http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/e37738adb6edd892883b1b12f97030f3-161.html



Pope Francis and the Old Covenant
The Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

By John Vennari

On Tuesday November 26, Pope Francis released his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World”. It is a ponderous text of more than 51,000 words.

The docuмent is guided by the new orientation of Vatican II, though it bears the personal stamp of Francis. For now, we will focus on one section of the Exhortation that deals today’s religion of Judaism.

Within the context of exhorting Catholics ever deeper into the ecuмenical program, Pope Francis says: “We hold the Jєωιѕн people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for ‘the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable’ (Rom 11:29). The Church, which shares with Jєωs an important part of the Sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf. Rom 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jєωs among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God[1] who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.”[2]

There is no mention of any need for conversion to Christ and His Church.

Pope Francis effectively continues the program initiative by the Council, and brought to fruition by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI that the Old Covenant has not been superseded by the New. This is a novel concept that runs contrary to Sacred Scripture and to the perennial magisterium of the Church.

Our Lord Jesus Christ told the Jєωs of his day: “If you do not believe that I am He [the Messiah], you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24) Elsewhere He said to the Jєωs, “You search the Scripture because in them you think you have life everlasting. And it is they that bear witness to Me, yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)

Saint John, faithful to Our Lord’s teaching, says likewise, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2: 22). Modern day Jєωs deny Jesus is the Christ, and live their lives as if Jesus does not exist.

Saint Peter, at his first sermon on Pentecost morning, publicly told the Jєωs who had assembled to hear him speak that they must be baptized and become members of Christ’s true ecclesia for salvation. (Acts 2) Even though these men were religious Jєωs, pious Jєωs who had traveled a great distance to celebrate the Jєωιѕн Feast, St. Peter did not tell them they had their own workable covenant independent from Christ. For salvation, they needed to leave their position in Judaism and transfer into the one true Church established by Christ.

Sacred Scripture likewise teaches that the Old Covenant is superseded by the New. Our Lord warned the Jєωs who would reject Him: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people yielding is fruits.” (Matt. 21:43)

Saint Paul declares explicitly that Our Lord’s New Covenant “has made obsolete the former one,” that is, made obsolete the old Judaic Covenant. (Heb. 8:13) The Catholic Church throughout the centuries has been faithful to this truth.

The doctrine of the supersession of the Old Testament by the New is a universal and perpetual doctrine of the Catholic Church. It is a defined article of the Catholic Faith. The solemn Profession of Faith of the Ecuмenical Council of Florence under Pope Eugene IV, says the following:

“The sacrosanct Roman Church ... firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after Our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; ... All, therefore, who after that time observe circuмcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it (the Roman Church) declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors.”[3]

Francis and Judaism

We should not be surprised, however, when Pope Francis says of today’s Jєωs, “their covenant with God has never been revoked.” He has always been an ecuмenical prelate. In December of 2012, he celebrated Hanukkah with Argentine Jєωs in Buenos Aires.[4]

Further, as Cardinal Bergoglio, he co-authored the 2010 book On Heaven and Earth with his friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka. Here is what then-Cardinal Bergoglio said about Vatican II’s treatment of this topic:

“There is a phrase from the Second Vatican Council that is essential: it says that God showed Himself to all men and rescues, first of all, the Chosen People. Since God is faithful to his Promise, He did not reject them. The Church officially recognizes that the People of Israel continue to be the Chosen People. Nowhere does it say, ‘You lost the game, now it is our turn’. It is a recognition of the people of Israel. That, I think, is the most courageous things from Vatican II on the subject.”[5]

When Cardinal Bergoglio notes that nowhere does Vatican II say of today’s Jєωs: “you lost the game, now its our turn,” he is refering to the doctrine that the Old Covenant is superceded by the new; and that Vatican II appeared to alter this teaching. By rejoicing in this new approach, Bergoglio effectively rejects Our Lord’s words to the Jєωs noted earlier, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people yielding is fruits.” (Matt. 21:43).

