Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

The HOLY THURSDAY REVOLUTION

Holy Thursday Rev picCLICK HERE to see Quick-View Presentation Slides:
Holy Thursday, The Ultimate Revolution

Beatrice Bruteau, in her book, THE HOLY THURSDAY REVOLUTION details two Jesus events that were and still are revolutionary challenges to the prevailing domination paradigm:

  • Washing the Feet of His Followers…where masters and lords are the ones to be served by “lower caste” in the domination paradigm.
  • Sharing Bread and Cup in Loving Communion of Equals…WITH those who considered themselves as less than their Teacher.

These two events were each strong statements and symbolic signs that the long-held paradigm of inequality and domination was repudiated, no longer to be held as God’s Will.

For this life-long breaking of domination cultural rules, Jesus was crucified and for this he rose again in the Jesus’ Movement that all generations may know… THAT THE WAY OF GOD IS COMMUNION, NOT the Domination Paradigm of INEQUALITY.   For this, many after Jesus have been “crucified and risen again and again” over the centuries in order that the Communion Paradigm of All People may not perish from this earth.

Download PDF Presentation Slides for Discussion:
Holy Thursday, The Ultimate Revolution

See Also:
Pope Francis stuns all as he kisses feet of African leaders…begging them to work for peace!

https://RiteBeyondrome.com

Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

Will Benedict bind the Catholic vote to Anti-abortionism forever?


Even though polls indicate approximately half of U.S. Catholics follow Pope Benedict XVI’s magisterial decrees on how Catholics should evaluate voting issues, that half is a rather large bargaining chip for the present church-state alliance in which Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan engages a certain political party.

Although the Catholic vote is now almost evenly divided between opposing political parties, half of the 51 million adult Catholic population distributed nationwide still represent a large bargaining chip for the present U.S. Catholic Church. A much-needed bargaining chip, indeed, as the U.S. Catholic bishops struggle to avoid large-scale legal prosecution for past clerical abuses in pending court cases nationwide.

While striving to avoid parish and diocesan bankruptcy, the U.S. bishops are also making every effort to save the Church’s approximately 6,000 Catholic schools serving close to 2 million U.S. students (20% of whom are not Catholic).

The present situation of the U.S. Church-state alliance with the GOP, though embarrassing for some bishops, claims justification in the magisterial teachings of Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and even early Church Fathers as cited and propagated by Eternal Word Television Network, EWTN Global Catholic Network.
https: //www.ewtn.com/vote/download/moralguide.pdf

Meanwhile, the GOP is determined to pack the court and do whatever it takes to over-turn Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision that protected a woman’s right to privacy under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Imagine what other rights to privacy can be overturned if this one passes Supreme Court muster! Genetic testing? Doctor-patient confidentiality? Business trade secrets? Lawyer-client privilege? Financial confidentiality?

Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

No Vatican II Rite! . . . What Loss to World and Church!*

Ah, so Vatican II was just another one of those Church Councils, was it?

Well, no, it was obviously a very dangerous Council because it could have changed today’s Church and World had it not been perceived as a threat to Roman Rite Catholicism.

“Keep Vatican II from rupturing the Church” has been the main concern of post-Vatican II popes.  “Spiritualize it…Absorb it into the traditional Church and we will be all the better for it.”

Pope Francis takes a different turn. His strategy is to socialize Vatican II by focusing it on helping the poor and away from doctrinal change which undergirds traditional Roman hierarchical structure.

Is the World better off without the full implementation of Vatican II as a new Catholic Rite with its open vs. closed-system approach to World and Church?

Let’s see…Would we have …

▪    Massive failure of Christian conscience in regard to world response to the global immigrant crisis…a crisis too similar to the global failure of Christian conscience at the time of the Holocaust.  Such moral failure, including the introduction of nuclear warfare, were major reasons the Second Vatican Council was convened.

Would we be engaged in the following global/national phenomena today if a Vatican II RITE had been allowed to emerge out of the Council by the 1980’s?

•    Significant increase in ethnic and religious wars?
•    New rise in rampant racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia?
•    So many favored national candidates with anti-xyz tyrannical positions?
•    First world regression into old self-satisfied nationalism and denominationalism?
•    Aggressive controversy in media (including blogs) replacing efforts at genuine dialog?
•    Corporate lobbying vs. climate control, bank regulation, and domestic programs?

•  2019 Update:  Would the 2019 outgoing bishops’ conference president, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, called climate change “important” but not “urgent” if Vatican II had been encouraged, even allowed to mature in its relationship to the world?

IS the Church better off for having resisted the movement of Vatican II toward a paradigm shift in theology, governance and liturgy?

Let’s see…would there have been…

▪    Long and strong resistance to accountability for the clergy sex abuse scandal, especially at higher bureaucratic levels?

▪    Conservative/liberal rupture within the Church…with parishes, religious communities and families split asunder…even the Church itself.

▪    Unprecedented and continued loss of practicing and dedicated Catholics from parishes in much of the world…including loss of vocations to priesthood and religious life…including loss of women to ordained ministry.

According to Cardinal Kasper: “We have neither fully implemented the council nor really received the post-conciliar documents; they have remained without consequence.  We are at a standstill.”  (Cardinal Kasper, ORIGENS, July 2, 2015 (Volume 45, No. 9)  “Vatican II: Toward a Multifaceted Unity”)

Has Vatican II been resisted as a Council because it is such a paradigm shift in perspective from Roman [Opus-EWTN Evangelical] Catholicism…so much so  that…

…in order to become once again an effective moral influence in the modern world,..We desperately need a Vatican II Rite?

…alongside the 23 other different inter-independent Catholic Rites,
…a Vatican II Rite to stand in sisterly/brotherly union with Rome?  

2019 Update:  If not a Post-Vatican II Rite, then a Post-Vatican II Prelature…to have some canonical standing and canonical future next to the majority Opus Dei Prelature (now morphed into the Catholic majority EWTN-Evangelical Church).   What is a prelature?

Think about it!   To Comment: Click on title of article and scroll to bottom of page.

Visit :  PICTURE THE POSSIBILITY OF A VATICAN II RITE

Blessings and thanks for reading and thinking about this!
Sisters Lea and Consilia et al
https://RiteBeyondRome.com

*Original copy posted on this site 06/03/2016

Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

Literal & Poetic Interpretations of Catholicism, the real split?

For too long, we have not tackled the task of transvaluing* the very important doctrines which have provided structure and meaning to our faith…for so long.
Could our Catholic doctrines have been so guarded and locked down that they gradually diminished in ability to develop their fullness of spirit in each modern age,
culminating in the rejection of Catholicism so evident today?

As more than one theologian has said, we DO need “right” theology.
We also need to transvalue,* not dilute it, according to each new epoch.
The problem, of course, lies in what is the “right theology” and
what is vehicle for the faith which has carried us into the 21st century.
There are and always will be great differences of opinion on this question.

However, too many people today cannot “buy” the essence of Christianity
according to the literal “died for our sins” version
that many still hold so very sacred.
This rejection of theological understanding in the Catholic Church today
is likewise going on in other Christian denominations.

There is a split  between the literal and “poetic” versions of Catholicism
and it is well documented by philosopher/theologian John D.  Caputo in his books,
RELIGION WITHOUT RELIGION, THE WEAKNESS OF GOD,
and THE INSISTENCE OF GOD.

Could there be at least two different valid interpretations of our Catholic faith
…not just “continuity and rupture”?
Vatican II pointed us in the poetic direction while retaining the literal hermeneutic.
Might we have need for both literal and poetic interpretations
of theology, governance and liturgy in the Church today?
…even if that means “allowing” (if not “fostering”) the development of a new rite
in our Church which has managed to “allow” 22 other rites in union with the Roman Rite of the Jerusalem Church of Saints Peter and Paul and the earliest Christians?

