Amazon.com Synod

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JMJ

While the amazon.com synod will soon be a thing of the past.

While the smell lingers, here's some articles on the topic!

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New Discordant Notes in the Synodal Symphony

August 29, 2019

Source: fsspx.news

The bishop of Regensburg, Germany, has once again publicly questioned the synodal process launched by the German bishops. For the prelate, it is neither more nor less a question of aligning the Catholic Church with Protestantism.

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer does not intend to be dictated to by the president of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Cardinal Reinhardt Marx, who, at the last plenary meeting of the DBK, announced his intention to undertake, “a compelling synodal route for the Church in Germany.”
A “constraining” process, if any since it involves questioning priestly celibacy, the teachings of the Church in matters of morals, and adopting measures limiting ecclesial power.

These are all subjects that illustrate a stated desire to “liberalize sexual morality, recognize homosexual unions, and dilute the authority of the Church in the synod, in order to get closer to and align with the Protestant communities” denounced the bishop of Regensburg in a homily on August 15, 2019 in Rohr Abbey, Bavaria.

For the prelate, a faithful Christian community that “invokes the New Testament” cannot “openly question” certain non-negotiable principles of faith.

Already, on May 11, 2019, Bishop Voderholzer had—in Austria this time—denounced a “synodal process which aims to invent a new Church” and which, according to him, would constitute “a path of destruction.” We cannot say it any better. However, it is important not to neglect the origin of the destruction of the bishops’ power, which began with the Second Vatican Council and its doctrine on collegiality.
Further Reading:
A Study of Collegiality at the Second Vatican Council

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/new-discordant-notes-synodal-symphony-50176

Rome Stubbornly Supports the Working Document for the Amazon Synod

August 20, 2019

Source: fsspx.news

After the denunciation of the working document for the forthcoming Synod on the Amazon by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, three new criticisms have been drawn up in July by Cardinal Müller, Bishop Schneider, and Bishop Nicola Bux. But in Rome several cardinals are supporting Instrumentum laboris come hell or high water, even if it means taking on a revolutionary appearance.

On July 3, 2019, in an interview granted to the Catholic site Settimana News, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, General Secretary of the Synod, fully accepts the unprecedented, if not revolutionary, character of the next synod: “the synodal assembly of next October is characterized precisely by this ecclesial and ecological ‘double dimension,’ which distinguishes it from previous synods. We are living in a historic moment where we are more aware of the need to take care of Creation,” he insists.
In an article published on July18, by the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, Archbishop of Huancayo, Peru, points out that the Instrumentum laboris “is a working document...that amply expresses the sentiments and desires of many representatives of the people of Amazonia.”

This prelate, who is one of the founders of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), responds thusly—without daring to name them directly—to the criticisms from Cardinals Müller and Brandmüller. But his answer is only talk, because Cardinal Barreto does not consider the theological questions raised by the two German prelates. He wants to focus only on the pastoral and economic needs of people living in the Amazon region.

This cardinal is a Jesuit, a long-time friend of Fr. Jorge Bergoglio, before he became Pope; he is even considered the “prophet of integral ecology.” In this way he has worked with about sixty other organizations to solve pollution problems in La Oroya, in the Rio Mantaro Valley, a river in central Peru.

A militant activist, Cardinal Barreto points out in his article that “the majority of states, including a part of the territory that is in the Amazon, are signatories to the principal international human rights conventions and their respective amendments concerning the rights of indigenous peoples and environmental protection.” While most of these conventions are not being honored, the Peruvian prelate assures that “the Church wishes to be a bridge and collaborate so that this objective [i.e., the protection of the Amazon and its people] is achieved for the good of each of the countries represented in this territory, for the dignified and full life of the peoples who inhabit this region, and for the protection of an ecosystem essential for the present and the future of the planet,” he says in detail.
“As a Church, following the Pope’s appeals and desiring communion with and in the societies in which we live, we want to live a “culture of encounter” in the Amazon with the indigenous peoples, the communities that live on the shores of the rivers, the descendants of the Africans, peasants, city dwellers, and religious communities, and pursue a respectful and constructive dialogue with other religions and political and social entities,” says the Jesuit cardinal.

“This synod is an opportunity to consider the identity of these peoples and their capacity to protect these ecosystems, in keeping with their culture and their vision of the world,” according to Cardinal Barreto who adds: “It can allow our non-Amazonian societies to create suitable conditions in order to appreciate, respect, and learn from them. Thus, we may one day go beyond the idea that this territory is an uninhabited or backward space. More than that, we will derive from it useful guidelines for determining the causes of our own failures as societies in the care of our common home.”
These explicit statements by Cardinal Barreto, who will be one of the central personalities of the Synod on the Amazon, show, if needs be, the validity of the theological criticisms of the Instrumentum laboris. According to this Peruvian prelate’s pen, it is already the October Synod which is expressing itself through an eco-ecumenical vocabulary: “for the protection of an essential ecosystem,” in order to “live a culture of encounter,” to “pursue a respectful and constructive dialogue with other religions and political and social entities,” etc.

