Vatican City, Jun 5, 2018 / 07:53 am (CNA).- In a letter to Catholics in Chile on May 31, Pope Francis said he is ashamed of the Church’s failure to listen to victims, and urged all the baptized to make a commitment to ending the culture of abuse and cover-up.
Please find below CNA’s translation of the full text of Pope Francis’ May 31 letter:
To the Pilgrim People of God in Chile
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This past April 8, I called my brother bishops to Rome to seek together in the short, medium and long term the ways of truth and life in face of an open, painful and complex wound which for a long time has not stopped bleeding.[1] And I suggested that they invite the entire faithful Holy People of God to place themselves in a state of prayer so the Holy Spirit might give us the strength to not fall into the temptation of getting wound up in empty word games, in sophisticated diagnostics, or in vain gestures which would not allow us the necessary courage to look directly at the pain caused, the face of its victims, the magnitude of the events. I invited them to look to where the Holy Spirit is moving us, since “closing our eyes to our neighbor also blinds us to God.”[2]
With joy and hope I received the news that there were many communities, towns, and chapels where the People of God were praying, especially the days we were gathered together with the bishops: the People of God on their knees who implore the gift of the Holy Spirit to find the light in the Church, “wounded by her sin, granted mercy by her Lord, and so that every day she may become prophetic in her vocation.”[3] We know that prayer is never in vain and that “in the midst of darkness something new always buds forth, that sooner or later bears fruit.”[4]
1. To appeal to you, to ask for your prayers was not a practical recourse nor was it a simple goodwill gesture. On the contrary, I wanted to frame things in their precise and valuable place and put the issue where it ought to be: the condition of the People of God “the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in His temple.”[5] The faithful Holy People of God are anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit; therefore when we reflect, think, evaluate, discern, we must be very attentive to this anointing. Whenever as a Church, as pastors, as consecrated persons, we have forgotten this certainty, we have lost our way. Whenever we try to supplant, silence, look down on, ignore or reduce into small elites the People of God in their totality and differences, we construct communities, pastoral plans, theological accentuations, spiritualities, structures without roots, without history, without faces, without memory, without a body, in the end, without lives. To remove ourselves from the life of the People of God hastens us to the desolation and to a perversion of ecclesial nature; the fight against a culture of abuse requires renewing this certainty.
As I said to the young people in Maipú, I want to specially tell each one of you: “Holy Mother the Church today needs the faithful People of God to challenge us […] you need to take out your adult ID card, as spiritual adults, and have the courage to tell us ‘I like this,’ ‘this is the way I think we should go,’ ‘that’s not going to work,’ …Tell us what you feel and think.”[6] This is capable of involving all of us in a Church with a synodal character which knows how to put Jesus in the center.
The People of God does not have first, second or third-class Christians. Their participation is not a question of goodwill, concessions, rather it is constitutive of the nature of the Church. It is impossible to imagine a future without this anointing operating in each one of you, which certainly demands and requires new forms of participation. I urge all Christians to not be afraid to be the protagonists of the transformation that is demanded today and to propel and promote creative alternatives in the daily search for Church that every day wants to put what is important in the center. I invite all the diocesan organizations from whatever area they may be to consciously and lucidly seek areas of communion and participation so that the Anointing of the People of God may find its concrete mediations to express itself.
The renewal of the Church hierarchy by itself does not create the transformation to which the Holy Spirit moves us. We are required to together promote a transformation of the Church that involves us all.
A prophetic Church and, therefore, full of hope, demands of everyone an eyes-wide-open mysticism, that questions, that is not asleep.[7] Do not let yourselves be robbed of the anointing of the Spirit.
