There seems to be a bit of criticism about our Holy Father on this forum. So I ask myself "Why? Why would my fellow Catholics do this?' It would be interesting to know if those who are quick to criticise Our Holy Father or the church follow false prophecy? Following false prophecy tends to give the mind lots of doubts about the church. Then one starts thinking he knows better, even better than our priests.
A very interesting article that is timely to the discussion here: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/mark-shea/fr.-robert-barron-on-protestantism-and-authority
From what I've read, Pope Francis got sideways with the Jesuits when he was provincial because he did not support liberation theology when it was all the rage in the 70's. http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/10659/New-pope-a-humble-yet-ardent-preacher.aspx
Phenomenology - now that's a really complex and mind-mangling subject!! Despite being in the process of publishing some work on it myself, there's much in the foundational writings of Husserl (a teaching assistant of whom was St Edith Stein, by the way) that I couldn't claim to begin to understand. What I know of phenomenology basically comes from reading Jean-Luc Marion - Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger's philosophical consultant and one of the greatest living Christian philosophers - and his mentor Hans Urs von Balthasar. While the latter was definitely one of JP2's favourite theologians, I don't know enough about Karol Wojtyla's philosophical interaction with the work of Max Scheler to be able to comment on his phenomenological thought. What I can say is this - IMHO the theological potential of phenomenology lies in the way in which it integrates external reality with personal perception rather than seeing them as two separate things. This is not at all the same as saying there is no such thing as objective reality, just an acknowledgement that you can't isolate the external from the internal. Faith is not a static posture but a dynamic process that involves us. Our perspective affects everything that we do, and that's just part of the reality of being a creature. Balthasar and Marion are masters at showing how this question of perception is fundamental to the way in which the first disciples came to believe in Jesus: they didn't come to faith because they understood a set of abstract doctrines or texts, but because they had an overwhelming personal encounter with Love personified that demolished everything they thought they knew, humbling their intellects and compelling them to worship. Marion calls this the 'saturated phenomenon' - something you just can't get your head around, an experience so overpowering that it shatters all our ideas about God and brings us to the point of adoration where He wants us. For the early Church as for the mystical tradition both East and West (Balthasar being the most mystically-inclined of all modern theologians due to his long association with stigmatic Adrienne von Speyr), doctrine crystallized spiritual experience, not the other way around. Yes, I think there is a certain resonance between contemporary Catholic phenomenology and the best devotional traditions of Evangelical Protestantism (of, say, a John Wesley - who had a Rosary, by the way) in emphasizing the importance of personal experience in the life of faith. That's perhaps why I know at a grassroots level that many Protestants loved John Paul II and also recognize the authenticity of Pope Francis's witness. I'm not talking about doctrinal agreement here, but the experiential recognition of genuine holiness, which is perhaps the best level at which bridges can be built. Apologies for the theo-philo-jargon, but I hope something in the above makes some sort of sense to someone out there!
I know some Protestant faith communities such as Methodists and Quakers have a deep regard for personal holiness but I always thought that the born again approach generally precluded the idea of holiness apart from the Universal holiness of the 'Saved'? Of course I know it is dangerous to generalise. Its just I took it their theology made it difficult to regard certain people as , 'Saintly' ..at least officially. Though I know that for everyone, when you meet a holy person, well you have met a holy person. I always regarded John Wesley as a saint. The more so in that he did not have access to the Eucharist. No one, I think who studied his life would, I think disagree> ..and also of course George Fox. But I took these to be exceptional. Tell me Phillip , do the Mormons believe in a personal ascent to holiness?
Amen to your comment on John Wesley, Padraig. I was brought up Wesleyan and will always be conscious that without the witness of Welsh Methodism my mother's family might not have come to Christ at all (my maternal grandparents came to Wales in the 1920s from China as nominal Buddhists). Recently when I heard JW's name mentioned in a presentation to which I was listening I felt very strongly God saying to me 'do not let anyone ever make you feel ashamed of John Wesley'... By the way, I'm convinced - by a process of elimination - that it is Wesley who makes an appearance in the following message received from Our Lady by Ida Peerdeman (approved apparitions of Amsterdam) in 1950, which I take as a prophecy of the reunification of both Anglicans and Methodists with Rome at some point: August 15, 1950. Then I see the Pope on our left, with two fingers raised. On the other side, facing him, is the bishop of Canterbury. Beside him, then, yet another clergyman suddenly appears. The latter is wearing a white wig with stiff curls or waves, and he is dressed in a long gown with white bands. Above those heads, then, I see the Lady. She says, “Look.” From the side of the English clergy she moves her finger over the heads of the English clergymen and then places it between the two outspread fingers of the Pope. Archbishop Rowan Williams preached at Lourdes in 2008 and received a pectoral cross from Benedict XVI. His successor Justin Welby has a Catholic priest as his spiritual director. There is now the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Methodist Church joined the Lutherans in signing the Joint Declaration on Justification with the Catholic Church as well as the joint Methodist-Catholic statement 'Mary, Mother of the Lord' in 1995. Unity will come (Anglicans and Methodists both have Catholic roots, even if some of them have a hard time in admitting this...), and reading the above Our Lady has a crucial role in bringing it about. Even if it seems like a painfully long time in coming.
There have been several Catholic Prophesies about the return of England to the Faith, Peter one of them from the Passionist saint St Dominic Barberi. http://www.passionistnuns.org/Saints/BlDominicCP/index.htm I believe this is so, but only I suspect Britain is brought to its knees. There have been prophecies of this too, which I suspect are true and which suggest mass social break down the intervention of French troops under the great Monarch.The Restoration of the Faith. England, of course was originally known as the 'Dowry of Mary' , so that gives good hope for the future. One thing I noticed in England when I lived there was how much more powerful the devil is to attack and attack directly . Catholic Missionary priests suggest that the more the mass is celebrated in a country the more the devil is chained. I believe this is so , but I also saw some evidence of quite widespread Satanism /demonic practise there. There was one wealthy area, a park where I used to walk my dog and I noticed in the mansions several of their roofs had glass domes. This is standard practise for the 'sky clad' (those who practise their rites naked) where an opening to the sky is considered an essential part. Also evidence of demonic possession seems widesspread. One of the difficulties for this poor neo pagan country is people just do not believe in the devil and it gives him great power. Anyhow I am wandering. But in England I always raise my spiritual defences...a lot.
Funny Padraig. I visited London about 7 years ago with my wife. We were there for several days. My sense of the place was that it was adrift morally, spiritually. There is no anchor there anymore. I got the sense it was a place chained to materialism. We visited a number of Churches but I did not sense that God lived there anymore. Quite sad. I also felt a festering anger in the people which is hard to put in words. I did not sense much happiness.
