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Patriarch? No. Supreme Pontiff? Yes.

The Pope decided to drop one ancient title for the Pope: Patriarch of the West. This was thought to be something that might encourage the reunification of East and West, for no longer would the Pope basically lay claim to anything and everything not covered by the Eastern Patriarchs. But, apparently, not everyone views it that way. The Russian Patriarch rightly notes that there is still that “minor detail” of the first title in the long list of titles claimed by the Pope “Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.” The Orthodox churches are not the only ones that reject this claim. We Lutherans do as well.  The reality is that Christ did not, and does not, ordain and establish a “universal pontiff.” That is both a theological and historical fiction.

Ecumenical News International 
Daily News Service 
24 March 2006 

Pope abandons ancient title, but ‘creates conundrum’ about unity

ENI-06-0269 

By Luigi Sandri 
Rome, 24 March (ENI)–Pope Benedict XVI has dropped one of his
official titles – that of “Patriarch of the West” – in a move the
Vatican says may help church unity but which has been criticised
by a prominent Russian Orthodox bishop. 

In a 22 March statement, the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity said the title first used by a pope in AD 642 had
been abandoned because it had become “obsolete and practically
unusable”. 

It said, “The renouncement of this title aims to express a
historical and theological reality and at the same time … could
prove useful to ecumenical dialogue.” 

The dropping of the title in the official Vatican directory, the
“Annuario pontificio”, was reported at the beginning of March but
at the time the Vatican offered no explanation for the change. 

Some analysts speculated it was intended to help the Vatican’s
dialogue with Eastern Orthodox churches which is seen as one of
Pope Benedict’s priorities. 

The role of the papacy is a key stumbling block in the relations
between the two Christian traditions, which are scheduled to
restart theological talks in September after a six-year break. 

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini was reported saying the title had
been used in the past to provoke negative comparisons between
papal claims of universal jurisdiction by the worldwide
“Patriarchate of the West” and the more restricted size and
jurisdiction of the traditional Orthodox patriarchates. 

However, Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Vienna and
Austria, warned that it was not clear “how the removal of the
title could possibly ameliorate Catholic-Orthodox relations”.   

The Pope’s other titles included that of “Supreme Pontiff of the
Universal Church”, and Hilarion suggested the Pope was seeking to
confirm a claim to universal church jurisdiction also over the
patriarchates of the Eastern Orthodox church. 

“With relation to the pope of Rome the title ‘Supreme Pontiff of
the Universal Church’ points to the pope’s universal jurisdiction
which is not and will never be recognised by the Orthodox
Churches,” Hilarion noted in a statement carried on the Web site
www.orthodoxeurope.org “It is precisely this title that should
have been dropped first, had the move been motivated by the  *
desire for amelioration of the Catholic-Orthodox relations.” [381
words] 

All articles (c) Ecumenical News International 
Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and 
provided ENI is acknowledged as the source. 

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Good Summary of Deus Caritas Est

Why should we even bother to pay attention to what the Pope says? I can hear that question being asked by some of my earnest Lutheran friends. Well…let’s see….other than the fact that Pope is the spiritual head and chief teacher of the world’s largest group of people who claim to be Christians, I can’t think of a good reason to pay attention to what he has to say. Here is a good summary of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical.

Link: BREITBART.COM – Pope Warns About Loveless Sex.

Pope Warns About Loveless Sex
Jan 25 10:35 AM US/Eastern
Email this story

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY

Pope Benedict XVI warned in his first encyclical Wednesday that sex without unconditional love risked turning men and women into merchandise.

In the 71-page document “God is Love,” Benedict explored the relationship between the erotic love between man and woman, referred to by the term “eros,” and the Greek word for the unconditional, self- giving love, “agape” (pronounced AH-gah-pay).

He said the two concepts are most unified in marriage between man and woman, in which a covetous love grows into the self-giving love of the other, as well as God’s unconditional love for mankind.

He acknowledged that Christianity in the past has been criticized “as having been opposed to the body,” _ the erotic form of love _ “and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort have always existed.”

But he says the current way of exalting bodily love is deceptive.

“Eros, reduced to pure ’sex’ has become a commodity, a mere ‘thing’ to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself has become a commodity.”

“Here we are actually dealing with a debasement of the human body: no longer is it integrated into our overall existential freedom; no longer is it a vital expression of our whole being, but it is more or less relegated to the purely biological sphere,” he said.

Benedict explored the two aspects of love to then explain how the Roman Catholic Church’s charitable activities are based on love and are a fundamental part of its mission. He said the church had no desire to govern states, but at the same time couldn’t remain silent in political life because its charity is needed to ease suffering.

The encyclical, eagerly watched for clues about Benedict’s major concerns, characterizes his early pontificate as one in which he seeks to return to the basics of Christianity with a relatively uncontroversial meditation on love and the need for greater works of charity in an unjust world.