2. “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:8) This is how Jesus responded to Nicodemus in the conversation they were having on the possibility of being born again in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
At this time in the light of this passage it is good for us to look back at our personal and communal history: The Holy Spirit blows where and how he wills with the sole purpose of helping us to be born again. Far from letting us get boxed up in schemes, modalities, fixed or obsolete structures, far from letting yourself be resigned or “letting down your guard” in the face of events, the Spirit is continually in movement to widen your horizons, to make the person who has lost hope[8] to dream, to do justice in truth and charity, to purify from sin and corruption, and always invited to necessary conversion. Without looking at this with faith, everything we could say or do would be useless. This certainty is essential to look at the present without evasions but with bravery, with courage, but wisely, with tenacity but without violence, with passion but without fanaticism, with constancy but without anxiety, and thus change all that which today puts at risk the integrity and dignity of every person; since the solutions that are needed demand facing the problems without getting trapped in them or, what would be worse, repeating the same mechanisms that we want to eliminate.[9] Today we are challenged to look straight ahead, assume and suffer the conflict, and thus be able to resolve and transform it in a new direction.[10]
3. In the first place, it would be unfair to attribute this process just to the recently experienced events. Every process of review and purification that we are experiencing is possible thanks to the effort and perseverance of specific individuals, who even against all hope or stains of discredit, did not tire of seeking the truth; I am referring to the victims of abuses of sexuality, power and authority and to those who at the time believed and accompanied them. Victims whose cry reached the heavens.[11] I would like once more to publicly thank all of them for their courage and perseverance.
This recent time is a time of listening and discernment to arrive at the roots that allowed such atrocities to occur and be perpetuated and thus find solutions to the abuse scandal, not merely with containment strategies—essential but insufficient—but with the measures necessary to take on the problem in its complexity.
In this regard I would like to pause on the word “listening,” since discerning supposes learning how to listen to what the Spirit wants to tell us. And we will only be able to do it if we are capable of listening to the reality of what is going on.[12]
I believe that here resides one of our main faults and omissions: not knowing how to listen to the victims. Thus partial conclusions were drawn which lacked crucial elements for a healthy and clear discernment. With shame I must say that we did not know how to listen and react in time.
The visit of Archbishop Scicluna and Monsignor Bertomeu was born when we saw that there were situations that we did not know how to see and hear. As a Church we could not continue to walk ignoring the pain of our brothers. After reading the report, I wanted to personally meet with some of the victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience, to listen to them and to ask forgiveness for our sins and omissions.
4. In these meetings, I noted how the lack of recognition/listening to their stories, as well as the recognition/acceptance of the errors and omissions in the entire process impedes us from making headway. A recognition that ought to be more than an expression of goodwill toward the victims, rather that ought to be a new way to for us to adopt a new attitude before life, before others and before God. Hope for tomorrow and confidence arises from and grows in taking on the fragility, the limitations and even the sins in order to help us go forward. [13]
The “never again” to the culture of abuse and the system of cover up that allows it to be perpetuated demands working among everyone in order to generate a culture of care which permeates our ways of relating, praying, thinking, of living authority; our customs and languages and our relationship with power and money. We know today that the best thing we can say in face of the pain caused is a commitment to personal, communal, and social conversion that learns to listen to and care for especially the most vulnerable. It is therefore urgent to create spaces where the culture of abuse and cover up is not the dominant scheme, where a critical and questioning attitude is not confused with betrayal. We have to promote this as a Church and to seek with humility all the actors that make up the social reality and promote ways of dialogue and constructive confrontation to move toward a culture of care and protection.
To attempt this enterprise by ourselves alone, or with our efforts and tools, would shut us up in dangerous voluntaristic dynamics that would perish in the short term.[14] Let us allow ourselves to be helped and to help create a society where the culture of abuse does not find the space to perpetuate itself. I exhort all Christians and especially those responsible for centers of higher education, formal or informal, healthcare centers, institutes of formation and universities, to join together with the dioceses and with all of civil society to lucidly and strategically promote a culture of care and protection. Let each of these spaces promote a new mentality.
5. The culture of abuse and cover up is incompatible with the logic of the Gospel, since the salvation offered by Christ is always an offer, a gift that demands and requires freedom. Washing the feet of the disciples is how Christ shows us the face of God. It is never by way of coercion or obligation but by way of service. Let us say it clearly, every means that attacks freedom and a person’s integrity is anti-Gospel. Therefore it is also necessary to create processes of faith where we learn to know when it is necessary to doubt and when not to. “Doctrine, or better our understanding and expression of it ‘is not a closed system, deprived of dynamics capable of bringing up questions, doubts, questionings,’ since the questions of our people, their anxieties, their fights, their dreams, their struggles, possess an hermeneutical value that we cannot ignore if we want to take seriously the principle of incarnation.[15] I invite all centers of religious formation, theology schools, institutes of higher learning, seminaries, houses of formation and spirituality to promote a theological reflection that is capable of rising to the challenge of the present time, to promote a mature, adult faith that assumes the vital humus of the People of God with their searching and questioning. And thus, to then promote communities capable of fighting against abusive situations, communities where exchanges, debate and confrontation are welcome.[16] We will be fruitful to the extent that we empower and open communities from within and thus free ourselves from closed and self-referential thoughts full of promises and mirages which promise life but which ultimately favor the culture of abuse.
