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Post by hibernicus on May 13, 2023 0:57:29 GMT
This piece on the recent decline of vocations in the Milan archdiocese after a long period of relative success raises a couple of questions. How far was St Paul VI's excessive confidence in modernisation derived from the particular circumstances of Milan, where he was Archbishop before becoming Pope (and where he had to undertake a large-scale churchbuilding programme to cope with suburban expansion, which was a major concern in cities of the period, Irish included)? How far was Cardinal Martini's view of the Church's way ahead given credence by the vocational situation in Milan? (One of the major criteria for bishops etc favoured by St JPII was success in attracting vocations - this is one reason why Maciel & McCarrick got away with what they did for so long.) www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/05/05/why-the-serious-drop-in-priestly-vocations-in-europes-largest-diocese/
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Post by hibernicus on Jun 1, 2023 21:52:47 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 5, 2023 0:00:36 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 22, 2023 19:15:59 GMT
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Aug 25, 2023 14:31:15 GMT
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Post by maguidhir on Aug 27, 2023 4:31:09 GMT
At first glance, it seems unbelievable. But it sounds like Ortega sees the Jesuits in Nicaragua as political opponents -- and he clearly has a history of mistreating political opponents, to put it generously. Given that the Jesuits have a history of direct political involvement (in Nicaragua and elsewhere, in ways that are against canon law), it is less unbelievable that they were given the boot. Obviously, I'm not saying Ortega was right to ban them (or had the right to do so), but it makes sense that he saw them as political adversaries undermining his authoritarian rule. There are reasons why priests and religious are forbidden from entering politics.
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Sept 12, 2023 18:19:35 GMT
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Sept 21, 2023 15:55:10 GMT
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Sept 22, 2023 15:23:15 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Oct 29, 2023 22:29:13 GMT
An interesting profile of the German catholic writer Ida Friederike Gorres, whom I am surprised to find was a sister of Count Coudenhove Kalergi, of so much interest to dwellers in certain paranoid fever swamps. The discussion of how she was seen (with some basis) as a liberal in the 50s but turned out generally and even farseeingly orthodox is a reminder that the lines drawn after Vatican II were not always the same as those before it. onepeterfive.com/ida-friederike-gorres-a-forgotten-catholic-rediscovered/
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Dec 15, 2023 16:49:30 GMT
See the Pope is planning on a visit to Belgium now. What does he expect to find? Seems he has taken Cardinal Daneels on Belgian affairs as he has taken the former Cardinal McCarrick's advice on the US?
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 15, 2023 21:38:11 GMT
There are a few orthodox bishops whom he can sack. On the other hand, peerhaps the idea is simply that a Papal visit will raise morale after the truly horrendous scandals in that country. I wonder how he and his minders will handle the Fleming/Walloon division, which can get very complicated and very masty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR39TqvMP6wwww.youtube.com/watch?v=i5Ci5vdT3X0
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Jan 22, 2024 15:00:07 GMT
The Catholic Church is a small minority in Greece with the Church'es own figures suggesting a population of 350,000 out 10.6 million. About 50,000 to 70,000 are indigenous Greek Catholics with the rest coming from Poland, the Philippines and other countries. Indigenous Greek Catholics are mainly from islands which were under Italian rules, but there are also converts and descendants of Bavarians who moved to Greece in the 1830s when a Bavarian prince, Otto, served as King of Greece.
The bulk of mainland Greece is divided between two dioceses, the Archdiocese of Athens and the vicariate of Thessaloniki. Several more dioceses exist for the islands, some of which have significant Catholic populations. In practice a lot of the residents of the islands migrate to Athens for work, which has a settled Catholic population with a huge turnover of visitors. It's perhaps interesting that the flagship Mass in the Cathedral of St Dionysius in Athens is a Novus Ordo Latin Mass. This would be true of Dublin too, but the Mass in the Pro-Cathedral is one of perhaps hundreds, where there may be more than a dozen public Catholic Masses in Athens on Sunday but there certainly isn't two.
In terms of the Catholic presence in Greece, it has been problematic since the Great Schism of 1054, but especially since the Latin Byzantine Empire of 1204 to 1261 which was a consequence of the 4th crusade going badly awry, a fact which is not lost on the Greeks. The residents of Greece looks on themselves as Romans, citizens of the Roman Empire of the East, until the establishment of an independent Greek kingdom in the 1820s and they referred to Catholics as Franks. The self identification of the Greeks was a problem for philhellenes such as Lord Byron when he visited Greece, but he initially received hospitality in the "Frankish" monastery, the Capuchins in the Plaka district of Athens which is right under the Acropolis.
The historical role of the Greek Orthodox Church as the Church of Greece made things difficult for Catholicism in Greece, but especially for the small Byzantine Catholic community which has about 5,000 adherents. The clergy were forbidden to dress in their traditional style in public as they were accused of masquerading as Greek Orthodox clergy. Greece, in common with other European countries, is very secular now, but it's not unusual to see Orthodox priests or deacons or nuns walking around the centre of Athens. Orthodox churches often notices on them advising visitors to dress respectfully for entering the churches. I suspect that as in Rome, this is not an absolute rule (guide books suggest that you should have your knees and shoulders covered, but I saw exceptions), but I suspect that the reasoning in both Rome and Athens is to prevent some of the racier costumes from coming in. Athens is a city of fashion and there is quite a variety there.
It's hard to measure what impact the tiny Greek Catholic Church makes on the country as a whole, but there certainly has been a Greek presence in literature and the arts for time immemorial.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Jan 23, 2024 17:03:49 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 24, 2024 0:40:56 GMT
In other words, the plaintiff's request is equivalent to demanding that when you change your nationality your birth certificate should be erased.
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