Final Report on Synod is Out in English

Edit: NCR says it's "remarkably strong". Incredulous:

[NCR] For the English-speaking world, the Ordinary Synod on the Family just came to a formal end, two months after its actual end, with the release of its final report in our native tongue.  

The world was gleefully told by the enlightened—again and again and again—that it looked as if the Church was finally going to join the modern age by surrendering to the self-evident verities of the sexual revolution. Giddy at the prospects of Pope Francis’ supposed reforming spirit, the gay community’s leading magazine canonized the Holy Father as their “Person of the Year” before the Synod even started. While this chatter of reformation made the heterodox hopeful, it made the orthodox anxious. But all that is over now and there’s a very good reason that you’ve not been blasted with the news of the synod’s conclusions. It not only dashed the hopes of those who hoped the Church would jettison its historic and biblical teaching on sexual ethics, it blew them to hell.

http://m.ncregister.com/blog/gstanton/the-synods-remarkably-strong-final-report/#.VnF8ZzK9LKA

Polish Bishops' Conference Rejects Communion for Divorced and Remarried

Polish bishops warn that the praxis of annulment could lead to a divorce mentality.

Warsaw (kath.net) Holy Communion can not be  given to divorced and remarried Catholics, "this is the unchangeable teaching of the Catholic Church". Because "what God has joined together, let no man separate, teaches Christ (Mk 10.9)". This is what the Polish Catholic Bishops' Conference said in a press statement. "Marriage is a divine as well as both human reality that has been raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament." This is a matter of extreme importance because it concerns  Catholic doctrine.

Catholics should be concerned that Catholic annulment praxis could lead to the "divorce mentality."

The bishops cited Pope Francis who had explained in the Angelus on 8/16/2015, the Eucharist "is not a private prayer or a beautiful spiritual experience, it is not a simple reminder of what Jesus did at the Last Supper". To be fed the living bread means rather, to enter into harmony with the heart of Christ, to accept his decisions, his thoughts, his behavior,  kath.net reports.

In the survey before the Synod of Bishops, many Polish Catholics had emphasized the value of family. The Polish bishops expressly thanked "God for the fact that there are many healthy families in our country who show 'in good and bad days'  fidelity to their vocation."

At the same time the Polish bishops have recalled that those whose families who are broken have need of pastoral care. Moreover,  the bishops warned against infertility through artificial insemination that is not allowed Catholics  and that stillborn children have the "full right to a  Catholic funeral".

In their text, the Polish bishops did not address  homosexuality and gender issues, which they had already taken a stand on several occasions according to the Catholic doctrine on this point.

Link to kath.net...

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

The Dubious Foundation of Kasper's Theology -- Friederich Schelling and The Bishops' Synod

Cardinal Kasper and the foundation of his theoloical
thinking.

(Rome) Don Antonio Livi, the former dean of the Faculty of Arts of the Pontifical Lateran University is concerned with the "dubious basis of Kasper's proposal" ( Disputationes Theologicae ) on the divorced and remarried for the Synod of Bishops on the family in October. Pope Francis opened a games room for German Cardinal Walter Kasper to attack the  teaching and practice of the Church  by attempting to replace it with a new theology. It is a basis enough to illuminate the fundamentals of Cardinal Kasper's theology. 

The first part of Don Antonio Livi's analysis was published on the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, to which  Pope Francis belongs, in Disputationes Theologicae entitled "The Eucharist Kasper."

In addition to the danger of profaning the Sacrament of Penance, "we stand before the final attack of Gnostic-Masonic thinking against the Church of Christ", says Disputationes Theologicae . Don Livi is concerned with the implications of the conflict, by exposing the "Eucharistic theology" behind the Kasper-Propsal.

Kasper's writings are "not very" original, suffering from an "obvious lack of proper theological methodology"

Antonio Livi's "first consideration" was to "primarily ecclesiologically and pastorally" find that Kasper's theological creativity shows  "a lack of proper theological methodology evident in them." His theses "rarely" have original features, as Kasper is "content to repeat what was already represented his teachers, especially Karl Rahner."

"In every single one of the theses  advocated by Kasper" there is a lack, viewed from an epistemological point of view,  of "that epistemic consistency indicated by true theology." Kasper's "theological research are not hypotheses (and also don't raise the claim) of offering a scientific interpretation  of the Church through  the Holy Scriptures, the dogmatic doctrines, liturgy and faith." They were "rather an ambiguous expression of a religious philosophy, an expression with which I refer to those arbitrary interpretations of Christianity's own religious terms by the major systems of historicizing idealism like that  Hegel and Schelling brought forth in the 19th century."  Of these systems of thought,  "that are epistemologically, purely philosophical, primarily in the Lutheran milieu in which they have arisen, can be regarded  theologically, to have affected many Catholic theologians including Walter Kasper in the 20th century whose formation was carried out by those at the Tübingen School, as he complacently writes in one of his early works. They have launched "a renewal of theology and of the entire German Catholicism"  in the encounter with Schelling and Hegel, according to Kasper in his book on the absolute in history. Philosophy and Theology of History in the Later Philosophy of Schelling, Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz, 1965.

