JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
03/26/2015-vatican insider-Obama to receive Pope Francis on 23 September-Pope Francis and Obama-The President of the United States has requested to continue the dialogue he has begun with the Argentinian Pontiff, the White House announces-Vatican Insider Staff
Roma-The President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the First Lady will welcome Pope Francis to the White House on 23 September. It will be a visit in which Obama and the Pontiff will continue the dialogue they started during the President’s visit to the Vatican in March 2014, the White House has announced.During the visit, Obama and the Pope will continue to discuss their shared values and commitments on a wide range of topics, including caring for those on the margins of society and the poor, the effort to promote economic opportunities for everybody, to be good custodians of the environment, to protect religious minorities and promote religious freedom in the world, and the acceptance and integration of immigrants and refugees into our communities. “The President is delighted to be able to continue his conversation with the Holy Father during his first visit to the United States as Pontiff”, the White House has said.Jorge Mario Bergoglio will visit the United States to attend the World Meeting of Families that will be held in Philadelphia from 22 to 27 September. Between 8,000 and 12,000 people are expected to attend the conferences during the week, while a million visitors are expected to arrive during the weekend with the Pope.On 24 September, Pope Francis will be the first Pontiff to visit and speak before the United States Congress in Washington. Bergoglio will also deliver a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 25 September.
FALSE POPE FROM THE VATICAN
ISAIAH 23:15-17
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.(COULD THIS BE 70 YEARS AFTER ISRAEL BECAME A NATION IN 1948)(IF SO THIS SATANIC ONE WORLD WHORE CHURCH WILL MINGLE TOGETHER BY 2018)(AND NOW ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AND ALL RELIGIONS ARE MINGLING AS ONE PEACE-LOVE-JOY-GET ALONG RELIGION LEAD BY THE VATICAN RIGHT NOW 4 YEARS FROM THE 70 YEAR TIME WHEN ISRAEL BECAME A NATION).AND IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM.
REVELATION 13:11-13
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he (FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER) exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
REVELATION 17:1-5,9,15-18
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.(BOMB OR NUKE THE VATICAN)
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city,(VATICAN) which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
02/23/2015-vatican insider-New Directions in Ecumenical & Interfaith Relations in the Mind & Heart of Pope Francis-Ecumenism-Address to the USCCB Committee for Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs-Fr. Thomas Rosica *Baltimore
Your Excellencies,Dear Bishops of the United States,Dear Friends, I am very grateful to my friend, Bishop Denis Madden, for his invitation to address you today during your Fall Meeting in Baltimore. It is both a privilege and a daunting task to stand before many good shepherds of local Churches in the United States who carry immense burdens of holding the flock together these days. You have invited me to share some reflections on Pope Francis’ outreach to Christians of other churches and to people of other faith communities. I do so not just as an outside observer, critical theologian or biblical exegete, seasoned ecumenist or catholic journalist, but most especially as one who has worked closely with the Holy See Press Office since that historic night of March 13, 2013, when something new happened in the Roman Catholic Church and in the world. A new form of outreach was inaugurated that night and we are slowly trying to assess and understand its impact and meaning in our ecclesial communities.
Four Biblical Reflections and Four Perspectives
I would like to begin by recalling four daily homilies of the Bishop of Rome over the past 19 months that may very well be a hermeneutical key to understanding Pope Francis’ ecumenical and interreligious efforts. One month after his election to the See of Peter, in his daily homily in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae on May 13, 2013, Pope Francis stressed the courageous attitude of St. Paul in the Areopagus, when, in speaking to the Athenian crowd, the Apostle to the Gentiles sought to build bridges to proclaim the Gospel. Francis called Paul’s attitude one that “seeks dialogue” and is “closer to the heart” of the listener. The Pope said that this is the reason why St Paul was a real pontifex: a “builder of bridges and not of walls.” The Pope went on to say that this makes us think of the attitude that a Christian ought always to have.“A Christian must proclaim Jesus Christ in such a way that He be accepted: received, not refused – and Paul knows that he has to sow the Gospel message. …Paul does not say to the Athenians: ‘This is the encyclopedia of truth. Study this and you have the truth, the truth.’ No! The truth does not enter into an encyclopedia. The truth is an encounter - it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet it.”The Pope warned that, “Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith, not sure of Jesus Christ.” The Pope exhorted Christians to do as Paul did and begin to “build bridges and to move forward.”One year ago on October 13, 2013 in the Chapel of the Domus, Pope Francis warned Christians against behaving as though the “key is in [their] pocket, and the door closed.” He reiterated that without prayer, one abandons the faith and descends into ideology and moralism. “Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge!” (Luke 11:52)-Francis continued: “Jesus speaks to us about the image of the lock; it is “the image of those Christians who have the key in their hand, but take it away, without opening the door. Worse still, they keep the door closed and don’t allow anyone to enter. In so doing, they themselves do not enter. …The lack of Christian witness does this, and when this Christian is a priest, a bishop or a Pope it is worse.”“But how does it happen that a Christian falls into this attitude of keeping the key to the Church in his pocket, with the door closed?”“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And ideology does not beckon people. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. …And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.”“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”This past October 24, 2014, Francis spoke about unity in diversity in his daily homily in the Domus Chapel. “Every Christian is called to work for the unity of the Church, allowing ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit who creates unity in diversity.” “Building the unity of the Church is the work of the Church and of every Christian throughout history".Pope Francis noted that when the Apostle Peter speaks of the Church, he speaks of a temple made of living stones, that is us. The Pope warned that the opposite to this is "that other temple of pride, which was the Tower of Babel. The first temple "brings unity”, the second is the symbol of disunity, lack of understanding, the diversity of languages. Pope Francis then posed a question: How is "this temple built?" The Apostle Peter said "that we were living stones in this building". Saint Paul on the other hand "advises us not to be stones, to be weak bricks”. The advice of the Apostle to the Gentiles in building this unity is “weak advice, according to human thought"."Humility, gentleness, magnanimity: These are weak things, because the humble person appears good for nothing; gentleness, meekness appear useless… . The weaker we are with these virtues of humility, generosity, gentleness, meekness, the stronger we become as stones in this Temple"."The hope to which we have been called; the hope of journeying towards the Lord; the hope of living in a living Church, made of living stones, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Only in the ground plan of hope can we move forward in the unity of the Church. We have been called to a great hope. Let's go there! But with the strength that Jesus prayer’ for unity gives us; with docility to the Holy Spirit, who is capable of making living stones from bricks; and with the hope of finding the Lord who has called us, to encounter Him in the fullness of time”.
