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Edit, I had a quick read of https://www.alisachilders.com/blog/...w-age-spirituality-are-kind-of-the-same-thing. Goodness, there’s not much of Christianity left in it. Do they even read the New Testament? The Book of Revelations might scare the crap out of these folks. I like and can agree with much of what she says, but that’s not Christianity to me.
I’m not sure what you mean by your last sentiment, as Christianity isn’t defined by personal preference or subjective interpretation.

Perhaps it would be better to hear one of her recent interviews on progressive Christianity.


What, specifically, are you referring to in Revelation?
 
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I can live with your uncertainty. I decline to take this discussion further, but I wish you a good day.
That’s fine. We don’t have to continue. I wasn’t judging you, to be clear. I’m sorry if you took offence, but it wasn’t my intention to be adversarial, at all. It’s hard to decipher inflection through text.

Your comment just seemed to be dismissive of Alisa Childers because what you read from her didn’t line up with your view of what constitutes Christianity; but that is question begging (this is rhetorical, if you wish): Do your beliefs line up with scripture? What did she say in the article that you read that doesn’t accord with the Bible? I just took your comment to mean that if one espouses views about Christianity that are contrary to yours, than they must be at fault, which presupposes that your exegesis is correct; hence, my response. Moreover, if one affirms the core tenets of Christianity, then there is room for in house debate regarding secondary, non-salvific issues. In other words: don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

To answer your question, yes, she has read, and thoroughly studied the New Testament. I’m not sure what you were referring to when you alluded to Revelation, however. If you were referring to multi-headed beasts rising out of the sea, and strange cosmic events, it’s imperative to understand that Revelation is largely written in apocalyptic language, which is known for its vivid and terrifying imagery. Much of it is symbolic and pertains to Rome, and events that took place in the 1st century, such as the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. Perhaps you were referring to something else, though, such as eschatology.
 
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With COVID-19, while the Catholic Church is practising social distancing, many of the extreme right-wing evangelistic churches do not. The Catholic Church still requests donations be done either by mail or preferably on-line. They broadcast their services on television or through on-line websites. Some of the Catholic Churches ask their parishioners to create home alters.

From link.

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New women deacons commission to meet with unclear agenda

From link.

First, the bad news: two officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have told me, in person, at lunch, that women cannot be ordained deacons because women cannot image Christ.

The good news: At least one no longer works there. I am not sure about the other.

Now, the London Catholic newsweekly The Tablet reports that the new commission for the study of women in the diaconate will meet for one week in Rome, beginning Sept. 13. One may assume the meetings will take place in the CDF's vaulted meeting room. The coming commission constitutes the fourth discussion group in recent history to discuss women deacons there.

Two subcommittees of the CDF's International Theological Commission reviewed the question over 10 years. In 1997, the first subcommittee reportedly found no problem with restoring women to the ordained diaconate. However, the CDF prefect at the time, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, refused to promulgate their report. He named a new subcommittee, which produced a much longer report five years later. That 2002 report concluded that, while male and female deacons did not perform the same tasks and duties, there is a clear distinction between the diaconate and the priesthood. Therefore, they wrote, the question is up to the magisterium to decide.
So, the question was left to Pope John Paul II, who did nothing. In 2015, he was succeeded by the CDF prefect who dismissed the first ITC subcommittee's original findings. The former Cardinal Ratzinger, then Pope Benedict XVI, did not further investigate women in the diaconate. However, in 2009 he codified the catechism's teaching, which is consistent with the conciliar teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Now canon law affirms the diaconate is not the priesthood.

In 2016, at the request International Union of Superiors General (UISG), Pope Francis named a commission to study the diaconate of women. It completed work in June 2018. Nearly one year later, in May 2019, Francis gave a portion of the commission report to the UISG leadership, saying they could do with it what they wished, and that he had more commission documents they could request. Months later, the UISG president affirmed she had received the commission's historical analysis. It remains unknown if the UISG ever requested the remaining papers the pope offered.
As for history, no one disputes the documented facts about women deacons in the West up to the 12th century, and longer in the East. They were ordained with the same liturgical ceremonies as male deacons: by the bishop, during Mass, in the presence of clergy, through the imposition of hands and by the invocation of the Holy Spirit. They self-communicated from the chalice. The bishop placed a stole around their necks and called them deacons.

So now there is a fourth group scheduled to meet in Rome. Who will they meet there? What will they study?
It appears the only CDF official involved with the new commission is its secretary, Fr. Dennis Dupont-Fauville, who once led the diaconate program of the Archdiocese of Paris. The commission's president is the 73-year-old archbishop of L'Aquila, Italy, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, named cardinal in 2018 and, since then, appointed to the Commission for Vatican City State, the Congregations for Education and for Saints, and the Council for the Economy.

