German Papal Advisor: "No Mission to the Jews" --- Good Friday Prayers for the Jews "Problematic"

(Bonn / Rome) The German Fundamental Theologian  Gregor Maria Hoff is the new advisor to Pope Francis on Judaism. Last 20 February he was appointed Advisor of the Pontifical Commission for Religiosu Relations with Jews founded in 1974 by Pope Paul VI.. Hoff is Professor of Fundamental Theology and Ecumenical Theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Paris-Lodron University in Salzburg. He already belongs to the Sub-Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism of the German Bishops' Conference. This is  followed by the appointment  to Rome, where he takes the place of the Aachen theologians for Ecumenism, Hans Hermann Henrix. The preliminary discussions, said Hoff in an interview with the Deutsche Welle, had already begun in mid-2013, soon after the election of Pope Francis.

Gregor Maria Hoff Papal Consultor to Judaism

The Commission, which was created in the aftermath of the Conciliar Constitution of Nostra Aetate  in 1965, is concerned among other things, with the preparation of the Pope's trip to the Holy Land. Otherwise the task belongs, says Hoff,   to  the Commission, especially that of drawing "significant documents" that bring "expression to the positions of the church, the pope and the Vatican to Judaism".

One of the topics with which Hoff is concerned as the Fundamental Theologian and now as Pope Consultor, is the question of "whether the evangelization of the Jews may be an issue for the Church." Because, says Hoff apodictically : "The Catholic Church is operating no mission to the Jews." Pope Francis is supposed to have said, says Hoff, in his Apostolic Letter Gospel Gaudium   "emphasizes that God continues to act in the people of the Old Covenant, therefore that God in his covenant first chose the Jewish people of Israel." Other issues facing the theologian and ecumenicist concerns, "Trinity and monotheism."

2015: 50th Anniversary of Nostra Atetate - Francis "Rethinks" Good Friday "Hopefully"

The Roman Commission would have to deal with the  "fifty year anniversary" of Nostra Aetate, which is celebrated in 2015. This conciliar Constitution had "meant a very large incision". Because "since then the relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism have changed dramatically," said Hoff. This applies "especially in Germany," where the relations are  "very good and intense".

During the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. there were "even irritations", due to the reformulation of the Good Friday prayer for the traditional rite. Hoff holds the new version as "problematic" and "hopes" himself "that he thinks this phrase will be revised again by Pope Francis."  It doesn't mean it's a "real burden" in places.  The relationships were "so good" that one "such irritation can be settled  between us."

The "importance of the State of Israel's existence," because of the "theological significance of the country" imposed "election of the Jewish people" and the "question of the existence of the State of Palestine as well as the human rights issues"... "is a very sensitive matter, which touches part of the theological issues," said Hoff.

Pope to Visit Israel, not the Holy Land

Hoff in his interview with Deutsche Welle never spoke of  a trip of Pope Francis to the "Holy Land", but only about a "trip to Israel." On this trip "to Israel"  it will be shown, which accents the Pope "will set".  "Francis will certainly be good for the Catholic-Jewish relations," assured the German Fundamental Theologian and pope consultant. This would have been previously shown in his "very strong personal relations with the Jewish community in Buenos Aires".

Hoff believes that the Pope would bring in "Israel" a "certain" climate in the talks and will make a "programmatic" statement with the contents: "God continues to act in the people of the Old Covenant." 

Otherwise would the Pope in the Middle East issue take any particular position. He would then only be "lost in the nettles" said Hoff.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Strasbourg Cathedral

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMGD

Sufi Dancers in the Church

 Edit: the abomination of desolation. This report comes from the German District of the SSPX.

Incomprehensible but completely in the spirit of the Council, which is stated in the Constitution “Nostra Aetate”:

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,(5) who has spoken to men

We learn how this “adoration” appears in practice from the Augustinian Church in Würzburg. There the Islamic Sufis dance at the beginning of Lent!

The Augustinian Church looks like a museum or a gathering hall after its renovation, than a Church. But as the “Dance of the Sufis” takes place, its formal desecration a church is complete.

Why the Bishop of Würzburg is also “silent” here remains a mystery.

In the announcement on the homepage is is described as an “Ensemble for Islamic Music”:

In the context of the 12th Würzburg Lenten Courses in the Augustinian Church, there will be traditional Islamic Dervishes dancing on Saturday (7:30). The course of the evening will be in the hands of Seref Dalyanoglu, who is also the representative for the Dervishes and other musicians of the Ensemble for Islamic Music.

Worse still is a participant's obituary of the event. It had not only been a dance, “but much more a special form of prayer to God by the Sufis”.

 Source is piusbruderschaft.de, with more photos...

"Nostra Aetate" Masks the Evil of False Religions

Edit: the Holy Father seems to be doing exactly what many thought the SSPX would have been unable to do. Surely, these criticisms are timely and apt.