Nevertheless, there’s a drop of bitterness in this ocean of ecological felicity. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, admitted—fleetingly—the existence of some disagreement. During a conference titled, “The prophecy of Pope Francis in the era of the globalization of indifference,” he told Buongiorno, the local newspaper in Rimini, Italy, on July 16, that he was very worried about the manifestations of hostility towards the teachings of Pope Francis, adding that this hostility “endangers the unity of the Church whose center of visible unity is precisely the pope.”
 

Editor's Note: By dint of calling for “unity in diversity,” it is not surprising today to see this unity-in-adversity being dissolved by doctrinal and moral pluralism. Who sows the conciliar wind reaps the post-conciliar whirlwind.

 

(Sources : SettimanaNews/Civiltà Cattolica/Dici n° 387 - FSSPX.Actualités)


https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/rome-stubbornly-supports-working-document-amazon-synod-50018

Working Document for the Synod on the Amazon: In the Critics’ Spotlight (1)

August 14, 2019

Source: fsspx.news

After the denunciation of the working document of the forthcoming Synod on the Amazon by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, three new criticisms have been drawn up in July. The first comes from Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Cardinal Müller published his criticism of the Roman document, under an opinion column, in the German newspaper Die Tagespost on July 16. This method of proceeding reveals the climate that currently reigns in Rome where, they say, cardinals can only be heard under the condition of not speaking...

A Sacralization of the Cosmos, Nature, and the Ecology of Biodiversity

The German prelate denounced Instrumentum laboris (IL) which gives to the particular case of the Amazon the merit of a universal example: “The Amazon region is to serve for the Church and for the world ‘as a pars pro toto, as a paradigm, as a hope for the whole world.’ (IL 37) Already this very task assignment itself shows forth the idea of an ‘integral’ development of all men in the one house of the earth, for which the Church declares herself to be responsible. This idea is again and again to be found in the Instrumentum Laboris.”

He emphasized the imprecision of the expressions used, “the key terms are not being clarified and they are overused: what is a synodal path, what is integral development, what does a Samaritan, missionary, synodal, and open Church mean, or a Church reaching out, the Church of the Poor, the Church of the Amazon, and more?”

Cardinal Müller also pointed out the few references to the previous Magisterium: “The whole line of thought turns in self-referential and circular ways around the newest documents of Pope Francis' Magisterium, furnished with a few references to John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Holy Scripture is being quoted little, and the Church Fathers barely at all, but then only in an illustrative manner, and for the sake of supporting convictions that are already preexisting for other reasons. Perhaps one wishes thereby to show a special loyalty to the Pope, or one thus believes oneself to be able to avoid the challenges of theological work when one constantly refers back to his well-known and often repeated keywords, which the authors call – in a pretty sloppy manner – “his mantra” (IL 25). This flattery is then being carried to its extreme when the authors also add – after their statement that “the active subjects of inculturation are the indigenous peoples themselves” (IL 122) – the odd formulation, namely: “As Pope Francis has affirmed, 'Grace supposes culture.'” As if he himself had discovered this axiom – which is of course a fundamental axiom of the Catholic Church herself.  In the original, it is Grace which presupposes Nature, just as Faith presupposes Reason (see Thomas Aquinas, S. th. I q.1 a.8).”

The high prelate is also surprised to see the Amazon presented as a “theological place”: “Next to the confusing of the roles of Magisterium on the one side and of Holy Scripture on the other, the IL even goes so far as to claim that there are new sources of Revelation. IL 19 states: “Furthermore, we can say that the Amazon – or another indigenous or communal territory – is not only an ubi or a where (a geographical space), but also a quid or a what, a place of meaning for faith or the experience of God in history. Thus territory is a theological place where faith is lived, and also a particular source of God’s revelation: epiphanic places where the reserve of life and wisdom for the planet is manifest, a life and wisdom that speaks of God.” If here a certain territory is being declared to be a “particular source of God's Revelation,” then one has to state that this is a false teaching, inasmuch as for 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has infallibly taught that Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are the only sources of Revelation and that no further Revelation can be added in the course of history.”—This is true, but do they not say, since Vatican II, that the Church must examine the “signs of the times” by beginning to listen to the aspirations of modern man and the needs of the world, through dialogue and the “culture of encounter”?