Just last week, on November 4, 2014, Pope Francis once again illustrated the qualities to be avoided and those to be embraced if we wish to be instruments of unity and reconciliation in the Church today. Francis based his homily on the parable recounted in the daily Gospel of the man who gave a great banquet to which he invited many. The Pope said that this parable makes us think, because “we all like being invited to dinners”. But there was something about this dinner that three guests did not like, and these guests are an example of many of us.One person says that he has to go and examine his field, he needs to see it in order to feel “powerful, vanity, pride and he prefers this to sitting at table among others”. Another guest had just bought five oxen and thus is taken up with his business and doesn’t want to waste time with other people. The last guest excuses himself saying that he is married and doesn’t want to bring his bride to the dinner. He wanted to keep her affection all to himself: selfishness. Pope Francis noted: “In the end the invited guests prefer their own interests rather than sharing dinner together: They do not know what it means to celebrate”. “It is so difficult to listen to the voice of Jesus, the voice of God, when you believe that that the whole world revolves around you: there is no horizon, because you become your own horizon. And there is more behind all of this, something far deeper: fear of gratuity. We are afraid of God’s gratuity. He is so great that we fear Him”."The master sends his servant to call the poor, the crippled, he sends him to the squares and the streets of the city. The Lord asks the servant to compel people to come to the dinner. "So often the Lord has to do with us the same: with trials, so many trials.""Compel them, for here is the celebration. Gratuity. Compel that heart, that soul to believe in God's gratuity, that God’s gift is free, that salvation cannot be bought: it is a great gift, the love of God ... is the greatest gift! This is gratuity.”“Today, the Church asks us not to be afraid of the gratuitousness of God". In these four brief, daily homilies, I believe that we have four very distinct lenses or hermeneutical keys through which me may understand Pope Francis’ modus operandi in relating to other Christians and people of good will of other faith communities.1) Paul does not say to the Athenians: “This is the encyclopedia of truth. Study this and you have the truth, the truth.” The truth does not enter into an encyclopedia. The truth is an encounter - it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. We receive the truth when we meet it in a person. His name is Jesus. Francis warns that, Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith, not sure of Jesus Christ. The Pope exhorted Christians to do as Paul did and begin to “build bridges and to move forward.”2) Faith that passes through a distiller becomes an ideology- because ideologies are rigid, always and because Christian ideology is rigid, moralistic, ethical, but without kindness; this Christian ideology is a serious illness.3) "Humility, gentleness, magnanimity: These are weak things, because the humble person appears good for nothing; gentleness, meekness on the surface appear useless; yet generosity means being open to all, having a big heart. The weaker we are with these virtues of humility, generosity, gentleness, meekness, the stronger we become as stones in this Temple.4) It is so difficult to listen to the voice of Jesus, the voice of God, when you believe that that the whole world revolves around you: there is no horizon, because you become your own horizon. Yet there is something deeper underlying all of this: the fear of gratuity. We are afraid of God’s gratuity. He is so great that we fear Him.
The Council’s Vision of Christian Unity
St. John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council for two specific purposes: aggiornamento – bringing the Church into the Modern World and presenting the enticing mystery of the Church to Modern World to the Church; and second, for the cause of Christian Unity – for the whole oikumene. One of the main achievements of the Council in the mid-1960s was to find a theological logic to break down the walls between Christian churches, and to usher in a new era of dialogue and partnership that we now refer to as “ecumenism.”Vatican II articulated a new theology of Church. While the fullness of the Church, according to Catholic doctrine, may exist only in Catholicism, there are nevertheless precious elements of it to be found outside that deserve our honor and respect. Interestingly enough, this theme emerged once again at the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome and evoked once again those great lively discussions and impassioned debates that surrounded and continue to flow from the expression“subsistit in” from Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church – Lumen Gentium.Just as Vatican II taught that elements of truth and holiness can be found outside the Catholic Church, in other Christian denominations and even in other religions, some members of the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops suggested once again that elements of truth, goodness and even holiness may be detected and even found in some imperfect yet very real situations of daily life: situations that fall far short of the ideals of the sacred institution of Catholic marriage. I am sure you know of the intense debates that followed the first, mid-term report of what happened in the Synod Aula! Numerous Synod fathers questioned the validity of the analogy of “subsistit in” in relation to sacramental marriage and those living in “irregular” situations. Nevertheless, no one can deny the dynamic conversations that took place among us at the Synod as we sought to find a vocabulary and expression to name the new situations of our time and find the presence of God in them.
Pope Francis’ Ecumenical Outreach
The ultimate goal of ecumenism is the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer that his disciples would be one so the world would believe. What we long for is full unity in faith and the sacraments. A central image of the Christian life for Pope Francis is the movement toward Christian unity – a movement that happens one step at a time. For Francis, it is not about waiting for others to catch up with us. It is about everyone continuing to walk with and toward the Lord, supporting and learning from the brothers and sisters whom God places on the same path. The deeper we all grow in holiness, the closer we will be to one another.While Francis' gestures are new, and even disconcerting to some, the idea of growth in unity being the result of growth in fidelity to Christ is not. The unity we seek requires inner conversion that is both common and personal. It is not merely a matter of cordiality, or good cooperation, it is necessary above all to strengthen our faith in God, in the God of Jesus Christ, who spoke to us and took on our flesh and blood in the incarnation.