Kasper's "Throwback to the ideological positions of theologians condemned by the Holy See in the 19th century"

The so-called "encounter with Schelling and Hegel" was believed by the theologians of the Tübingen School as necessary to "renew" all the "conciliar" theology and with the Church, which is in fact an obscure throwback to the ideological positions that theologians (not coincidentally also German), who were sentenced in the 19th century by the Holy See because of the application  of Hegel's and Schelling's  categories of idealism to theology ".

"The fact that in the 20th century Catholic scholars wanted a struggle against the metaphysical tradition in theology through the systematic adoption of a religious philosophy conflict that was developed in the Lutheran world and always criticized the Catholic, can have no other plausible explanation than in their psychological dependence on the Lutheran theologians, whose hegemony in German culture has always been absolute (Consider that  even Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel emerged and remained within the  Lutheran  religious culture). "Between Hegel and Schelling"  Kasper preferred latter, whom he "called, 'the solitary Great' " ¹ , and "from the Gnostic character of his philosophical and religious studies, showed himself intrigued without feeling even any embarrassment because of their clearly pantheistic result.".

Kasper's picking up "specifically Schelling's themes" recalls the analogous methodical decision of another German Catholic theologian, that of Klaus Hemmerle, in whose school Piero Coda has also been formed. This operates as  a "theological method that is radically inconsistent with that of the true theology".

Kasper's Summary of Schelling "a meaningless accumulation of words"

Kasper  "seems to unreservedly want to replace  the inner-worldly premises of the philosophical analysis of the Christian faith with Schelling". In his words, "with whom he is convinced to renew the Catholic theology based on these assumptions,' you can clearly perceive that it lacks that critical sense, the necessary prerequisite of a scientific research, which is why his summary of the religious philosophy of Schelling is a meaningless accumulation of words: "Schelling summarizes namely the relationship between natural and supernatural is not static-metaphysical-over time, but dynamic and historical. The essence of  Christian revelation is just this that it is history. " ²

"What does it mean that the Christian revelation is essentially 'history'? The history of what, history by whom? Is the history of men (what Kasper calls nature) in relation to the action of God (the supernatural)' to understand)? "In this case, said Livi, it was about the theological concept of "salvation history", the salvific Initiative of God, Creator and Redeemer, who was revealed by God Himself to man, first through the prophets, then definitely by the Incarnation of the Word.  "But that can not be Kasper's understanding, because that would correspond to all the traditional theological doctrine which is rejected according to Kasper  but, since it implies a 'static-metaphysical-timeless' way,  'to conceive the relationship between natural and supernatural,'" says Livi. Kasper had admitted "(unconsciously) the distinction between the world (creation) and God (the Creator)" where God can not be equated with the "history", "unless you would ultimately exclude God from theological discourse, and only talk of  the world and its affairs, even when it comes to the religious life and the Church. But that is what Kasper says, as will be shown. "

In a Worldly Ecclesiology there for the Eucharistic mystery not theological place more

"The frequent changes of theological propositions that have characterized the scientific and journalistic work Kaspers' leave, remember that" so much a viable proposal for the interpretation of the dogma of the "ultimate purpose" of his work is driven by the desire of its salvific implementation not in the lives of believers, but the urge to impose public opinion as a leading figure of the progressive wing of contemporary theology, especially in the context of ecumenism, thus the 'dialogue' with the Protestants, overlooking ritual and doctrine for an 'approach' between them and the Catholic Church."

"In any case," Kasper's  constant appeals for "reforms" in the Church - "whether institutional, liturgical, pastoral reforms - miss any necessary relation to the constitutive 'form' of the Church as a divine institution.'" That is clear "from the devaluation of the specifically theological principles of ecclesiology, the first place to the express recognition of the divine nature of Christ as the Incarnate Word,  that the he founded the Church to continue his salvific mission through instructing the faithful preaching of the supernatural mysteries and of sanctifying grace the sacraments."

"The specific theological principles of ecclesiology had been linked in the years before the Council to another theologian of the 20th century, the Swiss Charles Journet, who confirmed  the Christological dogma (and also the Marian)", in his treatise L'Eglise du Verbe incarné ³ whose doctrine gets to be seen for the most part in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, especially in the eighth chapter, where the Council speaks of Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church. ⁴

The anti-metaphysical struggle of the "conciliar theologian" Kasper

Kasper, who as a "counciliar theologian" presents himself, however, ignoring systematically the specific theological concepts of ecclesiology, but he claimed the Catholic faith of the "forms and formula" to "clean", even though they have just been to the effect solemnly confirmed by the Second Vatican Council, because these forms and formulas' ensure the supernatural (transcendent) character of the divine reality and the worship that pays the Church of Christ, who is God, the eternal Word, 'Who became flesh' in time and truly present in the Eucharist, as it justifies the devotion to Mary, the Mother of God is recognized as since it is true Mother of Christ, who is God. ⁵

