Seeking converts is solemn nonsense? The Council implicitly taught so.

Our Lord emphatically used the active verb “preach;”  he did not call for some kind of passive evangelization, yet this is what our recent Popes have embraced.

Pope Francis:

"Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us."

Pope Benedict XVI:

"The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by “attraction”:

Also:

“On the other hand, this unity [of all Christians] does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!”

courtesy of www.tripadvisor.com

Vatican II scrupulously avoided language such as “a return to Peter's fold.”

As explained by Cardinal Avery Dulles, “the Council implicitly taught that the united church of the future” will not result from the submission of other churches to Roman Catholicism. 

“Vatican II . . . distanced itself in two important aspects from the type of Catholic ecumenism now described [that is, the effort to bring other churches and communities to the obedience of Rome]. First, it linked the concept of union to that of reform. Scrupulously avoiding language such as a 'return to Peter's fold,' the Council recognized that in its present form, Catholicism suffers deficiencies in behavior, ecclesiastical discipline and even the formulation of doctrine, and that, therefore, the Catholic Church, as a human and earthly institution, needs a continual reformation.

“Second, Vatican II recognized that the life and truth of Christ are acting in other communities and that, consequently, these should not consider abandoning anything that the grace of the Holy Spirit has wrought in their hearts. On the basis of these two principles, one may sustain that the Council implicitly taught that the united church of the future will not emerge from the submission of the other churches and their absorption by Roman Catholicism.

“The longed for Una Sancta can be a joint creation that simultaneously completes and transforms all the churches that rejoin it. The Catholic Church, without dissolving herself in any way, would modify herself by entering this more encompassing unity.”

American Cardinal Avery Dulles (1918-2008), “Ecumenismo: problemi e possibilita per il futuro,” quoted on page 303, in Will He Find Faith? (Inveniet Fidem?), by Atila Sinke Guimarães.

Posted 04/27/2015 by Frank Rega, www.frankrega.com

When the Lord Returns, Will He Find Faith? - 2

The Vatican II mentality is open to toleration of heresy and error.

In his book Will He Find Faith? (Inveniet Fidem?), Atila Sinke Guimarães demonstrates that the thoughts and philosophy of the “experts” involved in composing the Conciliar documents are often in opposition to traditional Catholic doctrine. He does this by extensively quoting from their published works. Excerpts presented below from the writings of two of these men indicate their progressivist toleration of error and heresy.

Fr. Yves Congar, quoted in quoted in Inveniet Fidem? (pp. 34-35).

Fr. Congar made inportant contributions to several of the Conciliar texts.

• “The fact is evident, in our attitude toward others, we passed from anathema to dialogue.”
• “Today there is not only respect for, but also an interest in the other as the other.”
• “The modern spirit has a bias that favors the heretic in every sphere: by denying received ideas, he opens a way for progress. The heretic brings the new, even in the order of truth.”

Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, quoted in Inveniet Fidem? (pp. 36-37).

Fr. Schillebeeckx was one of the most active theologians during the Second Vatican Council.  

• “The objection someone raised to this – that evil and error have no right to exist – is based on a misunderstanding.
• And a person has the right to admit as true that which in all sincerity appears true to him (even if objectively it is an error). This is why the person who errs has the same rights. Consequently, tolerance is an ethical and cultural duty for every man.”
• “The State itself is, therefore, obliged to oppose any propaganda or organization that threatens freedom of conscience. This is why in extreme cases tolerance can resort to the use of arms.”

Guimarães comments that Schillebeeckx's intolerant tolerance presents the other side of the “sweetness” and “mercy” often put forth by the progressivists.

When the Lord Returns, Will He Find Faith? – 1 is here.

Posted 04/20/2015 by Frank Rega, www.frankrega.com

 

 

 

When Our Lord Returns, Will He Find Faith?

Writing in what is essentially a college or graduate level textbook, Atila Sinke Guimaraes develops the thesis that, based on the Council, progressivism denies the fixed, immutable character of the Catholic Faith. His book, Will He Find Faith (Inveniet Fidem?), is the sixth of an eleven volume encyclopedic study of the sufferings of the Church since the Second Vatican Council. The book details the transitional and evolutionist character that progressivists have imposed upon the faith. This new faith is no longer objective, but subjective; no longer absolute and universal, but relative and adaptable to history.

In a section dealing with new meanings given to infallible, dogmatic formulas, one of the particulars that Guimaraes cites concerns the dogma of Jesus Christ as true God and true man. The rejection of the truth that Jesus is God is the notorious Arian heresy, which denies the divinity of Jesus. This error “. . . denies that the Son is of one essence, nature, or substance with God; He is not consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father, and therefore not like Him, or equal in dignity, or co-eternal, or within the real sphere of the Deity.” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm

The refusal to accept the other half of the dogma, that Jesus is true man, is the heresy of Docetism, which denies the humanity of Jesus. The Docetists were a sect that taught that Christ only “appeared or seemed to be” a man. “Some denied the reality of Christ's human nature altogether, some only the reality of His human body or of His birth or death.” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05070c.htm

In a subsection of his book, under the heading The Humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Guimaraes sets his sights on a volume written by Joseph Ratzinger in 1971, when he was at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria. While there he co-founded the journal Communio, along with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Walter Kasper, and others. In this book Fé e Futuro (unavailable in English), the future pope wrote: “But is it possible for God to be a man? A man completely human and at the same time true God, and hence entitled to demand faith from all and in all ages? Or is this not simply a case of overestimating a moment from the past? Once again, are we not encountering a mentality that we no longer share?” [quoted in p. 217, Will He Find Faith?]

Guimaraes asserts that with these remarks, Ratzinger “calls into question the dogma of Christ as true God and true man.” It should be noted here that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is fond of stating that he sees no change in his views over the years, e.g.: http://www.traditioninaction.org/ProgressivistDoc/A_071_Ratzinger_Same.htm

 

 

Since Guimaraes presents the above excerpt in a section dealing with the Humanity of Jesus, he apparently sees this as an attempt to deny or at least revisit the concept that Jesus Christ is true man. Spiritual writers and mystics present clear reasons why it is crucial to accept that the Lord, although a divine Person, was truly human:

“Beware, therefore, My child, lest thou hearken to them that say that there is a higher and better road for more perfect souls; a way, not of My Heart, but of the mere Godhead. A way which, setting aside or overlooking My Humanity, can lead thee in a sublime manner to thy end, through the Divinity alone. Whoever says this to thee, be he a man or an angel, believe him not, trust him not. For, through My Humanity I came to men, and through this same Humanity, must men come to Me.” [The Imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Rev. Peter J. Arnoudt, TAN Books, chapter 26, book 4.]

“I assumed a Humanity which, moderating the rays of the light of the Divinity, was a means to instill trust and courage in man to come to Me. By placing himself before my Humanity, which spreads temperate rays of My Divinity, man has the gift of being able to purify, sanctify and even to divinize himself in My Deified Humanity. That is why all good things for man come from My Humanity.”
[Book of Heaven, Luisa Piccarreta, Volume 3, entry of Aug. 1, 1900]

When Our Lord returns, will He find the Catholic Faith?

Will He Find Faith (Inveniet Fidem?) by Atila Sinke Guimaraes, 2007, Tradition in Action, Inc., is available here: http://www.traditioninaction.org/books.htm

Posted 04/16/2015 by Frank Rega  (my Mom would have been 100 today, a prayer for her please).  www.frankrega.com