Break Until After Easter Sunday - Open Forum
Happy Jack has decided to take a break until Easter Sunday.
Why?
Because it is depressing viewing and commenting on religion and politics at this time. He's looked around for "good news" stories but they are few and far between. The internet is full of doom and woe - and its infectious!
So do post your thoughts and ideas about where we should take this little blog in the coming months. It is good to keep in touch with one another.
Until then, God Bless and here's a Lenten meditation:
Lord Jesus, when I am sad and depressed
Help me think of you praying alone in the garden.
Lord Jesus, when I am fearful
help me to think of you being taken prisoner.
Lord Jesus, when I am ill
help me to think of you being scourged at the pillar.
Lord Jesus, when I have a headache
help me to think of you wearing the crown of thorns.
Lord Jesus, when I am tired
help me to think of you carrying the cross for love of me.
Lord Jesus, when I am humiliated
help me to think of you being stripped of your garments.
Lord Jesus, when I am in pain
help me to think of you being nailed to the cross.
Lord Jesus, when I am lonely
help me to think of you hanging on the cross.
Lord Jesus, when I am dying
Help me to think of you dying on the cross for love of me.
Lord Jesus, help me to remember
how much you suffered for love of me
and help me to love you more and more.
Amen
He's looked around for "good news" stories but they are few and far between.
ReplyDeleteOne day, while walking in his garden in the dead of winter, St. Francis approached an almond tree, its limbs dead and bare. 'Tell me about God', he said to the almond tree. Without a word, the branches of the tree burst into blossom.
To add to your Lenten meditation, here are some verses from On the Victory of the Cross, Kontakion 22 of St. Romanos the Melodist: a hymn used during the veneration of the Cross on the Sunday of the Holy Cross, marking the start of the fourth week of Lent.
The sword of flame no longer guards the gate of Eden,
For a strange bond came upon it: the wood of the Cross.
The sting of Death and the victory of Hades were nailed to it.
But you appeared, my Saviour, crying to those in Hades:
‘Be brought back
Again to Paradise’.
Nailed to the form of the Cross
As truly a ransom for many
You redeemed us, Christ our God,
For by your precious blood in love for mankind
You snatched our souls from death.
You brought us back with you
Again to Paradise.
All things in heaven and earth rightly rejoice with Adam,
Because he has been called
Again to Paradise.
Three crosses Pilate fixed on Golgotha,
Two for the thieves and one for the Giver of life,
Whom Hades saw and said to those below,
‘My ministers and powers,
Who has fixed a nail in my heart?
A wooden lance has suddenly pierced me and I am being torn apart.
My insides are in pain, my belly in agony.
My senses make my spirit tremble,
And I am compelled to disgorge
Adam and Adam’s race. Given to me by a tree,
A tree is bringing them back
Again to Paradise’.
That is beautiful, thank you.
DeleteYou're welcome ☺️
Deletehttps://youtu.be/Z0CJxM3hm58
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling particularly down today. If ever I needed God's strength.
Praying for you, Clive. Much love x
DeleteThank you much appreciated
DeleteThat's beautiful, Prof Clive, very meditative. In prayer.
DeleteStay strong, Clive. There's always the "power walking" 😉
DeleteIn my prayers.
How are you keeping, Clive?
DeleteClive has his own bloghere. He posted yesterday.
Delete@Lain
DeleteThanks for asking. Struggling a bit still. They've changed my meds and they aren't working. So suddenly I'm an old man, and not finding life easy 🤣 and finding it hard to control my depression. 😡
I see HJ has linked my blog. I'm doing a post about all this. As I don't want to bore everyone on Jack's site!
Which is working really well btw.
Ps I'm finding listening to orthodox music helpful.
For clarification, I mean HJ's is doing really well 😁
Delete@ Clive
DeleteI don't think any of us would be bored. If this religion stuff teaches us anything, it's that we're supposed to look out for one another and help to carry each others crosses; especially coming into Holy Week (for most of you, anyway, we're still a week behind).
Can they change your meds back if the new ones are causing problems? Do they offer anything like counselling? Sometimes a major life changing event can affect people in the same way that a bereavement does.
I'm glad you're finding Orthodox music helpful. It really is heavenly when it's done well (I only chant when I'm on my own - someone once tactfully told me that the angels take our song and make it beautiful to God's ears).
You're still in my prayers, and I shall pray for you tomorrow when the Church remembers St. Mary of Egypt, a great Desert Mother who endured many years of adversity herself. May God give you strength through yours.
Your prayers are much appreciated.
DeleteThe problem is with Parkinson's medication is that there is no going back. You change meds because you need help. That help maybe sorted by increasing the strength but that can bring its own problems or to address new symptoms.
They are increasing the strength of the new meds, and trying that first as the have helped the issue for which they were prescribed. Everything else just crashed, it was like I was not on any medication at all..
Tried counselling and it was great, I got to talk about me!! The counselor did a good job of not looking bored 🥱
But eventually it runs out of funding. The wife is keen I go back however.
Thank you Lain for asking, it will get sorted, just in the meantime things are difficult.
That's life.
I didn't know that about Parkinson's meds, it sounds tough to be juggling different symptoms and meds and side effects. I will pray that it gets sorted out sooner rather than later.