It is the true doctrine of supersession on which the Catholic based its traditional teaching that the Jєωs were the “once-chosen people,” but the Chosen People no longer. We see an example of this in Pope Pius XI’s Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a liturgical prayer issued simultaneously in 1925 with his encyclical Quas Primas. The prayer reads in part, “Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of that race, once Thy chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may It now descend upon them, a laver of redemption and of life.”

A Continuity of Modernism

Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate was the docuмent that caused the fundamental shift in modern Churchmen’s attitude toward present-day Jєωs.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, the current head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity celebrates Nostra Aetata as the “crucial compass” of all endeavors towards Catholic-Jєωιѕн dialogue. In his speech of May 16 2012 at the Angelicuм in Rome, Koch refers to Nostra Aetate as the “foundation docuмent,” the “Magna Carta” of dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism. He calls Nostra Aetate a text that effected “a fundamental re-orientation of the Catholic Church” following the Council.[6]

Nostra Aetate was designed to be only the beginning of something much bigger. It is the culmination of more than two decades of work by modernist-leaning theologians who were determined to side-step traditional theology and establish a new basis of relations between Catholics and Jєωs.[7]

The key text of Nostra Aetate on this point is in the docuмent’s fourth chapter:

“Given this great spiritual heritage common to Christians and Jєωs, it is the wish of this sacred Council to foster and recommend a mutual knowledge and esteem… the Jєωs should not be presented as rejected by God or accursed, as though this follows from Scripture … The Church… deplores all hatred, persecution and other manifestations of anti-semitism, whatever the period and whoever was responsible.”

Of course, no Catholic may favor the mistreatment of Jєωs or of anyone else. What’s troubling, however, is the ambiguity contained in the phrase, ”The Jєωs should not be presented as rejected by God or accursed, as though this follows from Scripture.”

This phrase lacks necessary distinctions.

Firstly, all of us are members of an “accursed race” – the human race. None of us are born Catholic, but enter this world stained with original sin as children of Adam and Eve. We are thus born, as Blessed Abbot Marmion explains, “enemies of God.”*8 The Psalms teach, “Indeed in guilt was I born and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 5:7) Saint Paul affirms, “For we are by nature children of wrath.” (Eph. 2:3). We are all born as part of the Kingdom of Satan.

To be freed from this kingdom, we need to be “saved”. As the eminent Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton explains, the process of salvation requires a transfer from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom of God, according to the age-old doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, is the Catholic Church, the one and only supernatural society established by Christ in which salvation can be found.

The process of salvation, as Fenton notes, is similar to being saved from a sinking rowboat wherein the individual is sure to perish, and being transferred to a sea-worthy ocean liner. This necessary transfer from the Kingdom of satan to the Kingdom of God requires Baptism and acceptance of the Jesus Christ and his Divine Revelation. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved. He who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:6) This teaching applies to all people on earth, whether they be Jєωιѕн, Muslim, Hindu or secular humanist.

We are all thus born as part of an “accursed race.” The only way to free ourselves from this curse, the only way out of the kingdom of satan is to leave the devil’s empire and transfer into Christ’s one true Church, and to keep oneself in the state of grace by means of prayer and the sacraments.

Next, Nostra Aetate fails to make a crucial distinction between Jєωs as individuals and the Jєωιѕн religion. True, Jєωs are not under a curse that precludes their salvation, since our sacred history is rife with Jєωιѕн converts who left the religion of the ѕуηαgσgυє and embraced the Catholic Church. What is today called the Jєωιѕн religion, however, is not of God, since it is based on a rejection of the Messiah.

