The Synod has started....

Interesting four Cardinals said they didn't sign that document.

http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-family-synod-takes-twist-disputed-letter-181753711.html

 

fallen saint
"...left no room for debate. If they have three weeks to listen to all views... the Holy Father was not pleased with the opening speech being the concluding speech. The Holy Father wants the Holy Spirit to be present during these three weeks of prayer and debate... before a final conclusion is made."

I totally agree that is where the Pope is coming from. He doesn't want the synod to be too closed, he wants it to be open to new ideas. His thinking is that there are countless Catholics outside the tent on an awful lot of these issues and there is not much point is having a synod without at least hearing from their point of view.

So for example I totally disagree with Kasper et al, and I think virtually all faithfull Catholics think the same way, but what about all the 'cafeteria Catholics'? You have to bring these guys into the debate so that at least they will feel that their views are being heard, even if they will be later rejected. That is why the Pope allows the conservative voices to be silenced a little now, it doesn't mean he will change Church doctine in the final document.

 

So........what have we really learned????????????????????????

 

A group of Conservatives are worried...and they are trying to influence the Synod.

Like I said before its not bad or good. But at least we know its not as bad as it sounds.

I still think it is interesting how the Holy Spirit is working. I believe in the end...the Holy Spirit will have final say. But this Synod is a once in a lifetime (modern day... up close and personal) how the Holy Spirit works in the modern church.

Nothing has been said against the Pope or against any of the Cardinals. It is like the early Church when discussions were made on very important issues.

If we were saying something wrong...i would agree with you but we are just excited about the Synod and the discussions taking place.

Brother al

 

October 12, 2015, Monday — Apostasy



“It is our very sleepiness to the presence of God that renders us insensitive to evil: we don’t hear God because we don’t want to be disturbed.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican City, April 20, 2011, General Audience


“The attempts made through the ages to extinguish the light of God, to replace it with the glare of illusion and deceit, have heralded episodes of tragic violence against mankind. This is because the attempt to cancel the name of God from the pages of history results in distortion, in which even the most beautiful and noble words lose their true meaning.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican City, December 14, 2012


“Catholics who have matured to this point have always been forced into a ghetto — often enough by their fellow Catholics... This is not directly a matter of their own choosing. Like most men, they would like to have some effective say in the running of their world. Their exclusion results from their choice to stay close to the Lord. Those who are less mature, like the earlier Jews, think that compromise is possible — and often it is, if one considers the matter abstractly and without realizing the intrinsic corruption of all men by sin. Hence, those less mature do not understand the somewhat distant and reserved coolness or even hostility of someone more mature towards the objects of their enthusiasms. They consider ‘getting ahead’ a benefit not only to themselves but to the Church, and are puzzled by those who do not. They fail to see that the world lets them get ahead — unless the Lord Himself intervenes — only insofar as they serve the world’s cause, first unconsciously, then with increasing awareness. But those of that maturity with which we are here concerned know clearly enough that ‘friendship with the world is enmity with God’ (James 4:4) and leads ultimately to betrayal or apostasy.” —The late Father Paul M. Quay, S.J. (1924-1994), in his book The Mystery Hidden for Ages in God (published in 1995), the result of 30 years of meditation upon how the individual Christian goes through “biblical stages” of gradual transformation into the likeness of Christ


========================================



The bombshells keep falling.



The latest news, which some of you will already have heard, is from an article by Vaticanist Sandro Magister, published this morning.



Magister reveals the text of a letter to Pope Francis which he says was sent on October 5, signed by 13 cardinals.



The cardinals express their serious “concerns” over the procedures of the Synod, especially the names of the 10 men chosen by Pope Francis to draft the final synod "relatio." In their judgment, these procedures seem “designed to facilitate predetermined results on important disputed questions.” (full text of the letter below)



In other words, the 13 cardinals were expressing concerns that the Synod is being "rigged," to use the word chosen by British journalist Edward Pentin as the title of his new book on the Synod just out from Ignatius Press, The Rigging of a Vatican Synod?: An Investigation of Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family.



But, like so much else concerning this Synod, shortly after the letter’s publication, questions arose.



Within four hours, four of the 13 alleged signers had said they had not signed the letter. So, there only remain nine signers as of this writing. (At this pace, by this midnight, all 13 signers will have denied their involvement.)



So Magister, just a few moments ago, without backing off or retracting his story, added this update:



"A spokesperson for Cardinal George Pell said that a private letter should remain private but it seems that there are errors in both the content and the list of signatories. The Cardinal is aware that concerns remain among many of the synod fathers about the composition of the drafting committee of the final 'relatio' and about the process by which it will be presented to the Synod fathers and voted upon.

