And so done. - 9:15 PM 12/22/2019

By Michael Novakhov (Mike Nova) December 22, 2019

Pope Francis exchanges greetings with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, left, on the occasion of the pontiff's Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican. (AP)

Michael Novakhov

3 mins

And SO Done! O!

It is His Will, His Truth, His Mysterious Ways: For us to accept, and to wonder, and to try to understand.

And so done.

Pope Francis greets cardinals on the occasion of his Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Pool)

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Post Link - 9:15 PM 12/22/2019

M.N.: I think, I will sleep well tonight. I love you, Bro.
And so done.
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“Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage. The history of the Bible is a journey, marked by constantly new beginnings,” Francis told the officials gathered in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.

Francis called the present time not one of linear evolution, but of "epochal" changes. “It entails decisions that rapidly transform our ways of living, of relating to one another, of communicating and thinking, of how different generations relate to one another and how we understand and experience faith and science,” he said.

“Often people experience change by limiting themselves to putting on a new dress, when in reality they stay the same,” Francis said.

“The healthy approach is rather to let oneself be interrogated by challenges of the present time,” he added. “Change in this sense, would assume an entirely different aspect: from a surrounding element, a context and a pretext, from an outside landscape… it would become ever more human, and Christian.”

The pope’s Christmas message to the powerful heads of the curia is an important yearly appointment that offers a look at the pontiff as a manager, who uses words such as “mission,” “synergy” and “change” in a down to earth way.

“Christendom no longer exists!” Francis declared in his speech. “Today we are no longer the only ones who create culture, nor are we in the forefront or those most listened to.” He insisted such changes require a new mindset in term of evangelism and pastoral work.

“We are no longer living in a Christian world, because faith — especially in Europe, but also in a large part of the West — is no longer an evident presupposition of social life; indeed, faith is often rejected, derided, marginalized and ridiculed.”

In order to address this new landscape, the pope said, the curia must be willing to embrace “together with a cultural change, an institutional and personal change and go from a compartmentalized work” to one that is “intrinsically connected, in synergy.”

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All this change, he added, doesn’t mean that the church must be blind to human error nor rely on “magic formulas or shortcuts.”

The biggest threat to this necessary change, according to Francis, is rigidity.

“The rigidity that is born from fear of change and ends up placing numerous blocks and obstacles on the ground of the common good, transforming it into a mine field of lack of communication and hate.”

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Comments

M.N.: This message apparently can be interpreted in a variety of ways. My interpretation is: this message is about the new, "epochal" openness to creating the spiritual alliance of the Church with people who are not formally the believers, in the common effort, goal, and task of preserving, guarding, and creating the "CULTURE".

Christianity had always been at the heart of the Western Culture, without it the Western Culture simply cannot exist, it is just a dead body, the almost empty collection of books and artifacts, the dead knowledge, and not even the knowledge.
Christianity is the living, beating heart of the Culture, which sends the blood to all its parts, and makes this body alive.

The “Christendom no longer exists!” What a bold statement to make! And what a true statement! Yes, it no longer exists: the collections of States and formal Powers and their Institutions of various Powers, which were united in a single "Christendom", the Kingdoms, the Empires, etc., they no longer exist. They were the shell of Christianity. The live Spirit came out of this shell, leaving it empty. There is no need for this shell anymore, which used to preserve and to protect the Spirit, the Culture. In today's world, more secure and more cognizant of self and "the surrounding element, a context and a pretext... [of the] outside landscape", with all its new communications devices and avenues, the need for the protective shell of Christendom diminished greatly, and the spirit of Christianity which came out of this shell is freer, unbound by the formal containing structures and their restraining bonds.
The present day, the modern Christianity lives and perpetuates itself in CULTURE.
I guess, it is very tempting to talk about all of this almost endlessly, but I absolutely am not a specialist in these matters, and I am not even sufficiently knowledgeable about them, so I better shut up.
The main point, I guess, is that Christianity became a part of the Western Culture, and the part so essential, that it became the Culture itself. A body is not a body without its heart, the Western Culture is not a culture without Christianity.
All these issues are important, and they have to be explored later, hopefully.
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In Christmas message, Pope Francis calls on Vatican officials to embrace change
Sunday December 22nd, 2019 at 9:24 PM

Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) – As the decade comes to an end, Pope Francis focused on change — of all sorts — during his Dec. 21 Christmas speech to the cardinals and heads of the Vatican departments that make up the Roman Curia.

“Often people experience change by limiting themselves to putting on a new dress, when in reality they stay the same,” Francis said.

Francis’ election to the pontificate in 2013 took place under the assumption that he would be the pope to enact long awaited reform, not just in the handling of the sexual abuse crisis but also – and perhaps more importantly – in cleaning up the Vatican finances and taking on the bureaucratic pachyderm that is the Roman Curia.

Concerning sexual abuse, the pope undertook a flurry of activity in the days leading up to the holidays. On Tuesday, he released a document lifting pontifical secrecy for cases of sexual abuse by clergy (with powerful repercussions in canon law, especially for victims).