Sisters Lea and Consilia welcome your feedback…even a “like” if you are so inclined.
Thanks!

***

*transvalue here meaning:  “To represent or evaluate something according to a new principle, causing it to be revalued” differently…with the “new principle” being the work of the Holy Spirit in Vatican II and the world.

See Position Paper:  Resolving Polarization of Vatican II and Roman Catholic Visions
https://www.scribd.com/doc/311664852/Resolving-Polarization-of-Vatican-II-and-Roman-Catholic-Visions

No Vatican II Rite!  What Loss to World and Church
https://wordpress.com/post/ritebeyondrome.com/1469

Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

“Huge gap separates Pope Francis from liturgical traditionalists” by Massimo Faggioli

Our comment below on Massimo Faggioli’s article…comment censored by Global Pulse Magazine  (GPM article link below):

“We appreciate Massimo Faggioli’s hope that Vatican II Church is going to make a come-back. However, in the few short years Pope Francis has, do you really believe he can reverse the massive “particular sympathy and irenic attitude” towards traditionalism” imbibed by the Catholic population and taught in many universities, seminaries, parishes and publications worldwide for the past 30+ years?

Furthermore, with the dying off of so many Vatican II Catholic clergy, theologians and laity, should we really sit back and depend on Pope Francis to revive the Vatican II Church…against the strong and pervasive traditionalist push for a “smaller, purer Church”?

Fact is, the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church has set itself up as a formidable opponent to Vatican II and its prophetic interpretations of theology, governance, liturgy and Catholic identity.  So why not let elder brother Rome stand guard over Council of Trent hermeneutics as the representative of institutional Catholicism?

Meanwhile, Pope Francis is in a position to liberate Vatican II from the hands of those who shall never see Vatican II  as anything more than a confirmation of the Council of Trent.

Pope Francis can protect the universal Church from schism by blessing the Trentonian and Vatican II traditions as “equally valid yet different” branches of Catholic thought and practice.

This move would be somewhat akin to the “separate yet one-with” brotherhood of Roman and the Eastern Church Catholicism which has a less scholastic/more mystical interpretations of Catholic theology, governance and liturgy than its Roman “elder brother”.

Otherwise, Francis dies and the Church moves comfortably back into its Curial mode of Trent Council Catholicism, as if Vatican II never really happened, no?”

Massimo Faggioli’s article: “Huge gap separates Pope Francis from liturgical tradionalists” – Global Pulse Magazine
http://www.globalpulsemagazine.com/news/huge-gap-separates-pope-francis-from-liturgical-tradionalists/3568     (article published 7.18.2016)

Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

Dare We Catholics Believe Differently?

Have we even begun to understand what degree of change the Holy
Spirit was/is calling forth from within the event of the Second Vatican Council?

Some Catholics see the past few decades…from a different viewpoint…
…as an erosion of faith in the doctrines we have…

But others look at Vatican II as a gift of the Holy Spirit,
as God calling forth a whole new perspective on doctrine…
in which case, there is the need for a very deep deconstruction of
“how we believed before and often still do now.”

A deconstruction of Catholic belief
down to the very bedrock of our faith…
leaving behind
cherished understandings of doctrine…
in order to get to the root of doctrine
and its applications for our time.

NOT to change or break down Roman Rite theology …
which keeps the institution focused on certainty and security in the everyday world,
…
BUT to be a “next-door” theology in union with Rome…
……..from the point of a world constantly adapting to change…
…that each theology may call forth and challenge the other 
in our uncommon faith
in Jesus the Christ and our proclamation of the Good News to the world.

Uncommon Faith speaking from two different perspectives:

+Roman Rite Catholicism from the perspective of the “strong force” of a
…hierarchical, unchanging, all-knowing, all powerful God who is everywhere,
a God who designed the universe according to the order of His Will.

+ Vatican II Rite Catholicism from the perspective of the “weak” strength of a
…God that calls and promises but doesn’t command, awaits response but doesn’t demand.
The Name of which God carries an event that stretches us
beyond what we know to where we are certain we must go,
to an order other than hierarchy (the internal order of chaos theory perhaps),
…a divine “stepping back” which reveals how much we tend to rely on force as power,
…a divine will that models and solicits forgiveness, hospitality and love of the other
as the determining factors of who discovers or “gets into” the kingdom of God

More on Vatican II Theology to come on Rite Beyond Rome.
Meanwhile, read John D. Caputo’s books:
On Religion and The Weakness of God, A Theology of the Event with us.
Interested in conversation…comment below and/or email 4Vatican2Rite@gmail.com

View, share, download:
Slide Presentation: EXPLORING A VATICAN II RITE

Position Paper:  Resolving Polarization of Vatican II and Roman Catholic Visions

Sisters Lea and Consilia
https://ritebeyondrome.com

Featured Sisters Lea and Consilia

A Whole New Branch of Catholicism?

For some the path to a healthier church is about waiting for the orthodox positions of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church to change.

Others see no hope in this patient hopefulness…no hope that “patient hopefulness” will eventually resolve the polarization afflicting the Catholic Church in a post-Vatican II age.

Once Judaism had to face a similar case of on-going polarization within itself.  From this realization flowed the diversified branches of orthodox, conservative and reform interpretations of their faith.

What if we are in need of a three-pronged Catholicism…orthodox, conservative and reform?

  • Not such a strange idea as it seems, if you check out “Will Catholicism go the way of Judaism?” by Marquette University theologian, Daniel Maguire.*
  • Why even Pope Francis sees the need for a “multi-faceted unity” of faith in Cardinal Kasper’s article, “Vatican II: Toward a Multifaceted Unity,” (ORIGINS, July 2, 2015)**

Catholicism is not new to the idea of branching out.  Rome, Antioch and Alexandria are today three branches of the original Christian “mother” Church in Jerusalem.  Has the time come to officially recognize a Vatican II Branch of Catholicism?

We could say Holy Mother Church has already conceived a new Vatican II vision by the Holy Spirit at Vatican II.  That vision is the seed of a new branch of Catholicism born in the documents and in the people who experienced the implementation of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council and in those who were later influenced by it.

 

The Roman Branch of Catholicism was reared and educated in scholasticism, systematic theo-logic and an ethics of justice.

The yet-to-be-proclaimed Vatican II Branch has been nurtured in a conciliar commitment to “the construction of a new form of the church adequate to the demands of our age” as Richard R. Gaillardetz puts it.*

This new form of Church would, according to Gaillardetz, include:

  • dialogical engagement compared to hierocratic monoply on truth
  • mutual respect between clergy and laity, differing from a hierarchy of respect
  • pastoral approach to doctrinal formation  in contrast to a scholastic approach
  • unity-in-difference committed to humble learning from each other

In his book , An Unfinished Council, Chapter 4, “Toward a New Ecclesial Form,” Richard Gaillardetz does not suggest the formation of a new branch of Catholicism, but rather a rebuilding of the temple from within the ruins of the old temple by means of a “synthesized reading” of the documents of Vatican II.

We do not find this solution to be a fair assessment of Roman Catholicism and its contributions to the Church.

  • Roman Catholicism is hardly a temple in ruins. It has complete control of the Church.
    • Even though that complete control has driven many from the pews,
      Roman Rite Catholicism has a very faithful following of cardinals, bishops and people who want the the church to return to the highly-structured Roman system of theology/doctrine, governance and liturgy.
  • Not to mention, there will always be people who find support in highly-structured systems for the certainty and security of mind they provide. It may also be that we gravitate toward a more structured approach at different times in our lives.

There will also always be people who need a less-structured variation of Catholicism……those who need a more open Catholicism…

…much as Paul of Tarsus needed a more open interpretation of the Apostles’ original interpretation of Christianity as a Jewish sect entirely compatible with Judaism.

…much as early Catholicism later needed to make room for the Roman and Eastern Rite branches of the faith.

