oktober 2018

Lite uro rundt «Ungdoms»synoden

Sandro Magister skrev for et par dager siden en artikkel med overskriften: The Pope Has Hit the Brakes, and On Homosexuality the Catechism Still Applies. Og etter å ha skrevet en del kritiske bemerkningen om om de to bispesyndene om familien, fortsetter han:

Instead, the synod on young people that will conclude on Sunday, October 28 seems to be the most peaceful ever.

So peaceful that even the most explosive argument of those put to discussion – concerning the judgment on homosexuality – was practically defused.

The discussions in the assembly were kept confidential. But according to what was made public by the official information sources, there was not even one statement in favor of a change in Catholic doctrine on homosexuality.

And yet the “Instrumentum Laboris,” meaning the starter document that the synod fathers were called to discuss, seemed to promise sparks when it stated in paragraph 197 (among other things, introducing for the first time into an official text of the Church the not-innocent acronym LGBT):

“Some LGBT youths, through various contributions that were received by the General Secretariat of the Synod, wish to ‘benefit from greater closeness’ and experience greater care by the Church, while some BC ask themselves what to suggest ‘to young people who decide to create homosexual instead of heterosexual couples and, above all, would like to be close to the Church’.”

And instead nothing. When it came time to discuss this paragraph in the third week of the synod, not even those synod fathers known as innovators came out into the open.

On the contrary, in reading the few lines dedicated to the topic by what was expected to be of the 14 “circuli minores” the one most inclined to innovate, “Anglicus B” headed by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, one is struck by its explicit reference to the traditional doctrine on homosexuality contained in the Catechism.

Here, in fact, is how the relator of “Anglicus B” summed up the overall perspective of his working group, in the “relatio” presented in the assembly on October 20, concerning young people “who experience same-sex attraction:”

“We propose a separate section for this issue and that the main objective of this be the pastoral accompaniment of these people which follows the lines of the relevant section of the Catechism in the Catholic Church.”

So without changing a comma of the Catechism, which on homosexuals, in paragraphs 2357-59, says that “they must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” but also that they “are called to chastity,” because their “inclination” is “objectively disordered.”

……

Enda flere nyheter fra bispesynoden

First Things fortsetter artiklene fra bispesynoden (under pseudonymet Xavier Rynne II), og de er nokså kritiske. I et utdrag fra nr. 13 leser vi bl.a.:

JOHN PAUL II, YOUTH MINISTER
Pole that he was, Karol Wojtyła had a well-developed sense of historical irony. So from his present position in the Communion of Saints, he might be struck by the ironic fact that the Synod on “Youth, Faith, and Vocational Discernment” currently underway in Rome coincides with the fortieth anniversary of his election as Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1978. What’s the irony? The irony is that the most successful papal youth minister in modern history, and perhaps all history, was largely ignored in Synod-2018’s working document. And the Synod leadership under Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri seems strangely reluctant to invoke either his teaching or his example.

Følgende artikler er blitt publisert siden sist jeg nevnte dette:

Les kommentar nr. 10 – 16/10
Les kommentar nr. 11 – 17/10
Les kommentar nr. 12 – 18/10
Les kommentar nr. 13 – 19/10
Les kommentar nr. 14 – 22/10
Les kommentar nr. 15 – 23/10
Les kommentar nr. 16 – 24/10

Her er også et utdrag fra nr. 14:

The testimonies from successful young adult ministries that LETTERS FROM THE SYNOD has been privileged to publish for the past two and a half weeks all bear witness to a fact that both the Synod’s managers and some bishops can’t seem to grasp: In today’s cultural environment, at least in the West, young people are looking for the gospel, for friendship with Jesus Christ, and for communities in which the young and their spiritual mentors challenge each other to lead countercultural lives of integrity. They are not looking for more pandering in a world that already tells them they’re wonderful; they know they’re not, and they sense (and some know) that there are empty spaces in their lives the world cannot fill. That’s why the most vibrant young adult ministries in the 21st-century Church make religious and behavioral demands, even as they offer a hand of friendship, a supportive community, the Word of God in the Bible, and the grace of the sacraments.

More than one participant inside the Synod Hall and “Off Broadway” has observed that a lot of what’s been said by those the Synod managers evidently wanted in Rome for Synod-2018 sounds as if the Church had taken a trip back to the Seventies. … Cross-free, evangelically anorexic, soothing, Seventies-talk didn’t work in that lost decade. And it isn’t going to work now, when the cultural pressures on the young to conform to self-assertion rather than to embrace self-gift are even greater. …

Verdens største domkirke, verdens største alterbilde

I dag var vi nesten tre timer inne i domkirken i Sevilla (og i tårnet). Kirken har 80 sidealter og de fleste ble beskrevet i audioguiden. Wikipedia sier bl.a. dette om kirken:

After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for nearly a thousand years. The total area occupied by the building is 23,500 square meters. The Gothic section alone has a length of 126 meters, a width of 83 meters and its maximum height in the center of the transept is 37 meters. The total height of the Giralda tower from the ground to the weather vane is 96 meters. Since the world’s two largest churches (the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida and St. Peter’s Basilica) are not the seats of bishops, Seville Cathedral is still the largest cathedral in the world.

