Vatican City, Jun 22, 2018 / 10:23 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis stressed Friday the important role the Eastern Catholic Churches play in spreading the Gospel given that many of them are concentrated in the Holy Land, and said Jerusalem in particular should be protected from tensions and political disputes.
“The Oriental Catholic Churches, as living witnesses to their apostolic origins, are called in a special way to protect and pass on a spark of Pentecostal fire,” the pope said June 22. “They are called daily to discover anew their own prophetic presence in all those places where they dwell as pilgrims.”
This, he said, begins with Jerusalem, “whose identity and particular vocation needs to be safeguarded beyond different tensions and political disputes.”
Pope Francis spoke at the Vatican’s Consistory Hall to members of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches, who are in Rome for their 91st plenary assembly, which this year coincides with the 50th anniversary of their founding.
The organization unites funding agencies from countries worldwide in order to provide services such as houses of worship and study, scholarships, and social and health care facilities to struggling areas.
Christians, though small in number in the area, are primarily called to this task, and must draw strength from the Holy Spirit “for their mission of witness,” he said, adding that in today’s context, this mission “is more urgent than ever before.”
Francis then prayed that holy places such as Jerusalem, “where God’s plan was fulfilled in the mystery of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” would be the birth place of “a renewed spirit of strength to inspire Christians in the Holy Land and the Middle East to embrace their special vocation and to offer an account of their faith and their hope.”
He voiced hope that the Eastern Catholic Churches would not be afraid to proclaim the Gospel in settings “that are often even more secularized than in the West, where they come as immigrants or refugees.”
The pope also prayed that they would be welcomed on both a practical and ecclesial level, “as they seek to preserve and enrich the patrimony of their various traditions.”
Thanks to organizations such as ROACO, members of the Eastern Churches, he said, “can bear witness to us, whose hearts are often dulled, that it is still worth living and suffering for the Gospel, even as a minority, or the object of persecution, for the Gospel is the joy and the life of men and women of every age.”
The pope said the organization’s landmark anniversary is a testament to the help they have given to Christians throughout the Middle East through the various initiatives they lead.
These projects, he said, allow Eastern Catholic Churches to thrive not only in their native lands, but also in the increasing diaspora, enabling them to continue bearing witness to the Gospel despite being “severely tested” by persecution.
This persecution, he said, has arisen “first by the totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe and then, more recently, by forms of allegedly religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, to say nothing of apparently interminable conflicts, especially in the Middle East.”
Solidarity shown by organizations such as ROACO, he said, have helped to ensure the continued existence of the Eastern Churches at risk of extinction, and have allowed these churches to continue spreading the Gospel.
Pope Francis said the work of ROACO has also helped him to continue his mission of “pursuing possible paths to the visible unity of all Christians,” and stressed that Christians who are members of Eastern Churches, though distant, “are no less loved, and certainly not forgotten.”
“With your help,” he said in closing, “they are always listened to and helped to continue their journey as the Church of the Risen Christ, amid every challenge, and every spiritual and material suffering, in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe.”
Francis’ comments on Jerusalem come after the United States on May 14 opened an embassy in the city, making the U.S. the only country to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel since the state was established in 1948.
Israel has claimed Jerusalem as its capital. However, Palestinians claim that the eastern portion of the city is the capital of the future Palestinian state.
Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognized by the international community, and all countries but the US have embassies in Tel Aviv. Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, then, was met with fierce backlash not only from international interlocutors, but also by the Vatican.
After Trump announced the change last December, Pope Francis expressed his “deep concern” and issued an appeal to the international community to ensure that “everyone is committed to respecting the status quo of the city, in accordance with the relevant Resolutions of the United Nations.”
Pope Francis also urged the necessity of maintaining the status quo in his meeting with Theophilos III, patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, in October 2017, in which the two discussed the patriarch’s concern for the Christian community amid aggression by Jewish settlers.
“Any kind of violence, discrimination or displays of intolerance against Jewish, Christian and Muslim worshipers, or places of worship, must be firmly rejected,” the pope said, adding that “the Holy City, whose status quo must be defended and preserved, ought to be a place where all can live together peaceably; otherwise, the endless spiral of suffering will continue for all.”