Francis and Orthodox Christianity
With Pope Francis we are witnessing a growing cooperation among the recognized leaders from the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The idea of Orthodox Christians being able to learn from the Pope of Rome appears foreign to many of us. The renewed Roman efforts of outreach to Orthodox Christians have not passed unnoticed. Orthodox Christians are learning from the unique witness of Pope Francis. He is in many ways a bishop who reflects the Christianity of the first millennium when the Church was undivided. Pope Francis also models a form of leadership that is badly needed in Orthodox Christianity today. Let me offer a few lessons that Francis is offering to the East.The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was present at the first moments of the Petrine Ministry of Francis in March 2013. From May 24-25, 2014 the Ecumenical Patriarch and Pope Francis welcomed each other in Jerusalem to observe the anniversary of the historic encounter between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and the subsequent lifting of mutual anathemas. Following the historic visit to the Holy Land, Patriarch Bartholomew travelled to Rome and joined Pope Francis and the Presidents of Israel and Palestine in a very historic prayer for peace in the Vatican Gardens.What is it about Francis’ exercise of the Petrine ministry that is so enticing to the Orthodox? I would like to refer to three distinctive qualities emerging form the Papacy of Pope Francis. The Bishop of Rome is teaching us each day that authentic power is service. There is no place for the trappings of power, privilege and prestige in the exercise of Francis’ Petrine ministry. Francis shocked many on that first Holy Thursday night in 2013 when he visited a youth detention center in Rome and chose to wash the feet of young offenders, including one who was an Orthodox Christian. If we do not learn this Christian rule and posture of servanthood, we will never be able to understand Jesus’ true message about true power.Second, Francis has taught us about life on the peripheries of society. Pope Francis challenges Orthodox Christians with the following words: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.”A risk-taking Church that is not afraid to fail is much healthier than a Church that is focused on institutional security and closed in on itself. Such a lesson is not only meant for the Churches of the West.Third, Francis has repeatedly taught us that evangelization, by its very nature a “noisy” business. Pope Francis provided this bold exhortation to young people in Rio de Janeiro: “Let me tell you what I hope will be the outcome of World Youth Day: I hope there will be noise. … I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses, I want the noise to go out, I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves.”Francis has written: “Christians of the East and West must give common witness so that, strengthened by the Spirit of the risen Christ, they may disseminate the message of salvation to the entire world.”Both Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew are not only motivated by the cause of ecumenism but also by forming a united front against the persecution of Christianity in the Middle East where the number of Catholics and Orthodox have dwindled over the past couple decades. Later this month, Pope Francis will be the fourth pontiff to visit Turkey after Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Paul VI in 1967. His visit will come three days after he addresses the European Parliament in Strasbourg during a difficult time for people of various religions in the Middle East and at a time that Turkey is hosting more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
Evangelicals and Pentecostals
Let us be very honest and admit that Anglicanism and Orthodoxy today represent a minority of non-Catholic Christians. According to a 2011 Pew Forum report, about half of the world’s Christians are Catholic, 12 percent are Orthodox, and 37 percent are “Protestants, broadly defined.” The same study reported that there are about 279 million Pentecostal Christians and 305 million charismatic Christians in the world and that Pentecostal and charismatic Christians together make up about 27 percent of all Christians and more than 8 percent of the world’s total population.There are roughly 285 million Evangelicals worldwide, which means that, together, Evangelicals and Pentecostals total nearly 400 million. Meanwhile, the number of “historic Protestants” (Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc.) and Anglicans continues to shrink overall. Through his focusing on Evangelicals and Pentecostals rather than “historical” Protestant denominations, Pope Francis has taken a new approach to ecumenical efforts that has upset some of the major denominations and even those who claim to be seasoned, ecumenical experts! Several of my theologian colleagues and friends, and those immersed in formal ecumenical studies and work have commented to me over the past few months: “What on earth is the Pope doing with those “sects” or “fundamentalist new groups?” They might be missing some very important lessons that the Bishop of Rome is teaching us.
Francis and the World Evangelical Alliance
Pope Francis has approached ecumenism characterized through personal relationships specifically addressed to the world of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity and somewhat disconnected from the “official” efforts and initiatives of those who work through formal structures and agencies in the area of ecumenism. Recently Pope Francis addressed a delegation of the World Evangelical Alliance at the Vatican. Francis said: “Whenever we put ourselves entirely and lovingly at the service of the Gospel, we become ever more fruitful branches of that vine which is Christ, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). This truth is grounded in our Baptism, by which we share in the fruits of Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is God’s priceless gift which we have in common (cf. Gal 3:27). Thanks to this gift, we no longer live a purely earthly existence; we now live in the power of the Spirit.Francis has said that our divisions mar the beauty of the seamless robe of Christ, yet they do not completely destroy the profound unity brought about by grace in all the baptized (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 13). The effectiveness of the Christian message would no doubt be greater were Christians to overcome their divisions, and together celebrate the sacraments, spread the word of God, and bear witness to charity.”This outreach to Evangelicals and Pentecostals is most certainly influenced by then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio’s pastoral ministry in Latin America, and his now famous Aparecida document from the 2007 Latin American Bishops’ Meeting in Brazil. There was a strong wake-up call given to us this past July when the Bishop of Rome went on a “private” visit to a Pentecostal church in Caserta, Italy. The event concluded with a historic first: an apology from the Pope for anything involvement Catholics may have had in the persecution of Pentecostals in Italy in the 1930s.Francis spoke of that one sin present among Christians since apostolic times, and definitely not a divine trait: name-calling. On the path of Christian life, "when we stop and spend too much time looking at each other, we start a different journey, an ugly one," the pope said. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul criticizes early Christians who, bragging and promoting rivalry, started saying, "I belong to Paul" or "I belong to Apollos," rather than "I belong to Jesus."Last January, Pope Francis recorded a video message to a visiting group of U.S. Pentecostals on a pastor's iPhone. There is a wonderful story within that story. Delivering the introduction to Pope Francis’ video message was the owner of iPhone, Evangelical Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, founder of an ecumenical community called The Ark. Raised in South Africa, married to an Italian, and living in the UK, Palmer had met then-Cardinal Bergoglio in 2006 as a member of a delegation to the archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis phoned his old friend Tony and invited him to come and visit him the next time he was in Rome, and together they came up with the idea of the video message.Francis’ ecumenical strategy in all of these efforts is not sheep stealing. His motto is not “swim the Tiber” nor his mantra: “Rome sweet home.” Bishop Tony Palmer pointed this out: “Pope Francis pulled me up on more than one occasion when I used the expression ‘coming home to the Catholic Church.’ He said, ‘Don’t use this term.’ He told me, ‘No one is coming home. You are journeying towards us and we are journeying towards you and we will meet in the middle. We will meet on the road as we seek each other.’”This thought is powerfully confirmed in Francis’ stunning exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”: “We must never forget that we are pilgrims journeying alongside one another. This means that we must have sincere trust in our fellow pilgrims, putting aside all suspicions or mistrust, and turn our gaze to what we are all seeking: the radiant peace of God’s face for “it is not just a matter of being informed but of reaping what the Spirit has sown in them, which is also meant to be a gift for us.”On June 24 of this past year, there was another informal meeting and lunch at Domus Sanctae Martae with a high-profile international group of Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders, including Bishop Tony Palmer. This unprecedented meeting was the response to the Pope’s video message earlier this past year. Palmer would die a month later in a tragic motorcycle accident.Pope Francis’ ecumenical efforts with Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders has inaugurated a new era of serious, ecumenical discussion but this has sounded several alarms in various ecumenical quarters! Through these messages and efforts, Francis has spoken simply, powerfully and beautifully about returning to lost unity, a desire to achieve a missing fullness, a disarming invitation to simply come together to witness to the beauty of the love of Christ.
