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| Synod proposal could give ‘doctrinal authority’ to local bishops’ conferences |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-17-2024, 05:10 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Synod proposal could give ‘doctrinal authority’ to local bishops’ conferences
Bishops' conferences could essentially become the doctrine makers of their own local churches, thus completely undermining the unity of the Church.
![[Image: synod-tables.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/synod-tables.jpg)
Synod on Synodality members.
Michael Haynes
Oct 15, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Synod members are discussing a proposal that would give bishops “doctrinal authority,” essentially having the Catholic Church break up into numerous different, often contradictory bodies.
As the 300-plus members of the Synod on Synodality’s second session gather in the Paul VI Audience Hall, they began today the fourth of five modules of discussions that form part of the monthlong event.
Between October 2 and October 27, the members are working through the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, that was released in July to guide the month’s proceedings.
A total of seven working days will be given to the section of the working document that looks at “places” in respect of the overarching question “How to be a synodal Church in mission?” Those days, arguably, could prove to be the most momentous of the entire month.
Unlike last year’s October meeting, 10 study groups established by Pope Francis are dealing with a variety of topics, including the more controversial ones such as LGBT and female deacons.
But Francis and the synod leadership team have from the beginning insisted that the event is not intended to address such questions in the manner that, for instance, LGBT activists might wish. Rather, the synod is on synodality – meaning an examination and overhaul of the Church’s life, governance, and activity.
Opening the synod in 2021, Pope Francis quoted Vatican II theologian Father Yves Congar and called for “a different Church” courtesy of the synod. “Synodality is, in fact, the long game of Pope Francis,” Newark’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin revealed in May 2021.
With this month’s focus on how to be increasingly “synodal” – Francis and synod leaders have repeatedly declared the Church must be synodal in order to move forward – the discussions on this current module are therefore key.
Local churches holding doctrinal authority
Buried toward the end of the working document, in its treatment of “places,” are proposals that could turn the Catholic Church into a Protestant-style conglomeration of individual bodies rather than a unified body.
While paradoxically placed in a subsection entitled “the bonds that shape the unity of the Church,” these proposals would essentially allow bishops’ conferences to become doctrine makers of their own local churches, thus completely undermining the unity of the Church.
Paragraph 96 reads that the desire of Vatican II for local churches to foster the “collegial spirit” has “not been fully realized.” This, the document attests by way of a direct quote from Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium, is because “a juridical status of Episcopal Conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.”
“Seeking how to be a synodal Church in mission requires addressing this question,” the Instrumentum Laboris adds.
The request for local authority over doctrine is expanded in paragraph 97:
Quote:From all that has been gathered so far, during this synodal process, the following proposals emerge: (a) recognition of Episcopal Conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority, assuming socio-cultural diversity within the framework of a multifaceted Church, and favoring the appreciation of liturgical, disciplinary, theological, and spiritual expressions appropriate to different socio-cultural contexts; {emphasis added}
(b) evaluating the real experience of the functioning of the Episcopal Conferences and the Eastern hierarchical structures, and of the relations between Episcopates and the Holy See, to identify the concrete reforms to be implemented; the ad limina visits, which fall under Study Group 7, could be a fitting context for this evaluation; and
© ensuring that all Dioceses or Eparchies are assigned to an ecclesiastical Province and an Episcopal Conference or Eastern hierarchical Structure (cf. CD 40)
With this proposal, the Instrumentum Laboris attempts to have bishops’ conferences assign to themselves the power to decide what is in accord with the Catholic Church’s doctrine or not. The results – as have already been witnessed historically with the breakup and proliferation of the Protestant churches – would herald the death of the Catholic Church as “One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic.”
Such a proposal is also being posited in line with another key synod theme, namely the inculturation of the Gospel in accordance with local cultures.
“The Church cannot be understood without being rooted in a place and a culture and without the relationships established between places and cultures,” the Instrumentum Laboris reads just a few lines above.
“The synodal conversion of minds and hearts must be accompanied by a synodal reform of ecclesial realities, called to be roads on which to journey together,” the text adds.
Such a call for local style of Gospel “inculturation” is reiterated once again, as the Instrumentum Laboris urges a continued push:
Quote:The desire that local synodal dialogue should continue and not come to an end and the need for effective inculturation of the faith in specific regions drives us towards a new appreciation of the institution of particular Councils, be they provincial or plenary, whose periodic celebration has been an obligation for a large part of the Church’s history.
With local style of ecclesial life thus emerging, activists will find considerable weight for making their local arguments in favor of – for instance – female deacons in the Amazon. Add to this the ability of bishops’ conferences to decide doctrine for themselves and the global Church risks crumbling.
It remains to be seen what the synod members make of the working document’s proposals and what recommendations they send to Pope Francis.
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| The Catholic Trumpet: An Anchor in the Midst of Turmoil |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-16-2024, 08:48 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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An Anchor in the Midst of Turmoil
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/iniative.thebannerTHE%E2%98%A9TRUMPET%20(4000%20x%20-ffc1a37.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet | October 15, 2024
As the writer for The Catholic Trumpet, I can’t help but feel that the truth is glaringly obvious to those of us who seek it: the Conciliar Church stands as the prophesied counter-church of the end times, especially in light of the "Second Vatican Council"—rightly dubbed the "anti-council."