Even Vatican officials have expressed surprise at the topic, considering Benedict was the church’s chief doctrinal watchdog and could easily have delved into a more problematic issue such as bioethics in his first authoritative text.

In the encyclical, Benedict said the church’s work caring for widows, the sick and orphans was as much a part of its mission as celebrating the sacraments and spreading the Gospels. However, he stressed that the church’s charity workers must never use their work to proselytize or push a particular political ideology.

“Love is free; it is not practiced as a way of achieving other ends,” he wrote.

“Those who practice charity in the church’s name will never seek to impose the church’s faith upon others. They realize that a pure and generous love is the best witness to the God in whom we believe and by whom we are driven to love.”

He rejected the criticism of charity found in Marxist thought, which holds that charity is merely an excuse by the rich to keep the poor in their place when the wealthy should be working for a more just society.

While the Marxist model, in which the state tries to provide for every social need, responded to the plight of the poor faster than even the church did during the Industrial Revolution, it was a failed experiment because it couldn’t meet every human need, he wrote.

Even in the most just societies, charity will always be necessary, he said.

“There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbor is indispensable,” he said.

Benedict stressed that the state alone is responsible for creating that just society, not the church. “As a political task, this cannot be the church’s immediate responsibility,” he said.

However, he said the church wants to help “form consciences in political life and stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest.”

He said the church was “duty-bound” to offer such a contribution, and that the lay faithful, who as citizens of the state, are duty-bound to carry it out through works of charity.

“We do not need a state which regulates and controls everything, but a state which … generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need,” he wrote.

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The Defining Test: The Vatican and Homosexuality

Yes, in case you can’t tell, I’ve now found several excellent Roman Catholic blog sites. No, they are not “excellent” to the extent they represent false teachings of the Roman church [necessary disclaimer for the knee-jerk types reading this blog site], but excellent to the extent that they offer helpful news and information and insight. My blog roll is, thankfully, growing daily as I enjoy the wide world of Christian blogdom. So far I have a collection of Baptist, Calvinist, Roman Catholic and Lutheran Blogs. If somebody wants to point me to a good Eastern Orthodox blog site, I would like to subscribe to several of those as well. The more the merrier.

Here is an interesting piece, referencing an article in one of my favorite journals, First Things, in which the recent Vatican ruling on homosexuality is discussed as a defining test.

Link: Catholic World News (CWN).

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A Plenary Indulgence

I know I’ve already blogged on this once before, but I just read the full text of the papal declaration, at the Vatican’s web site. It bums me out. Just when some begin to hope that maybe, just maybe, this papacy might represent a definite turn away from the traditional errors of Rome, this is what we get. Some things never change, I guess.

Link: A Plenary Indulgence 8 December Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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The Pope’s Santa Hat


The traditional hat, known as a camauro, was commonly worn by popes in
the medieval period to keep their heads warm on cold days and it
featured on many paintings at the time, but it has rarely been worn in
modern times. Various reports have taken note of how this pope is using once again various items of papal clothing not used for many decades. Read more about this here.

Link: Scotsman.com News – International – Pope caps audience with his ‘Santa hat’.

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Papal Humbug

Cmas_humbug_1

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a plenary indulgence for Catholics who honor the Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

December 8

In a November 29 announcement, the Vatican said that Pope Benedict has declared the indulgence to mark the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. The announcement indicates that the Pope “when he renders public homage of praise to Mary Immaculate, has the heartfelt desire that the entire Church should join with him, so that all the faithful, united in the name of the common Mother, become ever stronger in the faith, adhere with greater devotion to Christ, and love their brothers with more fervent charity.”

A plenary indulgence, as Pope Paul VI explained in Indulgentiarum Doctrina in 1967, is “a remission before god of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.” Indulgences can be decreed by the Pope or, under certain restrictions, bishops. The faithful can obtain indulgences for themselves or for the souls in Purgatory.

The indulgence declared by Pope Benedict may be obtained by those who “participate in a sacred function in honor of the Virgin, or at least open testimony of Marian devotion before an image of Mary Immaculate exposed for public veneration, adding the recitation of the Our Father and of the Creed, and some invocation to the Virgin…

“The announcement indicates that those who are ill or otherwise unable to fulfill the normal conditions “may obtain a plenary indulgence in their own homes, or wherever they may be, if, with the soul completely removed from any form of sin, and with the intention of observing the aforesaid conditions as soon as possible, they unite themselves in spirit and in desire to the Supreme Pontiff’s intentions in prayer to Mary Immaculate, and recite the Our Father and the Creed.”

To gain the indulgence, the usual conditions of sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion, prayer for the intentions of the Pope, and the removal of attachment to sin are necessary. (Thanks to Catholic Information Center, Washington, D.C.)