Efforts with the Charismatic Communities
When Pope Francis met with members of the “Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship” in Rome for its Sixteenth International Conference, he touched on several themes in his address to the group, beginning with the idea of “unity in diversity.” “Unity does not imply uniformity,” the Pope said. “It does not necessarily mean doing everything together or thinking in the same way. Nor does it signify a loss of identity. Unity in diversity is actually the opposite: it involves the joyful recognition and acceptance of the various gifts which the Holy Spirit gives to each one and the placing of these gifts at the service of all members of the Church.” Francis reminded his audience that “the Charismatic Renewal is, by its very nature, ecumenical.”“Catholic Fraternity, do not forget your origins, do not forget that the Charismatic Renewal is, by its very nature, ecumenical. Blessed Paul VI commented on this in the magnificent Apostolic Exhortation on evangelization which is highly relevant in our own day: “The power of evangelization will find itself considerably diminished if those who proclaim the Gospel are divided among themselves in all sorts of ways. Is this not perhaps one of the great sicknesses of evangelization today?”“Remember: seek the unity which is the work of the Holy Spirit and do not be afraid of diversity. The breathing of Christians draws in the new air of the Holy Spirit and then exhales it upon the world: it is the prayer of praise and missionary outreach. Share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church. Spiritual ecumenism and the ecumenism of blood. The unity of the Body of Christ. Prepare the Bride for the Bridegroom who comes! One Bride only! (Rev 22:17).”Francis’ approach to ecumenism has a very charismatic character, as he himself explains in this excerpt from a book recently published Italian Renewal in the Holy Spirit (RnS), entitled “Il Cardinale Bergoglio al Rinnovamento”: “I don’t believe in a definitive ecumenism, much less do I believe in the ecumenism that as its first step gets us to agree on a theological level. I think we must progress in unity, participating together in prayer and in the works of charity. And this I find in the Renewal. Now and then we get together with a few pastors and stop and pray together for about an hour. This has been made possible thanks to the Charismatic Renewal, both on the evangelical side and on the Catholic side.”
Pope Francis & Orientale Lumen Foundation
Pope Francis also recently addressed delegates taking part in an ecumenical pilgrimage, promoted by the Orientale Lumen Foundation and led by the Orthodox Metropolitan, Kallistos of Diokleia. The Pope said this journey towards an interior renewal is “absolutely essential” in order to make progress along the road leading to reconciliation and full communion between all believers in Christ.“Every Christian pilgrimage is not only a geographical journey, but also and above all an opportunity to take a path of inner renewal taking us ever closer to Christ our Lord”, said Pope Francis to the members of the Oriental Lumen Foundation in America, who are meeting in Rome in these days as part of an ecumenical pilgrimage.“These dimensions are absolutely essential to proceed along the road that leads us to reconciliation and full communion among all believers in Christ. There is no true ecumenical dialogue without openness to inner renewal and the search for greater fidelity to Christ and to His will”.”
Relations with Judaism
Because of some wonderful relationships and friendships with rabbis in Buenos Aires, Francis has brought personal relationships into his pastoral ministry in Rome. I am convinced that if get the relationships right, everything else will follow. It’s all about relationships. Is this not the real legacy of Nostra Aetate? Pope Francis never met the great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. But the more I see Francis in action, I cannot help but think that Heschel’s influence is hidden in Francis’ heart and mind. Rabbi Abraham Skorka of Argentina, one of Pope Francis’ closest friends is convinced of this fact. Rabbi Skorka accompanied Francis to the Holy Land in May, and in 2010 they co-authored a book, On Heaven and Earth.
God’s Continuous Search for Us
Pope Francis sounded very much like Rabbi Heschel in the interview with Jesuit journals last year. “God is in every person’s life,” he said repeatedly. “You can, you must try to seek God in every human life.” Francis also shares Rabbi Heschel’s criticism of religion when it “speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion.” The pope has repeatedly warned against clericalism, for example. “The risk that we must avoid is priests and bishops falling into clericalism, which is a distortion of religion,” he explained in his dialogue with Rabbi Skorka. “When a priest leads a diocese or a parish, he has to listen to his community, to make mature decisions and lead the community accordingly. In contrast, when the priest imposes himself, when in some way he says, ‘I am the boss here,’ he falls into clericalism.” Francis’ warning to newly appointed bishops in September 2013, that careerism is “a form of cancer,” echoed Rabbi Heschel’s remark in a now famous address to the American Medical Association years ago: “According to my own medical theory, more people die of success than of cancer.”
The Vocation and Mission of “Pontifex”
On Sunday, November 9, 2014, during his Angelus Address in St. Peter’s Square for the Feast of the Dedication of his Cathedral, the Lateran Basilica, and also the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis spoke these words: “The fall of the Berlin Wall happened suddenly, but it was made possible by the long and arduous efforts of many people who had fought for this, prayed and suffered, some even sacrificing their lives. “These include”, he added, “ a leading role played by St. Pope John Paul II.He prayed that, with God's help, all men and women of good will would continue to spread a culture of encounter, with the aim of bringing down all the walls that still divide the world. He also prayed that there would be no more killing and persecution of the innocent and of those killed because of religious beliefs. Francis added, “Mankind must strive to overcome barriers of hostility and indifference to build bridges of understanding and dialogue, to make the world a whole family of peoples reconciled with each other…”Building bridges is the work of evangelization, the work of going out to the whole world to proclaim the Good News of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Building walls is what fearful, insecure people do to protect what they have and to keep others out. Pope Francis wants to build bridges that everyone can cross. In “Evangelii Gaudium” Pope Francis invites and challenges all of us to move beyond our “comfort zones.” He wants us to be warm, welcoming and forgiving. He wants us to eat with tax collectors and sinners; he wants us to forgive the woman caught in adultery (while admonishing her to sin no more); he wants us to welcome and respect foreigners (even our enemies), and, above all, not to judge others.There is nothing new here. It is only the Gospel message. It’s been our mission, our mandate and our story for over 2,000 years. It is the mission of every single Christian, and most especially the vocation of those who work day and night, untiringly, patiently, and joyfully so that “all may be one” so the world might believe in Jesus and the God and father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who sent His son to the world that God so loved. Let us build bridges together, and learn from the gentle, vivid, powerful and deeply human lessons that our Pontifex is teaching us.Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, CEO of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation in Canada, is President and Vice-chancellor of Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario (Canada). He holds advanced degrees in Sacred Scripture from Toronto, Rome and Jerusalem, and served as the Canadian Bishops’ Representative on the National Christian-Jewish Consultation for 14 years. Since March 2013, he is also English language assistant to the Holy See Press Office, and served at the Synods of Bishops of 2008, 2012 and 2014 as English language media attaché and spokesperson.