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As a Catholic and living in a country where over 60 million abortions from 1973 to 2020 and what the world would have been like with 60 million more people living in the US. Why isn’t the Vatican or Pope Francis commenting on abortion? President Bident is a horrible Catholic fully standing behind abortions. His party, the Democrat Party has fully endorsed late-term abortions, even after birth to make the baby comfortable and then decide if the baby needs to be killed. I’m not saying this has come from his administration, but his party in various states like Virginia and New York. In a time where Roe VS Wade has the potential to be overturned and to not “have the topic of abortion” discussed, and to not state anything after President Biden’s remarks after his meeting with Pope Francis, is likened to supporting the 60 million+ deaths attributed to abortion. Thank you for your time.
St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 states that an individual be excommunicated for having sexual relations with his stepmother and coming to communion. I pose the following question to Pope Francis “Which is the greater sin, sexual relations with your stepmother or abortion?”
Ooooooo, relativism, the bishops like this kind of comparison; i.e., J&J is more immoral than Moderna or Pfizer.
Oh, how you hate the truth.
That photo says it all. Bergoglio giggling with delight.
I hope the March for Life in January has this photo on every placard as protestors ignore the capitol and white house and detour to the nunciature. Maybe another branch of protestors can walk up to USCCB headquarters with photos of Cupich, Tobin and Gregory, all smiling with Bergoglio and Biden. Our Church has become a farce. God save us.
Bravo, Mr. Pfannenstiel. That is exactly what needs to be done with these clerical laughing hyenas. Yes, the Catholic Church has become a farce because bishops and priests have almost universally refused to confront and denounce evildoers like Bergoglio, Cupich, Tobin, and Gregory.
The faithful have a sense, strong but often undefined, of what Christianity is about. The traditore clergy and hierarchy, not so much.
Great idea to gather in front of the nunciature. Let’s lobby the Vatican to return to the true faith.
What does this Church actually believe? I’m not sure I know any more.
Prominent politicians call themselves Catholic and openly promote abortion in all stages, in every manner, and advocate for U.S. taxpayers to finance such killings all around the world, in numbers too vast to track.
The bishops who object I can count on my fingers.
Meanwhile, half of American Catholics vote for these politicians habitually, without giving a thought to the scores of millions of children who are lost because of their votes. Their active and willful agency in this holocaust of babies is nearly never mentioned from the pulpit in their parishes. Is it not of even the slightest concern to the Church?
And the bishops — and now, apparently, the pope — do business with these blood-ravening politicians every day, business-as-usual, without so much as paying lip service to these dead and dying children.
And yet these same bishops support the closing of their churches for months on end when facing a virus with a mortality rate of one percent.
Why the difference? Maybe because the bishops themselves can’t contract abortion?
Honestly, I’m struggling with my commitment to a faithless church led by corporate yes-men and bureaucrats, and peopled by bloody handed functionaries who do the bidding of their ideological betters without question, without hesitation.
If these tens of millions of dead babies don’t matter, what does?
Suffering Jesus, have pity on us.
Brineyman,
What you say is painfully true. How can Heaven ignore the 60 million murdered children whose blood cries to Heaven for justice! Oh Heaven, we are a sinful people. We beg you have mercy on us and raise up great souls, who are brave and unabashed in their passion for Jesus Christ Crucified. Yes, Lord Jesus, too many of the leaders of your Church here on earth, have become intoxicated with Satan’s sublime kool aid poison from Hell. Yes, Lord Jesus, send us souls like St. John the Baptist, St. Peter and St. Paul, St. John Chrysostom, St. Catherine and others, whose lives were unabashedly committed to your Eternal Truth, and nothing more. And then, COME LORD JESUS!
You wisely ask: “If these tens of millions of dead babies don’t matter, what does?”
Biden and Francis apparently consider as more important: Climate, poverty, and the pandemic.
We could safely excommunicate ourselves from thinking of these motley fools as leaders of a Christian free world. Repeatedly they’ve proven themselves to be confused, confusing, and disordered caricatures of any semblance of good leaders.
By what remedy may we rid ourselves of the shame they bring upon us and the death knells they ring for themselves? Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
I guess Francis is just to shy to brag about his converts and how he recognized the urgency of the situation and convinced Biden to no longer be an agent for mass murder anymore. Gotta love the humility of the man.
So we’re to believe that if during World War II the Pope had met with Hitler, the topic of Jews being gassed in concentration camps and their bodies burned in ovens would not be discussed? Then, for certain, Pius XII could have rightfully been called “Hitler’s Pope.” And those were a mere 6 million persons murdered.