For these people and all those who see Vatican II as a singular event in the course of the history and future of the Catholic Church, we ask again,

Would a Vatican II Branch of the Church be such a terrible thing?

Would it not unify the Catholic Church and PREVENT schism?

Would it not it make the Church MORE healthy and LESS myopic?

For more information:
https://ritebeyondrome.com/picture-the-possibility-of-a-vatican-ii-rite/
For further discussion:  https://ritebeyondrome.com

Links below are to sources quoted in this article:

* https://cruxnow.com/faith/2015/09/13/will-catholicism-go-the-way-of-judaism/

**http://dc2015.ei-research.net/origins/

Continue reading

Sisters Lea and Consilia

The ‘Freedom Convoy’ is Inspired by a Biblical Account of Divine Massacre: Welcome to the Jericho March | Religion Dispatches

When a church announces what’s called a Jericho March (or a Jericho Walk), you might picture congregants praying, walking around a building, trumpets blasting and an odd gospel song. You might forget, however, what comes next. From Joshua 6:20-21:When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted

Source: The ‘Freedom Convoy’ is Inspired by a Biblical Account of Divine Massacre: Welcome to the Jericho March | Religion Dispatches

Sisters Lea and Consilia

The Enigmatic Role of Anti-Semitism in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict | Religion Dispatches

As noted recently in the New York Times and elsewhere, the Jews of Ukraine have plenty of reason for concern. History has not been kind to the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe: from pogroms to the Holocaust, the memory of historical trauma is very much alive. But as Russia commences a war in Ukr

Source: The Enigmatic Role of Anti-Semitism in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict | Religion Dispatches

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Is Christ King? If so…A Very Different King!

Today is the feast of Christ, King of the Universe.

Since ancient times, men have insisted on having “kings”.  While kings seem to be a thing of the past, too many countries today are abandoning democracy for dictatorships both secular and professedly religious.  Christians too look to kingship…seeking to establish moral realms on earth.  Even we Catholics are modelling our evangelization on Pro-life Christendoms based on Christ as King.  But if Jesus or his Father have anything to do with being King, what kind of kingship do they claim?

On the everyday level, we the people almost always want someone to keep us safe, to keep order…someone to be in control of the chaos of an ever-changing world around us.

Scripture, however, warns us very specifically as to what happens when we long for kings to protect and save us:

that kings and their cohorts will
…conscript your children into their armies…use your children for their own profit and pleasure…tithe you on the little you make or own…take the best of your property to give to his officials…whereby you and your children will become his slaves.   (See 1 Samuel Chapter 8)

“When that day comes, you will cry out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God will not answer you,” says Samuel the prophet.

“The people refused to listen to the words of Samuel.  They said, “No!  We want a king so that we in our turn can be like the other nations; our king shall rule us and be our leader and fight our battles.” 

God was not the king they wanted and so, like us today, the people rejected him.  And God told Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is not you they have rejected; they have rejected me and my rule over them.”

Even now, as back then, we choose  kings who offer us security and certainty, one who lifts us up in esteem with his power and prestige.  God was NOT this king and so was rejected by the people.

Jesus knew God differently than the people of his time.  Like his image of God, Jesus was no such king as the people wanted him to be. (One has to even wonder if Jesus ever wanted to be identified with the title “king”.)

If Jesus were the king the people wanted him to be, he would have acted differently at the Crucifixion, doing as the Roman soldiers mocked him to do.  He would have miraculously descended from the cross and exacted retribution on all those who persecuted him.  And he would have done this with great force and show of glory.  No such God was Jesus.  No such God was how Jesus knew God to be.

So we must ask, how is God’s rule different from that of an authoritarian leader/king?

And how is it that Jesus is proclaimed King as Christian tradition holds him?   There must be somewhere in that tradition a very different kind of king…or something other than king, no?

Key to these questions is the fact that Jesus saw and knew God differently…perhaps as differently as deconstructionist philosophers and theologians like John D Caputo see God

…repudiating a God of Power and Might who utilizes
rewards and punishments as force to keep order

…disputing the image of a protective parent God

…questioning the image of a God who desires loyal and obedient subjects

…challenging us, as Jesus did in his time on earth,
to look anew at how we see God today.

At a time when Jews expect a miracle and Greeks seek enlightenment, we speak about God’s Anointed crucified! This is an offense to Jews, nonsense to the nations; but to those who have heard God’s call, both Jews and Greeks, the Anointed represents God’s power and God’s wisdom; because the folly of God is wiser than humans are and the weakness of God is stronger than humans are. (1 Cor 1:22–25)

*     *     *     *    *    *

A few books by John D Caputo which we highly recommend:

The Cross and the Cosmos, A Theology of Difficult Glory (most recent)

The Weakness of God, A Theology of the Event

The Insistence of God, A Theology of Perhaps

The Folly of God, A Theology of the Unconditional

Hoping Against Hope, Confessions of a Post-modern Pilgrim

Also check this John D Caputo Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/John.D.Caputo/?ref=nf&hc_ref=ARRHGqJhNa51Z4yay1Oq-abxFtO-OAwDHB8sHtiIZ9Q_gLmpA4ELPxN7LgSnaD-W6ss

 

 

 

 

Quote Sisters Lea and Consilia

Pope Francis stuns all as he kisses feet of African leaders begging them to work for peace…A very Holy Thursday Event!

Pope Francis kissing the feet of President Salva Kiir and those of South Sudan's Vice Presidents

See article:  Pope Francis kisses feet of South Sudan’s leaders at conclusion of ecumenical retreat | ICN

Google “Pope Francis South Sudan” to see just how stunned people were.

Pope Francis kissing feet of South Sudan woman Vice pres 04_10_2-10 .jpg

“The pope encouraged the two leaders to find common ground.

‘I urge you, then, to seek what unites you, beginning with the fact that you belong to one and the same people, and to overcome all that divides you,’ he said.

…Then he sought the leaders’ permission to approach, and stunned the men [and woman] by kneeling.”  (parenthesis ours)

nytimes.com/2019/04/11/world/europe/pope-francis-south-sudan.html.

This April 2019 event…What outstanding witness to Holy Week and to a world caught up in ethic wars and political, social and religious polarization!

WHY DOES THIS NEWS FAIL to get larger
media coverage within the Church? 
…not simply the facts, but the SPIRIT of the event?
…in National Catholic publications and diocesan newspapers?
in sermons perhaps?
Instead we get careful words and more careful pictures
so as not to upset whom?

Video of pope struggling to get up and down several times was just removed even from webpage of article by Independent Catholic News.  Was that because we must not allow the world to see him struggling to do the very thing his heart and soul have called him to do?

Pope Francis’ actions in South Sudan were Eucharistic, closely connected to Holy Thursday and Jesus’ example as detailed in Beatrice Bruteau’s book,
THE HOLY THURSDAY REVOLUTION.

See and share short PDF slides:  https://ritebeyondrome.com/2018/03/21/the-holy-thursday-revolution/

 

 

Quote Sisters Lea and Consilia

Benedictine nun in Germany calls for women priests – along with women worldwide.

“I am surprised that the presence of Christ has been reduced to the male sex,” said Sister Ruth Schönenberger, head of the Benedictine Priory of Tutzing, the Bavarian motherhouse of a worldwide missionary order.

via Benedictine nun in Germany calls for women priests – Matters India

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Is Church criminal activity the result of failed theology?

Seems that Church criminal activity IS the result of failed theology…according to Robert Mickens quoting Church historian, Massimo Faggioli, in Mickens’ recent article “Why Catholic Church leaders risk failing on the issue of sexual abuse”

Scrolling down Mickens’ article to the subheading The ongoing implosion of the Church, we find these words:

“As Massimo Faggioli suggested in a recent article published by La Croix International.” says Mickens,

It is not simply a question of dealing with a criminal phenomenon. It is also a theological question: from the theology of the sacraments (especially ordination to the priesthood) to ecclesiological models; from the role of women in the Church to last century’s magisterium on sexual morality. (Bold emphasis ours)

 

“The most complicated issue concerns the structural reforms required to address the mystique surrounding the priesthood and the episcopate, which are often still seen as positions of honor without the responsibilities that derive from holy orders.
(Indented text and absence of most quote marks in above two paragraphs are as in original Mickens’ article.)