DeleteI do agree with your wife, and women are wise so you should listen to us. There's no harm in taking some time to talk about yourself, especially if things are difficult, although I know it's not for everyone. Sufferings and hardship are part of life, yes, but we are allowed to 'cry out from the depths', too. Not everything has to be borne stoically.
It's hard to say anything on a text forum that doesn't come across as a platitude, I hope none of that sounds flippant or bossy, that's not my intention x
No you don't, I appreciate your concern. Thanks 🙂
Delete@Prof Clive,
DeleteI agree about the Orthodox music. I particularly like the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by Kyrylo Stetsenko:
https://youtu.be/UMV64XnxE70
Thank you, it's lovely
DeleteWhen the "good news" stories are few and far between it's a great time to be a Christian! Maybe one could say that the Bible is full of hope and its infectious. I for one am always happy to discuss theology, apologetics, etc, on this blog, and long may it contunue. All the best, Jack, have a good Lent and run up to Easter.
ReplyDeleteIsrael's anti-proselytizing bill draws criticism from evangelical allies (JPost)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-735162
It seems this was unlikely ever to have become law:
DeleteMK Moshe Gafni's office addressed the issue publicly on Wednesday, explaining that the bill had been tabled and was not progressing, so there was no need for concern over religious freedom.
"The bill was [brought up] with the current Knesset more than four months ago, and there is no plan for it to move forward," the statement read. "Dealing with it now is irrelevant."
But I think, given the events of history, that the sentiment that one wishes to be left alone in one's own land is understandable. And it's fair to say that 'evangelical' Zionism isn't entirely altruistic; there's certainly a number of evangelical groups who support the state of Israel because they see the Jews returning home as a necessary precursor of the Second Coming than out of concern for the Jewish people.
@Lain, Evangelicals of that kind are probably taking the anti-proselytization bill as a compliment. It shows their efforts are meeting with success on a sufficient scale to leave the opposition feeling rattled.
Delete@Ray - I don't think that they're necessarily bothered about converting Jews, they just want the Jews to be back in Israel so that Christ will return. Obviously, not all evangelicals hold that opinion, some just think it's right that the Jewish people have their lands back, some disagree with the modern state of Israel altogether and so on. But there is quite an exploitative strand running through much evangelical Zionism, particularly in America.
DeleteThis view isn't untypical: "What kick-starts the end times into motion is Israel's political boundaries being reestablished to what God promised the Israelites according to the Bible," Nate Pyle, a pastor and author of a book about Jesus, told Newsweek.
A 2018 poll by LifeWay Research found that 80% of American evangelicals believe that 'the modern rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 and the re-gathering of millions of Jewish people to Israel' were 'fulfillments of Bible prophecy that show we are getting closer to the return of Jesus Christ'.
A 2003 Pew Research study also found that over 60% of American evangelicals (compared to 30% of the wider population) thought that the existence of the modern state of Israel was a fulfilment of biblical prophecy and an advancement towards the end times.
So it's understandable that some Jewish factions might feel uncomfortable with their existence being treated as a pawn in someone else's eschatology...
The sentiment that one wishes to be left alone in one's own land is indeed understandable, but when all one's immediate neighbours want to push one into the sea, one might just need friends from further afield.
DeleteOne knows Israeli Jews who have converted to Christianity - maybe this is something to do with that movement. It's very interesting what you say about "evangelical Zionism" - I didn't know about that. This particular evangelical (thank you for saying that there exists a range of opinions) knows and thinks precious little about Zionism or Jews-returning-type prophesies.
The Wikipedia article on it is actually pretty thorough and worth a read if you're interested.
DeleteIn a nutshell, it's an idea the grew out a certain Calvinist reading of the Bible in post-Reformation England, that the conversion of and/or return of the Jews to Israel was necessary to fulfil biblical prophecy about the end times, and should therefore be encouraged (this seems like trying to force God's hand to me). It gained traction under Edward VI's Calvinist regency (Luther, like the Catholic and Orthodox churches, saw the Church as the fulfilment of God's promise to 'gather in' Israel)
Zionism simmered along until the 19th century, when it regained popularity among preachers like Spurgeon, who wrote that the Jews 'are to be restored and converted, too'. It gained influence in America and across the British Empire, with a variety of motivations, predominantly along liberal and mainstream evangelical Protestants. After WWII and the establishment of Israel, Zionism began to lean more towards the political right and was taken up by prominent evangelicals, such as Billy Graham.
As with many things, Zionism now seems to have become deeply entrenched with American politics. If you're a good American evangelical on the political right, you vote republican, support Trump and Israel. If you're on the left, you're anti all these things. It's become a statement of political creed more than a religious belief, in my opinion.
It's definitely not all evangelicals (particularly outside the US) who support Zionism. John Stott wrote:
'Political Zionism and Christian Zionism are biblically anathema to the Christian faith. [...] [T]rue Israel today is neither Jews nor Israelis, but believers in the Messiah, even if they are gentiles'.
雲水,
DeleteThanks for the info, I will endeavour to look further into that. Zionism seems to have taken a few different forms in its time (even anti-Jewish Zionism among those who simply wanted them to live somewhere else). I'm not at all sure that being on the right in America means you necessarily want to encourage God to bring about the 'end times' via Zionism, but you are probably not saying that. I think any evangelical would have to say that proselytizing the Jews (along with everybody else) would have to be the priority.
I'm not at all sure that being on the right in America means you necessarily want to encourage God to bring about the 'end times' via Zionism.