Fast forward to Pope Francis meeting with the head of our government who has directly influenced by policy decisions and funding the death of 60,000,000 persons. Are we to believe that the Vicar of Christ would not bring up the topic of abortion in that meeting – for this is exactly what Biden stated?
Unless Biden is a bold-face liar (remember, the Vatican has not said otherwise) what then should we rightfully call this Pope? And would Pius XII have instructed Hitler to, “by all means, do go and receive the Holy Eucharist”?
We are all responsible for our own sins, and subjected only to Gods justice.
Receiving the holy Eucharist will help to strengthen us in Gods way.
We are not to judge but only to love and forgive.
Right now we need to win some battles before we can win the war.
I pray every day for a stronger faith so as to do Gods will
It appears that Pope Francis is walking toward the “dark side” should it be true he truly advised President Biden that he is a good Catholic and he may continue to receive holy communion (through which the Holy Eucharist becomes the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ).
This is the worst possible outcome. It leaves the bishops and the faithful hanging. It’s like not answering the dubia. Passive aggressive. I feel abused.
That’s a yes then
Both sides of this event have revealed themselves as utterly pathetic. It is nothing less than sickening to see “leadership” in the most powerful nation in the world and in the Church which was previously the strongest moral voice in the world reduced to a level of vacuous impotent posturing.
Gut wrenching to observe.
Joe getting a good ole boy slap on the back by the Pontiff; great stuff.
Abortion is a moral issue but if the president and Congress and anyone else wants to separate private moral matters from being debated, then why not take a full court press against abortion with science? We don’t have to mention religion if it’s too difficult for the president to bring his deeply held beliefs on the body politic. We can just give him the science of a separate, human life being terminated simply because one or more human beings who have the power in the situation use that power to snuff out the life of the innocent one.
Yes! Let’s follow the science to prove once and for all that at the moment of conception, a human life has begun. As if in 1973 those supreme court justices didn’t know this science then.
Speaking as a physicist. I think “science” is the worst argument of all. Since science has nothing whatsoever to do with value judgments, it is easy for “science” to be abused to where a pro-abort can deny personhood based on an argument of material functionality. No, the arguments must always focus on the meaning of intrinsic worth, which can be advanced independent of religion. I am not only a scientist, I am a former pro-life atheist, now a Catholic pro-lifer.
I get your point but I’m not sure many people in the wider culture do. I just got finished listening to a radio ad that recommends a gubernatorial candidate because “he listens to science,” suggesting that his opponent does not. This is where people’s minds are these days, so I think it’s important to respond to this mindset that wants to keep science to itself.
A pastoral approach to politicians who support the murder of babies in the womb would be to instruct them on Canon 915, which says that those indulging in mortal sin should not present themselves for reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. If Francis told Biden (and this is a big if) that he is a good Catholic and should keep going to Communion, it was likely a nice albeit subtle way of telling Biden to go to hell. Nothing pastoral there.
A pastoral approach to politicians who support the murder of babies in the womb would be to instruct them on Canon 915, which says that those indulging in mortal sin should not present themselves for reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. If Francis told Biden (and this is a big if) that he is a good Catholic and should keep going to Communion, it was likely a nice albeit subtle way of telling Biden to go to hell. Nothing pastoral there.
You said it. If Francis did his job, including his pastoral obligation, Biden would have come out of the meeting with an ashen solemn expression, in fact, they both would have.
If someone or head of state would claim that Pope Francis said that he does not really believe in climate change or that nations have the right to control immigration, or that he does not have any problem with pollution, would the Vatican refuse to clarify what the pope said on that private conversation?
Good point. There is the possibility that the conversation about abortion – which The NY Times quotes Biden as saying did not happen (which makes one wonder why the pope had to reassure Biden about his standing as a Catholic) – took place in the sacrament of reconciliation. If so, the pope would not be able to speak about the conversation. This, of course, does nothing to clear up the whole mess. If Francis can say that abortion is like hiring a hit man, why can’t he tell a member of his flock that he is demonstrating support for that great evil and should stop at once?
PETA is far more effective in stopping the mistreatment of dogs and being moral agents than this Pope is in stopping the murder of human persons. Maybe Francis ought to hire some PETA people for his Curia. They’ll instruct him in how to go about it.
