Friday, March 29, AD 2024 8:41am

PopeWatch: Crisis of Faith

 

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Well, this explains a lot:

 

Pope Francis admits he often faces crises of faith

Pope Francis has admitted he often faces crises of faith, in which he has ”questioned Jesus and even doubted”.

In an impromptu question and answer session with an audience of students in Rome on Saturday, widely reported on Catholic news sites in Europe, the Pope said he often wondered: “Is this really the truth? Is it a dream?’’

This happened, he said, when he was “a boy, a seminarian, a religious, a priest, a bishop and even now (as Pope)’’. Christians had had not experienced a crisis of faith he said, were “missing something”.

 

 

 

Go here to read the rest.  PopeWatch assumes that the number of Catholics experiencing a crisis of faith has skyrocketed under this current Pope, his gift to those Catholics who were “missing something”.

 

 

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Don the Kiwi
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 4:48am

I think all Catholics from time to time are tempted to doubts of Faith. I am myself on occasions, but it remains with me only briefly, and I always despatch the thought.
It is staggering to me that this man admits to “crises of Faith” and I fail to understand how he ever allowed himself to be ‘papabile’ – he should have recused himself from election.
I guess, once a Jesuit, always a Jesuit – but certainly not in the mold of Ignatius or Francis Xavier.
I pray that this very flawed papacy is brought swiftly to a close.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 5:44am

I think the whole top echelon of the Church including the two previous Popes had a crises of faith….through their acceptance of too much of modern biblical scholarship.. Francis is simply very honest about it because he talks forever. The others were under-disclosers, thank God. For Benedict in 2010 to say the prime massacres of the Bible were sins ( not God ordered …VD sect.42) while the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 2014 said they never happened….both going against the obvious sense of five scriptures….well, that’s little faith in God’s word. And when you realize that Christ predicted the Divine punishment of Jerusalem of 70AD whose death toll (1.1 million…Josephus) exceeded anything in the Old Testament, then Benedict looks strange for not mentioning Jerusalem at all and Christ’s words about the children within women being taken in that attack. God takes about 150,000 people a day into the next life rght now…and many are children like the children of Canaan.
Both the two previous Popes opined that we couldn’t be sure Judas was in hell. Augustine and Chrysostom were certain as were the dire words of Christ about Judas. Has anyone in 2000 years prayed to Judas while not doing mushrooms from Oaxaca? No. Modern biblical criticism which has good points….has more bad points and all these men were schooled in it to different extents…Francs probably more so.

Patricia
Patricia
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 8:18am

Sounds like some sympathy appeal ‘spin’ for the people after they begin to notice the overdose of blasphemy, and it is timely due to the Peter’s Pence up and coming. What other excuse could be acceptable from these destroyers? It sounds like a bastardization of Mother Teresa’s night and is a very cynical offer to the blinded modern culture.

Pinky
Pinky
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 8:29am

A little digression:

I heard a sermon where the priest was talking about, basically, how lazy we are spiritually. He said that he’s talked to people who think they’re going through a dark night of the soul. He asks them how often they pray, whether they attend Mass every Sunday, when the last time was they went to Confession. Usually they say that they don’t do that stuff. He tells them they’re not in a dark night of the soul, which is a step on the road to perfection; they’re simply in a state of sin.

Anyway, where am I going with that story? (I’m not saying that the Pope is in a state of sin.) It’s easy for sinful people to grasp on to some bit of language that seems to vindicate their state. This statement by the Pope is a pearl before swine. Some people will read it (or more likely read a misquote of it) and think that the Church teaches you should be a good environmentalist, don’t discriminate, and kind of think about God every once in a while even if you don’t really believe in Him. This is by no means the first time the Pope has thrown pearls before swine, and as often as not he throws Purina Swine Chow.

I believe that a person could say what he said and be describing part of a healthy spiritual life. I believe that a person could say what he said and be describing part of a diseased spiritual life. For the sake of his soul, I hope for the former. Unrelated to that, I suspect that describing it the way he did will cause more harm than good.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 8:54am

Pinky, you are right

Para 2731 of the CCC says, “Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit ( Jn 12:24.)”

Père Joseph de Tremblay O.F.M.Cap., Cardinal Richelieu’s spiritual director regards it as a form of “passive purification” and a great opportunity; we realise (experimentally) the creature is nothing and sinful; therefore, there is no solution to the human condition other than the destruction and annihilation of the creature, and this we see exemplified in the annihilation of the human person of the Incarnate Word. He recommends meditation on three texts of St Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20); “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ” (Ph 2:5); “May Christ dwell by faith in your hearts” (Eph 3:17). (Introduction à la vie spirituelle par une facile méthode d’oraison (1616))

Patricia
Patricia
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 11:46am

If this condition which he says happens across the ages of life is maybe a ticket to sloth or me, myself, and I misery or a temptation to not be “missing something”, then there is a short, timely antidote in the link which originated in Fr. Byer’s Arise! Let us be going! blog to help.
.
This may be a way to understand the MP-S quote, “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ” (Ph 2:5);
.
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2016/06/action-item-coordinated-prayer-for-pope-francis-against-diabolical-attack/

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Wednesday, June 22, AD 2016 10:26pm

“Crisis” is a pretty strong word. – emergency · disaster · catastrophe · calamity ·-
Maybe he could take a page from that little book that says that a crisis is an opportunity for change!
When in trouble with faith/doubt a turn toward known truth will help; look for wisdom in known saints and turn away from bad advisors.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Thursday, June 23, AD 2016 2:32am

My impression is that Pope Francis lost his faith sometime ago, hasn’t found it and is no longer looking for it. His real faith is in Socialism and improvement of the planet.

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