According to NCR former Vatican correspondent Josh McElwee, the majority of the new commission's members do not appear to have published scholarship on women deacons. A few have written about the diaconate. One denies women deacons by connecting the diaconate with the priesthood. One belonged to the second ITC sub-commission. Two are deacons.

So, what will they talk about? It is known that on October 26, 2020, both Cardinal Petrocchi and Fr. Dupont-Fauville met with the pope. One can assume they received their marching orders then. When the pope spoke with the assembled UISG in 2016, he said he wanted to know what the women deacons of history did. Perhaps now he wants to know what deacons do today.

Given that Francis changed canon law to allow women to be installed as lectors and acolytes, thereby firmly allowing them to be near the sacred, perhaps he has asked what (if any) diaconal tasks are impossible for women.

That seems to be the central question. If women, like men, were once ordained as deacons, then what the church has done the church can do again. If women are no longer forbidden from being present inside the sanctuary, then they need not be restricted from the ceremonial tasks and duties of the diaconate.

But altar service is the least of it. The ministry of the diaconate is of the Word, the liturgy and charity. The deacon proclaims the Gospel in word and deed, living a life devoted to charity. Francis once recommended that deacons in effect get off the altar, and the view from his chair is the correct one. If the deacon lives a life devoted to the Gospel, he — and hopefully one day she —will proclaim the Gospel in word and deed.

Centuries ago, Pope Gelasius I was scandalized that women — presumably women deacons —were ministering at the altar. The synodal church seems to be moving in the direction of allowing women back there. Their presence at the Eucharist as deacons will symbolize their own dedication to the Gospel and that of the church to the larger question at hand. For until the church restores its own tradition, it will be caught in a morass of falsehoods growing from the single statement that women cannot image Christ.
 
What I discover extra annoying is Ratzinger's approval of the old-fashion Latin hundreds and his actions to again farfar from Vatican II, which introduced the Catholic Church into the nineteenth century. This decree is simply one additional, albeit small, backing farfar from it.
 

Pope says 'backward' U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology

From link.


Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.

Francis’ comments were an acknowledgment of the divisions in the U.S. Catholic Church, which has been split between progressives and conservatives who long found support in the doctrinaire papacies of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, particularly on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.

Many conservatives have blasted Francis’ emphasis instead on social justice issues such as the environment and the poor, while also branding as heretical his opening to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive the sacraments.

Francis made the comments in a private meeting with Portuguese members of his Jesuit religious order while visiting Lisbon on Aug. 5; the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, which is vetted by the Vatican secretariat of state, published a transcript of the encounter Monday.

During the meeting, a Portuguese Jesuit told Francis that he had suffered during a recent sabbatical year in the United States because he came across many Catholics, including some U.S. bishops, who criticized Francis’ 10-year papacy as well as today’s Jesuits.

The 86-year-old Argentine acknowledged his point, saying there was “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” in the U.S. church, which he called “backward.” He warned that such an attitude leads to a climate of closure, which was erroneous.

“Doing this, you lose the true tradition and you turn to ideologies to have support. In other words, ideologies replace faith,” he said.

“The vision of the doctrine of the church as a monolith is wrong,” he added. “When you go backward, you make something closed off, disconnected from the roots of the church,” which then has devastating effects on morality.

“I want to remind these people that backwardness is useless, and they must understand that there’s a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals,” that allows for doctrine to progress and consolidate over time.

Francis has previously acknowledged the criticism directed at him from some U.S. conservatives, once quipping that it was an “honor” to be attacked by Americans.


The Associated Press
 

‘The Water Has Been Agitated’

Francis in conversation with Jesuits in Portugal​


On August 5, 2023, during his apostolic journey to Portugal for World Youth Day, Pope Francis met with Jesuits at the Colégio de São João de Brito, a school run by the Society of Jesus. He arrived at 5 p.m. and was greeted by the provincial, Fr. Miguel Almeida. “Holy Father, dear Pope Francis, first of all we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time in such a full and busy schedule to be with us. Thank you for being with your brothers; we really feel we are all brothers.” He then briefly described the province. “Historically,” he said, “we are an ancient province; we have been expelled from Portugal three times and as many times we have returned. They say that weeds never die out… Maybe due to being expelled, we became a province short of money, and historically we have had a strong missionary character. And it seems to me that two things in particular are part of the identity of the province: first, creativity. Perhaps this is because we have had to adapt so many times. And secondly, our works are informal, small, but always close to the people. I think this is a characteristic of our pastoral work, and we consider it a great grace. We are just over 130 companions. Eighteen are not yet ordained, and as many have not yet made their final vows. There are almost 40 in formation. In the European context, we can thank God; we are really grateful to him.” He then presented the ministries of the Portuguese province: education, university pastoral work, parishes, social work, and engagement with the world of culture. He then spoke about how the Ignatian community and its many friends, colleagues and benefactors share the mission and are a grace for the province.

