Thank you John for giving us some positive news about the Church and the priest who is attentive and caring! He is my neighbor from BeninRepublic. Thanks for being a good pastor.
I can be reasonably satisfied not to expect any orthodoxy but expect only more confusion and heresy from this totally unhinged Pacapapa . Please keep us informed😀😎😀
Medical aid in dying is simply humane. It is weird why that fact is not obvious to some people. Medical aid in dying is, to the 21st century, what birth control was to the 20th century. At first it appears to be interfering with God's work -- until it just makes sense.
One last thing: when it comes to community and caring -- The Episcopal Church and The Presbyterian Church have The RCC beat by leaps and bounds. Or at least they used to. At least in The US. I haven't been involved in either in the last 24-25 years. Not only did they both have an incredibly good social outreach -- such as caring for the homeless and the poor -- but they cared for each other as though they were blood family. (Of course, they both were and still are predominantly white and middle class.) When I was growing up and a practicing Catholic -- 1950-1985-ish -- all The Catholic parishes I ever belonged to cared only that we went to Mass and Confession. If we did some volunteer work for the parish and/or we sent our kids to the parish school, we MIGHT be known somewhat. But, still, if we ever needed any real help, the parish members -were never there for each other. And the parish priests certainly weren't.
Wow! John, your comparison image of the Cubs (I’m a diehard White Sox fan, and it’s continuing disappointments are squared compared to the Cubs) lackluster performance to the Church bureaucracy being unable to implement real reform and change was so brilliant and spot on. My person experience with the lack of support on the projects I’ve been given now makes better sense. Thank you for today’s episode (and all your work).
when travelling to Belgium for work I noticed a stark contract pre and post Covid in terms of Mass attendance. Pre covid there were multiple Masses offered in Ghent center and were somewhat well attended; post Covid there was only Mass at the Cathedral at noon and most in attendance appeared to visitors and not local parishioners. The extremism of the local biship may have something to do with attendance as well.
I love the story of the parish priest. I get frustrated at times with my archdiocese. But then I go to mass an meet up with one of the priests and I'm suddenly lifted up. Bureaucracies will always let you down because they are insular. But to me they are not the CHURCH. Thanks John for a great meditation on what it means to Catholic.
James 1:27 in the Bible describes a pure and undefiled religion as visiting orphans and widows in their time of need, and keeping oneself unstained from the world:
Being removed from the rolls is not just a religious question; It also has the direct effect of reducing the numbers that the Catholic Church uses to justify the large subsidy that the state gives to the Catholic Church. Many Belgians do not want their taxes supporting a church - any church - and certainly not the Catholic church, which is, yes of course, mired in scandal - and has been for some time.
I think the best thing for Catholics is for the Church in Belgium and Germany to effectively become empty and become a Mission Church again. It is ripe with Heresy and kumbaya Catholicism. I think Germany has loss about 1 million members in the last 2 years, I suspect those who embraced the likes of the American radical priest like Richard McBrien and in Europe Hans Kung. Faithful Catholics who want be Catholic are more common in the non Western World and still in pockets of the USA, the Mass Going Catholics, not the cultural Catholics who might show up at a funeral of a family member.
It sounds like the Christians in Belgium, not just the Roman Christians, need to be converted. My husband, who is an Anglican priest, said that the most unconverted people sometimes are in the pews.
Two weeks of episodes to respond to Pope Francis' explicit heretical statements in Singapore and nada from John. And it's not as if Pope Francis didn't double down subsequently. Even for a lefty like John, I'm nonetheless rather surprised.
This is a fantastic episode. Regarding the Belgium trip, I allow myself to issue an opinion on football terms that my dear Mr John Allen may understand: Belgium stands on many social, political and even cultural issues are generally as their national team: much about nothing: the 'best" goalkeeper in the world who fails miserably at the World Cup, Lukaku the more overrated forward in the world, De Bruyne always injered at the wrong moment, etc. The new critics of the Pope and the Church will make some noise but at the end... everything as usual. Greetings from Mexico (another nightmare in politics and football issues)
John you think the Cubs are bad, check out the Seattle Mariners. Zero, that is ZERO post season playoff winds in over 40 years and the stadium is almost sold out every home game. -- Joe G. Seattle
Correct, I pray for Pope Francis and think I will have to continue to pray for Him after He passes as in my view, Pope Francis is going to be hanging around in Purgatory for a while.