"And in an interview with Crux, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier 'acknowledged signing a letter, but said its content was different from that presented in Magister’s report. The letter he signed, he said, was specifically about the 10-member commission preparing the final document.'"



From these two statements, we can deduce that there was some kind of letter, expressing real concern, from some number of cardinals, evidently including Pell and Napier, to Pope Francis. So, there is reason to continue to track this story.



The 13 alleged signers were:



1. Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy, theologian, formerly the first President of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family;



2. Thomas Collins, archbishop of Toronto, Canada;



3. Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, United States;



4. Willem Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht, Holland;



5. Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe and Relator General of the Synod;



6. Gerhard Müller, former bishop of Regensburg, Germany, since 2012 Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;



7. Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, South Africa, President Delegate of the Synod;



8. George Pell, archbishop emeritus of Sydney, Australia, since 2014 Prefect in the Vatican of the Secretariat for the Economy;



9. Mauro Piacenza, Genoa, Italy, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, since 2013 Penitentiary Major;



10. Robert Sarah, former archbishop of Conakry, Guinea, since 2014 Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;



11. Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Italy;



12. Jorge Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela; and



13. André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris, France.



These men are generally viewed as "conservatives," even "Ratzingerians" -- prelates in tune with the theological vision of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.



So the concerns of such men about “maneuvers” to unduly influence the Synod in a “progressive” direction would naturally be of great interest to the Pope and the whole Church.



But this morning, four of the 13 — Scola, Piacenza, Vingt-Trois and Erdo — said they had not signed this letter.



So the “Letter of the 13 Cardinals” has become the “Letter of the 9 Cardinals.”



And now a 5th cardinal, Napier, has said the letter he signed was not the letter Magister made public.



So, another perplexing scene in the long saga of this Synod is still shrouded in mystery.



But, even without knowing for sure who wrote or signed this document, is the underlying point valid? Is the Synod being "piloted" in a "progressive" direction?



A piece today by Italian Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci, a young journalist who has been distinguishing himself in his Monday Vatican column as one of the more thoughtful and well-informed among the Italian Vaticanisti, is worth reading (and whose writing in English has improved dramatically in recent months). (Full text below)



Gagliarducci says that a draft of the Synod's final document is already being prepared by a "restricted group" of the 10-member commission chosen by Pope Francis personally to prepare that document on the basis of the Synod's proceedings.



If this is true, it would mean that the material being prepared is not based on what will happen during the next week or 10 days in the Synod discussions.



Gagliarducci says the "adapters" at the Synod (Gagliarduccis term for the "progressives") are seeking to influence the Synod on two main topics:

 

(1) the issue of conscience, and



(2) the issue of devolving authority worldwide



In both of these "maneuvers," the goal is to provide "space" for innovation in doctrine.



In the first case, moral space, that is, the space within the individual conscience.



In the second case, geographical space, that is space out of the central control of a Pope and a Holy See entrusted with protecting the "deposit of the faith."



Gagliarducci writes: "Personal conscience will be given a prominent role in disciplinary questions. Whether access to sacramental Communion will be given for the divorced and remarried, or for those who live in homosexual relations, will be decided on the basis of personal conscience. Each person will be encouraged to solve it for himself in the “foro interno,” that is, in sacramental confession. True, the Church teaches that conscience needs to be well-formed, but it is possible that the adapters will not highlight this aspect."



And he continues: "The second issue adapters will focus on will be the need to devolve authority to make some disciplinary changes in keeping with the sensitivities particular to different geographic areas in the Church. No changes in doctrine will be mentioned, just changes in disciplinary practices. This way, every episcopal conference will adopt its own guidelines to meet doctrinal challenges. But the risk here is that the deposit of the faith could in the end be dismantled, and the centrality of Rome be lost."



In these paragraphs, Gagliarducci is giving us a valuable insight into the plans of the "adapters," as he calls them.



My understanding is that Gagliarducci's sources include a number of Vatican officials who represent that large group in the Holy See who remain committed to protecting the deposit of the faith, and I suspect that, in giving us these two points, he is giving us the considered judgment of this group.



What this means is that we are likely to see a concerted effort in coming days (1) to appeal to the rights of the individual conscience, and to (2) appeal to the need to have different disciplinary practices regarding marriage matters out of respect for regional differences in the Church (for example, one practice in Germany and Switzerland and one in South Africa and Australia, and so forth).



And so we come to the "bottom line." Is this in keeping with Church teaching and tradition? Is it what the Holy Spirit is inspiring the Church to do at this time?



Difficult questions.