The "struggle for the abolition of the theological concepts with a metaphysical 'taste' that is claimed to be purely pastoral needs (the usual requirement, that  the people of today are allegedly adverse to incomprehensible and unacceptable language), is aimed in reality at the elimination of all basic principles from Catholic ecclesiology starting with the Annunciation, by subjecting them to a systematic, rationalistic criticism, beginning with the phrase, 'Word made ​​flesh.'" Kasper had this reduced this notion in his famous work "Jesus the Christ" ⁶ to immanent terms, outlining it by "his anti-metaphysical" Christology. "In reality," it was dealing with a reformulation of Christian dogma in the sense of the religious philosophy of Schelling. In this way of thinking is the self-revelation of God, Christ, no longer as a mediator between God and men ⁷believed and worshiped, but reduced to a historical manifestation of the "economic" Trinity. ⁸

Kasper is unable to emancipate himself from Schelling - denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ

"Kasper is unable to emancipate himself from Schelling's revelation philosophy, which, however, flourished in the same German environment as Romano Guardini ⁹, and so he went off track as a Catholic theologian in an absurd work of deconstruction of the traditional Christological dogma. Even the historical evidence of Christ's divinity, whose intention  was to prove his omnipotence  and so to support the faith of his disciples, are subjected by Kasper to  doubt," and finally  "in order to deny what they really are, namely the empirical evidence of divine intervention." "From the implicit denial of the divinity of Christ occurs because the persistent use of the expression Kasper uses, 'God of Jesus Christ', as well as the title of one of his works is (The God of Jesus Christ), and God by separating the name from the name Christ semantically, implies the denial of the divinity of Jesus. " ¹⁰

"In fact, Kasper belongs entirely to those ideological current, which was headed by Hans Küng and Karl Rahner, and understands theology as anthropology, by recommending the Church, not so much from God, but to speak of the people. ¹¹  In accordance with this precise speculative orientation, Kasper puts aside the discourse on the dual nature of Christ, the eternal Word,   and reduces Christology to a phenomenological discourse on the conscience of Jesus, as a person who speaks of God,'" said Don Antonio Livi, who was from 2002 to his retirement in 2008, Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

Introduction / translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Disputationes Theologicae

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholishes...

AMDG

"Via discretionis": New "Solutions" for the Synod of Bishops -- Communion "Only at Easter"

(Rome) The Pontifical Family Council headed by Curial Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia  organized last February and March, a three-day international seminar behind closed doors on the question of remarried divorcees. Many invited theologians defended the sacrament of marriage. The seminar should, so say Roman voices, especially provide a platform for a certain thesis: the "Via discretionis", a refined and concretized variant of the Kasper-proposal.

The event took place in view of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops in October and was Top Secret. The theme was "Family and Church. An inextricable link." As it says in the conference proceedings, which has now been released by the Vatican publishing.

International Seminar Behind Closed Doors

At the seminar, no bishops were invited, only "experts". The focus was on the controversial topics of the Synod. The opinions of the speakers were  very heterogeneous. Many defended the indissolubility of marriage.

The left-leaning daily La Repubblica , the only newspaper that Pope Francis reads daily, unfailingly  fished out a  paper that is close to Cardinal Kasper's "New Mercy." The key words are "heal wounds", and "diminish suffering," of those who "have failed". This corresponds quite, so La Repubblica ,  with  "Pope Francis' desire for completion of the extraordinary session of the Synod in last October, calling to find concrete solutions to many difficulties and countless challenges that  families have to face.''

The proposals of the Paglia seminar "While committed to nothing," says the newspaper, "but to show the will of some theologians, that nothing can remain on the pastoral level, as it is". It's to make  "possible a new beginning for the divorced and remarried."

Via discretionis: symbiosis of the theses of Xavier Lacroix and Paul De Clerck

Proceedings "Family and Church"

The proposal is to introduce a "Via discretionis." This involves  a symbiosis of the texts by the theologians Xavier Lacroix and Paul De Clerck. Lacroix in favor of the admission to communion, but not for the recognition of the second marriage. De Clerck also represents the recognition of the second marriage after the model of the Orthodox Church.

The Via discretionis provides that each diocese should appoint a priest who only cares for the divorced and remarried. If necessary, these priests could be supported by a "team of experts". Its mission is to examine the intentions of the couple and to request the reasons that they are asking for re-admission to communion. The priest has first to consider the nullity of marriage and to refer the couple to the Church court. Because, according to the thesis, the cause of many separations is that marriages are in fact invalid. If the path of invalidity  is not possible, the authorized priest leads the couple to begin a penitential journey. It will not be short and will consist of several stages. "The motive is understanding what led to the failure of the marriage; be conscious of having betrayed a commandment of God; to go on in reconciliation with their own past,"  says a direct quote from the conference proceedings.

"In Some Cases Admission to Communion only at Easter"

This way "would also require a public character of penance to show the general consciousness of Christians, that the reconciliation of man whose marriage has broken down, means no frivolity of the Church in provision for the interpretation  of the Gospel, but  will  concretely  prove the actual obedience to this provision." In concrete terms,  the re-admission to the sacraments could "be full or partial." In some cases, admission to the Eucharist could be limited to a one-time annual Communion at Easter.

For the problem of how second marriages could be recognized, there was also a proposal. Most were in agreement that it could  not be called a sacrament in a second marriage. The sacrament of marriage remains unique. This could recognize  "the high human and spiritual value of the new union." Exactly what Cardinal Kasper has written: Where the faith today and the love at work and penance for the guilt for the failure of the first marriage are felt, it will also have a second marriage as  part of the spiritual dimension of Church life.

