But if God regards a man with solicitude so that he then believes in God’s help in fulfilling His commands, and if a man begins to be led by the Spirit of God, then the mightier power of love struggles against the power of the flesh. And although there is still in man a power that fights against him — his infirmity being not yet fully healed — yet the righteous man lives by faith and lives righteously in so far as he does not yield to evil desires, conquering them by his love of righteousness. This is the third stage of the man of good hope.
A final peace is in store for him who continues to go forward in this course toward perfection through steadfast piety. This will be perfected beyond this life in the repose of the spirit, and, at the last, in the resurrection of the body. — Chapter XXXI.
…and its Roman Catholic Bishops?
From the Citizens Voice: Scranton bishop tells forum his letter is ‘only relevant document’ for diocese.
Local and national Catholics reacted Tuesday to statements by Bishop Joseph F. Martino apparently discounting teachings of the national body of bishops during a political forum at a Honesdale Roman Catholic Church this weekend.
Martino arrived unannounced in the midst of a panel discussion on faith issues and the presidential campaign at St. John’s Catholic Church on Sunday. According to people who attended the event, the bishop chastised the group for holding the forum and particularly took issue with the discussion and distribution of excerpts from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ position on voting issues. The document defines abortion and euthanasia, as well as racism, torture and genocide, as among the most important issues for Catholic voters to consider.
—No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese,— he was quoted as saying in the Wayne County Independent, a Honesdale-based newspaper. —The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.—
Thomas Shepstone, a local businessman and Catholic who spoke about his opposition to abortion rights during the event, recalled Tuesday that Martino also told the audience that he voted against the U.S. Bishops’ statement and described it as a consensus document —written to mean all things to all people.—
According to participants, Martino expressed dismay that the panelists did not discuss the pastoral letter he directed all priests in the Diocese to read in place of their homilies on Oct. 4 and 5. In that letter, he called on Catholic voters to consider abortion above all other issues, except those he defined as having equal moral weight, like euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research.
—The only relevant document … is my letter,— he said at the forum, according to the Independent. —There is one teacher in this diocese, and these points are not debatable.—
According to the Independent, the bishop also said he no longer supports the Democratic Party.
A diocesan spokesman on Tuesday confirmed the bishop’s comments as reported in the Independent…
And, this one’s the kicker:
Tagle said the bishop criticized the resident pastor, the Rev. Martin Boylan, for holding the forum and —seemed to justify his presence there by stating that he owned the building.—
I think Bishop Martino is channeling Bishops O’Hara and Hoban.
I found this article through the blog Another Monkey in The Bishop is not the Church. Obviously The writer’s understanding of the Bishop’s role is confused, and I can see why. Where the Bishop is, there is the Church, but of course confusion ensues when the Bishop concerns himself with politics and property ownership over the spiritual well being of his flock. His role is to teach. Teach is not spelled B U L L Y. If he taught his flock in love and channeled their energies into making over the earth, rather than one election, he would have far better success.
Perhaps the bishop needs a refresher on prudence:
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; “the prudent man looks where he is going.” “Keep sane and sober for your prayers.” Prudence is “right reason in action,” writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid. — The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1806
This CNS story on a homily by Archbishop Quinn from four long years ago is also instructive.
From Foreign Policy: The List: The Catholic Church’s Biggest Reversals.
In —Think Again: Catholic Church,— John L. Allen Jr. writes, —Catholics who have been around the block know that whenever someone in authority begins a sentence with, ‘As the church has always taught …,’ some long-standing idea or practice is about to be turned on its head.— Herewith, five of the biggest such reversals of doctrine in the church’s history.
The author goes on to describe changes in Roman Catholic ‘teaching’ on usury, slavery, the various changes brought about as a result of Vatican II, capital punishment, and limbo.
I have seen plenty of apologist websites that walk through the development of doctrine argument to ‘prove’ that the very teachings Mr. Allen mentions haven’t really changed. Mr. Allen’s book should further those arguments well into the future.
As Bishop Hodur pointed out in his reflections, especially as summarized in the Apocalypse of the Twentieth Century, the Roman Church’s ties to civil governance and power politics heavily influenced its teaching on these and similar issues. The Roman Church’s influence was not exercised in developing spiritual doctrine, but in expanding its political and temporal power at the cost of man’s spiritual well being. The changes Mr. Allen mentions are not changes in God’s understanding, but in man’s self understanding as defined by the political/economic landscape of the times.
The ultimate dissolution of the Roman Church’s political/temporal power occurred in the mid 1800’s. That dissolution resulted in pronouncements on infallibility and other solemnly proclaimed doctrines that remain an obstacle to Church unity to this day; an unfortunate reactionary move.
As time has moved on, the Roman Church has focused its understanding of self — away from political/temporal power — to proclaiming the power of the Gospel. Let us hope that the obstacles that continue to prevent unity, the political leftovers, and the false developments so influenced by power politics, fall away
In speaking of the Church and national and social affairs Bishop Hodur wrote:
As is evident from this brief sketch, Christ gave adequate instructions to His followers regarding their behavior amidst these most important currents of human life. They should not try to stop them or oppose them, but they should move with them, refining them and directing them into channels which will lead to the uplift, prosperity and redemption of humanity. The church must not be the instrument of the aristocracy, of the wealthy, or of any particular faction in politics or society. Instead, it should bless and support any human endeavor and righteous work which is directed towards the betterment and enrichment of mankind, towards the creation of a more equitable social and political structure, and towards the triumph of peace, truth, beauty and light – in other words, the triumph of God – within the human soul. — Most Rev. Franciszek Hodur, Our Way of Life, Chapter VI, On Social and National Affairs.