Talking about "grizzled" parish priests and "genial characters" - once again, our friend and host John Allen, offering yes, a hefty dose of unvarnished realism to the battle hardened Vatican cardinals as if to say "everyone knows what you're like" - with a further admonition to potential saps, I mean, spokesmen, who might otherwise be sucked in, crushed and spat out the other side - to load the dice in their favour - yet even that pretty black and white segment was delivered with clarity and levity. Ditto the frank initial assessment of their West African assistant priest especially how his lack of facility with Italian meant prayers dragged interminably - superficially, neither very fraternal, flattering - nor pious! I mean, dont misunderstand, I just dont believe in God, the afterlife, the Virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, salvation, angels, heavenly choirs, seeing granny again after death. I just dont believe a word of it - but I DO still say that no priest has ever spoken more kindly, more wisely, more sympathetically and with such humanity - while never resorting to that cringemaking "soothing" tone that so many priests adopt, mostly because they want to appear more devout and spiritual (Father Casey in Breaking the Habit, please note. Father Patrick's nearer the mark....) - but, knowing what we know, it often comes across a little bit creepy. John effortlessly transcends all these pitfalls and we (well I, at least) find ourselves jauntily led through some of the thornier parts of the Catholic garden - benefitting from his decades of instinct for news, inquisitorial insights, internecine web of contacts with the echelons who, unbelievably, still apparently talk to him despite his excoriating description of their shenanigans as more or less "a cat fight". What, a bunch of middle aged, unmarried men who like dressing up in garb of a billowing yardage of merino and watered silk sporting exquisitely tailored, gorgeous colour coded details - as minutely revealing of their rank and station as the handkerchiefs in leathermen's back pockets are of their preferred peccadilloes - you mean some of them might sometimes be a little catty? You don't say😂😂😂😂 Of course he has to stop just short of all those implications - but I really do admire the man both as a professional whose stories can be trusted - always delivered with that easy skill that's just so incredibly difficult to do - and always with a wry but humorous, empathetic and forgiving backdrop that speaks to me more directly of his convictions without ever proselytising or manufactured piety - than any priest or prelate - who could learn a bunch from him and by the way, all that sits atop unimpeachable journalistic standards. Robert Barron would do well to take a leaf out of JA's book - to see a supposed man of the cloth of the highest station fairly recently spout a Kremlin talking point again in that coolly, quasi reassuring, paternal mewl, nearly made me lose my lunch. It sounded so REASONABLE yet was a grotesque distortion.....Wonder how much he extricated from Putin's slush fund for that? I see more true Christianity in John Allen's socks, than I do in puffed up purple princelings like him. I believe his "mission" (aka "media empire") is an attempt to window dress a deeply flawed individual who nevertheless (thanks to a powerful, Trumpianesque lobby) I unfortunately see in the mix for archiepiscopal promotion - with eventual membership of that most exclusive club where Their Most Reverend Eminences try to guide the boss and elect a new one when the time comes. I literally shudder at the thought and as anyone who's ever read my rambles, I am surely no wokie😏 Better leave it there in case I, too, receive a humpy Cease and Desist letter from his lawyers here in England. Actually, do it, Your Excellency - I'd enjoy it. See? That's the difference between me and JA! He can swim in the swamps and sewers of the Vatican all day long and still smell fresh as a daisy at dinner! I literally dont know how he does it but I think it deserves recognition... And the personal musings instead of clerical news were excellent!❤ The force is strong with you John - but the light, lasting, soothing and satisfying effects of even your most serene and humble monologues, just get crushed by the realities. I say there's a case for St John Allen! I do think, however, that if some get canonised, the Holy See also really should reserve to itself the power to demonise, or whatever the opposite of beatify is!❤
As regards the church itself we have the Good Lord promise that His church is undestrable *....the gates of hell will not prevail over it,,,," The other thing regarding your assistant pastor. Judge not the book by its cover comes to mind. It is the role of all humanity to look after each other, not just Christians. That is the reason we have never ending wars.