 La Repubblica : "Sure, in October the Synod has the last word and then the Pope. There are now at least within the Vatican Walls   new solutions which are on   terms of a Church of acceptance and puts  mercy in black and white on paper."

The Authors of the "New Solutions"

Xavier Lacroix and Paul De Clerck

The Belgian liturgist Paul De Clerck, born in 1939, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. He was from 1970-1998 director of the Centre d'études et théologiques pastoral de Bruxelles. De Clerck is professor emeritus of the Institut supérieur de Liturgy at the Catholic University of Paris. From 1986-2001 he was Director of the Institute.

The French moral theologian Xavier Lacroix, born in 1947, has taught ethics and moral theology since 1986 at the Université catholique de Lyon . From 1986-1994 he was director of the Institut des sciences de la famille at the Faculty of Theology, which he was dean from 1997 to 2003. From 1987-2004 he was a member of the National Council for Family Pastoral. Lacroix is an advisor of the French Bishops' Conference and the Pontifical Family Council in matters of family. Since 2008 he has belonged at the proposal of the President, to the 39 head National Ethics Council of France.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the organizer of the international seminar has  been noted mainly for statements encouraging the recognition of homosexuality since 2013. When his ticket was stamped for the Community of Sant'Egidio  by the Roman Curia, he left his diocese of Terni with a debt of 24 million euros.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil / UCL / ISL (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Before the Bishops' Synod: Bishop Huonder on the Truth and Majority

Bishop Vitus Huonder

(Chur) On June 21, 2015, Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur said in his sermon: "majorities are not necessarily decisive for the knowledge of the truth and above all for the way of righteousness, on the contrary ...

Very often it is good and right to belong to the minority, yes, to an insignificant minority! Take the words of St. Thomas More speaking to our life in the speech he uttered before his execution, and by which we are guided always afterwards: 'I die a faithful servant of the king, but first I am servant of God'.

Let us pray that the Synod Fathers will be led by this spirit and  remain conscious in the face of pressure from certain lobbies and ideologies, that they are above all, God's servants. Let us pray to Saint Thomas More and the saints, who shared the same fate that they stand as intercessors at the Synod. Amen. "

(Excerpt from the sermon on June 21, 2015)

Link to Katholisches...

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux Will be Canonized During Bishops' Synod

(Rome) Pope Francis has called  an ordinary Cardinal consistory to announce new Saints on June 27th. Among the new saints are included the French couple Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux.

The upcoming canonization of the parents of the popular saints will be officially confirmed. Pope Francis will make the Saints during the Synod of Bishops in October, as indicated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation of Saints.

Rumors have it that  the Pope has the intention to set up relics of the holy married couple during the upcoming Synod of Bishops in the Synod Hall. A confirmation does not exist for the time being.

Five Daughters Were Nuns

Zelie Martin, born Guerin lived from 1831-1877, and her husband Louis Martin from 1823 to 1894. The couple married in 1858, had nine children, all girls who had been baptized with  the name Maria in combination with a second name. All five children who reached adulthood, became nuns. Four sisters entered the Carmel of Lisieux, a fifth sister, Marie-Léonie was Salesian in Caen.

The youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Matin, Marie-Françoise-Thérèse (1873-1897), was  Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face in the Carmelite Carmel of Lisieux. Better known as Therese of Lisieux's "Little Therese" in order to distinguish her from  St. Teresa of Avila.

In 1923   Pope Pius XI. beatified her and canonized her  in 1925. In 1927 she was named by the same pope, along with St Francis Xavier as patron of the universal mission. In 1997, Pope John Paul II., declared her, together with Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena. a Doctor of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI. finally signed the decree for the beatification of Therese's parents, which took place in Lisieux 19 October 2008.

Zelie and Louis Martin are the first married couple to be canonized without suffering martyrdom. Last March, Pope Francis recognized a scientifically inexplicable healing miracle attributed to the intercession of the couple.

A Founder and Religious Superiors as New Saints

At the Cardinal Consistory, Pope Francis will also announce the canonization of the Spanish nun Maria Isabella Salvat Romero (1926-1998), and the Italian priest Vincenzo Grossi (1845-1917). Mother Mary of the Most Pure Cross  was Superior General of the Hermanas de la Compañía de la Cruz de Sevilla (Sisters of the Company of the Cross). The Order with around 1,000 nurses and more than 50 houses operates in Spain, Argentina and Italy.

The priest Grossi founded in 1885 the Order of the Daughters dell'Oratorio (Sisters of the Oratorio), who particularly care for needy children and young people. The Order's name originated because of the main field of activity of the sisters and because the order was placed under the protection of St. Philip Neri. The Order today has approximately 230 sisters in 30 houses works in Italy, Argentina and Ecuador.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: ocdssacramento.org

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG

Bishop Koch New Archbishop of Berlin -- Participant in Bishops' Synod 2015

Archbishop Koch

(Berlin) Bishop Heiner Koch of Dresden-Meissen was appointed as the new Archbishop of Berlin by Pope Francis today. The appointment comes in appreciation of "Marx'ists and Kasperians" (Hubert Hecker) in the German church. Bishop Koch was elected to the Episcopal Conference alongside Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück by the German Bishops' Conference for the Synod of the Synod of Bishops next October.

