Tag: Pope Francis

Married priests are also on Francis’ agenda

He’s given a go-ahead in some priest-short areas and has lifted the ban on ordination of the married among Eastern Riters.

There’s been a lot of speculation the past several months that Pope Francis is willing to expand possibilities for ordaining married men to the Catholic priesthood. Austrian-born Bishop Erwin Kräutler, head of a diocese in the Brazilian rainforest, said last April that Francis told him he’d be open to married priests for particular regions or nations if there were consensus among the bishops of the area. [italics added]

Bishops’ consensus, good.

A small stream of married clergymen from other Christian churches have been allowed to be ordained Catholic priests over the past few decades, especially with the establishment of the Anglican Ordinariate.

The nearest such Anglican-Roman Catholic parish, or community, is in Indianapolis, by the way:

St. Joseph of Arimathea [St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Use Society]

Phone: (765) 475-4970
E-mail: stjosephofa
Website: http://stjoearimatheasociety.org/
Location:

520 Stevens Street
Indianapolis, IN 46203

Mass Times
Sunday
8:00 AM
Holy Rosary Parish, Indianapolis

Here you find a traditionalist’s delight. The style seems more Roman than the usual Roman Catholic church in the U.S. or at least in the Midwest.

This [Anglican dispensation, as it were] has always angered Byzantine Catholics in places like the United States, Canada, and in other places considered the “diaspora” (outside their original Eastern Rite territories), because the Vatican has forbidden them from following their unbroken tradition of ordaining married men. It was thought be a scandal in places where celibate, Latin Rite priests were the majority.

Envy, scandal-taking, shock . . .

Not anymore. Pope Francis has lifted the ban. The only provision is that the ordaining Eastern bishop must consult with his Latin Rite counterpart. [Again, good] Why did the Holy See impose it in the first place? The U.S. archbishops asked for it back in 1893. “It is the solemn judgment of the Archbishops of the United States” – says the minutes of their Fourth Annual Conference – “that the presence of married priests of the Greek rite in our midst is a constant menace to the chastity of our unmarried clergy, a source of scandal to the laity and therefore the sooner this point of discipline is abolished before these evils obtain large proportions, the better for religion, because the possible loss of a few souls for the Greek rite, bears no proportion to the blessings from uniformity of discipline.” The conference vote for uniformity, under the leadership of Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore, was unanimous. [Again, italics added]

“Plus ça change?” asks Robert Mickens in Commonweal.

This married-priest issue has lain dormant for decades, as women priests have taken the forefront.

One major difference, of course, is that the first has been done, is done, and can be expanded.

Wouldn’t you pew-sitters like to hear God and heaven etc. discussed by husbands and fathers now and then from the pulpit?

What ‘America’s Ratzinger’ would like to ask Pope Francis | Crux

​​Cardinal George would like to ask Pope Francis what’s going on.

To begin, George said he’d like to ask Francis if he fully grasps that in some quarters, he’s created the impression Catholic doctrine is up for grabs.
Does Francis realize, for example, “what has happened just by that phrase, ‘Who am I to judge?’ ”
. . . .

“I don’t know whether he’s conscious of all the consequences of some of the things he’s said and done that raise doubts in people’s minds.”

“The question is why he doesn’t he clarify” these ambiguous statements, George said. “Why is it necessary that apologists have to bear the burden of trying to put the best possible face on it?”

. . . . .

George recalled that one of Francis’ favorite books is “The Lord of the World” by Robert Hugh Benson, a converted Catholic priest and son of a former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s an apocalyptic fantasy, written in 1907, culminating in a showdown between the Church and a charismatic anti-Christ figure.

George said he’d like to ask Francis a simple question: “Do you really believe that?”

“I hope before I die I’ll have the chance to ask him how you want us to understand what you’re doing, when you put [the end-times] before us as a key to it all,” he said.

Perhaps, George said, the sense that the end is near explains why Francis “seems to be in a hurry.”

More more more with more to come . . .

Let’s hear it for the new Chicago archbishop, the good and (for now) the merely not so good . . .

A Spokane supporter of Chicago’s incoming archbishop:

“This guy is not lukewarm about anything,” said Rob McCann, executive director of the local Catholic Charities, the diocese’s social ministry arm. “He’s a guy that doesn’t shy from a fight, and that’s exactly what the Catholic Church needs.”

He treads lightly where gummint is concerned, however, endorsing ObamaCare no matter what and shying away from at least one major social problem:

He launched an effort to enroll thousands of eastern Washington’s poor in health care under the Affordable Care Act, despite the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ opposition to the law’s contraception mandate.

And, shortly after arriving in Spokane, he would not endorse curbside vigils outside abortion clinics, which drew the ire of local opponents of abortion rights.

On the other hand, he knows how to run things:

From the beginning, Cupich focused on untangling the legal mess [remaining from
bankruptcy and other sex-abuse-related issued], according to some pastors within the diocese, who praised his shrewd administrative skills.

At the same time, those within the diocese said his rigorous work ethic drove various outreach efforts that helped rally the congregation.

All in all, what with programmatic and bully-pulpit injections of new life into parish school financing and outreach, including to migrant farm workers,

“His legacy is the momentum from a time of darkness to a time of great hope and enthusiasm, in just four years,” McCann said. “And in the cycle of the Catholic Church, where everything moves at prehistoric speeds, that’s amazing.”