I would like to make a brief reference to the pastoral ministry of popular devotion carried out in many of your communities since it is an invaluable treasure and authentic school of the heart for our people and in the same act the heart of God. In my experience as a pastor I learned to discover that pastoral ministry of popular devotion is one of the few places where the People of God is sovereign from the influence of that clericalism that seeks to always control and stop the anointing of God on his people. Learning from popular piety is to learn to enter into a new kind of relationship of listening and spirituality that demand a lot of respect and does not lend itself to quick and simplistic readings since popular piety “reflects a thirst for God that only the poor and simple can know.” [17]
To be “the Church that goes out” also is to allow itself to be helped and to be challenged. Let us not forget that “the wind blows where it wills: you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:8)
6. As I told you, during the meetings with the victims I was able to see that the lack of recognition prevents us from getting anywhere. That is why I think it is necessary to share with you that I rejoiced and it gave me hope to confirm in conversation with them their recognition of people that I like to call “the saints next door.”[18] We would be unfair if alongside our pain and our shame for those structures of abuse and cover up that have been so much perpetuated and have done so much evil, we would not recognize the many faithful lay people, consecrated men and women, priests and bishops who give life through love in the most obscure areas of the beloved land of Chile. All of them are Christians who know how to weep with those who weep, who hunger and thirst for justice, who look and act with mercy;[19] Christians who try every day to illumine their lives in the light of the standards by which we will be judged: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” (Mt 25:34-36)
I recognize and am thankful for their courage and constant example – in turbulent, shameful and painful moments they continue to make a stand with joy for the Gospel. That witness does me a lot of good and sustains me in my own desire to overcome selfishness to give more fully of myself.[20] Far from diminishing the importance and seriousness of the evil caused and seeking the root of the problem, it also commits us to recognize the acting and operating power of the Holy Spirit in so many lives. Without looking at this, we would remain half-way there and we could enter into a logic that far from seeking to empower what is good and remedy what is wrong, it would partialize the reality, falling into grave injustice.
Accepting the successes, as well as the personal and communal limitations, far from being just one more news item, becomes the initial kickoff of every authentic process of conversion and transformation. Let us never forget that Jesus Christ risen presents himself to his own with his wounds. Moreover, it is precisely from his wounds that Thomas can confess his faith. We are invited to not dissimulate, hide, or cover over our wounds.
A wounded Church is able to understand and be moved by the wounds of today’s world, make them its own, suffer them, accompany them and move to heal them. A wounded Church does not put itself at the center, does not think it is perfect, does not seek to cover up and dissimulate its evil, but places there the only one who can heal the wounds and he has a name: Jesus Christ.[21]
This certainty is that which will move us to seek in season and out of season, the commitment to create a culture where each person has the right to breathe an air free of every kind of abuse. A culture free of the cover ups which end up vitiating all our relationships. A culture which in the face of sin creates a dynamic of repentance, mercy and forgiveness, and in face of crime, accusation, judgment and sanction.
7. Dear brothers, I began this letter telling you that appealing to you is not a practical recourse or a gesture of goodwill, on the contrary it is to invoke the anointing which as the People of God you possess. With you the necessary steps for ecclesial renewal and conversion will be able to be taken, that will be sound and long term. With you the necessary transformation can be generated that is so needed. Without you nothing can be done. I exhort all the faithful Holy People of God who live in Chile to not be afraid to get involved and go forward moved by the Holy Spirit in search of a Church which is increasingly more synodal, prophetic and hopeful; less abusive because it knows how to place Jesus at the center, in the hungry, the prisoner, the migrant, and the abused.
I ask you to not cease praying for me. I pray for you and I ask Jesus to bless you and the Virgin to care for you.
Francis
Vatican May 31, 2018, Feast of the Visitation of Our Lady.