Yet, the world seems indifferent, and those who recognize this truth are blind to the reality that the SSPX—now referred to as the Neo-SSPX—is firmly under its influence since the 2012 doctrinal declaration. One must wonder: is the Antichrist not already with us in spirit, and is his reign just around the corner? But the true sons of Archbishop Lefebvre endure; Fr. Hewko, for example, keeps us afloat and makes up for the silence from our traditional bishops and remaining priests.
Disasters are unfolding throughout North America, and if these are indeed a chastisement, we must give Glory to God. Yet, mainstream media often downplays these events. In North Carolina, for example, they report only 50 fatalities, while local accounts suggest the number could be in the thousands. It’s easy to feel disheartened when we see a world that refuses to turn back to the Church of Christ. However, in these tumultuous times, we must hold fast to Our Lady and dedicate ourselves to deep spiritual works.
As a humble compilation of thoughts, I will share with you the wisdom and instruction of a much greater man to reflect on, guiding us to love and serve God while battling fiercely against the world and ourselves.
-A. Mari Servus
The Imitation of Christ
CHAPTER XLVIII
Of the Day of Eternity and of the Straitnesses of This Life
"Oh most blessed mansion of the City which is above! Oh most clear day of eternity which the night obscureth not, but the Supreme Truth ever enlighteneth! Day always joyful, always secure and never changing its state into those which are contrary. Oh would that this day might shine forth, and that all these temporal things would come to an end. It shineth indeed upon the Saints, glowing with unending brightness, but only from afar and through a glass, upon those who are pilgrims on the earth.
2. The citizens of heaven know how glorious that day is; the exiled sons of Eve groan, because this is bitter and wearisome. The days of this life are few and evil, full of sorrows and straits, where man is defiled with many sins, ensnared with many passions, bound fast with many fears, wearied with many cares, distracted with many questionings, entangled with many vanities, compassed about with many errors, worn away with many labours, weighed down with temptations, enervated by pleasures, tormented by poverty.
3. Oh when shall there be an end of these evils? When shall I be delivered from the wretched slavery of my sins? When shall I be mindful, O Lord, of Thee alone? When shall I rejoice in Thee to the full? When shall I be in true liberty without any impediment, without any burden on mind or body? When shall there be solid peace, peace immovable and secure, peace within and without, peace firm on every side? Blessed Jesus, when shall I stand to behold Thee? When shall I gaze upon the glory of Thy kingdom? When shalt Thou be to me all in all? Oh when shall I be with Thee in Thy Kingdom which Thou hast prepared from the foundation of the world for them that love Thee? I am left destitute, an exile in a hostile land, where are daily wars and grievous misfortunes.
4. Console my exile, mitigate my sorrow, for towards Thee all my desire longeth. For all is to me a burden, whatsoever this world offereth for consolation. I yearn to enjoy Thee intimately, but I cannot attain unto it. I long to cleave to heavenly things, but temporal things and unmortified passions press me down. In my mind I would be above all things, but in my flesh I am unwillingly compelled to be beneath them. So, wretched man that I am, I fight with myself, and am made grievous even unto myself, while the spirit seeketh to be above and the flesh to be beneath.
5. Oh how I suffer inwardly, while with the mind I discourse on heavenly things, and presently a crowd of carnal things rusheth upon me whilst I pray. My God, be not Thou far from me, nor depart in wrath from Thy servant. Cast forth Thy lightning and scatter them; send out Thine arrows,(1) and let all delusions of my enemy be confounded. Recall my senses unto Thyself, cause me to forget all worldly things; grant me quickly to cast away and despise the imaginations of sin. Succour me, O Eternal Truth, that no vanity may move me. Come unto me, O Heavenly Sweetness, and let all impurity flee from before Thy face. Pardon me also, and of Thy mercy deal gently with me, whensoever in prayer I think on anything besides Thee; for truly I confess that I am wont to be continually distracted. For often and often, where in the body I stand or sit, there I myself am not; but rather am I there, whither I am borne by my thoughts. Where my thought is, there am I; and there commonly is my thought where that which I love is. That readily occurreth to me, which naturally delighteth, or pleaseth through custom.
6. Wherefore Thou, who art the Truth, hast plainly said, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.(2) If I love heaven, I gladly meditate on heavenly things. If I love the world, I rejoice in the delights of the world, and am made sorry by its adversities. If I love the flesh, I am continually imagining the things which belong to the flesh; if I love the spirit, I am delighted by meditating on spiritual things. For whatsoever things I love, on these I readily converse and listen, and carry home with me the images of them. But blessed is that man who for Thy sake, O Lord, is willing to part from all creatures; who doth violence to his fleshly nature and crucifieth the lusts of the flesh by the fervour of his spirit, so that with serene conscience he may offer unto Thee a pure prayer, and be made worthy to enter into the angelic choirs, having shut out from himself, both outwardly and inwardly, all worldly things."
