...the crass remarks made by the preacher at St Peter's on Good Friday,quoting from a letter likening the current campaign against the Pope to anti-semitism. This is ridiculous and gross and will make an already bad situation infinitely worse. It hurts and offends Jewish people, who have actual memories of the murder of family and friends. Frankly, I think the preacher needs to be sacked.
What is happening to the Church is horrendous and wrong, but to link it with people who were actually slaughtered in concentration camps is just ridiculous, and it takes this whole ghastly mess deeper into a mire...
6 comments:
Are you quite sure of what he said? Who says so? After a week in which there have been the most outrageous lies in the media regarding both the holy father and Archbishop Nichols I think we should at least make an effort to check the facts.
Poor Fr. Cantalamessa. He's actually a good preacher, but this one was a real clunker. I don't think he meant it the way it is now being taken. Still this one is making being a Jewish Catholic a little bit harder today. Oh well,the Church and the Pope will get through this. Happy Easter to you, Auntie Jo!
I know that he was quoting a letter from a Jewish friend. But one moment's thought should have made him realise how dreadful if it would sound when reduced to a TV and radio soundbite.
Good grief, he was speaking on Good Friday in St Peter's basilica with the ears and eyes of the world's media on him! This is a moment to weigh every word, to think of the impact of every phrase...
What else can now go wrong? Damage has been done that will last for years, and it's not over yet.
Joanna B.
Auntie is correct in chiding, but calling for his "sack" is a bit strong - Fr. Cantalamessa is a good preacher (I recall the series to the Pontifical Household on the Beatitudes). What the Vatican needs is a good Press Officer who recognizes the mortification benefits of brutal honesty. Read American journalist Peggy Noonan's latest column for more insights:
http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html
But of course a press officer can only coax his superior's to stay "on message" - we have to pray that homilists get proper training in the Seminary on the application of current affairs to spiritual direction from the pulpit - that the souls in need of the Authentic Voice aren't only those sitting in the pews at that moment but the many lost and confused sinners hearing, reading, seeing the good news when reported/distorted, a HUGE responsibility. Especially when the news sounds more like a "sour w(h)ine on a hyssop stick" than authentic good news of sin vanquished (and when it is abundantly obvious that the sin was not vanquished by certain Bishops, but left to fester).
Addendum to my earlier comment (not yet approved), here's what Rome hoped the main thrust of Father's homily "ought" to have sounded like:
http://www.h2onews.org/english/1-The%20Pope/224443559-fr-cantalamessa-violence-is-failure.html
Joanna, I wonder if you really read what Fr Cantalamessa said, because if you did I can't see how you can construe from his remarks an attack on Jews.
received in this week the letter of a Jewish friend and, with his permission, I share here a part of it.
He said: “I am following with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the Church, the Pope and all the faithful by the whole world. The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism. Therefore I desire to express to you personally, to the Pope and to the whole Church my solidarity as Jew of dialogue and of all those that in the Jewish world (and there are many) share these sentiments of brotherhood. Our Passover and yours are undoubtedly different, but we both live with Messianic hope that surely will reunite us in the love of our common Father. I wish you and all Catholics a Good Easter.”
And also we Catholics wish our Jewish brothers a Good Passover. We do so with the words of their ancient teacher Gamaliel, entered in the Jewish Passover Seder and from there passed into the most ancient Christian liturgy:
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