Pope John Paul II

A further development of Nostra Aetate was accomplished by Pope John Paul II. The main text in this next stage Pope John Paul’s speech to the Jєωιѕн community in Mainz, Germany, November 17, 1980. It is a speech that was subsequently quoted in Vatican docuмents:

“The first dimension of this dialogue, that is, the meeting between the people of the Old Covenant, never revoked by God, and that of the New Covenant, is at the same time a dialogue within our Church, that is to say, between the first and second part of her Bible, Jєωs and Christians, as children of Abraham, are called to be a blessing to the world. By committing themselves together for peace and justice among all men and peoples.”[9]

Darcy O’Brien, author of The Hidden Pope, which details the life-long friendship between Karol Wojtlya (John Paul) and his Jєωιѕн friend Jerzy Kluger, correctly explained the full import of John Paul’s revolutionary statement. The speech, notes O’Brien, contains the “dramatic assertion” that “The Old Covenant … has never been revoked. This means that the goal of the conversion of the Jєωs is abandoned, and that their salvation as a people is embraced, setting aside forever the notion that their baptism is required.”[10]

This new direction of Pope John Paul II was further advanced by the Vatican’s 1985 Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jєωs and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church. The docuмent’s introduction bids the reader to take “special note” of paragraph 3 “which speaks about Judaism as a present reality and not only as a historical (and thus superseded) reality.” When we turn to Paragraph 3, we see that the Notes quotes the above speech where John Paul speaks of “the people of God of the Old Covenant which has never been revoked.”

Far from claiming that the Notes misinterpreted his words, John Paul spoke of his unqualified support of the docuмent. On October 28, 1985, John Paul II said “[The] Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jєωs and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church” is ‘”proof of the Holy See’s continued interest in and commitment to this renewed relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jєωιѕн people.” [11]

Further, Pope John Paul II, in all of his dealings with today’s Jєωs, never alluded to a need for their conversation to Christ and His Church. He treated them as a religious body whose members have their own legitimate path to God. This is a manifestation of religious indifferentism condemned by Popes Leo XII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX and all other popes until the time of the Council.

Benedict and Francis Continue the New Program

The overall thrust of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict’s writings over the years is that Catholics should not necessarily try to convert Jєωs, but rather, Jєωs and Christian should be a common witness “to the one God, Who cannot be adored apart from the unity of love of God and neighbor, they should open the door into the world for this God…”
 These are themes found in his books: Many Religions One Covenant, God and the World, Jesus of Nazareth Part II, and Light of the World. I have previously docuмented this in past issues of CFN and will not repeat it all here.[12]

Suffice to say that Cardinal Kurt Koch, in his May 16 speech at the Angelicuм, applauded Pope Benedict’s dedication to Nostra Aetate.

Koch celebrated Pope Benedict as a man committed to the Council’s new approach, and lauded Benedict for following in the exact footsteps of Pope John Paul II in this regard. In fact, over a period of 26 years, Pope John Paul II visited one ѕуηαgσgυє; whereas over the span of 7 years, Pope Benedict XVI visited three. Thus Cardinal Koch rejoiced, “We can claim with gratitude that no other Pope in history has visited as many ѕуηαgσgυєs as Benedict XVI.”[13]

Likewise, when Pope Benedict visited the ѕуηαgσgυє in Rome, Rabbi David Rosen, director of the American Jєωιѕн Committee’s Interreligious Affairs was ecstatic, and understood better than many Catholics the true revolutionary nature of such acts.

“With the visit to the ѕуηαgσgυє Pope Benedict is institutionalizing revolutions,” said Rabbi Rosen. “By visiting the Roman ѕуηαgσgυє, Pope Benedict is making it difficult for a subsequent Pope not to pay such a visit. John Paul’s [1986] visit could have been a one-off, but now with Benedict XVI’s visit, there is a sense of continuity.”

Pope Francis is likewise a man of Nostra Aetate. He effectively denounces the infallible truth that the Old Covenant was superseded and made obsolete by the New. In this, as in other areas, he accepts that there can be “some transformation of the dogmatic message of the Church” over time, which is Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton’s succinct definition of Modernism.[14]

Under Pope Francis the Modernist orientation continues.