03/26/2015-vatican insider-Obama to receive Pope Francis on 23 September-Pope Francis and Obama-The President of the United States has requested to continue the dialogue he has begun with the Argentinian Pontiff, the White House announces-Vatican Insider Staff
Roma-The President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the First Lady will welcome Pope Francis to the White House on 23 September. It will be a visit in which Obama and the Pontiff will continue the dialogue they started during the President’s visit to the Vatican in March 2014, the White House has announced.During the visit, Obama and the Pope will continue to discuss their shared values and commitments on a wide range of topics, including caring for those on the margins of society and the poor, the effort to promote economic opportunities for everybody, to be good custodians of the environment, to protect religious minorities and promote religious freedom in the world, and the acceptance and integration of immigrants and refugees into our communities. “The President is delighted to be able to continue his conversation with the Holy Father during his first visit to the United States as Pontiff”, the White House has said.Jorge Mario Bergoglio will visit the United States to attend the World Meeting of Families that will be held in Philadelphia from 22 to 27 September. Between 8,000 and 12,000 people are expected to attend the conferences during the week, while a million visitors are expected to arrive during the weekend with the Pope.On 24 September, Pope Francis will be the first Pontiff to visit and speak before the United States Congress in Washington. Bergoglio will also deliver a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 25 September.
FALSE POPE FROM THE VATICAN
ISAIAH 23:15-17
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.(COULD THIS BE 70 YEARS AFTER ISRAEL BECAME A NATION IN 1948)(IF SO THIS SATANIC ONE WORLD WHORE CHURCH WILL MINGLE TOGETHER BY 2018)(AND NOW ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AND ALL RELIGIONS ARE MINGLING AS ONE PEACE-LOVE-JOY-GET ALONG RELIGION LEAD BY THE VATICAN RIGHT NOW 4 YEARS FROM THE 70 YEAR TIME WHEN ISRAEL BECAME A NATION).AND IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM.
REVELATION 13:11-13
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he (FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER) exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
REVELATION 17:1-5,9,15-18
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.(BOMB OR NUKE THE VATICAN)
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city,(VATICAN) which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
02/23/2015-vatican insider-New Directions in Ecumenical & Interfaith Relations in the Mind & Heart of Pope Francis-Ecumenism-Address to the USCCB Committee for Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs-Fr. Thomas Rosica *Baltimore
Your Excellencies,Dear Bishops of the United States,Dear Friends, I am very grateful to my friend, Bishop Denis Madden, for his invitation to address you today during your Fall Meeting in Baltimore. It is both a privilege and a daunting task to stand before many good shepherds of local Churches in the United States who carry immense burdens of holding the flock together these days. You have invited me to share some reflections on Pope Francis’ outreach to Christians of other churches and to people of other faith communities. I do so not just as an outside observer, critical theologian or biblical exegete, seasoned ecumenist or catholic journalist, but most especially as one who has worked closely with the Holy See Press Office since that historic night of March 13, 2013, when something new happened in the Roman Catholic Church and in the world. A new form of outreach was inaugurated that night and we are slowly trying to assess and understand its impact and meaning in our ecclesial communities.
Four Biblical Reflections and Four Perspectives
I would like to begin by recalling four daily homilies of the Bishop of Rome over the past 19 months that may very well be a hermeneutical key to understanding Pope Francis’ ecumenical and interreligious efforts. One month after his election to the See of Peter, in his daily homily in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae on May 13, 2013, Pope Francis stressed the courageous attitude of St. Paul in the Areopagus, when, in speaking to the Athenian crowd, the Apostle to the Gentiles sought to build bridges to proclaim the Gospel. Francis called Paul’s attitude one that “seeks dialogue” and is “closer to the heart” of the listener. The Pope said that this is the reason why St Paul was a real pontifex: a “builder of bridges and not of walls.” The Pope went on to say that this makes us think of the attitude that a Christian ought always to have.“A Christian must proclaim Jesus Christ in such a way that He be accepted: received, not refused – and Paul knows that he has to sow the Gospel message. …Paul does not say to the Athenians: ‘This is the encyclopedia of truth. Study this and you have the truth, the truth.’ No! The truth does not enter into an encyclopedia. The truth is an encounter - it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet it.”The Pope warned that, “Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith, not sure of Jesus Christ.” The Pope exhorted Christians to do as Paul did and begin to “build bridges and to move forward.”One year ago on October 13, 2013 in the Chapel of the Domus, Pope Francis warned Christians against behaving as though the “key is in [their] pocket, and the door closed.” He reiterated that without prayer, one abandons the faith and descends into ideology and moralism. “Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge!” (Luke 11:52)-Francis continued: “Jesus speaks to us about the image of the lock; it is “the image of those Christians who have the key in their hand, but take it away, without opening the door. Worse still, they keep the door closed and don’t allow anyone to enter. In so doing, they themselves do not enter. …The lack of Christian witness does this, and when this Christian is a priest, a bishop or a Pope it is worse.”“But how does it happen that a Christian falls into this attitude of keeping the key to the Church in his pocket, with the door closed?”“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And ideology does not beckon people. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. …And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.”“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”This past October 24, 2014, Francis spoke about unity in diversity in his daily homily in the Domus Chapel. “Every Christian is called to work for the unity of the Church, allowing ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit who creates unity in diversity.” “Building the unity of the Church is the work of the Church and of every Christian throughout history".Pope Francis noted that when the Apostle Peter speaks of the Church, he speaks of a temple made of living stones, that is us. The Pope warned that the opposite to this is "that other temple of pride, which was the Tower of Babel. The first temple "brings unity”, the second is the symbol of disunity, lack of understanding, the diversity of languages. Pope Francis then posed a question: How is "this temple built?" The Apostle Peter said "that we were living stones in this building". Saint Paul on the other hand "advises us not to be stones, to be weak bricks”. The advice of the Apostle to the Gentiles in building this unity is “weak advice, according to human thought"."Humility, gentleness, magnanimity: These are weak things, because the humble person appears good for nothing; gentleness, meekness appear useless… . The weaker we are with these virtues of humility, generosity, gentleness, meekness, the stronger we become as stones in this Temple"."The hope to which we have been called; the hope of journeying towards the Lord; the hope of living in a living Church, made of living stones, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Only in the ground plan of hope can we move forward in the unity of the Church. We have been called to a great hope. Let's go there! But with the strength that Jesus prayer’ for unity gives us; with docility to the Holy Spirit, who is capable of making living stones from bricks; and with the hope of finding the Lord who has called us, to encounter Him in the fullness of time”.
