Katolsk

Petition Vaticanum2 – hele konsilet må godtas!

Katolsk /

For et par dager siden ble jeg gjort oppmerksom på en underskriftsaksjon i Tyskland, Østerrike og Sveits, som i vinter/vår samla inn ca 55 000 underskrifter. De krevde at Kirken fullt ut måtte akseptere det annet Vatikankonsil, uttrykte (mer eller mindre tydelig) at pave Benedikt ønsker å gå tilbake til tida før konsilet, og krever visse handlinger fra Troskongregasjonen. Les mer HER om Petition «Für die uneingeschränkte Anerkennung der Beschlüsse des II. Vatikanischen Konzils»

En sveitsisk biskop, Kurt Koch i Basel, ser ikke med så blide øyne på dette og lignende initiativer, og skriver:

Many people have signed a petition for the unqualified acceptance of the council. Right from the start, the expression «unqualified acceptance» irritates me because I don’t know anyone—myself included—to whom it would apply. A few arbitrarily chosen examples will suffice:

– The council did not abolish Latin in the liturgy. On the contrary, it emphasized that in the Roman Rite, apart from exceptional cases, the use of the Latin language must be maintained. Who among the vocal defenders of the council wishes «unqualified acceptance» of that?

– The council declared that the Church regards Gregorian Chant as the «music proper to the Roman Rite», and that it must therefore «be given primary place.» In how many parishes is this implemented «without qualification?» … …

– The council described the fundamental nature of the liturgy as the celebration the pascal mystery and the eucharistic sacrifice as «the completion of the work of our salvation.» How can that be reconciled with my experience, made in many different parishes, that the sacrificial understanding of the Mass has been completely eliminated from the liturgical language and the Mass is now understood only as a meal or «the breaking of bread?» In what way can one justify this profound change by reference to the council? … …

It would not be difficult to lengthen this litany. Even so, it should be obvious why I demand more honesty in the current debate about the council. Instead of accusing others, and even the Pope, of wishing to go back to before the council, everyone would be well advised to look over their own books and reassess their own personal position on the council. Because not everything that was said and done after the council, was therefore done in accordance with the council—and that applies also to the diocese of Basel. In any case, the last few weeks have illustrated to me that a primary problem in the current situation has been a very poor, and in part very one-sided understanding and acceptance of the council, even by Catholics that defend the council «without qualification.» In this regard we all—once more including myself—have a lot of ground to make up.

Fra father Z.

Paulus-året avsluttes i kveld – i Paulus-kirken utenfor muren i Roma

Katolsk, Kirkefedre /

I en høytidelig vesper i kveld vil pave Benedikt offisielt avslutte året som har markert 2000-års-jubileet av den hellige Paulus’ fødsel. Og sist fredag kunne vi lese denne evalueringa av året:

In the Holy See Press Office this morning Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls in Rome, and Pier Carlo Visconti, delegate for the administration of the same basilica, held a briefing on the closure of the Pauline Year.

The cardinal recalled how the Year came into being as a «thematic year» with two fundamental objectives: «To increase people’s knowledge of, and invite them to meditate upon, the valuable message left to us by the Apostle of the Gentiles in his writings, which are often difficult and little known or poorly interpreted», and «to create various programmes in the ecumenical dimension, which means working to an ever greater degree with non-Catholic Christian communities on various initiatives of prayer, study and culture».

During the course of the Pauline Year, inaugurated by the Pope on 28 June 2008, the basilica welcomed tens of thousands of pilgrims. «On 1 May 2009 alone more than eighteen thousand pilgrims came to the basilica», explained the cardinal, «and over recent weeks we have certainly seen more than ten thousand a day».

Among the ecclesial events of the Pauline Year, the cardinal mentioned «the opening of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, which the Pope wished should be inaugurated in the basilica of St. Paul in October 2008, … …

Paulus-året avsluttes i kveld – i Paulus-kirken utenfor muren i RomaLes mer »

Et vanskelig år for katolsk-jødiske relasjoner

Katolsk, Teologi /

John Allen skriver at forholdet mellom katolikker og jøder ser ut til å ha blitt vanskeligere i løpet av det siste året:

We’ve seen continuing fallout from the revival last year of a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews, uproar over lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, and a trip to the Middle East where the pope drew rave reviews everywhere but Israel. This week alone brought a new chapter in old debates over Pius XII, and a mini-fracas over a note from the U.S. bishops saying that Christ’s message is meant for Jews too.