Catholic is defined by The Church as someone who has a Baptismal certificate on file in some parish/diocese. How many PRACTICING Catholics there are is a different story. But The Church does not delineate..
My impression of the people of Belgium is that, along with those of Switzerland and The Netherlands, they think for themselves, and find that the Church is so outdated that it is no longer worthy of serious consideration.
@@Jimboken1 If not thinking for yourself is a requirement for belonging to your church, you are welcome to it. And apparently about 97% of Belgians think as I do.
I didn't know you've been sick. I thought so -- you haven't looked well, off and on, for a while now -- but I didn't know for sure. I hope all is well with you AND Elise. Wait until you get older, John. LOL As The US AMA [American Medical Association] says: we are living longer -- we're not living better. LOL Well, at least not in The US. Also, as I've listened to you over time -- I don't know how long it's been since I first discovered Crux Now -- nor do I remember how I discovered CN -- I AM surprised to find out that you and Elise are practicing Catholics/True Believers. I don't understand how you can be. Like all other religions too -- The Church has about zip, zero and zilch facts. It's almost 100% faith/belief and no verifiable facts. I'm not throwing stones, altho' I know it seems that way. I'll tell ya -- I've told you before -- in this day and age in The US and around the world, there certainly are times that I truly wish I was a True-Believer Catholic once again. Still -- it's been wonderful to live my life without thinking of myself as a POS because I'm responsible for The Crucifixion, without having lived my life afraid of going to Hell when I die, without believing that 'God' is male. And the only prayers I've ever said is "Thank You" and "WOW". 🙂
"Part of the process of secularization is about being set free from religion, understood here as a social convention or a way of imposing a vocabulary or identity that allows little space for individual freedom and faith. Christianity is not simply a religion: it is a religious faith because it leads to a personal relationship with God...... The Gospel shows us that Jesus was very "anti-religious" in this sense. He placed the human person above the law and had no time for empty and exclusive ritualism, and because of that, he was condemned to death." Now, who do we think might have said this? Of course, Arturo Sosa, SJ, the Jesuit Superior-General ("Walking with Ignatius", Loyola Press, 2021, pp.129-130). Jesuits are not the least bit concerned about "secularization". Francis, a Jesuit, isn't either. And neither should we be. We don't get to decide how the Spirit of God moves in the world through Salvation History. The Holy Spirit itself is perfectly capable of doing that. Sosa, again: "Catholicism isn't a doctrine; it's a FAITH." I think we might just find that Francis is a lot more prepared to take on Belgian "secularization" than secular Belgians are to take on him. 😉
Sincerely religious and sincerely spiritual will avail you nothing on the day of judgment if you have not humbly surrendered to God's grace for your conversion--including renunciation of enslaving worldly ideologies and repentance of sins you are self-justifying.
NATO Headquarters is the political and administrative centre of the Alliance. It is located at Boulevard Leopold III in Brussels, Belgium............very interesting! LOL
I will say; based on what you've said, Sir, that the idiocy is in trusting the leadership, even God Himself, instead of using our own heads and judging all of His stances and His vicar's position. Even in the shoes of a kind of global dictator, I'd strongly really rather demand that people solve their own problems- I know it would counteract the job description, thing is: anybody with any degree of a *brain* knows that to govern wisely you govern as little as you can! The other thing's even scarier still to consider: I mean Lucifer, the "Red Tsar of Hell" itself, very strongly believes *all* of the teachings of Catholicism- so to believe His teachings means NOTHING; what is needed the ONLY thing that matters is *works of the law/deeds*, as Christ Himself let slip about the final judgement's standards. The thing you should consider is that we're NEVER going to aid Him and His vicar, nor their agencies, solely because of the evils sown by them in His name.
