Pope Francis in Middle East: People mus be free to choose their own religion

Good news from the pope's recent visit to the Middle East:

During his first official visit to the Middle East, Pope Francis repeatedly told Muslim audiences that religious freedom is “a fundamental human right” and that governments must allow people to choose their own faith.

From HERE. Pray that freedom to convert from Islam to Christianity will triumph in the Middle East, and that people will disobey the Prophet of Islam who said that, 'whosoever changes his religion, slay him.'

Poppycock about the Papacy and Europe

What is all this trash I hear about Francis being the first bishop of Rome not from Europe since our local guy, Peter?

Absolutely false!

CNN (of all sources) has it right:

The last time someone from outside Europe led the Roman Catholic Church was the year 741. That's when Pope Gregory III, born in Syria, ended his 10-year reign.

Before him, there were popes from Bethlehem (St. Evaristus, from 97 to 105), Jerusalem (Pope Theodore I, from 642 to 649) and modern-day Libya (Saint Victor I, from 189 to 199).

And, of course, the church counts Peter, disciple of Jesus from [the Galilee], as the first pope.

Several other Syrians have also served as pontiff.

From HERE, though they are also missing two of the three African Popes: Gelasius I and Miltiades.

Pope Benedict XVI: a ground-breaking bishop and pioneer

The bishop of Rome and successor of Peter has, for all his conservatism, has broken new ground once again.

The first time was with his ability and willingness to confront Islam at Regensburg, as I wrote in Islam, the Pope, and History.

The second time was when he allowed for the establishment of ordinariates for marginalized and abused anglo-catholics in the Anglican Communion.

This third time is in resigning his episcopate, as most bishops do sooner or later. But he has done it with class, after much prayer I'm sure, and according to the laws of his Church.

I have said before, and will say again, that in my opinion Pope Benedict XVI was the only European leader head of state or head of church who actually understood Islam and had the balls to confront it.

My only beef with him is that he never responded to my open letter to him regarding Catholic witness to Muslims. But then again, he is and was a busy guy...

May God bless him and keep him, and provide another excellent pastor for the Church of Rome.

Zakaria Boutros: 'Islam is not just a religion, it's a state.'

Islam is not just a religion; this is a misunderstanding in the West. You think that Islam is like Judaism or Buddhism, so we give Islam lots of opportunities to grow in the West. No, Islam is a State, and religion is a factor to establish this state. It is a Kingdom, the Kingdom of Islam. Non-Muslims in their country are invaders. The invaders brought missionaries with them.

From Bob Blincoe's interview with Father (Abouna) Zakaria Boutros (or Botros), my favorite Coptic priest out there :-) This is from the third post on Blincoe's blog containing his interview.

I have written about Fr Boutros HERE and HERE, if you care to learn more about this impressive man. The second link there is one of the most commented-on posts I've ever have, if I'm not mistaken. Also, I develop a similar concept to what Fr Boutros said HERE: Islam, Religion Plus.

Pray for facility in travel for me and my family, please. --AD

Nulla Celebrior and the Crusades

Kudos to T L Winslow who found this obscure papal document (which you can read HERE). This is the document whereby the Bishop of Rome (aka the Pope, aka the Greatest Bridge-builder) announced that the Patriarch of Jerusalem was to be residential, that is, the Patriarchate was no longer simply an honorary title but a real bishopric where the Patriarch had to live in what was then the diseased cesspool that was Jerusalem. A key reason for this decision was that the Protestants had established a bishopric there a few years earlier when they sent Rabbi-Bishop Michael Solomon Alexander there.

So here is what the pope said about the Crusades, just to show you that back then the West did not hate its own history:

The eyes of Christians are focused on Palestine, particularly on the Holy Sepulcher. When the city fell into the hands of the barbarians, European princes stood up to fight for it in harsh and repeated wars so as to liberate it and to rid the faithful from the enormous difficulties and extreme injustice they were suffering. We have stated all these facts to indicate that it was only fair that the Christian people treat Jerusalem with reverence whether in the old ages or at the present age.

