The apostolic nuncio to the United States told the nation’s bishops that their commitment to evangelization is the measure of their communion with Pope Francis.
Archbishop Christoph Pierre addressed the bishops during the opening session of the USCCB general assembly in Baltimore Monday morning.
Pierre told the bishops Nov. 11 that he would propose “some topics for reflection” which he hoped would inform the conference sessions. The central theme of his reflections was the commitment of the bishops to a state of constant missionary engagement.
The nuncio said that the extent to which the bishops themselves received and were able to transmit Pope Francis’ missionary and pastoral priorities, especially in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, was the barometer of their own communion with the pope.
Pierre said that adopting the missionary impulse of the pope’s own writings “and being in a permanent state of mission might represent tangible signs of communion with the Holy Father, for it would show the reception and implementation of his teaching.”
“The pope has emphasized certain themes: mercy, closeness to the people, discernment, accompaniment, a spirit of hospitality towards migrants, and dialogue with those of other cultures and religions,” Pierre said, while asking bishops to consider if these themes were reflected in their clergy and people.
“It is an interesting question to ask,” Pierre said, “because while there has been a strong emphasis on mercy by the Holy Father, at times – paradoxically – people are becoming more and more judgmental and less willing to forgive, as witnessed by the polarization gripping this nation.”
“The pastoral thrust of this pontificate must reach the American people,” the nuncio insisted, “especially as families continue to demand of dioceses and parishes the accompaniment envisioned by Amoris laetitia.”
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
Actually (don’t you hate it when commenters start with that??), Abp. Pierre, people are not becoming more judgmental. They speak out because you, your boss, and so many other bishops and clergy, have abandoned the True Faith. You cannot demand that we now practice worshiping to the idol, Pachamama, or applaud when homosexuals marry, or when divorced and remarried (no annulment) Catholics are freely given communion, all of that, and more.
No, now Catholics are speaking up and demanding that their own clergy actually observe and teach the Faith. Further, you failed to convey the reality of a split institutional Church. The German bishops are already deciding on new Catholic doctrine and practices that will guide them in the future. Where is Francis in that? Nope, you need to stand down, along with all other cowardly bishops. We need new St. Dominic’s and Benedict and Athanasius. Go home.
By your comment above, “SC” you have displayed that it is YOU who have “abandoned the True Faith,” because Catholic dogma is very clear that it is the Magisterium–in harmony with Scripture and Tradition–that teaches what the True Faith is, not “SC”, not Lefebvre, not the “Church Militant” blog, not the beloved FSSP on its own. You deviate from the Pope and his bishops, such as by calling on the Papal Nuncio to “go home,” then it is YOU who deviate. “if you don’t love it, leave!” (Thank you Donald Trump!)
To the resident self appointed Doctor of the Church, tell me where it says in Tradition or the Magisterium that is out duty to obey the UN as Francis said. Or that pagan idol worship must be allowed on site of Peter’s martyrdom. You will no doubt conjure up twisted wordsmithing to defend all that has been going and convince yourself it is apart of Church tradition…
Ah, “jon,” (and your George Soros pals), the problem with Abp. Pierre, and his boss, Pope Francis, is that they are far outside of Catholicism. If you even read my post, you would see concrete examples (and there are plenty more) where Francis simply “makes it up” for the Church. And, now, he is at it again, trying to muscle our already weak bishops into accepting his wrong teachings.
Do you really think that we are stupid, that the Pope can just shovel whatever his Latin American, pro-Liberation Theology, background has created and we have to take it? Read what you wrote jon. The Pope and Magisterium are limited by the Deposit of Faith, by scripture. Perhaps it is time to read St. Francis de Sales more closely about his commentary on what to do about a heretical Pope. A much better prior Nuncio (Abp. Vigano) has already pointed that Francis is mendacious. Vigano’s testimony needs to be answered.
