"CUM GRANDE HUMILITATE!"

"Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words."

A special "Thank you!"
Goes out to
John Michael Talbot
for giving us permission
to use his song on our
"Come to the Quiet"
You Tube Video
T
T
_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Sunday, February 19, 2017

The Catholic Church vs. Liberation Theology

by Chris Dickson, F.L.A.



I am appalled by the naivete of our Church being duped into anti-Christian communism. Liberation theology is a threat to free society by its undermining of the Church and its Magisterium through attempting to redefine moral issues (changing the Gospel to support theology opposed to shaping theology as a result of the Gospel.)

Ignorance is not bliss and unless we familiarize ourselves with the dangers, then future generations will demand answers as to why we threw away our freedom in lieu of communism.

To quote Gustavo Gutierrez (the "father" of liberation theology,) "There is no evil in being subversive, struggling against the capitalist system...Liberation leads to reinterpreting the Gospel...As I have witnessed the power of Marxism to provide motivation for a life of service where none existed before, I have come to a new appreciation of this part of my own history. I cannot settle for any story of America that fails to give a central place to this vision."

Again, Roger Garaudy (one of France's foremost Marxist intellectuals) wrote, "Socialism is a traditional stage in the passage from capitalism to communism." Also, "When the established order involves such injustice that millions of men are exploited, oppressed, mutilated, and humiliated by this order, a revolution, even armed revolution, can be less costly and in the long run less 'violent' than this established disorder, which has become pure violence. Of this, incidentally, many Christians are today becoming conscious, including, for example, even priests and bishops in Latin America."

Charles E. Curran, no longer permitted by the Church to teach moral theology at Catholic universities, has stated,"Questions arise in the light of both the importance and the limitations of Scriptures. In the light of the most striking development has been the emergence of dissent within the Roman Catholic theological community from the teachings of the hierarchical magisterium on specific moral issues."

One cannot help but feel an air of approval when local archdiocesan newspapers print articles written by these people. Already we have seen a swing by our priests and educators away from the Church's doctrine of "norma normans non normata"(the Scriptures being the norm above all other norms by which all norms are taken) and are thus shown to question the Scripture's relevance in our daily lives.

Perhaps we need to seek the definition of a couple terms which seem to have taken on good and bad connotations in complete reversal of their intended meanings:

First of all, the term orthodoxy means "right praise," or consistency with the faith of the Church as embodied in Sacred Scripture, the Fathers, official teachings and the liturgy.

Libertaion theology, on the other hand, is defined as a new type of theology which emphasizes the motif of liberation in both Old and New Testaments and which reinterprets all doctrines in terms of that motif. Forms of liberation theology include Latin American, black and feminist.

Jesus "liberated" all of us from the bonds of oppression. Rather than reinterpreting the Gospel, perhaps we would be better served to "live it." This idea may not be popular with some in the Church today, but by returning to the basics of our faith, we will be truly liberated through the instruction of Sacred Scriptures if only we would accept Jesus as the catalyst of our lives.


T

Saturday, February 18, 2017

The Suffering And Death of a Worldly Cleric



At one time, when St. Francis of Assisi lay ill in the bishops' palace in Rieti, Italy, a certain cleric, a dissolute and worldly man, was struck ill and lay in bed in immense suffering. He instructed others to carry him on a gurney before St. Francis and tearfully begged Francis to bless him with the sign of the cross. Francis said to the cleric, "Since you lived in the past according to the desires of the flesh, not according to to the judgments of God, why should I sign you with the sign of the cross?" Francis continued, "I sign you in the name of Christ; but know that you will suffer worse things if after you are delivered to return to your vomit." Francis again continued, "Because of the sin of ingratitude worse things than the first are inflicted." After Francis had made the sign of the cross over the cleric, the man arose completely healed, and broke out into praise, proclaiming, "I am freed!" However, the bones in his loins popped and crackled like sticks of dry wood being broken by hand.

After a short time, the cleric gave his body again to impurity. Then one evening after dining with another of his fellow clerics and slept there that night, all of a sudden the roof of the house collapsed on top of them. Everyone escaped the house but the wretched cleric who was cut in half.

Saint Francis of Asasisi
Celano, Second Life

T