Four Points to Keep Your Balance

In order to help you keep your balance in the face of the ongoing disorientation of the upper hierarchy, we will close with four key points of infallible Catholic Truth. These are central teachings of the Catholic Faith either denied or ignored by our post-Conciliar leaders. These four key points help stabilize your faith, and demonstrate the fallacy of Vatican II’s new approach:

1) Outside the Church there is no salvation: The Council of Florence teaches infallibly "The Most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jєωs, heretics, and schismatics can ever be partakers of eternal life, but that they are to go into the eternal fire ‘which was prepared for the devil and his angels,’ (Mt. 25:41) unless before death they are joined with Her…”

This doctrine has been infallibly defined three times and taught continually throughout the centuries by the ordinary magisterium, such as the repeated papal condemnations of religious indifferentism in the 19th Century, and by Pius XII’s Humani Generis. There is nothing cruel or “anti-semitic” about this dogma, as it has been taught by the Church since the time of Christ and flows from the words of Our Lord Himself: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:16).

2) Catholic Doctrine Cannot Change: It is the very nature of reality itself that objective truth cannot change. Thus what the Council of Florence defined is infallibly true for all time. Even a Pope cannot alter it.[15] Vatican II, which is only a pastoral Council that formally defined nothing, cannot change doctrine at all. Further, Vatican I formally stamped out any idea of an “evolution of doctrine” when it taught that we are bound to believe Catholic doctrine “in the same meaning and in the same explanation” of what the Church always taught without change. This formula is from Saint Vincent Lerins in the 4th Century, and was also contained in the Oath Against Modernism – holding the Catholic Faith “in the same meaning and in the same explanation” without change or alteration.

Vatican I further taught infallibly, “The meaning of Sacred Dogmas, which must always be preserved, is that which our Holy Mother the Church has determined. Never is it permissible to depart from this in the name of a deeper understanding.”[16]

The so-called “hermeneutic of continuity and reform”, popularized by Pope Benedict, is essentially Modernist. It never repeats the Catholic’s duty to maintain the Catholic Faith “in the same meaning and in the same explanation,” for all time, since fidelity to unchanging Catholic doctrine would prohibit the Council’s new approach to Religious Liberty, ecuмenism, and contemporary “Jєωιѕн-Catholic dialogue”.

The “hermeneutic of continuity and reform” method is simply a new synthesis between Tradition and Vatican II — a synthesis between Tradition and Modernism — which is not a legitimate synthesis. It is a fraudulent approach to Tradition no matter how well meaning its promoters. It is this modernist principle that allows Cardinal Koch to celebrate Nostra Aetate as a “a fundamental re-orientation of the Catholic Church.”

3) The Old Covenant is Superseded by the New: Thus one can not speak of Jєωs as having their own covenant with God, or exercising some sort of fidelity in light of the fact of their once-held status as the Chosen People.

The eminent theologian Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton explains the perennial Catholic teaching on this matter that the word “Church” has one meaning. It is the Kingdom of God on earth; the people of the Divine Covenant, the true Israel of God, the one social unit outside of which salvation cannot be found. Prior to the coming of Christ, this ecclesia, this people of the Divine Covenant, had been the people of Israel. But when they rejected Our Lord Jesus Christ, they lost their status as the true Israel of God. Modern-day Jєωs cannot truly be considered sons of Abraham, since they have forsaken the Faith of Abraham in regard to Jesus Christ our Redeemer.[17]

Thus, to speak as if today’s Jєωs have no need to convert is contrary to Scripture, contrary to the infallible Catholic doctrine of the centuries, and demonstrates a supreme lack of charity. Jєωs, as well as all non-Catholics, need to be reminded in Christ-like charity that it is crucial for them to accept Christ and His Catholic Church as the one and only means established by God for salvation.