PS: SPecial thanks to Fr Hanna Kildani for posting that document.

Trivia: the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem

What was the name of the papal bull whereby the residential Latin patriarchate was re-established in the city of Jerusalem?

What pope issued it?

In what year was it issued?

What development in Protestant missions occasioned this event?

Answers will be posted in the comment section once I have some guesses. If anyone can actually find the text to the papal bull online (in any language), they will earn my eternal gratitude! Heaven knows I have looked...

--AD

Augustine: "To Thee [O God] there is no such thing as evil..."

Augustine on evil as lack of being:

To thee there is no such thing as evil, and even in thy whole creation taken as a whole, there is not; because there is nothing from beyond it that can burst in and destroy the order which thou hast appointed for it. But in the parts of creation, some things, because they do not harmonize with others, are considered evil. Yet those same things harmonize with others and are good, and in themselves are good. And all these things which do not harmonize with each other still harmonize with the inferior part of creation which we call the earth, having its own cloudy and windy sky of like nature with itself.

Confessions 7:13

What a fount of comfort and wisdom is this great African saint.

Augustine on the bankruptcy of Western academia

Academics are hard to deal with for the most part. They tend to think their learning makes them superior to the common man. Well, Augustine disagrees (and he is smarter than they are, I know).

But those who strut in the high boots of what they deem to be superior knowledge will not hear Him who says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls."

Confessions 7:9

The Rev Ghulam Masih Naaman, ex-Muslim, Kashmiri, Anglican priest

Born in 1923 in Kashmir, he became a soldier, then a Christian, and then in 1960 an Anglican priest.

His story can be found here.

Pope wants to re-evangelize the West

Catholic Archbishop Refuses to Baptize Muslim Converts

Morocco's government says it practices religious tolerance but the Christian presence is low-key. St. Peter's Cathedral in Rabat does not ring its bells and churchgoers are all foreign.

Moroccan Christians worshipping there would risk arrest and Archbishop Vincent Landel told Reuters he would not baptize a Moroccan convert as it is against the law.

From HERE.

The Pope and his European Crusade

I like this guy, he's really got balls:

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia, the pope is visiting what many religious observers, unfairly or not, consider the ground zero of religious apathy in Europe. Vatican officials said that he had chosen the Czech Republic for a mission central to his papacy: fomenting a continentwide spiritual revolt against what Benedict labeled Saturday as “atheist ideology,” “hedonistic consumerism” and “a growing drift toward ethical and cultural relativism.”

From IHT.

Elders are priests? From 1 Clement

It is often said by fellow evangelicals that it is a post-Constantinian development (and maybe even medieval) that the elders and deacons of the Church started to be identified with Aaronic priests and Levites of the OT. And that because of this the 'biblical' concept of the priesthood of all believers was gradually lost.

The problem? Clement, a disciple of Paul and bishop of Rome, writing around the year 100AD, makes the connection explicitly himself:

1 Clement 40 -- LET US PRESERVE IN THE CHURCH THE ORDER APPOINTED BY GOD.

These things therefore being manifest to us, and since we look into the depths of the divine knowledge, it behoves us to do all things in [their proper] order, which the Lord has commanded us to perform at stated times. He has enjoined offerings [to be presented] and service to be performed [to Him], and that not thoughtlessly or irregularly, but at the appointed times and hours. Where and by whom He desires these things to be done, He Himself has fixed by His own supreme will, in order that all things being piously done according to His good pleasure, may be acceptable to Him. Those, therefore, who present their offerings at the appointed times, are accepted and blessed; for inasmuch as they follow the laws of the Lord, they sin not. For his own peculiar services are assigned to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministrations devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen.