It would please me to see us less divided. We all have a part to play. From the top to the bottom. pleas Holy Father reach out to the Bishops who do not agree with you. Answer them. We are all your children. Vigano has served the Church and should be extended this mercy our Holy Father stresses, and not be in hiding. This situation is ridiculous. Priests with sexual crimes are invited to Rome and others are left out in the cold. I do not understand this kind of mercy.
Maybe you should tell us here “bohemond” where in Catholic dogma does it say it is allowed for a Catholic to deride, disrespect, belittle, mock, instigate negativity in a public way against the anointed shepherds of the Church, against Vatican II, and against the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Ordinary Form? The teachings of the Church stand on three pillars. And you have essentially mocked the third, the Magisterium. Shameful.
I will continue to mock and deride these so called shepherds who have covered up homosexual crimes against children and adolescents, who have commited financial crimes against the Faithful, who have committed crimes against the Faith by allowing blaphemous lituries to continue.
Sorry, but your artificial “indignation” is just that: artificial. For starters, the Papal Nuncio has not covered up any crime. Secondly, neither did Francis, in spite of Vigano’s protestations. Thirdly, regardless of what you may disagree with, no Catholic has the right to mock, deride, ridicule the Church’s ministers. No where in Canon Law. By doing so, you violate the Church’s law. Sorry, but you will have to try harder “bohemond”.
By the way, by bringing up yet again, this media-hype called “clerical abuse of minors,” folks like “bohemond” continue to fall hook, line, and sinker for the anti-Catholic, anti-clergy bias of the left-wing media. Oh how ironic: that vociferous “traditional” Catholics who identify with the political right in this country would fall for, or at least cynically use left-wing media bias against the Church for its own purposes in order to criticize the Holy Father, to criticize the bishops. What a twisted world we live in folks.
Good job, “Bohemond.” Nuncio Vigano has pointed out one or two key areas of duplicity that simply must be responded to by Francis and the Vatican. They will not, except to generally deny everything, or to blame others. But evidence appears to show that Francis knew about McCarrick for years and took steps to protect and advance him, along with his cronies. Moreover, Francis has protected his “Lavender Mafia,” at all costs, including by his open devotion to the homosexual dominated German bishops.
The few Church bishops with faith need to find their courage and take steps to simply move on without Francis. Stop his scandals.
Stunning, jon calls the sexual abuse crisis hype, despite the evidence of the abuse and the cover ups. He’s worships the insitution not the mystical Body of Christ….
So “Bohemond” is saying we should be worshipping the “mystical Body of Christ”? These people are so confused. And yes, last year’s “hype” about clerical abuse is just that: a media-created hype, which gave the anti-Francis crowd the opportunity to use McCarrick’s sins as a tool with which to pound and thrash on the Holy Father, hoping he’d resign. That was last year, folks. This year, the tool they’re using is this “pachamama”. Pitiful.
There it is folks jon openly denies any of the sexual crimes committed and covered up the so called princes of the Church… I am not confused little man…. you just think you are intellectual giant when you are just arrogant
jon is more interested in defending Pope Francis than in protecting altar boys from being raped. He is helping our religious leaders cover up their crimes by saying that the crimes are just hype and not real. He is now acting as an accomplice to the sex abuse scandals. It should be pretty obvious why he opposes the death penalty. Pitiful.
Anonymous , Amen ! , I would add it shows jons mindset and character , and his posts can be viewed in this light . He mentions what a twisted word we live in indeed , with his posts ignoring the loss of souls , holiness and billions of dollars from the faithful it harms the very magisterium that he claims to respect, with more lawsuits to come claims of respect the magesterium will not be a legal defense His quote ” no Catholic has the right to mock, deride, ridicule the Church’s ministers ” fails to take Pope Francis to task for mocking the cassock and other traditional garb of traditional priests . I am still waiting for jons explanation and defense of pace mama.