Like Pope Francis, he’s a house-cleaner:

“He doesn’t believe in this privileged clerical class that can get by with whatever because they’re priests, bishops or deacons or chancery officials,” [Rev. Mike] Savelesky [vicar general for
internal matters] said. “He expects high personal integrity.”

As for anti-abortion vigils, he took a conservative position, temperamentally and logistically, endorsing “an education model that asked priests to ‘create new openings for learning and reduce obstacles.'” A sort of make-as-few-waves-as possible pragmatism strategy.

Which means he’s going to talk about it and preach about it, etc.? Old openings not working? What are some new ones? How reduce obstacles?

Finally, from this news conference watcher Saturday morning: The incoming archbishop did very well. Showed he will make good use of the television and radio pulpit which he does not directly control.

(Card. George did well too, btw, neatly reiterating to Jay Levine, who had asked him how he felt, that the question is what he thought. How so-and-so felt being in the category of “Otherwise, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”)

Finally finally, is it possible that Abp Cupich will address the state of the world, that is, the Catholic New World newspaper, which in my opinion can use an injection or two . . .

Pope Francis exposed . . .

. . . as a shrewd and focused opponent of a very bad curia:

The first non-European Pope was elected to do one thing: reform the Roman Curia, the pitifully disorganised, corrupt and lazy central machinery of the church. He is determined to pull it off — but he’s 77 and has part of a lung missing. When he looks at his watch during long Masses in St Peter’s, it’s not just because elaborate services bore him. He knows he may not have much time. ‘Two or three years and then off to the house of the Father,’ he said this week. Was he serious? You can never tell.

That’s from an all-out detailed, informative, original rundown on Pope Francis by the prolific Damian Thompson in the (UK) Spectator, where he is associate editor.

Some especially good stuff:

Jorge Bergoglio has little in common with Joseph Ratzinger apart from an intense, orthodox Catholic faith and a love of classical music. Like many Jesuits, Francis isn’t interested in liturgy. This is actually good news for traditionalists, because it means he won’t clamp down on the Latin Mass (with one baffling exception: the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a new order whose use of the Old Missal has been brutally restricted). [Italics added]

And:

The Pope has declared a spiritual culture war on the bureaucrats who forced the resignation of his predecessor, the most intellectually gifted pontiff for 200 years. Cardinal Ratzinger was once known as ‘the Rottweiler’. How ludicrous that nickname seems in the light of his eight years as Pope, during which he allowed curial officials — including his incompetent secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone — to plunge the church deeper into financial and sexual scandal while they fought their own factional battles. Benedict was too old and too kind to knock heads together.

And more more more where that’s from . . .

Pope Francis: ‘Be Courageous, and Go to Confession’

Oh my, is this wonderful, or not?

“Don’t be afraid of confession,” Pope Francis stressed. “When someone is in line for confession, he feels all these things, even shame; but then, when he finishes confessing, he leaves (feeling) free, great, beautiful, forgiven, clean, happy.”

Pope Francis: ‘Be Courageous, and Go to Confession’

The Holy Father spoke of the healing available in the sacrament of reconciliation at his Feb. 19 audience: ‘Forgiveness is not a result of our efforts, but is a gift. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who showers us with mercy and grace that pours forth unceasingly from the open heart of Christ, crucified and risen.’

by CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY 02/19/2014

VATICAN CITY — During his Wednesday audience on Feb. 19, Pope Francis encouraged the pilgrims filling St. Peter’s Square to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.
“Everyone say to himself: ‘When was the last time I went to confession?’ And if it has been a long time, don’t lose another day. Go, the priest will be good. And Jesus, (will be) there, and Jesus is better than the priests. Jesus receives you: He will receive you with so much love.”
“Be courageous, and go to confession,” urged the Pope.
Acknowledging a popular objection to the sacrament, Pope Francis noted, “Someone can say, ‘I confess my sins only to God.’ Yes, you can say to God, ‘Forgive me,’ and say your sins. But our sins are also against our brothers, against the Church. This is is why it is necessary to ask forgiveness of the Church and of our brothers, in the person of the priest.”
“While the celebration of the sacrament is personal, it is rooted in the universality of the Church,” which “accompanies us on the path of conversion,” he explained.
“Forgiveness is not something we can give ourselves,” cautioned the Pope. “One asks forgiveness; one asks it of another person, and in confession, we ask forgiveness from Jesus.”
“Forgiveness is not a result of our efforts, but is a gift. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who showers us with mercy and grace that pours forth unceasingly from the open heart of Christ, crucified and risen.”
The Pope went on to recognize that many people feel ashamed at the idea of confessing their sins and might say, “But Father, I am embarrased.”
“Even embarrassment is good. It’s healthy to have a bit of shame. … It does us good, because it makes us more humble.”
“Don’t be afraid of confession,” Pope Francis stressed. “When someone is in line for confession, he feels all these things, even shame; but then, when he finishes confessing, he leaves (feeling) free, great, beautiful, forgiven, clean, happy.”
“The sacrament of reconciliation is a sacrament of healing,” he pointed out.
“When I go to confession, it’s for healing: healing the soul, healing the heart, because of something that I did to make it unwell.”
The Pope pointed to the biblical story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man, which expresses the “profound link” between “forgiveness and healing,” since “the Lord Jesus is revealed at the same time as the physician of soul and body.”
He also recounted the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who sought his father’s forgiveness and was welcomed home with open arms.
“But I say to you,” he stressed to the many pilgrims, “every time we go to confession, God embraces us.”