At Rite Beyond Rome, we believe that Church criminal activity IS the result of failed theology.

If Vatican II had been taken seriously by the Church preceding Francis, it would not have been dismissed as simply a pastoral council. 

If Vatican II had been taken seriously back in the 1970’s, 80’s, 90’s up to the present day, collegial community would have been the hallmark of a modern theology transvalued in light of the very core of the Gospels and Church Tradition of Collegial Community…and not simply in light of episcopal collegiality which was also suppressed.

Want more on how the Church would look as a Collegial Community?

Also see:  Beyond Damage Control and Church Structural Reform: Theology Supports Sex/Power Abuse?

 

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Catholic Tradition: Theologically Different Churches

Tradition Reminds Us:  Theological Differences Need Not Rupture the Unity of the Church

Eastern Catholics, while fully Catholic and in communion with Rome, differ in more ways than just liturgy.
They also possess a unique spiritual tradition, as well as a unique theological approach.

Roman Opus-genre Evangelical Catholicism also possesses its own traditionalist spiritual and theological approach significantly aligned with Church Councils prior to 1962…as different from Vatican II (1962-65) which was distinctly different from prior councils in its non-absolutist approach to Catholic theology, government, and liturgy.  (See https://www.scribd.com/document/311633660/Exploring-a-VATICAN-II-Catholic-Rite)

A uniquely transformative council from its very outset, Vatican II was often perceived as a threat to traditionalist Catholicism and its future.  In light of this perception, Popes John Paul II  and Benedict XVI gave Opus Dei the canonical status and structure of a papal prelature in support of its existence and propagation throughout the world.  To date, this move has resulted in the resurgence of traditional Catholicism globally.

Consequently, now it is the Post-Vatican II Church which is in danger of disappearing into Opus-genre Evangelical Catholicism with its well-funded strategic focus on laity as the servants of a clerical Church.  (See Heidi Schlumpf’s three-part FOCUS series at https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/focus-campus-ministry-has-big-money-conservative-connections

Meanwhile, the post-Vatican II Church falls into the background… as if the Second Vatican Council was about nothing more than spiritual renewal and the laity’s call to holiness.

Opus-genre Evangelical Catholicism is now the majority universal expression of Catholicism.  Given this, perhaps we ought to pay more attention to the Catholic tradition of unity in diversity that existed for many centuries between Rome and those Eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome.  The quote below is from a website introducing the West to Eastern Catholicism:

“Is it true that the Eastern Catholic Churches are allowed to have different theological expressions?
If so what does it involve?

This certainly is true. The Eastern Catholic Churches are not only “allowed” but are actively encouraged to cultivate their own distinctive theological expressions.

Eastern Catholics, while fully Catholic and in communion with the Pope, differ in more ways than just liturgy. We also possess a unique spiritual tradition, as well as a unique theological approach.

While we agree with the Latin Church on fundamental matters of doctrine, we approach doctrine in a very different way – from the Eastern perspective.

While the Western Church has traditionally formulated doctrine in terms of scholastic Latin theology, we rely almost exclusively on the theology of the Eastern Church Fathers. This difference, rather than rupturing the unity of the Church, further expresses the true UNIVERSALITY of Christ’s Church.

This is authoritatively taught by the Second Vatican Council:

“All in the Church must preserve unity in essentials. But let all, according to the gifts they have received enjoy a proper freedom, in their various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in-their different liturgical rites, and even in their theological elaborations of revealed truth” (UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO, no. 4).”

                                                                 (Excerpt above from Doctrine | From East to West)

Returning to the first Roman Catholic prelature approved by two popes, Opus Dei has different theological perspectives on Vatican II.  That theological perspective has been updated and rebranded in George Weigel’s book, EVANGELICAL CATHOLICISM.  Opus-genre Evangelical Catholicism, now global majority Catholicism, is very different in perspective from Vatican II Catholicism.

Given the above, wouldn’t a Vatican II “Branch” Church with its much more culturally-open theological perspective be the best resolution to national and global Church polarization?

A Vatican II Prelature would perhaps be the first step to a global Vatican II Church.  A Vatican II Church could be an invaluable asset to the universal Church alongside the global Opus-genre Evangelical Catholic Church and the 25+ other Eastern and other Rite-Churches in union with Rome, no?

Also see:  Can the Church Dialogue Its Differences into Unity?

Sisters Lea and Consilia

BISHOPS, You Belong at the Border!

Where YOU Stand Determines the Future of Authentic Catholic Identity and Authority in the Church and in the World Today.

As you seek to show genuine repentance for your communal part in the worldwide sex abuse scandal, you might consider the present immigrant situation at our national borders an opportune moment to exercise your own authentic leadership in the Church.

You must stand, be counted…and be seen, in your full clerical garb, as opposition to the world in its reliance on force as the solution to crisis.

THE SIGHT OF YOU at the borders would do so much more for the local and universal Church than diocesan letters on new reform policies or photo-ops in sanctuary cities.

BODILY STAND TOGETHER BETWEEN the immigrant poor at the border and the guns that greet them in their request for refuge from violence.  YOU have more power than you realize, both individually and as a group.

Apart from your national conferences, you have the individual power to single-handedly act not just speak for the Church as the strong and powerful witness that strengthens the faith of people everywhere …as the sainted Bishop Oscar Romero did for his people in the remaining years of this life.

Where YOU Stand Determines the Future of Catholic Identity and Authentic Authority of the Catholic Church in the world today!   Perhaps your action would even inspire bishops from different countries to stand in visible solidarity with each other…witnessing opposition to the world in its reliance on domination and force as the solution to crisis.

We offer our prayers for all in leadership of the Catholic Church.
**********************************

Rome Reports on film “Romero”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWzZ80vt4Bo Amazon.

Link to Remastered film “Romero” (film available on Amazon) https://www.amazon.com/Romero-Raul-Julia/dp/B002BU729E

 

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Beware bashing hierarchy, idolizing laity, and taking comfort in moral indignation

Everyone Catholic, even Pope Francis 

scurrying to pin blame for Church failure

on clericalism…

as if laity are immune from

such sins of sexual abuse and cover-up.

 

Yet I can attest, 

as a good number of others can,

that molestation and rape of children and women

are hardly reserved to the clerical caste.

An unknown number of fathers, mothers, family members and others

have long been complicit in both the act and/or cover-up

of the abuse of children.

++++++

Might the frenzied hatred toward any group

held in contempt and horror…May that frenzied hatred
be toward something yet uncovered in thy group,
thy family, thyself?

Could some of the moral outrage and self-righteous venom
spewed upon the sex offender or power abuser
be out of deeply-rooted dread that such
desire to abuse has or could occur
within oneself?

******

Isn’t moral indignation simply cheap grace

when it stands around Jesus at the stoning of the woman

caught in adultery?

Lest we forget, so Jesus reminds us,

Let him or her who is without sin

cast the first death-dealing blow of the stone.

There is something weirdly satisfying and grotesquely sick

about self-righteous condemnation of the other,

isn’t there?

++++++

As for hierarchy, it is only an attempt at order that has worked for a long time.

Hierarchy grows bureaucracy which naturally fails to deliver
as each age calls forth from it more and more…
until that more is more than it can manage.

Hierarchy is simply one attempt at order that isn’t working very well these days.

Yet each radically altered age is subject to the workings of evolution and new creations.

