Francis needs to learn a basic pre-Vatican II catechism!

Transcript courtesy of the Ark Community

First of all, I want to thank you for your courage. Yesterday I was at the door of the synod hall with a Lutheran bishop. I said, “You’re a brave man! In a previous age they burned Lutherans here … !” [laughter]

This is a meeting that was organized by Tony [Palmer]. He was very excited by this meeting. And I was too. And I am grateful to Archbishop Robert Wise and to Emiliana, who have chosen to carry the torch, this dream which was Tony’s: this dream of being able to walk in communion. We are sinning against Christ’s will, because we continue to focus on our differences; our shared baptism is more important than our differences. We all believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We all have the Holy Spirit within us, which prays within us.

And we all know that there is a father of lies, the father of all division, the antifather, the devil who pushes in and divides, divides. Tony and I spoke so much of walking together, of going ahead, in what unites us, praying that the Lord Jesus with His strength help us and not let what divides us divide us even more. [others say, ‘Amen!’]

It’s crazy to have this treasure and yet prefer imitiations of that treasure – the imitations are our differences. What we should care about is the treasure: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the vocation to holiness, the call to preach the Gospel in every corner of the earth, with the certainty that He is with us – he’s not with me because I’m Catholic, he’s not with me because I’m Lutheran, He’s not with me because I’m Orthodox. A theological mess!

Everyone has their own identity, and I assume that each one of us seeks the Truth. But while we do that we should walk together, and pray for each together, and together let’s do works of charity together – Matthew 25, together; the Beatitudes, together.

We each have in our Churches excellent theologians. That’s another way to walk together also. But we shouldn’t wait for them to reach agreement! That’s what I think. [Applause].

There’s one other thing I’d like to say. This is called spiritual ecumenism. But
there is something else. Nowadays we are seeing how Christians are being persecuted.  I’ve just been in Albania, where they were telling me that they didn’t get asked if they were Catholic or Orthodox – if you were Christian, they would kill you.

Right now in Middle East, and Africa, and so many other countries, how many Christians are being killed! They’re not asked if they are Pentecostals, or Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics, Orthodox. They’re Christians; and they’re being killed because they believe in Jesus Christ. This is ecumenism of the blood.

I remember one time in Hamburg, in 1986-87, and I met a parish priest. And that parish priest was bringing the cause for the beatification of a Catholic priest who was guillotined by the Nazis for teaching the Catechism to children. During his research he saw the list of those sentenced to death that day and right behind him was a Lutheran pastor who was condemned for the same reason. So that the blood of the priest mixed with the blood of the pastor. The priest went to the bishop and said, “either I bring both the Cause for both together, or neither. That’s ecumenism of blood.

I don’t want to say much more. But there was something else that Tony told me.  When he was a young boy in school, the black and the white children would walk and play together when when mealtime came, they were separated. And they would say, “but we want to eat together!” And that desire he had inside of him to walk together so we can eat together at the banquet of the Lord.

I want to thank the presence here of Archbishop Robert Wise, Tony’s spiritual father, and Emiliana, a strong woman. Both of them inherit many things from Tony. We’re aware that it was he who brought us together. This desire for unity, to walk together, praying for each other, living the Beatitudes together, fulfilling together Matthew 25, without making an institution, but freely, like brothers. I don’t know if Emiliana would now like to say a few words?

On 10 October 2014, Francis met with 19 bishops from 

The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC)

for two hours followed by lunch.

 Married with one daughter, James Hampton eating with Francis.

James Hampton not only got the grand tour of the 
Vatican but also of Castel Gandolfo.

Are these men also married?

The 19 bishops their wives and children went to dinner at

Ristorante Il Grottino 3 days before their meeting with Francis.

Some of the CEEC bishops touring Rome.

Pastor Will Cain chillin' in Rome.

VIP guests of Francis at the Vatican!

Sharing jokes at the Vatican.

 Henry Roberts II, Francis, and Darrell D Patrick at lunch.

 After talking, eating is Francis' favorite activity.

Signing a book for Quintin Moore.

 Francis signing a book for Zionist Daniel Warren Williams.

 Another group photo!

 Stephen Galloza planting a kiss on Francis!

Father Francis is “a friend of a friend” who has become my friend. He encouraged us to share the Life of Jesus with everyone! He says, “Life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others. When the Church summons Christians to take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic personal fulfillment" 

- 'archbishop' Quintin Moore  -

“Our world needs unity; this is an age in which we all need unity. Not just unity for the sake of the social economy, but a unity that answers the very prayer of Jesus.”

 - Francis -

Related:

• First Tony Palmer went to the Vatican...

• Francis & brother 'bishop' Tony

• the Evangelical Lunch

• Evangelicals meet with Francis

• Amen, amen, amen, amen, hallelujah, praise the ...

• Francis & the Evangelicals prepare for a one world religion

• salvation is through faith in Christ alone

• Unity through Diversity in the Novus Ordo church

• Francis' friend and "brother bishop" Tony Palmer dies in London from injuries sustained in motorcycle accident

• Jorge Mario Bergoglio advised Tony Palmer not to become a Catholic

• Just when we thought Francis couldn't act more un-Catholic...

the circus at the Vatican

We have to disagree with the kosher approved super-reporter extraordinaire, John Allen, even if it is only in a matter of degrees.  The Synod isn't like a soap opera but is a circus just like the Novus Ordo church.  Which tent do you want to be a part of?