While each of those episodes has its own contours, collectively they seem to be telling us something important about where things stand between the two faiths.

The revolution in Jewish-Catholic understanding over the last fifty years, which has gone a long way towards healing wounds that took almost 2,000 years to accumulate, was quite possibly the most important inter-religious accomplishment of the 20th century. The question today is whether that momentum can be sustained in a new set of historical circumstances.

In that regard, recent vicissitudes seem to point to an inescapable conclusion: Lest Jewish-Catholic ties in the 21st century suffer death by a thousand cuts, it’s time for rational people on both sides to confront a couple of hard truths.

Videre sier han at både jøder og katolikker er ansvarlige for at forholdet mellom dem er blitt vanskeligere:
For Jews: Old habits must go

Here’s the first hard truth, meant for Jewish leaders (many of whom, it must be said, already get it): The old habit of criticizing the Catholic church first and asking questions later has to go, because the historical wheels are turning, and before long you may find a church that simply isn’t listening.

That’s a tough thing for any Catholic to say, given that the church was experienced as a source of pain by the Jewish people for so long. Yet the plain fact is that Jews do need to unlearn these psychological patterns, because pouncing on every perceived slight frustrates the best friends Judaism has on the Catholic side, and gives other Catholics an incentive to dismiss legitimate Jewish concerns. … …

For Catholics: Stop dragging Jews into our debates

Now for the second hard truth, this one directed at Catholics: We’ve got to stop dragging Jews into internal Catholic battles.

That tendency is best documented in the «Pius Wars,» meaning debates over Pius XII and his alleged silence during the Holocaust. Catholic conservatives tend to exonerate Pius XII as part of a broader defense of papal authority and wisdom; liberals tend to see Pius’ handling of the Jewish question as symbolic of wider failures of the Vatican and the papacy. In both cases, what may look like a discussion of the church and the Jews is often really about something else.

Yet the habit of treating the Jewish community as a terrain for proxy fights is far more widespread. … …

Amerikanske biskoper har klargjort synet på jøders behov for Jesus Kristus

Katolsk, Teologi /

På sitt møte litt tidligere i juni reviderte de amerikanske katolske biskopene et dokument fra 2002, som langt på vei sa at jøder ikke trengte å tro på Kristus. Det nye dokumentet sier derimot:

5. The document [Reflections] correctly acknowledges that “Judaism is a religion that springs from divine revelation” and that “it is only about Israel’s covenant that the Church can speak with the certainty of the biblical witness.” Nevertheless, it is incomplete and potentially misleading in this context to refer to the enduring quality of the covenant without adding that for Catholics Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God fulfills both in history and at the end of time the special relationship that God established with Israel. The Second Vatican Council explained: [emphasis added]

“The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom, to announce this coming by prophecy, and to indicate its meaning through various types.”

Hele dokumentet kan leses her (pdf), og flere artikler kommenterer denne saken – HER – HER – HER.

Den hellige Josemaria Escrivá

Katolsk /

En del latinamerikanske kvinner i Stavanger vill gjerne markere minnedagen for den hellige Josemaria Escrivá i dag, og deltok i min private tradisjonelle latiske messe i formiddag. Jeg feiret messen som skal feires i TLM i dag (se her), men vi husket også på hl Josemaria – bl.a. sa jeg før messen begynte at Opus Deis grunnlegger (dvs Josemaria Escrivá) hadde fått tillatelse til å feire den gamle messen også etter 1969, noe han også gjorde fran til sin (plutselige) død i Roma 26. juani 1975. (Les mer om akkurat det her.)

Les gjerne også den grundige artikkelen om hl Josemaria Ascrivá på katolsk.no.

Presten er Kristi slave – og må streve etter åndelig fullkommenhet

Katolsk /

Under gårsdagens audiens tok pave Benedikt opp «presteåret» som nettopp er starta. Her sa han bl.a.:

The objective of this Year for Priests, as I wrote in the letter sent to priests for this occasion, is to support that struggle of every priest «toward spiritual perfection, on which the effectiveness of his ministry primarily depends.» It is to help priests first of all — and with them all of God’s people — to rediscover and reinvigorate their awareness of the extraordinary and indispensable gift of grace that the ordained ministry is for he who receives it, for the whole Church, and for the world, which would be lost without the real presence of Christ. …

Alter Christus, the priest is profoundly united to the Word of the Father, who in incarnating himself, has taken the form of a slave, has made himself a slave (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). The priest is a slave of Christ in the sense that his existence, ontologically configured to Christ, takes on an essentially relational character: He is in Christ, through Christ, and with Christ at the service of man. Precisely because he belongs to Christ, the priest is radically at the service of all people: He is the minister of their salvation, of their happiness, of their authentic liberation — maturing, in this progressive taking up of the will of Christ, in prayer, in this «remaining heart to heart» with him. This is therefore the essential condition of all proclamation, which implies participation in the sacramental offering of the Eucharist and docile obedience to the Church.

