John R. Houk
© March 8, 2020
In full disclosure I am the kind of Christian that has
Protestant roots from Pentecostal-Charismatic and (gasp) Word of Faith. As such
even many a Protestant would classify me a heretic. Even so my Christian
heritage places great stock in the inerrancy of the Holy Bible. Those that
criticize my Christian pedigree largely do so due my understanding of Holy
Scripture.
With my “full disclosure” being said, I’ve typically counted people as Believers that
stand with Christian basics such as Jesus Christ is the
Son of God born of the Virgin Mary (fully God and fully human); Jesus was
scourged and Crucified by Roman soldiers at the behest of an illegal night
trial by fearful Jewish leaders (excluding pro-Jesus leaders) of the Sanhedrin;
Jesus died on that Cross and was placed in a tomb; three days after His death
Jesus arose in bodily Resurrection to Glorification with pre-birth Divine
prerogatives restored. Jesus the Son sits at the Right hand of the Father
guiding Believers by their Holy Spirit until Jesus returns in Power Bringing
the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth.
For me that includes Roman Catholics. Indeed, I was a huge
fan of Pope John Paul II and had respect for Pope Benedict XVI. BUT the current
Pope Francis who hails from Argentina appears so Left-Wing he seems to admire
unbiblical Communist principles even contradicting Biblical teachings on homosexuality (See Also HERE) and unborn baby-killing.
Pope Francis and Communism
o Pope Francis Equates Christianity to Communism;
By Orlando Avendaño;
PANAM POST;
Last updated 11/27/16
o Cardinal Zen: Pope Francis 'May Have Natural Sympathy for
Communists'; By Michael W.
Chapman; CNS News; 10/30/18 12:22pm EDT
o Pope Francis Promotes Goals Created by Communists;
By Michael Hichborn; Lepanto
Institute; 6/17/19
o Pope Francis: 'It is the communists who think like
Christians'; By Jules Gomes; Church
Militant; 11/21/19
It is not surprising that anti-Catholic Protestants are
beginning to look at Pope Francis as an Antichrist candidate. Yet take note
many of the above articles criticizing and very displeased with Pope Francis’s
dilution of morality and faith (keep in mind Communism is anti-religion as part
of its core principle) are from Roman Catholic origins.
Pope Francis Antichrist Pondering
o Why So Many People Think Pope Francis Is the Antichrist;
By Jennifer LeClaire; Charisma News;
7/29/15 6:00AM EDT
o Is the Pope the Antichrist? By Dr. David R. Reagan; Lamb
& Lion Ministries (ChristianProphecy.org);
An article in PDF Lamp Lighter Magazine Vol. XXXVII
Jan/Feb 2016 No. 1
o ANTICHRIST: Pope Francis Tells Catholics In Rome That A
‘Personal Relationship’ With Jesus Is ‘Dangerous And Harmful’;
By Geoffrey Grider;
Now The End Begins; 7/20/17
o Pope Francis may be the Antichrist; he just fulfilled an
important prophecy warned about in Revelations by signing “peace deal” with
Islamic leader; By JD
Heyes; Prophecy News; 2/26/19
Protestants for centuries have been trying to pin the
Antichrist moniker on Popes for centuries. Dear God, the whole point of the
Protestant Reformation occurring in the early 1500s was due to corrupt Popes
more concerned about power and greed than the message of Christ.
Is Pope Francis yet another Pope corrupted? If so, the
corruption might differ from the political power and material greed of
yesteryear and gravitate more toward Globalist Eco-Marxism seeking human
control over Individual Liberty. Check out this Roman Catholic criticism from The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and
Property (TFP.org).
JRH 3/8/20
Your generosity is always appreciated - various credit, check
& debit cards are accepted by my PayPal account:
OR just buy some FEEL GOOD coffee.
