Whispers in the Loggia links to an interview with Cardinal Schönborn. He is frank about some of his family’s problems. His grandfather and father were not practicing, and his parents divorced when he was young.
He was a young Dominican during the disastrous period after Vatican II. Bultmann was their guide to theology, and he was told prayer was meaningless. He stopped praying for a year, and was getting ready to leave the Dominicans. He returned to the practice of prayer in 1967 after hearing an Orthodox monk who spoke about prayer and the importance of a spiritual father, a staretz. He has told me he is deeply grateful to the Orthodox for saving his vocation. Orthodox have told me that the Catechism of the Catholic Church could have been written by an Orthodox, so I think that Schönborn has learned both to pray and think like an Orthodox. Schönborn is both the Latin archbishop of Vienna and metropolitan of Eastern Catholics in Austria. If he is ever elected pope, we may see major movements to restore communion between East and West.
Methinks Rocco has an agenda that does not entirely fit with the Orthodox mindset .
Example
http://sspx.org/news/cardinal_schonborns_leniency_towards_gay_church_member_4-19-2013.htm
The problem is that the “new” theology of what might be called conciliar episcopacy being bandied about by Zizioulas, McPartlan, and Oullette (see his talk this week in Australia) is a mess (based as it is on eastern influences). Instead of one pope, we will have a bunch of little popes, each being the fons divinitas themselves, out of which the river of life will flow to their flocks. The Church Fathers got some things not quite right in terms of their metaphors on theandry and episcopacy which were later corrected but which have come back full steam since Vat II…The pope’s talk this week to the Italian bishops on what it means to be a bishop is the antidote – rooted in scripture, grounded, humble, so I have high hopes that this stuff won’t stick. He has a big job ahead of him, though, because these gentlemen are riding gloriously high and fast, giddy with change in the air.
I disagree cm,
You do not find alot of little popes in the East.
What you find is that with rare exception the Patriarchs stick with Scripture and Tradition.
I too have great hope for Francis, especially since he ordered action against a Freemason cleric in France.
I do think we are all in trouble though, thanks to these alleged Vatican authorities……..
‘I’ve rid the world of 160,000 demons’, says Catholic Church’s leading exorcist as he calls on the Pope to allow all priests to perform the ritual”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331651/Catholic-Church-s-leading-exorcist-calls-Pope-allow-priests-perform-rite-personally-ridding-world-160-000-demons.html#ixzz2Ubt5yOjH
PS Orthodox bishops are as gay as any other.
cm,
This has not been my experience .
The Bishops are well known by the parishoners and their priests who ,in most cases are married with children, do not tolerate this.
The Orthodox have been clear that these men are not welcomed at their altars.
However, the younger clerics are certainly not as well educated as they used to be.
Several monasteries have had their problems.
One gnostic group of Orth monks in Texas had their monastery repressed not so long ago.
cm, where do you get your information? How the heck do you know anything about the sexual orientation of Orthodox bishops? Have you traveled extensively in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, the Ukraine and Russia? Have you interviewed people? Or have you seen statistics gathered by reputable social researchers? You throw out big generalizations…where’s the evidence and why should we believe you?
The Church Fathers got some things wrong? Not when they were in complete agreement.
AMEN Fr and after resding this quote from Pope Francis we have more clarity about the power and problems of the office.
““I also asked for it,” he said. “I cannot promote the reform myself — [on] these matters of administration I am very disorganized, I have never been good at this — but the cardinals of the Commission will move it forward.”
http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/pope-gay-lobby-vatican/2013/06/11/id/509260
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22869399
Father Michael, while I can’t vouch for cm’s opinions of the Church Fathers (one way or the other), his diagnosis of the situation describes Catholicism’s monarchistic trappings, rampant careerism and institutional arrogance perfectly. Of course, one doesn’t need to confirm or refute anything the Church Fathers wrote; the evidence of how any corporate entity that institutionalizes corruption and isolates itself from any reasonable accountabilty in our own day is compelling.
Just look at the Obama Administration.