Pachamama at press conferences on the Amazon Synod.
The book deals with the same subject that Auxiliary Bishop Barron commented on, but Auxiliary Bishop Schneider answered it quite differently.
Question: Is the Internet an important tool for the laity to defend the faith?
Auxiliary Bishop Schneider: Yes, of course. I see the internet and social media as tools of providence that offer laypeople who want to defend their faith a unique opportunity to be united. That would not have been possible 30 years ago. Now I see lay people, men and women who have the courage to say to their pastor, bishop and also the Holy See: “Please, we are concerned about these facts. This is not the belief of our fathers. We ask to defend the faith of our mother, the Church. "The liberal church establishment - I call it the church nomenclature [1] - now accuses the laity of interference and says: "It is not your business. Shut up!"
Question: That smells of clericalism, wouldn't you say?
Auxiliary Bishop Schneider : Yes, this attitude of these clerics against the lay faithful is evidence of enormous clericalism The lay faithful must answer these arrogant clerics. That is what the Second Vatican Council teaches about the layperson's duty to testify and defend faith. You can tell these clerics: “If you love the Second Vaticanum so much, you must allow yourself to be criticized! Let us stand up and speak frankly in the Church to defend our fathers. We have the right to express our concern, including the Pope, because we are a family. ”In this new and courageous attitude of many lay people, I see a realization of the intentions of the Second Vatican Council. God allowed evil after the Council and uses it to gain greater good from it.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Archdiocese of Los Angeles / Corrispondenza Romana
[1] The "nomenklatura" were the communist functionaries, all key positions occupied in the socialist dictatorships in the Eastern Bloc and all areas of public life supervised and directed.
Pope Paul VI defended priestly celibacy with a remarkable speech on February 1, 1970.
(Rome) Exactly 50 years ago, Pope Paul VI. gave an important speechfor priestly celibacy. The reason for this was attacks by bishops who wanted to abolish celibacy. The parallels are obvious: Back then it was Dutch bishops, today they are German bishops. The geographic and linguistic direction from which the attack comes has remained the same. The difference is in the attitude of the ruling pope. Pope Francis' word during his visit to Colombia that he would never agree to an end to celibacy was - as experience shows - unfortunately worth nothing. This statement is hard and painful. Who would have thought of reporting it of a pope, but what is worth a word if the opposite of that is done
The absence of a formal act of consent is ultimately irrelevant when it is initiated, encouraged, encouraged and tolerated in practice, which is denied according to words, see the behavior in connection with the admission by Amoris laetitia of people in serious sin to communion, see the behavior towards the German Bishops' Conference in connection with the admission of Protestant spouses to Communion, see the behavior in connection with the Amazon synod .
In March 2017, in an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Francis declared his willingness to speak about the admission of married priests. The same Francis, a few months later, on September 9, 2017, in Colombia, appeared to be vigorously defending the sacramental priesthood - and also celibacy - in front of a mass audience that was less liberal than the readership of the Die Zeit. That there are no vocations at the present time is a "fairy tale," thundered Francis:
"And don't come here to tell me: 'No, of course, there aren't that many calls for a special consecration because - that's clear - with this crisis we are experiencing ...' Do you know what that is? Are these fairy tales? Is that clear? Even in the midst of this crisis, God calls."
Curia Archbishop Georg Gänswein is the most recent victim of Pope Francis.
(Rome) Francis has been described as vindictive and vengeful by several authors critical of the Pope. The retaliation for the latest book by Cardinal Robert Sarah and Benedict XVI follows: Pope Francis removes Archbishop Georg Gänswein from his office as Prefect of the Pontifical House.
There have been similar rumors several times in the past, but now it's fixed. However, official confirmation of the latest Bergoglian sentence is still pending. "Apart from the media advance notice, Santa Marta is once again afraid of it," said a Vatican employee. This should be less to be expected, because Pope Francis has so far not been deterred by critical voices in his intentions, least of all if they come from faithful circles.
The "Black Pope", Jesuit General Arturo Sosa Abascal, formulated the situation on September 16, 2019 after six and a half years of the current pontificate:
"Pope critics know that Francis will not change his mind."