DeleteThe more imminent threat is the American left trying to bring about the nuclear end times via Putin, but that's another story!
No, a lot of the 'Zionism' on the American right is secular; it's simply being unwaveringly pro-Israel in a purely political sense (as in Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, which some groups also felt was fulfilling a biblical prophecy - perhaps those are only in the NASB), whereas the political left are usually unwaveringly pro-Palestine. Both are wrong, of course.
Any mission to the Jews is fraught with historical difficulties. There's a story in, I think, one of Philip Yancey's book about a Jewish man entering a church, seeing the crucifix and muttering, 'ah, another crucified Jew'. I can't remember if it was on Jack's blog or Cranmer's that there was quite a lively discussion about the difference between evangelising and proselytising.
NASB = New American Standard Bible? Can't say I've ever read it. BTW, Fr. Josiah Trenham (whom you may know) says the NIV Bible (which I do read) is willfully anti-Orthodox - any thoughts?
DeleteI'm not sure there will be any need for nuclear war given the way the US is going right now!
My best option regarding finding out more about evangelising the Jewish people is probably to talk to the Israeli scolar - who is a convert to Christianity but still dresses as a religious Jew and I think may even go by the title 'rabin' - who visits our country periodically to preach and teach.
Delete@ Lain
It was on the Cranmer blog following Pope Francis’ comments.
Understandably, his comments were controversial.
Pope Francis’a repeated statements about that are a constant topic of discussion on many websites.
DeleteIt’s important to bear in mind that his native language is Spanish and that, in Spanish, there is a big difference between the two terms. Proselitización is in widespread use outside the religious context. For instance, in Argentina, and possibly in other countries as well, it is the standard term for party political broadcasts during election campaigns.
@Jack yes, that was it. I think much of that is a linguistics issue.
Delete@ Gadjo
Fr. Josiah Trenham says the NIV Bible is willfully anti-Orthodox
I think it's a little provocative (such is Father's style) to say that it's anti-Orthodox, but it's fair to say it's a predominantly evangelical Protestant work and brings that bias to its translation. For example, the NT uses one Greek root word for teachings/traditions. The KJV/RSV translates each occurrence consistently, but translations like the NIV translate it as 'traditions' (bad and Catholic) when it's used in the negative - I.e., 'you follow the traditions of man, not God' - and as 'teachings' (good and evangelical) when it's used positively - 'hold fast to the teachings you received', etc. The NIV adopts the 'dynamic equivalence' model of translation, where the translators seek to translate the passage 'thought for thought' rather than 'word for word', which by its nature has more potential for introducing one's own biases.
That aside, the main Orthodox objection to the NIV is that it's canonically incomplete and omits books that the Orthodox (and Catholic) Church accepts as canon. The Old Testament translation is also based on the Masoretic text (c.1000AD), whereas the Orthodox Church views the more ancient Septuagint as definitive.
@ Ray
DeleteMany thanks - certainly Pope Francis was using it in the sense of propaganda/pressure and comparing it to witnessing the Gospel.
@Jack - interestingly, propaganda was originally a religious term. The Congregatio de Propaganda Fide 'congregation for propagating the faith' was a committee of cardinals established by Gregory XV in 1622 to supervise foreign missions. Propaganda in the political sense dates from WWI, and the current pejorative usage from the late 1920/1930s.
DeleteSomebody needs to tell the pope that there's a significant difference in this case between Spanish and English. The question is, who might that be?
Delete@Ray - is the Spanish usage that different to English? It seems the same to me. Proselytism has negative connotations in modern English, too. According to the article Jack linked, Pope Francis' teachings follow Benedict's: Pope Benedict XVI clearly taught this when he said, "The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by attraction.'
Delete@Gadjo Dilo, some Catholics don't like the NIV, either. Here's a recent comment I saw on a Catholic forum:
DeleteThe NIV removes any reference to bishops in the New Testament. It also obscures the support for infant baptisms in the writings of the New Testament. The NIV is specifically written to support the theology of American Protestant Evangelists, especially those that go against some of the traditional teachings of Catholicism.
@Lain, what is the difference, in your view, between “proselytism” and “evangelisation” in English? My immediate impulse, I think, would be to say there is one important difference: proselytism is the attempt to convert someone from one religion to another or, more broadly, from one set of beliefs to another in any field, whereas evangelisation is specifically the attempt to convert someone to the Christian religion.
DeleteIn other words, all evangelisation is proselytism, although not all proselytism is evangelisation, just as all dachshunds are dogs, although not all dogs are dachshunds.
Any other difference, I’d say, has more to do with nuances than with precise meanings. I repeat, I’m talking about the two words in English. In other languages it may be different. Pope Benedict wasn’t a native speaker of English, either. His words that you are quoting here were probably written or spoken in either German or Italian and subsequently translated into several other languages including English.
By the way, I need to correct a mistake in my earlier post. The Spanish word is proselitismo, not proselitización. However, it makes no difference to the argument.
雲水 & Ray,
DeleteThanks a lot, yes, these comments are along the lines of the criticisisms that I was hearing. There again, any interpretation of anything will include bias. Time for learning Koine Greek... and then interpreting directly with my very own biases!
Presumably the books that would make a bible like the NIV complete in Orthodox/Catholic eyes would be Judith, 1 & 2 Macabees, Tobit, etc.
