Video: George Weigel on the conclave and the 21st-century church

Father Z has an interesting writeup on Pope Francis, whom he met in 2009…

excerpt:

“Then one day as I was leaving the palazzo, he was getting out of a car and coming in, wearing under a greca the house cassock, fascia, and zucchetto of a Cardinal of Holy Roman Church.

It turns out that it was Jorge Card. Bergoglio I had been lunching with.

Since he had impressed me simply as a person, I started paying more attention to him and what he had done. I asked around and learned a little about this S. American prelate…

Effectively, Card. Bergoglio thinks that baptism should be given more freely even to the children of those who are not practicing their faith. Some time ago, Pope Benedict also said something along these lines, explaining that when he was younger, he had a more restrictive view. The Church in S. America is facing a horrible challenge from secularism and relativism on the one hand, fundamentalist sects on the other.

“Cardinal Bergoglio has explained the meaning of all this in an interview with the international magazine “30 Days”:

“The child has no responsibility for the condition of his parents’ marriage. The baptism of children can, on the contrary, become a new beginning for the parents. A while ago, I baptized the seven children of one woman, a poor widow who works as a maid and had her children by two different men. I met her on the feast of Saint Cajetan. She said to me, ‘Father, I am in mortal sin, I have seven children and have never had them baptized, I don’t have the money for the godparents and for the party… I saw her again and after a little catechesis I baptized them in the chapel of the archepiscopal residence. The woman said to me, ‘Father, I can’t believe it, you make me feel important’. I said to her, ‘But madam, what do I have to do with it? It’s Jesus who makes you important.” [Do I hear a big "Amen!"?]

Bergoglio is anxious not to extinguish a tradition typical of the most remote areas of Argentina, in those towns and villages where the priest comes only a few times a year:

“There, popular piety feels that children must be baptized as soon as possible, so there are men or women known by all as ‘bautizadores’ who baptize the children when they are born, in anticipation of the arrival of the priest. And when he arrives, they bring the children to him so that he can anoint them with holy oil, completing the rite. When I think about it, I am reminded of the story of those Christian communities in Japan that were without priests for more than two hundred years. When the missionaries returned, they found all of them baptized and all of them sacramentally married.”

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/12/whos-the-important-one/

workingclass artist on March 14, 2013 at 12:29 AM

uh, why? just like the GOP the catholic church is a relic and as popular with young people as cold sores….

DBear on March 14, 2013 at 12:12 AM

Actually, young Catholics are more conservative than older Catholics. Francis will likely be very popular with them.

Resist We Much on March 14, 2013 at 12:33 AM

Agreed.

I think he could have great impact on missionaries.

Article excerpt:

“It recounts his response to the legalization of same sex marriage as an “absolutely illegal” act by the government.

In a mass for victims of trafficking, he condemned human trafficking in a manner both concrete and demanding:

“in our city there are people committing human sacrifice, killing the dignity of these men and these women, these girls and boys that are submitted to this treatment, to slavery. We cannot remain calm.” …. The cardinal urged his fellow citizens to report “breeding grounds for submission, for slavery,” “altars where human sacrifices are offered and which break the will of the people,” asking that “everyone do what they can, but without washing their hands of it, because otherwise we are complicit in this slavery.”

He offered a broad account of the sins of a “discarding culture”

This culture consists of applying the “death penalty” through abortion, and in “hidden euthanasia” of the elderly through neglect and maltreatment.…“there is hidden euthanasia, the social infrastructure pays up to a certain limit, but discards the elderly when, in fact, they are the seat of the wisdom of the people.” Children “are maltreated; they are neither educated nor nourished. Many are forced to prostitute and exploit themselves.”

He went on to challenge a “puritan” focus on sexual morality in preaching.