[Katholisches] The words were geared towards the Amazon Synod still pending at that time and its main intention to abolish priestly celibacy. This is exactly what the book of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship and Order of the Sacraments, and Benedict XVI. did. Together they made a plea for priestly celibacy and the sacrament. With their “hands off celibacy” they drew a red line, the first unspoken addressee of this is Pope Francis. The post-synodal letter on the Amazon Synod is still pending, but it shows what faithful Church groups have feared since 2014: Francis creates an exception to the rule that leads to the intended dam break. The German bishops have been waiting impatiently for a long time. A whole series of bishops in the German-speaking world, in Austria and Switzerland it is no different, can hardly wait to dispose of celibacy on the dung heap of history. He is said to be carried to the grave with unctuous ramblings. That is why the Bergoglian bishop generation is not embarrassed (see Married Priests? What bishops of the German-speaking area say about this).
The book by the cardinal and the past pope, which makes it clear that Pope Francis crosses the red line with a softening of celibacy and breaks the tradition of the Church, caused an outburst of anger in Santa Marta. The result was a scandalous media theater, staged by the papal inner-circle, with which confusion about the authorship of Benedict XVI. was generated. Since the secular mass media has a wider reach, well-meaning Catholics still believe Benedict XVI. had denied authorship and must somehow have been "concocted" by Cardinal Sarah. In reality, the fake news campaign aimed to counteract the effectiveness of the book and its defense of priestly celibacy. Contrary to the widespread claim that celibacy is "only" a law of the Church and therefore can be changed at any time, it is "of divine and apostolic origin" (Roberto de Mattei), see also Cardinal Sarah: "Celestial celibacy is not just a law the Church". Celibacy, however, stands in the way of the "sexual revolution" and its view of sexuality. This has been the mainstay of the fight against celibacy since the 1960s.
Archbishop Gänswein came, because of his double position as private secretary of Benedict XVI. and as Prefect of the Pontifical House of Francis immediately and directly into the line of firing. He now also feels the revenge of Santa Marta, which affects him, but of course also and not least, this means Benedict XVI. It remains to be seen whether the retaliation will be packed into a dismantling of the Papal Prefecture. Whatever the packaging should look like, Msgr. Gänswein is removed from his office, the motivation and the papal intention are clear.
The convinced Bergoglian and pope biographer Austen Ivereigh already asked in an interview on August 10, 2019 to isolate Benedict XVI, whose authority has remained unbroken in large Church circles worldwide. Ivereigh's invitation to Santa Marta was:
"We have to get the circle around Benedict XVI. under control."
Note the personal pronoun "we", which, besides Ivereigh, means the papal inner-circle and Pope Francis himself. The first, closest and most important “circle” of Benedict XVI. is his private secretary and long-time, loyal employee of Archbishop Georg Gänswein.
Ivereigh was the spokesman for Cardinal Cormack Murphy-O’Connor, a member of the ecclesiastical “gang of four”, which he referred to as Team Bergoglio, and Ivereigh himself revealed their existence. The four-member cardinal group (Kasper, Lehmann, Murphy-O'Connor and Danneels), according to the British journalist and author, organized the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope as the executive arm of the inner-Church secret circle of St. Gallen.
A struggle is raging in the Church “between two churches”, as the historian and President of the Lepanto Foundation Roberto de Mattei analyzed, one of which could not be the Church of Jesus Christ.
[Update, 12.05 p.m.] Curial Archbishop Georg Gänswein was "put on leave” by Pope Francis. Informally, it is embellished that Gänswein should have more time to look after Benedict XVI. And take care of him. Vatican circles currently do not expect the post of Prefect of the Pontifical House to be filled. Access to the Pope, one of the prefect's main tasks, was handled by Francis from the start through other hands. Archbishop Gänswein's duties were largely reduced to the duty of attendance when receiving state visits and as an extra for papal activities.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
'There are too many people talking about the Pope,' said Cardinal Bassetti, President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, when he met media representatives.
Edit: I’d have thought approving of this Pope was something Protestants were likely to do. Would Protestants welcome traditionalist Catholics like they welcome unrepentant sodomites?
Perugia (kath.net/lifesitenews/jg)
"If someone does not like the Pope, he should be allowed to say it because he can go other ways," said Gualtiero Cardinal Bassetti, President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, during a meeting with media representatives in Perugia on January 25.