There is no doubt that marriage and family life are in a crisis. Each generation, of course, has its own variations on these problems -- each family has its own problems. These can have to do (and what follows is just a superficial overview) with economics (the lack of funds even to rent a separate family apartment, or purchase or build a family home), with job and career issues (workers, like farmers or miners, who could once provide for their families thrown out of work due to technological changes), with situations of war and famine and disease, with ideological battles (from communism to feminism), with technology (things like medical care and artificial birth control products, many invented only in the past two or three generations).



So, on all these fronts, in all these areas, the family faces difficulties and threats.



And this may be in part the reason why it appears that divorce rates are soaring, and why "holding the family together" seems increasingly problematic.



If the Synod could offer some help and guidance on these matters, it would likely be quite useful.



But there is something else that is occurring. There is something more basic happening. There is a philosophical and metaphysical change taking place which is undermining the family.


We in the West live in a changing, “globalizing” society. In this society, a relativistic metaphysical attack on traditional Christian anthropology (the belief that human beings have a transcendent dimension and dignity, and that their moral lives ought to be “conformed” as much as possible to the life of Christ, Son of God) is also undermining the traditional Christian, and human, understanding of marriage.



As other writers have noted, the "de-transcendentalization" of man -- the "relativization" of man, of identity, of gender -- has changed how we conceive of ourselves and our possibilities.



In this world, it is thought that individual men and women cannot, or even should not, make a lifelong commitment. We are too "relative," too "changeable." Having no rudder which cuts down deeply into the water, connecting us with past and future, with ancestors and descendants, we have no way to chart our course. We are rudderless, directionless, and so incapable of being, or even becoming, beings with enough dignity to become "fathers" and "mothers," that is, beings who must become responsible for the lives, and souls, of our children, and protect them from both physical and spiritual death.



We do not have the "gravitas" in modern culture, to make eternal covenants.



This is, I would argue, the "great apostasy." This is what Dante was saying when he spoke of the miserable condition of the damned, or better, of those who had given up even hope of being damned. He wrote: "So low had they fallen that they no longer considered themselves creatures even worthy of being damned."



There is nothing in this life which surpasses the meaningfulness of covenants made, with God, with one's parents or children, or spouse, or friends, or oneself.



By making a covenant, by promising oneself, one transcends the doubts and hesitations of changing life, and attaches oneself to something higher and deeper.



The fact that this can no longer be done, or rarely, is a sign of the great crisis of our age. We have lost the belief in our own dignity, which was to be "capax Dei," "capable of God," able to know, love and serve God, able to be in touch with the ultimate truth and power of the universe.



So what must we do now?



We must offer a heroic, and persuasive, metaphysical defense of the Church’s faith: that marriage is a lifetime covenant directed toward new life between one man and one woman who, though weak and struggling, can make and carry out such a covenant.


This is more than a religious belief.



The family is an essential bulwark of human freedom.



The attack on the family is also an attack on this freedom.



Therefore, any conclusion of the Synod which would call into question this traditional understanding would not be true mercy.



Because it would not help the individuals involved to find their true dignity and happiness.



Though “the world” may ask the Church to embrace a type of “mercy” that would accept sinful behavior even if it harms souls — especially the souls of children, who have a right to a father and a mother — the Church must never choose such a false mercy which would bring “friendship with the world” but “enmity with God.”



Christians have a very simple but awful choice: either to remain faithful to the Savior and pay the price, or remain Christians only in name and be rewarded by the same world that crucified their Master.



====================

 

From: Fr. Francis Geremia, cs

MMP International Center

Como-Lora, Italy



October 7, 2015

Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary



RE: MMP and Popes, past and present



Because of the present confusion, even among the members of the MMP, I write to strengthen and encourage those of you who are faithful to Pope Francis, and to reach out to those of you who may have doubts.



The Act of Consecration was given to Fr. Gobbi by the Blessed Mother, for the members of the MMP throughout time. We must keep this consecration as it was given to us. This is what we pledge: “We further promise you to be united with the Holy Father...” In the messages, there are numerous references in which the Blessed Mother insists upon our obedience, our support, our love and our prayers for the Holy Father. I quote the following, which are just a few out of many:



#108

w How can the Mother publicly criticize the decisions of the Pope, when he alone has the special grace for the exercise of this sublime ministry?

x I was silent at my Son’s voice; I was silent at the voice of the Apostles. I am now lovingly silent at the voice of the Pope: that it might be disseminated more and more, that it might be heard by all, that it might be received into souls.

y This is why I am very close to the person of this first of my beloved sons, the Vicar of my Son Jesus.

z By my silence, I am helping him to speak.

A By my silence, I am lending strength to his own words.

B Return, return, my priest-sons, to love, obedience and communion with the Pope!

C Only in this way can you belong to my cohort, of which I am the Queen and Leader.

