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Vatican synod to examine when divided Christians can preach together
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The potential power, but also the limits, of an ecumenical proclamation of the Gospel and defense of Gospel values is likely to be a key topic during October’s world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization.
The ecumenical focus will be particularly sharp Oct. 10 when — at the personal invitation of Pope Benedict XVI — Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury will deliver a major address to synod members.
While popes have long invited other Christians to be “fraternal delegates” and make brief speeches at the synods, Pope Benedict has begun a tradition of inviting important religious leaders to deliver a major address. In 2008, Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Chief Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen of Haifa, Israel, addressed the Synod of Bishops on the Bible. Another rabbi and two Muslim leaders gave speeches at the 2010 special synod on the Middle East.
Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the invitations demonstrate the pope’s recognition that the “challenges facing religious belief itself and church life are common — no church, no religion is an island — and we need one another and can learn from one another.”
In addition, he said, ecumenical and interreligious cooperation shows the world that “we are together in promoting the values of belief and the moral-ethical values that we stand by.”
Ecumenical cooperation is crucial when trying to transmit the faith in the modern world and to re-propose Christianity in areas, especially Europe and North America, which had a Christian tradition, but are becoming increasingly secularized.
“The mission that the Lord entrusted to the Apostles, to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, has not been fulfilled — mostly because of divisions among his followers,” Bishop Farrell said.
The beginnings of the modern ecumenical movement usually are traced to a 1910 conference of missionaries “who had the experience of being seen as preaching against each other instead of preaching Christ,” he said. The missionaries recognized the scandal they were causing as they “exported their divisions” to Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. [More]
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17 Comments
I’m very happy, as a RC, to admit that Jesus founded the Catholic Church (ie a community of disciples to continue his teaching and to do what he did on a universal scale) but I do not believe that the RC Church, as it has become, is, necessarily, what Jesus intended.
Jim, and others, live in an exclusive world in which they believe they are truer disciples than non-RCs. It might be good for their egos but is it true? Did not Jesus say that he is present where two or three are gathered in his name. Jim seems to believe that Jesus is absent from the gatherings of our Protestant brothers and sisters.
John 6:32 – Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. – 35. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 49. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread* which comes down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever, and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”. 53. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my bloodis drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. NOW THIS IS A VERSE THAT WILL HELP YOU TO UNDERSTAND THE REASON FOR THE DIFFERENT DEMONINATIONS – vS 60. Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” and then vs. 66. After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him. – Roman Catholics believe in “Transubstantiation” which is the conversion of the bread and wine into Christs body and blood – that Christ becomes present in this sacrament – not so of some other christian churches. (Which explains: why I am a Catholic Lady.
Members of many denominations now preach the Gospel of Jesus, as they have for the last thousand years, no thanks to two major splits in Christendom (East-West, Protestant-Catholic) and hundreds of others. It’s way past time that leadership realizes that we are all in this world and work together, and that no church has an exclusive right or mandate to control Gospel preaching and living.
Chances are, however, that the synod fathers will tell the pope what they think he wants to hear, That’s the way it’s been for the last thousand years, and until someone like Cardinal Martini comes along and confronts the status quo, the Gospel will take a back seat to ecclesiastican infighting, where today’s successors to the apostles argue — as did their predecessors — who’s the greatest.
Not true, Florian — the only Church started by Jesus Christ was the Catholic Church. All Protestant churches have different theology than the Cathlolic Church. You are very much a Protestant — this is exactly what they say — that all churches are equivalent; or, as I heard a Protestant minister friend of mine once say, all steeples point to the same God. True, they do, but one Church — the true Church, the Catholic Church — offers the surest route to Heaven, as it is the richest source of grace on Earth.
Yes, Florian, my Protestant brother in Christ.
Your sounding a little triumphant aren’t you Jim? Did Christ really start a church or a community of disciples?
“Thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” — so, yes, Jesus established a Church, whose living stones are the members of the Church. Protestants like Florian, however, are not members of the Catholic Church — they are members of their own church.
Jim are you saying the first Roman Catholic Church was founded by Jesus in Jerusalem and James, the overseer was the first pope?
Tony — I don’t follow your post. I am saying the first and only Roman Catholic Church was founded by Jesus in Jerusalem and PETER was the first pope. Where did you get “James” from?
It is a historical fact that James was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. So Peter and James could not both have been the first bishop.
Tony — James was the first bishop of Jerusalem, but Peter was the first leader of the entire Church. This is not hard to comprehend, Tony. The Church never has recognized James as a pope. More evidence that you have started your own church as well. Let’s see, we have your church, Florian’s church, etc. — and we have my Church — the holy Roman Catholic Church.
Hold it Jim, I have not started my own church, I’m just a little confused about the church being started in Jerusalem, before Peter was even in Rome. There were even other churches like in Antioch and other major cities before Rome. Just asking.
Tony — well, you’re right, I jumped the gun in accusing you of starting your own church. With regard to how the early Church grew — I doubt anyone knows all the details. Suffice it to say Peter led the entire Church, while James was the bishop local to Jerusalem.
I believe, BTW, that all 12 apostles were bishops, in that they clearly were leaders in the new Christian community, appointed leaders by Jesus Himself. Peter was the chief leader, also appointed by Jesus as the chief leader.
Thanks for that explanation, the Orthodox think that the patriarchs are all equal with the Bisop of Rome being the first among equals. Some would even say that it was our Church which broke from theirs. All making for a very net resting interpretation of history.
Interesting
I belive that the coming together of the Russian Orthodox church and the Catholic church of Poland is a great step forward. We Christians have reached a point in history where the scales of the gospel of Jesus vs the gospel of secularism are being forth out. It appears that the gospel of secularism is winning.The different branches of Christianity has better start focusing of Jesus Christ and not on what divides us. We all must acknowledge our faults and ask the Holy Spirit to give us graces to do all we can to reflect Jesus to the world. As a Catholic, I am so saddened to see the institutional church so damages by the failure of the Bishops to address the sex abuse and our inability to finally heal from it. The strife between the conservative catholics and the liberal catholics. Our house is so divided. Of nuns with habits and nuns without habits. Much prayer is needed. The “Hail Holy Queen that was said years ago after mass should return. The way the jews wondered for forty years in the wilderness in search for the promised land. We catholics have been lost in our own desert since Vatican 11. Wondering to find our place again in society.