Just last week, on November 4, 2014, Pope Francis once again illustrated the qualities to be avoided and those to be embraced if we wish to be instruments of unity and reconciliation in the Church today. Francis based his homily on the parable recounted in the daily Gospel of the man who gave a great banquet to which he invited many. The Pope said that this parable makes us think, because “we all like being invited to dinners”. But there was something about this dinner that three guests did not like, and these guests are an example of many of us.One person says that he has to go and examine his field, he needs to see it in order to feel “powerful, vanity, pride and he prefers this to sitting at table among others”. Another guest had just bought five oxen and thus is taken up with his business and doesn’t want to waste time with other people. The last guest excuses himself saying that he is married and doesn’t want to bring his bride to the dinner. He wanted to keep her affection all to himself: selfishness. Pope Francis noted: “In the end the invited guests prefer their own interests rather than sharing dinner together: They do not know what it means to celebrate”. “It is so difficult to listen to the voice of Jesus, the voice of God, when you believe that that the whole world revolves around you: there is no horizon, because you become your own horizon. And there is more behind all of this, something far deeper: fear of gratuity. We are afraid of God’s gratuity. He is so great that we fear Him”."The master sends his servant to call the poor, the crippled, he sends him to the squares and the streets of the city. The Lord asks the servant to compel people to come to the dinner. "So often the Lord has to do with us the same: with trials, so many trials.""Compel them, for here is the celebration. Gratuity. Compel that heart, that soul to believe in God's gratuity, that God’s gift is free, that salvation cannot be bought: it is a great gift, the love of God ... is the greatest gift! This is gratuity.”“Today, the Church asks us not to be afraid of the gratuitousness of God". In these four brief, daily homilies, I believe that we have four very distinct lenses or hermeneutical keys through which me may understand Pope Francis’ modus operandi in relating to other Christians and people of good will of other faith communities.1) Paul does not say to the Athenians: “This is the encyclopedia of truth. Study this and you have the truth, the truth.” The truth does not enter into an encyclopedia. The truth is an encounter - it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. We receive the truth when we meet it in a person. His name is Jesus. Francis warns that, Christians who are afraid to build bridges and prefer to build walls are Christians who are not sure of their faith, not sure of Jesus Christ. The Pope exhorted Christians to do as Paul did and begin to “build bridges and to move forward.”2) Faith that passes through a distiller becomes an ideology- because ideologies are rigid, always and because Christian ideology is rigid, moralistic, ethical, but without kindness; this Christian ideology is a serious illness.3) "Humility, gentleness, magnanimity: These are weak things, because the humble person appears good for nothing; gentleness, meekness on the surface appear useless; yet generosity means being open to all, having a big heart. The weaker we are with these virtues of humility, generosity, gentleness, meekness, the stronger we become as stones in this Temple.4) It is so difficult to listen to the voice of Jesus, the voice of God, when you believe that that the whole world revolves around you: there is no horizon, because you become your own horizon. Yet there is something deeper underlying all of this: the fear of gratuity. We are afraid of God’s gratuity. He is so great that we fear Him.
The Council’s Vision of Christian Unity
St. John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council for two specific purposes: aggiornamento – bringing the Church into the Modern World and presenting the enticing mystery of the Church to Modern World to the Church; and second, for the cause of Christian Unity – for the whole oikumene. One of the main achievements of the Council in the mid-1960s was to find a theological logic to break down the walls between Christian churches, and to usher in a new era of dialogue and partnership that we now refer to as “ecumenism.”Vatican II articulated a new theology of Church. While the fullness of the Church, according to Catholic doctrine, may exist only in Catholicism, there are nevertheless precious elements of it to be found outside that deserve our honor and respect. Interestingly enough, this theme emerged once again at the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome and evoked once again those great lively discussions and impassioned debates that surrounded and continue to flow from the expression“subsistit in” from Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church – Lumen Gentium.Just as Vatican II taught that elements of truth and holiness can be found outside the Catholic Church, in other Christian denominations and even in other religions, some members of the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops suggested once again that elements of truth, goodness and even holiness may be detected and even found in some imperfect yet very real situations of daily life: situations that fall far short of the ideals of the sacred institution of Catholic marriage. I am sure you know of the intense debates that followed the first, mid-term report of what happened in the Synod Aula! Numerous Synod fathers questioned the validity of the analogy of “subsistit in” in relation to sacramental marriage and those living in “irregular” situations. Nevertheless, no one can deny the dynamic conversations that took place among us at the Synod as we sought to find a vocabulary and expression to name the new situations of our time and find the presence of God in them.
Pope Francis’ Ecumenical Outreach
The ultimate goal of ecumenism is the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer that his disciples would be one so the world would believe. What we long for is full unity in faith and the sacraments. A central image of the Christian life for Pope Francis is the movement toward Christian unity – a movement that happens one step at a time. For Francis, it is not about waiting for others to catch up with us. It is about everyone continuing to walk with and toward the Lord, supporting and learning from the brothers and sisters whom God places on the same path. The deeper we all grow in holiness, the closer we will be to one another.While Francis' gestures are new, and even disconcerting to some, the idea of growth in unity being the result of growth in fidelity to Christ is not. The unity we seek requires inner conversion that is both common and personal. It is not merely a matter of cordiality, or good cooperation, it is necessary above all to strengthen our faith in God, in the God of Jesus Christ, who spoke to us and took on our flesh and blood in the incarnation.