Rumor has it that a Belgian is in the mix to get a cardinal's red hat at the next consistory ... Do you really want to live in a Catholic theocracy? For every action is there is an equal and opposite reaction. Clericalism led to secularism ... Pollsters indicate that American Catholics in the pews are more progressive than the hierarchy ... John, you are lucky to have such a caring parish priest. I know of a priest who wouldn't come to anoint a dying parishioner because it was the priest's day off. I know of priests at a large parish who wouldn't cross the street to hear the confession of an old lady ... Yes, I am a proud, progressive Catholic. Viva Papa Francis
Dear John, the issue is not the fictive rich harvest or new Catholics but why no one takes the Pacapapa 😈 seriously? Apart from some idealistic and uninformed asians which stll have not enough of his "holiness" and are ready to extol him as a holy man. Briefly: let's go Brandon 🤠
The entire world can agree-liberals, conservatives, Catholics, Protestants, orthodox, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto, animist, Zoroastrian, agnostic, and atheist-we want to stop hearing the shit music you have been playing since Carter was president.
@@paulfaigl8329 It is obvious and so is the corollary. If one attaches oneself to religion one is not attached to God which has been proven many times. Celibacy is a technique for getting closer to God and not an entrance fee for a religion. God is not a baseball game and God is not a corporate organizational structure. There is a will to God and it is often times not as we expect it to be.
Thank you John for giving us some positive news about the Church and the priest who is attentive and caring! He is my neighbor from BeninRepublic. Thanks for being a good pastor.
Yes, this was a wonderful way to end this video episode.
Thank you, John, for your insights. May God's blessings keep overflowing for you and for all of us who listen/watch you. 🙏🏼😁
Yay!! 👏 Thank you for the positive reporting of you and your wife’s meeting with Fr. Alberto!! It warms my heart!!
Thank you John. This episode is beautiful. God bless you… Mama Mary protect you. 🙏🏻
We need free and speak the TRUTH of what is going on in the Catholic faith
Whos stopping you ?
Wonderful - loved the reflections!!
Hello John?
This is Jorge Bergoglio and I'd like to offer you the job of your dreams.
Belgium has a horrific euthanasia policy even by liberal standards (New Yorker, Rachel Aviv, 15 June 2015)
I can be reasonably satisfied not to expect any orthodoxy but expect only more confusion and heresy from this totally unhinged Pacapapa . Please keep us informed😀😎😀
Medical aid in dying is simply humane. It is weird why that fact is not obvious to some people.
Medical aid in dying is, to the 21st century, what birth control was to the 20th century. At first it appears to be interfering with God's work -- until it just makes sense.
The final rumination is the most important reporting in today's show! Alleluia!
One last thing: when it comes to community and caring -- The Episcopal Church and The Presbyterian Church have The RCC beat by leaps and bounds. Or at least they used to. At least in The US. I haven't been involved in either in the last 24-25 years. Not only did they both have an incredibly good social outreach -- such as caring for the homeless and the poor -- but they cared for each other as though they were blood family. (Of course, they both were and still are predominantly white and middle class.) When I was growing up and a practicing Catholic -- 1950-1985-ish -- all The Catholic parishes I ever belonged to cared only that we went to Mass and Confession. If we did some volunteer work for the parish and/or we sent our kids to the parish school, we MIGHT be known somewhat. But, still, if we ever needed any real help, the parish members -were never there for each other. And the parish priests certainly weren't.
How beautiful, that experience last Sunday.....
Wow! John, your comparison image of the Cubs (I’m a diehard White Sox fan, and it’s continuing disappointments are squared compared to the Cubs) lackluster performance to the Church bureaucracy being unable to implement real reform and change was so brilliant and spot on. My person experience with the lack of support on the projects I’ve been given now makes better sense. Thank you for today’s episode (and all your work).
Great show, as usual. FYI, there isn't a link to this week's sponsor in the notes ;-)
when travelling to Belgium for work I noticed a stark contract pre and post Covid in terms of Mass attendance. Pre covid there were multiple Masses offered in Ghent center and were somewhat well attended; post Covid there was only Mass at the Cathedral at noon and most in attendance appeared to visitors and not local parishioners. The extremism of the local biship may have something to do with attendance as well.
By extremism you mean?
Time for Francis to retire
I love the story of the parish priest. I get frustrated at times with my archdiocese. But then I go to mass an meet up with one of the priests and I'm suddenly lifted up. Bureaucracies will always let you down because they are insular. But to me they are not the CHURCH. Thanks John for a great meditation on what it means to Catholic.
The Holy Spirit dwells in the Catholic Church since 33AD He leads her to all truth
She will never be destroyed, Acts 5:38-39!
All I can say is WOW! Right on both observations.
