(Vatican Radio) The eminent theologian, Cardinal Karl Josef Becker, SJ , passed away in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after several months of increasingly grave and painful illness. Ordained a priest in 1958, ten years after entering the Society of Jesus, Fr. Becker, SJ, (as he preferred to be known even after his elevation to the Cardinalate in 2012) was for more than four decades missioned to the Pontifical Gregorian University, serving actively as Professor of Dogmatic Theology from 1969-2003, and then for a dozen years as Professor-emeritus.
Cardinal Becker is remembered as a teacher, who happily shared his prodigious intellectual gifts and erudition with students and fellow professors in a spirit of humility and selfless generosity.
Especially during the years of his retirement from full-time teaching, Cardinal Becker, SJ, dedicated himself increasingly to the study of world religions, in particular in their relations to the Catholic Church – a study that took him around the world and saw him make friends with people in many different religious traditions. These years of study culminated in the 2010 volume, Catholic Engagement with World Religions: a comprehensive study , which he jointly edited with Prof. Ilaria Morali, Prof. Gavin D’Costa and Prof. Maurice Borrmans, M.Afr.
In addition to his academic work, Cardinal Becker served from 1985 as a Consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making particular contributions to the 1997-1999 dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation that produced the Joint Declaration on Justification, and taking part in the eight sessions (2009-2011) of the working group of the Ecclesia Dei commission with the Society of St. Pius X.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) If you are looking for God you won’t find him sitting on a comfortable couch flicking through a magazine, or sitting at your computer. The search for God means having the courage to set out on a risky path, it means following our restless hearts, said Pope Francis at Mass Tuesday morning at Casa Santa Marta. Listen:
The restless will see God Pope Francis began his reflections drawing on the reading from Genesis that speaks of man’s creation “in the image of God” . He spoke of the right and wrong paths that a Christian can take in search of his origins and identity. Pope Francis noted that we certainly cannot find the image of God “on a computer, or in encyclopedias”. Instead, there is only one way to find it and to “understand our own identity” that is to “set out on a journey”. Otherwise, said Pope Francis, “we will never know the face of God”: “Those who never set out on this journey, will never know the image of God, will never find the face of God. Sedentary Christians, lethargic Christians will not know the face of God: They do not know Him. They say: ‘God is like this…’, but those who are lethargic do not know Him. The lethargic. You need a certain restlessness to set out on this path, the same restlessness that God placed in each of our hearts and that brings us forward in search of Him”. A “caricature” of God Pope Francis went on to say that of course “setting out on the journey and allowing God or life test us means taking a risk”. He added that this is what the giants [of Scripture] did, like the prophet Elijah, or Jeremiah, or Job, braving dangers and feeling themselves defeated by fatigue and distrust. But there is another way in which we risk being stationary and thus falsifying our search for God. Pope Francis pointed to it in the Gospel episode where the scribes and Pharisees rebuke Jesus because his disciples eat without having performed the ritual ablutions:
“In the Gospel, Jesus meets people who are afraid to set out on the path [in search of their identity] and who “content themselves with a caricature of God. It is a fake ID. These lethargic people have silenced the restlessness of their heart, they depict God with commandments and forget God: ‘You, by neglecting the commandment of God, observe the tradition of men’, and in doing so they turn away from God, they do not journey towards God and when they are insecure, they invent or make up another commandment”. The grace to remain on the right path Pope Francis concluded that “ people who act like this travel a “so-called path” a “path that goes nowhere, a slumberous path”: “Today the liturgy invites us to reflect on these two texts, which are two identity cards, which we all have. The Lord has made us this way. One tells us: ‘Set out on the path and you will discover your identity, because you are the image of God, you are made in the likeness of God. Get up and seek God ‘. And the other: ‘No, do not worry: fulfill all these commandments, and this is God. This is the face of God’. May the Lord give us all the grace of courage to always set out on the path, to seek the Lord’s face, the face that one day we will see, but which we must seek here on Earth”. (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) If you are looking for God you won’t find him sitting on a comfortable couch flicking through a magazine, or sitting at your computer. The search for God means having the courage to set out on a risky path, it means following our restless hearts, said Pope Francis at Mass Tuesday morning at…
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Vatican City – February 11 is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and it is also the XXIII World Day of the Sick. Pope John Paul II initiated the day in 1992 to encourage people to pray for those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers. The theme chosen by Pope Francis for this world-wide day of prayer is “I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame”, taken from the book of Job . In his Message, Pope Francis invites the ill, as well as the professionals and volunteers in the field of the health care, to reflect on the wisdom of the heart “sapientia cordis”. Among other things he says: “I would like once again to stress “the absolute priority of ‘going forth from ourselves toward our brothers and sisters’ as one of the two great commandments which ground every moral norm and as the clearest sign for discerning spiritual growth in response to God’s completely free gift” . The missionary nature of the Church is the wellspring of an “effective charity and a compassion which understands, assists and promotes” . According to the latest “Catholic Church Statistics”, published by Agenzia Fides on the occasion of World Mission Day, Catholic institutes for healthcare, social assistance, charity work run in the world by the Church are 115,352 and include: 5,167 hospitals, most of them in America and Africa ; 17,322 dispensaries, mainly in Africa ; America and Asia ; 648 Care Homes for people with Leprosy mainly in Asia and Africa ; 15,699 Homes for the elderly, or the chronically ill or people with a disability mainly in Europe and America ; 10,124 orphanages, mainly in Asia and America ; 11,596 creches, mainly in America and Asia ; 14,744 marriage counselling centres mainly in America and Europe ; 3.663 social rehabilitation centres and 36.389 other kinds of institutions….
Vatican City – February 11 is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and it is also the XXIII World Day of the Sick. Pope John Paul II initiated the day in 1992 to encourage people to pray for those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers. The theme chosen by Pope Francis…
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