BLOG EDITOR (In Fascistbook
jail since 1/20/20): I’ve apparently been placed in restricted Facebook
Jail! The restriction was relegated after criticizing Democrats for supporting
abortion in one post and criticizing Virginia Dems for gun-grabbing legislation
and levying protester restrictions. Rather than capitulate to Facebook
censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to post and share until the
Leftist censors ban me completely. Conservatives are a huge portion of
Facebook. If more or all Conservatives are banned, it will affect
the Facebook advertising revenue paradigm. SO FIGHT CENSORSHIP BY SHARE – SHARE
– SHARE!!! Facebook notified me in pop-up on 1/20/20: “You're
temporarily restricted from joining and posting to groups that you do not
manage until April 18 at 7:04 PM.”
************************
Resisting the Grave Errors in Pope
Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia
By Luiz Sérgio Solimeo
March 3, 2020
On February 2, Pope Francis finally made public the
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia. It was eagerly
awaited: With joy by those seeking a new and desacralized Church, and with
concern by those who love the Church.
The Errors in the Synod’s Prior Documents Were Not
Condemned
Querida Amazonia neither corrected nor condemned the
grave errors in the Synod’s previous documents, both the Instrumentum
Laboris,1 and the Final Document, titled The
Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology.2 Instead, the Apostolic Exhortation
retained those documents’ inspiration, namely the pantheistic evolutionism of
the modernist heresy and Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
Consequently, the serious criticism from cardinals and
bishops that the Instrumentum Laboris contains heresies and is
implicitly pantheistic remains valid.3
Querida Amazonia Quotes Poets, but not Fathers of
the Church
Querida Amazonia does not quote Church Fathers and
Doctors,4 as would be expected in a
pontifical document. Instead, it highlights communist writers and poets. This
makes the papal document almost surreal.5
On the other hand, Querida Amazonia attributes to the
Amazonian indigenous peoples beliefs and customs that do not exist there. They
belong to natives from other regions. Such is the case, for example, with the
Pachamama “goddess”—which became the symbol of the Amazon Synod. Pachamama is not
worshiped by the Amazonian indigenous people, but by those of the Andes
mountain system.6
A Fictional Amazon
Like the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region itself,
Pope Francis’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia does
not discuss the Amazon region as it is. Rather, the exhortation dreams of a Utopia, “an imaginary place or state in
which everything is perfect,”7 calling it Amazonia.
Like the “noble savage” (or good savage) dreamed up by
eighteenth century Enlightenment philosophy, the denizens of Querida
Amazonia are also fictional: Perfect, pure, and wise indigenous living in
direct contact with a pristine Nature, a world where both jungle and tribesmen
are as yet “uncorrupted” by progress and civilization.
Since the “noble savage” myth pervades all of the
Pan-Amazon Synod’s documents, the Synod itself, and is one of the keys to
understanding Querida Amazonia, it is worthwhile to explore it a bit
more.
Querida Amazonia and Rousseau’s “Noble Savage”
Writing in 2004 on the myth of the good savage, Canadian
professor Jany Boulanger offers interesting insights on the topic:
“Free, sensual, polygamous,
communist, and good: these are the common features, highly caricatured, of
the inhabitants of this ‘best of all worlds.’ … Without a doubt, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712–1778) is recognized as the one who most shared this myth by
defending this idea, which runs through most of his work: ‘Nature has made man
happy and good, but society makes him depraved and miserable.’”
For Rousseau, civilization and private
property are evil. Prof. Boulanger continues:
“In his philosophical essays, Discours
sur les sciences et les arts (1750), and Discours sur l’origine et les
fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes (1755), Rousseau claims that man’s
primitive state leads him toward virtue and happiness because his very
ignorance of evil prevents it from spreading. The development of his intellect
and his search for luxury, property, and power, encouraged by social institutions,
are what cast man out of a paradise possibly closer to Nature.”8
Querida Amazonia and Aboriginal “Wisdom”
And so it is for Querida Amazonia as well. For Pope
Francis, the Amazon’s so-called original peoples have not been “corrupted” by
social institutions. They have preserved an “ancestral wisdom,” which they
should transmit to the civilized world. Moreover, their “wisdom” must inform
“Gospel inculturation” in the Amazon region.