"There are too many people talking about the Pope," Bassetti said of the growing discontent with Pope Francis among Catholics. He told someone to go to the Protestants if he didn't like the Catholic Church. They would have neither a pope nor a bishop. Everyone can make their own decisions.” "Enough complaining. It doesn't help anyway,” he said.
Cardinal Bassetti (77) is Archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve (Italy). Pope Francis made him cardinal in 2014. He has been the President of the Italian Episcopal Conference since 2017.
It is not clear who Bassetti (archive photo) specifically meant by his outburst described by Italian media. Il Messaggero suspected that the displeasure of many Italians with Pope Francis' stance on immigration could have triggered the cardinal's acrimony. At the media meeting, Bassetti presented the program for the Mediterranean initiative "Mediterranean: Border of Peace" organized by the Italian Episcopal Conference, which will take place in Bari from September 19 to 23
What we have suspected all along is
now confirmed. Leaked documents reveal that Pope Francis' forthcoming Apostolic
Exhortation of the Amazonian Synod is an attempt to open the door to married
priests in the Catholic Church.
According to a late-breaking story from
LifeSiteNews, “Pope
Francis’ post-synodal exhortation of the Amazon Synod will abolish celibacy,
according to several bishops who have leaked the document.” (LifeSiteNews, January 31, 2020)
The
article states: “According to documents obtained by Corrispondenza
Romana,
the apostolic exhortation, due for release in February, reproduces verbatim a
paragraph dedicated to priestly celibacy in the synod’s final document.”
In a clear break from Church
teaching, the exhortation says:
“We know that this discipline [of
priestly celibacy] ‘is not demanded by the very nature of the priesthood.’” Going
on it says: “We
propose that criteria and dispositions be established by the competent
authority, within the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to
ordain as priests suitable and respected men of the community with a
legitimately constituted and stable family.”
Professor Roberto de Mattei, who
received the leaked documents from “several bishops,” says, “There is no reason
to prohibit in other regions of the world what will be permitted in some parts
of the Amazon.”
Trial Balloon
This in fact has been the plan from
the beginning, i.e. to use the Amazon as a trial balloon. The ploy was to first
sanction married priests in the Amazon region so that other areas of the Church
‘deprived’ of this dispensation could then cry “discrimination” and clamor for
married priests, whereupon the Vatican would concede to their wishes with the
justification that the plan thus far had been “successful” in the Amazon.
“The ability to renounce marriage in order to place oneself
totally at the Lord’s disposal is a criterion for the priestly ministry. As for
the concrete form of celibacy in the ancient Church, it should also be pointed
out that married men could only receive the sacrament of Holy Orders if they
had committed themselves to sexual abstinence.”
This echoes what Benedict said in
his 2007 post-apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis:
“In union with the great ecclesial Tradition ... and my
Predecessors in the Petrine Ministry, I affirm the beauty and the importance of
a priestly life lived in celibacy as an expressive sign of total and exclusive
dedication to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and consequently
confirm its obligatory character for the Latin tradition” (n. 24).”
In a recent interview on the new book, Cardinal Robert Sarah says:
“Priestly celibacy is not a simple canonical discipline. If
the law of celibacy is weakened, even for a single region, it will open a
breach, a wound in the mystery of the Church. There is an
ontological-sacramental link between the priesthood and celibacy. This link
reminds us that the Church is a mystery, a gift from God that does not belong
to us. We cannot create a priesthood for married men without damaging the
priesthood of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church.”
Celibacy indeed is an integral part
of the priesthood, for which reason it has always been mandatory. Being a
priest requires that one be able to serve Christ with unretained freedom, which
isn’t possible if he is bound by carnal affections.
In the new book, Benedict XVI
reminds us that the renunciation of all things is a criterion for entering the
priesthood, which is in keeping with Christ’s teaching: “If any man come to me,
and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)
Unfortunately, a pagan infested
Vatican has been having misfits over the new book, alleging that it opposes
Pope Francis by raising the "specter of a parallel magisterium," when
in fact the book upholds the true Magisterium against Francis' counter-magisterium.
According to Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Cardinal Sarah’s intervention in
getting this book published “has provoked, so to speak, the anger of hell.”