Koch is a party to the "opening" of Cardinals Marx and Kasper, albeit he is publicly nuanced reserved. When it comes to homosexuality, he rejects an opening, but pays tribute to homosexuals and verbally encourages widespread recognition. When it comes to admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments Koch finds probabilistic. Serious opposition to a reinterpretation of  Catholic marriage and morality for pastoral practice is not something he is  previously given him credit for.

On Whit Monday Koch attended the secret meetings of the Kasperians at the Gregorian University in Rome with Cardinal Marx.

A month before his surprising resignation, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Koch on January 2013 the Bishop of Dresden-Meissen. Previously he had been in Cologne as  Auxiliary Bishop of Cardinal Joachim Meisner.  He was already appointed auxiliary bishop in 2006 at the request of Cardinal Meisner by Benedict XVI. The Diocese of Dresden-Meissen is part of the ecclesiastical province of Berlin, of which  Koch will be Metropolitan.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Wikicommons (Martin Ruschl)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG

Official and Secret: Double Bishops' Synod -- Where Was Cardinal Schönborn?

Cardinals Reinhold Marx and Walter Kasper

(Rome) While the secret meeting of the new progressivist Rhenish Alliance took place on Whit Monday in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Pope Francis gathered the Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. On the 25th and on the morning of May 26, the Pope personally directed the work.

Member of the Council is the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. The president of the Austrian Bishops' Conference was the great absentee in these secret meetings, which  took place a remove of less than three kilometers from the Vatican, at the Gregoriana.

Cardinal Schönborn, the great absentee at the secret meeting?

Is  Vienna's Archbishop keeping his distance from the Franco-German "Illuminati" circle? Or was he  only prevented in the secret meeting because of  a scheduling conflict? It is clear that the Austrian Cardinal was only staying away on Whit Monday in Rome while on an official mission in the Vatican. Whether he or other senior members of the Council of the Synod Secretariat were also participants in the occult meeting subsequently, to exchange information or to make arrangements, is not known.

During the Synod of Bishops in 2014 and following this to Cardinal Schönborn ended with waving flags the camp of Kasperianer to both in terms of discrimination and in terms of homosexuality. During the Synod, the Archbishop of Vienna had exceeded the German Cardinal Walter Kasper far exceeded with a proposal to radicalism. Schoenborn pleaded for the recognition of a general "gradualness" in all the sacraments (see "Subsistit in" transferred to the sacraments - loose "conditions" for Remarried Divorcees Schönborn and "Love is Love" - Cardinal Schönborn's Tribute to Homosexuals and Perverse logic ).

Crudely stated: A "graduality" which makes no place  for evil or negative because the ideal is recognized in the "gradual"  in the one more and the other less. It's the same way, according to Schönborn,  in interpersonal relationships as well, no matter what. In many, the ideal is not fully realized, but in all, at least a little, because they were focused on another human being. The Church did help people striving for the ideal, but in the end are the conditions for the reception of the sacraments (see especially Cardinal Schönborn and the Revolutionizing of Morality ).

Vienna Archbishop December 2014, defenders of the Catholic marriage sacrament in the negative implication toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, in 2015 Cardinal Schönborn has held back with substantive statements on the Synod of Bishops.

Instrumentum Laboris for Prepared for Final Editing- New Methods of Work at the Synod?

In the press release from the General Secretariat for the meeting of the Synod Council, the presence of the Pope was stressed. "Since Holy Father Francis presides,  this  importance is stressed by   his presence,which he attaches to the synodical way."

The Kasperians Archbishop Forte and Cardinal Tagle were officially in Rome

On Whit Monday, "the Council examined in detail the project of the Instrumentum laboris ", i.e., the Relatio Synodi, the final report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in October 2014 "supplemented by numerous incorporations by the responses to the Lineamenta were included in received questions by the the Bishops' Conferences and other organizations which apply to them, but also by numerous contributions of different ecclesial realities and of individual believers who were sent to the General Secretariat."  The scrutiny of the text offered the possibility to  "complement and improve its bid."   The "thus revised text corrected by councilors  was entrusted to the General Secretariat for final editing and translation into various languages, and  publication." The publication is to be carried out, according to  the press office of the Holy See,  in "a few weeks".

Finally, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri  "has presented proposals to update the working methods at the forthcoming Annual Synod of Bishopsi". The press release did not describe any  details  for the areas in which the rules of the Synod would be changed. Cardinal Baldisseri and Undersecretary Fabio Fabene were received on the morning of May 26 by Pope Francis at a private audience before the work of the Council was continued.

The XIV. Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the family will be held from 4th-25th October held at the Vatican in 2015.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil / CR

Cardinal Brandmüller: Whoever Wants to Change Dogma is a Heretic -- Even When He Dons Purple

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller is one of the leading critical voices bracing themselves against the Vatican Family Synod proposals to undermine the Catholic Sacraments- and moral teaching. He is one of five cardinals, who appeared out in the anthology "Stay in the Truth of Christ"  along with Gerhard Müller, De Paolis, Burke and Caffarra for the Synod of Bishops on the family in 2014, where they took a stand against Cardinal Kasper's proposal, to admit those in irregular living situations, to be admitted to communion.