[1]Cf. Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops of Chile following the report of His Excellency Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, April 8, 2018
[2]BENEDICT XVI Deus Caritas Est, 16.
[3]Cf. Meeting of the Holy Father Francis with priests, men and women religious, consecrated men and women, seminarians, Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, January 16, 2018.
[4] Cf. FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, 278
[5]Cf. VATICAN COUNCIL II, Lumen Gentium, 9.
[6]Cf. Meeting of the Holy Father Francis with young people at National Shrine of Maipú, January 28, 2017
[7]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudate et Exsultate, 96
[8]Cf. FRANCIS, Homily at Solemnity of Pentecost Mass 2018
[9]It is good to recognize some of the organizations and media that have taken up the issue of abuse in a responsible way, always seeking the truth and not making out of this painful reality a means to boost program ratings.
[10]Cf. FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, 227
[11]“The Lord said ‘I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering’.” Ex 3:7
[12]Let us remember that this was the first word-commandment that the people of Israel received from Yahweh: “Listen Israel” (Dt 6:4)
[13]Cf. Visit of the Holy Father Francis to the Women’s Correctional Center, Santiago de Chile, January 16, 2018
[14]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate, 47-59
[15]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate, 44
[16]It is essential to carry out the much needed in the centers of formation promoted by the recent Apostolic Constitution Veritates Gaudium. By way of example, I emphasize that “in fact, are called to offer opportunities and processes for the suitable formation of priests, consecrated men and women, and committed lay people. At the same time, they are called to be a sort of providential cultural laboratory in which the Church carries out the performative interpretation of the reality brought about by the Christ event and nourished by the gifts of wisdom and knowledge by which the Holy Spirit enriches the People of God in manifold ways – from the sensus fidei fidelium to the magisterium of the bishops, and from the charism of the prophets to that of the doctors and theologians. FRANCIS, Veritates Gaudium, 3
[17]PAUL Vl, Evangelii Nuntiandi,48.
[18]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate,6-9.
[19]Cf. FRANCIS, Gaudete et Exsultate,76, 79, 82.
[20]Cf. FRANCIS Evangelii Gaudium,76
[21]Cf. Meeting of the Holy Father Francis with priests, men and women religious, consecrated men and women, seminarians, Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, January 16, 2018.
[…]
What bravery…. Having been persecuted in his diocese, he was persecuted by his Church, with nothing to lose, he speaks truth! May God grant him good health and many more years.
I am greatly heartened — and totally relieved — that Cardinal Zen has said what needed to be said about Bergoglio’s synodolatry scam.
This is a historic moment for our Church.
Using the worthy cardinal, the Holy Spirit has deigned to spare us from sheer evil once again.
Thanks be to God.
Amen!
Thank God for what cardinal Zen speak out for a lot other people do not dare or can not speak or not have the chance to speak.
We read that the synodal process was an “insult to the dignity of the bishops,” that the Orthodox Churches will never accept such a process having “the importance of the Synod of Bishops,” and that “some cardinals wanted the concept of synodality to be further clarified.”
Two clarifying comments and a clarifying question:
FIRST, from the back bleachers, this proposed clarification: All it takes is a few termites below the waterline…
…As in the fatal opening-wedge footnote in Amoris Laetitia (2015), or the upending wording in the synodality Vademecum (2020) casting the diocesan Successors of the Apostles “primarily as facilitators”, or the officiously “unofficial, spontaneous, non-scandalous blessing” of “irregular couples” slipped into Fiducia Supplicans (2024), or the gratuitous few words “never appropriate” slipped into Mater Populi Fidelis (2025) and requiring immediate clarification.
SECOND, “synodality” must be decisively clarified as a “style” of interpersonal engagement rather than an insidious project to replace the balanced and “hierarchical communion” structure of the Church (Lumen Gentium) with what Cardinal Zen accurately sees as a halfway-house model into post-Catholic congregationalism.
THIRD, considering the body language of the Church—even without actual words—now might we be finally relieved that the current and proposed annual “consistories of cardinals” replaces (!) the recent synodal proposal (early 2025) for another structured (not merely a needed interpersonal “style”) round of geographic “synods”—diocesan, regional, continental—all institutionalizing a self-validating and grand finale synod-on-a-synod-on synodality “ecclesial assembly” in 2028?
The process IS the message?