In doing this, we can readily adopt the gentle wording of the moral theologian Father Francis Connell who said in 1944 that Catholics need to be instructed to tell non-Catholics when asked that “we consider them deprived of the ordinary means of salvation, no matter how excellent their intentions.”[18]

 4) The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms: Our Catholic Faith has always taught that all of mankind is divided into two Kingdoms. As Leo XIII teaches in Humanum Genus, mankind from the time of Adam “separated into two diverse and opposite parts,” the one that holds steadfastly for truth, and the other of those that are contrary to virtue and to truth. “The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from their heart to be united with it, so as to gain salvation … The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law…”[19]

Every man on earth is part of one of these two kingdoms. There is no third alternative.

Unfortunately – speaking in the objective order — all who are separated from the Church are part of the Kingdom of Satan, whether they recognize it or not. They are outside the reality of sanctifying grace, and of membership in our Lord’s ecclesia.

Applying this truth to the topic at hand, Msgr. Fenton explains, “In rejecting the Redeemer Himself, the social unit [the old Jєωιѕн religious commonwealth] had automatically rejected the teaching God had given about Him. The rejection of this message constituted an abandonment of the Divine Faith itself. By manifesting this rejecting of the faith, the Jєωιѕн religious unit fell from its position as the company of the chosen people. It was no longer God’s ecclesia, His supernatural kingdom on earth. It became part of the kingdom of Satan.”[20]

Fenton continues, “At the moment of Our Lord’s death on Calvary, the moment when the old dispensation was ended and the Jєωιѕн religious association ceased to be the supernatural kingdom of God on earth, this recently organized society of Our Lord’s disciples began to be the supernatural Kingdom of God on earth, this recently organized society of Our Lord’s disciples began to exist as the ecclesia, or the kingdom.”[21]

Pretending modern-day Jєωs enjoy some of third alternative of fidelity to God is a rupture with the teaching of the Sacred Scripture and with Catholic doctrine of all time. The true doctrine of the Catholic Church throughout the centuries cannot be deprecated as being somehow cruel or “anti-Semitic”, for to accuse God and His beautiful Divine Revelation as cruel is a manifestation of blasphemy.

Keep the True Faith

Finally, in light of the confusion coming from today’s Vatican, we recall the words of Juan Cardinal de Torquemada (1388-1468) the revered medieval theologian responsible for the formulation of the doctrines that were formulated at the Council of Florence.

Cardinal Torquemada, explaining that it is possible for even a Pope to err, teaches: “Were the Pope to command anything against Holy Scriptures, or the articles of faith, or the truth of the sacraments, or the commands of the natural or divine law, he ought not to be obeyed, but in such commands he is to be disregarded. Citing the doctrine of Pope Innocent III, Cardinal Torquemada further teaches: “Thus it is that Pope Innocent III states (De Consuetudine) that it is necessary to obey the Pope in all things as long as he, himself, does not go against the universal customs of the Church, but should he go against the universal customs of the Church, “he need not be followed” on these points.[22]

Our first duty, as Vatican I teaches, is to keep the Catholic Faith without change, “in the same meaning and in the same explanation” of what the Church taught throughout the centuries.

Thus we adhere to the Catholic Faith of all time, we pray for the conversion of non-Catholics to the one true ecclesia, we resist modernist novelties coming from the highest echelons of the Church, and we follow the Fatima Message that tells us to “pray a great deal for the Holy Father.”


Notes:

1. CFN Note: Speaking on the modernist notion that various religions worship the same God, the eminent theologian Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange explained that such a tenet denies the principle of non-contradiction, which is the most fundamental principle of reason. Father Garrigou-Lagrange explains, “It is injurious to say that God would consider with equanimity all religions while one teaches truth and one teachers error, when one promises the good and one promises the evil. To say this would be to affirm that God would be indifferent to good and evil, to what is honest and shameful.” De Revelatione, Father Garrigou-Lagrange, [Paris: Galbalda, 1921], Tome 2, p. 437. Quotes from “Christians, Muslims and Jєωs: Do we all Have the Same God?”, Father François Knittel, Christendom, November, December, 2007.
2. Evangelii Gaudium, # 247. Emphasis added.
3. Denzinger, 1348. [Emphasis added].
4. For news film on this December 2012 event, go to www.cfnews.org/hanukkah.htm
5. On Heaven and Earth, Jorge Mario Bergoglio & Abraham Skorka, [New York: Image, 2013], p. 188. Original Spanish edition published in 2010.
6. "Building on Nostra Aetate - 50 Years of Christian-Jєωιѕн Dialogue,” Cardinal Kurt Koch, Lecture at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicuм), John Paul II Center, Rome, May 16, 2012. Published by the Council of Centers of Jєωιѕн-Catholic Relations (emphasis added).
7. See From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jєωs, 1933-1965 by Professor John Connelly. (Harvard University Press, 2012). The book’s author is clearly in sympathy with the progressivists, but this does not detract from the value of the docuмentation. This newly published book docuмents the work of progressivist pre-Vatican II theologians to construct a new theology to accommodate modern Jєωιѕн-Catholic relations. It is the work of these theologians, primarily that of Karl Theime, who laid the groundwork for Nostra Aetate’s new approach. We will detail more of this material in a future issue of CFN.
8. Christ the Life of the Soul, Abbot Columba Marmion, [St. Louis: Herder, 1925], p. 33.
9. Quoted from The Hidden Pope, Darcy O’Brien, (Daybreak Books, New York, 1998), p. 316. This same text also appears in Pope John Paul II: On Jєωs and Judaism, 1979-1986, published by the National Council of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C., 1987, p. 35. (emphasis added)
10. The Hidden Pope, pp. 316-317. (Emphasis added).
11. Pope John Paul II, “Address to International Catholic-Jєωιѕн Liaison Committee on the Twentieth Anniversary of Nostra Aetate.”, Taken from John Paul II, On Jєωs and Judaism, 1979-1986, published by the United States Catholic Conference, (Washington, 1987), p.75.
12. he most complete summary is found in “ Common Mission and “Significant Silence”, John Vennari, Catholic Family News, April, 2011.
13. Koch, “Building on Nostra Aetate - 50 Years of Christian-Jєωιѕн Dialogue”.
14. “The Components of Liberal Catholicism,” Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, American Ecclesiastical Review, July 1958, p. 50.
15. The dogmatic Vatican I proclaimed de fide, that not even a Pope may preach a new doctrine. Defining Papal Infallibility, Vatican I taught: “The Holy Spirit was not promised to the successor of Peter that by the revelation of the Holy Spirit they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the Apostles and the deposit of Faith, and might faithfully set it forth.” Vatican I, Session IV, Chapter IV; Pastor Aeternus.
16. Vatican I, Session III, Chap. IV, Dei Filius.
17. American theologian Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton explains, “The new organized or visible society [of Christ] continued its profession of the divine faith when the other social unit, the old Jєωιѕн religious commonwealth, abandoned that faith in repudiating the divine Redeemer. Thus the older social unite lost its status as the ecclesia or kingdom of God on earth while the new organization, the faithful remnant of Israel, went on to be the ecclesia in a much more compete and perfect sense than the other had ever been.” Quoted from “The Meaning of the Word ‘Church’”, Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, American Ecclesiastical Review, October, 1954
18. “Communication with Non-Catholics in Sacred Rites,” Father Francis Connell, C.Ss.R., American Ecclesiastical Review, September, 1944.
19. Humanum Genus, On Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ, Pope Leo XIII, April 20, 1884.
20. The Catholic Church and Salvation, Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton [Newman Press, 1958] pp. 138-139.
21. Ibid. p. 139.
22. Summa de ecclesia (Venice: M. Tranmezium, 1561). Lib. II, c. 49, p. 163B. The English translation of this statement of Juan de Torquemada is found in Patrick Granfield, The Papacy in Transition (New York: Doubleday, 1980), p. 171. And in Father Paul Kramer, A Theological Vindication of Roman Catholic Traditionalism, 2nd ed. (Kerala, India), p. 29. Emphasis added.