In a forceful speech last Fall, he condemned the refusal to baptize a child born out of wedlock as “hypocritical clericalism” and “pharisaical Gnosticism” and “sacramental blackmail.”

in this “hijacking” of the sacrament that marks the beginning of Christian life, the Jesuit cardinal sees the expression of a rigorous and hypocritical neo-clericalism which also uses the sacraments as tools to affirm its own supremacy. For example by rubbing the fragility and wounds of faithful in their faces or by dampening the hopes and expectations of those who supposedly do not fulfill the “requirements” in terms of doctrinal preparation or moral status. Not only are such pastoral models misleading, but according to Bergoglio, this modus operandi distorts and rejects the dynamics of Christ’s incarnation, which is reduced to a mere doctrinal slogan to serve the interests of religious power. “Jesus did not preach his own politics: he accompanied others. The conversions he inspired took place precisely because of his willingness to accompany, which makes us all brothers and children and not members of an NGO or proselytes of some multinational company.”

http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/quotes-pope-francis

Interview with vatican insider dated 2/24/2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/america-latina-latin-america-america-latina-12945/

workingclass artist on March 14, 2013 at 12:48 AM

One more reflection from a conservative catholic blogger…

“If a person can be excited, happy, fearful, nervous, and almost ashamed at one time, then that was me.

As someone who describes my spirituality as “Dominican” and my theology as “Thomistic” a Pope named Francis, a Jesuit, was the furthest thing from my heart and mind. I will let you in on some insight — I was so wrapped up in all of this, that I had in my convoluted mind that this selection was specifically directed at me. When the full gravity of the situation, as it pertained to me, finally hit I could do nothing but laugh.

A Jesuit named Francis.

As one sarcastic meme said today, “Well played Holy Spirit, well played.”

I wanted someone who carried a sword, who lashed out with his tongue – I wanted a Pope that would “flip over the tables” in the temple. I wanted Leo XIV, Pius XIII, or Pope Rambo. I wanted ferocity, I wanted a Dominican-style preacher that would convince the world of Christ through logic and analysis. I wanted to be lead in the way I needed – or so I thought I needed…

How quick to judge I was, how short-sighted.

Then he came out onto the balcony. “Good evening” he said to the world. He asked for prayers, bowed his head, and that is when I

francis-1

realized — I must be humbled. As I like to throw around on my blog, “He must increase, I must decrease.” This isn’t about me. This is about the Church. This is about the body of Christ.

We have a Pope. He is a humble servant, a man of the people and for them. If Benedict spent almost a decade mending and healing the Church on the “inside”… it appears that Francis will spend his time healing on the “outside.” If Benedict worked to make the Liturgy something where people could come to experience, sense, and worship God. It seems that Pope Francis will go out now and gather the people in. If Benedict taught us the importance “Spirit of the Liturgy” then Pope Francis will work to teach us the “Body of the Liturgy.”

So, if you want to know what you should do with Pope Francis I suggest the following prayer, as cliche as it may seem:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen. ”

http://www.ignitumtoday.com/2013/03/13/what-is-a-dominican-thomist-to-do-with-pope-francis/

workingclass artist on March 14, 2013 at 1:34 AM

This is interesting…Perhaps He will encourage the Bishops to take action that is wholly within their authority.

As Cardinal Bergoglio was outspoken on denying the Eucharist to unrepentant facilitators of abortion including politicians.

“Such an instance is not the only way in which the Holy Father has been clear on his pro-life stance as a Cardinal. In an article about Francis I, LifeSiteNews mentions that in 2007, on behalf of the bishops of Latin America, Cardinal Bergoglio clearly stated that being disallowed holy communion was a consequence for those who facilitated in an abortion, politicians included…

…Pope Francis I looks to be a very promising pro-life leader for the Church. It is even more encouraging that he has taken such a clear and adamant stance against such Catholics receiving holy communion. Hopefully other leaders within the Church will follow the call of the Holy Father then…”

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/03/pope-francis-clear-on-denying-communion-to-politicians-who-facilitate-abortion/

workingclass artist on March 14, 2013 at 9:23 AM