@Gadjo - learning Greek and Hebrew is a very worthwhile practice! Slightly easier is using an interlinear Bible and concordance. Biblehub has a very good one. Comparing more than one translation is also helpful - e.g., the NIV and RSV (the NRSV has more 'inclusive language', which changes some passages).
DeleteIt's not just Catholic and Orthodox who have issues with the NIV. Anglican bishop and Pauline scholar N.T Wright said:
... as I lectured verse by verse through several of Paul’s letters, not least Galatians and Romans ... with the Greek text in front of me and the NIV beside it, I discovered that the translators had had another principle, considerably higher than the stated one: to make sure that Paul should say what the broadly Protestant and evangelical tradition said he said … [I]f a church only, or mainly, relies on the NIV it will, quite simply, never understand what Paul was talking about.
There's a very thorough assessment of the NIV by Michael Marlowe, a conservative baptist Bible scholar here.
The OT canon varies a little between Orthodox churches; the Ethiopian Orthodox include books such as the Book of Enoch, which the Greeks omit. In the Orthodox Church, the living tradition of the Church itself is the canon, the Bible forms an (important) part of that canon, but isn't all of it. It's said that if every copy of the Bible disappeared, the Church's teachings are sufficiently preserved in her Liturgy and the writings of the Fathers, and she could continue to exist on those.
@ Ray - technically and theologically, you're right. The two are basically interchangeable, and evangelism has a more specifically Christian bent, coming as it does from Classical Greek euangelion -'the reward of good tidings' which became Christianised and applied to the 'good tidings', i.e., the good news, the gospel, itself.
DeleteIn modern usage, though, evangelism is simply someone who shares the 'good news' about anything to convince people to 'convert' to their point of view - we read about electric vehicle 'evangelists', for example.
Proselytising, on the other hand, has retained its more technical religious sense and carries negative historical connotations of attempting to convert someone aggressively or unethically. A Christian handing out leaflets evangelises, Jehovah's Witnesses who won't leave you alone proselytise.
I suspect there is some historical antisemitism here. The word appears to have been originally applied (14th century) mainly to heathens converting to Judaism. It appears in the King James Bible only (I think) in the negative - 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.' It's also associated with the forcible conversion of other peoples by, predominantly, Christians and Muslims.
This brief article provides a good summary:
[T]he term "proselytism" is used to mean a manipulative form of evangelism. It involves an unethical exploitation of those who are economically weak through such means as schools, hospitals, orphanages and community development programs. For example, in parts of Africa, Muslims hurl charges of this nature at Christians, pointing out that much of missionary diaconia is financed by wealthy churches from the West. Likewise, Christians accuse Muslims of using Middle East oil wealth to promote Islam by offering money, scholarships and even wives to young men willing to convert to the Islamic religion.
Thank you, @Lain. I have now read Roger Greenway’s article and I have no doubt that everything he says in it is true. Once again, however, he is discussing the two words as they are used in Spanish, not in English. In his opening paragraph he writes:
Delete… an article pub¬lished in Mexican and Central Ameri¬can newspapers criticizing Protes¬tants for what it termed "aggressive proselytism."
He is evidently referring here to Spanish-language newspapers. He is simply taking it for granted that whatever can be said about the shades of meaning of the Spanish word proselitismo must necessarily be equally true of the English word proselytism. That is where I disagree with him.
雲水,
DeleteThat is very interesting from N.T. Wright, a bit of a maverick in the Anglican Church.... how long would he want to remain in it? I should probably read his New Perspective on Paul stuff, but I didn't get on too well with his book about Justification.
@ Ray - I would disagree, it seems to me that he's using the standard English reading of those words. Here is Dr. Jeff Mirus, an American Catholic philosopher and apologist:
DeleteIn the Church's lexicon, proselytism typically refers to conversion efforts that fail to respect the prospective convert’s freedom and dignity. High pressure tactics; telling lies about the other person’s current religion; comparing the weaknesses of another’s religious community with only the strengths of one’s own; attempting to convert children in opposition to their parents; offering worldly inducements to change one’s religious allegiance—these are what Catholics would call proselytism. In contrast, a sincere effort to share one’s faith so that others might freely choose to embrace it is considered a virtue. Terms with positive connotations are used to describe such generosity: evangelization, apologetics, catechesis, personal witness, or even simply “winning converts”.
He goes on to note that the word is used differently in different cultures, but proselytism is almost always seen as something unwanted or underhand - 'sheep stealing' from other flocks.
For example, the Russian Orthodox Church regards all efforts by Catholics to win converts in Russia as proselytism, and complains of it frequently to the Vatican. The Russian Orthodox have a strong sense of their own “canonical territory”, within which the Russian Orthodox Church is supposed to have a privileged status.
He goes on to note that the term proselytising is synonymous with making converts in its technical theological usage, but I would suggest that's not how it's used in common parlance outside theological circles. I wouldn't launch a 'proselytism initiative' at my church, for example.
Here’s Pope Francis’ explanation of the difference between evangelising and proselytising.
Delete@Gadjo - I think he's more or less retired into academia these days, hasn't he?
DeleteWhat did you dislike about his work on justification? I haven't read it, but I don't recall coming across anything controversial in his other stuff.
@Lain, the first four words are the giveaway: “In the Church’s lexicon.” Jeff Mirus is conceding from the outset that the Catholic Church has a jargon or “lexicon” of its own, which at certain points diverges from standard English.