The Pope Criticizes the Conciliar Texts

The Pastoral Council talks about false religions "only positively and leaves out the sick and distorted forms of religions, which are historically and theologically of significant consequence."

Konzilsväter des Zweiten
 Vatikanums.
© Lothar Wolleh (1930-1979), Wikipedia, CC-SA-BY

(kreuz.net) Today, the in the Vatican, the seventh volume of the "Collected Writings" of Joseph Ratzinger was published.

Within are contained the publications of Fr. Joseph Ratzinger during the Pastoral Council (1962-1965).

The forward of the volume was written by Pope Benedict XVI on the 2nd of August in Castel Gandolfo.

Born of Clerical Euphoria

He enthused about the opening of the Council on October 11, 1962.   That had been -- with a solemn procession of over 2,000 Conciliar Fathers -- a dazzling day:

"This was a moment of an extraordinary expectation.  Something great had to happen."

The Pope mentioned that John XXIII. (+1963) summoned the meeting, "without asserting its concrete problems or programs."

What is Modernity?

The Pope wrote about the progression of the work of the so-called XIIIth Schema, from the Pastoral Constitution "Gaudium et Spes" -- about the Church in the World of Today.

The Conciliar Fathers wanted to revise the "ambiguous" concept of "World of Today".  The goal of that had been to ascertain the relation of the Church to so-called modernity.

The Pope objected: "In order to clarify, it would have been necessary, to more precisely define the essential and constitutional elements."  Actually that was not successful in Schema XIII.

Benedict XVI. wrote that "Gaudium et Spes" allegedly accomplished more important expressions for the understanding of "world" and "important contributions to the question of the Christian ethic".  Actually this clarification in the nature of modernity has not been presented.

Benedict XVI. believed therefore that the encounter with the "great themes of modernity" had taken place in the highly controversial "declaration on religious freedom" and in "Nostra Aetate" --  to the documents on non-Christian religions.

Religion Was Left to the Area of the Subjective

For the "Declaration on Religious Freedom" the Holy Father wrote that the Conciliar Fathers  thought that the "teaching of tolerance, as it was initially developed by Pius XII., in view of the development of philosophical thought and the self-determination of modern states" was no longer sufficient.

It has become a freedom to choose a religion, to change and practice.

The Pope saw a difficulty in this, that "it could appear as if the modern statement on religious freedom presupposes the unapproachability of reality for people and restricts  the basis of religion in the area of the subjective."

The Problem Masked

The document on non-Christian religions, "Nostra Aetate",  is denoted by the Pope in all seriousness as "precise and extraordinarily compact".

At the same time he saw in the "in itself excellent text" a "weakness":

"The document speaks of religion only positively and ignores then the sick and distorted forms of religion, which historically and theologically are of great significance: the Christian faith was for that reason from beginning to the end and inside out also critical of religion."

Pius XII would not Recognize the Church

Finally, the Pope asserted that the Conciliar Fathers would not have wanted to create any other Church and -- supposedly --- also could not have created: "For that we have neither the power nor the mandate."

Because it can't be, what may not be, the Pope views "the hermeneutic of break" as absurd.  It is "against the Spirit and against the wills of the Conciliar Fathers."

All the same, it is a fact that Pius XII.  would not recognize, what remains of it, his Church.

Link to kreuz.net...

Archbishop of Galveston thinks even less of Catholicism than of Jews

This Archbishop must think the Catholic laity is stupid and will simply keep on shelling out the contributions, supporting his liberal resolutions and even buying him dinner once in awhile for the sake of his jolly company.

Reminiscing like a battle hardened journalist, the Bishop of Galveston talks about how far we've come from those times when we actually thought the Catholic Church was important enough that we actually took the Gospels seriously when reading the Great Commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations (including the Jews). The Archbishop confidently contradicts all of this, heretically, and of course, since most people are aware that he knows his religious beliefs are tin plated but committed to the same ideas of liberalism he's committed to, they aren't going to be rude enough to point out to him that he's just contradicted the prophetic and integral portion of the Catholic religion.

We have no doubts he will never convert a Jew. Like Cardinal Cushing of Boston, he'll probably never convert anyone, because he has nothing to give.

Nostra Aetate implicitly acknowledged that Israel remains in a covenant with God, and later Pope John Paul II made it explicit that Jews are “the people of God of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God.”

Article here...

Archbishop Dolan tries to get Youth involved with Indifferentism

Two of New York’s most respected spiritual leaders joined hands on Nov. 5 at Fordham University, calling for an active intra-religious agenda to combat the world’s ills and to strengthen young adults’ engagement with their faiths.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, the leader of Archdiocese of New York City, and Arnold M. Eisen, Ph.D., seventh chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, acknowledged a secular crisis that sees generations of faithful teenagers and young adults in America drifting away from the religions of their birth.

Quoting from a United States survey released last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Archbishop Dolan said the Catholic Church is retaining about 68 percent of its members, while the Jewish faith is retaining 76 percent.

Read more...