Dr. Maike Hickson interviewed Cardinal Brandmüller for Life Site News . The courageous Catholic ( Open letter a concerned American Catholic Pope Francis ) is considered to have the provided special thanks questions and answers.

LifeSiteNews: Could you present once more for our readers clearly the teaching of the Catholic Church, as it has been consistently taught throughout centuries concerning marriage and its indissolubility?

Cardinal: The answer is to be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 1638-1642.

Can the Church admit remarried couples to Holy Communion, even though their second marriage is not valid in the eyes of the Church?

That would be possible if the concerned couples would make the decision to live in the future like brother and sister. This solution is especially worth considering when the care for children disallows a separation. The decision for such a path would be a convincing expression of the penance for the previous and protracted act of adultery.

Can the Church deal with the topic of marriage in a pastoral manner that is different from the continual teaching of the Church? Can the Church at all change the teaching itself without falling herself into heresy?

It is evident that the pastoral practice of the Church cannot stand in opposition to the binding doctrine nor simply ignore it. In the same manner, an architect could perhaps build a most beautiful bridge. However, if he does not pay attention to the laws of structural engineering, he risks the collapse of his construction. In the same manner, every pastoral practice has to follow the Word of God if it does not want to fail. A change of the teaching, of the dogma, is unthinkable. Who nevertheless consciously does it, or insistently demands it, is a heretic – even if he wears the Roman Purple.

Is not the whole discussion about the admittance of remarried to the Holy Eucharist also an expression of the fact that many Catholics do not believe any more in the Real Presence and rather think that they receive in Holy Communion anyway only a piece of bread?

Indeed, there is an indissoluble inner contradiction in someone who wants to receive the Body and Blood of Christ and to unite himself with Him, while in the same time he disregards consciously His Commandment. How shall this work? St. Paul says about this matter: 'Who eats and drinks unworthily, is eating and drinking his judgment...' But: You are right. By far not all Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated host. One can see this fact already in the way many – even priests – pass the tabernacle without genuflection.

Why is there nowadays such a strong attack on the indissolubility of marriage within the Church? A possible answer could be that the spirit of relativism has entered the Church, but there must be more reasons. Could you name some? And are not all these reasons a sign of the crisis of Faith within the Church herself?

Of course, if certain moral standards that have been valid generally, always, and everywhere are not any more recognized, then everybody makes himself his own moral law. That has as a consequence that one does what one pleases. It can be added the individualistic approach to life which regards life as a single chance for self-actualization – and not as a mission of the Creator. It is evident that such attitudes are the expression of a deeply rooted loss of Faith.

In this context, one can state that there was little talk in the last decades about the teaching about the Fallen Human Nature. The dominant impression was that man, all in all, is good. In my view, this has led to a lax attitude toward sin. Now, that we see the result of such a lax attitude – an explosion of inhuman conduct in all possible areas of human life – should this not be a reason for the Church to see that the teaching on the Fallen Human Nature has been confirmed and to therefore proclaim it again?

That is true, indeed. The topic 'Original Sin' with its consequences, the necessity for Redemption through the suffering, death and Resurrection of Christ has been largely suppressed and forgotten for a long time. However, one cannot understand the course of the world – and one's own life – without these truths. It is unavoidable that this ignoring of essential truths leads to moral misconduct. You are right: one should finally preach again about this topic, and with clarity.

The high numbers of abortion especially in the West have done great harm, not only for those killed babies, but also for the women (and men) who decided to kill their child. Should the prelates of the Church not take a strong stance about this terrible truth and try to shake the consciences of those women and men, also for the sake of their salvation? And does not the Church have a duty to defend with insistence the Little Ones who cannot defend themselves because they are not even allowed to live? “Let the Little Ones come to Me....”

Here one can say that the Church, especially under the last popes as well as under the Holy Father Francis did not leave any room for doubt about the despicable character of the killing of unborn children in the womb. This applies no doubt also to all bishops. However, another question is, whether and in which form the teaching of the Church has been witnessed and presented in the public realm. That is where the hierarchy certainly could do more. One only has to think of the participation of cardinals and bishops at pro-life marches.

Which steps would you recommend for the Church to strengthen the call to holiness and to show the path how to attain it?

One certainly has to witness to the Faith in a way that is fitting for the specific situation. In which form this can happen, depends upon the specific circumstances. There opens up a whole field for creative imagination.

What would you say about the recent statements of Bishop Franz-Josef Bode that the Catholic Church has to adapt increasingly to the “life realities” of the people of today and adjust accordingly her moral teaching? I am sure that you as a Church historian have in front of your eyes other examples from the history of the Church, where she was pressured from outside to change the teaching of Christ. Could you name some, and how did the Church in the past respond to such attacks?

It is completely clear and also not new that the proclamation of the teaching of the Church has to be adapted to the concrete life situations of society and of the individual, if the message shall be heard. But this applies only to the way of the proclamation, and not at all to its inviolable content. An adaptation of the moral teaching is not acceptable. 'Do not conform to the world,' said the Apostle St. Paul. If Bishop Bode teaches something different, he finds himself in contradiction to the teaching of the Church. Is he conscious of that?