On the same day he accepted the resignation of former papal representative to Francis, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, who was accused of inappropriate touching of young men.

The pope began his speech Saturday with the acceptance of the resignation of the 92-year-old Cardinal Angelo Sodano as dean of the College of Cardinals.

The acceptance of Sodano’s resignation fits with the trend of removing officials who have been notoriously tied to sexual abuse coverup. Sodano had been a supporter of the known pedophile and former priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ. In 2010, Sodano was accused of halting investigations into the case of Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, who was charged on multiple counts of sexual abuse of children in the 1990’s.

That same year, the cardinal referred to the mounting evidence of widespread sexual abuse by priests as “petty gossip.”

His resignation is especially significant given the position he occupied within the Vatican for the past 15 years. In an attempt to perhaps reduce the power and influence that the dean of cardinals holds, Pope Francis also released a document on Saturday limiting its mandate to only five years.

During his speech, the pope emphasized the need for change in the Curia, born from the understanding that “development and growth are a characteristic of earthly and human existence, while in the eyes of the believer, the stability of God is at the center of everything.”

As a 2,000 year old institution, the Catholic Church has taken an insular approach to change, placing a premium on the stable foundations of tradition rather than the unforeseeable changes of the times. But Francis reminded the heads of the Vatican departments that change is hardly something new in Catholicism.

“The history of the people of God – the history of the Church – has always been marked by departures, movements and change,” he said.

Yes, he said, the teachings of the past are fundamental, but “memory is not static, it’s dynamic.”

As an example, Francis referred to the changes he has enacted within the Vatican departments. One of them concerned “the Church’s first and most important duty: evangelization.”

The pope created a mega-division dedicated to evangelization, the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples, and took over other, existing departments with an emphasis on adapting them to changes in demographics within the Church and emerging technologies.

Francis insisted on the centrality of protecting immigrants and refugees, who represent all those who are “discarded from globalized society.” He insisted these marginalized groups, “represent a voice crying in the wilderness of our humanity” and that Jesus lying in the manger “has the face of our brothers and sisters most in need.”

All this change, he added, doesn’t mean that the church must be blind to human error nor rely on “magic formulas or shortcuts.”

The biggest threat to this necessary change, according to Francis, is rigidity.

Read the whole story

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Pope Francis warns of ‘rigidity,’ says church must adapt or it will become increasingly irrelevant | Fox News
Sunday December 22nd, 2019 at 9:03 PM

Pope Francis expresses openness to idea of married priests

Reaction and analysis from Fox News religion analyst Jonathan Morris and Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo.

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Pope Francis expresses openness to idea of married priests
Pope Francis, in a Saturday message delivered from the Vatican, took aim at conservative Catholics, warning that “rigidity” in living out the Christian faith was turning people away, and that the church must adapt to a post-Christian west.

Francis called for Vatican bureaucrats to embrace change during his annual Christmas greeting to the cardinals, bishops and priests who work in the Holy See.

Pope Francis exchanges greetings with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, left, on the occasion of the pontiff's Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican.
Pope Francis exchanges greetings with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, left, on the occasion of the pontiff's Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican. (AP)

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Catholicism’s conservative wing has increasingly voiced opposition to Francis’ progressive-minded papacy. Their criticisms have accelerated in the past year, amid Vatican financial and sex abuse scandals.

Francis acknowledged in his address that Christianity no longer holds the influence in society that it once did. He cited the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a leader of the progressive wing of the Catholic Church, who lamented before dying that the church found itself "200 years behind" because of its fear of change.

"Today we are no longer the only ones that produce culture, no longer the first nor the most listened to," Francis told the prelates. "The faith in Europe and in much of the West is no longer an obvious presumption but is often denied, derided, marginalized and ridiculed."

As a result, he urged the Catholic hierarchy to embrace the necessary pastoral reforms that will make the church attractive so that it can spread the faith.

POPE FRANCIS LIFTS 'PONTIFICAL SECRET' IN CLERGY SEX ABUSE CASES USED TO PROTECT PEDOPHILES, SILENCE VICTIMS

"Here we have to beware of the temptation of assuming a rigid outlook," Francis said. "Rigidity that is born from fear of change and ends up disseminating stakes and obstacles in the ground of the common good, turning it into a minefield of misunderstanding and hatred."

Traditionalist Catholics have denounced Francis' openness on issues such as sacraments for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. They have also sharply criticized his recent synod on the Amazon, which called for the ordination of married men as priests.

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Francis has defended his stance as a reflection of the Gospel, and the axiom that the true tradition of the church is one of a continuous, discerned path of change.

"Tradition is not static, it's dynamic," he said Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Pope Francis, in a Saturday message delivered from the Vatican, took aim at conservative and traditionalist Catholics, warning that “rigidity” in living out the Christian faith was turning people away, and that the church must adapt to a post-Christian west.