A grouping of phrases from the exhortation Querida
Amazonia illustrates the decisive role it ascribes to the natives’
so-called ancestral wisdom:
“The wisdom of the way of
life of the original peoples” (no. 22).
Integration into urban life “disrupts
the cultural transmission of a wisdom that had been passed down for centuries
from generation to generation” (no. 30).
“Even now, we see in the Amazon
region thousands of indigenous communities…. Each distinct group … in a vital
synthesis with its surroundings, develops its own form of wisdom” (no.
32).
“For centuries, the Amazonian
peoples passed down their cultural wisdom orally, with myths, legends,
and tales” (no. 34).
“The wisdom of the original
peoples of the Amazon region ‘inspires care and respect for creation, with
a clear consciousness of its limits, and prohibits its abuse’” (no. 42).
“To protect the Amazon region, it
is good to combine ancestral wisdom with contemporary technical
knowledge, always working for a sustainable management of the land while also
preserving the lifestyle and value systems of those who live there” (no. 51).
“For the Church to achieve a
renewed inculturation of the Gospel in the Amazon region, she needs to
listen to its ancestral wisdom” (no. 70).
“[W]e are called ‘to be their
friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the
mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them.’ [103] Those who
live in cities need to appreciate this wisdom and to allow themselves to be
‘re-educated’” (no. 72).
Does Grace “Suppose Culture”?
The concept of indigenous “ancestral wisdom” is one of Querida
Amazonia’s central points. Where would this so-called wisdom come from?
What is its nature? The papal exhortation claims that it was supposedly
transmitted “orally, with myths, legends, and tales.” However, the exhortation
says nothing about its origin and nature. Is this “mysterious wisdom” of
natural or supernatural origin? Is it the result of grace or primitive
revelation? Since Pope Francis claims that this “ancestral wisdom” should
“inculturate” the Church, then it would seem likely that he considers it to be
of divine origin, immanent in man. That is also what the modernist heresy
sustains.9
The word “inculturation” is used twenty times in Querida
Amazonia. It partners, as it were, in tandem, with the “ancestral wisdom”
myth. But if the natives already possess wisdom and goodness (“the goodness
that already exists in Amazonian cultures” – no. 66), then the role of the
Church is not to convert them. Instead, the Church “brings it [the supposed
goodness] to fulfillment in the light of the Gospel” (no. 66).
The Apostolic Exhortation exaggerates the role of culture,
using the term forty-five times. It urges a dialogue with, an understanding of
“Amazonian sensibilities and cultures from within” (no. 86). But Pope Francis
goes far beyond this when he changes the classic theological axiom that “grace
presupposes nature”10 to affirm that “grace supposes
culture” (no. 68).11
Now, according to the classic definition, grace is “a
supernatural gift of God to intellectual creatures (men, angels) for
their eternal salvation, whether the latter be furthered and attained through
salutary acts or a state of holiness.”12 Hence “[o]nly a rational or
intellectual nature is susceptible to grace since it is by means of grace that
the rational creature is lead to its ultimate perfection, which consists in the
vision of God’s essence (visio beatifica).”13
In asserting that grace “supposes culture,” the human and
angelic natures seem to be confused or identified with culture, which has a
pantheistic flavor.
Inculturate the Church in “Ancestral Wisdom”
If grace supposes culture, then it follows that Querida
Amazonia wants to inculturate the Gospel in the “ancestral wisdom” of the
natives.