Where the Amazon Takes Its Source From the Rhine

The influence of the progressivist Germans in the writing of the working documents for the next synod has not escaped Cardinal Müller: “the organization Rete Ecclesiale Panamazzonica (=REPAM) – which has been tasked with the preparation of the IL and which was founded for that very reason in 2014 – as well as their authors, of the so-called Theologia india [Indian Theology], mostly quote themselves.”

“It is a closed society of people with absolutely the same worldview, as can easily be seen on the list of names of pre-synod meetings in Washington and Rome, which contains a disproportionately large number of mostly German-speaking Europeans.”

“[This closed society] is immune to serious objections, because [in their view] these can only be based on monolithic doctrinalism and dogmatism, or ritualism (IL 38; 110; 138), as well as on clericalism that is incapable of dialogue (IL 110), and on the rigid way of thinking of the pharisees and on the pride of reason on the side of the scribes. To argue with such people would just be a loss of time and a wasted effort.

The German prelate continues: “Not all of them have experience with South America and are only present because they think it to be in accordance with the official line and because they control the themes at the synodal path of the German Bishops’ Conference and of the Central Committee of German Catholics (abolishment of celibacy, women in the priesthood and in key power positions against clericalism and fundamentalism, adapting the revealed sexual morality to the gender ideology and to the appreciation for homosexual practices)—this synodal path that is  currently taking place in Germany.”

At its base, the former prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith castigates an animist pantheism, updated by the New Age European: “A cosmovision with its myths and the ritual magic of Mother “Nature,” or its sacrifices to “gods” and spirits which scare the wits out of us, or lure us on with false promises, cannot be an adequate approach for the coming of the Triune God in His Word and His Holy Spirit. Much less can the approach be a scientific-positivistic world view of a liberal bourgeoisie which accepts of Christianity only a comfortable remnant of moral values and civil-religious rituals… The cosmos, however, is not to be adored like God, but only the Creator Himself. We do not fall on our knees before the enormous power of nature and before “all kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Mt. 4:8), but only before God, “for it is written, the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Mt. 4:10). It is thus that Jesus rejected the diabolical seducer in the desert.”

And Cardinal Müller concludes with the necessity of reaffirming “the supernatural character of Grace, so that the integrity of man does not only consist of the unity with a bio-nature, but in the Divine Sonship and in the grace-filled communion with the Holy Trinity and so that eternal life is the reward for the conversion to God, the reconciliation with Him, and not only with the environment and our shared world. One cannot reduce the integral development merely to the provision of material resources. Because man receives his new integrity only by way of perfection in Grace, here now in Baptism, whereby we become a new creature and children of God, and then one day in the Beatific Vision in the community of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit and in communion with His saints. (1 Jn. 1:3; 3:1 seq).”

“Instead of presenting an ambiguous approach with a vague religiosity and the futile attempt to turn Christianity into a science of salvation by sacralizing the cosmos and the biodiverse nature and ecology, it is important to look to the center and origin of our Faith: “In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (cf. Ep. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature.”

(Sources : Tagespost/lifesitenews - FSSPX.Actualités - 12/08/2019)

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/working-document-synod-amazon-critics%E2%80%99-spotlight-1-49860

Working Document for the Synod on the Amazon: In the Critics’ Spotlight (2)

August 14, 2019

Source: fsspx.news

After the denunciation of the working document for the forthcoming Synod on the Amazon by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, three new criticisms have been drawn up in July. The second comes from Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan.

Bishop Schneider’s criticisms have been published in an eight page document in German on the Austrian site Kath.net on July 17, 2019, and the next day in English on LifeSiteNews.

Towards a Amazonian-Catholic Sect

Like Cardinal Müller, he asserts that the synod is being prepared by a European clerical pseudo- elite which hopes to create an “Amazonian-Catholic” sect—which practices the adoration of nature and which will have a female priesthood. These reformers, mainly of European origin, “really want a new Christian confession.”

Bishop Schneider denounces the recent remarks of Bishop Erwin Kräutler, former bishop of Xingu, Brazil and one of the principal authors of the upcoming synod, on the Austrian television network ORF, where the latter demanded a married priesthood and “at least a female diaconate,” because of the lack of priests in the Amazon region. Bishop Schneider contradicted his brother bishop, affirming that there is no “right to the Holy Eucharist,” and the “the sacrament of the Eucharist is the ultimate gift of God.” The real scandal, he declared, is that “during the last decades in the Amazon, intensive pastoral initiatives to foster vocations were not launched.”

The auxiliary bishop of Astana emphasized that, during this period, “some missionaries in the Amazon have turned away from the true spirit of Jesus Christ, of the Apostles, and of the holy missionaries; they, instead, have turned to the spirit of this world.” And “those that Bishop Kräutler and many of his clerical fellow travelers now demand are, rather, caricature-priests in the form of aid workers, NGO employees, socialist syndicalists, and eco-specialists.”