Obviously, Sarah and Benedict are
doing something right so we pray that they continue with ever more constancy to
uphold their new book for the greater liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother the
Church.
Cardinal Müller: "The celibate way of life of Jesus Christ corresponds most intimately to the sacramental priesthood".
(Rome) Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, today published a magisterial lecture to defend priestly celibacy and the sacramental priesthood. In it he describes celibacy as the “bastion of the transcendent” that is to be destroyed and verbal charges against “external and internal forces” who strive for a man-made world religious unity without God. The wording of the Lectio, published today by Cardinal Müller at La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana.
Celibacy, the last transcendent bastion to be torn down
By Gerhard Cardinal Müller *
The media attempt to create confusion, because of the participation of Benedict XVI in Cardinal Sarah's book “From the Depths of our Hearts” is nothing more than a sign of the paranoia that is spreading in public about the alleged coexistence of two popes. Apparently, since there can only be one Pope in the Catholic Church because "the Bishop of Rome, as Peter's successor, is the everlasting, visible principle and foundation for the unity of the multitude of bishops and believers" (Lumen Gentium , 23).
In Benedict XVI's contribution in Cardinal Sarah's book there is new confirmation of the perception of this disturbance between the two opposing principles of unity. It is also obvious that Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI. are not the originators of this pathological polarization, but rather the victims of an ideological projection.
"Benedict XVI. is not a pensioner"
The latter poses a threat to the unity of the Church and at the same time undermines the primacy of the Roman Church. All these facts only show that the psychological trauma that was triggered by the resignation of Pope Benedict in early 2013 has not yet healed in the “sense of faith of the people of God” (LG 12; 35). However, believers have the right to a clear theological judgment about the coexistence of a ruling pope and his predecessor, who has now emerged. This extraordinary event, that the Pope, head of the college of bishops and the visible Church, whose invisible head is Christ himself, the Cathedra Petri before his death who has been given him for life can never be understood according to secular criteria, such as an age-related right to retirement or the popular desire to change the person of one's own boss. Although it is true that canon law provides this possibility in an abstract way (Can. 332 §2 CIC), there are still no detailed provisions or concrete experiences to describe the status of this figure and even more, how this in practice will be realized for the good of the Church.
In the world of politics, antagonists are common in the power struggle. Once the enemy is overcome, things continue as if nothing had happened. But it should not be like this among the disciples of Christ, because all are brothers in the Church of God. God alone is our father. And only His Son Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate (Jn 1: 14-18), is the master of all people (Mt 23:10). Bishops and priests are ministers of the Church because of the sacramental ordination chosen by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28). They lead the Church of God in the name and authority of Christ, and He speaks through their mouths as Divine Teachers of the Annunciation (1 Thess. 2.13). He sanctifies the faithful through them in the Sacraments. And finally Christ is the “guardian and shepherd of your souls” (1 Petr 2,25), He cares for the salvation of people by calling priests (bishops or presbyters) to His church so that they can be their shepherds (1 Peter 5: 2f; Acts 20:28). The Bishop of Rome holds the office of Saint Peter, who was called by Jesus, Lord of the Church, to be the universal shepherd (Jn 21:15–17). But the bishops are also brothers to one another, although as members of the college of bishops they are united with and under the authority of the Pope (LG, 23).
A still living "ex" pope is fraternally connected with all bishops and is subject to the teaching authority and the jurisdiction of the ruling pope. This in no way excludes that his word still has great weight in the Church due to his theological and spiritual competence as well as due to his experience in government both as a bishop and as a pope.
The relationship of each retired bishop to his successor must be marked by a spirit of fraternity. A desire for worldly prestige and political power games is a poison in the body of the Church, the body of Christ. This applies a fortiori even more so to the even more delicate relationship of the incumbent Pope to his predecessor, who has given up the office of Peter and all privileges of the papal primacy, which is why he is no longer the Pope.
"The Common Front of the Church's Inner and Outer Enemies"
What is particularly surprising is that those enemies of the Church, who come from the ranks of the Old Liberals and Marxist Neoheathens, make common cause with inner-Church secularists, who are driven by the desire to transform the Church of God into a globally active, humanitarian organization.