Indeed, one reads in the exhortation:
For the Church to achieve a renewed
inculturation of the Gospel in the Amazon region, she needs to listen
to its ancestral wisdom, listen once more to the voice of its elders,
recognize the values present in the way of life of the original communities,
and recover the rich stories of its peoples. In the Amazon region, we have
inherited great riches from the pre-Columbian cultures. These include
“openness to the action of God, a sense of gratitude for the fruits of the
earth, the sacred character of human life and esteem for the family, a
sense of solidarity and shared responsibility in common work, the importance of
worship, belief in a life beyond this earth, and many other values (no. 70).14
This “ancestral wisdom” of the Amazonian aborigines with
which Pope Francis wants to inculturate the Gospel included the practice of cannibalism and polygamy.15 Thirteen ethnic groups in the
Amazon region still practice infanticide, with some support from Brazil’s
Indigenous Missionary Council.16 It is impossible to reconcile
these practices with the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ecclesiastical Tribalism and
Pentecostalism
The dream presented in the Querida
Amazonia of a Church “inculturated” in the tribal molds was foreseen by the
great Catholic thinker Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in 1976 in his
essay Revolution and Counter-Revolution:
“Obviously, it is not only the
temporal realm that the Fourth Revolution wants to reduce to tribalism. It
wants to do the same with the spiritual realm. How this is to be done can
already be clearly seen in the currents of theologians and canonists who intend
to transform the noble, bone-like rigidity of the ecclesiastical structure – as
Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted it and twenty centuries of religious life
molded it – into a cartilaginous, soft, and amorphous texture of dioceses and
parishes without territories and of religious groups in which the firm
canonical authority is gradually replaced by the ascendancy of Pentecostalist
“prophets,” the counterparts of the structuralist-tribalist witch doctors.
Eventually, these prophets will be indistinguishable from witch doctors. The
same goes for the progressivist-Pentecostalist parish or diocese, which will
take on the appearances of the cell-tribe of structuralism.”17
Following in the Steps of Teilhard de Chardin
As part of this inculturation of the Church with indigenous
“culture,” Querida Amazonia has parts that evoke the Church-condemned
pantheistic evolutionism of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., the so-called mystic
of the “cosmic Christ.”18
The Apostolic Exhortation states that “the indigenous
peoples of the Amazon Region express the authentic quality of life as ‘good
living.’ This involves … communal and cosmic harmony” (no. 71). Querida
Amazonia then goes on to this pantheistic-flavored Teilhardian tirade:
Certainly, we should esteem the indigenous
mysticism that sees the interconnection and interdependence of the whole of
creation, the mysticism of gratuitousness that loves life as a gift, the
mysticism of a sacred wonder before nature, and all its forms of life.
At the same time, though, we are
called to turn this relationship with God present in the cosmos into an
increasingly personal relationship with a “Thou” who sustains our lives and
wants to give them a meaning, a “Thou” who knows us and loves us (no. 73).
Querida Amazonia continues, citing Pope Francis’s
Teilhardian encyclical Laudato Si’, “Similarly, a
relationship with Jesus Christ, true God and true man, liberator and redeemer,
is not inimical to the markedly cosmic worldview that characterizes the
indigenous peoples, since he is also the Risen Lord who permeates all
things. …[T]he Son of God has incorporated in his person part of the material
world, planting in it a seed of definitive transformation” (no. 74).
Again citing Laudato Si’, the Apostolic Exhortation
states:
The inculturation of Christian
spirituality in the cultures of the original peoples can benefit in a
particular way from the sacraments since they unite the divine and the
cosmic, grace, and creation. In the Amazon region, the sacraments should not be
viewed in discontinuity with creation. They “are a privileged way in which nature
is taken up by God to become a means of mediating supernatural life.” They
are the fulfillment of creation, in which nature is elevated to become a
locus and instrument of grace, enabling us “to embrace the world on a different
plane (no. 81).
Still citing Laudato Si’, the document suggests that
matter is divinized and presents the Eucharist as a “fragment of matter”: “In
the Eucharist, God, ‘in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation,
chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter.’ The
Eucharist ‘joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all
creation’” (no. 82).
It is clear in these passages, perhaps more than in other
places, how Pope Francis’s new document exploits the Amazon and its indigenous
peoples, using them as a mere pretext to spread evolutionary cosmic pantheism.
Will “Pachamama” Worship Be Part of an Inculturated
Liturgy?