(1) Psalm lxxi. 12. (2) Matthew vi. 21.
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| Amazon cardinal ‘lays hands’ to confer ‘ministry’ on women going to ‘celebrate a sacrament’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-16-2024, 07:45 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Amazon cardinal ‘lays hands’ to confer ‘ministry’ on women going to ‘celebrate a sacrament’
Brazil’s Cardinal Ulrich Steiner told a press conference that he ‘lays hands’ on women who will baptize people in the Amazon region, asserting that 'in our reality, women exercise the deacon's ministries.’
![[Image: steiner-1.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/steiner-1.jpg)
Cardinal Ulrich Steiner in Fatima.
Santuário de Fátima/Facebook
Oct 15, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [adapted]) — Calling for a female diaconate, Cardinal Ulrich Steiner, from Brazil’s Amazon region, has revealed that he “lays hands” on women who he has commissioned to baptize since they are going to “celebrate a sacrament.”
Addressing a press conference in Fatima, Portugal, over the weekend, Steiner renewed his prior calls for a female diaconate.
“In our reality, women exercise the deacon’s ministries,” said Steiner on Saturday. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Manaus, in the Amazon, presides over an area with approximately 1.6 million Catholics.
He added that “the vast majority of our small communities are coordinated by women,” noting that the “role of women in the church of the Amazon is fundamental.”
Steiner continued, revealing that he performs a para-liturgical ceremony for women he sends to offer the sacraments within the archdiocese.
“When I send someone, for example to baptize, I lay hands on them, but I don’t lay hands on someone as an ordination. I lay hands as the apostles did,” he attested, adding that it is “a sign of receiving a ministry and that this person will celebrate a sacrament.”
The apostles are recorded in the Scriptures as laying on hands on new Catholics, but primarily the laying on of hands was used in conjunction with conferring sacramental ordination to Holy Orders, such as when ordaining the seven deacons. (Acts 6: 6)
St. Paul also warns against too freely practicing the laying on of hands for new converts, warning in 1 Timothy 5:22: “Impose not hands lightly upon any man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins.”
Steiner’s testimony about his laying on of hands to confer a “ministry,” while arguing that he is not ordaining, appears to contradict the custom of the early Church since new members of the Church did not receive a “ministry” when the apostles laid hands on them.
Additionally, the Catholic Church notes that the “ordinary ministers” of the Sacrament of Baptism are bishops, priests, and deacons. It is only “in case of necessity” that “any person, even someone not baptized, can baptize, if he has the required intention.”
Steiner has regularly highlighted the leading contributions of women in his archdiocese, and following calls from the Amazon Synod to have female deacons, the issue has gained renewed attention with the Synod on Synodality.
Continuing his remarks to the press in Fatima, Steiner made passing reference to the controversy relating not only to female deacons, but also to Pope Francis’ 2023 document Fiducia Supplicans.
“These issues are very tense in the Church,” he commented. “We should not stop discussing and reflecting. And if, in an hour, we come to the conclusion that, in the past, there was the female diaconate, why not reintroduce it, how was the permanent diaconate reintroduced?”
Advocates for female ordination continue to argue that such a practice would simply be revitalizing a custom of the early Church. But in 2002, the Vatican’s International Theological Commission wrote after much study that:
- The deaconesses mentioned in the tradition of the ancient Church – as evidenced by the rite of institution and the functions they exercised – were not purely and simply equivalent to the deacons;
- The unity of the sacrament of Holy Orders, in the clear distinction between the ministries of the bishop and the priests on the one hand and the diaconal ministry on the other, is strongly underlined by ecclesial tradition, especially in the teaching of the Magisterium
As LifeSiteNews columnist Dr. Maike Hickson noted in an article for OnePeterFive, “female deacons were not sacramentally ordained, were excluded from any role in the liturgy, and thus cannot be compared with a sacramentally ordained female deacon as Cardinal (Christophe) Schönborn and others propose.”
Catholic prohibition of female ordination
The question of female deacons has been consistently raised by certain voices in the media and in the Church, and it continues to be proposed at the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis has assigned the question to a special study group led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández. The cardinal briefed synod members October 2 about the issue, saying that no approval would be given to female deacons at the moment, but that “in-depth study” would continue until 2025.
The study group is examining the question by drawing on the October 2023 Synthesis Report and the Vatican’s 2016 and 2020 commissions on “female deacons.” In addition, Fernández told the synod assembly that he was drawing upon Evangelii Gaudium 103-104, Querida Amazonia 99-103, and Antiquum Ministerium 3.
The Catholic Church infallibly teaches that it is impossible to ordain women to sacred orders, including the diaconate. In his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II taught “that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
In 2018, then-prefect of the CDF Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., defended the teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis as bearing the mark of “infallibility,” with John Paul II having “formally confirmed and made explicit, so as to remove all doubt, that which the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium has long considered throughout history as belonging to the deposit of faith.”
