A Gut Punch – “After a month of Vatican insistence on listening to all perspectives, it is ironic, to say the least, that the next big news story was the removal of an American bishop, apparently for talking too much.” Synodality and the Strickland case (Catholic Culture)
An Ambitious Vision – “Pope Francis is directing theologians to find a middle ground where they stay true to the Church’s long-standing traditions while also finding new ways to connect with the world today.” 8 Key Takeaways from ‘Ad Theologiam Promovendam’ (National Catholic Register)
Dozens of Christians’ homes and Catholic school destroyed – “One of the buildings destroyed has been the Rosary Sisters School, which had 1,250 students, both Christian and Muslim, and was one of the largest institutions in Gaza educating poor communities.” Christian homes and a Catholic school among buildings destroyed in Gaza (Catholic Herald)
Assisi 1943 to 1944 –“The Museum of Memory’s exhibition on the efforts of Assisi, Italy, and the Catholic Church to save Jews during WWII is touring the Diocese of Rockville Center.” Assisi efforts to save Jews during WWII on display in NY (Aleteia)
Universal and Objective – “[Fides et Ratio] surely the most important ecclesial statement on faith and reason since Vatican I, is a strong reaffirmation of Catholicism’s trust in both the supernatural gift of faith and the natural gift of reason.” What Pope Francis Could Learn from Fides et Ratio (First Things)
Sophisticated Barbarism – “We are all inexorably drawn into the theatre of war. The shells and bullets are our opinions and beliefs, the cannons and the rifle barrels are TikTok and Twitter” You are a combatant in a global insurgency (Jenny E. Holland – Substack)
Progressive Ideology – “The idea of progress alone. . .weakens the spirit of sacrifice, nor does it give us an effective antidote to despair. . . .[H]ope does not demand a belief in progress.” Light in the Darkness (The Catholic Thing)
Polish Archbishop Warns Rome of German “Revolution”- “The president of the Polish bishops’ conference has bitterly criticized demands for liberal change by the church in neighboring Germany and urged the pope not to allow them to dominate the Rome Synod on Synodality.” Polish Archbishop Urges Pope To Resist German Church Demands (OSV News)
Women’s Declaration International – “A group of women critical of gender ideology were physically assaulted in Portland by masked trans activists associated with Antifa, resulting in several women being taken to the hospital.” Women Protesting Gender Ideology Attacked By Trans Activists, Antifa In Portland (Reduxx)
Vocations By the Numbers – “During the month of November, the U.S. bishops’ conference asks Catholics to pray that young people will respond to vocational calls, especially to the priesthood and to religious life.” On vocations, asking is key (The Pillar)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ Universal and Objective
Msgr. Guarino identifies similarities between Faith & Reason and the recent papal motu proprio on theology, and then identifies three areas where the motu proprio truncates the coherence explained by St. John Paul II. These are Francis’ being stuck in the contextual (vs the universal), and the “concrete (vs what is more than concrete), and the more rationalistic (vs the metaphysical).
On the second contrast (concreteness), we read: “…and while Francis rightly accents the concrete, existential situation of humanity, John Paul declares that theology must go beyond the concrete: ‘What I wish to emphasize is the duty to go beyond the particular and the concrete, lest the prime task of demonstrating the universality of faith’s content be abandoned’.”
This brings us to the possible contrast between the concurrent Eucharistic revival and synodality, and whether the former—for some readers of the synod’s Synthesis Report—is to be instrumentalized as primarily shaping synodality (Synthesis Report, Part I,3 [k] Entering the Community of Faith: “If the Eucharist shapes synodality…”). What more needs to be explicitly affirmed about the concreteness (!) of the sacramental Real Presence (CCC 1374), and about the concreteness of the historical Incarnation as compared to an implied fluidity of the Spirit (the Holy Spirit is a Person within the Trinity, including but always more than a process)?
The concreteness of Jesus Christ (the “concrete universal”) and, therefore, the Deposit of Faith and a coherent magisterium.
@ Gut Punch
We read consternation why Strickland was ousted, but then also this: “…a better measure of the bishop’s leadership would be the number of seminarians in the diocese.”
2 + 2 = 4. Perhaps the motivation was this fact, that Bishop Strickland was fostering too many seminarians, with clear vision like his own?
I just checked the Diocese of Tyler website.For the 22/23 year we had 21 seminarians from diverse backgrounds. We are proud of our program and our students in various seminaries who are the future of Catholic East Texas. There was no need for disparaging remarks from anyone.
@ An Ambitious Vision
Discovering new ways to transmit revealed truth to the modern world is well addressed by Deacon Cerrato PhD, that is, in the most favorable terms of interpreting Ad Theologiam Provovendam [ATD]. Key is the development of that truth, not precisely in rote understanding, rather in Aquinas’ loving the truth, referred to in ADT as ‘intellectual charity’.
The major premise of ADT contains the supposition that verbatim, revealed truth requires some form of modification to be relevant to a time period. Modification may vary in different ways, timing, level of content, or change of wording that affects the message. Words convey thought, and it must be clearly understood what those thoughts are in respect to the revealed truth. For example, intellectual charity has within it the relaxing of what the intellect perceives. A very complex issue, because the transference from objectivity to subject or subjectivity suggests exception to the rule. There isn’t, as is this writer’s conviction, a methodology by which that revealed rule may regularly be modified. Exception is exception not a rule.
This is the pitfall in Amoris Laetitia, where reasonable grounds for exceptions are transformed into inevitable rules due to possibility, that benefit should be given to the doubt. The eternal word of Christ, that is Christ the Word, has been revealed once and forever. And its relevance cannot be modified to suit cultural change that represents an irregular anthropology [all anthropology minus revelation falls short of the true nature of man]. That’s because its character is identified with the unchanging nature of man created in God’s image.