Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 1:29am

PopeWatch: Cardinal Maradiaga

 VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

 

 

Of all the men surrounding Pope Francis, PopeWatch finds Cardinal Maradiaga the most interesting.  (Perhaps it is because the tune of the Imperial  March from Star Wars seems to be a fitting accompaniment whenever he makes an appearance.)

 

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Father Z directs our attention to Father John Hunwicke’s observations on some recent statements by the Cardinal:

A post by the distinguished scholar Fr. John Hunwicke caught my eye. Here it is, in toto, but do check the comments over there as well.  My emphases:

Cardinal Rodriguez [That’s Oscar Card. Rodiguez Maradiaga… Archbp. of Tegucigalpa, sometimes referred to only by the second (matronymic?) of his parental, family names.]
I have tried to read carefully a paper by a Cardinal Rodriguez. [Not in Tegucigalpa, but in California at Santa Clara Univ, run by, who else, Jesuits.  Coincidently, around the same time, Card. Marx, speaking in California, did an interview with American Magazine, Jesuit run.  HERE] There are entire paragraphs that I actually don’t understand. Perhaps there are problems of translation; Fr Lombardi will know. But three points do strike me: (1) Christology. The Second Person of the Glorious and Undivided Trinity is referred to in phrases like “The God of Jesus” [I believe Card. Kasper has a book called “The God of Jesus Christ”.] and “God through Jesus”. I did not identify language clearly affirming that our Redeemer is God. [Odd.] (2) “Mercy” seems to be construed as being at the heart of theology. [I wonder if “mercy” can be entirely disconnected from justice and truth.] But any attempted reconstruction of Christianity which concentrates singlemindedly on one word or slogan (“Justification by Faith Alone”, for example, or “Sola Scriptura”) has tended, throughout history, to have disastrous effects. [A key phrase in the Cardinal’s talk: “The Pope wants to take this Church renovation to the point where it becomes irreversible. The wind that propels the sails of the Church towards the open sea of its deep and total renovation is Mercy.”] (3) The Roman Pontiff’s role is to protect the Tradition and to define and exclude heresy. [NB] This paper seems exclusively concerned to prepare the way for an agenda of radical but unspecified change centred upon the non-Magisterial utterances of just one pope during a ministry of less than two years. This is accompanied by a bizarrely curious suggestion that the Holy Father’s public style and personal gestures are his Magisterial Encyclicals.  [Have you noticed that on the Vatican website there is now a page dedicated to his non-Magisterial, off the cuff, fervorini at daily Mass? HERE]

Even during the pontificate of Pius XII and his canary, did papolatry go quite as far as this?

 

Go here to read the comments.  Who the Pope chooses to vest authority in tends to reveal quite a bit about a Papacy.  Pope Francis is quite outspoken, but PopeWatch suspects that if we wonder where the Pope is leading us, Cardinal Maradiaga is a fairly good guide.

 

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bill bannon
bill bannon
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 5:18am

This mercy over emphasis began with both his predecessors who both stated that we could not be certain Judas was in hell whereas Augustine and Chrysostom said he was in hell because they saw Christ as constantly dire on Judas’ future…ie ” it were better for that man had he never been born”…” those whom thou gavest me I guarded and not one of them perished except the son of perdition”. That last phrase was said by Christ to the Father PRIOR to Judas’ several sins being completed. So Christ used the past tense about something that had not happened yet. Justin Martyr noted that such past tense prophecy is certain not conditional. When Jonah said, ” Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown”…it did not come true because Nineveh repented. It was a conditional prophecy posed in the future tense. Now go to Isaiah 53 which has the certain to happen past tense prophecy:
53:5-6
” But he was pierced for our sins,
crushed for our iniquity.
He bore the punishment that makes us whole,
by his wounds we were healed.
6 We had all gone astray like sheep,
all following our own way;
But the Lord laid upon him
the guilt of us all.”