Is the German Catholic Church permitted to go her own paths in the question of the admittance of remarried couples to the Holy Eucharist and thereby decide independently of Rome, as Reinhard Cardinal Marx pronounced after the recent meeting of the German Bishops Conference?

The well-known statements of Cardinal Marx are in contradiction with the dogma of the Church. They are irresponsible in a pastoral respect, because they expose the faithful to confusion and doubts. If he thinks that he can take nationally an independent path, he puts the unity of the Church at risk. It remains: the binding standard for all of the teaching and practice of the Church are her clearly defined doctrines.

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"So it will lead to Schism" -- The "Impossible Revolution" of Pope Francis

Pope Francis' Impossible Revolution

(Rome) "There is a revolution looming in the pastoral care of families in terms of communion for the divorced and remarried and homosexual relationships." Two years after the election of Pope Francis, the well-known historian and Catholic intellectual Roberto de Mattei describes the pontificate of Argentine Pope as "enigmatic" and "full of paradoxes".

The author of a standard work on the history of the Second Vatican Council ("The Second Vatican Council. A hitherto unwritten history") provides a large gap between the desiderata of Francis and the sentire the Catholic world.

"For the most sensitive thinkers of the Italian traditionalism," said Alberto Melloni, his historical counterpart and head of the progressivist school of Bologna, "the Church has ventured with this Pope into a schism by those progressivist bishops, like the German, who want to continue with their 'openings', even if the Synod rejects their 'reforms' in the fall. "

Three Italian newspapers (Il Giorno, La Nazione, Il Resto del Carlino) published at the same time an interview with Roberto de Mattei:

Roberto de Mattei

Even the ultra-conservative Cardinal Raymond Burke has promised resistance at any price.

Roberto de Mattei: But he has not  promised schism. He just said that he will oppose any change in the Synod against the truth about marriage. This seems to me to be  honest and transparent behavior.

Will the Pope really attack the Doctrine of the Faith?

Roberto de Mattei: Francis pretends to be conservative. He says nothing against the dogmas. But his pastoral strategy is revolutionary in itself because it subordinates the truth to practice, especially in such a burning hot topic as the family. In this way, it signals a fundamental break in the history of the papacy as  has not been seen for 50 years.

The Church is not ready for this change?

  I do not want to endorse such a change.  I think it is correct to say that Francis has confused the cardinals, bishops, priests and parishes. It is sufficient to recall the petition of 120,000 Catholics from around the world, which asked Francis to finally to say a clear word about the indissolubility of marriage. A mere toleration of the second marriage by opening  Communion for divorced and remarried would already be an attack on the traditional teaching of the Church.

At this point, it has come to a slugfest at the last Synod  between progressives and conservatives.

I would call this a tear. The paragraphs of the final document to homosexuals and remarried divorcees had not obtained the required two-thirds approval. The real novelty of that meeting was the strong opposition to the reforms by the African and Eastern bishops. Precisely the bishops of the margins that Bergoglio never gets tired of praising. This is one of the paradoxes of this pontificate.

Who are the others?

Last October, the Pope received representatives of the radical left, from the so-called popular movements. From him he gave  a very Peronist impression that he is closest to social concerns. Who commissioned the Vatican under this pope to check the budget of the Vatican Bank IOR? A globalist-capitalist institution such as Ernst & Young. 
Or Bergoglio talks about the decentralization of power in the Church, but in his decisions he shows himself as a strong centralizer.

He still enjoys broad appeal in any case?

Yes, the media and outside the Church, where he has even surpassed Wojtyla in popularity. But in the Catholic world he is far less popular. Also, participation in the Angelus and the General Audiences at St. Peter's is in decline.

Introduction / Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Corrispondenza Romana / MiL

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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Pope Francis Names Theological Consultants for the Bishops' Synod

Eleven of the twelve consultants teach at papal or Catholic universities run by religious orders or research institutes in Rome.

Vatican City (kath.net/ KAP) Pope Francis has appointed twelve theological consultants for the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops on Saturday. There is one exception only to teachers at papal or Catholic universities run by religious orders or research institutes in Rome. In addition, there will be a member of the Pontifical Academy is also based in Rome at St. Thomas Aquinas. Most are represented by the Jesuit run Papal Gregorian University, with three consultants. Among them is the Rector of the University, Francois-Xavier Dumortier.

The new consultants will be involved in the preparation of the Annual Synod of Bishops on the family this coming autumn, also include the deputy head of the "Pontifical Institute of John Paul II For Studies on Marriage and Family," Jose Granados. In the context of the recent Synod of Bishops there was criticism that the Pope had not appointed a member of this prestigious research institution as a member of the Synod. The presumed reason is the conservative orientation of the institute. Granados had spoken on the occasion of the Synod of Bishops in a published article against a change in the official Church practice in dealing with divorced and remarried.

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Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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"The Plot Against the Pope"

Bishops' Synod

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", borrowing from  a cartoon from the late '80s  Lorenzo Bertocchi points out that behind the scenes, significant activities are underway to break the resistance against the "new Mercy" and exercise pressure on those  that stand in its  way. Just yesterday  the Vatican expert Manfred Ferrari reported on the Vatican Mysteries - The Lost Book .