Archbishop of Canterbury on non-celibate homosexuality and Orders

Wow, is this the ABC I know and (try to) love? The gentle-spoken Welshman is being amazingly (and rightly) strong in his words here. The Episcopal Church can only push things so far. He needs to understand that Americans are arrogant and self-righteous much of the time, and that is certainly the case with TEC. To the American he must be as an American.

Thus a blessing for a same-sex union cannot have the authority of the Church Catholic, or even of the Communion as a whole. And if this is the case, a person living in such a union is in the same case as a heterosexual person living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond; whatever the human respect and pastoral sensitivity such persons must be given, their chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church's teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.

From HERE.

Full Works (English) of Abouna Zakaria Botros

Here is the complete list of the works of Abouna Zakaria Botros, the great apologist and polemicist. A splendid man whom I have been honored to meet.

Here are all his works, well, the ones that have been translated into English at least.

http://www.fatherzakaria.net/

Bp. Michael Nazir-Ali: stepping down from episcopate to serve Muslim converts to Christianity

Well, I was sad to hear the news that one of the very few capable bishops of the C of E is stepping down, but when I read about his new vocation I could not help but rejoice.

Bp Michael: If I can help you in any way shape or form there in the UK please let me know. I am at your service. --Abu Daoud

A section from the article at the Telegraph article:

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali is only 59 and could have stayed for another decade in his post, one of the most senior in the Church, but has chosen instead to devote the rest of his career to working in communities where Christians are in a minority.

While this is likely to see him involved in the Middle East and Pakistan, the bishop revealed that he also plans to work with Muslim converts to Christianity in Britain.

Schineller's list of Papal Facts

So yeah, I'm not Roman Catholic (as you probably know), but I do love Papel trivia! Here is a great list of factoids from Peter Schineller, SJ. It was a little out of date so I had to revise it slightly and fix a number of formatting things, but the work is his:

THE PAPACY – SOME FACTS AND FIGURES 2005
Peter Schineller, SJ

• Peter started in Galilee, to Jerusalem, to Antioch and then to Rome, and martyred there perhaps around 68 AD
• Now 4500 bishops in 2700 dioceses
• 160 Cardinals, of which 120 will elect the next Pope
• 1 billion Catholics out of 6 billion inhabitants of earth. Another 1 billion Christians, who are not Catholic.
• 264 Popes and 266 Pontificates, because one pope, Benedict IX was pope three times
• Peter was succeeded by Linus, and then, church is uncertain if it was Clement to Cletus or Cletus to Clement
• 39 anti-popes in history, claiming to be popes. The most recent was Felix V (1439-49) One of the first of them, Hippolytus is a saint.
• Many popes are saints, canonized, but most are not. Most recent saint is Pius X.
• Most recent Blesseds are Pius IX and John XXIII. Causes of Pius XII and Paul VI are under consideration. From 1572 (St. Pius V) to Pius X – no saints, for over 300 years.
• Many of the popes in first centuries were married, with children. Two sets of popes who are saints, and whose sons became popes and are also saints.
o St. Anastasius I (399-401) is father of St. Innocent I (401-417)
o St. Hormisdas (514-23) is father of St. Silverius (536-37)
• 33 popes died by violence; 12 were martyred. 8 were definitely assassinated and 13 others were possibly assassinated. Attempts to assassinate Paul VI and John Paul II were made.
• The wife and daughter of Pope Hadrian II were murdered while he was pope (867-72) He was the last married pope although some later popes had children – like at least 20 since then.
• Low points of the papacy:
o John XII (955-64) pope when he was 18 or 20
o Died, possibly beaten for an adulterous relationship.
o John X (914-28) made a 5 year old archbishop of Reims
o Alexander VI - named his 18 year old son, Caesare bishop of several
o Dioceses, and then a cardinal
• Papacy was in:
o Avignon, France for 75 years, and for 3 years in Italy, but not Rome
o In the 19th century (1848-50) Pope fled Rome
o And in 1798 Siena and Florence
o And 1799 pope was in exile in France
• There have been 21 Universal Church Councils. At some of the early ones, the pope did not feature strongly. The three most recent ones – Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II.
• Pope John XIX was elected while he was a layperson (1024-32)
• Pope is chosen for life, but can submit his resignation. Otherwise, can’t be replaced even if he is in a coma.
• Celestine V resigned, went back to monastery, under house arrest, died 1 ½ years later and is canonized. Was pope from 5 July 1294 to 13 December of that year. Dante put him in hell for resigning.
• Most popular names: John XXIII, Gregory XVI, Benedict XVI, Clement XIV, Leo XIII, Pius XII. None took the name Peter.
• Shortest reign – Stephen II, elected March 752 and dies three days later, before being enthroned.
• Longest - Pius IX 31 years
• Pope Gregory I, later Gregory the Great (590-604), was chosen as a lawyer, layman One other pope was Great, namely Leo I (440-461)
• In 1861 – a priest was chosen, monk, Gregory XVI
• Gregory the Great introduced “servant of the servants of God. And Innocent III at peak of papal power introduced “Vicar of Christ” reserving this for Pope. Earlier, the pope was Vicar of Peter.
• Papacy is barely mentioned in Thomas Aquinas’ summa, and barely mentioned in the first catechisms around the Reformation. Is not in the Creeds.
• In 1829 Pope had power to appoint bishops in 24 dioceses outside the papal states. By 1980, only 24 dioceses out of 2500 dioceses had chapter elections for choice of bishops (centralization, and growth of papal power in 19th, 20 century)