A call to Christian witness in society, properly focused on bearing core faith before the world. Can the Church and its faith change the world? We in the PNCC would answer with a resounding yes.
From Jeff Duntemann’s ContraPositive Diary, an interesting bit on the history of the Chicago Independent Catholic movement under Bishop Kozlowski, part of PNCC history: The “Pepper Riots” and the PNCC.
I haven’t run across Mr. Duntemann’s blog/diary before but it is very interesting as is his biography. The thought that crossed my mind is that he is a self-made, technologically minded renaissance man. Fascinating reading – check it out.
Enkindle the hearts of Thy faithful with the fire of Thy love.
I ask your prayers for our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Anthony Mikovsky and all the members of the Central Diocese of the PNCC who gather today and tomorrow for the 10th Synod of the Central Diocese. May the Holy Spirit enlighten their hears and minds as they deliberate. Amen.
Now this is the true faith of Christ which the apostle commends: faith that works through love. And what it yet lacks in love it asks that it may receive, it seeks that it may find, and knocks that it may be opened unto it. For faith achieves what the law commands. And, without the gift of God — that is, without the Holy Spirit, through whom love is shed abroad in our hearts — the law may bid but it cannot aid. Moreover, it can make of man a transgressor, who cannot then excuse himself by pleading ignorance. For appetite reigns where the love of God does not.
When, in the deepest shadows of ignorance, he lives according to the flesh with no restraint of reason — this is the primal state of man. Afterward, when “through the law the knowledge of sin” has come to man, and the Holy Spirit has not yet come to his aid — so that even if he wishes to live according to the law, he is vanquished — man sins knowingly and is brought under the spell and made the slave of sin, “for by whatever a man is vanquished, of this master he is the slave.” The effect of the knowledge of the law is that sin works in man the whole round of concupiscence, which adds to the guilt of the first transgression. And thus it is that what was written is fulfilled: “The law entered in, that the offense might abound.” This is the second state of man. — Chapter XXXI.
From Ekklesia: Orthodox Patriarch addresses Synod of Catholic bishops for the first time.
“It is well known that the Orthodox Church attaches to the synod system fundamental ecclesiological importance. Together with primacy, synodality constitutes the backbone of the Church’s government and organization. … Therefore, in having today the privilege to address your Synod our hopes are raised that the day will come when our two Churches will fully converge on the role of primacy and synodality in the Church’s life, to which our joint theological commission is devoting its study at the present time”.
A prayer that echos in the PNCC as well.
Dialog is great, but only bears fruit in self examination. Unfortunately the door to self examination appears to be closing – a negative affect of Benedict’s reform. Certain of the Roman Church’s bishops are using Church discipline, focused on correcting liturgical abuses, as an excuse for door slamming. Those very same bishops continue to perpetuate every sort of post Vatican II abuse while at the same time invoking Roman elitism in furtherance of personal agendas; an excuse for closing their ears. Frankly, I agree with Benedict’s reforms. Correct the abuses and excesses of the post Vatican II Church, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is not playing that way in the U.S., and appears, at least to me, as an opportunity for self-serving under the cloak of the reform-of-the-reform.
On the Synod itself, I pray that the Roman Church’s Synod on the Word elevates the role of the hearing and preaching on the Word of God. This is one of the sacraments of the PNCC. The PNCC’s understanding of the sacramentality of the Word is core to the Church’s efforts in proclaiming Christ. As a PNCC clergyman you cannot take the role of preacher lightly, or use your time in the pulpit as an opportunity to focus on anything other than the Word. You must seek the inspiration of the Spirit, a gift of your ordination, and use those gifts to God’s purpose.
And now regarding love, which the apostle says is greater than the other two — that is, faith and hope — for the more richly it dwells in a man, the better the man in whom it dwells. For when we ask whether someone is a good man, we are not asking what he believes, or hopes, but what he loves. Now, beyond all doubt, he who loves aright believes and hopes rightly. Likewise, he who does not love believes in vain, even if what he believes is true; he hopes in vain, even if what he hopes for is generally agreed to pertain to true happiness, unless he believes and hopes for this: that he may through prayer obtain the gift of love. For, although it is true that he cannot hope without love, it may be that there is something without which, if he does not love it, he cannot realize the object of his hopes. An example of this would be if a man hopes for life eternal — and who is there who does not love that? — and yet does not love righteousness, without which no one comes to it. — Chapter XXXI.
Ephraim to Hypatius my brother in our Lord —” greeting: may peace with every man increase for us and may the peace which is between us abound, in the peace of truth may we be established, and let us make especial use of the greeting (conveyed) in a letter.
Behold, I am writing willingly something that I did not wish to write. For I did not wish that a letter should pass between us, since it cannot ask or be asked questions; but I had wished that there might pass between us a discourse from mouth to ear, asking and being asked questions. The written document is the image of the composite body, just as also the free tongue is the likeness of the free mind. For the body cannot add or subtract anything from the measure of its stature, nor can a document add to or subtract from the measure of its writing. But a word-of-mouth discourse can be within the measure or without the measure. — Greeting and introduction from the First Discourse.
So, then, we have described and made known the things which were done during the whole time of the persecution among the people in Palestine. And all these were blessed martyrs of God, who triumphed in our time; who made light of this temporary life, and prized the worship of God far above every other thing, and have received the hidden hope of those good things which are invisible to the bodily eyes.
Oh! the blessed confessors of the kingdom of Christ, who were tried like gold in the excellence of their righteousness, and obtained through the conflict in which they were set the heavenly life of angels, and laid hold upon the promises of the hidden good things of the victory of the high calling–For eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love him.