Quotes to reflect upon (26)

 

"Unlike the Orthodox Church and various Protestant Churches, the Latin Church practically abandoned the ministry of exorcism as far back as three centuries ago. We're looking at entire bodies of bishops who are contrary to exorcisms, and entire nations without an exorcist, like Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. A truly frightening shortage! When a priest becomes a bishop, he will have before him an article from the Code of Canon Law which gives him absolute authority to nominate exorcists. Given that he has to make such an important decision, the least any bishop should do is assist at an exorcism, but unfortunately, this rarely happens."

Gabriele Amorth S.S.P.  (1925-2016) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Paulines and an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. 

Leave behind Tridentine model of priesthood, embrace synodality

 

As has been the trend during Pope Francis' pontificate, any occasion is good to attack the Catholic Church's pre-Vatican II's teachings. The latest occasion was the following. Original article here. 

CWN Editor's Note: On the last day of Parish Priests for the Synod—an international meeting of parish priests at the Vatican — Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, encouraged participants “to become ambassadors of synodality, to be full participants in a synodal Church, to become with all the people of God, missionary disciples of Jesus.”

“Many times their training and their reality have been oriented towards a Tridentine model of the priesthood,” Cardinal Hollerich, the relator-general of the synod on synodality, said of parish priests, in an address to Pope Francis in the presence of participants. “And now they see that the identity they had for centuries is crumbling, and sometimes this identity is lost ... and there is the danger of wanting to build a new identity based on the experience of the past.”

“The identity of priests and parish priests (even bishops) is given to us by the Holy Spirit when we walk with the people,” he continued. “Then the sacraments are no longer the expression of a ritualism in search of identity, but become a true rite where God communicates himself to his people.”

Cardinal Hollerich’s reference to the “Tridentine model of the priesthood” appears to be a reference to the Council of Trent’s teaching on the priesthood, and not simply a reference to the traditional Latin Mass.

The archbishop of Luxembourg, now 65, gained notoriety in 2022 when he said that Catholic teaching on homosexuality is “false.” In 2023, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Hollerich to his nine-member advisory Council of Cardinals.