Thank you for a very informative programme concerning Belgium. Also love the story of your encounter encounter in your church.
Excellent!
The Cubs are similar to the Catholic Church!
James 1:27 in the Bible describes a pure and undefiled religion as visiting orphans and widows in their time of need, and keeping oneself unstained from the world:
Being removed from the rolls is not just a religious question; It also has the direct effect of reducing the numbers that the Catholic Church uses to justify the large subsidy that the state gives to the Catholic Church. Many Belgians do not want their taxes supporting a church - any church - and certainly not the Catholic church, which is, yes of course, mired in scandal - and has been for some time.
I think the best thing for Catholics is for the Church in Belgium and Germany to effectively become empty and become a Mission Church again. It is ripe with Heresy and kumbaya Catholicism. I think Germany has loss about 1 million members in the last 2 years, I suspect those who embraced the likes of the American radical priest like Richard McBrien and in Europe Hans Kung. Faithful Catholics who want be Catholic are more common in the non Western World and still in pockets of the USA, the Mass Going Catholics, not the cultural Catholics who might show up at a funeral of a family member.
It sounds like the Christians in Belgium, not just the Roman Christians, need to be converted. My husband, who is an Anglican priest, said that the most unconverted people sometimes are in the pews.
Two weeks of episodes to respond to Pope Francis' explicit heretical statements in Singapore and nada from John. And it's not as if Pope Francis didn't double down subsequently.
Even for a lefty like John, I'm nonetheless rather surprised.
Praying for a Holy Pope!
This is a fantastic episode. Regarding the Belgium trip, I allow myself to issue an opinion on football terms that my dear Mr John Allen may understand: Belgium stands on many social, political and even cultural issues are generally as their national team: much about nothing: the 'best" goalkeeper in the world who fails miserably at the World Cup, Lukaku the more overrated forward in the world, De Bruyne always injered at the wrong moment, etc. The new critics of the Pope and the Church will make some noise but at the end... everything as usual. Greetings from Mexico (another nightmare in politics and football issues)
John you think the Cubs are bad, check out the Seattle Mariners. Zero, that is ZERO post season playoff winds in over 40 years and the stadium is almost sold out every home game. -- Joe G. Seattle
Catholics are growing weary of Francis, do you get it, Yes Catholics.
Correct, I pray for Pope Francis and think I will have to continue to pray for Him after He passes as in my view, Pope Francis is going to be hanging around in Purgatory for a while.
Not me!
Very sad. All those poor souls!
Leave it to God Trust! Only God can Fix it🙏
They are now saying he has a flu so there's a chance they are going to use that as excuse to cancel those trips
I suspect the papal trip to Belgium will be received in similar fashion to pope Francis' 2022 Canadian trip which went largely unnoticed.
That word "outdated" gets a lot of work and, its proven sufficient cause or reason.
Amen!
Talking about "grizzled" parish priests and "genial characters" - once again, our friend and host John Allen, offering yes, a hefty dose of unvarnished realism to the battle hardened Vatican cardinals as if to say "everyone knows what you're like" - with a further admonition to potential saps, I mean, spokesmen, who might otherwise be sucked in, crushed and spat out the other side - to load the dice in their favour - yet even that pretty black and white segment was delivered with clarity and levity.
Ditto the frank initial assessment of their West African assistant priest especially how his lack of facility with Italian meant prayers dragged interminably - superficially, neither very fraternal, flattering - nor pious! I mean, dont misunderstand, I just dont believe in God, the afterlife, the Virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, salvation, angels, heavenly choirs, seeing granny again after death. I just dont believe a word of it - but I DO still say that no priest has ever spoken more kindly, more wisely, more sympathetically and with such humanity - while never resorting to that cringemaking "soothing" tone that so many priests adopt, mostly because they want to appear more devout and spiritual (Father Casey in Breaking the Habit, please note. Father Patrick's nearer the mark....) - but, knowing what we know, it often comes across a little bit creepy.
