Did You Know?

Fratelli Tutti – Pope Francis’ new Encyclical
                                  – On Fraternity and Social Friendship

“Chapter 2 – A Strange on the Road                                                                           74. One detail about the passers-by does stand out: they were religious, devoted to the worship of God: a priest and a Levite. This detail should not be overlooked. It shows that belief in God and the worship of God are not enough to ensure that we are actually living in a way pleasing to God. A believer may be untrue to everything that his faith demands of him, and yet think he is close to God and better than others. The guarantee of an authentic openness to God, on the other hand, is a way of practising the faith that helps open our hearts to our brothers and sisters. Saint John Chrysostom expressed this pointedly when he challenged his Christian hearers: “Do you wish to honour the body of the Saviour? Do not despise it when it is naked. Do not honour it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold”.[58] Paradoxically, those who claim to be unbelievers can sometimes put God’s will into practice better than believers.

75. “Robbers” usually find secret allies in those who “pass by and look the other way”. There is a certain interplay between those who manipulate and cheat society, and those who, while claiming to be detached and impartial critics, live off that system and its benefits. There is a sad hypocrisy when the impunity of crime, the use of institutions for personal or corporate gain, and other evils apparently impossible to eradicate, are accompanied by a relentless criticism of everything, a constant sowing of suspicion that results in distrust and confusion. The complaint that “everything is broken” is answered by the claim that “it can’t be fixed”, or “what can I do?” This feeds into disillusionment and despair, and hardly encourages a spirit of solidarity and generosity. Plunging people into despair closes a perfectly perverse circle: such is the agenda of the invisible dictatorship of hidden interests that have gained mastery over both resources and the possibility of thinking and expressing opinions.”
http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html


Catholic WORD of the Week

“Immaculate Conception – The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception affirms that “the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of God omnipotent and because of the merits of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the human race, free from all stain of original sin” (from the declaration of the dogma by Pope Pius IX, December 8, 1854).  The perfect sinlessness of Mary had been taught by the Fathers of the Church, appealing especially to such texts as Genesis 3:15 and Luke 1:28.  A feast commemorating the conception of Our Lady was known in the East as early as the seventh century and in the West by the ninth century.  The doctrine that Mary’s sinlessness began from the first moment of her conception was opposed by some medieval doctors of the Church (e.g., St. Albert, St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas) on the grounds that it detracted from the truth of her natural conception: original sin is transmitted in every human conception.  Others (especially Duns Scotus) defended it, and by the sixteenth century – when the Council of Trent excluded Mary from original sin in its decree on that topic – the doctrine had become the common teaching of all theologians.  According to this doctrine, Mary was conceived in the state of perfect justice, free from original sin, and all its consequences and penalties, in virtue of the redemption won by Christ on the cross.  In this sense, the privilege of the Immaculate Conception was the anticipated fruit of Christ’s saving passion, death and resurrection.  It was fitting that she who was to bear the Saviour of the world should herself by preserved by Him from sin and its consequences and thus be the first to benefit from what He would win for the whole human race.” Our Sunday Visitor’s CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, page 497