The only “mindset and character” of mine that my posts evince is adherence to the truth and honesty. Firstly, from 1950 to 2002, only 252 Catholic clergy who were accused of this crime were convicted, which is less than 0.1% of the total Catholic clergy, people! Numbers have dropped precipitously in the 1990’s. One crime is more than enough, but to listen to the left-wing media, and the extreme right in the Church (like the vociferous blogs out there), you would think half the clergy are pedophiles. This is hype, pure and simple: for the left it is out of hatred of God and religion; from the right in the Church it’s coming from hatred for the Pope and his bishops, and contempt for Vatican II and the Ordinary Form.
There have been very few convictions because the crimes have been covered up. The crimes were concealed from police and prosecutors. Abuse of religious authority was used to coerce the silence of the victims. That is what the scandal is about. It is a widespread pattern of behavior throughout the Church. Several dioceses have gone into bankruptcy from being found liable in a really large amounts of sex abuse lawsuits. The enormity of the scandal has resulted laws being passed to lift the statute of limitations for sexual abuse. jon brushes this all off as nothing more than media hype. jon is part of the coverup machine. Every time jon says that there is nothing to see here, do not believe him. As far as jon is concerned, the sex abuse scandals is not about lives being ruined by religious authority being used to rape young males. What is more important to jon about the sex abuse scandals is if they make Pope Francis look bad. Do not listen to his lying magisterium. Do not respect his lies.
Anonymous’ comment is not only false and inaccurate, but also biased against the Church. For example, Anonymous cites the recent change in California’s statute of limitations as an indication of the “enormity” of the scandal reported last year. Folks, this statute has been changing since 2004 (!) at the wake of this story first breaking in 2001. Prior to this year, the statute had changed two more times (2005, 2007) each time relaxing the law. Because the law has been so relaxed, you are now seeing priests long dead being charged; and we can only hope they’re credible accusations. Folks as sad and heinous as child abuse is on the one hand, do not be blind to the hype–and to the persecution of the Church–going on around you. Lawyers’ coffers are being fattened by this. Just as sad are people like Anonymous who are falling for the hype. A lot has been accomplished for the good since the Dallas Charter of 2002, folks. A lot.
Lawsuits are not hype. Bankruptcy is not hype. Victims coming forward is not hype. McCarrick’s disgrace is not hype. jon’s coverup of the sex abuse scandal is hype.
Last year’s abuse story was certainly “hyped.” It came at the heels of the Hollywood #metoo movement: Anonymous seems to have forgotten. The media attention then turned to the Church partly because of Vigano’s tantrum which named McCarrick, which gave the story legs and added to the fuel. Anonymous mentions lawsuits, bankruptcies, victims coming forward–folks these have been going on before the 2018 media hype! But the fact remains, which neither Anonymous nor any anti-Catholic Church propaganda can dispute, is that–as sad as clerical abuse is–gains have been made because of the Dallas Charter, which the 2018 media “hype” as well as Anonymous’ pitiful comments above have found convenient to ignore.
How was the synod jon ? “Magisterium–in harmony with Scripture and Tradition ” where is pachamama , gaia, or mother earth in Scripture and tradition ?. Also before your usual accusations of protestantism this ceremony is being used against the church to recruit Catholics as it shows idol worship , that along with the profane picture of the nursing mother with the animal in a Catholic Church is why we are filled with moral rage. We do love of faith that is why “we” the faithful along with CM Patrick Coffin , Taylor Marshall among others are fighting for it ,your flailing attack on the FSSP shows your desperation , jon why don’t you start your own vlog or podcast like the others mentioned ? keep digging for the pony jon.
“Flailing attack on the FSSP”? Rick W., I merely pointed out that the beloved FSSP is NOT the Magisterium, which is patently true. if you’re going to insist that the beloved FSSP is the official interpreter of Scripture and Tradition, then you need basic Catholic catechesis.
St. Christopher, part of the Faith we defend is the 10 Commandments including Thou shalt not bear false witness against one’s neighbor.