John effortlessly transcends all these pitfalls and we (well I, at least) find ourselves jauntily led through some of the thornier parts of the Catholic garden - benefitting from his decades of instinct for news, inquisitorial insights, internecine web of contacts with the echelons who, unbelievably, still apparently talk to him despite his excoriating description of their shenanigans as more or less "a cat fight". What, a bunch of middle aged, unmarried men who like dressing up in garb of a billowing yardage of merino and watered silk sporting exquisitely tailored, gorgeous colour coded details - as minutely revealing of their rank and station as the handkerchiefs in leathermen's back pockets are of their preferred peccadilloes - you mean some of them might sometimes be a little catty? You don't say😂😂😂😂 Of course he has to stop just short of all those implications - but I really do admire the man both as a professional whose stories can be trusted - always delivered with that easy skill that's just so incredibly difficult to do - and always with a wry but humorous, empathetic and forgiving backdrop that speaks to me more directly of his convictions without ever proselytising or manufactured piety - than any priest or prelate - who could learn a bunch from him and by the way, all that sits atop unimpeachable journalistic standards. Robert Barron would do well to take a leaf out of JA's book - to see a supposed man of the cloth of the highest station fairly recently spout a Kremlin talking point again in that coolly, quasi reassuring, paternal mewl, nearly made me lose my lunch. It sounded so REASONABLE yet was a grotesque distortion.....Wonder how much he extricated from Putin's slush fund for that? I see more true Christianity in John Allen's socks, than I do in puffed up purple princelings like him. I believe his "mission" (aka "media empire") is an attempt to window dress a deeply flawed individual who nevertheless (thanks to a powerful, Trumpianesque lobby) I unfortunately see in the mix for archiepiscopal promotion - with eventual membership of that most exclusive club where Their Most Reverend Eminences try to guide the boss and elect a new one when the time comes. I literally shudder at the thought and as anyone who's ever read my rambles, I am surely no wokie😏 Better leave it there in case I, too, receive a humpy Cease and Desist letter from his lawyers here in England. Actually, do it, Your Excellency - I'd enjoy it.
See? That's the difference between me and JA! He can swim in the swamps and sewers of the Vatican all day long and still smell fresh as a daisy at dinner! I literally dont know how he does it but I think it deserves recognition... And the personal musings instead of clerical news were excellent!❤
The force is strong with you John - but the light, lasting, soothing and satisfying effects of even your most serene and humble monologues, just get crushed by the realities. I say there's a case for St John Allen! I do think, however, that if some get canonised, the Holy See also really should reserve to itself the power to demonise, or whatever the opposite of beatify is!❤
As regards the church itself we have the Good Lord promise that His church is undestrable *....the gates of hell will not prevail over it,,,,"
The other thing regarding your assistant pastor. Judge not the book by its cover comes to mind. It is the role of all humanity to look after each other, not just Christians. That is the reason we have never ending wars.
Catholic is defined by The Church as someone who has a Baptismal certificate on file in some parish/diocese. How many PRACTICING Catholics there are is a different story. But The Church does not delineate..
Why has no one commented yet?
My impression of the people of Belgium is that, along with those of Switzerland and The Netherlands, they think for themselves, and find that the Church is so outdated that it is no longer worthy of serious consideration.
They must be very intelligent and thoughtful like yourself Fred.
Outdated? Why do you bother being Catholic?
@@TheLincolnrailsplitt He isn't.
He's just turns here intermittently to bash Catholicism.
Then leave!
@@Jimboken1 If not thinking for yourself is a requirement for belonging to your church, you are welcome to it. And apparently about 97% of Belgians think as I do.
Vague references and platitudes. You skirted around the reform topic. At least you didn't do any signicant Pope 'splaining.
I didn't know you've been sick. I thought so -- you haven't looked well, off and on, for a while now -- but I didn't know for sure. I hope all is well with you AND Elise. Wait until you get older, John. LOL As The US AMA [American Medical Association] says: we are living longer -- we're not living better. LOL Well, at least not in The US. Also, as I've listened to you over time -- I don't know how long it's been since I first discovered Crux Now -- nor do I remember how I discovered CN -- I AM surprised to find out that you and Elise are practicing Catholics/True Believers. I don't understand how you can be. Like all other religions too -- The Church has about zip, zero and zilch facts. It's almost 100% faith/belief and no verifiable facts. I'm not throwing stones, altho' I know it seems that way. I'll tell ya -- I've told you before -- in this day and age in The US and around the world, there certainly are times that I truly wish I was a True-Believer Catholic once again. Still -- it's been wonderful to live my life without thinking of myself as a POS because I'm responsible for The Crucifixion, without having lived my life afraid of going to Hell when I die, without believing that 'God' is male. And the only prayers I've ever said is "Thank You" and "WOW". 🙂
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
13:42 Why wouldn't he? He himself has a jaded chip on his shoulder about the Church!
