The following comes from a March 26 release from Christian Newswire.
….Ignatius Press will release first in Spanish and then in English, four volumes, which are drawn from a series of addresses Cardinal Bergoglio gave in 2005 to the archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The books will reveal the Cardinal’s deep Ignatian spirituality.
In the first volume, Cardinal Bergoglio subtly distinguishes between sin and corruption. He argues that continuous complicity with sin leads to corruption and ultimately to social collapse. By attending to the dangers of sin and corruption we open ourselves to be transformed by the perfecting and liberating message of the Gospel.
In the second volume, Cardinal Bergoglio introduces us, in a profound meditation, to the writings of San Doroteo de Gaza, and orients us down a path towards humility and love, which are necessary components to form real Christian communities. He addresses the vice of focusing on others’ sins. To overcome this bad habit, he proposes the practice of self-accusation, in which individuals and communities reflect on their own shortcomings and sins.
In the third and fourth volumes, the new Pope speaks to and challenges educators: How far can we walk without a clear path? Where can we go with no goal to guide our steps? What is the way out of these difficult times the world is facing? He urges those in academia to form tomorrow’s leaders who will guide us towards Christ and his destiny for humanity. And specifically in the fourth volume, he challenges educators to deepen their commitment to teach with passion and zeal as Jesus the master teacher did. This volume will include key readings for individual as well as group study.
All four volumes in Spanish are available now for pre-order at www.ignatius.com. Volumes one and two will be combined into one volume for the English language, and will be released together in April.
I love and admire our new Pope very much — but am rather puzzled by the fact that each photography of him looks like a different man.
Is it because he lost weight due to illness, and then gained the weight back? Is it because of his sometimes wearing glasses, and sometimes not?
It is hard to recognize him in the many and varied photographs we have seen since his election to the Throne of Saint Peter.
I would have thought that corruption leads to sin, and not the other way around, but actually as children, we all experiment with sinning, and only a very few of us ever “progress” to corruption. Definitely corruption is a precursor and ultimately a partner of social distrust, resentment, response, and ultimate societal implosion, or at the very least, its failure to progress or thrive. To an American mind, failure to progress and thrive is equal to social collapse anyway, and to the individual caught in such a society, merely sustaining life is an overwhelmingly distressful challenge.
“He addresses the vice of focusing on others’ sins. To overcome this bad habit, he proposes the practice of self-accusation,…”
So if I were to complain that CCD comments lean heavily into this vice, I could be exercising the very vice I complain of?! This may not be so easy to overcome!
Congratulations to Ignatius Press for acting so quickly. We need to know more about our Pope.
It will take time to get to know this new pope. The liberal press is already prepared to draw up comparisons between Pope Francis and Pope Benedict. Any variation in style between them will be used to drive wedges amongst the believers. Pope Francis is decidedly not like his predecessor. The Holy Spirit will give him the strength he will need to fulfill his mission. He comes from an entirely different background. The church in Argentina has been under frontal assault for decades. Benedict enjoyed the love and devotion of his entire Bavarian nation, including its politicians; this cannot be said for Pope Francis. The level of poverty and class division that exists in Argentina are totally alien to a pope from a prosperous country like Germany. Benedict’s main concern was to purge the church from the evils that came to afflict her after the second council. Pope Francis’ task will be entirely different: he must find a way to bring his wayward flock home, to increase vocations, fight bravely against contraception, and to refill the pews, especially in the western world which is facing a demographic collapse. The emphasis must be on addressing Pope Paul’s Humanae Vitae which has been criminally neglected for more than thirty years with disastrous results.
The more we learn about our new Pope and the faster we learn it the better for us. From what I have read so far, he is very orthodox in his teachings. He has written often and preached often about the value of life in all its forms. He has also preached and written about the need for supporting the social teachings of the Church. He is faced with the daunting task of rallying a church that is deeply divided on many issues. These divides, to oversimplify, are between those who are “pro-life” to one extent or the other and those who are “pro-social justice.” There are also the divides between two sides that argue about the liturgy; how it should be conducted, how to make it more appealing to people, etc. The church, especially in the Americas is losing members to the Evangelicals and Fundamentalist churches. There is the great divide about appropriate music for church services. There is the lack of vocations caused by the cultural divide between people in western cultures and the call for celibacy which eliminates the possibility for married priests in the Latin Rite, although it is allowed in the Eastern Rites. He has to deal with the corruption in the Vatican offices where Cardinals are fighting for power and control over people and processes. He has a Vatican bank that could use some transparency. And then, he has millions of young people around the world that think the Church is a sort of hate group because of its stand against so many things. Let us hope the Holy Spirit is filling him with strength every minute of the day.