Francis admits to being a heretic in latest interview, again attacks the rigid
Extracts from the interview with commentary- link to full interview below
- Is it hard being the representative of God on Earth, and at this time?
- I’m going to do a heresy. We are all representatives of God. Every person who believes must testify to what they believe and, in this sense, we are all representatives of God. It is true that the Pope is a privileged representative of God (laughs), and I must testify to an inner coherence, to the truth of the Church and the pastorality of the Church. That is, a Church that keeps its doors open for everybody.
Cathcon: So much for the priesthood. He hates it as can be seen from his comments about clericalism.
Against rigidity
2. During the Synod taking place these days -an assembly in which the Church listens and reflects about itself-, Pope Francis appeals “to the blessing and welcoming gaze of Jesus that prevents us from falling into some dangerous temptations: of being a rigid church, which arms itself against the world and looks backward; of being a lukewarm church, which surrenders to the fashions of the world; of being a tired church, turned in on itself”.
Cathcon: He has backed the lukewarm party of Synodalists all the way.
But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth
sed quia tepidus es, et nec frigidus, nec calidus, incipiam te evomere ex ore meo : [Apocalypse (Revelation) 3:16]
No mention of the rigid in the Bible but that would not trouble Francis
Francis on the Church and Synod
- The Synod 2023 is taking place, within a context that you defined, fundamentally, as the end of an era. In which way does the Church adapt to this reality? What kind of Church is needed these days?
- Since the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII had a very clear perception: the Church has to change. Paul VI agreed, just like the succeeding Popes. It’s not just changing ways, it’s about a change of growth, in favor of the dignity of people. That’s theological progression, of moral theology and all the ecclesiastical sciences, even in the interpretation of Scriptures that have progressed according to the feelings of the Church. Always in harmony. Rupture is not good. We either progress through development or things don’t turn out right. Rupture leaves you out of the sap of development. I like the image of a tree and its roots. The roots receive the humidity of the soil and take it upward, through the trunk. When you separate yourself from that, you end up dry, without traditions. Tradition in the good sense of the word. We all have traditions, a family, we were all born within the culture of a country, a political culture. We all have a tradition for which to take responsibility.
“Rupture is not good. We either progress through development or things don’t turn out right.”
- You speak of tradition and progress as complements.
- Progress is necessary and the Church has to incorporate these novelties with a serious conversation from a human point of view. The Greek thinker Publius Terentius Afer says “Nothing human is alien to me”. The Church holds what’s human in its hand. God became a man, not a philosophical theory. Humanity is something consecrated by God. That is, everything human must be assumed and progress must be human, in harmony with humanity.
In the 1960s, Dutch people came up with the word “rapidity”, which is much more than acceleration. Well, in the context of the rapidity of scientific knowledge, the Church has to pay close attention and have its thinkers be ready to dialogue. And I emphasize this: we must dialogue with scientific knowledge. The Church must dialogue with everybody, but being aware of its identity. Not from a borrowed identity.
(Cathcon note: homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto
The line was quoted twice by Cicero (Leg. 1.33 and Off. 1.29–30) and later by Seneca and many other writers. St Augustine (Epist. 155.14) recounts that he had heard that when it was spoken "whole theatres burst into applause (theatra tota ... applausisse)".
In its original context it is a defensive reply in a play by Terence, Heauton Timorumenos or the Self-Tormentor by the busybody old man Chremes to his neighbour Menedemus, who says "Have you got so much free time as to concern yourself with other people's affairs which have nothing to do with you?", to which Chremes replies, "I'm human: nothing human is not my concern".
However, in later centuries, it received a much wider interpretation:
Some would see in it, as Michel de Montaigne did, a man's confession of his emotional and spiritual weakness. Others, like John of Salisbury, perceive an expression of Christian charity. Others again make it a disavowal of intolerance and prudery in regard to human behaviour. Most would say that it had to do with being 'humane' in some very positive sense of this much used word...(Edited from Wikepedia)
The Pope is using a pagan author to present the Church as a humanistic enterprise. The Church is reduced by Francis to being a busybody old man.)
- How can the tension between changing and not losing its essence be solved?
- The Church, through dialogue and taking up new challenges, has changed in many ways. Even regarding cultural matters. A theologist from the 4th Century said that changes in the Church must comply to three conditions to be real: consolidating, growing and ennoble themselves along the years. It is a very inspiring definition by Vincent of Lérins. The Church has to change. Let’s think of the ways it has changed since the Council until now and the way it must continue changing its ways, in the way to propose an unchanging truth. That is, the revelation of Jesus Christ does not change, the dogmas of the Church do not change, they grow and ennoble themselves like the sap of a tree. The person who does not follow this path, follows a path that takes steps backward, a path that closes on itself. Changes in the Church take place within this identity flow of the Church. And it has to keep changing along the way, as challenges are met. That is why the core of change is fundamentally pastoral, without recanting the essence of the Church.
Cathcon: After all he has said about tradition and how much he has supported the forces of rupture in the Church, these are indeed empty words. The attack on the Latin Mass has "rupture" written all over it. In the whole Synodal process, the great dogmas of the Church are never mentioned. Above all, it is not Christ-centred
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