“It is certainly without doubt, however, that this definitive decision from Pope John Paul II is indeed a dogma of the Faith of the Catholic Church and that this was of course the case already before this Pope defined this truth as contained in Revelation in the year 1994,” declared former CDF prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller in 2019.
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| The Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Hungary |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-15-2024, 11:03 AM - Forum: Resources Online
- Replies (12)
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The Revelations of St. Elizabeth
translated, by Alexandra Barratt,
University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
A Translation into Modern English, made from the Latin text in Cambridge Magdalene College MS F.4.14
Taken from here.
Table of Contents
Note from the Translator's Introduction
Here begin the visions of the blessed virgin Elizabeth, daughter of the king of Hungary.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
Notes
Note from the Translator's Introduction
Although today virtually unknown, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Hungary circulated in two Latin and two Middle English versions, as well as in French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan. Elsewhere I have discussed the problems of their authorship, date, and original language and have argued that the original text was written in Middle High German, probably by the Dominican nun Elsbet Stagel, Suso's spiritual daughter and biographer, and then translated (twice) into Latin. Further, I have suggested that the "Elizabeth of Hungary" with whom it claims to originate is not the popular St. Elizabeth of Thuringia (d. 1231) but her obscure great-niece, Elizabeth of Tob (d. 1336), like her aunt the daughter of a king of Hungary, who spent her short life as an enclosed Dominican nun in the convent of Tob, near Wintertur in Switzerland.
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| The Catholic Way to Celebrate a Birthday |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-15-2024, 05:14 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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The Catholic Way to Celebrate a Birthday
Rachel Lee Lozowski
TIA | October 14, 2024
A reader asked us how a Catholic should celebrate his or her birthday in a meritorious or traditional way as it was done in the past.
Perhaps the best way to begin to understand the true Catholic spirit of birthdays is to imitate Our Lady, whose commemoration of her nativity is recorded in The Mystical City of God: The Coronation by Ven. Mary of Agreda, (Chap. XII):
Quote:“She celebrated [her birth] on the eighth of September, on the day on which she was born. She began on the evening before with the same prostrations and canticles as she made to honor the feast of her Conception. She gave thanks for having been born to life into the light of this world, and for the favor of having been raised to Heaven in the hour of her birth to look upon the Divinity intuitively, as I have narrated in the first part of this history.
“She resolved anew to spend her whole life in fulfilling the pleasure of the Lord, acknowledging that for this purpose alone it was given to her. … She asked the Lord to lend her His assistance, govern her in all her actions and lead her to the highest end proposed for His glory.
“As for the rest concerning this feast, although she was not raised to Heaven as on the day of her Conception, yet her Divine Son came down with many choirs of the Angels, with the Patriarchs and Prophets, and with St. Joachim, St. Anne and St. Joseph. With this company Christ our Savior descended in order to celebrate the birthday of His Most Blessed Mother upon earth.
“And this purest of creatures, in the presence of that celestial company, adored the Lord with wonderful reverence and worship, and again expressed her thankful acknowledgment for having been placed upon the earth and for the benefits connected therewith.” (pp. 524-532)
![[Image: C088_Nat.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images%20(A-D)/C088_Nat.jpg)
The Nativity of Our Lady
Our Lady then gives instructions to Mary of Agreda on how to celebrate her birthday:
Quote:“On the day of your birth into the world, you should render special thanks to the Lord in imitation of me and perform some extra work in His service. Above all you should resolve thenceforth to amend thy life and to commence to labor in this anew. And all mortals, instead of spending the anniversary of their birth in demonstration of vain earthly joy, should make similar resolutions.” (p. 532)
With these admirable instructions given to us by Our Lady, it would seem fitting to attend Mass on one’s birthday, if time and duty allows. The thoughts and practices on the day should often be focused on gratitude to God as our Creator and submission to Divine Providence, described so perfectly above. However, although Our Lady warns against demonstrations of “vain earthly joy,” it is not contrary to the Catholic spirit to have an innocent and joyful celebration according to one’s means.
History of the celebration of birthdays
In the mind of the Church, the death day of a saint is considered to be his birth day to new life in Heaven; for this reason the traditional day for a saint’s feast is assigned on the death day. In the Roman Martyrology, the beginning of an entry of the saint’s death day often describes the date as the “natalis” (“the birthday of”) the saint who is commemorated.
![[Image: C088_Her.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images%20(A-D)/C088_Her.jpg)
The early Christians rejected the lavish birthday feasts, as Herod’s birthday above, & saw the true birthday of a Saint to be his death day when he entered the Eternal Kingdom
![[Image: C088_fra.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images%20(A-D)/C088_fra.jpg)
St. Ambrose declares that “the day of our burial is called our birthday (natalis) because, being set free from the prison of our crimes, we are born to the liberty of the Savior.” He continues: “Wherefore this day is observed as a great celebration, for it is in truth a festival of the highest order to be dead to our vices and to live to righteousness alone.” (Serm. 57, de Depos. St. Eusebii)
The death day was referred to as the natalis or birthday since at least 150 A.D. when the Christians of Smyrna describe in writing how they honored the bones of St. Polycarp, “which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold.” Thus, they “laid them in a suitable place where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in gladness and joy and to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom.”
