(Vatican Radio) The plenary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity concluded on Friday after four days of discussions around the question ‘What model for full communion?’ As well as exploring the theological progress of recent years, participants have been discussing the newer shared practical challenges of recovering from the sexual abuse scandals, or providing pastoral care for families that do not conform to traditional Church teaching.
Pope Francis met with participants on Thursday stressing that Christian unity is an essential requirement of faith for all the baptized and a personal priority for him.
New Zealand Cardinal John Dew is a member of the Pontifical Council and was one of the pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops in Rome last month for the meeting of the International Anglican Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM).
He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the many way Christians of different denominations can and must work and worship more closely together.
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Cardinal Dew says that although there doesn’t always seem to be as much ecumenical progress as there was in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, “many things are happening at the practical level”.
He reflects on the Pope’s description of families in ‘Amoris Laetitia’, where he points out that “no family drops down from heaven perfectly formed” and questions how we can apply this concept to the Christian family too.
Following on from the IARCCUM meeting, when pairs of Anglican and Catholic bishops were sent out on mission together by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Dew asks whether bishops in each diocese can be encouraged to adopt this model, followed by Catholic and Anglican priests with their local communities.
It’s everybody’s task, he stresses, to build up relationships that can help us towards the goal of full, visible communion. Anglican and catholic parishes in NZ are working together in many practical ways, the cardinal says, including support for refugees coming into the country.
Another area of discussion at the plenary has been what the cardinal calls the ‘ecumenism of humiliation’ for Churches dealing with the effects of clerical abuse scandals. By facing such difficulties together and being “united in the cross”, he says, we ask how it can enable us to journey more closely together.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis warned Christians on Friday against ideologies on love and intellectual theories, saying these strip away the Flesh of the Church and ruin it. He was speaking during his Mass celebrated on Friday morning at the Santa Marta residence.
Taking his cue from the day’s gospel reading coming from the second Letter of St. John, the Pope’s homily was a reflection on the nature of Christian love and how the word ‘love’ is used nowadays to describe many different things. He stressed that the true criterion of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word, saying whoever denies or does not recognize this is “the antichrist.”
“A love that does not recognize that Jesus came in the Flesh is not the love that God is asking of us.This is a worldly love, a philosophical love, an abstract love, a love that has flagged, a ‘soft’ or weak love. No! The criterion of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word. Whoever says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist! Who does not recognize that the Word became Flesh. This is our truth: God sent his Son, who became flesh and who lived like us. To love as Jesus loved (us), to love as Jesus taught us, to love by following the example of Jesus; to love, journeying along the path of Jesus. It is the path of Jesus that gives life.”
Pope Francis went on to explain how the only way to love in the way Jesus loved us is to cast aside our own selfishness and go out to help others because Christian love is a concrete love.
“Going beyond is a mystery: coming out from the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, of the Mystery of the Church. Because the Church is the community around the presence of Christ and it goes beyond this. That is a really strong word, isn’t it? …. proagon , whoever walks beyond. And it’s from this that all the ideologies spring: the ideologies on love, the ideologies on the Church, the ideologies that strip the Flesh of Christ from the Church. These ideologies strip away the Flesh of the Church! ‘Yes, I’m a Catholic, yes I’m a Christian, I love the whole world with a universal love’… But this is so ethereal. Love is always interior, concrete and does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word.”
The Pope wrapped up his homily by stressing that whoever does not love in the same selfless way as Christ did, loves in an ideological manner. He also warned against those who put forward theories on love or intellectualize it, saying they ruin the Church and lead to a situation where we have a God without Christ, a Christ without the Church and a Church without people.
“Let us pray to the Lord so that our walk in love never ever becomes for us an abstract love. May our love be concrete with works of mercy whereby we touch the Flesh of Christ, the Incarnate Christ. It is for this reason that the deacon Lawrence said ‘The poor are the treasure of the Church!’ Why? Because they are the suffering flesh of Christ! Let us ask for this grace to not go beyond and not enter into this process, that possibly seduces so many people, of intellectualizing and ideologizing this love, stripping away the Flesh of the Church, stripping away Christian love. And let’s not arrive at the sad spectacle of a God without Christ, of a Christ without the Church and a Church without its people.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says his main concern, at this moment of political upheaval in the United States, is for the suffering of refugees and immigrants. In an interview with the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica , the Pope says he doesn’t judge individual politicians, but he wants to see how their policies may affect the poor and most marginalized people.