The militant atheist Eugenio Scalfari prides himself on being Pope Francis' friend. United through the common idea of a single, planetary religion of human origin (without trinity and without incarnation) he offers him his cooperation. The idea of a popular front of believers and non-believers is propagated against those who identify Scalfari as an enemy and opponent in the ranks of the cardinals and bishops and the Catholics ("right-wing conservatives"). In it he finds like-minded spirits who belong to the circle of those who describe themselves as part of a "Bergoglian Guard." This network of left-wing populists, driven by the mere desire for power, they pervert the Pope's potestas plena into a potestas illimitata et absoluta. This reflects obvious voluntarism: From their point of view, everything is good and true because the Pope wants it and not because the Pope says or does something. They contradict the Second Vatican Council, which the Magisterium recognizes in the service of revelation “by teaching nothing but what has been handed down, because it hears the word of God with the divine commission and interprets it with awe with the help of the Holy Spirit, holy preservation and faithfulness" ( Dei Verbum , 19). They therefore turn to be demonic opponents of the papacy, as it is dogmatically defined in the teachings of the First and Second Vatican Councils. If the principle of service and the standard of friendship (Jn 15:15) applied between Jesus and His disciples, how can the relationship between the Pope and his brothers in the episcopate be shaped by a submissive opportunism and a blind and irrational obedience that is outside the unity of belief and reason inherent in Catholic theology? According to the liberal Marxist view, a pope would be "up to date" to the extent that he would finish the ruthless agenda of the extreme left and promote a spirit of unity devoid of any transcendence,without God and without historical salvation through Christ, the only mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2: 5).
The masters who manipulate public opinion and the ideologues of this world (the Civitas terrena ) abuse their power if they fail to observe the natural law of morality and the commandments of God. They repeatedly usurp God's place and turn into demons in human disguise. But where God is recognized as the only Lord, there is grace and life, freedom and love. In the Kingdom of God, the words of Jesus are basic guidance:
"But it shouldn't be like this with you, but whoever wants to be great with you should be your servant (...) Because the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10.43–45).
The sacramental ordination (to the bishop, priest and deacon) remains valid and effective and with it also the responsibility for the teaching of the Church and its pastoral mission. The old opponents of Joseph Ratzinger (as Prefect of Faith as well as pope) have no right against him to impose a damnatio memoriaeto, all the less since the majority of them differ from their qualities as Church teachers by a startling theological and philosophical dilettantism. Benedict XVI's contribution Cardinal Sarah's book can only be discredited as an act of opposition to Pope Francis by those who mistake the Church of God for an ideological-political organization. They do not want to understand that the secrets of faith can only be grasped with the "spirit of God", but not with the "spirit of the world".
"But the earthly minded man does not accept what comes from the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2:14).
In the beginning, not even the apostles wanted to understand that there are people who are willing to renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said to them:
It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick (Mt 19:12).
And then explained to them:
"Anyone who has left home or wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of God's Kingdom will receive many times over in present time and eternal life in the world to come" (Luke 18: 29-30; cf. Mt 19 , 29).
The claim that Benedict was the secret opponent of the ruling Pope and that the defense of the sacramental priesthood and celibacy were part of an obstruction policy against the expected post-synodal writing on the Amazon Synod can only thrive in the fertile ground of theological ignorance. Nobody refutes this fixed idea more brilliantly than Pope Francis himself.
In the foreword to the anthology on ordination, on the occasion of Joseph Ratzinger's 65th anniversary in 2016, Pope Francis wrote:
“Every time I see the works of Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI., it becomes clear to me that he practiced theology on his knees and still does it on his knees, because you can see that he is not just an outstanding theologian and teacher of faith, but a man who really believes, who really prays. You can see that he is a man who embodies holiness, a man of peace, a man of God.”
After rejecting the caricature of the Catholic priest as an official and expert in a Church that is like an NGO, Pope Francis once again underlines the exceptional status of Joseph Ratzinger as a theologian on Cathedra Petri in the following words:
"Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has confirmed that the theological work of Joseph Ratzinger first and Benedict XVI. then enlisted him among the great theologians in the Petrine chair, such as Pope Leo the Great, saint, and Church Father. (…) With this in mind and with due regard to the Prefect of Faith, I would add that perhaps today, as Pope Emeritus, he is obviously giving us one of his greatest lessons in 'theology on his knees'.”