Francis and Orthodox Christianity
With Pope Francis we are witnessing a growing cooperation among the recognized leaders from the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The idea of Orthodox Christians being able to learn from the Pope of Rome appears foreign to many of us. The renewed Roman efforts of outreach to Orthodox Christians have not passed unnoticed. Orthodox Christians are learning from the unique witness of Pope Francis. He is in many ways a bishop who reflects the Christianity of the first millennium when the Church was undivided. Pope Francis also models a form of leadership that is badly needed in Orthodox Christianity today. Let me offer a few lessons that Francis is offering to the East.The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was present at the first moments of the Petrine Ministry of Francis in March 2013. From May 24-25, 2014 the Ecumenical Patriarch and Pope Francis welcomed each other in Jerusalem to observe the anniversary of the historic encounter between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and the subsequent lifting of mutual anathemas. Following the historic visit to the Holy Land, Patriarch Bartholomew travelled to Rome and joined Pope Francis and the Presidents of Israel and Palestine in a very historic prayer for peace in the Vatican Gardens.What is it about Francis’ exercise of the Petrine ministry that is so enticing to the Orthodox? I would like to refer to three distinctive qualities emerging form the Papacy of Pope Francis. The Bishop of Rome is teaching us each day that authentic power is service. There is no place for the trappings of power, privilege and prestige in the exercise of Francis’ Petrine ministry. Francis shocked many on that first Holy Thursday night in 2013 when he visited a youth detention center in Rome and chose to wash the feet of young offenders, including one who was an Orthodox Christian. If we do not learn this Christian rule and posture of servanthood, we will never be able to understand Jesus’ true message about true power.Second, Francis has taught us about life on the peripheries of society. Pope Francis challenges Orthodox Christians with the following words: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.”A risk-taking Church that is not afraid to fail is much healthier than a Church that is focused on institutional security and closed in on itself. Such a lesson is not only meant for the Churches of the West.Third, Francis has repeatedly taught us that evangelization, by its very nature a “noisy” business. Pope Francis provided this bold exhortation to young people in Rio de Janeiro: “Let me tell you what I hope will be the outcome of World Youth Day: I hope there will be noise. … I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses, I want the noise to go out, I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves.”Francis has written: “Christians of the East and West must give common witness so that, strengthened by the Spirit of the risen Christ, they may disseminate the message of salvation to the entire world.”Both Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew are not only motivated by the cause of ecumenism but also by forming a united front against the persecution of Christianity in the Middle East where the number of Catholics and Orthodox have dwindled over the past couple decades. Later this month, Pope Francis will be the fourth pontiff to visit Turkey after Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Paul VI in 1967. His visit will come three days after he addresses the European Parliament in Strasbourg during a difficult time for people of various religions in the Middle East and at a time that Turkey is hosting more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
Evangelicals and Pentecostals
Let us be very honest and admit that Anglicanism and Orthodoxy today represent a minority of non-Catholic Christians. According to a 2011 Pew Forum report, about half of the world’s Christians are Catholic, 12 percent are Orthodox, and 37 percent are “Protestants, broadly defined.” The same study reported that there are about 279 million Pentecostal Christians and 305 million charismatic Christians in the world and that Pentecostal and charismatic Christians together make up about 27 percent of all Christians and more than 8 percent of the world’s total population.There are roughly 285 million Evangelicals worldwide, which means that, together, Evangelicals and Pentecostals total nearly 400 million. Meanwhile, the number of “historic Protestants” (Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc.) and Anglicans continues to shrink overall. Through his focusing on Evangelicals and Pentecostals rather than “historical” Protestant denominations, Pope Francis has taken a new approach to ecumenical efforts that has upset some of the major denominations and even those who claim to be seasoned, ecumenical experts! Several of my theologian colleagues and friends, and those immersed in formal ecumenical studies and work have commented to me over the past few months: “What on earth is the Pope doing with those “sects” or “fundamentalist new groups?” They might be missing some very important lessons that the Bishop of Rome is teaching us.
Francis and the World Evangelical Alliance
Pope Francis has approached ecumenism characterized through personal relationships specifically addressed to the world of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity and somewhat disconnected from the “official” efforts and initiatives of those who work through formal structures and agencies in the area of ecumenism. Recently Pope Francis addressed a delegation of the World Evangelical Alliance at the Vatican. Francis said: “Whenever we put ourselves entirely and lovingly at the service of the Gospel, we become ever more fruitful branches of that vine which is Christ, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). This truth is grounded in our Baptism, by which we share in the fruits of Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is God’s priceless gift which we have in common (cf. Gal 3:27). Thanks to this gift, we no longer live a purely earthly existence; we now live in the power of the Spirit.Francis has said that our divisions mar the beauty of the seamless robe of Christ, yet they do not completely destroy the profound unity brought about by grace in all the baptized (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 13). The effectiveness of the Christian message would no doubt be greater were Christians to overcome their divisions, and together celebrate the sacraments, spread the word of God, and bear witness to charity.”This outreach to Evangelicals and Pentecostals is most certainly influenced by then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio’s pastoral ministry in Latin America, and his now famous Aparecida document from the 2007 Latin American Bishops’ Meeting in Brazil. There was a strong wake-up call given to us this past July when the Bishop of Rome went on a “private” visit to a Pentecostal church in Caserta, Italy. The event concluded with a historic first: an apology from the Pope for anything involvement Catholics may have had in the persecution of Pentecostals in Italy in the 1930s.Francis spoke of that one sin present among Christians since apostolic times, and definitely not a divine trait: name-calling. On the path of Christian life, "when we stop and spend too much time looking at each other, we start a different journey, an ugly one," the pope said. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul criticizes early Christians who, bragging and promoting rivalry, started saying, "I belong to Paul" or "I belong to Apollos," rather than "I belong to Jesus."Last January, Pope Francis recorded a video message to a visiting group of U.S. Pentecostals on a pastor's iPhone. There is a wonderful story within that story. Delivering the introduction to Pope Francis’ video message was the owner of iPhone, Evangelical Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, founder of an ecumenical community called The Ark. Raised in South Africa, married to an Italian, and living in the UK, Palmer had met then-Cardinal Bergoglio in 2006 as a member of a delegation to the archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope Francis phoned his old friend Tony and invited him to come and visit him the next time he was in Rome, and together they came up with the idea of the video message.Francis’ ecumenical strategy in all of these efforts is not sheep stealing. His motto is not “swim the Tiber” nor his mantra: “Rome sweet home.” Bishop Tony Palmer pointed this out: “Pope Francis pulled me up on more than one occasion when I used the expression ‘coming home to the Catholic Church.’ He said, ‘Don’t use this term.’ He told me, ‘No one is coming home. You are journeying towards us and we are journeying towards you and we will meet in the middle. We will meet on the road as we seek each other.’”This thought is powerfully confirmed in Francis’ stunning exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”: “We must never forget that we are pilgrims journeying alongside one another. This means that we must have sincere trust in our fellow pilgrims, putting aside all suspicions or mistrust, and turn our gaze to what we are all seeking: the radiant peace of God’s face for “it is not just a matter of being informed but of reaping what the Spirit has sown in them, which is also meant to be a gift for us.”On June 24 of this past year, there was another informal meeting and lunch at Domus Sanctae Martae with a high-profile international group of Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders, including Bishop Tony Palmer. This unprecedented meeting was the response to the Pope’s video message earlier this past year. Palmer would die a month later in a tragic motorcycle accident.Pope Francis’ ecumenical efforts with Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders has inaugurated a new era of serious, ecumenical discussion but this has sounded several alarms in various ecumenical quarters! Through these messages and efforts, Francis has spoken simply, powerfully and beautifully about returning to lost unity, a desire to achieve a missing fullness, a disarming invitation to simply come together to witness to the beauty of the love of Christ.