Delete@Ray, then I think I may be misunderstand you. I thought you were saying that Pope Francis made a distinction between evangelism (good) and proselytism (bad) because he was using Spanish, and was incorrectly equating the Spanish use with the English use. But colloquial English also makes this distinction. It's only in technical Catholic language - which, as you say, diverges from common English - that proselytism is a synonym for evangelism.
Delete雲水,
DeleteIt wasn't that I disliked or disagreed with the book, but I just don't remember any of the arguments in it! Probably my fault rather than Wright's - I'm more at home with apologetics than with theology.
No, @Lain, you didn’t misunderstand me. Your hyperlink to Jeff Mirus’s article doesn’t seem to be working now, but I remember reading that bit you quote where he says that “proselytizing” is synonymous with “making converts” in its technical theological usage. That’s what I believe is still the primary meaning of the word in standard English.
DeleteI fully agree, of course, that no church in an English-speaking country would launch a “proselytism initiative”. That’s the kind of thing I had in mind when I said in an earlier post that the difference between “evangelising” and “proselytism” often has more to do with nuances than with precise meanings. One term normally implies approval and the other disapproval. No doubt about it.
The point I’m making about Pope Francis’s repeated rejection of “proselytism” is that he is not using the word in its “technical theological usage”. Instead, he is using it in accordance with what Mirus calls “the Church’s lexicon”. On this point “the Church’s lexicon” diverges from “technical theological usage”.
@ Ray
DeleteThere's an explanation here:
The Pope did not offer a definition of proselytism. In the New Testament, the Greek word proselytos referred to a 1st-century convert to Judaism. Later the Anglicised word “proselyte” came to mean a convert in general. “Proselytism” was therefore the act of making converts, and that is how most Catholics understand it today.
Following Vatican II, the word has changed its meaning in theological circles. It is now considered a pejorative term. In an article for the Catholic News Agency last year, Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey, explained the new definition as follows: “This meaning includes using any type of pressure to convert someone, whether it is moral, political or economic. It means caricaturing with unfair criticism the beliefs of others.”
It is true that Pope Francis has a fondness for neologisms and startling turns of phrase, but he didn’t invent the new meaning of proselytism. In his address in Morocco, he quoted his predecessor, Benedict XVI, as saying that “the Church grows not through proselytism, but through attraction, through witness”. That is an accurate paraphrase of a homily that Benedict gave at the Brazilian shrine of Aparecida in 2007.
Put simply, when Church leaders speak of proselytism, they mean a mission that seeks power and influence rather than the salvation of souls. But lay Catholics have not absorbed this change in meaning. Nor has it won acceptance with the general public or, indeed, academics who study religious movements. Hence the impression that Pope Francis was urging missionaries to no longer make disciples.
Thank you, @Jack. That explains a lot. Bishop Serratelli is telling us that the Catholic hierarchy made a decision, at an unspecified date, to change the meaning they attach to the word “proselytism” in their own internal communications. Yes, they’re allowed to do that. But it’s not within their power to compel the whole English-speaking world to stop using the word in its old sense and switch to their desired Newspeak sense.
DeleteTrue, but the meaning of words do change. Church leaders certainly need to be clear what meaning they ascribe to words when they use them.
DeleteI'd hardly say it's Newspeak; I've never known it used in a neutral sense outside of the Greek NT and technical theological books. I've always associated it with pushy and threatening evangelism and fundamentalists.
DeleteThe meaning of words evolves, and it's important that Christians are able to communicate clearly with the world. After all, proselytism properly referred to gentiles converting to Judaism: so strictly speaking, using it in a Christian context is Newspeak!
Our first calling isn't linguistic conservation, but making Christ known. Words are simply tools for that. I could invite people to come and meet my awful God and his gay followers - I'd be etymologically correct, but I think they'd would be very confused.
*sick*
DeleteDancing Priests......Good to see Catholics having a good time.....Cressida
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/UdYDKmpzt5U
Please pray for Fr. Seraphim and the Monastery of All Celtic Saints on the Isle of Mull. Fr. Seraphim struggles daily with crippling migraines, and yesterday posted:
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday I woke up paralysed and on Monday I was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Room of the main hospital in Glasgow. I could not move, I could not swallow my own saliva and I could hardly breathe. I was in constant pain. The scans and blood tests showed a mix of possible infections built around my upper spine and the working diagnosis was discitis. Apparently, this is something children get. It is very rare in adults and it can end.. well, badly; the treatment requires up to 6, even 8 weeks of intravenous antibiotics.
Today, I am being discharged from hospital with no diagnosis and no treatment necessary. The latest scan (an MRI which they hoped would show exactly which infection has affected which area) came back with no infection. Nothing. Not even the traces of a past infection which has cured. If they had not done all the scans themselves, they would have accused me of lying. The blood tests this morning confirmed the MRI results; they came back perfectly fine, with no sign of infection. I am basically a healthy man again. This thing came over me overnight and was taken away from me overnight.
They do not know what this was; they do not know what caused it; they most definitely do not understand where it disappeared. But I know what this was, and so do you. And once I gather my strength and I share with you the grace our Monastery has received during this time of suffering, things will be even more clear.