Instead of bashing hierarchy as the ultimate problem,
why not work at thinking hierarchy into new forms,
like nested hierarchies or rotating hierarchies?

…or even look at the possibility of moving away from hierarchy in the future
             toward some yet undiscovered structure of order?

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Beyond Damage Control and Church Structural Reform: Theology Supports Sex/Power Abuse?

There was a time when damage control worked well for the church. That time is no more!

Now, damage control like sincere apologies, policy changes and even sacrificial scapegoats fail to convince Catholics and others that the Church is determined enough to change its fundamental “modus operandi”.

Fortunately for the church, Catholic consciousness has been raised by the Spirit of Vatican II to expect more than damage control. This new consciousness cannot be rolled back any more than a born child can go back into it’s mother’s womb.

Those who talk about the need for structural change in the church rarely, if ever, recognize the origin of church sex/power abuse in theology itself.

In the past several decades, Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis have adamantly steered the church away from the deep theological reform that Vatican II set in motion. Their unwavering resistance to deep theological reform unwittingly supported the clerical power abuse and cover-up that we find today in the global Church. Continuation of this resistance will only lead to more virulent and deeply-entrenched power abuse cover-ups.

If the connection between theology and power abuse is not recognized now, then any policy and structural changes enacted by the Church will be worthless. As empowered as the laity will appear to be after all new policy/structural changes are in place, laity will NOT be allowed to cross the boundaries of “religious freedom” around well-guarded Church doctrine.

If Augustine could assimilate Roman ideals into Christian theology, surely by this time, Catholicism is capable of assimilating the best of modern findings in scientific, philosophical and theological research. Vatican II brought attention to the need for updating and adapting the Church to new conditions. With the extent, horror and gravity of the sex/power abuse scandals in the Church, one would think that the Church would wake up to Vatican II and its focus on the many momentous new questions that modern society must deal with in terms of human survival, not to mention the survival of its religious institutions.

The sex/power abuse scandals bring into question the domination model of traditional Biblical understanding and its application in doctrine. The domination interpretation of power in Scripture has been seriously questioned by many post-Vatican II theologians.  Even so, the institutional teaching authority of the Church has opposed little, if any, change in this ancient theology of power.

NOW IS THE TIME to re-evaluate theology that sanctifies and sacramentalizes domination. We must ask ourselves: Should modern scriptural interpretation be supporting the understanding of God as the One Who Desires Power Over Us?…justifying the way that we desire power over the earth and each other?

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Gospel Woman Speaks for “misfits” outside traditional religious boundaries

Gospel Woman Challenges Jesus
“But look,” Gospel Woman Calls Jesus to Re-think his Mission:  Painting by Consilia Karli

 

“…even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters” she said to Jesus when he protested against her plea for her daughter’s healing. (Mt 15:27)

So says the foreign woman who insisted against all odds that Jesus heal her daughter...”  (Matthew Chap 7: 21-28 and Mark Chap 7: 24-30)

Jesus, by right of Jewish law, Scripture, AND tradition, ignored this pagan Canaanite woman’s plea for his attention.

He ignored her because she did not fit into the the cultural and religious paradigm of salvation which formed his mind and conscience. She was NOT only a woman but a foreign-born, Gentile woman…challenging the man who saw himself as messiah of the Jewish people.

What moxie, what strength of character, what nerve she had!

It is no wonder Jesus’ disciples were irritated by her, as they came and asked Jesus, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” (Mt 7:23)

But she persisted and INSISTED. And thus Jesus addressed her explaining, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24)

It took a woman, a foreigner, a pagan woman to see Jesus beyond the confines of his own imagination. He wasn’t going to heal her daughter of the demon which plagued her, no matter how she cried out. It wasn’t His Father’s Will, as far as he could see. She was just a foreign pagan woman. What did she know of his mission as Messiah to the Children of God?

But she persisted and INSISTED. What moxie, what strength of character, what nerve she had!

She would NOT be dismissed. She would NOT give up her desire to be part of the inclusive love of God Jesus was proclaiming. Nor would she give up her faith in him as the one who loves large.

Jesus almost listened to his friends and followers. But something made him stop. His compassion for her? …perhaps.

He engages her… at first explaining why he couldn’t help her… God’s will…his mission was at stake…the children of Israel were his only concern. “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs” he explained in a moment of cognitive dissonance. (Mk 7:27)

Yet she stood her ground and reminded him,”…even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table where the children eat.” The crumbs…yes, the crumbs… Jesus must have pondered her response to the moral dilemma she presented to him:

“Crumbs for the dogs under the table? Is it possible?
A place for the outsider at the table of the children of God?
… even if only under the table?”

Unbeknownst to her, this foreign, pagan woman asked for nothing less than a quantum leap in Jesus’ understanding of his broader mission to the world. Then suddenly the moral dilemma resolves itself in Jesus’ mind:

“When she replied and said to him, ‘Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.; Then Jesus said to her in reply, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed from that hour. 
(Mark 7: 28 and Matthew 15: 28)

This foreign woman’s faith in God’s Love…her faith in her worth as a person in God’s eyes…and her faith in Jesus and his preaching…THIS faith is what brought Jesus to a moral dilemma in conflict with his Jewish tradition.

This moral dilemma called forth a choice, on Jesus part, between a strict interpretation of tradition and a quantum leap in theological consciousness of how tradition is to be interpreted in his time. It required a quantum leap in Jesus’ understanding of who God is and what God wants…in his historical time and culture.*

Isn’t this the leap in consciousness that we need today in order to re-vision the theology that forms the basis of all doctrine, governance and liturgy in our Church?

Isn’t this the very sense of a living tradition that Vatican II continues to call forth from Christianity and Catholicism today?

*    *   *.  *.  *.  *

NOTE: Some assume that Jesus knew it all and needed no development of conscience or consciousness, but that would be heresy in regard to Jesus’ full embrace of humanity as defined in the doctrine of the Incarnation.  More to come…

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Pope Francis on Jesus as our Humanism

Pope Francis:  “Jesus is our humanism. Let us always be unsettled by his question: “who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15).

On Questioning “trust in structures, in organizations, in planning that is perfect…(a trust) which often gives one the security of feeling superior…”

On the Church:  “May she be a free Church, open to the challenges of the present, never on the defensive out of fear of losing something.”

On “trusting in logical and clear reasoning, which nonetheless loses the tenderness of (humanity).”

On the attraction of... “a purely subjective faith whose only interest is…to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keeps one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 94).

What is the Pope asking of us?
“It is up to you to decide: people and pastors together”…to look to Jesus together to discover what it means to be human.

From:  “Pastoral Visit – Florence: Meeting with the participants in the 5th Convention of the Italian Church (Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, 10 November 2015”

w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/november/documents/papa-francesco_20151110_firenze-convegno- chiesa-italiana.html

Sisters Lea and Consilia

God’s Holy Refugees, Driven by the Search for Real

What of the Religious Refugees… fleeing theologies
… theologies that clang against the consciousness
 of this age’s sins and (w)holy wisdom?

To the Nones and Dones and those most nearly done,
the silence of the Holy One is deafeningly loud
…in theologies describing 
 a god so praise-starved and power-hungry
…that it demands our constant adulation and servile obedience
…in theologies describing an all knowing Big Father/Brother in the sky
 speaking scriptural words of love between the narcissistic lines.

What consciousness is this…
that drives us from the comfort of a sacred family
…wrapped in the solace of sweet hymns and select scriptures
so we not see and question those Words and stories
…strewn with images of such an ignoble and inglorious God?

Bereft of temple, church, synagogue or mosque,
where do we go to find a home?
Or is there even such a place?

Religious refugees driven far from safe homes we knew so long ago,
…the hymns we sang, the Scripture read, so comforting,
now crash as awkward phrases against what we “Now Know”.
“Now Know” not so stately as the holy architecture of theologies 
so long held bosom-close for comfort.

O Saints before us, who lost your faith in such Go(o)d nonsense…
Is there not something…anything, 
 other than the loss we know today?

Or is all search for the comfort of meaning and certainty 
 a useless Sisyphus task of rolling boulder uphill 
 …until it rolls back crushing us
…worn weak and weary in the futility of it all?

We go down into the pit of despair
…
 with you, O Saints who went there before us.
We have still the wisdom of your love and your courage
 to live in the not knowing,
…in the shatter-scatter pace of life’s ever-changing face 
 that re-assembles its appearance from
 …horror to grief to love and back again
…in cycles too quick to ponder or assimilate,
 …sometimes barraged in unremitting painful questions:
Why them? Why me? 
 …Why even ask why?

We refugees of theologies 
that answer questions of the past
 with answers from the further past..
 …some wisdom there buried
 under all the dust and shite, for certain.

Yet there is this tingling sense that
 wisdom buried under ages having passed, 
 yet still is with us now
…
for every change of time from one epoch to another
 had its pain of cracking through, 
 like a babe breaking out its mother’s womb…
all tender and powerless, 
 …in need of succor and protection, 
 so like our new consciousness adapting…to its new place and time.

Let us have faith meanwhile, in each other,
 …in the everyday uncanonized saints of today and yesterday.
Not idolatrous faith, of course,
 but rather faith that nurtures love as it re-news life,
…as it makes life NEW again…
 Creation ongoing, ever-challenging us
…to go on loving…as best we can.

WHERE is the theology that can lead us
…in the way of this ever-adapting gypsy-like home-making faith?
WHERE is the theology sustaining
…a dynamic back-and-forth movement
 between the wisdom of the past
…and the present moment
…now challenging our consciousness 
 …to RISE UP and BE COUNTED.
*    *    *

Painting “God’s Holy Refugees” by Consilia Karli, SFCC

Poem by Sister Lea, SFCC with Consilia Karli
https://RiteBeyondRome.com

 

 

 

 

 

*****

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Divine Mercy Sunday: Pope Francis, HAVE MERCY on the Vatican II Church!

The Vatican II Church has documents but no canonical visibility,
no prelature or Church/Rite status out of which to establish 
its unique identity and authority to
interpret theology, governance and liturgy from a different perspective.

The Vatican II Church has no canonical status or authority.
Opus Dei and the Eastern Churches/rites in union with Rome
have both canonical status and authority in their efforts
to preserve Catholicism as they see it.
Does the Conciliar Vatican II Church have no such rights?
*   *   *   *

Does Pope Francis believe the “Reform of the Reform Church” would be a Vatican II Church if it just represented Church laws and doctrines from a more open and pastoral mindset?

Vatican II theologian Massimo Faggioli seems to differ with pastoral approach as being an adequate response.   He writes with alarm about “the growing one-way consensus of ‘doing theology’.  He further claims that “the politics of funding theological initiatives on Catholic campuses…has even distorted the way of doing theology…whereby “various entities offer not only different but obviously incompatible understandings of Catholicism.”

international.la-croix.com/news/polarization-in-the-church-and-the-crisis-of-the-catholic-mind/6444
 Have our expectations of Pope Francis been somewhat naive in our insistence that the “Reform of the Reform” Church is just some fringe minority and not a global Catholic phenomenon well-structured, well-strategized and well-resourced?  Check out the metadata collected by National Catholic Reporter:

Conservative donors aim to shape Catholic narrative for the wider culture

“NCR looks at the growing number of “Catholic nonprofits” that depend upon donations from foundations or wealthy individual Catholics — and make up a web of organizations deeply engaged in advancing a conservative political/religious agenda.”

Excerpts from above article:

•  “The annual Napa Institute gatherings held at one of Busch’s California resorts regularly attracts leading conservative archbishops and cardinals from the U.S. and the Vatican. It is a gathering for those at the upper end of the economic spectrum…”
•  “In addition to Acton, the Becket Fund and the Federalist Society, [another high-profile conservative funder] lists as affiliations on his company’s website the following: the American Enterprise Institute; Catholic Leadership Institute; EWTN; Ethics and Public Policy Center; FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students); and the Napa Institute.”
• “Timothy Busch, speaker at the ‘Good Profits’ conference for high-profile conservative funders at Catholic University, noted “that big money and the right economic philosophy can bridge deep ideological and theological divides.”
 
• “A former director of Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies perceives this surge in growth of Catholic nonprofits like the Napa Institute seeing themselves as “the real evangelizing corps in the church” as providing an alternative structure to the church.”
 
*   *   *   *
The Vatican II Church has documents but no canonical visibility,
no prelature or Church/Rite status out of which to establish 
its unique identity and authority to
interpret theology, governance and liturgy from a different perspective…

no canonical status or authority as Opus Dei
and the Eastern Churches/rites in union with Rome have
in their efforts to preserve Catholicism as they see it.

*    *    *

Remember when Francis told us to act and not worry about the consequences?
On the feast of Divine Mercy, April 8, 2018, shouldn’t we be challenging Pope Francis to act and not worry about the consequences, instead of continuing to allow the Church to fall into a monolithic consensus of “Reform of the Reform” Catholicism?  Polarization or Stifling Consensus: The Only Choices?
 
Sisters Lea and Consilia

Women As Change Agents Across the World — Voices of Faith

Watch videos

“WHY WOMEN MATTER”
Livestreamed from Rome on
March 8, 2018

Voices of Faith International Women’s Day Event
Sponsored by The Fidelis Götz Foundation

“The Voices of Faith network is committed to action
and guided by fact and faith.”

International Women’s Day Program 2018

Keynote Speaker, Mary McAleese, Former President of Ireland

“We live in times marked by change, but there are places where gender equality is being systematically overlooked.
The Catholic Church is one of them.”

Source:  Voices of Faith

One-minute video link to 2018 key speaker, Professor Mary McAleese

Click on the links below to access video of individual speakers:

Ssenfuka Joanita Warry “Calling out loud and clear: full equality and rights for women everywhere”

Nivedita Lobo Gayatri Lobo Gajiwala “Is the Church event relevant to young women?”

Power to transform: will the Catholic Church survive the 21st century?
Panelists: -Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland
-Tina Beattie, director Catherine of Siena College
-Father Luke Hansen SJ, writer and Jesuit
-Elise Orbananos Hernando, Jesuit Refugee Service
-Nicole Sotelo, journalist and author
-Alina Oehler, theologian and journalist

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Polarization or Stifling Consensus: The Only Choices?

Certainly, the Vatican’s choice for “Profound Consensus” over polarization in the Church would seem to be the most logical one.  But is it?

Logical or not, the Church is well on the road to a profound consensus which may not be what Vatican secretary Cardinal Parolin was recommending.

National Catholic Reporter: Cardinal Parolin addresses US bishops with call for ‘profound consensus’

Vatican II expert, Massimo Faggioli, describes the reality and danger of one-way polarization within the Church.  See link below where Rite Beyond Rome responds to his La Croix International article:

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To Read more:   https://www.scribd.com/document/370006049/Church-Polarization-or-Stifling-Consensus-Not-the-Only-Choices…

 

To view and download PDF: Church Polarization or Dangerous Consensus?

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When “profound consensus” is rooted in “safe choice” over the risk of allowing the Holy Spirit to break through staid Catholic consciousness, is it the preferred choice for the Church in the world today?

In this instance, wouldn’t it be wiser and more rational to diversify the Church’s expressions of Catholicism in ways that maintain “consensual unity” AND dynamic and creative diversity…?
…as described in the 1973 book, POLARIZATION IN THE CHURCH, edited by Hans Kung and Walter Kasper?

Thanks for reading…Comments and questions appreciated!

(Click on article title to comment.)

 

Sisters Lea and Consilia

“Todos los Católicos, son Católicos de Cafetería”, dice un sacerdote Jesuita. ¿Es ésto algo positivo?

(Abajo está la traducción de  “All Catholics are cafeteria Catholics” says Jesuit priest. Is this a good thing?” on this website.)

Quizá el Padre Thomas Reese, editor del National Catholic Reporter, está en lo cierto cuando él dice: “Bienvenidos a la Cafetería”, metafóricamente hablando de la unidad en el Catolicismo. Y él lo explica de la siguiente manera…

“La verdad es que todos los católicos, son católicos de cafetería. Los católicos conservadores estuvieron dispuestos a ignorar las fuertes declaraciones sobre la justicia y la paz, pronunciadas por los Papas Juan Pablo y Benedicto y están gustosamente dispuestos a ignorar la oposición del Papa Francisco a la ordenación de mujeres.

Si esto es el Catolicismo de Cafetería no hay duda de que continuará obstaculizando, -durante muchas generaciones- el cambio en la Iglesia Católica. Es decir, que la Iglesia Católica continuará siendo una gran e infeliz familia discutiendo y argumentando de una posición a otra, mientras decidimos sobre que pelear y cuales temas ignorar, sean de Liturgia, Justicia, Paz o la ordenación de las mujeres, etc. etc.

Si es así como se va a proceder, ¿qué ocurrirá con la reforma profunda de la Iglesia Católica propuesta por el Concilio Vaticano II… más allá de su enfoque pastoral y misericordioso? ¿Morirá a causa de una benigna negligencia o por miedo a causar un cisma?

El Padre Reese dice: “Los católicos necesitan, crecer, madurar y aprender a vivir en una Iglesia en la que se discute, se argumenta, pero no debemos permitir que los desacuerdos separen a la familia. Necesitamos entender que las personas tienen puntos de vista diferentes y que podemos aprender unos de otros a través del diálogo. En lugar de dividirnos en facciones partidarias, necesitamos definir lo que significa para nosotros ser comunidad.

Sí, “somos familia”! Pero una familia no puede crecer si no se respetan las diferencias, y se permiten unos a otros el espacio para crecer diferentes… ¿Y qué sucede si algunos miembros de la familia están en contra de las diferencias, en contra del cambio, en contra del diálogo? ¿Deben los otros miembros de la familia inclinarse sumisos… con la esperanza de que antes, o muchos años después de su muerte, algo cambie? Nosotras pensamos que NO!

En 2015, el Cardenal Walter Kasper escribió un artículo en “ORIGINS”: “El Vaticano II va hacia una “Multifacética Unidad”(Vol.45. num.9). El escribió sobre la necesidad de una unidad en la diversidad, si es que queremos un progreso en el Ecumenismo   . Nosotras sugerimos que ya es tiempo de MIRAR HACIA ADENTRO de nuestra Iglesia, para ver las posibilidades de una “multifacética unidad”, porque el estilo cafetería, no le está sirviendo a ninguno de los dos lados de la Iglesia. El estilo cafetería no representa un reto para el crecimiento de ambos lados.

Nosotras decimos NO al estilo cafetería y SI a una “Unidad Multifacética”

Link artículo Padre Reese: https://ncronline.org/news/opinion/more-catholic-pope

(Nuestra más profunda gratitud a Luisa Maria Rivera por su fina traducción profesional de este artículo.)

 

 

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Can the Church Dialogue Its Differences into Unity?

A conversation with Paula Ruddy in regard to her comments to our post,  Church Unity: NOT about merging disparate factions, on this website.

Paula Ruddy:

“I can see the intention for this, empathize with it. However, I think there is another way to unity through dialogue among people of different worldviews.  

The postmodern cultural view that all are equally valid ways of viewing “reality” supports this strategy for unity, but is it true that Vatican II can be interpreted both as true to the Gospel in opening to the world and as not true to the Gospel in opening to the world? Isn’t there some objectivity in what the Gospel teaches and how the Church should exist in the world?”

Sisters Lea and Consilia reply: 

Yes, there have always been different ways of viewing “reality” with every view claiming its own view as valid, even superior to the other’s view of reality. 

The problem within the Catholic Church begins when two or more worldviews diverge so radically that they no longer see the Gospel through the same “objectivity” lens.   This is the case of the different Gospel views between Opus Dei/ Evangelical Catholicism AND Post-Vatican II understandings of the Gospel.  In other countries, the problem is that cultural adaptation to the Gospel is thwarted by “one way only” interpretations of Catholic doctrine and practive.

Pope Benedict may have correctly described the two interpretations of Vatican II as continuity and rupture…continuity with the Council of Trent and rupture as break.  However, one might interpret his words differently…as meaning continuity with Church Tradition AND rupture…NOT break or Schism as Pope Benedict implied…but rupture into a new shoot, an evolutionary outgrowth from the Root of Jesse.

Paula Ruddy:

“What about the Petrine Ministry to lead in the Gospel direction? Should the Pope say ‘all interpretations of Vatican II are valid’?”

Sisters Lea and Consilia reply: 

Insofar as any interpretation of Vatican II can be supported by Vatican II documents or post-Vatican II theology, it would seem the pope ought to consider those interpretations valid.  

Of course, this has not been the case with the two popes preceding Pope Francis.  For many Catholics today, including George Weigel, the interpretation of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI are the ONLY authorized interpretations of Vatican II.

As for the Petrine Ministry of the Pope to lead and unify the Church in the Gospel direction, perhaps the papal ministry for the future lies in coordinating/negotiating the differing Gospel interpretations within a shared Papal/People of God relationship… a negotiating servant-leadership for a challenging multifaceted set of Gospel interpretations. For example, the 20+ Eastern Catholic Rites/Churches in union with Rome, the Opus Dei prelature, and the Anglican ordinariate are but a few examples of this negotiating servant-leadership.

Paula Ruddy:

“The question I have about dividing us up is this: Is it good to abandon the mainstream Church to the point of view that the Holy Spirit is NOT IN the world while establishing an ordinariate that believes the Gospel calls for discerning the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God WITHIN the world as it is?”

Sisters Lea and Consilia reply: 

The questions we have here are these:  What is “mainstream Church” Catholicism?  The majority viewpoint?  The viewpoint of the presiding pontiff? 

Is there any point of view within the various Catholic Rites/Churches, prelature, or ordinariates that teaches “the Holy Spirit is NOT in the world”?  Perhaps the answer is “yes” when we consider post-Trent Church vs. world theology where the Holy Spirit resides only in the One True Catholic Church.  The Second Ecumenical Council pushed back on this view of Church and  world.  Is this theological viewpoint what is “dividing us up” along with the scientific revolution, the loss of leadership credibility, clericalism, and marginalization of women, divorced Catholics, LGBTQ+, etc? 

Paula Ruddy:

“Isn’t it better to continue the dialogue among people with evolving worldviews within the Church, depending on the Holy Spirit, faith and reason to keep us together?”

Sisters Lea and Consilia reply: 

Indeed, it is ALWAYS better to continue dialogue within the Church.  When there is radical divergence in theological interpretation, however, dialogue becomes much more difficult, if not impossible. 

Throw inequality of relationship into the mix, as Leonard Swidler discusses in his Dialogue Decalogue and dialogue actually becomes impossible.  One has to ask if even the Holy Spirit is impeded from holding us together if we cannot treat each other as the sisters and brothers that Jesus called us to be.  

Paula Ruddy:

Do the believers in the rightness of Vatican II have brave spokespeople who can make the vision clear and compelling to the mainstream Roman Rite Catholic? If not, how are they going to run an ordinariate?

Sisters Lea and Consilia reply: 

One has to wonder if it is necessary “to make the vision clear and compelling to the mainstream Roman Rite Catholic.”  If the goal is to win mainstream Catholicism back from the decades of spiritual groundwork done by Evangelicial Catholicism (and its precursor, the Opus Dei Movement/Prelature), that ship has left the harbor.

What we see as possible and URGENT is the redirection of energy spent by those who stand continually waiting in the vestibule of Roman Rite Catholicism, begging and hoping that someday Vatican II will rise again…if only we are patient enough.

If the Apostles never came out of the Upper Room, there would be no Catholic Church today.  What were they waiting for?  Approval by the Temple High Priest?

 

As for “brave spokespeople” of the great Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, we have many both in this life and in the hereafter.  Fortunately, those who have left us in this life have also left their writings for us to study and discern the earliest spirit and wisdom of Vatican II. 

As for how a Vatican II prelature or a Vatican II ordinariate might operate, we do have models today within the Church, models which might be adjusted and applied both to different national cultures and different evolving understandings of a Post-Vatican II Church in an ever-changing world.  As in every institutional model, what the model presents is always ONLY a model.

Paula Ruddy:

“I appreciate the “Rite Beyond Rome” effort to discern how we should proceed. I hope we keep talking.”

Sisters Lea and Consilia reply: 

We appreciate your efforts and the efforts of all those working to discern how we should proceed in moving forward.  We intend to explore the prelature, ordinariate models here on https://RiteBeyondRome.com as precursor to a Post-Vatican II Rite/Church in union with Rome, if that is where the Wisdom Spirit of God leads.

And YES, let’s keep talking!

https://RiteBeyondRome.com

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Diferencias teológicas entre los ritos católicos?

(Abajo está la traducción de  Theological Differences between Catholic Rites on this website.)

Este texto es un extracto de: Doctrina/ De Oriente a Occidente.
(Vea la dirección de Internet abajo.)

¿Es verdad que en las Iglesias Católicas Orientales se permite tener expresiones teológicas (puntos de vista teológicos) diferentes? y si esto es así, ¿qué implica?

No hay duda que esto es cierto. En las Iglesias Católicas Orientales no solo está permitido diferir, sino que son animados activamente, a cultivar sus muy propias expresiones teológicas. Los católicos orientales, aunque íntegramente católicos, y en comunión con el Papa, difieren en varios aspectos, además de en lo litúrgico. Nosotros también tenemos una tradición espiritual única, así como un enfoque teológico único.

Aunque estamos de acuerdo en lo fundamental de la doctrina, nosotros enfocamos la doctrina de una forma muy diferente – desde la perspectiva de Oriente. Mientras que la Iglesia Occidental, tradicionalmente ha formulado su doctrina en los términos de la Escolástica Teológica Latina, nosotros nos apoyamos casi exclusivamente, en la Teología de los Padres de la Iglesia Oriental. Y en lugar de que esta diferencia rompa la unidad de la Iglesia, expresa con mayor claridad, la verdadera UNIVERSALIDAD, de la Iglesia de Cristo.

Esto fue proclamado, -con autoridad- por el II Concilio Vaticano:

“Todos en la Iglesia deben preservar la unidad en lo esencial. Pero también que todos, de acuerdo a los dones que han recibido, gocen de una apropiada libertad en las variadas formas de vida espiritual y disciplina, en sus ritos litúrgicos diferentes, y aún en sus elaboraciones teológicas de la verdad revelada.” UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO, num.4

Hasta aquí el extracto de: Doctrina/ De Oriente a Occidente

Ciertamente el Opus Dei, siendo la primera prelatura Romana, aprobada por el Vaticano, tiene perspectivas teológicas diferentes del Vaticano II, de las tradicionales de la Teología de la Iglesia del Rito Romano

Dado lo anterior es perfectamente razonable, que un Rito/Iglesia Vaticano II, con sus perspectivas teológicas diferentes, pueda co-existir, con los otros 22 Ritos/Iglesias no Romanas, en unión con Roma.

(Nuestra más profunda gratitud a Luisa Maria Rivera por su fina traducción profesional de este artículo.)

Sisters Lea and Consilia

Nuestro Comentario sobre “Únete al trabajo de Transformación” publicado por el National Catholic Reporter (NCR)

(Abajo está la traducción de  Our comment on “Join the work of transformation” posted on National Catholic Reporter on this website.)

Una forma a través de la cual podemos unirnos al trabajo de transformación de nuestra Iglesia y de nuestro país, es ver, con toda claridad, como la actual forma de gobierno de los Estados Unidos, se asemeja en su modus operandi, a las dictaduras de América del Sur, cuyos dictadores fueron entrenados por los Estados Unidos, en la Escuela de las Américas.

William Cavanaugh tiene la experiencia de primera mano con la Iglesia de Chile, durante la dictadura del Gral. Pinochet (1973-1990), cuyo régimen Cavanaugh lo describe como dedicado a avivar las llamas de la confusión y el desorden a través de:

  • Fragmentar y romper el orden que se preveía y esperaba
  • Desacreditar a personas y el análisis que ellas hacían de lo que estaba sucediendo
  • Crear caos para propiciar la necesidad de orden (un orden que quería decir eliminar a la disidencia).
  • El arte estratégico de crear una situación anómala, en la que la gente se vuelve víctima del miedo y la ansiedad.

¿Nos suena conocido algo de lo anterior? ¿Lo sienten como algo que han experimentado?

Pero, ¡claro está¡ algo similar a una dictadura, jamás podría suceder en USA.

Las citas anteriores han sido tomadas del libro TORTURA Y EUCARISTÍA de William Cavanaugh. El capítulo 2 de este libro, “La Iglesia aprende a vivir oprimida” probablemente nos enseñaría algo a todos.

Sobre este tema continuaremos hablando.
https://RiteBeyondRome.com

(Nuestra más profunda gratitud a Luisa Maria Rivera por su fina traducción profesional de este artículo.)

Sisters Lea and Consilia

“All Catholics are cafeteria Catholics” says Jesuit priest. Is this a good thing?

Maybe Fr. Thomas Reese, editor of National Catholic Reporter, is right when he says, “Welcome to the cafeteria” as a way of expressing Catholic unity.  He explains why…

“The truth is all Catholics are cafeteria Catholics. Conservative Catholics were quite willing to ignore John Paul’s and Benedict’s strong statements on justice and peace, and progressive Catholics are happy to ignore Francis’ opposition to women priests.”

If this is cafeteria Catholicism, then certainly it will continue to obstruct change in the Catholic Church for generations to come. Thus the Catholic Church will remain one big unhappy family adamantly arguing back and forth as we decide what to fight and what to ignore about liturgy, justice and peace, and opposition to women priests, etc, etc.

So what happens to deep Vatican II reform of the Catholic Church…beyond even its pastoral and merciful approach?  Does it simply die of benign neglect or fear of causing schism?

Fr. Reese says, “Catholics need to grow up and learn to live in a church where arguments take place, but we should not let disagreements break up the family. We need to understand that people have different viewpoints and that we can learn from one another by having dialogue. Rather than dividing into partisan factions, we need to model what it means to be a community.”

Yes, “WE ARE Family!”   But family cannot grow if it cannot respect each other’s differences and allow one another the space to grow differently.  And what if certain members of the family are against differences, against change and against dialog?  Do the other family members just bow their heads in submission…in hope that something someday will change before or long after they die?   We think NOT!

In 2015, Cardinal Walter Kasper wrote an article in ORIGINS “Vatican II: Toward a Multifaceted Unity”. (Vol 45, #9). He wrote about the unity in diversity needed if we are to make any further progress in ecumenical endeavors. We suggest it is time to look WITHIN our Church to see the possibilities for a “multifaceted unity” because cafeteria style is definitely NOT working for either side of the Church.  Pick&Choose cafeteria-style offers no challenge for growth on either side.

We say, “NO” to Cafeteria Catholicism and “YES” to Multifaceted Unity!
https://ritebeyondrome.com/2017/09/23/church-unity-is-not-institutional-merger-cardinal-kasper/

Fr. Reese’s article:  https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/more-catholic-pope