In the early days of the Church, Christians did not celebrate birthdays since it was a pagan custom of the Roman society. Origen argues that “of all the holy people in the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world below.” (Origen, in Levit., Hom. VIII, in Migne P.G., XII, 495)
The Early Christians instead considered their true “day of birth” to be their Baptism day, when they were made children of God. In the fourth century, after paganism’s hold on Roman society began to dwindle and the Nativity of Our Lord began to be celebrated publicly, some Catholic Romans of upper classes began to celebrate birthdays. By medieval times, the nobility celebrated their actual birthdays with grand feasts and pageants.
Name day celebrations
While the nobles celebrated their birth day, the peasantry more commonly celebrated their Name Day with more simple celebrations befitting their condition. Up until the 20th century, many Catholic countries celebrated Name Days instead of (or in addition to) birthdays. The Name Day is the feast day of the patron saint after whom a person is named. In many Catholic families of the past, children were named after the saint on whose feast day they were born, so the birthday and Name Day were the same day.
![[Image: C088_Med.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images%20(A-D)/C088_Med.jpg)
Medieval nobles celebrated birthdays with marvelous feasts
On a person’s name day, he attended Mass in the morning. In the afternoon all of his friends, family members and neighbors visited him and offered good wishes, and he enjoyed special celebratory foods. In some places, the person celebrating his Name Day provided the food for the feast and invited others to partake of the feast. During the festive meal, toasts were made in honor of the person and their patron saint.
In Lithuania, people decorated the door of the person whose Name Day it was and adorned his seat in the dining room with ribbons and flowers. During the meal, he was given a sash to wear with his saint’s name on it and he and the chair were hoisted three times into the air.
These Name Day customs could easily be used or adapted for birthday celebrations. Some Catholics may even find that they wish to have their main celebration on their Name Day. However or whenever a Catholic decides to celebrate, he ought to acknowledge both days and offer to God and the Saints the honor that they deserve.
Another pious custom of the past was for persons to set apart their birthday as a special festival in honor of their Guardian Angels. They would treat the birthday exactly as they would the festivals of the great Saints they honor, both in the way of preparation and in keeping the octave. In addition one would give as many alms as his years in honor as his Guardian Angel, or else make as many acts of virtue or devotion to their amiable Guardian. (Henri-Marie Boudon, Devotion to the Nine Choirs of Holy Angels, London: Burns, Oates, & Co, 1869, p. 157)
Celebrating birthdays as traditional Catholics
Birthdays as they are celebrated today are often filled with vulgarity, silliness and worldliness, especially amongst people without Faith. There is also a tendency among many toward extravagance, making each birthday a kind of secular and often expensive event. The common customs that we associate with birthdays, however, are not bad in themselves.
The custom of topping birthday cakes with candles denoting the age, and the ceremony of blowing out the candles and cutting the cake, seem to have originated in the late 18th century when they were popularized in Germany during birthdays of children of wealthy families.
![[Image: C088_Ext.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images%20(A-D)/C088_Ext.jpg)
A worldly party without ceremony; below, a family’s simple but joyful celebration of the baby’s first birthday with cake & family
![[Image: C088_Fir.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images%20(A-D)/C088_Fir.jpg)
Despite their more recent appearance, these customs can still be included in a traditional Catholic birthday celebration. There is no one way of celebrating a birthday. Different families, villages and regions should develop their own customs and foods, as they did in the past.
To avoid merely giving into the “vain earthly joy” that Our Lady warns about in the beginning of this article, a person should consider the primary duty on his birthday to give thanks to God, especially by attending Mass, giving alms, performing extra prayers and devotions, etc.
Celebrations should be filled with joy, but also be tempered by virtue ,seriousness, and sacrality. The dining hall should be decorated elegantly, the conversation should be edifying, and toasts and good wishes ought to be directed towards the good of the person’s soul and the fulfillment of his vocation.
Sources:
1. Orly Redlich, The Concept of Birthday: A Theoretical, Historical, and Social Overview, in Judaism and Other Cultures (The World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences vol:14, n:9, 2020) pp. 791-792. (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Orl...ltures.pdf)
2. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10709a.htm
3. https://www.lagazzettaitaliana.com/histo...n-name-day
4. https://www.fisheaters.com/namedays.html
5. Mary Gage and James Gage, “Birthday Cakes: History & Recipes” (https://www.newenglandrecipes.org/Birthday-Cake.pdf)
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| Cardinal Tobin says synodality implements Pope Francis’ ‘program’ for the Church |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-14-2024, 06:35 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Cardinal Tobin says synodality implements Pope Francis’ ‘program’ for the Church
With ‘Amoris Laetitia, Fratelli Tutti, Laudato Si’,’ Pope Francis has ‘distilled wisdom’ from previous synods,
opined Cardinal Joseph Tobin at a Holy See press briefing today.
