WANTED: U.S.A. CATHOLIC BISHOPS LIKE ST. JOHN PAUL ll

WANTED: U.S. A. CATHOLIC BISHOPS LIKE ST. JOHN PAUL ll

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH: HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPSOT.COM - FRI. JUNE 28/19

    "ONE WHO PREACHES TO THE PEOPLE THE WORD OF FAITH IS NOT SAYING THINGS THAT ARE LIKELY TO PLEASE THEM, BUT MUST EXPECT TO MEET WITH OPPOSITION. JESUS DID NOT PROMISE UPHOLSTERED CHAIRS OR CABINET POSTS, BUT ONLY HIS BAPTISM AND HIS CHALICE.

  
  IN SAYING THAT, WE HAVE IDENTIFIED THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL SACRAMENTS, BAPTISM AND HOLY EUCHARIST, AS THE ESSENCE OF HIS GIFT TO HUMANITY. BUT WE HAVE ALSO MADE CLEAR WHAT IT MEANS TO RECEIVE BAPTISM AND HOLY EUCHARIST BEING READY TO SUFFER FOR THE TRUTH AND FOR LOVE.

   
 THE POPE KNOWS THIS. THAT IS WHY, IN AN ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN BISHOPS, HE ALLUDED TO THE WORDS OF ST. PAUL: "BROTHERS IN CHRIST, WHEN WE PREACH THE TRUTH IN LOVE, WE MUST EXPECT TO BE CRITICIZED, FOR WE CANNOT PLEASE EVERYONE. FOR THAT REASON, WE ARE HUMBLY CONVINCED THAT GOD IS WITH US IN OUR SERVICE TO THE TRUTH AND THAT HE 'DOES NOT GIVE US THE SPIRIT OF COWARDICE, BUT A SPIRIT OF POWER AND OF LOVE AND OF SELF-DISCIPLINE.' (2 TIM 1:7)

    
That is why it had to be realized from the beginning [of his papacy] that one day sooner or later, he would have to face opposition. Significantly, the opposition was strongest when the Pope, in his talks in America, addressed the world that is typically Western - when he addressed our world, when he brought into it the salt of the Gospel, when he exposed our wounds to the light of Christ's message ...

  
  In this criticism there are some elements that we might even find humorous. In the so-called "position papers" with which we were bombarded before the papal election, we were told: the Pope must be charismatic, not bureaucratic. And I find it amusing that it is precisely the individual who customarily speaks of the hierarchy as a "Church of wolves" who now reminds the Pope that the Church cannot be lead by charism alone.

  
  But there are other, more serious, criticisms that must be taken more seriously. We are told, for example, that the Pope is the product of a conservative theology that is appropriate for a conservative country, but he is obviously not familiar with the West and its quite different situation. It is said, moreover, that, by reason of his pastoral role, he should not simply decry and decide; he should discuss and convince.

    
But one who truly listens knows that this Pope has not spent his life in a small and narrow world - and not just because he has already traveled widely in the world, because he has always been surrounded by young people whose enthusiasms, problems, and questions about a world that is, in this sense,still undivided are everywhere the same, but also, more especially, because  as a man, he has himself known and endured all the depths of human life and its sufferings. In the realm of the human heart

   
 He has discovered the world of the human being and has pondered and suffered it anew..By reasons of such journeyings into the adventure of human existence.. He can speak with intimate knowledge and can make the word of faith perceptible again in all its permanence - the word in that sense, is certainly conservative, for it protects the ground of human nature. But, precisely in doing so, it is creative because it does bestows on the individual the possibility of maturity and progress, which cannot exist without a goal.                                                                                                                         

  
  One who listens carefully to the Pope's words, sees as well that they are not issued as commands, but bear within them the whole history of life that has been nourished by the long history of a faith, and regards anew from this perspective; That he looks at himself with self-criticism, whereas we usually turn away and do not look at ourselves. Thus the Pope makes visible to us why what is permanent is also always something new."

   
 *This article from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger "Co-Workers of the Truth, Meditations for Every Day of the Year," June 26th, 1992, Ignatius Press, San Francisco

George H. Kubeck

P.S. "THIS SAINT AND POPE WOULD NOT PUT UP WITH CATHOLIC-IN-NAME-ONLY POLITICIANS LIKE NANCY PELOSI, JOE BIDEN JR., KRISTEN GILLIBRAND, AND  MANY OTHERS IN THEIR DIOCESE.