Bishop Schneider excoriated the ecclesiastics who are now participating in the preparation of the Amazon synod. He states, often enough, that “by abusing the name of Jesus and the holy episcopal and priestly office, missionaries and even bishops have preached in the Amazon mostly a gospel of earthly life, a gospel of the stomach, as it were, and not a Gospel of the Cross; a gospel of the adoration of nature, of the forest, of the water, of the sun, a gospel of the adoration of this so brief earthly material life.”

On the subject of the Pope who will preside over the synod, Bishop Schneider recalled that he has, “a strict duty, as given to him by God…to preserve… the apostolic inheritance of priestly celibacy,” and to transmit this heritage “to his own successor and to the next generation.” Because, “he may not support in the slightest way—by silence or by an ambiguous conduct—the obviously Gnostic and naturalistic contents of parts of the Instrumentum laboris, as well as the abolishment of the apostolic duty of priestly celibacy.” But, realistically, the Kazakh prelate adds, “if the Pope would do this at the upcoming Amazon Synod, then he would gravely violate his duty as the Successor of Peter and the Vicar of Christ, and he would then cause a spiritual eclipse in the Church. But Christ, the invincible Sun of Truth, will disperse this brief eclipse by again sending holy, courageous, and faithful popes to His Church, because the gates of hell shall not prevail against the rock of Peter (see Mt. 16:18).”
This anxiety is also expressed by the journalist from LifeSiteNews, Maike Hickson. At the end of her synthesis of Bishop Schneider’s criticisms, she recalled that “most of the synod fathers stemming from the Amazon region,” ensures that, “some more conservative bishops from regions such as Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, will not be able to give a counterweight to the more progressive ideas coming out from the Amazon.”

(Sources : LifeSiteNews/Dici n° 387 - FSSPX. Actualités)

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/working-document-synod-amazon-critics%E2%80%99-spotlight-2-49895 

Working Document for the Synod on the Amazon: In the Critics’ Spotlight (3)

August 16, 2019

Source: fsspx.news

After the denunciation of the working document for the forthcoming Synod on the Amazon by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, three new criticisms have been drawn up in July. The third comes from Bishop Nicola Bux, theologian and former consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Bishop Bux’s commentaries on Instrumemtum laboris have also been published on LifeSiteNews on July 17, 2019. He was responding to questions posed by journalist, Diane Montagna.
Like Bishop Schneider, Bishop Bux says that the Amazon Synod “is an attempt to ‘create another church’ by ‘demolishing’ the true Church from within.”

“Jesus Christ came to bring God to earth, so that man might find the way to heaven: that is why he founded the Church,” the Italian Monsignor said. “Instead, today’s clerics take care of the earth as if it were man’s permanent and lasting home. What is the symptom? They do not speak of the soul and therefore of its salvation.” The Church is considered by them “as a sociological phenomenon; thus it must deal with economics, ecology and politics,” he added.

On the subject of inculturation extoled in the working document, Bishop Bux says that “it is presented in an inverted way: the intention is to return the Church in the Amazon to animism and spiritualism, making it withdraw from the Word that was announced to it through evangelization.” Drawing out the expression Cardinal Brandmüller made in his June 27 analysis, “a natural religion with a Christian mask,” Bishop Bux went on to say, “We are faced with the attempt to genetically modify the Church, calling into question the faith and unity of the Roman rite that expresses it.”
The Italian theologian also said that “he finds it ‘incredible’ that the Amazon is being considered as a ‘theological place,’ i.e. a special source of revelation. Seconding Cardinal Walter Brandmüller’s critique…Msgr. Bux said that by calling into question divine Revelation, the document ‘detaches itself from the truth of the Catholic faith,’ and amounts to ‘apostasy.’”

In passing, he noted that “Instrumentum laboris has received the enthusiastic approval — and perhaps the advice — of Leonard Boff, a former Franciscan priest, a historical representative of liberation theology who, in the 1970s, was reprimanded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Bishop Bux concluded the interview stating, “There is no liberation without conversion to Christ. The Instrumentum Laboris never mentions this term, which is at the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but, as cardinals, priests, and faithful have already observed, by contradicting on decisive points the binding teaching of the Church—that is, to which every true Catholic is bound—it can be qualified as heretical. It’s an attack against the foundations of the faith, which reduces the Catholic religion to pure subjectivism. It almost seems that it is Jesus Christ who must convert to the new Amazonian divinity.”

(Sources : LifeSiteNews/ Dici n°387 - FSSPX.Actualités)

https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/working-document-synod-amazon-critics%E2%80%99-spotlight-3-49955