The Supreme Pontiff and Religious Liberty – mugs

12 Comments

1. KAS says:

   6 February 2012 at 12:18 PM

   I particularly like that quote from Pope Leo XIII. We sure need that one these days!
2. JLCG says:

   6 February 2012 at 12:46 PM

   Just returned from mass. Moving mass, the priest a youth that could be my grand son was extremely eloquent about conscience and freedom. He connected our present predicaments, light as they are, with those of saint Paul Miki and his Companions whose memory we remember today It seems that this ghastly latest attempt to crush the Church is beginning to have an effect, a negative one I hope.
   The Church is awake now.
3. Henry Belton says:

   6 February 2012 at 1:02 PM

   Fr Z – I’m wondering your thoughts of the SSPX religious liberty disagreement as it relates to our current US gov’t actions.

   I see a historical context of the Vatican II religious liberty document. Similar to Pius XI vs. religious oppression in Mexico; Pius XI/XII vs Nazi religious oppression; the cold war popes (esp. JPII) vs. communist atheism and religious oppression; and Benedict XVI vs. Islamic oppression; the American bishops are now challenging the US gov’t.

   I’m sympathetic to the SSPX, but I see the religious liberty problem as a complete non-starter; in light of this freedom understood as a natural right (I know, I know – not the right to error, of course). I’m thanking God for the Vatican II document as a the reasoned and enlightened force against the current oppressive authority. Aside from John Carroll, no one could have predicted that the Church would be more aligned with the Bill of Rights than a future president.
4. acardnal says:

   6 February 2012 at 4:29 PM

   But Father, isn’t liberty the greatest good? The secularists say it is.
5. acardnal says:

   6 February 2012 at 4:30 PM

   I seek Truth over liberty because only the Truth will set you free!
6. New Sister says:

   6 February 2012 at 6:55 PM

   I am eager for you to release the Leo XIII mug, Father; I hope it turns out OK. I know a young man who took Leo XIII as his Patron Saint at Confirmation last year — I’d really like to order one for him! [Leo XIII has not been canonized.]
7. New Sister says:

   6 February 2012 at 10:02 PM

   Katherie Tekawetha was another name I saw taken at Confirmation this year by at least one young girl; I don’t think Ketherie has been canonized yet either. Are we not permitted to take Venerables and Blesseds as partons names? (could one take Pius XII, or Blessed Teresa of Calcutta?)
8. PostCatholic says:

   7 February 2012 at 6:39 AM

   That Newman quote makes me scratch my head. To be deeper still in history is to be an animist. The rebuttal I suppose a protestant would make is that to be deep in history is not to be a modern Catholic, either. In any event, I’m sincerely puzzled by why you find it so inspiring.
9. Supertradmum says:

   7 February 2012 at 7:11 AM

   PostCatholic,

   Newman was brought to the Catholic Church by reading and studying the Early Church Fathers and the Fathers of the Church, as well as realizing at some point that the Anglicans had indeed broken away from the True Church. His inspiration came from seeing the continuity of Revelation and Tradition not only in theology, but in the lives of the saints. I suggest when you have time you read more Newman. He writes well and is personable as well as profound.
10. PostCatholic says:

    7 February 2012 at 10:46 AM

    Thanks, Supertradmum. I am familiar with Newman and have even read his “The Idea of a University” (which I commend to readers here particularly, who I think would find its assertions surprising and perhaps even disagreeable).

    I just wonder at the quote and why Rev. Zuhlsdorf finds it inspiring.
11. Suburbanbanshee says:

    7 February 2012 at 3:42 PM

    It doesn’t say, “To go back in time”. It says “to be deep in history”, ie, to comprehend and be steeped in history. If I were “deep in French cuisine”, it wouldn’t mean that I was deep sea diving in the Mer de Bisque near the Isle de Casserole. It would mean that I understood it at a deep and comprehensive level.

    So if you understand history fully, then, from a Christian point of view, you would understand the inadequacy of animism, its relationship to the natural knowledge of the human experiencing God, and how Catholic Christianity is both connected to such religions and very different from them. A little thought will reveal a lot of interesting connections of time and place, why animism sticks around in so many places and is gone from so many others, and so on. You will understand why Christ stepped into history in the way He did at the Incarnation, and something of what the other means of revelation before that would tend to affect animism. And on and on… there’s no real disconnection between history, the social sciences, and theology in Newman’s conception of things.
12. Joseph Antoniello http://thecatholicjourney.blogspot.com says:

    8 February 2012 at 11:29 PM

    I will gladly buy one of the Leo XIII mugs. That is among the best quotes I have read in a long time, and the Holy Father hit the nail on the head with it.

    BTW, I received some Mystic Monk Espresso and the Vanilla blend as a very late Christmas gift. Amazing, amazing coffee from these wonderful men!

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