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| Vatican Spokesman Fr Thomas Rosica explaining how Pope Francis is wrong about that salvation/redemption thing. |
What to make of this. Fr Thomas Rosica achieved fame, beyond Canada's Salt and Light Catholic TV Station by working as the Vatican's English spokesperson during the recent resignation/election cycle. The following article from Irish Central is most likely correct is stating it is the Vatican which is correcting Pope Francis. I guess this means the Vatican is infallible and not our current Pope.....or maybe the retired Pope is not so retired as we were led to believe.
Vatican corrects infallible pope: atheists will still burn in hell
The Vatican has just announced that, despite what Pope Francis said in his homily earlier this week, atheists are still going to hell.What a relief. For a brief moment there it was possible to imagine a brave new world of compassion, generosity and acceptance, not qualities we have come to associate with the Holy See. (Well, it's hard to maintain you sell the lone insurance policy to heaven if your main salesman is telling folks salvation is about how you treat others rather than about Catholicism as an insurance policy.)
Said Pope Francis this week: 'The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!'
That seemed like a pretty clear admission that people of other faiths and none have intrinsic worth to God and will be saved alongside the faithful. But this turned out to be wishful thinking.
Although they are otherwise good, moral people they are still doomed to burn in a lake of fire for having the temerity to have been born outside of Catholicism or having chosen to remain so.
The Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, spelled it out for the world on Thursday. People who know about the Catholic church 'cannot be saved' if they 'refuse to enter her or remain in her,' he said.
So that's one tall order of eternal hellfire for the rest of us, then.
It makes for an interesting spectacle to see the infallible pope being corrected by his handlers, doesn't it? For a moment it was possible to recall the welcoming and indulgent style of the short lived Pope John Paul I in the unexpectedly all-embracing words of Pope Francis. But you'll recall how quickly John Paul I was replaced by the much more doctrinaire John Paul II.
There's no question that Pope Francis sees the divinity in all human beings, but that's a message that comes with caveats. God may make them all, Jew and Gentile, but unless they're Catholic they're ultimately kindling. The Vatican waited 24 hours to correct him, but they corrected him. (I actually thought it would take less time, which is why I ended my last post by stating I have Pope Francis' back on this one.)
Yes, yes, the Council of Trent clearly taught that Jesus Christ, humanity's one and only Redeemer, redeemed both Jew and Gentile. But there is a huge difference between redemption and salvation. See how that works? Judas Iscariot was redeemed by Christ's death on the cross, but he was not saved - Catholics believe he is damned in hell.
To be justified requires faith - and that faith must be Catholic. You see where this is going?
If I was Pope Francis, I'd be employing a food tester right about now.
You are right about the food tasters which is why I think he eats in the cafeteria. His recent statement stretched a bit to include atheists was I thought quite a quantum leap if it was reported correctly. I think Francis has stated that he is the Bishop of Rome and I think that is all the pope should be in most matters. Other than that perhaps the Vatican construct as we have known it will disintegrate around the present Bishop of Rome. Other than that I am not quite certain what to make of Francis. Only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI love that description of the process of redemption, Colleen--"the prodigal son parable on a cosmic scale."
ReplyDeleteTom Rosica is an ambitious careerist who first came to the attention of the Vatican when he coordinated JP2's visit to Toronto for World Youth Day in 2002. He is a Basilian who is entrenched in Opus Dei. For WYD he carefully controlled the preparations to exclude those groups outside the Opus Dei movement from participation in any form.
ReplyDeletePretty nervy guy, isn't he?
I guess his career ambitions end here.
If only Rev. Rosica was actually a spokesperson for the Vatican instead of having someone publish his written response to the Pope's homily. Oh wait...he hasn't held the position of English spokesperson for the Vatican in years.
ReplyDeleteI wish Francis would have acted more quickly with Curia. Giving the anti forces time to gather their new energy and power is certainly dangerous to not only the Pope but for the entire church. I hope the Spirit is alive and on the side of reason.
ReplyDeleteI wish Francis safety and health. I wonder who controls Rosica that he has the courage to write about the Pope.
Scary,
I can only hope so Paul, but I think he would never have said this unless he knew he had backing.
ReplyDeleteGreat Comment Olivia. Living the Way is not exactly the way any man who sees himself as an up and comer in the Church would live his life. This is a monarchy with it's own unique method of determining nobility. I keep going back to the fact that Scotland's Cardinal O'Brien was made nobility. How did that happen? The answer to that is the core of why the whole system is utterly corrupt.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly how I saw this Bill--and it wasn't just humanity. It left me stunned and shocked for a number of reasons, but the most important wasn't that humanity wasn't the only sentient species in the multiverse, it was that it confirmed the fact I somehow already knew that and had to completely re evaluate how I saw sentient life.
ReplyDeleteUhmmm, actually he held the position of English spokesman for the Vatican all through the recent transition in the papacy.
ReplyDeleteThis was my biggest fear, that Pope Francis would wait too long to act and that he would a pay a price for that mistake. Every time I heard about the Jesuit 100 days of absorbing a situation, I wanted to scream.
ReplyDeleteI wonder too how Pope Francis will assert himself via the message of Jesus to someone like Thomas Rosica who has the audacity to speak out against the Pope. Perhaps some remedial reading classes of the Gospels and the real history of the RCC should be made mandatory for the careerist priests in the Vatican.
ReplyDeleteI read recently that the Pope recently spoke out against the mafia in Italy. He said they need to convert. Somehow I don't think by just telling mobsters to convert will suffice, especially when they seem to have the complicit backing of the Vatican mobster opus dei types.
What Thomas Rosica says is like calling for war in the Church against this Pope. He's like a Republican Tea Partier holding up the works that are good for the people and opening the flood gates to stalemates, disorder and more corruption enabling.
Pope Francis needs to overturn the tables and get a new Vatican spokesperson to speak for him, not against him. That would be what I think this Pope should do to assert himself.
And of course, in the eyes of the Catholic elite, Rosica is defending the true faith, not contradicting a pope.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Rosica is just defending a Church for the wealthy elites and his old buddy Benedict is encouraging that sort of thing. Rosica and Benedict are married to a Church for the elites after all is said and done. They are all happy and fed and taken care of by the "Church." The heck with everybody else. A Church for the tyrannical to rule and shut everyone else up and shut any voices out that dare speak the truth is no longer really a Church.
ReplyDeleteThere really is no reason to stay in the Catholic Church if it is just for the elites & the mouthpiece for the elite agenda. If it is just for the elites it is not a Catholic Church anymore; it has become a lie.
I don't know, I tend to think it's more of a case of guarding some very challenging truths behind a facade of easier to live lies.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite frustrating to say the least that those in powerful positions find it easier to live lies and manage to still have supporters in the Church that agree with them! LOL! It really is absurd, to say the least.
ReplyDelete