Les hele talen her.

Bilde av Johannes døperens fødsel

Katolsk /

Bildet over er Giottos: Fødsel og navnedag for Johannes døperen, ca 1313/14. En fresko i Peruzzi-kapellet i kirken Santa Croce, i Firenze.

Se flere bilder av Johanns døperen her.

Om Giottos bilder i Peruzzi-kapellet kan vi lese:
The construction of the Peruzzi Chapel, the second chapel of the right-hand transept, was made possible by the influential banker, Donato di Arnoldo Peruzzi, who left additional money for this memorial chapel in his will in 1299. It was probably his grandson Giovanni di Rinieri Peruzzi who donated the murals honoring John the Evangelist and John the Baptist, which were the first works created by Giotto in Santa Croce.

The juxtaposition of the two John cycles is unusual, and researchers believe it contains a mixture of religious and secular iconography: John the Evangelist was the donor’s name-saint; John the Baptist was patron saint both of the city of Florence and of St. Francis, to whom Santa Croce is dedicated. In his family’s memorial chapel the banker Peruzzi, therefore, has realized a program which connects his own memory and that of his family with the religious background of the Franciscans and the fate of the city, in which the Peruzzis were one of the most influential families.

Intervju med SSPX’s leder, biskop Bernard Fellay

Katolsk /

I går og i dag har jeg sett på dette interessante intervjuet med biskop Bernard Fellay i SSPX (fra Kanadiske Salt and Light TV). Jeg – og jeg håper mange med meg – håper at vi om ikke lenge kan få en full gjenforeing mellom SSPX og hele Den katolske Kirke, og dette intervjuet viser (syns jeg) at dette kan bli mulig.

Gratulerer, diakon Per Einar Odden!

Katolsk /

På katolsk.no leser vi om Per Einar Oddens diakonvielse for to dager siden (og bildet over viser Peter Einar og 7 andre prestestudenter for Oslo katolske bispedømme):
Prestekandidat for Oslo Katolske Bispedømme, Per Einar Odden, ble lørdag 20. juni diakonviet sammen med sin medstudent Gerard O’Brien i Westminster Cathedral i London. Biskop George Stack, hjelpebiskop i Westminster, foretok diakonvielsen.

Per Einar ble i en meddelelse 19. juni utnevnt til diakon i St. Svithun menighet i Stavanger, med virkning fra og med den 1. august 2009.

Debatt i St Olav tidsskrift om katolsk blogging

Data/blogg, Katolsk /

I mars og april måned skrev jeg to innlegg på denne bloggen i forb. med et innlegg av Ola Tjørhom i Morgenbladet (og senere i St Olav) om konservative tendenser innen Den katolske Kirke. Kikk om nødvendig på disse innleggene:
“Nostalgisk betongkatolisisme er et klart blindspor” og Tjørhoms kritikk av Den katolske Kirke som ‘for lite moderne’ – også trykket i St Olav tidsskrift.

I siste nummer av St Olav (som kom i posten i dag) har Tjørhom tatt opp det jeg tidligere skrev på bloggen, og spesielt kommentarene til mine innlegg, og skrevet om KATOLSK BLOGGING. Redaktør Henrik Holm var så vennlig å gi meg tilsvar i samme nummer av St Olav. Her følger både Ola Tjørhoms innlegg og mitt svarinnlegg: …

Debatt i St Olav tidsskrift om katolsk bloggingLes mer »

Mer om Annus sacerdotalis – av pave Benedikt

Katolsk /


Slik åpner pave Benedikt sitt brev om året som skal fokusere på prestetetjenesten:
Dear Brother Priests,

On the forthcoming Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19 June 2009 – a day traditionally devoted to prayer for the sanctification of the clergy –, I have decided to inaugurate a “Year for Priests” in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the “dies natalis” of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests worldwide.[1] This Year, meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world, will conclude on the same Solemnity in 2010. «The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”, the saintly Curé of Ars would often say. …