---
For the time being, I am going home now. On Saturday, the Feast of the Annunciation and the day of my monastic tonsure, I shall stand again before the Altar of the Lord, in the Monastery He called me to found, surrounded by my brothers and my sisters, whom I love like no one else, doing the one thing I have always longed to do - lift up my sinful hands towards Heavens and intercede with Christ for all the other sinners of this world.
---
THANK YOU: for your prayers, for your messages, for your encouragement, for supporting the Monastery and making all of this possible. Thank you. You were in my prayer before, you are rooted even deeper now.
Do keep us updated, Lain.
Delete雲水,
DeleteI used to follow Fr. Seraphim Aldea's video messages - I have a prayer rope made at his monastary in my pocket as I write this. I think he had a bad run in with the virus thing and maybe has a long version if it. There are natural remedies and repurposed medicines which are being shown to work against the new toxins in the body, but maybe the medics will not have told him about these. I hope he recovers his health.
He had recently started posting again after an 18 month hiatus (he explained that he'd found that doing the videos on the previous schedule had become too much), so it's worth checking back on his channel. I think his health has been fragile for a while.
DeleteNews from China. In Wenzhou, a city on the coast between Hong Kong and Shanghai, parents of kindergarten children are now required to give an undertaking that they will bring up their children to be good little atheists:
ReplyDeleteThe document is called a “Kindergarten Family Commitment Not to Believe in Religion” and should be signed by the parents, who should indicate the name of the children. The parents promise to lead “civilized families” who “do not believe in religion, do not participate in any religious activities … [and will] teach kindergarten children faith in science, socialism, and the Chinese Communist Party.
https://bitterwinter.org/wenzhou-kindergarten-family-commitment-not-to-believe-in-religion/
!!
DeleteThis is not new. John Lennox, professor of mathematics at Oxford and Christian apologist (notable for "taking Richard Dawkins to the wood shed" in their first debate, according to William Lane Craig) has spoken of an experience he had in Eastern Europe before the wall came down of having to comfort a teenage girl who was refused entry to university because she refused to renounce her Christianity and declare herself an atheist. Unfortunately, when you have a world view which says the idea of an earthly utopia is actually achievable, you will maliciously set out to destroy anyone who sees things differently. For the greater good, of course. You'll thank us for it later.
Delete@Bell,
DeleteAh yes, Lennox getting "anti-faith" Dawkins to spontaneously admit that he had faith in his wife's fidelity was one of the apologetics highlights of the last few years.
https://www.crisismagazine.com/opinion/why-do-heretics-remain-in-the-church
ReplyDeleteAn interesting article from Crisis Magazine, detailing some of the late Pope Benedict's concerns about the now sixty-year-long implosion of the Catholic Church.
'Why do heretics remain in the Church?'
DeleteI would say it's not much of a mystery.
Firstly, heretics don't believe they're heretics, they're enlightened reformers so why should they leave?
Secondly, the Church has 2000 years' worth of well-established global networks and a tidy reserve of capital that they can parasite on.
Thirdly, for ideologues it's never about growing the institution, it's about promulgating the message. See any modern Hollywood movie. If your church suddenly drops from 250 congregants to 10, it's simply because 'you can't handle the truth'.
Unfortunately, Christianity rather leaves itself wide open to the last point with its 'remnant theology'. People deserted Jesus in droves when he told hard truths and the world hates true followers of Christ, so low attendance perversely becomes proof that you're doing a good job. Hence the old saw about two preachers having a conversation. 'I've preached my church up to 400', one says. 'That's great', says the other, 'I've preached mine down to 20'.
CRESSIDA
DeleteCardinal Gerhard Müller, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), blasted the heretical German Synodal Way, saying it is worse than schism and calling it a variant of “materialistic and nihilistic woke culture” that has abandoned “the very essence of Christianity.”
In a recent interview with the conservative German magazine Tichys Einblicke, Müller was asked about his most recent book “In Buona Fede,” in which he stated that the situation of the Catholic Church in Germany is “worse than schism.”
Müller explained that while the schismatic orthodox churches kept their focus on Christ, the Synodal Way in Germany has abandoned “the very essence of Christianity […] in favor of its transformation into a variant of the materialistic and nihilistic woke culture of man’s self-redemption and self-creation.”
“Instead of the word of God in Holy Scripture and Church Tradition, one refers to the ‘authorities’ like Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Helmut Kentler, or Yuval Harari,” Müller continued.
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“One cannot cast out the devil with Beelzebub, that is, in the fight against pedophilia, one cannot deprive human sexuality of the demands of God’s commandments and the transforming power of his grace and reduce it to a private pleasure free of morals.”
“The Catholic Church, since Irenaeus of Lyons, has never let the Gnostics of all times get away with de-moralizing sexual promiscuity, polygamy, and the blurring of the distinction between man and woman by saying that God does not care about the material world and the corporeality of man (Against Heresies I, 28, 2).”
The German Cardinal furthermore said that “woke culture,” which is also represented in the Synodal Way, leads humanity further down the path of self-destruction. At the root of this problem, Müller identifies a “wrong anthropology, which makes the marriage of man and woman an arbitrary variant of self-centered libido.”
Commenting on the call for women ordinations, the German prelate said “[t]hat women cannot receive the sacrament of ordination at the levels of bishop, priest/presbyter, and deacon is not a historical-sociological (‘patriarchal’) or psychological (‘anti-women,’ which is folly even as a term) matter, but a matter of the sacramental (and precisely not functional) nature of this sacrament itself as representing Christ as Bridegroom of the Church in His relationship to her as His Bride.”
