By Jonathan Ekene
Ifeanyi
 |
| Francis I |
When, last month, during
the evil Synod, Francis called for a "healthy decentralisation" of
power in the Roman Catholic Church, including changes in the papacy and greater
decision-making authority for local bishops, many Catholics, as usual, —and thoughtless
as they are—didn’t just care to consider the implication of what he was
actually talking about. Francis made the comments at a
ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Synod of Bishops,
a worldwide gathering that occasionally advises the pope on a host of issues.
Then he said the type of collegiality—the papal governing of the Church in
collaboration with bishops—envisaged by the (evil) reforming 1962-1965 Second
Vatican Council still had not been achieved. National and regional bishops'
conferences should have more authority to make decisions affecting the faithful
in their areas rather than always looking to Rome for a centralised decision
that has to fit all, he said. "In this sense, I feel the need to move
ahead with a healthy decentralisation," he said. Francis also said it was "necessary and urgent to think about a
conversion of the papacy", a possibility that was first floated even by
the late John Paul II in 1995. Without elaborating, Francis said
"more light could be shed" on the exercising of the papacy, both
within the 1.2 billion member Church and in its relations with other (heretical)
“Christian churches” that split from Rome over the primacy of the papacy.
Now, here
come the enemies once again, and one wonders when Catholics will wake up from their apathetic slumber to see clearly these enemies who are simply out to kill them all!
Maike Hickson of LifeSiteNews reports:
The German bishops, sixty-seven of them, recently
visited Rome together for their obligatory Ad Limina visit with Francis from
November 16-20. This Ad Limina visit, which is obligatory for all bishops of
the world, was of a special importance, inasmuch as the German bishops played
an important role during the recent controversial Synod of Bishops on Marriage
and the Family in Rome. The German bishops' last Ad Limina visit was,
surprisingly, some nine years ago, instead of the prescribed five years. Unlike
previous popes, however, Pope Francis does not meet the bishops individually
during such a visit in order to receive an account of the state of their
dioceses, but only in smaller groups. At the end of the nearly week-long visit,
he met in a plenary session with all German bishops together, on 20 November.
On this occasion, Pope Francis, as well as the head of the German Bishops'
Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, both gave a speech.
In his own speech, Pope Francis pointed out the
decline of the Catholic Faith in Germany, with a dwindling Mass attendance and
a comparably diminishing practice of the Sacrament of Confession. The Holy
Father said “one can truly speak of an erosion of the Catholic Faith in
Germany.” And he added: “Whereas in the 1960’s the faithful almost everywhere
attended Mass every Sunday, today it is often less than 10 percent."
When asking himself what the remedy could be for
the loss of Faith in Germany, the Pontiff proposed something inspired “by the
life of the early Christians.” With reference to the collaborators of St. Paul,
Priscilla and Aquila, a married couple, the pope thus stressed the important
role of the laymen, the “volunteers,” as he called them. Pope Francis
continued: “The example of these 'volunteers' may cause us to think, especially
in the face of the tendency for a growing institutionalization of the Church.
More and more structures are being created, although the faithful are missing.”
In his eyes, this “exaggerated centralization” is what is making the Church's
life “more complicated.” For Pope Francis, the Church somehow has to be more
“alive” and thus “can be causing unrest and can also be inspiring.”
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich, made
reference to a similar theme when he expressed his gratitude for the pope's
recent October 17
speech on Synodality and a Decentralization of the
Church. After first declaring that the German bishops will soon publish their
own proclamation concerning the question of the pastoral care for marriages and
the family, Cardinal Marx said:
"Holy Father, the German bishops are grateful that
you – in order to deepen and continue the discussion of these themes [of
marriage and the family] – chose to take the Synodal Path which has now led to
the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and which, in turn – and we do
request you to do it – will open us up into a new stage with the help of the
document soon to be written by you".
Cardinal Marx also said that a “Synodal Church”
would help establish more decentralization in the Church's structures in
relation to the pope's central governance. Such a readjustment of proportions,
in Marx's eyes, is necessary “due to the diversity of the developments and the
disparate cultural situations in the different parts of a globalized, yet
interconnected world.”