Audioguiden sa at hovedalterbildet (under) er det største som noen gang er laget, og at det tok 82 år å gjøre det ferdig (fra 1482 til 1564).

To fantastiske domkirker

Torsdag og fredag besøkte vi to fantastiske katolske domkirker i denne delen (sørvest) av Spania, først domkirken i Córdoba (som delvis er bygget på en tidligere moské), der vi var sammen med tusenvis av turister. Fredag reiste vi til Jaén og så den enorme domkirken der (og der var vi nesten alene). Domkirken i Córdoba vises over og domkirken i Jaén under. I dag så vi andre deler av Córdoba, bl.a. det tidligere store jødiske kvarteret – den kjente jødiske filosofen Maimonides var f.eks. født her.

I gravkapellet til De to katolske

I dag var vi i Capilla Real i Granada og så det store kapellet, gravmonumentene til Isabella og Ferdinand, kapellets enorme alterbilde og dronning Isabellas samling av religiøs kunst – som man kan se i bildene under. (Om Isabella og Ferdinands spesiell tittel kan vi lese: «The title of «Catholic King and Queen» was bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella by Pope Alexander VI in 1494, in recognition of their defense of the Catholic faith within their realms.»

Granada – la Reconquista

Maleriet under (malt av F. Padilla) viser hva som skjedde 2. januar 1492, da Muhammad XII overleverte Granadas nøkler til Isabella og Ferdinand. I bakgrunnen ser man Alhambra, der vi var tidligere i dag.

Wikipedia kan vi lese om hvordan den siste delen av gjenerobringen av Spania foregikk:

At the end of the Reconquista, only Granada was left for Isabella and Ferdinand to conquer. The Emirate of Granada had been held by the Muslim Nasrid dynasty since the mid-13th century. Protected by natural barriers and fortified towns, it had withstood the long process of the reconquista.

On 1 February 1482, the king and queen reached Medina del Campo and this is generally considered the beginning of the war for Granada. While Isabella’s and Ferdinand’s involvement in the war was apparent from the start, Granada’s leadership was divided and never able to present a united front. It still took ten years to conquer Granada, however, culminating in 1492.

The Spanish monarchs recruited soldiers from many European countries and improved their artillery with the latest and best cannons. Systematically, they proceeded to take the kingdom piece by piece.

In 1485 they laid siege to Ronda, which surrendered after only a fortnight due to extensive bombardment. The following year, Loja was taken, and again Muhammad XII was captured and released. One year later, with the fall of Málaga, the western part of the Muslim Nasrid kingdom had fallen into Spanish hands. The eastern province succumbed after the fall of Baza in 1489.

The siege of Granada began in the spring of 1491 and at the end of the year, Muhammad XII surrendered. On 2 January 1492 Isabella and Ferdinand entered Granada to receive the keys of the city.

Flere nyheter fra bispesynoden

Den anonyme Xavier Rynne II har skrevet mange kommentarer fra bispesynoden som nå pågår i Roma. Kommentarene er delvis i hans navn, delvis andre (mest George Weigel) og delvis intervjuer med forskjellige personer. Personlig blir jeg ikke særlig oppløftet over det som skjer på synoden.

Les kommentar nr. 4 – 8/10
Les kommentar nr. 5 – 9/10
Les kommentar nr. 6 – 10/10
Les kommentar nr. 7 – 11/10
Les kommentar nr. 8 – 12/10
Les kommentar nr. 9 – 15/10

Ferie i det sørlige Spania

Vi er nå på høstferie i det sørlige Spania. Første stopp har vært La Manga, et turistområde rett øst for Cartagena, og senere skal vi se de veldig interessante byene Granada, Cordoba og Sevilla.

Bildet over viser ett av sesongens siste bad (det er fortsatt litt over 20 grader i vannet her) og bildet under viser det berømte romerske teateret i Cartagena (der vi var lørdag). Les mer om teateret her, det ble faktisk ikke oppdaget før i 1988, og åpnet for publikum i 2008.

Xavier Rynne II skriver igjen fra bispesynoden

Som jeg skrev i september 2015, skriver Xavier Rynne II igjen fra årets bispesynode. For tre år siden skrev jeg under det samme bildet:

xavier-rynne

For 16-18 år siden leste jeg bøkene «Xavier Rynne» skrev fra Vatikankonsilet. Den amerikanske presten som skrev under dette navnet var godt informert, men også den som fikk pressen til å skrive om kampen mellom de konservative og de liberale. Slik skriver Wikipedia om ham:

Fr Francis Xavier Murphy attended the Second Vatican Council which met at the Vatican from 1962-1965 as a journalist. Under the pseudonym Xavier Rynne, combining his middle name and his mother’s maiden name, he revealed the inner workings of Vatican II to The New Yorker. He is credited with setting the tone for the popular view of the council, depicting it as «conservative» versus «liberal».

Så langt i år har Xavier Rynne II (igjen i tidsskriftet First Things) skrevet tre artikler; NR. 1 her, NR. 2 her og NR. 3 her.

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