Finally, he spoke about the Jesuits and the Jesuit communities. There is a good environment, but “it is true that some relationships among us have been strained. We have had some crises that have caused deep wounds in some of us. That is why I ask you to pray for us, because we are in a process of forgiveness and reconciliation, and it is not easy; we are all human.” The pope responded:
See link.

...
Pope Francis, I would like to ask you a question as a religious brother. I am Francisco. Last year I spent a sabbatical year in the United States. There was one thing that made a great impression on me there, and at times made me suffer. I saw many, even bishops, criticizing your leadership of the Church. And many even accuse the Jesuits, who are usually a kind of critical resource of the pope, of not being so now. They would even like the Jesuits to criticize you explicitly. Do you miss the criticism that the Jesuits used to make of the pope, the Magisterium, the Vatican?

You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude. It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally. I would like to remind those people that indietrismo (being backward-looking) is useless and we need to understand that there is an appropriate evolution in the understanding of matters of faith and morals as long as we follow the three criteria that Vincent of Lérins already indicated in the fifth century: doctrine evolves ut annis consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate. In other words, doctrine also progresses, expands and consolidates with time and becomes firmer, but is always progressing. Change develops from the roots upward, growing in accord with these three criteria.

Let us get to specifics. Today it is a sin to possess atomic bombs; the death penalty is a sin. You cannot employ it, but it was not so before. As for slavery, some pontiffs before me tolerated it, but things are different today. So you change, you change, but with the criteria just mentioned. I like to use the “upward” image, that is, ut annis consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate. Always on this path, starting from the root with sap that flows up and up, and that is why change is necessary.

Vincent of Lérins makes the comparison between human biological development and the transmission from one age to another of the depositum fidei, which grows and is consolidated with the passage of time. Here, our understanding of the human person changes with time, and our consciousness also deepens. The other sciences and their evolution also help the Church in this growth in understanding. The view of Church doctrine as monolithic is erroneous.

But some people opt out; they go backward; they are what I call “indietristi.” When you go backward, you form something closed, disconnected from the roots of the Church and you lose the sap of revelation. If you don’t change upward, you go backward, and then you take on criteria for change other than those our faith gives for growth and change. And the effects on morality are devastating. The problems that moralists have to examine today are very serious, and to deal with them they have to take the risk of making changes, but in the direction I was saying.

You have been to the United States and you say you have felt a climate of closure. Yes, this climate can be experienced in some situations. And there you can lose the true tradition and turn to ideologies for support. In other words, ideology replaces faith, membership of a sector of the Church replaces membership of the Church.

I want to pay tribute to Arrupe’s courage. When he became superior general, he found a Society of Jesus that was, so to speak, bogged down. General Ledóchowski had drafted the Epitome – do you young people know what the Epitome is?[5] No? Nothing remains of the Epitome! It was a selection of the Constitutions and Rules, all mixed up. But Ledóchowski, who was very orderly, with the mentality of the time, said, “I am compiling it so that the Jesuits will be fully clear about everything they have to do.” And the first specimen he sent to a Benedictine abbot in Rome, a great friend of his, who replied with a note: “You have killed the Society with this.”

In other words, the Society of the Epitome was formed, the Society that I experienced in the novitiate, albeit with great teachers who were of great help, but some taught certain things that fossilized the Society. That was the spirituality that Arrupe received, and he had the courage to set it moving again. Somethings got out of hand, as is inevitable, such as the question of the Marxist analysis of reality. Then he had to clarify some matters, but he was a man who was able to look forward. And with what tools did Arrupe confront reality? With the Spiritual Exercises. In 1969 he founded the Ignatian Center for Spirituality. The secretary of this center, Fr. Luís Gonzalez Hernandez, was given the tasks of traveling around the world to give the Exercises and to open this new panorama.

You younger ones have not experienced these tensions, but what you say about some sectors in the United States reminds me of what we have already experienced with the Epitome, which generated a mentality that was all rigid and contorted. Those American groups you talk about, so closed, are isolating themselves. Instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies. When you abandon doctrine in life to replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war.
...
 
It seems the Ukrainian Orthodox church has moved Christmas to December 25th to distance itself from Russia. Apparently Eastern Rite Christians have been discussing this on-and-off for a while. Some observers say this is part of 'de-colonization', which seems to be a popular go-to these days.

Darn it, I always used Jan 7th as the time to give my wife her Ukrainian Christmas gifts, those I forgot to order on time.
 
Darn it, I always used Jan 7th as the time to give my wife her Ukrainian Christmas gifts, those I forgot to order on time.
The story is a little short on detail. It says Ukraine passed a law, which obviously only impacts that nation, but the interviews with clergy in Canada suggests that the Church has changed its doctrine.
 

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