SUMMARY: Consistories of ALL cardinals and not simply the well-placed/replaceable termites(?)–partly to advance greater/restored harmony among the Holy See’s internal dicasteries, and guarding the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church from ever being annexed into an emerging “spheres of influence” model of global politics. Westphalia (1648) with the earlier Henry XIII and the later der Synodal Weg has been bad enough.
The charity of clarity…
Typo: Henry VIII.
Cardinal Joseph Zen is a holy bishop, a forthright and honest man, a courageous seeker of the truth and tells it like it is. When he was Bishop of Hong Kong, he fought for his people. He, along with his friend, Jimmy Lai, has been a thorn in the side of the CPP (Chinese Communist Party) for years. They even arrested him in 2020 on some trumped-up “collusion with foreign policy charge” under their new “security law” in order to muzzle his critiques of their communist regime and persecution of Catholics. This man is a fighter and a staunch Catholic.
As for “synodality”, it is a concept which does not mesh with Saint Pope Paul VI’s vision. The synod of bishops which Paul VI had established is no longer a synod of bishops; under Pope Francis, it has become a get-together of lay people, who think they can change two thousand years of Catholicism.
What is wrong with just following the teachings of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ? What is wrong with following the Fathers of the Church? Bishops are supposed to lead their flock to Christ. What is this kowtowing to the whims and desires of every Tom, Dick and Harry who has an opinion on how the Church should change? “Listening” to the people can be a two-edged sword. In my own parish, more than half the parishioners are in favor of LGBTQ rights, women priests and deacons, etc…Yet, they are the first ones to get in line for communion (handed out by a lay woman no less, under the pretext of helping the priest).
Kudos to Cardinal Zen for speaking out.
May God bless this holy man, as well as bless the man he baptized, Jimmy Lai, for standing up for the truth.
Marie Brousseau: Catholic, Biologist, Essayist, Teacher, Writer
Catholic Author of “Defending Human Dignity: Catholic Answers to Gender, Abortion and Relativity
mariebrousseau.com
Great comments.
Should we know? Closed meeting, confidentiality?
If Cardinal Zen wants to share the text of his intervention, then I do not see a problem. He provided the text to the College of Cardinals Report and gave them permission to publish it.
As one of the senior members of the College of Cardinals, he has been through more consistories than the vast majority of current cardinals. So he should be thoroughly aware of the rules, guidelines and expectations.
What is the problem that you see?
Yes, we should. Sunlight disinfects.
Cardinal Zen is a good and faithful shepherd, who lays down his life for his flock.
So is Bishop Strickland.
I note that the managers and mouthpieces of the Church establishment are mute when confronted by the truth spoken by Cardinal Zen. His testimony is public, and their meetings must be secret.
As one contributor to CWR said in his book on the sex abuse coverup operations by the Church Establishment: “Everything Hidden Shall Be Revealed.”
Throughout the history of our faith, an outgrowth of our Jewish roots, the prophet has stood alone proclaiming the truth to those who need to hear it. He stands alone proclaiming what needs to be said to those who don’t want to hear it. The genuineness of his message is often vindicated after his passing when it is either fulfilled or heeded. Now that the seed has been sown, time will prove its worth by its fruit. Our ears should be burning as we just overheard a private conversation that was not meant for us to hear. I just pray that we, the laymen (gender inclusive) stay out of it and allow the Cardinals to prayerfully ponder the message. The Holy Spirit does not need the pressure of lobby groups- Synodality?
How cunning the evil one. Prudence stays silent waiting for Wisdom. Wisdom speaks in Wisdom’s time. Let faith not falter. Jesus Christ is Lord !!!
Cardinal Zen openly and correctly voices what other cardinals hold, yet remain silent. Others are befuddled, trying to find just rationale in what Synodality means while wanting to be faithful to our new Roman pontiff’s adherence to Bergoglian Church philosophy.
It’s a losing scenario, a true predicament for the Church. What would synodality’s inventor and founder of the dreaded St Gallen Group, deceased Cardinal Carlo Martini say? We don’t require a seance to find out because we know by what his protege Archbishop Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio intended – to paradigmatically reconfigure the Church structurally and doctrinally. But how then do we respond to Leo XIV?