“It is enough if we bear witness with word and life to the Gospel of Christ, whose cross is more intelligent than all intellectuals and stronger than all the might of the powerful and rich of this world. Then we can answer everyone who asks us about the meaning and reason of the hope that sustains us in life and death (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).”
Müller was also asked why he thinks Germany is the center of this “Sonderweg” (special path) rather than Spain, France, or Italy.
“Unfortunately, there is still the Furor teutonicus, the indomitable tendency to always want to instruct and dominate the whole world,” he answered. “German Catholics still suffer from being second-class citizens (and scholars in theology and science) ever since the Kulturkampf [culture war] in the Bismarck Empire and the claims of superiority of the Prussian Protestant Leitkultur [dominant culture].
“For all our fidelity to the Pope, which is natural for a Catholic, we must also always keep clearly in mind that we belong to Christ’s Church and that the Pope, bishop, and priest are only his servants — sometimes unfaithful — who are always in need of repentance and renewal,” Müller concluded.
The Synodal Way is a heterodox reform project started by the German bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics in December 2019. During its latest assembly in March, an overwhelming majority of the members of the Synodal Path, including more than two-thirds of the German bishops, voted in favor of heretical documents, calling for women deacons, “blessings” of same-sex unions and even “transgender” priests in a text replete with gender ideology.
Pope Francis has been taken to the Gemelli Hospital for tests after complaining about "heart problems" earlier today.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-francis-hospital-previously-scheduled-check-up-2023-03-29/
Update: The Pope will be staying in hospital for "a few days" (BBC)
Deletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65117270
I don't like this pope. I think he's the worst in centuries. Nevertheless, I offered my daily rosary for his recovery and I urge others to do the same. What's the point in only praying for people you like?
DeletePlease also pray for the monks at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery. The Ukrainian government (the one we're sending all our money to and lauding as a beacon on tolerance and democracy) is currently trying to evict the monks and seize the monastic complex for state use, alleging planning and technical infractions. This is part of an ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to its historical links with the Russian Orthodox Church.
ReplyDeleteA while since I dropped by - Holy Week blessings to you all and the assurance of my prayers for Clive this week. Like Jack, I take no pleasure in the current state of politics or the churches but I must take this as all the more incentive to pray and rejoice in the truth. If Christians feel sub-optimal today, the non-Christians must feel ten times worse. Well it's almost Palm Sunday, so Hosanna to the Son of David!
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Brian! A very blessed Easter to you and yours!
DeleteEaster blessings, Brian.
DeleteAdrian Hilton, aka Archbishop Cranmer, said on Twitter that he has been diagnosed with a condition he describes as "very serious". Praying for him.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/Adrian_Hilton/status/1641878587488849931?cxt=HHwWlsC-uYr4j8ktAAAA
Thanks the info, Ray. Praying for Dr Hilton.
DeleteSorry to hear this. I don't agree with much of what Cranmer holds to be right, but I've enjoyed being part of the online community he pulled together. I pray this "serious" condition will be resolved now that it has been diagnosed. I find it appalling that he had to wait a full month to get a GP appointment. That is simply scandalous and it would not have happened even a few years ago.
DeleteThanks Ray, I will pray for him too.
DeleteAn older gentleman from my church recently ended up in intensive care on the edge of organ failure after failing to get an appointment with his doctor for weeks. Fortunately, a visiting relative saw the state he was in and rushed him straight to A&E (the 111 operator advised her to drive him in herself instead of waiting for an ambulance that would never come). He's now back home with a long term health plan, but if that relative hadn't visited, he would be dead.
The state of our healthcare is disgusting at the moment; this is what happens when you put the system in the hands of people who can afford not to use it.
HAPPY PALM SUNDAY !
ReplyDeleteA former Catholic chaplain in an NHS psychiatric hospital has been awarded £10,000 compensation for unfair dismissal. Four years ago a male patient asked him a question about same sex marriage and didn’t like the answer. The NHS ruled at the time that the chaplain’s action was unacceptable and terminated his contract.
ReplyDeletehttps://catholicherald.co.uk/nhs-pays-10k-compensation-to-chaplain-sacked-after-upholding-catholic-marriage-teaching/
@Ray,
DeleteAndrea Williams and the Christian Legal Centre to the rescue again! It seems that this elderly priest even volunteered to work for free after they pushed him out of his salaried role, but they denied him that as well.
I think this is going to increasingly be a problem for institutional chaplains, at least for those who hold to traditional Christian teachings on Current Issues. Chaplaincies are valuable, but there's a clear ideological conflict of interest when the institution and not the church is paying one's wages.
DeleteHere’s the priests account.
DeleteFather Patrick Pullicino is the father of six adult children. After his wife died, the former neurologist decided to study for the priesthood and was ordained in 2019.
That's the chap. If they are intent on banishing Christianity from state healthcare where it is much needed, maybe Christians need to develop their own parallel services - it's kind of already happening in America.
