Francis still is promoting religious indifferentism & syncretism. On Heaven and Earth is a joint production of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka. It is a book of conversations between …More
Francis still is promoting religious indifferentism & syncretism.
On Heaven and Earth is a joint production of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka. It is a book of conversations between the two men first released in Spanish in 2010, and now published in English
In this book we encounter Cardinal Bergoglio in his own words.
The Council’s pan-religious program is central to his thinking. His commitment to Pentecostalism is one such instance.
The Joint “Blessing”
On June 19, 2009, the Third Annual Fraternal Encounter of Evangelicals and Catholics was held in Luna Park stadium, Buenos Aires. Cardinal Bergoglio attended.
At one point, as is characteristic in these Pentecostal gatherings, the Cardinal dropped to his knees on stage to receive the “blessing” from a number of Protestant pastors.
All speculation is put to rest on this point when we read page 220 of the newly released On Heaven and Earth. Cardinal Bergoglio states with pride that he knowingly permitted the joint blessing to take place.
The Cardinal says, “The first time that the Evangelicals invited me to one of their meetings at Luna Park, the stadium was full. That day a Catholic priest [Father Cantalamessa] and an Evangelical Pastor spoke. They gave two talks each, interspersed with a break to eat some sandwiches at noon. At one point the Evangelical pastor asked that everyone pray for me and my ministry. He had asked me if I would accept that they would pray for me and I answered him that of course I would. When they prayed, the first thing that occurred to me was to kneel down, a very Catholic gesture, to receive their prayer and the blessing of the seven thousand people that were there. The next week, a magazine headline stated: ‘Buenos Aires, sede vacante. The Archbishop commits the sin of apostasy.’ For them, prayer together with others was apostasy. Even with an agnostic, with his doubt, we can look up together to find transcendence; each one praying according to his tradition. What’s the problem?”
The March 14 Christianity Today wrote that Argentine Evangelicals were overjoyed at Bergoglio’s election: “Bergoglio has played a central role in Argentina's CRECES (Renewal Communion of Catholics and Evangelicals in the Holy Spirit) movement over the past 10 years, and has strongly supported the Argentine [Protestant] Bible society.”
Another instance of Cardinal Bergoglio’s ecumenical thinking is recounted by Gren Venables, Anglican Bishop of Argentina (and former archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone). Venables recounts that while still in Argentina, Cardinbal Bergoglio “called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the Ordinariate [created by the Catholic Church to accommodate alienated Anglicans] was quite unnecessary and that the Church needs us to be Anglicans.”
Cardinal Bergoglio’s attitude echoes the ecumenical theology of Walter Cardinal Kasper who said in 2003, “Several aspects of being church are better realized in other churches. Therefore, ecumenism is no one-way street, but a reciprocal learning process, or, as stated in Ut Unum Sint, an exchange of gifts. The way to unity is therefore not the return of others into the fold of the Catholic Church.”
“What’s the Problem?”
Cardinal Bergoglio, as quoted earlier, seems puzzled as to why anyone would have a problem with him praying in public with Protestants or dropping to his knees to receive a joint blessing from both Catholic and Protestant ministers. “What’s the problem?” he wonders.
Does he really mean this? Is he really baffled as to why joint public prayers with Catholics and Protestants would be considered scandalous? Is he not aware of the numerous papal pronouncements against religious indifferentism and ecumenical activities over the past 160 years?
The Council of Trent solemnly anathematizes those who reject the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, the Catholic doctrine on the Sacrament of Confession, the Catholic doctrine on the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the list goes on and on. Bergoglio’s actions effectively tell Protestants that the Council of Trent does not matter.
The Popes up to 1958 forcefully condemned ecumenical and interreligious activity. Pope Pius XI, in his 1928 Encyclical Mortalium Animos, forbade the type of ecumenism nurtured since the Council. He said the Holy See has “never allowed” its subjects to take part in the ecumenical assemblies, “nor is it lawful for Catholics to support or work for such (ecumenical) enterprises, for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ”.
“Unity can only arise,” he continued, “from one teaching authority, one law of belief, one faith of Christians” and reiterated the truth that the only true unity can be that of the return of non-Catholics to the one true Church of Christ.
Pius rightly warned that these ecumenical enterprises are full of “fair and alluring words that cloak a most serious error, subversive to the Catholic Faith”.