Artificial Contraception, European Demographics

A reader left this as a comment on a post about European demographics here, and it was too good not to post.

17 "Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection."

Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae

The Curious Case of the Married, Roman Catholic Bishop

Wow, we all know about married Roman Catholic priests (formerly Anglicans) but I didn't know about this at all. From VirtueOnline:

Married ex-Anglican bishops functioning as Roman Catholic bishops would not be unprecedented, however. In December 1959, Pope John XXIII received a married ex-Anglican priest, who had been consecrated as a bishop of the schismatic Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira, into the Roman Catholic Church.

Married with seven children, Bishop Salomão Barbosa Ferraz was not re-ordained upon his reception in the Catholic Church. Upon being named Titular Bishop of Eleutherna on May 10, 1963, he was not re-consecrated. Active at the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Ferraz appears to have been the only modern day married Roman Catholic bishop. Ferraz was ordained a priest and then a bishop by Bp. Duarte Costa who was validly ordained by Rome. "Rome simply does not accept the validity of Anglican orders so why would they accept Anglican Bishops, should they go over...married or not? Therefore the situation you cited would not be a precedent," Anthony said.

Former Episcopalian new top dog in Orthodox Church of America

Gotta love this guy! Just read this interview. Here are the last two questions:

Q: Orthodox churches are getting a significant number of converts from Western Christian traditions. Is that a reflection on Orthodoxy, on Western churches, or both?

A: To a great extent, many of the other churches are falling apart. The mainline Protestants, the Methodists, the Presbyterians. The Episcopalians have lost half their membership. The Baptists, even. The evangelical movement is already coming to an end. It's only about 100 years old in American culture, and it's kind of come to the fulfillment of its potential. The Orthodox Church is the fullness of the apostolic faith and the apostolic tradition. People find in it what they always thought Christianity should be.

Q: Given that situation, how can Orthodoxy go about raising its profile?

A: We very much believe in free will. You can't drag people kicking and screaming into the kingdom of heaven, as much as you might want to try. While we have not had, for the most part, an aggressive outreach, I think we need to look at different ways in which to reach out to the general population. Truly as it's said in many circles, Orthodoxy is America's best kept secret, and it's our fault.

[Abu Daoud says: do you think the evangelical movement in the US is really coming to an end? Or is he perhaps being too hasty?]