"The priest associated with Christ is not an official."
Benedict XVI's contribution on Cardinal Sarah's book offers a hermeneutic, Christological-pneumatological deepening of the unity of the Old and New Testaments, a unity based on the divine revelation of himself in history. He thus offers help to overcome the theological and spiritual crisis of the priesthood, which “has an increasingly important task (…) in the area of the renewal of the Church of Christ” ( Presbyterorum Ordinis, 1). The priest is not a company official who offers socio-religious services. He is also not a representative of an autonomous community that could exercise its own rights before God, instead of receiving "every good gift and every perfect gift (...) from above, from the Father of the stars" (James 1:17). Rather, through holy consecration, he is made equal to Jesus Christ, the high priest and mediator of the New Covenant, the divine master and good shepherd, who gives his own life for the sheep of the flock of God (LG, 29; PO, 2).
For this conformitas cum Christo also follows the fact that Christ's celibate way of life closely corresponds to the sacramental priesthood. Jesus himself spoke of the disciples who live abstinently and freely choose to dispense with marriage and their own family than those who bear witness to the coming kingdom and work for the salvation of men (Mt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:32). Celibacy is not categorically required by the nature of the priesthood, but it corresponds most intimately to the nature of this sacrament, since it represents Christ, the head of the Church, with the authority that comes from the mandate and the way of life dedicated to God ( see PO, 16). For this reason, the dispensaries of the Celibacy Act, as they have developed in different ways in the Eastern and Western Churches, are exceptions and not the rule of priestly celibacy. The Church must fundamentally aim at a celibate priesthood. Based on the biblical origins and as a result of the obligation to abstain in marriage for the married clerics, the practice took shape to consecrate bishops, priests and deacons only from among those who promise from the beginning to live as celibates.
In the Eastern Church, a break with the tradition of the early church - and certainly not based on its model - led to the marriage of priests and deacons by the Second Trullan Synod (691/692), which took place, characteristically, in the Imperial Palace and not in a Church respectively. In the Latin Church, on the other hand, only celibate men who had previously promised to lead a celibate life were consecrated. In the Eastern Churches, married clerics, but not the bishops, were allowed to remain married provided that they abstain from the marriage act and cease it for a period prior to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and not marry again should their wife die. This provision also applies to those Catholic clerics who have received a dispensation from the obligation to celibacy (LG, 29). The Catholic Church accepts this practice in the Uniate Eastern Church in the name of the greater good of unity and has been granted since Pius XII, and as for the Anglicans, since Benedict XVI, those clergymen who return from other denominations to full unity with the Church and are already married, are exempt from celibacy if they are ordained priests.
“Attack on the Sacramental Priesthood”
In short, abolishing priestly celibacy along the lines of the 16th century Protestant and Anglican communities would be an attack on the nature of the priesthood and an act of contempt for the entire Catholic tradition. Who wants to take responsibility before God and His Holy Church for the catastrophic consequences for spirituality and theology of the Catholic priesthood? Millions of priests since the founding of the Church would feel deeply hurt by claiming that their existential sacrifice to the Kingdom of God and the Church was based only on an external, legal discipline that had nothing to do with the priesthood and celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The shortage of priests (in number and quality) in western countries, is not a shortage to be blamed on God, but on our own shortcomings in living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and savior of the world.
We are not only experiencing a discussion, but a fierce battle against celibacy and also against the sacramental priesthood. The Protestant reformers of the 16th century considered the Church office only a religious function within the Christian community, and so they denied its Sacramental character. If ordination no longer corresponds to an inner alignment with Christ, the Divine Master, the Good Shepherd and high priest of the New Covenant, then the understanding of the intimate connection with celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, which is rooted in the Gospel, is also lost ( Mt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:32).
In the wake of the polemics of the Protestant Reformation and due to an immanentist view of man that is his own, the French Enlightenment saw priestly celibacy and religious vows only as a form of the repression of the sexual instinct that could lead to neuroses and perversions similar to those later theses, which were represented by depth psychology, considering sexuality as a mechanical satisfaction of instincts, which, if "suppressed", would cause neuroses and perversions.