Father Tim Finigan skriver litt om dette brevet og om talen paven holdt fredag kveld, og fokuserer en del (som kanskje flere prester gjør) på hva som skjer hvis presten er en utro tjener:
In this letter, the Holy Father thanks God for good priests, touchingly recalls the example of the priest alongside whom he ministered as a young priest, and frankly acknowledges those «situations which can never be sufficiently deplored» where priests have given scandal. After this, he points to the Curé of Ars as the point of reference for us all, quoting some of the purple passages from the writings of the saintly priest. He admits that they «might seem excessive» but that they «they reveal the high esteem in which he held the sacrament of the priesthood».

Then yesterday at second Vespers for the feast of the Sacred Heart, the Holy Father also spoke of the priesthood. Rorate Caeli has translated one significant passage:

How to forget, regarding this, that nothing makes the Church, Body of Christ, suffer so much as the sins of her shepherds, above all of those who turn into «robbers of sheep» (John 10, 1), either because they misguide them with their private doctrines, or because suffocate them within snares of sin and of death? Even for us, dear priests, the call to conversion and to recourse to Divine Mercy holds true, and we ought also to present with humility to the Heart of Jesus the request that He preserves us from the terrible risk of harming those whom we are bound to save.

Pave Benedikt: “Kirken trenger hellige prester”

Katolsk /

I går kveld leda pave Benedikt en høytidelig vesper i Peterskirken, som innledning av et år spesielt fokusert på Kirkens prester. Tema for presteåret er «Kristi trofasthet, presters trofasthet».

I løpet av presteåret skal Vatikanet publisere et direktiv for skriftefedre og åndelige veiledere, og også en samling tekster av Den hellige far – om kjernen i en prests liv og misjon i den moderne verden. I tillegg skal pave Benedikt offisielt proklamere Den hellige Johannes Vianney som «skytshelgen for alle verdens prester». (Fra katolsk.no.)

Zenit.org skriver videre om det som skjedde i går kveld: The year, convoked by the Pontiff, coincides with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, known as the Curé d’Ars. Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars brought the relics of the French saint to Rome for the inauguration Mass.

The celebration began with the Holy Father venerating in silence the relics of St. John Mary Vianney.

«The Church needs holy priests,» the Pope said in his homily. «[It needs] ministers to help the faithful experience the merciful love of the Lord and to be convinced witnesses.» For this, he invited the faithful to pray «that the Lord inflame the heart of each priest» with the love of Jesus.

«How can one forget that nothing makes the Church — the Body of Christ — suffer more than the sins of its pastors, above all those that are ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing,’ whether because they lead [the faithful] away with their private doctrine, or because they bind [the faithful] down with the ties of sin and death,» he asked.

«The call to conversion and to take recourse to Divine Mercy also applies to us, dear priests ,» Benedict XVI said to the numerous priests and bishops present. «We should also appeal, humbly and incessantly, to the heart of Jesus so that he preserves us from the terrible risk of damaging those whom we should save.»

For this, the Pope affirmed, «Our mission is indispensible for the Church and for the world, which demands complete fidelity to Christ and an incessant union with him; that is to say, it demands that we constantly seek the holiness of St. John Mary Vianney.»

Mer om Den katolske Kirke på verdidebatt.no

Generelt, Katolsk /

På Vårt Lands debattsider, verdidebatt.no, har det vært skrevet ganske mye om Den katolske Kirke. Så mye at en katolikk sukker litt – se her.

Det innlegget ble skrevet for to dager siden, men i dag braker det løs igjen. Det starter ganske positivt, med følgende ord fra en ikke-katolikk:

«Jeg synes selv at jeg har blitt en del klokere når det gjelder det kirkesamfunnet. Mitt spørsmål er likevel: Hva ville ha skjedd dersom IKKE denne kirken hadde vært den sterkeste av alle kirkesamfunn?

De har bidratt til at vi har fått leve som en kristen nasjon siden 1000 tallet. Gjennom at de allierte seg med verdslige myndigheter klarte de å stoppe den muslimske krigsmaskinen. Det kan jo tenkes, at muslimene hadde tatt Europa for lenge siden dersom ikke katolikkene og myndighetene hadde stoppet dem.