Likewise, Pope Pius XII …
On Heaven and Earth is a joint production of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka. It is a book of conversations between the two men first released in Spanish in 2010, and now published in English
In this book we encounter Cardinal Bergoglio in his own words.
The Council’s pan-religious program is central to his thinking. His commitment to Pentecostalism is one such instance.
The Joint “Blessing”
On June 19, 2009, the Third Annual Fraternal Encounter of Evangelicals and Catholics was held in Luna Park stadium, Buenos Aires. Cardinal Bergoglio attended.
At one point, as is characteristic in these Pentecostal gatherings, the Cardinal dropped to his knees on stage to receive the “blessing” from a number of Protestant pastors.
All speculation is put to rest on this point when we read page 220 of the newly released On Heaven and Earth. Cardinal Bergoglio states with pride that he knowingly permitted the joint blessing to take place.
The Cardinal says, “The first time that the Evangelicals invited me to one of their meetings at Luna Park, the stadium was full. That day a Catholic priest [Father Cantalamessa] and an Evangelical Pastor spoke. They gave two talks each, interspersed with a break to eat some sandwiches at noon. At one point the Evangelical pastor asked that everyone pray for me and my ministry. He had asked me if I would accept that they would pray for me and I answered him that of course I would. When they prayed, the first thing that occurred to me was to kneel down, a very Catholic gesture, to receive their prayer and the blessing of the seven thousand people that were there. The next week, a magazine headline stated: ‘Buenos Aires, sede vacante. The Archbishop commits the sin of apostasy.’ For them, prayer together with others was apostasy. Even with an agnostic, with his doubt, we can look up together to find transcendence; each one praying according to his tradition. What’s the problem?”
The March 14 Christianity Today wrote that Argentine Evangelicals were overjoyed at Bergoglio’s election: “Bergoglio has played a central role in Argentina's CRECES (Renewal Communion of Catholics and Evangelicals in the Holy Spirit) movement over the past 10 years, and has strongly supported the Argentine [Protestant] Bible society.”
Another instance of Cardinal Bergoglio’s ecumenical thinking is recounted by Gren Venables, Anglican Bishop of Argentina (and former archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone). Venables recounts that while still in Argentina, Cardinbal Bergoglio “called me to have breakfast with him one morning and told me very clearly that the Ordinariate [created by the Catholic Church to accommodate alienated Anglicans] was quite unnecessary and that the Church needs us to be Anglicans.”
Cardinal Bergoglio’s attitude echoes the ecumenical theology of Walter Cardinal Kasper who said in 2003, “Several aspects of being church are better realized in other churches. Therefore, ecumenism is no one-way street, but a reciprocal learning process, or, as stated in Ut Unum Sint, an exchange of gifts. The way to unity is therefore not the return of others into the fold of the Catholic Church.”
“What’s the Problem?”
Cardinal Bergoglio, as quoted earlier, seems puzzled as to why anyone would have a problem with him praying in public with Protestants or dropping to his knees to receive a joint blessing from both Catholic and Protestant ministers. “What’s the problem?” he wonders.
Does he really mean this? Is he really baffled as to why joint public prayers with Catholics and Protestants would be considered scandalous? Is he not aware of the numerous papal pronouncements against religious indifferentism and ecumenical activities over the past 160 years?
The Council of Trent solemnly anathematizes those who reject the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, the Catholic doctrine on the Sacrament of Confession, the Catholic doctrine on the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the list goes on and on. Bergoglio’s actions effectively tell Protestants that the Council of Trent does not matter.
The Popes up to 1958 forcefully condemned ecumenical and interreligious activity. Pope Pius XI, in his 1928 Encyclical Mortalium Animos, forbade the type of ecumenism nurtured since the Council. He said the Holy See has “never allowed” its subjects to take part in the ecumenical assemblies, “nor is it lawful for Catholics to support or work for such (ecumenical) enterprises, for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ”.
“Unity can only arise,” he continued, “from one teaching authority, one law of belief, one faith of Christians” and reiterated the truth that the only true unity can be that of the return of non-Catholics to the one true Church of Christ.
Pius rightly warned that these ecumenical enterprises are full of “fair and alluring words that cloak a most serious error, subversive to the Catholic Faith”.
Likewise, Pope Pius XII …