In a similar vein, several prominent German and
Swiss voices have expressed their support for the concept of a further
decentralized and more synodal Church. For example, Father Bernd Hagenkord,
S.J., head of the German branch of Vatican Radio, stated: “Decentralization is
on the agenda, as Pope Francis explained in more detail in his speech on
occasion of the [50th] Anniversary of the Synod of Bishops.” And Hagenkord
stressed: “We are now living in a free society in which centralism is not any
more the order of the day.”
The Swiss Bishops Conference's official website
kath.ch also published an article
about the theme of decentralization and the necessity to give more weight
to the national bishops' conferences. It also makes reference to an article by
Father Herrman Pottmeyer who is a declared opponent of the unique charism of
papal supremacy. He had been one of the participants of the controversial Spadaro seminar which
had caused some suspicion because it was organized right before the recent
October 4-25 Synod of Bishops on the Family. Pottmeyer, in his own
comments about Pope Francis' proposals for more
decentralization, proclaimed that the papal call for a more “synodal Church”
has “initiated the end of Roman centralism.” He refers to “the intended
re-vivification of the original synodal practice of the Church” which is even
now purportedly being revived. Pottmeyer, himself a professor of Fundamental
Theology, sees it to be necessary that the local churches “have more weighty
influence” in the universal Church and that “national, as well as regional,
bishops' conferences – or particular councils – receive an enlargement of their
legitimate competencies.”
The theme of a decentralized Church has caused an
intervention, during the last Synod on the Family, by the retired Cardinal
Arinze. In an interview with
LifeSiteNews, he pointed out that on issues of faith and morals, such as
homosexuality and marriage, the local churches may not teach differently than
Rome. He said:
The Ten Commandments are not subject to national
frontiers. A bishops’ conference in a country cannot agree that stealing from a
bank is not sinful in that country, or that divorced persons who are remarried
can receive Holy Communion in that country, but when you cross the boundary and
go to another country it now becomes a sin.
Moreover, Voice of the Family, a coalition of
pro-life and pro-family organizations, also expressed some
grave reservations concerning this apparently planned decentralization of the
Church which could even lead to an undermining of the Church's clear doctrinal
and moral teaching. Voice of the Family concluded its own article with the
following statement:
“ “Decentralization” has been demanded by prelates
who are openly stating that they wish to see Episcopal Conferences depart from
the faith and practice of the Universal Church. Far from correcting such
prelates Pope Francis has often, as in the case of Cardinal Marx, appointed
them to positions of influence. It is reasonable therefore for Catholics to be
gravely concerned when he echoes their call for decentralization. Pope Francis
can only restore trust by publicly correcting heresy and by ending his practice
of conferring honours and influence on prelates who reject the Catholic faith.”
Pope Francis himself had also dwelt in his recent
speech on the importance of establishing a more decentralized Church,
especially with the help of the national bishops' conferences. He said:
“The second level is that of Ecclesiastical
Provinces and Ecclesiastical Regions, Particular Councils and, in a special
way, Conferences of Bishops. We need to reflect on how better to bring about,
through these bodies, intermediary instances of collegiality, perhaps by
integrating and updating certain aspects of the ancient ecclesiastical
organization. The hope expressed by the Council that such bodies would help
increase the spirit of episcopal collegiality has not yet been fully realized”.
This strengthening of the local churches and a
further decentralization of the Church, in the sense of a stronger
“synodality,” also has for Pope Francis anecumenical importance, as he
points out more explicitly a little later:
“The commitment to build a synodal Church — a
mission to which we are all called, each with the role entrusted him by the
Lord — has significant ecumenical implications. For this reason, speaking
recently to a delegation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, I reaffirmed
my conviction that “a careful examination of how, in the Church’s life, the
principle of synodality and the service of the one who presides are
articulated, will make a significant contribution to the progress of relations
between our Churches.” ”
In a way, this speech may therefore well be
understood as a further papal attempt to weaken the role of the pope, a
uniquely privileged office which has always been a stumbling block for the
other Christian groups or denominations – Protestant or Orthodox. In stressing
the desirably decentralized and synodal character of the Catholic Church, a
rapprochement with the other ostensibly Christian churches might thereby be
intended.
Source: LifeSiteNews
See also the following: http://traditionalcatholicisminnigeria.blogspot.com.ng/2015/10/here-are-what-every-catholic-should_10.html
See also the following: http://traditionalcatholicisminnigeria.blogspot.com.ng/2015/10/here-are-what-every-catholic-should_10.html
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