Ok , so where did St. Christopher lie ? an opinion is not a lie, his opinion , as I read and agree with is that ,I see no deceit or deception
Anonymous, the Ten Commandments have been overshadowed by Pope Francis’s new teachings. St. Christopher did not commit an environmental sin here, so I think he is okay.
The Pope does not show mercy toward traditional Catholics. The Pope forms harsh judgments against them and says harsh things about them. The Pope also preaches about being merciful and against being judgemental. How strange.
Historically, communion with the Pope has always been defined as giving ascent to Catholic doctrine [or specifically, not advocating for heretical doctrine.]
It seems that the Pope is now hatching a new doctrine that a bishop may be excommunicated for not engaging sufficiently in specific activities. This is a radically new standard that isn’t found in Church History or the Ecumenical Councils.
I dare say that this new teaching, itself, has the appearance of being heretical.
“The pope has emphasized certain themes: mercy, closeness to the people, discernment, accompaniment, a spirit of hospitality towards migrants, and dialogue with those of other cultures and religions,” Pierre said. Do he and Bishop McElroy get the same “talking points” memo? What does he mean by these words? In practice, in parishes, what is he promoting? He emphasized, rightly, evangelization. Then, the purpose of dialogue with those of other cultures and religions is to bring them into the life and love of Christ and His Church, not dialogue for the sake of dialogue.
Indeed the same talking points are well constructed, fed to the heralds who announce them everywhere with full approval of the authors. They are heralded to move new ideas of those who construct them, at first to be parallel with classic doctrine, and then to replace it with the novelties. The boldness of the heralds attests to their selection by those in power. I will continue to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified for salvation from sin, for eternal life, and communion with the Trinity in the Church. At the same time, others will proclaim their teachings as well. The doctrine of the church reaches the heart more deeply than earthly novelties, thus it will prevail.
Oh how strange that the nuncio should ask us to get on board with the pope who himself has blown a very uncertain trumpet since the day he took office. For instance, what does he mean by evangelization? One would think converting them to the Catholic faith– to Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, before whom every person must ultimately bow and own as Lord, else spend eternity in hell. Oh wait, the pope doesn’t believe in hell. When our Divine Lord was on earth, He … oh wait, the pope apparently doesn’t believe Jesus was divine while on earth. Sorry, I forgot. How clumsy of me. How can we respond to a man for whom there is such equivocation with the Catholic faith? Forgive my grief, but I think he is a very confused man uttering a lot of confusion. I’m with St. Christopher on this one.
Dan,
The nuncio defined evangelization in his talk in very narrow terms. Part of his definition was to condone and accept irregular marriages.
The Pope is engaged in serious subterfuge — The fact that he can’t speak plainly and forthrightly speaks volumes about who he is.
How does one who is not Catholic become Pope?
Why doesn’t the left condemn the nuncio for using the white power hand gesture?
I know a couple who couldn’t get annulments, married civilly, and goes to Communion because they said that Francis allows it now. That’s what Francis has done.
Joe Biden says the Pope would give him Holy Communion in spite of his promoting the killing of millions of innocent preborn babies. Let us pray that the Pope would respond clearly and publicly to Biden, who has made his positions quite public.
“Why doesn’t the left condemn the nuncio for using the white power hand gesture?” Anon
truly this is a gesture that is suggestive of the kkk:
kraven, korrupted katholicism
In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles were in Boston to play a typical baseball game. But what happened was anything but ordinary. The Orioles’ John McGraw got in a fight with the Boston third baseman. Soon both teams were joined in the fight. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. The fight among the fans went from bad to worse. Then someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. That fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well (Daily Bread, August 13, 1992).
I heard the speech of the Papal Nuncio, and couldn’t believe it! This is Catholicism? This is what a Catholic Pope would ask of his bishops? Sorry, Abp. Pierre– in a more honest Church, such heretical “baloney” (like the stupid nonsense of “Amoris Laetitia”) would be laughed at– and those who believe such “baloney” would be kicked out of the Church!