![[Image: tobin-1.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/tobin-1.jpg)
Joseph Cardinal Tobin at the Vatican, Oct 2024
YouTube screenshot
Oct 11, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Newark’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin has linked some of Pope Francis’ more controversial texts, such as Amoris Laetitia, to the Synod, saying that synodality is a key part of Francis’ “program” which makes the Church “live and act” differently.
With “Amoris Laetitia, Fratelli Tutti, Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis has “distilled wisdom” from previous synods, opined Cardinal Tobin at a Holy See press briefing today.
Tobin drew on his experience as a member of the ordinary council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, which organizes each synod including the current Synod on Synodality.
Appointed as a member to the council in 2018, the Newark cardinal said the first preparatory meeting for the 2021 Synod took place in early 2019.
During the council meeting, they discussed which of the three themes from the 2018 Synod on Young People should be the focus of the 2021 event, choosing from “Immigrants and refugees, life and ministry of priests, synodality.”
According to Tobin today, the members of the council strongly advised the Pope that immigration or priestly life should be the focus, but Francis decided to make the Synod on “synodality,” causing some strong confusion in the council.
Tobin praised Francis’ decision, though remarking that he did not understand it at the time. “My sin was to question wisdom of the Holy Father,” he said. “I’ve been absolving it by trying to understand what he meant and why he values it.”
The 72-year-old cardinal suggested that Francis’ focus on synodality was tying together key themes and documents from his pontificate.
“As he distilled wisdom that was presented in subsequent synods – Amoris Laetitia, Fratelli Tutti, Laudato Si’, it became clear to me that the Holy Father was not simply proposing a program, but that he was helping me and others to understand that in order to do to this, to respond to the Lord this way, you need to think differently about how the church lives and acts.”
Now, closed Tobin, Francis’ attention to synodality “is a great moment of grace for the Church and the world.”
Tobin’s linking of three key documents written by Francis and the Synod is notable as it posits the Synod on Synodality as a way to fully implement the proposals contained in the previous texts.
Amoris Laetitia is infamously controversial for proposing Holy Communion for the divorced and “re-married.” Fratelli Tutti promoting human fraternity has been widely criticized for promoting fraternity divorced from religion and, as a result, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò condemned the text for promoting a “blasphemous” form of brotherhood without God as well as “religious indifferentism.”
Meanwhile Laudato Si’, and its focus on “climate change” issues, has become the reference text for later Vatican and Papal initiatives focused on the green agenda. In it, Francis spoke about “true ecological approach” which listens to “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”
In contrast, the Synod on Synodality has been promoted as not focused on any one topic in particular – though numerous issues such as “female deacons” and LGBT “inclusion” continue to be raised by individual members. Rather, the Synod on Synodality presents a new manner of ecclesial life and governance, one in which endless questioning, round-table discussions, and joint decision making becomes the norm while the traditional hierarchy and unchanging teachings of the Church are sidelined.
Through the “synodality” process, questions are raised about how aspects of Church teaching, which are already firmly and infallibly decided, can be reimagined or altered.
Indeed many of the issues central to the three texts Tobin mentioned are contained in the Synod, which includes how to “welcome” divorced and re-married individuals as part of the Church’s ostensible new self-understanding.
In April 2021, Tobin highlighted the topic of “synodality” as “a long-established buzzword of this papacy.”
“Francis keeps calling for a more decentralized church, one marked by collaborative and consultative decision-making, a functionality we generally associate more with the horizontal structures of churches of the East as opposed to the top-down Roman hierarchy in the West,” he said.
“Synodality is, in fact, the long-game of Pope Francis,” said Tobin at the time.
READ: Cardinal Tobin: ‘Synodality’ is Pope Francis’ ‘long-game’ plan to change Catholic Church
Tobin also quoted from Amoris Laetitia to shed light on the meaning of synodality. Francis wrote, “[n]ot all discussions of doctrinal, moral, or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium.” Tobin commented that “what Francis was saying was that the Vatican is not the only part of the body of Christ.”
In contrast to Tobin’s praise for synodality, already back in 2018 Cardinal Raymond Burke remarked that “synodality” has “become like a slogan, meant to suggest some kind of new church which is democratic and in which the authority of the Roman Pontiff is relativized and diminished — if not destroyed.”
He warned that some, “not understanding the notion of a synod correctly[,] could think, for instance, that the Catholic Church has now become some kind of democratic body with some kind of new constitution.”
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| Drythelm Returns from Death |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-13-2024, 04:36 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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Drythelm Returns from Death
Fr. Albert J. Hebert, S.M., Raised from Death,
Rockford TAN Books & Publishers, 1986, pp. 96ss.
TIA | October 12, 2024
St. Bede the Venerable (672-735), Doctor of the Church, one of the most respectable historians of ancient Europe and one of the most authoritative of the English History, was the one who narrated this case, which took place around 700 A.D.
The great and learned Cardinal St. Robert Bellarmine accepted as a real fact the report of the Venerable Bede about Drythelm, a man of Northumberland who returned from the world of the dead. This event became known in all of ancient England and from it came many conversions.
