While
so many people on the internet are railing against Pope Francis,
calling him evil, I'm not one of them. I think he is leading the Church
more like Jesus every day. He's speaking the truth to those who need
to hear it.
He
popped into the synod (that gathering of Church people (including
laypeople) from around the world) and made a "rare speech" to those
gathered. Boy did he have something to say. Here are a few of my
favorite quotes from his speech:
"I
explain it this way: 'When you want to know 'what' Holy Mother Church
believes, go to the magisterium, because it is in charge of teaching it
to you, but when you want to know 'how' the Church believes, go to the
faithful people,"
"it
is women who know how to hope, know how to discover the resources of
the church and of the faithful people, who take risks beyond the limit,
perhaps with fear but courageously."
"When
ministers overstep in their service and mistreat the people of God,
they disfigure the face of the church with chauvanistic and dictatorial
attitudes,"
"Clericalism
is a whip, it is a scourge, it is a form of worldliness that defiles
and damages the face of the Lord's bride . . . It enslaves God's holy
and faithful people."
"Pope
Francis described as "a scandal" the scene of young priests going in to
ecclesiastical tailor shops in Rome "trying on cassocks and hats or
albs with lace."
The above quotes are from an article on the USCCB's website titled, "Listen to, trust the lay faithful, pope tells synod members"
No
wonder so many people do not like Pope Francis--he really tells it like
it is. For those who are ingrained in their own biases, he really
calls them out, convicting them.
The
articles coming out about this synod have been very interesting. But
don't be thinking there are sides to be taken here, as Dominican Father
Timothy Radcliffe pointed out:
"When
we go home, people will ask, 'Did you fight for our side? Did you
oppose those unenlightened other people? . . . We shall need to be
profoundly prayerful to resist the temptation to succumb to this
party-political way of thinking,' he said. 'That would be to fall back
into the sterile, barren language of much of our society. It is not the
synodal way,' which is 'organic and ecological rather than
competitive.'" (USCCB - "As Synod Winds Down, Members Urged to Sow Patience")
As
was mentioned in another article, some people will fear that change
will come from this gathering, and some people will fear that nothing
will change.
As
the synod will close in a few days, the leaders will return to their
dioceses and take 11 months to digest all that took place here over this
past month. They will spend time in prayerful discernment until they
meet against next October.
Please keep them in your prayers.
Janet Cassidy
No comments:
Post a Comment