For John Allen's assessment of the new docuмent, go to:
http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/498db02499f93045547a9b4825009f95-160.html



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Pope Francis reaffirmed Catholic teaching on male priesthood in his first apostolic exhortation, while calling for a broader application of the “feminine genius” in Church life.

“The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion,” he said, “but it can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too closely identified with power in general.”

The Pope's words came in his new docuмent, “The Joy of the Gospel,” released Nov. 26.  Also known as “Evangelii Gaudium,” the apostolic exhortation follows the 2012 bishops' synod on the new evangelization, which was held as part of the Year of Faith.

“Demands that the legitimate rights of women be respected, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity, present the Church with profound and challenging questions which cannot be lightly evaded.”

However, this equal dignity cannot be equated with “sacramental power,” he said, quoting Bl. John Paul II’s words that priesthood falls “in the realm of function, not that of dignity or holiness.”

“The ministerial priesthood is one means employed by Jesus for the service of his people, yet our great dignity derives from baptism, which is accessible to all,” Pope Francis reflected. “The configuration of the priest to Christ the head – namely, as the principal source of grace – does not imply an exaltation which would set him above others.”

Although the function of the priesthood is considered “hierarchical,” it is ordered not towards domination but towards serving the members of the Church, he explained, observing that the authority of the priesthood is rooted in service and has its origin in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Still, the role of women in the Church is important, the Pope said in his exhortation, noting that “a woman, Mary, is more important than the bishops.”

“The Church acknowledges the indispensable contribution which women make to society through the sensitivity, intuition and other distinctive skill sets which they, more than men, tend to possess,” the Holy Father said, pointing as an example to the “special concern which women show to others, which finds a particular, even if not exclusive, expression in motherhood.”

The Pope recognized that women already “share pastoral responsibilities with priests” and contribute to theological reflection.

“But we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church,” he said.

Pointing to Catholic teaching on the “feminine genius,” he explained that women must be free to bring their gifts and skills to the workplace and other areas of decision-making, including within the Church.

Pope Francis also reflected on the broader role of the laity in the Church, saying that they are “the vast majority of the People of God,” and ordained ministers are the minority who are “at their service.”

“There has been a growing awareness of the identity and mission of the laity in the Church,” he said, and there are “many lay persons, although still not nearly enough, who have a deeply-rooted sense of community and great fidelity to the tasks of charity, catechesis and the celebration of the faith.”

Many others, however, still lack an understanding of their responsibility as laity, he continued. Sometimes this is due to inadequate formation, and other times to “an excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making.”

While these challenges are significant, they are not insurmountable, the Pope stated.

“Challenges exist to be overcome!” he said. “Let us be realists, but without losing our joy, our boldness and our hope-filled commitment. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary vigour!”

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-backs-male-priesthood-urges-feminine-genius-in-church/

And yet this guy will not consider Francis a heretic despite the fact that he says and believes things that go against Traditional Catholic teaching.

How can anyone continue to recognize this guy as a valid pope?  It makes no sense to me.

God Himself referred to the OT covenant as "everlasting".  Of course it was fulfilled in the New Covenant and so faithfulness to the OT covenant requires the acceptance of the New.

What's at issue is whether Francis believes that the practices of the OT covenant continue to be salvific in the same way that they were prior to the New Covenant.  I think that he does, but it's unclear from the quotes I've seen.  By the same token, Francis probably believes that any natural good intention can be salvific.  Unfortunately, most Traditional Catholics effectively believe the same thing.

Thus, again, if there's a single heresy of which the V2 popes can be found guilty, it's denial of EENS.  Yet, ironically, most Traditional Catholics, hold the same core beliefs regarding EENS that the modernists do.  It's just that the modernists have drawn these out to their logical conclusion.

Why do traditional Catholics even bother to comment on the perorations of this pope.  He constantly desplays the spirit of anti-Christ.  He has nothing to say to us, but, alas, takes much time saying it.  What have we to learn from this poor, benighted soul.  Read your Bible.

Are you not a Traditional Catholic?