One would have thought [actually meaning myself] that he would slowly and quietly ease us out of its web-like entanglement. Bishops seek to perceive their purpose in a Church that means being Church is being Synodal. What does that say when the laity and the Holy Spirit [although with gracious magnanimity awakened bishops] if not some unexpected surprise?
As it goes our eldest, active prelate Zen at 93 is increasing in wisdom while some of our younger bishops are just plain dense. Although they’re expected to grow up.
Yes, “One would have thought […] that he [Leo] would slowly and quietly ease us out of its web-like entanglement.”
Three supportive comments:
FIRST, my outlier proposal (above) is that recurring consistories of ALL cardinals—one now, another announced in six months, and others announced annually—is such an easing step. A substitute for another proposed two-year round of parallel, layered and geographical “synodal” thingies….
SECOND, otherwise, regarding clerical imitations of silent cigar-store-Indians, the novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac offers a diagnosis: “bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pigmies.” But, least the poster-child/court-jester and dicasterial communications advisor Fr. Jimmy Martin SJ wasn’t given a photo-op with cardinals X, Y and Z. (insert the names).
THIRD, to further clarify the meaning of “synodality,” do the lay-clerical and more-or-less autonomous synods—diocesan, regional, and then continental—suggest a parallelism less with the autocephalous Orthodox Churches and more with resurgent and intrusive Islam?
The self-understanding of very sectarian Islam is as a “congregational theocracy.” So, why not a harmonized “congregational ecclesiology”?
“bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pigmies.”
I prefer Robert Conquest’s quote as it addresses the the machinations of bureaucracies. One should never under estimate bureaucrats. They may not be intelligent, but they are shrewd, opportunistic and generally will use those powers to exploit loopholes or others.
“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”
― Robert Conquest
If of course Light Shoes Jimmy Martin gets his way, the parallelism won’t be with Islam or Orthodoxy, but with Out Magazine.
Re: Third. As I (an Orthodox) have said many times here, “synodality” are not like “Synods” of the Orthodox Church. Please compare:
“All autocephalous and some autonomous churches have their own church-wide holy synods, and there may also be local ones (often called eparchial synods), as well, especially if a particular church has territory spread out over a large area. Membership in the holy synod is determined by the traditions and canonical documents of a particular church. In some churches, all bishops who hold the title of metropolitan are considered members (e.g., the Church of Antioch), while in others, all active bishops—whether diocesan or auxiliary—are considered to be members (e.g., the Orthodox Church in America). Local synods typically consist of the primate and all diocesan bishops within the territory.” (‘OrthodoxWiki’)
I.e., the Holy Synod is bishop-only.
Here is a statement Metropolitan Job, the Eastern Orthodox bishop of Pisidia re so-called “synodality” and why it is not our practice:
“Speaking to the Synod on Synodality on Monday, an Eastern Orthodox bishop said the definition of synodality of the October assembly “differs greatly” from the Orthodox understanding…”
https://www.ncregister.com/cna/eastern-orthodox-synods-are-bishops-only-metropolitan-tells-delegates
Cardinal Zen is absolutely correct: no Orthodox Church would either recognize or accept it.
@ Peter Beaulieu
Guess I got here too late to respond to Beaulieu’s usually very informative replies, often laced with humorous tidbits.
Pigmies. It’s actually pygmies. I thought pigmies might be French since you reference Balzac. French for pygmies is pygmées. I say this because pygmies are honorable, resourceful people men averaging approx 4.11 in height. Many are Roman Catholic.
Since Catholicism is a major pygmy faith there’s also the inevitability of a bureaucracy. But no. The pygmies were responsible for their own parish. They themselves provide the catechists, run the parish finances, organise the programme of liturgical celebrations, make up the choir and the Mass servers without in any way being turned in on themselves. Everyone is welcome in their parish, including those who are not pygmies (ACN Inter). Far from being bureaucratic they are exceptionally community oriented.
Pygmy people likely have computers, and if so I thought it well to speak well about a growing, impressive addition to our world mystical body of Christ. Hoorah for Pygmies. Now I hope I don’t get pilloried for speaking well about our Pygmy brothers.
The Holy Spirit does not guide the Body of Christ down new paths – he strengthens and uplifts the flock to be obedient to the teachings of Christ and his holy gospel. Though it is encouraging to see/read/hear such stalwart, brave cardinals such as Cardinal Zen, it is just as disheartening that all of the other cardinals did not stand, and shout Amen to his honest, blunt accusations of Bergoglio’s heresy.