 Bertocchi is also about the same book. The story began in the summer of 2014. Shortly before the Synod of Bishops on the family, the first part was published the anthology "Remain in the truth of Christ." The driving force behind it was the American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke. The book gathered together essays by five cardinals, and four other articles by renowned theologians. These are the Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Carlo Caffarra Velasio De Paolis, Gerhard Müller and Burke himself. The book was published simultaneously in several languages, the German version is by publisher Echt. 

The Book of Five Cardinals

All authors are defending Catholic marriage  and family teaching at the highest level against the thesis that the Cardinal Walter Kasper at the Consistory in February 2014 put forward that "remarried" divorcees can, under certain conditions, have authorization granted to receive the sacraments. The Augustinian Father Robert Dodaro OSA, editor of the anthology, explained it in a nutshell: "The 'merciful' solution Cardinal Kasper represents was not unknown in the early church, but no recognized churchman or theologian  defended them. On the contrary, when it is mentioned then, it is to condemn it, because it is contrary to Scripture."   The  admission to the Eucharist for "the remarried" divorced is therefore impossible, unless the couple would exercise abstinence. This could summarize the main thesis of the book in its Italian edition issued from the publisher Cantagalli.

The book immediately aroused strong opposition, the representatives of the Kasper thesis knew but now that the "new Mercy" at the Synod of Bishops could not expect an unimpeded march. Thesis and antithesis are part of the discourse and are nothing out of the ordinary. But recently the head of the progressivist school of Bologna, Alberto Melloni  fired an arrow in the newspaper Corriere Fiorentino. He did it in the middle of a book review to a very different book released by  Cantagalli.

Melloni's arrow: "Conspiracy against the Pope"

Melloni's arrow says that the publishing house has lent themselves as a base of operations for the opposition of the cardinals.  The left historian: "The publishing house had  with the backing of Cardinal Müller, Prefect of the Congregation of Doctrine and the Faith, in good or bad faith God only knows (...) to foment a plot against the Pope and against the Synod, a few hours before it started, in order not to  discuss the things that Francis  wanted to discuss."

In short: According to Melloni, Cardinal Tagle's former boss,  with whom he participated in the School of Bologna, had accused  five cardinals under conspiring under the leadership of the Prefect, Cardinal Müller,  to "plot" against the Pope and to use the publishing house  as a base of operations. Strong stuff, considering that the book was published at the same time not only in Italy but in five languages ​​and five publishers. Strong stuff even if you know the expiry of the Synod of Bishops, where the Cardinals had openly defended their position and if someone else was playing with marked cards. As a "revelation" of sinister plans, Melloni's arrow is not good, that must also have been clear. What is it about then?

Cardinal Kasper: "Nothing was done by me"

The book, which was a commercial success, provided a significant contribution to the Synod debate. This is exactly what had been repeatedly claimed by Pope Francis. But Cardinal Kasper responded irritably. He felt personally attacked. In interviews he said he was "surprised" by the book with which an "unprecedented situation" had been created. In short, what the five cardinals had dared, was outrageous. In addition, the German cardinal hastened to emphasize, that everything had been arranged with the Pope.

However, this was truly a revelation. Until then, it was officially known, Pope Francis wanted an honest discussion, but not express itself in fact. It could be argued, we do not know what position the Pope took regarding the Kasper thesis. Now, however, says Kasper seven months after the Cardinal Consistory, that everything was discussed with Francis and the Pope had "agreed to everything. They [the five cardinals] knew that I have not done these things of my own accord. I have arranged it with the Pope. I have spoken to him twice. He was satisfied."

Attentive observers could not escape the fact that Pope Francis sought by a whole series of gestures and words, a striking proximity to Kasper and his thesis.  Kasper's revelation provided the confirmation.

Cardinal De Paolis, "I will have the freedom to say what I think"

That was more interesting than the five Cardinals with their essays in no way criticizing the Pope, but at a high level put forward their arguments for the defense of the marriage sacrament. Cardinal De Paolis clarified it in an interview with the daily newspaper La Repubblica : "Not a major operation.  We wanted to make our contribution to the discussion, as we have had our say."   He also adds that there is no question of it being "unprecedented," because the positions had been repeatedly made ​​previously in other settings and  published on another occasion.

Melloni's arrow is reminiscent of the method, where  Soviet bloc dissidents were accused of  "anti-Soviet agitation". "I want to have the freedom to say what I think without becoming  accused as a conspirator" replied Cardinal De Velasio in his interview. In fact, this does not seem to be obvious to some.

Also, the publisher Cantagalli must have the right to be able to do its job without receiving cryptic messages from Melloni. So it is absurd to talk of conspiracy, so it is also true that there have been significant attempts to exert pressure on the publisher not to publish the book. The honest dialogue on the topic: "Speak with boldness" (Pope Francis). Melloni's arrow confirmed five months later that there are important people, according to whom this book ought not have appeared. "You understand Roger Rabbit?" Asks Lorenzo Bertocchi. "Bold" dialog? Of course, but please do so unanimously.

Text: NBQ / Giuseppe Nardi
image: NBQ

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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