Christ used such certain past tense prophecy about Judas…” not one of them perished but the son of perdition”. But Judas had just begun going to his first sin and was no where near his final sin of despair.
Francis is in line but more ostentatious with the excessive mercy emphasis of his two predecessors.
They erroneously undermined all death penalty legislation while Francis would overturn life sentences if he could. None of the three mercy Popes seems to have noticed that the two largest Catholic populations…Brazil and Mexico…have porous prisons, no death penalty, murders galore…both 20+ per 100,000. Each Pope seems to have noticed only his own country as to murder…Poland, Germany and Argentina are fine….northern Latin America from Brazil to Mexico are far from fine.

Philip
Philip
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 5:26am

Bill Bannon thanks for your insights.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 6:15am

Philip,
You’re welcome.

TomD
TomD
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 7:07am

bill bannon, you didn’t complete the thrust of your argument!

“None of the three mercy Popes seems to have noticed that the two largest Catholic populations…Brazil and Mexico…have porous prisons, no death penalty, murders galore…both 20+ per 100,000. Each Pope seems to have noticed only his own country as to murder…Poland, Germany and Argentina are fine….northern Latin America from Brazil to Mexico are far from fine.”

And which country is absolutely the worst in the entire world? Honduras! The home of Cardinal Maradiaga.

It’s no wonder that the hope of most Honduran parents for their children is that they escape it.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 7:17am

TomD,
I’m aware of Honduras….270 times the murder rate of Japan…c.90 per 100,000 versus .3 per 100,000….and Japan makes great cars….
Hondurans not so much.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 7:24am

Regarding “the God of Jesus,” Paul speaks of “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” in Ephesians 1:3 (Εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ). 2 Corinthians 1:3 is word for word the same, as is 1 Peter 1:3. In Colossians 1:3 we have Εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
It would seem to be a stock phrase.

TomD
TomD
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 7:39am

Don, what is that black object in the lap of the good Cardinal? At first glance it looked like a ninja weapon of some kind. I hate to point this out, since I don’t like to engage in humor at the expense of clergy (at least humor that the cleric probably wouldn’t like, it’s OK if he laughs with us), but someone with Photoshop could have a lot of fun with that photo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjat%C5%8D#mediaviewer/File:Ninto.png

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 7:55am

Let’s clear up some confusion about the man’s name. In Spanish countries, a person’s formal (it communicates the family connections) name is presented in this order: given name, father’s family’s name, and mother’s family’s name. So, it’s Cdl. Rodriguez, not Cdl. Madriaga.
.

Anyhow, I watch “Imus” on FOX Business (to see the various futures) and this AM one of his comics did an irrevent bit on PF. One iota of truth was found among the farcical. The mimic suggested that they are now renovating the gays approach b/c of the numbers of them in the “bunch” . . . Tragedy.
.
I know. I need, post-haste to get my sorry behind to Confession.

trackback
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 1:52pm

[…] – Austen Ivereigh, OSV Newsweekly Spiritual Antibodies – Erin Cain, Ignitum Today Crd. Maradiaga’s ‘Interesting’ Explanations of Pope Francis Papacy – Dn. R. McClarey JD The Lord’s Jester & the Pig’s Feet: The Story of Brother Juniper […]

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Thursday, January 29, AD 2015 6:55pm

The Catholic world is learning what I found out about long ago. That is, what a mess the Catholic Church is in Latin America.

People are leaving the Church in droves throughout Latin America and the princes of the Church are clueless about it. Often they give the impression that they don’t care and I’m certain some of them don’t.

Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga has witnessed the Church in Honduras lose half of its membership with him in charge of it. This is who the Roman Pontiff listens to – not +Burke, not the FSSP.

Cardinal Rodriguez is less effective than Slowpoke Rodriguez. Slowpoke Rodriguez is Speedy Gonzalez’ cousin, the slowest mouse in all of Mexico..and he packs a gun, which would drive Obumbler mad.

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