The exhortation explains the liturgy’s inculturation:
“‘[E]ncountering God does not mean fleeing from this world or turning our back
on nature.’ It means that we can take up into the liturgy many elements
proper to the experience of indigenous peoples in their contact with nature and
respect native forms of expression in song, dance, rituals, gestures, and
symbols. The Second Vatican Council
called for this effort to inculturate the liturgy among indigenous peoples”
(no. 82).
A telling illustration of how to do this Amazonian
inculturation in Church ceremonies was the worshipping of the Pachamama goddess
(Mother Earth) done on October 4, 2019, in the Vatican Gardens, then in Saint
Peter’s Basilica, and in a procession with two bishops carrying the idol on a
kind of float from the Basilica to the hall in which the Synod Fathers
gathered. Pope Francis was present on all these occasions and gave the Pachamama idol a blessing during the first
one.19
In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis seeks to justify
all these ceremonies worshipping the Pachamama goddess:20
“It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily
considering it as idolatry. A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used
to advantage and not always considered a pagan error” (no. 79).
Querida Amazonia also reiterates the moral laxity of Amoris Laetitia: “[T]he Church must be
particularly concerned to offer understanding, comfort, and acceptance, rather
than imposing straightaway a set of rules that only lead people to feel
judged and abandoned by the very Mother called to show them God’s mercy” (no.
84).
Not a Victory for Conservatives
Since Querida Amazonia does not mention the ordaining
of married men (viri probati) as priests or women as deaconesses, some
conservatives claimed victory. It is true that many liberal Catholics were
looking forward to this step, and the Final Document called for it. Thus, in a
sense, one can say that the omission was a conservative victory. However, as we
will see below, it was not a true victory, but a pyrrhic one.21 Pope Francis transcended the issue,
addressing it on a much higher plane and in a devastating manner. The sad truth
is that Querida Amazonia points to a change in the priestly ministry and
liturgy that achieves the same results in practice, without appearing to do so.
This subversive change is in line with the new Church’s understanding of grace and
the sacraments.
Querida Amazonia points out the way ahead for
progressives in the form of a rhetorical question: “Inculturation should also
be increasingly reflected in an incarnate form of ecclesial organization and
ministry. If we are to inculturate spirituality, holiness, and the Gospel
itself, how can we not consider an inculturation of the ways we structure and
carry out ecclesial ministries?” (no. 85).
True, the document states that only an ordained priest can
consecrate and “preside at the Eucharist” (see nos. 86–90). However, it also
says that Amazonian inculturation “requires the stable presence of mature
and lay leaders endowed with authority … requires the Church to be open to
the Spirit’s boldness, to trust in, and concretely to permit, the growth of
a specific ecclesial culture that is distinctively lay” (no. 94).
These “mature and lay leaders” sound very much like the
Synod’s “viri probati.” Since the type of authority these male or female
mature and lay leaders will receive is not made clear, bishops or episcopal
conferences may interpret it as they see fit. This is how the bishops of Malta
and Argentina interpreted Amoris Laetitia regarding the admission of divorced and “remarried” Catholics
to Holy Communion.22
And, just as those bishops received the pope’s approval and that approval was
proclaimed Church magisterium and incorporated into the Acta Apostolicae
Sedes, so also now, one can reasonably foresee that Pope Francis will
similarly approve these new “Church with an Amazonian face” inculturation steps
implemented by bishops in Brazil, Peru, Congo, India … or elsewhere.
Inculturating the Priestly Ministry in the New Lay Church
This methodology seems all the more likely since Querida
Amazonia, as seen, exhorts the fostering of “a specific ecclesial
culture that is distinctively lay.” If, as discussed above, “grace
supposes culture,” and culture must be clearly and distinctly lay, are we
not headed to a lay Church in which the priest’s role is reduced to the
consecration of the Eucharist and the absolving of sins, and he is stripped of
all authority and superiority over the non-ordained laity?
Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, of La Plata, Argentina,
a close friend, ghostwriter for, and adviser to Pope Francis, made a very
important remark on this secularization of the Church in an article published
by L’Osservatore Romano on February 17, 2020.23
After stating that the Pope in Querida Amazonia did
not close the door on married priests but only refrained from dealing with the
matter, the archbishop states:
“In any case, the ecclesial dream
expressed by Francis gives new impetus to the renewal of the Church. His appeal
to create a ‘distinctively lay’ Amazonian Church (no. 94) is
particularly strong. That is why Francis demands that the laity be ‘endowed
with authority’ (no. 94). This entails reviewing a way of understanding the
priesthood that relates too much to its power in the community. Francis
explicitly talks about it in points 87 and 88. Francis specifies that, when it
is said that the priest is a sign of Christ the Head, it must be understood as
the source of grace, especially in the Eucharist, and not as a source of power.
Therefore, the leadership of communities can be entrusted to lay leaders
endowed with authority who can create a more participatory Church.”
Along the lines of a “distinctively lay” Amazonian Church,
one of the reasons Pope Francis presented for not ordaining women as
deaconesses is that to do so would be “clericalism”: “It would lead us to
clericalize women, diminish the great value of what they have already
accomplished, and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective”
(no. 100).
An Intermediary Stage Toward a New Synodal Church
In addition, it must be pointed out that, the pope has
failed to sign an official teaching document of the Church using the classic
formula: “Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, etc.” In signing the Post-Synodal
Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis employed a new and
unconventional formula: “Given in Rome, at the Cathedral of Saint John
Lateran…”
This is not a meaningless detail. On the contrary, it signals
yet another step toward creating a new Church that is no longer hierarchical
and monarchical—with the Pope as its Supreme Authority—but, instead, an egalitarian “Synodal Church” in the
mold of the schismatic and heretical Orthodox churches which are governed by
synods of bishops. In this new synodal church, the pope would
become merely the primus inter pares—the first among equals, having a
primacy of honor, no longer a primacy of jurisdiction.
Indeed, while Saint Peter’s Basilica symbolizes the pope’s
universal power (with the tomb of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, in its
crypt), the Basilica of Saint John Lateran is the cathedral church of the
Diocese of Rome, of which, the pope is the bishop. By abandoning the classic
formula for signing a papal document “at Saint Peter’s…” Pope Francis appears
to signal that he is acting only as Bishop of Rome, not as the pope. He does
this in a “synodal” document in which he strongly insists on the Church’s
“synodality.”
Nothing Was Corrected, and New Errors Were Added
Except for its form, Pope Francis changed nothing of the
Synod’s prior documents in this new exhortation. Querida Amazonia
presents the same errors contained in the Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris
and Final Document. Appearances were altered, but the essence remained the
same. Worse, other errors were added, including doctrinal confusion on grace
and culture, the sacraments, and the priestly ministry.
Given its depth, global scope, and, above all, its
undermining of the papacy and the priesthood, the Synod of Bishops on the
Amazon region, and its documents, including the Apostolic Exhortation Querida
Amazonia, are symptoms of a crisis the likes of which Holy Church has never
known.
In the face of this situation, we cannot fail to render
special veneration to Saint Peter and all popes who shone for their sanctity on
the pontifical throne. The errors and attitudes of Pope Francis should not lead
anyone to sedevacantism, the disparagement of the papacy, or diminishing the
authority and powers conferred by Our Lord on Saint Peter and his successors.
To resist Pope Francis’s error is not to revolt, which is never legitimate.
Rather, it is filial obedience. It is to imitate Saint Paul, who resisted Saint
Peter on the issue of the Judaizers (Gal. 2:11).24
Convinced that Our Lord will be with His Church every day
until the end of time, and confiding in the Blessed Mother’s promise at Fatima,
that finally, her Immaculate Heart will triumph, with God’s grace, we must
continue the fight, resisting every infiltration of error and evil into the
One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
Footnotes
1. Pan-Amazon Synod, “The Working Document for the
Synod of Bishops,” at http://www.sinodoamazonico.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/pan-amazon-synod–the-working-document-for-the-synod-of-bishops.html,
accessed Feb. 26, 2020.