His Eminences makes many interesting points, including wondering if a Synod subset really expected that their fervor for the supremacy of homosexual culture would be mistaken for a Pentecostal inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If only Pope Leo XIV had said what Cardinal Zen had said… or at least something like, “Let’s put Synodality in the rear view mirror and move on.”
The degree to which Pope Leo embraces or continues Synodality, will largely define his Papacy. There’s a risky road ahead for him and the Church.
What a man! What a cardinal! If only there were more like him. Given the extent to which he stands out, it shows how few there are like him.
God reward Cardinal Zen. Apparently one need live under the thumb of genocidal Marxism to have spine and learn to speak the plain unvarnished truth. One would hope that the marriage of devotion, intellect, experience and common sense would have come from the American Pope. Is it too much to hope that eventually it will? Or do we have to wait for the collapse of Western Civilization for the wake-up call penetrate those ears?
PF, unlike his 260+ predecessors, was the pope wearing new clothes. Cardinal Zen has the cajones to say that PF was theologically, morally, intellectually and managerially barren and bereft of qualification for the Holy Office he occupied.
The clothes, (documents, decisions, et al), of the dead pope need to be declared null, void and forever reversed.
Go ahead, ask me how I really feel!
He is correct. Pope Leo needs to wake up and acknowledge reality.
So essentially one brave Chinese man is left standing against overwhelming force-as if it’s 1989 all over again. Only he is willing to defend the proposition that the Church’s mandate is to make disciples of the world, not mutilate itself to become a disciple of the world.
May God Bless him with health, vitality and a peaceful death when it is his time.
Well said, dear TPR. “The Church’s mandate is to make disciples of the world, not mutilate itself to become a disciple of the world.”
I’d say: “Currently mutilating itself in the image of the world: majoring on theatrics, popularity, property, wealth, deceits, abuses, cover-ups, pseudo-synods, endless (largely futile) power-over politics & distractions.”
All SO unecessary, since Jesus’ New Covenant way is right here in print, in ‘The New Testament’ & in the saintly ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’.
Saint JPII & Saint BXVI clarified The Truth in their brilliant CCC, that:
“Enables everyone to know what The Church professes, celebrates, lives, & prays in her daily life; confirming its (the CCC) purpose of being presented as a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine.”
“The Church now has at her disposal an authoritative exposition of The One & Perrenial Apostolic Faith.” To serve as: “A valid & legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion, a sure norm for teaching The Faith, & a sure & authentic text for preparing local catechisms.”
It’s noteworthy the CCC hangs on over 3,500 citations of The New Testament. Without this Holy Spirit-inspired witness, there’d be no Catholic Church!
Today, many Church leaders & their clerical troops have no fear of King Jesus Christ or the Apostolic testimony.
Yet, He warned us that on Judgment Day it would be His Word that judges.
Good Catholics are asking: “Is our leadership Catholic any more?”
We are told: “It is hard even for a godly person to be saved.”
So, what will befall these heretic teachers & false shepherds of ours . . ?
In Australia it’s Tuesday 13th of Jan. – Saint Hilary of Poitiers Day –
This great defender of The Apostolic Faith gave us words that apply NOW:
‘On the Trinity, Book III’ 15.
“Many are kept within the pale of the church by the fear of God; yet they are tempted all the while to worldly faults by the allurements of the world.
They pray, because they are afraid; they sin, because it is their will. The fair hope of future life makes them call themselves Christians; the allurements of present pleasure make them act like heathen.
They do not abide in ungodliness, because they hold the name of God in honour; they are not godly because they follow after things contrary to godliness. …
These, then, are they whom the judgment awaits which unbelievers have already had passed upon them and believers do not need… and their judgment arises from the fact that, though they loved Christ, they yet loved darkness more ( see John 3:18-19).”
Cardinal Zen is a hero of the Catholic Resistance to Post-Conciliar persecution:
TLM “China Deal” victims and TLM “Traditionis Custodes” victims.
God said, “Beware of false Prophets”.
Spare us from evil. Stick with the facts.
Revisit Paul VI.
Patrick A. Schmiedeler