Jeg tror dermed at Herren har brukt dette kirkesamfunnet på en mektig måte, som vi pinsevenner og karismatikere (og andre) nyter fruktene av nå. Så jeg synes vi skal være litt ydmyke når vi omtaler paven og katolikkene, de har tross alt bidratt til at næmere 2 milliarder mennesker, dersom vi tar med protestantene, har blitt forkynt Kristus!»

Men den første kommentaren til dette innlegget svarer slik på spørsmålet:

«Ja, kanskje vi hadde sluppet å bli kristnet med sverd og nedslaktning. Kanskje vi hadde sluppet unna diskusjonene rundt barnedåpen som vi pinsevenner ikke deler deres syn med. Kanskje vi hadde sluppet unna engledyrkelse, Maria dyrkelse,røkelse, Myrra og rosenkranser. Messer og andre døde ritualer hadde vel kanskje opphørt, og vi hadde kanskje sluppet unna forfølgelse mot oss «gjendøpere». Vi kan kanskje nevne flere ting, men det har ingen hensikt. Jeg tror bestemt at du har vært litt for kjapp til å velsigne dette kirkesamfunn. Du vet også at denne kirken skal gjennoppstå i de siste tider med sin kraft støtte antikrist?»

Man blir ganske matt av slikt, men samtidig er det vel godt å bli informert om hva enkelte mennesker virkelig tenker. 3-4 katolikker har kjempa voldsomt for vår Kirke på dette debattforumet, kanskje flere skal tre støttende til? (Selv har jeg bare skrevet 3-4 kommentarer på verdidebatt.no, men jeg holder fast på at det er et prisverdig initiativ av Vårt Land, og en del debatter holder et mye høyere nivå.)

Protestér mot all falsk lære! – sier katolsk biskop i England til studenter

Katolsk /

Nylig pensjonert katolsk biskop i Lancaster, Patrick O’Donoghue, som nå er flytta hjem til sitt barndoms Irland, har visst alltid vært kjent for å være frittalende, og er sannsynligvis blitt enda dristigere som pensjonist. I alle fall uttaler han seg svært tydelig mot all form for radikal/ liberal utglidning i Kirken. (Fra det irske katolske tidsskriftet Alive! – s 3 i juni-nummeret 2009. Les mer om biskop O’Donoghue her.)

Cork-born Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue urged Catholic students at Oxford University to have “an enquiring fidelity” to the teaching of the Church and to abandon “the fictions foisted on us by some clergy, religious and laity who are disobedient and arrogant in their will-to-power.”

It was, for him, he said, a “great joy” being part of a Church “that has left behind the ghetto and the siege mentality,” in order to “proclaim to the world the liberating power of Christ’s Gospel.”

But he was distressed by “the pathetic situation of catechetics in this country, and the extent of ignorance and apostasy among generations of Catholics since the Vatican Council.”

The UK’s most outspoken bishop, he regretted “the diminishment of the Catholic understanding of sin, man’s need for redemption, the sacrificial nature of the Mass.”

This had led to “the virtual abandonment of Confession, the marginalisation of devotion to Mary, the intercession of the saints, and adoration of the Blessed sacrament.”

The bishop is the author of the 2-part plan for renewal called Fit for Mission? Schools and Fit for Mission? Church which has created a stir not just in Britain but around the English-speaking world.

He believed that full renewal will only happen when Catholics, particularly leaders in “schools, seminaries, parishes, and dioceses,” stop obstructing the authentic implementation of the Council and “positively engage with it.” …

Protestér mot all falsk lære! – sier katolsk biskop i England til studenterLes mer »

Mer om den nye engelske oversettelsen av messen

Katolsk /

Biskop Serratelli, i Paterson, New Jersey, er formann for de amerikanske biskopenes liturgikomité, og holdt et foredrag i oktober 2008 om prinisppene bak den nye (og lenge etterlengtede) oversettelsen av messen til engelsk. Hans foredrag om bakgrunnen for den nye oversettelsen, og prinsippene som ligger til grunn for den, er ganske interessante. Foredraget kan i sin helhet leses her (og Father Z har også en del kommentarer).

In May 2002, the publication of the (revised) Missale Romanum marked an historic moment in the life of the Church in our day. It gave an impetus to the great liturgical renewal set in motion when Vatican II issued Sacrosanctum Concilium as its first document. With Vatican II, «began … the great work of renewal of the liturgical books of the Roman Rite. [This] … work … included their translation into vernacular languages, with the purpose of bringing about in the most diligent way that renewal of the sacred Liturgy….» (Liturgiam authenticam 1 and 2).

