The Pope is busily dispensing some of his patented mercy again to faithful Catholics:
Pope Francis spoke critically again of the faithful who have a strong embrace of Catholic doctrine, resorting to pejorative terms he has often used such as hypocritical and phariseeism.
“You cannot be more restrictive than the Church herself,” he told a lay association gathered Thursday morning at the Vatican, “nor more Papist than the Pope.”
Addressing the Congress of the International Forum of Catholic Action in the Synod Hall, the pope told participants he wanted them to be out among the people and that there is a need for “active mercy.”
The theme for the association’s three-day gathering was “Catholic Action is mission, with all and for all.”
“Do not be border police,” he told the conference.
“Please, open the doors,” Pope Francis stated, “don’t administer Christian perfection tests because you will only promote a hypocritical phariseeism.”
The pope has spoken several times as though the idea of a Christian ideal is something unattainable.
He also warned Thursday against trying to clericalize the laity.
Compelling laypeople into a vocation because they perform valued service to the Church instead leaving this to the Holy Spirit “worries me,” Pope Francis said, according to the Catholic Herald. “Do not clericalize!”
The pope spoke negatively as well about “proselytism or coercion,” the Herald report said, “which goes against the Gospel.”
“It makes me really sad to see people who are in ministry – lay, consecrated, priests, bishops – who are still playing the proselytism card,” he stated. “No! It is done through attraction. That is the genius phrase of Pope Benedict XVI.”
The notion of working to convert others to the faith is something he has repeatedly criticized previously.
In interview last month with the German newspaper Die Zeit, Pope Francis condemned proselytizing in a discussion about Germany’s vocations crisis.
“That has nothing to do with proselytism,” he said of low priest numbers in Germany. “By proselytism, you will not gain vocations … ”
He defined proselytism as “the poaching of those with a different faith, like with a charity organization who poaches members. Then many young people come, who do not feel called, and ruin the Church.”
The pope stated in October that “there is a very grave sin against ecumenism: proselytism. We should never proselytize the Orthodox!”
Go here to read the rest. When the Pope says that we cannot be more Catholic than he is, he sets an exceedingly low bar.
“Attractive proselytism is bad; unattractive proselytism is good.”
Why not? Not that the Orthodox would be attracted to this Papacy, but for the first thousand years of Christamity the East accepted the Papacy.
Are we not to tell the orthodox about the papal succession?
This man has never read The Acts of the Apostles.
What in God’s dear name is “active mercy” but a euphemism for something else?
Dear Father of Seven, 1. you’ve got me beat as a father of four :-).
And – 2. your quip is excellent!
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”…
Matthew 28:19
Evidently, Pope Francis thinks Jesus got it wrong.
Mary De Voe asks, “Are we not to tell the orthodox about the papal succession?”
That was dealt with in the famous Ratzinger Formula:
“Rome must not require more from the East with respect to the doctrine of primacy than what had been formulated and was lived in the first millennium . . . Rome need not ask for more. Reunion could take place in this context if, on the one hand, the East would cease to oppose as heretical the developments that took place in the West in the second millennium and would accept the Catholic Church as legitimate and orthodox in the form she had acquired in the course of that development, while, on the other hand, the West would recognize the Church of the East as orthodox and legitimate in the form she has always had.” Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology
This is very far from proselytizing
Divine Mercy is predicated on repentance. Mercy Sunday is celebrated with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Thanks for the link 😉
“The pope stated in October that ‘there is a very grave sin against ecumenism: proselytism. We should never proselytize the Orthodox!'”
It is NOT that the Orthodox should be proselytized. They have valid Sacraments, valid Holy Orders. Rather, their errors should be corrected. And that’s what the Pope should do. That’s his job.
There is much about Orthodoxy to be admired. But there are mistakes, too, and those need fixing. This Pope deliberately avoids doing that lest he seem unmerciful or closed minded or worst of all, not nice.
BTW, saying what the Pope said is a slam again the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk. I have no issue with the Russian Orthodox Church being Russian Orthodox, but its domination among the Ukrainian Orthodox and its marginalization of the UGCC as Uniates during this on again, off again civil war whose rebels are aided and abetted by Moscow is completely wrong. The Pope needs to speak out against that instead of speaking out against stopping illegal immigrants and defeating Muslim terrorists through force of arms.
But he doesn’t want to proselytize, so he feeds the Ukrainians to the wolves, and that’s the problem I have.
Let Orthodox be Orthodox and Catholic be Catholic. But the Orthodox have to accept that Peter was chosen by Christ to a special role whether they like it or not. And the Pope has to take on that role and internalize it instead of ingratiating himself with every leftist eco-wacko enviro-nazi commie pinko program and policy out there.
The Holy Father can be reassured that I am less papist than the pope.
LQC wrote, “But the Orthodox have to accept that Peter was chosen by Christ to a special role whether they like it or not…”
Of course. But the point that Joseph Ratzinger (as he then was) was making was that “Rome must not require more from the East with respect to the doctrine of primacy than what had been formulated and was lived in the first millennium…” Otherwise, we appear to be saying that the Undivided church lacked the fullness of the Catholic Faith.