Resurrected without any human interference
After leading a Christian life along with his family, Drythelm died of an illness. Immediately before the burial, he returned suddenly to life, and, beginning to rise, stood up.
His family, who had spent the past night keeping vigil together over his coffin, were taken with fear. All fled, except his faithful spouse who, although trembling, remained alone with her resurrected husband.
“Do not be afraid,” he appeased her, “it was God who resurrected me. He desires to show in my person a man who returned from the dead. I must still live for a very long time on earth, but my new life will be very different from that which I have lived until now.”
Drythelm proposed to change his life, despite having always been a very good man. He then arose and went immediately in perfect health to the nearby church and there prayed for a long time.
Resurrected to make penitence
Drythelm said to his family that thenceforth he would live only to prepare himself for death. And he counseled each one to do the same. He divided what he had with his spouse and children and reserved a third for himself, for the purpose of giving alms. Then after having distributed his part to the poor, he went to the Monastery of Melrose, on the slopes of the River Tweed, where he asked the Abbot to receive him as a penitent religious who would be the slave of the others.
![[Image: H268_Mel.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/images_F-J/H268_Mel.jpg)
Ruins of Melrose Abbey where Drythelm was received as a monk
Drythelm received a cell for himself, where he lived to make a review of his life – or of the next life. He prayed, worked hard and made extraordinary penances: rigorous fasts and the recitation, while submerged in freezing water, of the entire Psaltery (the 150 Psalms).
He saw Purgatory, Hell & the threshold of Heaven
Drythelm also kept perpetual silence. All his posture, with the eyes downcast and his features ascetic, indicated a soul timorously conscious of the judgment of God. Therefore, he would break his silence in order to relate what he had seen in the other world for the edification and help of others.
The entire story can be read in the History of the Church by Bede, or in a more summarized form in the book Purgatory, by Fr. F. X. Schouppe, S J.
Drythelm said then: “Upon leaving my body, I was received by a benevolent person who took me under his guidance. His face was brilliant and appeared to be surrounded by light. He arrived to a large and deep valley of an immense extension, having in one part only fire and in another, only ice and snow. On one side, braziers and cauldrons in flames, on the other, the most intense cold and gusts of glacial wind."
Drythelm continued to recount how he saw innumerable souls as though launched by a furious tempest from one side of the freezing cold to the side with the ardent heat, from torture to torture, from here to there, continuously seeking refreshment in the extreme opposite.
He thought that this terrible place was Hell, but his guide told him that it was a special place in Purgatory. In this place found themselves the souls who had delayed their repentance until the end of their lives, but who had been saved by the mercy of God in the last instant. There in Purgatory they had to suffer their temporal punishment for the forgotten sins. He understood that the majority of them had to pay the penance there until the Last Judgment.
Drythelm was also shown the terrible scenes of Hell. Immense globes and masses of malodorous fire would issue from the dark crater of that hole full of cacophonous sounds. The souls that found themselves there were expelled in the apex of the flames and then sucked downwards, when the vaporous flames would descend again. Drythelm saw a multitude of sneering spirits dragging toward the hole five souls who moaned and wept, among which one had a [monastic] tonsure, another a layman and yet another a woman.
On the happy side he saw flowered fields, spirits full of happiness, pleasant dwellings, but it was not Heaven. Then he arrived at a place where he heard the sound of sweet songs in the middle of a pleasant fragrance and a splendorous light. His guide told him that Heaven was close, therefore Drythelm did not see it. So his celestial guide told him to return to Earth.
Many sinners converted
When other monks asked Drythelm why he did those great penances, such as that of submerging himself in freezing water, he responded: “I saw penances that are still more extraordinary.” Or, if they made some observation about his austere life, he said “I saw harder things!”
Even prostrated by his advanced age, he continued to punish his body without mercy. And so he produced a great impression on England and many sinners converted through his lively reports and the example of his reparative penances.
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| At Synod ecumenical vigil Pope emphasizes link of ‘unity and synodality’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 10-13-2024, 04:26 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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At Synod ecumenical vigil Pope emphasizes link of ‘unity and synodality’
Marking the anniversary of Vatican II's opening, Pope Francis led Synod participants and ecumenical delegates in a
prayer vigil at the Vatican, during which the link between Synodality and ecumenism were emphasized.
![[Image: vigil.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/vigil.jpg)
Michael Haynes
Oct 11, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted]) — Pope Francis joined with ecumenical delegates and participants of the Synod on Synodality in an ecumenical prayer vigil at the Vatican this evening, during which the link between ecumenism and synodality were once more affirmed.
Closing the full day of Synod meetings Friday, October 11, the participants took part in a highly anticipated ecumenical prayer vigil in the Piazza of the Protomartyrs in the Vatican – the traditional site of St. Peter’s martyrdom.
Joining the Pope and the Synod were a number of ecumenical delegates, escorted by Cardinal Kurt Koch who is the prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
The date was deliberate, as it marked the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the opening of which “marked the entry of the Catholic Church into the ecumenical movement,” Koch told reporters Thursday.