Efforts with the Charismatic Communities
When Pope Francis met with members of the “Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship” in Rome for its Sixteenth International Conference, he touched on several themes in his address to the group, beginning with the idea of “unity in diversity.” “Unity does not imply uniformity,” the Pope said. “It does not necessarily mean doing everything together or thinking in the same way. Nor does it signify a loss of identity. Unity in diversity is actually the opposite: it involves the joyful recognition and acceptance of the various gifts which the Holy Spirit gives to each one and the placing of these gifts at the service of all members of the Church.” Francis reminded his audience that “the Charismatic Renewal is, by its very nature, ecumenical.”“Catholic Fraternity, do not forget your origins, do not forget that the Charismatic Renewal is, by its very nature, ecumenical. Blessed Paul VI commented on this in the magnificent Apostolic Exhortation on evangelization which is highly relevant in our own day: “The power of evangelization will find itself considerably diminished if those who proclaim the Gospel are divided among themselves in all sorts of ways. Is this not perhaps one of the great sicknesses of evangelization today?”“Remember: seek the unity which is the work of the Holy Spirit and do not be afraid of diversity. The breathing of Christians draws in the new air of the Holy Spirit and then exhales it upon the world: it is the prayer of praise and missionary outreach. Share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church. Spiritual ecumenism and the ecumenism of blood. The unity of the Body of Christ. Prepare the Bride for the Bridegroom who comes! One Bride only! (Rev 22:17).”Francis’ approach to ecumenism has a very charismatic character, as he himself explains in this excerpt from a book recently published Italian Renewal in the Holy Spirit (RnS), entitled “Il Cardinale Bergoglio al Rinnovamento”: “I don’t believe in a definitive ecumenism, much less do I believe in the ecumenism that as its first step gets us to agree on a theological level. I think we must progress in unity, participating together in prayer and in the works of charity. And this I find in the Renewal. Now and then we get together with a few pastors and stop and pray together for about an hour. This has been made possible thanks to the Charismatic Renewal, both on the evangelical side and on the Catholic side.”
Pope Francis & Orientale Lumen Foundation
Pope Francis also recently addressed delegates taking part in an ecumenical pilgrimage, promoted by the Orientale Lumen Foundation and led by the Orthodox Metropolitan, Kallistos of Diokleia. The Pope said this journey towards an interior renewal is “absolutely essential” in order to make progress along the road leading to reconciliation and full communion between all believers in Christ.“Every Christian pilgrimage is not only a geographical journey, but also and above all an opportunity to take a path of inner renewal taking us ever closer to Christ our Lord”, said Pope Francis to the members of the Oriental Lumen Foundation in America, who are meeting in Rome in these days as part of an ecumenical pilgrimage.“These dimensions are absolutely essential to proceed along the road that leads us to reconciliation and full communion among all believers in Christ. There is no true ecumenical dialogue without openness to inner renewal and the search for greater fidelity to Christ and to His will”.”
Relations with Judaism
Because of some wonderful relationships and friendships with rabbis in Buenos Aires, Francis has brought personal relationships into his pastoral ministry in Rome. I am convinced that if get the relationships right, everything else will follow. It’s all about relationships. Is this not the real legacy of Nostra Aetate? Pope Francis never met the great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. But the more I see Francis in action, I cannot help but think that Heschel’s influence is hidden in Francis’ heart and mind. Rabbi Abraham Skorka of Argentina, one of Pope Francis’ closest friends is convinced of this fact. Rabbi Skorka accompanied Francis to the Holy Land in May, and in 2010 they co-authored a book, On Heaven and Earth.
God’s Continuous Search for Us
Pope Francis sounded very much like Rabbi Heschel in the interview with Jesuit journals last year. “God is in every person’s life,” he said repeatedly. “You can, you must try to seek God in every human life.” Francis also shares Rabbi Heschel’s criticism of religion when it “speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion.” The pope has repeatedly warned against clericalism, for example. “The risk that we must avoid is priests and bishops falling into clericalism, which is a distortion of religion,” he explained in his dialogue with Rabbi Skorka. “When a priest leads a diocese or a parish, he has to listen to his community, to make mature decisions and lead the community accordingly. In contrast, when the priest imposes himself, when in some way he says, ‘I am the boss here,’ he falls into clericalism.” Francis’ warning to newly appointed bishops in September 2013, that careerism is “a form of cancer,” echoed Rabbi Heschel’s remark in a now famous address to the American Medical Association years ago: “According to my own medical theory, more people die of success than of cancer.”
The Vocation and Mission of “Pontifex”
On Sunday, November 9, 2014, during his Angelus Address in St. Peter’s Square for the Feast of the Dedication of his Cathedral, the Lateran Basilica, and also the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis spoke these words: “The fall of the Berlin Wall happened suddenly, but it was made possible by the long and arduous efforts of many people who had fought for this, prayed and suffered, some even sacrificing their lives. “These include”, he added, “ a leading role played by St. Pope John Paul II.He prayed that, with God's help, all men and women of good will would continue to spread a culture of encounter, with the aim of bringing down all the walls that still divide the world. He also prayed that there would be no more killing and persecution of the innocent and of those killed because of religious beliefs. Francis added, “Mankind must strive to overcome barriers of hostility and indifference to build bridges of understanding and dialogue, to make the world a whole family of peoples reconciled with each other…”Building bridges is the work of evangelization, the work of going out to the whole world to proclaim the Good News of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Building walls is what fearful, insecure people do to protect what they have and to keep others out. Pope Francis wants to build bridges that everyone can cross. In “Evangelii Gaudium” Pope Francis invites and challenges all of us to move beyond our “comfort zones.” He wants us to be warm, welcoming and forgiving. He wants us to eat with tax collectors and sinners; he wants us to forgive the woman caught in adultery (while admonishing her to sin no more); he wants us to welcome and respect foreigners (even our enemies), and, above all, not to judge others.There is nothing new here. It is only the Gospel message. It’s been our mission, our mandate and our story for over 2,000 years. It is the mission of every single Christian, and most especially the vocation of those who work day and night, untiringly, patiently, and joyfully so that “all may be one” so the world might believe in Jesus and the God and father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who sent His son to the world that God so loved. Let us build bridges together, and learn from the gentle, vivid, powerful and deeply human lessons that our Pontifex is teaching us.Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, CEO of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation in Canada, is President and Vice-chancellor of Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario (Canada). He holds advanced degrees in Sacred Scripture from Toronto, Rome and Jerusalem, and served as the Canadian Bishops’ Representative on the National Christian-Jewish Consultation for 14 years. Since March 2013, he is also English language assistant to the Holy See Press Office, and served at the Synods of Bishops of 2008, 2012 and 2014 as English language media attaché and spokesperson.
