ROME – 7 April – Conference: “Catholic Church, Where Are You Going?”

I read at Sandro Magister’s page that there is going to be a conference in Rome on

“Chiesa cattolica, dove vai?”… “Catholic Church, Where Are You Going?”

This conference responds to the growing impression that the Church seems to be losing its way.

In a Church seen as being set adrift, the key question that the conference will confront will be precisely that of redefining the leadership roles of the “people of God,” the characteristics and limitations of the authority of the pope and the bishops, the forms of consultation of the faithful in matters of doctrine.

The conference, with no admission fee, will be held on Saturday 7 April beginning at 3 PM, in the afternoon, at the conference center “The Church Village” at 94 Via di Torre Rossa.

The massive lib machine is grinding away, with the usual suspect churning out one thing after another.  You are sometimes left with the impression of a juggernaut crushing everything in its path. Time to fight back.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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7 Comments

  1. David says:

    I have often wondered if would be remotely possible logistically to plan a mass demonstration in Rome by people from all over the world in defense of the Faith. I’d book my flight tomorrow.

  2. Grumpy Beggar says:

    Two Words Padre :

    Quo vadis ?

  3. Kathleen10 says:

    Yeah this sounds like a proposal to limit the clergy and empower, who else, we laity! Yes, we have all the answers and it’s about time someone recognized it. I’m for the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form and everything that came before 1962. Am I the kind of laity they want to consult? I’ve put my shingle out and I’m ready for consults, anytime.
    Nah, they don’t want to hear from me. I’m not the kind of “faithful” they want.

  4. Malta says:

    We need to look to the East (Greek Orthodox for me, since I think the Russian Orthodox church has big problems). What follows is an excerpt of a MS I have being considered, so it is only a small excerpt; but in essence it is trying to say that we in the west have lost our mystical orientation to Christ, especially in the liturgy:

    “Looking to the Light of the East to Re-Capture the Penumbra West

    One of the crowning achievements and effects of the Second Vatican Council (notwithstanding its many deleterious effects) was a growing rapprochement between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic West. During and after the Council the attitude on the part of prelates, and the Catholic populace in general, became more positive towards the East: mutual excommunications were lifted, and in times of necessity Catholics were enjoined to receive Orthodox sacraments [Cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 846, sec. 2, in Code of Canon Law: Latin English Edition, Washington D.C. : Canon Law Society of America, 1999]. Orthodox visitors to Catholic churches were also enjoined to receive the Eucharist.
    In recent times, more efforts have been made to mend the Eastern and Western churches: on June 29, 1995 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople attended mass, or the “Divine Liturgy,” that was celebrated by the future St. Pope John Paul II, in the Basilica of St. Peter. After the reading of the Epistle and Gospel, the two Primates, recited the Creed in Greek without the addition of the Filioque. In the summer of 2004 St. John Paul II celebrated a Pallium Mass with Patriarch Bartholomew; again absent was the word Filoque from the jointly prayed—in Greek—Nicene Creed (which was absent from the original creed formulated by mostly Eastern and some Western bishops at the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century). The addition of the Filioque, or procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son, began to be added to the creed in 6th-century Spain, but was not used in the Roman canon of the mass until 1014.
    Future Saint John Paul II wrote in his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen (May 2, 1995): “[W]e believe that the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches is an integral part of the heritage of Christ’s Church, the first need for Catholics is to be familiar with that tradition, so as to be nourished by it…” (italics added). He also believed that the East and West are “two lungs” in the same mystical body of Christ.
    Any Catholic who has attended an Orthodox divine liturgy cannot help but notice the sublime beauty of the Iconic imagery and reverence of the ancient liturgy—whether that of St. Basil or St. John Chrysostom. But aesthetics aside, what can Catholics learn from the tradition of the East, and how can they be nourished by it? As it is not the purpose here to look at dividing issues such as procession in the Filioque, except that in recent times the catholic churches—East and West—have decided to continue as “sister churches” despite it. One, of many, aspects of the East that can nourish us is its mystical orientation—the awe-inspiring, transcendent way it views and experiences the ultimately ineffable essence of God.”

  5. Charles E Flynn says:

    Quo vadis?

  6. CharlesG says:

    “Time to fight back.” Well, time is greater than space, after all…

  7. Mike says:

    The Rome conference sounds great. I’ll be sorry to miss it, but not sorry for the reason, which is that I’m booked to attend the Catholic Family News conference, “Weapons of Our Warfare,” in suburban Chicago that same weekend. It is indeed time to fight back, and we need all the weapons and warriors we can muster. (A small, mischievous part of me hopes that triggers a liberal.)

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