In the enthusiasm of the aggiornamento [updating], translators set to work to produce translations that expressed the Latin Missal in modes of expression appropriate to the vernacular languages. From 1969 until 2001, the document Comme le Prévoit granted translators wide latitude in translations for the liturgy. Rather quickly in the English-speaking world, translators adopted “dynamic equivalency” as their approach to the texts. Simply stated, dynamic equivalency translates the concepts and ideas of a text, but not necessarily the literal words or expressions.

In light of the experience in the last 36 years, the Church has revisited the question of how to best translate the texts of Sacred Scripture and the liturgy. Many people had noticed the deficiency of dynamic equivalency. In 2001, the Holy See issued the instruction Liturgiam authenticam to guide translations both of the Scriptures and of liturgical texts. The new instruction did not deny the necessity of making the text accessible to the listener. But, it did refocus the attention of translators on the principle of unearthing the theological richness of the original texts. This needed balance keeps us from suffering an impoverishment of language in terms of our biblical and liturgical tradition.

Liturgiam authenticam espouses the theory of “formal equivalency”. Not just concepts, but words and expression are to be translated faithfully.

Så nevner biskopen noe prinsipper som er fulgt i den nye engelske oversettelsen – og han gir flere eksempler i selve foredraget for å illustrere: …

Mer om den nye engelske oversettelsen av messenLes mer »

En anglikansk prest konverterer

Katolsk, Økumenikk /

En anglikansk prest, Jeffrey Steel, har nylig annonsert at han og hans familie (kone og seks barn) skal bli katolikker. Han skriver grundig og ganske personlig om hvordan han kom til denne overbevisninga:

I am writing to make the announcement that I am becoming a Roman Catholic along with my wife Rhea and our six children. I realise that this decision is going to make some really happy, some very sad and others possibily angry. But, I have made the decision with the deepest sense of integrity and by conscience. I would like to share a bit of my faith journey though there are many gaps here, it is descriptive of my heart over the past few months. This is not particularly an academic account of what I have done in my studies but rather the spiritual wrestling that went on within me. The announcement was made this morning in all three parishes where I serve and is now a matter of public knowledge. My reception into Holy Mother Church is forthcoming.

My PhD studies really set me on my Catholic journey in a deep theological way though I did not realise it at the time. I have been looking at Bishop Lancelot Andrewes as a catalyst for ecumenism with the Catholic Church in the area of Eucharistic sacrifice. Andrewes was in regular dialogue with S. Robert Bellarmine SJ and it is in this dialogue and Andrewes’ other writings that I saw how Catholic he was with regards to the Eucharist being the Christian offering which consisted of more than a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It was and is propitiatory as well as other things.

Han skriver videre om hvordan han kjempa med denne avgjørelsen i vinter og vår, og bl.a. var i Roma og ba ved Peters grav. Han legger også til at det ikke er lett å gi opp alt han har hatt, identitet, jobb, bosted etc., for å bli katolikk: sometimes crossing the Tiber looks like an easier swim than it really is. I told my Catholic bishop that I sometimes feel like the Tiber has stretched as wide as the Atlantic and I’ve been cast into the middle and told to swim. He said, ‘yes, Jeffrey but there are devices out there to keep you above water, grab onto them and do not fear.’

Fr Longenecker skriver også litt om dette, og om sine egne år som anglikansk prest.

Corpus Christi – Bolsena/Orvieto i Umbria – året 1263

Katolsk, Liturgi /

For litt over tre år siden var jeg i Orvieto, en flott, gammel by i Ubria, nesten midt mellom Roma og Firenze. Byen er bl.a. kjent for sin fantastiske domkirke, som vi kan se på bildet over. (Les mer om mitt besøk her.)