D Only in this way can you hear my orders, which I will give through the very voice of the Pope.



#293gh

g Be witnesses of unity.

h Above all you must be united with the Pope, whom Christ has placed as the foundation of his Church. Today only those who remain united to the Pope can be saved in the faith. Listen to him; follow him; spread his teaching with courage.



#253bc

b I want you docile and obedient to the Will of the Father, in perfect imitation of my Son Jesus: for this, you must always be obedient to the Church.

c The virtue which I love most in my priest-sons is that of obedience. Today, you must be an example to everyone, by obeying with joy your superiors, especially the Pope.

 

The stand out line in that letter IMHO (if it exists!).

The letter warned that “the collapse of liberal Protestant churches in the modern era, accelerated by their abandonment of key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of pastoral adaptation, warrants great caution in our own synodal discussions.”

 

Synod: “The distinction between sin and sinner no longer works”


At the midday press conference organized by the Vatican press office, Father Thomas Rosica emphasized this statement made by a Synodal Father during Saturday’s discussion on the third part of the Instrumentum laboris (while the second part is being examined by circuli minores since Monday morning):

“The distinction between sin and sinner no longer works. ”


This sentence had already been highlighted by the rapporteur in Italian which brought in substance: The differentiation between sin and sinner no longer works because sexuality is an integral part of the person.

Father Rosica added: “We must express these things in a new way so that people can understand them. “

The distinction between the person and the act is indeed a classic theology and Catholic morality; we are invited to “love the person and hate the sin.”

It is a distinction increasingly challenged because to hate sin is tantamount to stigmatizing those who commit it, not to say that homosexual act according to their “nature” as explained Mgr. Charamsa.

During the press conference, which has heavily emphasized the most progressive aspects of Saturday’s action, the claim that sexuality is an integral part of the person has been reported without shades. It fits completely in this logic.

 

Some days will be slanted liberal, others will be slanted conservative. Lots of statements will be said that might go for or against Catholic tradition.

That is why they are having a synod.

In the end the Holy Spirit will lead.

 

It will as they say all come out in the wash.

I have learnt the hard way not to get excited about media reports.

 

Todays Synod news is to discredit yesterdays Synod News....

The reporter who released this alleged document that Cardinals signed has been stripped of his Vatican press credentials. Cardinal Pell stated that's not the document the Cardinals signed...per EWTN Synod report 1pm today

 

1PM Eastern Monday-Saturday SYNOD Report



EWTN brings you complete coverage of "The Synod of Bishops on the Family" from Rome. As bishops from around the world gather with the Holy Father to discuss the structure and role of families, stay with EWTN for daily updates, analysis and commentary on this important event.

LIVE link...tune in @ 1pm for SYNOD updates
http://www.ewtn.com/index.asp?myselection=us .... sroll down a bit and on right side of page is LIVE link

 

When Apostles stand up the demons flee . . .

http://cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-c...ily-today-under-ferocious-and-enormous-attack
View attachment 3579

 

I had an interesting dream last night. My children and I were in a church, along with many other families. It was not Mass, but was a family event. The focus was on family. As we were trying to leave the building, several bears were roaming the parking lot, waiting to devour anyone who dared to leave. I was helplessly watching people exit to their deaths and trying to warn them, but they would not listen. Very few families stayed inside the church.

 

I don't really get why you would want to follow this on a daily basis, but as the saying goes to each his own. I just hope all are careful in interpreting and spreading information. I think we all have a responsibility to not spread information that is inaccurate or even slanted based upon the sources perspective. I guess for me, this would be too much of a temptation - to put in my own two cents based upon what I would like to see come out of the Synod - so I just will follow our Blessed Mother's example to be silent and ponder these things in my heart. And of course pray for the participants and really the entire Church- the Body of Christ- which will be impacted by the decisions made here.

One final thought. Can you imagine if we had all this media and blogs back in the times of the early Church. Can you picture the headline, "Paul rakes Peter over the coals in Antioch". .

Peace to all here.

 

This is what I've been waiting for...Africa will lead.

http://news.yahoo.com/cardinal-says-liberals-islamists-beasts-apocalypse-140743204.html

 

WOW! what an intence dream!
On a lighter side, maybe your Church could get this lil guy????

 

Heidi

Thanks for sharing your dream. It seems to me that a mother protecting her children inside the safety of the Church while evil roams about outside seeking to devour whomever they may is spot on, both for you as a mother and your children and Mary as a mother for all of us.

I do believe that God gives mothers an intuition with respect to their children. I have seen it at work first hand many times over the years with my wife and our girls.

I guess the point is to pray with our Lady and don't leave the Church

I like the video with the bears too!