DeleteThank you for this post. It is important that we know what is happening. How absolutely awful for that poor priest.I feel so sorry for him. He was tricked into that. Imagine a Catholic asking a priest about homosexual marriage. These priests are too trusting....They have to learn that there are those out there who make it their life's work to destroy Catholicism.......I hope Father Pullicino is getting a lot of support. God bless him..........Cressida
ReplyDeleteIt depends how Catholic the Catholic patient was, I suppose. Increasingly in the UK, one's 'religion' is simply the box you tick when you go into hospital that says which faith you were baptised into. I helped out on a lay volunteer chaplaincy team for a while, and most of the people I saw had ticked the 'Catholic' box but weren't practicing. Perhaps this patient was hoping that Fr. Pullicino would affirm his relationship (not unreasonably, given some prominent clergy spokesmen spend most of their lives doing so), and got upset when he didn't.
DeleteWhatever the case, clearly the NHS recognised it as an opportunity to get rid of him. From my brief experience, Fr. is right that the NHS want to downgrade chaplaincy to 'generic spiritual care' - I think that they still regard religion as superstitious and backwards, despite the evidence that it can play an important part in healing.
You're also right that Christians in general need to be 'as wise as serpents and innocent as doves' when dealing with these questions, particularly from strangers or in institutional roles. They're too often traps. The way that Jesus dealt with trick questions is instructive.
The guy was in a psychiatric unit for a reason! Troubled conscience? The priest handled the situation well. From other accounts, he accused the priest of saying he would go to hell. One wonders just how the 'senior chaplain' handled this and what his position on homosexuality is.
DeleteWell, it is the doctrinal position of the Catholic Church that sodomy is a mortal sin, and that those who die in a state of mortal sin go to hell. What was he expecting a Catholic priest to tell him? Well, not counting James Martin, obviously...
Delete@Jack - that sounds like a slightly medieval idea of psychiatry... The priest's account and the NHS executive's account are very different; perhaps what the priest said and what patient heard were two different things. I wonder if the member of staff who was with them was interviewed.
DeleteIt's interesting that the Catholic Herald article says that 'Rev Dr Pullicino ... became one of the most senior medics to blow the whistle on abuses of patients under the Liverpool Care Pathway, an end-of-life care protocol abolished as a “national disgrace” in 2014.' I'm sure that had nothing to do with what looks like a NHS kangaroo court sacking him.
At least in this case the tribunal ruled that he'd been unfairly dismissed. I understand that Rev. Dr Bernard Randall, the school chaplain sacked for telling children that they didn't have to 'accept the ideas of LGBT activists', lost his case for unfair dismissal.
@Bell - in this case, if one follows the media in general and a certain part of the Catholic media in particular, I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect that a priest might affirm one's choices. This patient's only exposure to Catholicism might have been in the font. Who knows what his motives for asking the question were, in this case and this medical context.
More widely, the question these days seems to be less 'what do you expect to hear?' rather 'why do you ask?' There are a lot of bad faith enquirers out there who aren't the least bit interested in the Church's doctrinal position, but in trapping Christians into uttering 'hate speech', which the person can then use for revenge, social media narcissism, or to angle for compensation (as they did with the wedding cake fiascos).
This seems to be a particular issue for those evangelical street preachers who can't resist telling someone they're going to hell and aren't wise enough to spot the trip wire and the snare. But it's also starting to become a stumbling block for chaplains.
HJ doesn't see it as a "medieval idea of psychiatry". When you're mentally ill, all sorts of things that might be troubling a person rise to the surface. In this case, the person's life style and his alienation from his father. Would God - our Father - react in the same way? One can understand how the priest's answers - i.e., how might God see the situation and try to consider it from his (earthly) father's point of view - would be difficult to hear.
DeleteJack's comment seemed to imply that a troubled conscience was the answer to why the patient was in a psychiatric ward in the first place. I agree that all sorts of things can rise to surface during mental illness. Also, that one's conscience is less sure a guide than usual during such times, which may be why he sought consolation from the priest.
DeleteObviously, anything we think about the patient's circumstances is speculation, because we don't know him. If he's estranged from his father, perhaps this came across to him as yet another rejection by a 'father' figure - along with the ultimate existential rejection by a father figure in God. Perhaps whatever the priest said was filtered through the lens of psychosis. Perhaps he'd had issues with the Church in the past and saw a chance for revenge. Perhaps the priest wasn't clear enough in his response.
As for what God would say, we again don't know because we don't know the state of the man's heart and mind. There is always difficulty, I think, in dealing with a sin rather than with the sinner, and one could tell anybody 'you're going to hell' over any particular sin one chooses in isolation. I imagine what God would say is that he wants the man to return to a loving relationship with him, start going to Church, finding a good priest to walk with him and go from there. Very few sickness are healed overnight, including spiritual ones.
In other news, a 58 year old man has been arrested in Scotland. I wonder who that could possibly be...
ReplyDeleteMs Sturgeon insisted her decision to resign came from duty and was not linked to 'short-term' issues.
DeleteIn such a gloomy world, the news from Scotland has cheered me today, and Jack as well, I hope.
ReplyDeleteLain's comment reminds me to pray for Bernard Randall and the Cliff College lecturer sacked recently. The hatred out there for the truth is intense.
Certainly the Labour Party will be overjoyed.
DeleteIt's small beer compared to Trump's affairs in America
@BrianR it has amused me no end. Scotland sadly has operated as a one party state for as long as I can remember. Previously it was labour, now it's the SNP. Aboth parties were as corrupt and adept as rewarding the cronies, particularly in the media, as each other.
Delete