This is actually a fairly decent homily from Pope Francis on the relevance of fidelity to Church teaching to salvation.
He starts off on a pretty good roll about fidelity to the Church, teaching, doctrine and Creed.
Pope Francis said that fidelity was the ‘second pillar.’ He said: “Fidelity to the Church, fidelity to its teaching; fidelity to the Creed; fidelity to the doctrine, safeguarding this doctrine. Humility and fidelity.
But a nanosecond later, he gets a tiny bit sidetracked.
"Even Paul VI reminded us that we receive the message of the Gospel as a gift and we need to transmit it as a gift, but not as a something of ours: it is a gift that we received.”
Up to this point in time, Pope Francis has caricatured Church teaching as being ok to sleep around if you give money to the poor and take care of the environment.
Tying fidelity to the reception of 'the message of the Gospel' doesn't convey that our practice of fidelity applies not just Sacred Scripture, but also to Sacred Tradition and Sacred Magisterium. It would have been nice to get a little more clarity but this is an improvement over the drivel.
I especially liked this:
He continued: “And be faithful in this transmission. Because we have received and we have to gift a Gospel that is not ours, that is Jesus’, and we must not – he would say – become masters of the Gospel, masters of the doctrine we have received, to use it as we please”.
Quoting Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis said that it was an “absurd dichotomy” to love Christ without loving the Church.
All in all, a B+.
3 comments:
Before the papal visit and speech before Pentecostals in Caserta, I would have found some peace in this homily. However, now, I have serious doubts that what Pope Francis means by "Church," "doctrine," and "fidelity" is what Catholics have historically meant by these words.
Either that, of this pope will simply say whatever he thinks his audience will like, which is just as bad (if not worse) than the above.
At least it sounds much more reasonable than previous homilies. I like it as well.
How about his latest, as reported by Catholic World News (http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22235):
Pope Francis: families are called to stability, fruitfulness
In a message to the First Latin American Congress on the Pastoral Care of the Family, which is taking place in Panama from August 4-9, Pope Francis emphasized that the family is called to stability and fruitfulness.
“We learn to live in the nuclear family based on loving relationships that are faithful until death, such as that of a spouse, father, child, and brother or sister,” Pope Francis wrote in his message, which was released on August 6. “These relationships form the basic fabric of human society, when they are given cohesion and consistency. Because you cannot be part of a community that opens itself out to others, to feel close to one another, to take account of the most needy and most unfortunate, if the human heart were to shatter these relationships that provide basic security to man.”
“In addition, family love is fruitful, not only because it generates new lives, but also because it broadens the horizon of existence, creates a new world; makes us believe, against all despair and defeat, that a coexistence based on respect and trust is possible,” the Pope continued. “Faced with a materialistic view of the world, the family does not reduce man to sterile utilitarianism, but channels his deepest desires.”
The Pontiff also said that the family is the place where no one is discarded, that the family is the place where solidarity with others takes root, and that family love allows one to grow in “openness to God as Father.”
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