Exhibiting a sign of fatigue, Francis skipped his scheduled homily during the vigil, though the Holy See press office later published it online.
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Pope Francis Oct 11. Credit: Michael Haynes
In his prepared text, Francis reiterated what has been a consistent and prominent theme throughout the three-year Synod: “Christian unity and synodality are linked.”
“The journey of synodality… is and must be ecumenical, just as the ecumenical journey is synodal,” he said, continuing talking points expounded at length by Cardinal Koch during an October 10 press briefing.
Noting that the Holy Spirit “guides us towards greater communion,” Francis argued that it was not clear what such a unity would resemble:
Quote:Just as we do not know beforehand what the outcome of the Synod will be, neither do we know exactly what the unity to which we are called will be like…As Father Paul Couturier used to say, Christian unity must be implored “as Christ wills” and “by the means he wills.”
Francis also emphasized the Synod’s particular aspect of ecumenical relations, saying that the event “is helping us to rediscover the beauty of the Church in the variety of its faces.”
Echoing a commonly repeated phrase of his, Francis said that “unity is not uniformity, or the result of compromise or counterbalance.”
Instead, he stated that “Christian unity is harmony among the diversity of charisms awakened by the Spirit for the building up of all Christians.”
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Synod and ecumenical attendees at the Oct 11 Vigil. Credit: Michael Haynes
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Synod and ecumenical attendees at the Oct 11 Vigil. Credit: Michael Haynes
Not just the date but also the location for the vigil was pivotal. Francis and the entire ecumenical assembly were seated in the square where Tradition records that St. Peter was martyred, crucified upside down. “In this place, the Roman protomartyrs remind us that today too, in many parts of the world, Christians of different traditions are laying down their lives together for their faith in Jesus Christ, embodying an ecumenism of blood,” commented Francis.
He also spoke of “shame” at the “scandal of division among Christians, the scandal of our failure to bear common witness to the Lord Jesus.”
Francis presented the Synod as a possible solution to this, and as “an opportunity to do better, to overcome the walls that still exist between us.”
Once again employing themes from the Synod, Francis emphasized the “common ground of our shared Baptism, which prompts us to become missionary disciples of Christ, with a common mission. The world needs our common witness; the world needs us to be faithful to our common mission.”
While the “common ground of Baptism” was tonight referenced in an ecumenical endeavor, in the Synod it is also being used to call for increased lay ministry and governance in the Catholic Church.
Ceremony drawing from Vatican II texts
The ceremony itself comprised an opening hymn, followed by a “litany of praise” which was formed of sections read aloud from Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, each suffixed by a prayer of intercession.
Then came a reading from Isiah (25:6-8) and Psalm 122, before a reading from John’s Gospel (17:20-26). This Gospel text is the Scriptural passage so often used in ecumenical endeavors, and almost always truncated in its use to further aid ecumenical unity. During the vigil the passage was read in full, though in Francis’ prepared homily it was truncated in customary fashion – pointing simply to unity rather than unity in the Catholic Church.
![[Image: D802E10C-85A0-46FD-9C61-EA9098CF9169_1_105_c.jpeg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/D802E10C-85A0-46FD-9C61-EA9098CF9169_1_105_c.jpeg)
Credit: Michael Haynes
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Credit: Michael Haynes
After abbreviated versions of the Gospel were repeated in Portugese, Chinese, Swahili, Arabic, Malayalam there came another sung chant before the “prayers of intercession,” which consisted of six paragraphs read from Vatican II’s decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, each suffixed with a prayer of intercession.
In the place of his homily, Francis led a joint recital of the Our Father, before delivering a closing blessing in English.
Catholic ecumenism
In recent years since the Council, Catholic involvement in ecumenism has grown exponentially, while correspondingly the Church’s promotion of the faith has greatly diminished.
As taught by the catechisms, authentic Catholic ecumenism involves enacting the command of Christ to preach the Gospel and bring souls to the Church. (Matt 28:19)
Pope Leo XIII in Libertas, referring to the Church’s relationship with other religions, wrote that the Catholic Church tolerates “certain modern liberties, not because she prefers them in themselves but because she judges it expedient to permit them, she would in happier times exercise her own liberty; and, by persuasion, exhortation, and entreaty would endeavor, as she is bound, to fulfill the duty assigned to her by God of providing for the eternal salvation of mankind.”
Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos also firmly warned against the “false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.”
In light of the – formerly regularly noted – danger of the consequences of faulty ecumenism, a 1949 Vatican decree from the Holy Office instructed bishops charged with promoting true ecumenism to draw souls to the Church, and that they must always teach the fullness of the Church’s priority. The document read:
Quote:By no means is it permitted to pass over in silence or to veil in ambiguous terms the Catholic truth regarding the nature and way of justification, the constitution of the Church, the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, and the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ.
Current practice from the Vatican is much more conciliatory than in previous decades, prioritizing ecumenical unity over the prior practice of doctrinal integrity.
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