Før denne turen visste jeg ikke at Orvieto har noe å gjøre med festen katolikker kaller Kristi legeme og blods fest eller Corpus Christi – les om det eukaristiske underet i Bolsena/Orvieto HER og HER – og som vi feirer i Norge i morgen (men som mange steder fortsatt feires torsdag denne uka). Mer om dette kan vi lese på katolsk.no:

«I 1263 stoppet den bøhmiske presten Peter av Praha i Bolsena på vei hjem fra en pilegrimsreise til Roma. Der hadde han bedt intenst ved apostelen Peters grav for å få styrket sin tro. Han var nemlig begynt å tvile på transsubstansen i nattverden – at brødet og vinen virkelig blir forvandlet til Kristi legeme og blod. Men så skjedde miraklet. Under en messe i krypten i Bolsenas kirke Sta Cristina så Peter blodet dryppe fra nattverdsbrødet, så mye at korporalet ble gjennombløtt. Pave Urban IV, som oppholdt seg i Orvieto, hørte om miraklet og beordret korporalet til Orvieto. Dessuten besluttet presteskapet at det skulle bygges en veldig helligdom til å huse den nye relikvien, og den kan nå ses i Cappella del Corporale i domkirken i Orvieto. Den bæres i prosesjon gjennom Orvietos gater på Corpus Christi.

Urban IV var så imponert over miraklet i Bolsena at han året etter i bullen Transiturus, som ble utstedt i noe forskjellige former den 11. august og 8. september 1264, foreskrev Kristi Legemsfest (Corpus Christi), 60 dager etter påske, for hele Kirken. Bullen var full av glødende lovprisninger til Det hellige Sakrament. Men på grunn av pavens død i oktober samme år, ble beslutningen først gjennomført under Avignon-paven Klemens V i 1311.»

Hvorfor er det så vanskelig å konvertere?

Katolsk /

Katolsk prest Dwight Longenecker (tidligere anglikansk, med kone og flere barn) skrev for noen dager siden (på sin ganske aktive blog) en artikkel om hvorfor det er så vanskelig for anglikanske prester å bli katolikker. Mye av problematikken er den samme for lutheranere, og derfor ber jeg dere om å lese å lese det han skriver, og de mange kommentarene – HER. Her er et lite utdrag:

Deep in the roots of Anglicanism there is a Puritan, and therefore Protestant mind set. It is deeply anti-Catholic not only in a biased way, but also in its how world view and perspective of history, culture and the Christian faith.

This is a profound foundation for the Anglican mind, and not one which is shifted very easily. It is also the reason why most Anglicans find Catholicism so alien. It is not because Catholicism is Irish or Polish or Italian, but because it is, well, Catholic. The Protestant philosophical and theological foundation on which Anglicanism is built, and on which most Anglicans based their religion and their world view is deeply inimical to the Catholic world view. That is why those of us who are converts of over ten of fifteen years still admit that in many ways Catholicism still has not got fully into our bloodstream as much as we would like.

Måtte vår Herre Jesus Kristus, Kirkens Herre, velsigne denne by og denne landsdel og alle dem som er her

Katolsk /

I sin tale i en aftengudstjeneste i Tromsø, 2. juni 1989, sa Pave Johannes Paul II:
«Det er en glede for meg å kunne besøke dere ….. Jeg hilser dere alle og ber om velsignelse over dere og landet her i nord. Dette må vi i Tromsø stift fortsette med: ikke bare at vi ønsker være vitner på Kristi evangelium, men vi skal stadig be om Guds velsignelse for dette landet her i nord. Det gjør vi gjennom våre mange bønner, særlig når vi ber Fader vår eller resiterer salmene fra Bibelen og i våre gudstjenester. Den katolske tro har gamle røtter i Tromsø, i tidlig middelalder var det en kirke her hos oss som var viet til jomfru Maria. I dag har vi Vår Frue kirke som hovedkirke i hele bispedømme. Det betyr for oss dette: Det at vi er vitner om vår Herre Jesu Kristi evangelium, og at vi ber Gud om hans velsignelse for dette landet, det gjør vi sammen med Maria og etter hennes eksempel. Hun viser oss denne veien, og vi går den med henne, slik våre forfedre gjorde.»

I sin avslutning sa paven: «Måtte vår Herre Jesus Kristus, Kirkens Herre, føre arbeidet for Kirkens enhet videre til målet. Måtte han velsigne denne by og denne landsdel og alle dem som er her». Det er også vårt mål: Måtte vår Herre føre arbeidet for Kirkens enhet videre. Vi står sammen med så mange andre kristne, våre søstre og brødre i Den norske kirke og andre kirkelige samfunn. Med dem er vi vitner og med dem ber vi – også etter Marias forbilde – om Guds velsignelse.»

Dette minnet om, og sitatene fra, pave Johannes Pauls besøk i Tromsø finner vi i hyrdebrevet til biskop Berislav Gric.

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