2. “Final Document
of the Amazon Synod,” at http://www.sinodoamazonico.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/final-document-of-the-amazon-synod.html,
accessed Feb. 26, 2020.
3. See Maike
Hickson, “Walter Cardinal Brandmüller: ‘Everything Is at Stake at the Amazon
Synod,’” LifeSiteNews, Oct. 17, 2019, https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/cdl-brandmueller-everything-is-at-stake-at-the-amazon-synod;
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, “A Crusade of
Prayer and Fasting: To Implore God that Error and Heresy do not pervert the
coming Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon,” https://www.ncregister.com/images/uploads/BurkeSchneider.pdf,
accessed Feb. 26, 2020.
4. Except two
references en passant to Saint Thomas Aquinas which do not provide support
for the document’s theological framework.
5. The poets
quoted are communists or socialists: Pablo Neruda, Vinícius de Morais, Juan
Carlos Galeano, and Amadeu Thiago De Lello. Poetess Sui Yun’s work is spoiled
by eroticism and scorn for moral norms. On the latter, see Ignacio López-Calvo,
Dragons in the Land of the Condor: Writing Tusán in Peru (Tucson, AZ:
University of Arizona Press, 2014), 144.
6. “Pachamama
is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is also known
as the earth/time mother. In Inca mythology, Pachamama is a fertility goddess
who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes
earthquakes.” Wikipedia contributors, “Pachamama,” Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pachamama&oldid=940223563
(accessed Feb. 28, 2020).
7. “Utopia,” Oxford
Learner’s Dictionaries, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/utopia,
accessed Feb. 22, 2020.
8. Jany
Boulanger, “Le Mythe du bon sauvage,” Encyclopédie Syllabus – Section
Littérature – le XVIIIe siècle (Cégep du Vieux Montréal), http://www.cvm.qc.ca/encephi/Syllabus/Litterature/18e/bonsauvage.htm
(our translation and emphasis), accessed Feb. 17, 2020.
9. See Pius X,
encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Sept. 8, 1907, no. 7, http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_19070908_pascendi-dominici-gregis.html.
10. Summa
Theologica, I, q.2, a.2, ad 1.
11. Pope
Francis’s use of “grace supposes culture” at no. 68 in Querida Amazonia
is a quote from no. 115 of his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,
which he issued on Nov. 24, 2013.
12. J. Pohle,
“Actual Grace,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909), retrieved Feb. 18, 2020 from New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06689x.htm.
13. Dr. Rudi
de Velde, Aquinas On God: The “Divine Science” of the Summa Theologiae (Farnham,
Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited), 151.
14. Except
where otherwise noted, the emphasis is ours.
15. Marta
Iansen, “A Poligamia Entre Indígenas (E Como os Missionários Jesuítas Lidavam
com ela),” História & Outras Histórias, Sept. 9, 2016, https://martaiansen.blogspot.com/2016/09/poligamia-entre-indigenas.html;
Giovana Sanchez, “Como eram os rituais de canibalismo dos índios brasileiros?” Super
Interessante, Nov. 22, 2018, https://super.abril.com.br/historia/como-eram-os-rituais-de-canibalismo-dos-indios-brasileiros/.
16. “Tradição
indígena faz pais tirarem a vida de crianças com deficiência física: A prática
acontece em pelos menos 13 etnias indígenas do Brasil. Uma tradição comum antes
mesmo de o homem branco chegar ao país,” O Globo-Fantástico, Dec. 7,
2014, http://g1.globo.com/fantastico/noticia/2014/12/tradicao-indigena-faz-pais-tirarem-vida-de-crianca-com-deficiencia-fisica.html;
Sandro Magister, “Infanticide in the Amazon: There Are Those Who Defend It,
Even in the Church,” L’Espresso-Settimo Cielo, Oct. 9, 2019, http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2019/10/09/infanticide-in-the-amazon-there-are-those-who-defend-it-even-in-the-church/;
Ana Paula Boni, “Infanticídio põe em xeque respeito à tradição indígena,” Folha
de S. Paulo, Apr. 6, 2008, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/brasil/fc0604200811.htm;
Rita Segato, “Que Cada Povo Trame os Fios da Sua História,” Conselho
Indigenista Missionario, Sept. 17, 2007, https://cimi.org.br/2007/09/26510/.
17. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution
(The American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property, Spring
Grove, PA, 1993), 162.
18. See
Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira, “Notes on the Unacceptable Philosophy and Theology of Laudato
Si’,” TFP.org, Aug. 2, 2017, https://www.tfp.org/notes-unacceptable-philosophy-theology-laudato-si/.
19. “Video
Shows Pope Francis Blessing Controversial ‘Pachamama’ Statue,” LifeSiteNews
on YouTube, Oct. 24, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wjdkrfj5OI;
Jeanne Smits, “Cardinal Burke: ‘Diabolical forces’ Entered St. Peter’s Basilica
Through Pachamama Idolatry,” LifeSiteNews, Dec. 10, 2019, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-burke-diabolical-forces-entered-st-peters-basilica-through-pachamama-idolatry;
Anne Kurian, “Les titres du lundi 7 octobre 2019 – L’Amazonie, c’est aussi en
France: Les Amérindiens et les Afro-Américains en Guyane française,” Zenit,
Oct. 7, 2019, https://fr.zenit.org/articles/les-titres-du-lundi-7-octobre-2019-lamazonie-cest-aussi-en-france/.
20. On the
Pachamama “goddess,” see Juan Antonio Montes, “Pachamama, Just a Symbol or Also
an Idol?” PanAmazonSynodWatch.info, Oct. 26, 2019, https://panamazonsynodwatch.info/editorial/pachamama-just-a-symbol-or-also-an-idol/.
21. “A victory
that is not worth winning because so much is lost to achieve it.” “Pyrrhic
victory” Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Pyrrhic%20victory,
accessed Feb. 26, 2020.
22. See Fr.
Raymond J. de Souza, “With ‘Querida Amazonia,’ It’s ‘Deja Amoris’ All Over
Again,” National Catholic Register, Feb. 14, 2020, https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/with-querida-amazonia-its-deja-amoris-all-over-again.
23. Victor
Manuel Fernández, Archbishop of La Plata, “Apporti innovativi di ‘Querida
Amazonia’,” L’Osservatore Romano, Feb. 17, 2020, http://www.osservatoreromano.va/it/news/apporti-innovativi-di-querida-amazonia
[our translation]; see also Maike Hickson, “Pope’s Ghostwriter, Advisor Claims
Francis Blazed Path to Married Priests in Amazon Exhortation,” LifeSiteNews,
Feb. 20, 2020, https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/popes-ghostwriter-advisor-claims-francis-blazed-path-to-married-priests-in-amazon-exhortation.
24. “But when
Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be
blamed.” The Douay-Rheims Bible.
+++++++++++++++++++++
BLOG EDITOR (In Fascistbook
jail since 1/20/20): I’ve apparently been placed in restricted Facebook
Jail! The restriction was relegated after criticizing Democrats for supporting
abortion in one post and criticizing Virginia Dems for gun-grabbing legislation
and levying protester restrictions. Rather than capitulate to Facebook
censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to post and share until the
Leftist censors ban me completely. Conservatives are a huge portion of
Facebook. If more or all Conservatives are banned, it will affect
the Facebook advertising revenue paradigm. SO FIGHT CENSORSHIP BY SHARE – SHARE
– SHARE!!! Facebook notified me in pop-up on 1/20/20: “You're
temporarily restricted from joining and posting to groups that you do not
manage until April 18 at 7:04 PM.”
______________________
The Malevolent Influence
of Pope Francis on Biblical Christianity
John R. Houk
© March 8, 2020
_____________________
Resisting the Grave Errors
in Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia
No comments:
Post a Comment