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Friday, April 18, 2008
  I know that everyone in the crowd felt blessed to see and be greeted by the Holy Father as he bid farewell to Washington, DC. As someone who was confirmed buring Benedict XVI's pontificate, it was certainly a special moment for me, as I have come to appreciate the pope as a sign and symbol of our Heavenly Father and as the consecrated successor of St. Peter. Sunday, April 13, 2008
Thanks for your inaugural blog post, Arf! I can think of a few reasons why this particular visit is important and valuable: 1) I don't believe there's been a papal visit to Ground Zero. That's an important statement to make, to Americans, to Catholics and Christians generally, and to the Islamic world. 2) He's a new pope still, and we're important enough of a nation that he should come here for us to be more acquainted with him. 3) He's already made it clear that he's not going to be the traveling pope like JPII was. This might be all we get. 4) More so than his predecessor, Benedict XVI's election to St. Peter's throne marks a consolidation of magisterial authority around a minimalist, or "strict constructionist" view of Vatican II. Sadly, America has been a source of the most wildly liberal and expansionist interpretations of Vatican II, so I'd like to think of this tour as a much needed triumph for conservative, orthodox, and traditionalist Catholics. The liberals in the American Church - particularly those who took Vatican II as a license to construe the apostolic faith in whatever way they wish - need to know and feel that they've been defeated. Ever since the papal visit was announced I've been asking why do these visits take place. There's a lot of talk about what Benedict is going to say, and I am interested, but none of the comments like this on the FTblog give any evidence that there have been any studies or polls about what good has come from papal gallivanting. They are sure very expensive operations, and I'm all in favor of our Pope getting out and having a good time. We all like to travel, but again I ask what good do these visits do? Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The article on Pentacostalism in April's issue of First Things reminded why I like it so much. The magazine, in my opinion, engages in precisely the sort of ecumenism that responsible Christians should. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said of the various Christian denominations: "at the center of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice." I believe this to be true. There is a sincerity of belief in Jesus Christ's kingship and resurrection that seems most apparent among those believers who are most convinced and confirmed in their respective confessions. The canons of the Catholic Church require me to recognize the sacramental boundaries of the Church, and I wholeheartedly do, but I am neither permitted to discount sincere Christian faith among those outside the Church. Only a tiny proportion of today's fundamentalists and evangelical Christians are apostate Catholics. For the most part, these genuinely "orthodox" members of the Reformation churches are striving to heed traditions they have received imperfectly from the Apostles (See II Thes. 2:15). Thus, I am not one to dismiss the experiences of faith of anyone who calls upon the name of Jesus, though I may find their doctrines or practices objectionable as a Catholic. Along these lines, I've often found my fellow Catholics to be woefully unaware or uncharitably dismissive of the genuine differences between the myriad strands of Prostestantism. On the one hand we ought to strive to understand these differences so as to engage in respectful dialogue with our separated brethren. On the other we ought to strive to understand precisely what is in error from a Catholic perspective. Back the article and why I appreciate it - I sense a tremendously unexplored commonality between sacramental/liturgical Christians, such as Catholics, and members of the Pentacostal or charismatic movements. Catholics ought to be interested in this end of the Protestant spectrum if for no other reason then the presence of a vibrant and mostly canonical charismatic renewal movement within our own Catholic Church. The RSS feed for my personal blog has changed to http://s121364032.onlinehome.us/new-jerusalem/jiminy/index.rdf . This portion of New-Jerusalem.net will function as a forum for discussion among several posters. |