"Part of the process of secularization is about being set free from religion, understood here as a social convention or a way of imposing a vocabulary or identity that allows little space for individual freedom and faith. Christianity is not simply a religion: it is a religious faith because it leads to a personal relationship with God...... The Gospel shows us that Jesus was very "anti-religious" in this sense. He placed the human person above the law and had no time for empty and exclusive ritualism, and because of that, he was condemned to death."
Now, who do we think might have said this? Of course, Arturo Sosa, SJ, the Jesuit Superior-General ("Walking with Ignatius", Loyola Press, 2021, pp.129-130).
Jesuits are not the least bit concerned about "secularization". Francis, a Jesuit, isn't either. And neither should we be. We don't get to decide how the Spirit of God moves in the world through Salvation History. The Holy Spirit itself is perfectly capable of doing that. Sosa, again: "Catholicism isn't a doctrine; it's a FAITH."
I think we might just find that Francis is a lot more prepared to take on Belgian "secularization" than secular Belgians are to take on him. 😉
Sincerely religious and sincerely spiritual will avail you nothing on the day of judgment if you have not humbly surrendered to God's grace for your conversion--including renunciation of enslaving worldly ideologies and repentance of sins you are self-justifying.
It is Timor Leste. East Timor was its pre independent name. PLEASE get the name correct.
NATO Headquarters is the political and administrative centre of the Alliance. It is located at Boulevard Leopold III in Brussels, Belgium............very interesting! LOL
I will say; based on what you've said, Sir, that the idiocy is in trusting the leadership, even God Himself, instead of using our own heads and judging all of His stances and His vicar's position.
Even in the shoes of a kind of global dictator, I'd strongly really rather demand that people solve their own problems- I know it would counteract the job description, thing is: anybody with any degree of a *brain* knows that to govern wisely you govern as little as you can!
The other thing's even scarier still to consider: I mean Lucifer, the "Red Tsar of Hell" itself, very strongly believes *all* of the teachings of Catholicism- so to believe His teachings means NOTHING; what is needed the ONLY thing that matters is *works of the law/deeds*, as Christ Himself let slip about the final judgement's standards.
The thing you should consider is that we're NEVER going to aid Him and His vicar, nor their agencies, solely because of the evils sown by them in His name.
Wow, that watch is chun-KEY.
Rumor has it that a Belgian is in the mix to get a cardinal's red hat at the next consistory ... Do you really want to live in a Catholic theocracy? For every action is there is an equal and opposite reaction. Clericalism led to secularism ... Pollsters indicate that American Catholics in the pews are more progressive than the hierarchy ... John, you are lucky to have such a caring parish priest. I know of a priest who wouldn't come to anoint a dying parishioner because it was the priest's day off. I know of priests at a large parish who wouldn't cross the street to hear the confession of an old lady ... Yes, I am a proud, progressive Catholic. Viva Papa Francis
Rupnik? Zanchetta?
You are going to be very disappointed.
Dear John, the issue is not the fictive rich harvest or new Catholics but why no one takes the Pacapapa 😈 seriously? Apart from some idealistic and uninformed asians which stll have not enough of his "holiness" and are ready to extol him as a holy man. Briefly: let's go Brandon 🤠
The entire world can agree-liberals, conservatives, Catholics, Protestants, orthodox, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto, animist, Zoroastrian, agnostic, and atheist-we want to stop hearing the shit music you have been playing since Carter was president.
God is not a religion!!!
This is rather obvious.
@@paulfaigl8329 It is obvious and so is the corollary. If one attaches oneself to religion one is not attached to God which has been proven many times. Celibacy is a technique for getting closer to God and not an entrance fee for a religion. God is not a baseball game and God is not a corporate organizational structure. There is a will to God and it is often times not as we expect it to be.