Synod is more and more like a soap opera

by John Allen, Jr., 16 October 2014

ROME – Every day, the 2014 Synod of Bishops on the family, a summit of 260 bishops and other participants convened by Pope Francis, seems more and more like a daytime soap opera. Today brought more surprising turns on multiple fronts.

For one thing, the bishops made the unprecedented decision to release internal reports of small group discussions about a working document released Monday that became a sensation due to its positive language about same-sex unions, couples who live together outside of marriage, and others in “irregular” situations.

The reports photograph a vigorous debate within a divided synod, with one camp seemingly embracing a more positive vision of situations that fall outside the boundaries of official Catholic doctrine, and another clearly alarmed about going soft.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, one of the leaders of the moderate camp, today compared the situation in the synod in which a mother says “watch out, be careful,” and the father says “no, that’s fine, go ahead.”

In part, the decision to release the reports was probably a response to accusations that a policy of not providing individual speeches bishops had given earlier in the synod was intended to suppress conservatives who don’t support the line believed to be favored by Pope Francis.

Also today, the Vatican released a slightly modified English translation of the report from Monday which softened its language on gays; for instance, changing “welcoming” homosexuals to “providing for” them, and saying their unions can provide “valuable support” for partners rather than “precious support.”

Paradoxically, however, the Vatican also insisted that the Italian version is the definitive one, where the word accoglienza, meaning “welcome,” remains.

On a different front, Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church used his speech in the synod today to take a shot at the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, basically telling them to stop complaining about Russian foreign policy and the support for Russian incursions in Ukraine voiced by Russian Orthodox leaders.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was sufficiently outraged that be grabbed Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Greek Catholic Church, who was also in the synod hall, and immediately taped a segment for his radio show in New York to object to Hilarion’s rhetoric.

Outside the synod, things were no less interesting.

In an interview with Rome-based journalist Edwin Pentin, Cardinal Walter Kasper, renowned as the champion of the permissive camp on the question of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to take Communion, said that African bishops at the synod “should not tell us too much what we have to do.”

Kasper later disassociated himself from the comments.

The emergence of the Africans has been one of the more intriguing bits of subtext to the 2014 synod. The fact that they tend to be conservative on matters of sexual morality, especially gay relationships, is no surprise; what has raised eyebrows has been the forceful way they’ve been inserting themselves into the conversation.

After Pope Francis named a six-member editorial committee to shape the synod’s final document, for instance, Africans objected that he hadn’t included anyone from the continent. (Naturally, conspiracy theorists saw this as part of the plot to muzzle the conservative voice.)

Today the Vatican announced that the pope had added Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South Africa to the group, along with Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, Australia. Two days ago, Napier told a Vatican briefing that it “is not true” the entire synod stood behind the message delivered in Monday’s document.

One cardinal speaking on background today said that the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, the Africans weren’t much involved in the discussion. Now, he said, they’ve come of age and are making sure their voice is heard.

In other words, the fault lines at the 2014 synod don’t just run left/right, but also north/south.

Each one of these twists probably deserves its own commentary, but for now here are three general observations.

First, tune in Saturday evening to see what happens with the final document the bishops are slated to vote on, paragraph by paragraph.

Given the divisions that have surfaced — which Francesco Miano, one of the laity in the synod, today phrased as a tension between truth and mercy — it’s virtually certain that some of the daring language from Monday’s interim report will be tweaked, more citations of Church teaching will be inserted, and a stronger focus on sin and the negative elements of certain relationships will emerge.

The drama is whether after all of that is done, the basic message of outreach and — even though the term has been redacted in English — welcome expressed in Monday’s document will still be there.

A cardinal put the question this way today: “Is the synod going to end up being more hesitant than the pope?”

Two, on the keenly debated issue of Communion for the divorced and remarried, it’s abundantly clear that there is no consensus one way or the other, and so the final document seems likely to call for further study rather than making a verdict.

Even that, however, would arguably mark a breakthrough of sorts for the reform position, given that the concluding document of the last synod specifically devoted to the family, in 1980, confirmed the existing rule “founded on Sacred Scripture, of not admitting the divorced and remarried to Holy Communion.”

That document was titled Familiaris Consortio, and was issued by Pope John Paul II. It was confirmed again in a letter from the Vatican’s doctrinal office in 1994, signed by the future Pope Benedict XVI.

Third, it will be fascinating to watch what bishops do over the next year, in the run-up to the larger Synod of Bishops on the family called by Pope Francis for October 2015.

Some will undoubtedly use the synod’s final document as a basis for open debate on the issues raised, without any pre-determined idea of how they should be resolved. Others, however, may well use the following 12 months to marshal their forces to bolster the positions they support, much as happened during the periods between sessions of Vatican II.

Next year, coincidentally, will mark the 50th anniversary of the closing of Vatican II in 1965. In many ways, the experience of this synod and what’s likely to happen from here is as close as the Church has come in the period sense to living some of the same drama.

Whether that’s a welcome development or something to rue, of course, depends on one’s point of view.

The Circus Show never ends with Francis!