Catholics don’t schism in the National Catholic Register Fr Dwight Longenecker took issue with liberal theologian Daniel Maguire, who said the Catholic Church “could soon go the way of Judaism and split into three branches: Orthodox, Reformed and Conservative”. He agreed that these three groups exist: “The Orthodox are the traditionalists who love the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. The Conservatives are the Novus Ordo ‘evangelical Catholics’. The Reform are the Nuns on the Bus, Spirit of Vatican II, ‘I’ll do it My Way’ Catholics. “We all know that these three groups exist within the Catholic Church, and that there is conflict among them. However, we still assert a core unity around the magisterium and authority of the Pope,” Fr Longenecker wrote. If anyone doesn’t follow this, it’s a schism, not a branch – the Lefebvrists, and “a whole range of progressive ‘Catholic’ denominations”. He added: “What mystifies me is why people like Daniel Maguire remain in the Catholic Church at all. Other progressive Catholics have been much less hypocritical. Realising that their views are contrary to Catholic teaching, they have left to start their own Churches.”
The decline of Aramaic Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, is in a splintered and tenuous state, wrote John McWhorter at The Atlantic. “Yet it was the English of its time – a language that united a large number of distinct peoples across a vast region, a key to accessing life beyond one’s village, and a mark of sophistication to many.” Aramaic, not Persian, was the official language of Persia around 500 BC. “Yet today the language of Jesus Christ is hardly spoken anywhere, and indeed is likely to be extinct within the next century,” he wrote. Only about half a million people now speak Aramaic. “Today there is no one ‘Aramaia’ where the language is spoken,” he wrote. Instead, different dialects are spoken “in small, obscure communities spread far apart in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Armenia and Georgia”.
Proof of Church mercy “In the 1970s, long before I became a priest, I encouraged my girlfriend to have an abortion,” wrote Fr Stephen Imbarrato on Aleteia. “You may ask: ‘How does a man guilty of such a sin become a priest?’ Well, it is because the Church is, as it should be and as Jesus is, merciful.” Recently the media reported that Pope Francis is encouraging mercy towards those who repent procuring an abortion. Fr Imbarrato said he heard many people amazed that the Church did not forgive this sin. “It is almost as if in one single day we entered an abyss in which the Church was void of mercy when, in reality, the Church is all about mercy … and I am a living example of how the Church … extends God’s mercy to all who seek His mercy.”
✣ Meanwhile…
A priest has prepared for Pope Francis’s visit to Philadelphia by building a Lego model of the Vatican. Fr Bob Simon, parish priest of St Catherine of Siena Church in northern Pennsylvania, spent about 10 months building a miniature St Peter’s Basilica and Square with the help of half a million plastic bricks. The model can be viewed at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia as part of an exhibition on art and relics from the Vatican. Fr Simon made his first attempt at a Lego St Peter’s when he was 12. The current model measures 14ft by 6ft.
✣ Members of the US Congress have been told not to touch the Pope when he visits Washington. The State Department also advised congressmen to dress conservatively in dark colours, while women’s shoulders should be covered and skirts fall below the knee. According to The Hill newspaper, handshakes are the appropriate greeting for the famously warm Pope.
✣ Sister Sledge, the 1970s disco-pop act, are to perform at the Festival of Families concert in Philadelphia tomorrow. The group, comprised of three sisters, will join Aretha Franklin and actor Mark Wahlberg at the event. Among Sister Sledge’s hits are We are Family and Frankie.
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