In the current dictatorship of relativism, the emphasis on sacramental authority, which stems from a higher divine authority, is perceived as a clerical hunger for power, and the celibacy model of life as a public accusation against a viewpoint that reduces sexuality to selfish pleasure. Priestly celibacy appears as a final bastion of a radically transcendent orientation of man and hope for a future world in the hereafter, which according to the atheistic principles is a dangerous illusion.The Catholic Church is bitterly hostile because it represents an ideological alternative to the radical immanentism of the power and economic elite, which strives for absolute control over the mind and body of the starving masses of mankind .
You disguise yourself in a therapeutic gesture as philanthropists who would do nothing but do a favor to the poor priests and religious by freeing them from the cage of oppressed sexuality. In their triumphant ignorance, however, these benefactors of humanity do not notice how much they insult the dignity of all Christians, who take the indissolubility of marriage seriously in their God-oriented conscience or faithfully adhere to celibacy with the help of grace. Exactly where these believing Christians make the most important decisions in the depths of their conscience before God, those who deny a supernatural vocation of man want to convince them to enter the limited horizon of a doomed existence, as if the living God did not exist ( Gaudium et spes , 21).
“Since the creation of the world, its invisible reality has been perceived in the works of creation with reason, its eternal power and deity. Therefore, they are inexcusable. Because they recognized God, but did not honor him as God and did not thank him. (...) They claimed to be wise and became fools. They exchanged the glory of the imperishable God with images depicting a transient human being and flying, four-footed and crawling animals” (Romans 1: 20-23).
The vile indictment claims that those sinister reactionaries in the Church who promote sacramental celibacy, a worldly sexual morality - as it appears in the prosecutor's eyes - and defend misanthropic celibacy in order to modernize the Catholic Church and adapt it to the modern, would delay or even hinder the world. At best, they tolerate a Church without God, without the cross of Christ, and without the hope of eternal life. This "Church of dogmatic indifferentism and moral relativism,“ which could include atheists and non-believers alike, can talk about the climate change, overpopulation and migrants; but it has to remain silent about abortion, self-mutilation, which is called a sex change, euthanasia and the blameworthy character of a sexual intercourse outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. One is called to absolutely accept the sexual revolution, since it is an act of liberation from the rejection of the body by Catholic sexual morality. In this way this would send a sign of remorse for the traditional rejection of the body that comes from the Manichean legacy of St. Augustine.
"An Advisor to the Pope"
In spite of all this flattery, faithful Catholics hold the well-founded conviction that instead of the atheist Scalfari, who neither believes in God nor is able to understand the "mystery of the Holy Church" (LG, 5), Benedict XVI. (Joseph Ratzinger) would be an infinitely more competent advisor for the representative of Christ, successor of Peter and head shepherd of the world Church. This applies both to his theological qualities and his spiritual intuition in the mystery of God's love, as well as to his experience as a pope, alone before God, for the world Church, a responsibility that Benedict is the only one among all still living people on earth, shares with Pope Francis.
What Pope Francis wrote in the foreword to the book on the priesthood of his predecessor should be read by all "the knowledgeable and powerful of the world" (1 Cor. 2.6) before they share their paranoid fantasies about opponents of the pope, cardinals at war, and impending schisms trumpet in all four directions:
“[Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI.] Embodies that constant relationship with the Lord Jesus without which nothing is true, everything becomes routine, the priests almost full-time employees, the bishops bureaucrats and the Church no longer the Church of Christ, but our product, an ultimately superfluous NGO. "
Francis continues by addressing the cardinals, bishops and priests gathered for the book presentation in the Sala Celementina on July 28, 2016, not as to subordinates to be commanded but how to speak to friends:
"Dear Brothers! I dare to say that if any of you ever have doubts about the center of your ministry, its meaning, its usefulness, if you ever have doubts about what people really expect from us, meditate thoroughly on these pages you are offered to us: because they expect us above all from what you find described and testified in this book: that we bring them Jesus Christ and lead them to him, to the fresh and living water that they want more than anything else that only he can give and that no substitute can ever replace; that we lead them to full and true bliss; when nothing satisfies them anymore, that we can make them realize their innermost dream, which no power can promise and fulfill! "
* The text is a translation of the Italian text published today by Cardinal Müller in the Catholic Internet newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana .
