Semper Fi Catholic

Your renunciation of the papal throne five years ago left us, your spiritual children, deeply confused. Many of us have struggled to understand why, after a life of faithful service to the Church and a pontificate during which Your Holiness did so much to revive the life of the Faith, you would lea...

Signed and sent. Sounds a lot like the Novitiate of last year which also filters religious life through a modern secular filter.. with malevolent intent.

Good ariticle. Certainly there is belief without faith. But in our times we have faith in all kinds of graven idols, without belief in God.

“In the concrete history of the Church, however, a contrary tendency is also manifested, namely that the Church becomes self-satisfied, settles down in this world, becomes self-sufficient and adapts herself to the standards of the world. Not infrequently, she gives greater weight to organization and institutionalization than to her vocation to openness towards God, her vocation to opening up the world towards the other.â€￾

“In order to accomplish her true task adequately, the Church must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God. In this she follows the words of Jesus: ‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world’

In a nutshell that just about sais it all as to the state of the Church.. and the state of the world in the new millenium.

And the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Arie Folger, told Jüdische Allgemeine, the largest Jewish daily in Germany, that Benedict’s suggestion that Christians should teach Jews how the relevant passages in the Hebrew Bible are to be understood from the Christological point of view was “most problematic.â€￾

The fact that this opinion has gained credence with Christian theologians and the Catholic clergy and Magisterium just shows the loss of confidence that pervades the Western Church now. Any assertion that it has a messianic and eschatological mission, that it is the holder of a transcendant and singular Truth, is deemed to be out of synch with an attitude of complacency and submission to the cultural zeitgeist.

Catholicism, then, represents no more than a semblance of rubrics with no special distinction between them and other faith perspectives. Furthermore that is has no responsibility or right to 'impose' its moral credo on others. It's lead by an attitude that is rampant in the German Church under the tutelage of the German Bishops Conference.

Any way, well done Benedictus, for holding the torch in a Church inundated in torrents of confusion and defeatism.

The Catholics who remain in the Church because the Church is consistent over time with its founding often find themselves perplexed. The one thing that will NOT work for the Church is to try to appeal to the secular zeitgeist in its morality, sacraments, public expression by 'expanding' its appeal....

I think the concern when B16 resigned was this would become a norm. I'm not sure, especially given our experience with Francis, it does not disrupt the natural rhythm of the Succession of Peter. Certainly the traditional way allowed a cycle of activism, consolidation, reflection for each Pontificate...

According to Benedict XVI, John Paul II’s emphasis on human rights was “the consequence of practical existence,â€￾ because, he wrote “in the idea of human rights is the concrete weapon capable of limiting the totalitarian character of the state,â€￾ offering room “for the freedom necessary not only for thinking of the individual person, but also, and above all, for the faith of Christian and for the rights of the Church.â€￾

Right on PapaB!

As we have seen basing human rights on the shifting sands of secular humanism (atheism) has led to catalogue of evils and untruths.. which has led to the tyranny of moral relativism and radical individualism that is fragmenting our culture.

Certainly a brilliant intellectual at the dawn of the Enlightenment (1750 - present).. which came to mean different things to different people. It was a time of revolutionary social and political change which held great promise and great challenges. Certainly the modern world to which it has devolve...

Thankyou, Kevin.

Very informative. And a very attractive and professional web page as well.

signed and sent!..

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. ...

signed and sent.. they are very close to their goal of 20,000 signatures (19,766)!

me too

Signed and sent.. as a Canadian but of an allied nation of the same Christain roots as U.S.. Canada appointed a flagrant homosexual, in 'same sex union' with another man as its Chief Military Chaplain, with a rank of Brigadier General, a couple of years ago. I thought it was a disgrace to the honour...