In the interview, Pope Francis notes that, alongside the refugees fleeing from poverty and conflicts, there are also many poor people suffering in rich countries too and they fear the arrival of these new immigrants. We must stop this vicious cycle, the Pope says, by breaking down the walls of inequality and building bridges to allow greater liberty and human rights for all. Inequality, he insists, is the greatest evil in the world today.
Speaking on Monday, ahead of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the U.S. presidential elections, Pope Francis talked of his admiration for civil rights leader Martin Luther King, saying that love alone is capable of breaking the cycle of hatred and evil. Christians in the world today, he notes, number some two and a half billion people who must share their faith by following the example of Christ himself.
The Pope also mentions the many Christian martyrs who have died at the hands of so-called Islamic State terrorists, saying that wars of religion only occur when people put political power in the place of faith and mercy.
Finally, when questioned about opponents within the Catholic Church, the Pope replies that faith unites all, while individuals may see things from a variety of different perspectives.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) This year’s Christmas tree and Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square will be inaugurated and lit up on December 9th and will highlight several issues such as care for the environment, the sick and migrants. A communique from the governing office of Vatican City said the 25 metre-high spruce tree for 2016 will come from the region of Trentino in northern Italy and when it’s cut down local school students will plant nearly 40 new spruce and larch seedlings in a nearby area to replace trees suffering from a parasite that had to be culled.
It said the tree will be adorned with handmade ornaments featuring drawings made by children undergoing treatment for cancer and other illnesses at several Italian hospitals.
Measuring 19 metres in width, this year’s giant Nativity scene will feature 17 statues dressed in traditional Maltese costumes as well as a replica of a traditional “Luzzu” Maltese boat.
In its communique, the Vatican City’s governing office said this boat not only represents tradition: fish and life but also, unfortunately the realities of migrants who in these same waters cross the sea on makeshift boats to Italy.
Pope Francis will receive in audience on December 9th shortly before the tree-lighting ceremony the designer of the Nativity scene, artist Manwel Grech, representatives from Trent and Malta as well as several children who designed the Christmas tree ornaments.
The lit-up tree will remain in St. Peter’s Square until the feast of the Lord’s Baptism on January 8th.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) How is Pope Francis changing the Catholic Church’s relations with other Christians? How has the goal of the ecumenical movement altered over recent years? And what is the model of full communion as understood by the Catholic Church today? Those are just some of the questions being discussed at a plenary meeting of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity taking place in Rome this week.
On Thursday participants met with Pope Francis who stressed that striving for Christian unity is an essential requirement of faith for all believers and a personal priority of his own. During the meeting members are also exploring the concept of unity as understood in the Orthodox and Protestant Churches, as well as in the newer ‘free Church’ communities.
Among those taking part in the discussions is Dominican Father Robert Christian, a former professor at Rome’s Angelicum university and currently responsible for the formation of Dominicans in the Western United States. He’s also a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission and a consultor with the Pontifical Council.
He told Philippa Hitchen more about the focus of the November 8th to 11th encounter…
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Fr Robert talks about the nature of Christian unity as summarized in five words beginning with the letter ‘c’: creed, code, cult, communion and charity, but he points out that not all those in dialogue with the Catholic Church share that same idea of unity….
At the heart of ecumenical discussions, he says, is the understanding of the Petrine ministry and he notes that many other Christians “feel a frustration at not being able to speak with one voice” about the Word of God.
Since Pope John Paul II published his encyclical on Christian unity, ‘ Ut Unum Sint ’, he notes how many partners in dialogue have been trying to re-evaluate how the Petrine ministry can serve the whole Church, while not renouncing the uniqueness of that role.
Speaking of the way the decisions of Pope Francis and his predecessors have affected the ecumenical dialogues, Fr Robert points to the changes taking place within the Synod of Bishops, established during the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis, he says, is moving towards giving “deliberative power” to the Synod, and discussions at the plenary are examining “models of synodality which would include the participation of those who are not bishops”.
Discussions about ethical and moral issues, he says, are secondary to the question of how such decisions are made, as the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission is currently exploring.
Regarding the goal of the ecumenical movement, he warns against “thinking we have gone as far as we can go”. Rather than just tolerating diversity, he says “we want diversity to be an expression of richness in unity, so we’ll keep working for that.
(from Vatican Radio)…