If anyone has read Faggioli’s take (at VOA website), please interpret. What exactly is he saying?
He’s saying “beans”.
Certainly if using aborted/infanticide cell lines vaccines for saving bodily life is morally permissible in certain circumstances, using non-abortive fidelity to the 8th Holy Commandment as a spiritual vaccine for saving the soul’s eternal life is not only morally permissible but morally mandated, in certain cases, to avoid the harm and death of sins of scandal and their adverse effects. Let such a note be forthcoming.
CCC
2491 Professional secrets – for example, those of political office holders, soldiers, physicians, and lawyers – or confidential information given under the seal of secrecy must be kept, save in exceptional cases where keeping the secret is bound to cause very grave harm to the one who confided it, to the one who received it 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡. Even if not confided under the seal of secrecy, private information prejudicial to another is not to be divulged without a grave and proportionate reason.
What is the grave harm:
𝟐𝟒𝟖𝟑 𝐋𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡. 𝐓𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫. 𝐁𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫, 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
To Catechism home page
II. RESPECT FOR THE DIGNITY OF PERSONS
Respect for the souls of others: scandal
2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.
2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” 86 Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing. 87
2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!” 90
Well explained Pater, your response, as understood to this article and Vatican silence. There are instances as the Catechism teaches, that secrecy is not always a good. CCC 2491 Where keeping the secret is bound to cause very grave harm to the one who confided it, to the one who received it 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡. Your highlight of 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 in the Biden Francis exchange would, to my understanding reference the members of the Church. Persons laity, clergy seeking clarity on Eucharistic cohesion. Again, it is my interpretation that there’s grave harm in counselling someone that the Eucharist can be licitly received by a Catholic who favors and expands abortion rights. That in doing so leads to “scandal and responsibility for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged”. Grave harm also pertains then to the person giving permission as well as the party receiving it. The party receiving it, if lying is in grave danger for lying on a crucial faith issue misrepresenting the Roman Pontiff. If he is telling the truth the secret is already divulged granting the Pontiff freedom to acknowledge it. If lying the Pontiff is obliged to correct a grave and misleading lie for sake of the salvation of the alleged recipient as well as for the scandalized members of the Church. I would add here, if hypothetically a man were intending to deceive the Church to believe that a grave sin can be granted liceity due to circumstances [like political expediency or any other rationale] while simultaneously openly and clearly condemning that sin, would not that be a powerful means of achieving that evil intent? Silence and what it suggests can achieve that end.
The reason the media was banned from the Papal Audience with Biden is obvious: Two elderly men, both suffering from serious Foot in Mouth Disease, were bound to say something outrageous and/or stupid. Therefore keeping the meeting under wraps was perhaps necessary to avoid scandal.
Johann, I would like to agree with you although this is a serious matter because of what it conveys, especially to the faithful. Archbishop Viganò has received criticism on some matters. Today he issued a statement that rings true: “Even if what Biden said corresponds perfectly to the intemperate quips of Jorge Mario Bergoglio – who called a notorious radical abortion activist a great Italian – it is evident that such statements represent an unheard of scandal, since they fail to condemn the positions of a political personality who supports abortion, disavow the immutable position of the Magisterium of the Church, and resound as a blatant invitation to commit sacrilege, profaning the Most Holy Eucharist by receiving it in the state of public and manifest sin” (Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in the Remnant 10.31.21).
The pope has a responsibility to publicly address a public objectively sinful act. This cannot be a private matter. Biden and other Catholic politicians have made it a public demonstration of support for grave sinfulness. The Vatican cannot hide behind “it’s a private conversation.” This is a scandal of enormous gravity. If Bergoglio remains silent on what Biden said and allows Biden’s characterization of their conversation to prevail, Bergoglio is complicit in this grave scandal.
Unless the Vatican issues a statement denying Biden’s claims, we are witnessing a watershed moment in the life of the Church. The final confrontation that JPII talked about in 1976 is in full swing. The “storm” that a number of Catholic mystics have said is coming can’t be simply dismissed as the work of overactive imaginations.
This disastrous pope is a scandal worse than the sexual abuse catastrophe. The bishops had better muster up courage, if they are even capable of that anymore. The crisis has arrived. And Bergoglio is laughing.
Do you think God is giving enough rope to the pope to hang himself?