John Cavadini on Evangelization and Healing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UCiJwMRc4co Intrinsically connected is not the right phrase. They have to be the same. Jesus essentially came to "free the captives." This is his anointing that the "deaf hear, the blind see and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Cavadini is wrong to say that healing has to proceed from evangelization because he sees evangelization as the doctrinal presentation of dogma. Evangelization is to free the captives and set them free. It is not a liberalism which allows them to get the crumbs off our table but a Good News which brings them into the fullness of life. It is not that we let them sit at our table but we give them an honored place. We wash their feet. It is not as important to explain the Trinity or the dominance of the pope as it is to set the captives free. "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, The Good News is that the life of Christ is available to all and that we begin this life in this world. Not a proclamation of dogmas that we really do not understand. When we put dogma (evangelization) first we end up with marvelous (and strange) red cossacks and ancient miters which bespeak of empire so that the Vatican becomes a place where we must preserve royalty and from which we will condemn those who set the captives free. When the captives are freed God is glorified. The false glorification of God leads to Charlemagne, Bernard of Clairvoux and the exaltation of Europe over everybody else. Jesus puts the captives first in his anointing. So should we.

Ross Douthat Still Superficial

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-ratzinger-legacy.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 I appreciate the way Ross outlines his essay. He gives us a lot to consider citing meaningful sources while his interpretations indicate that he has hardly read them. But the biggest mistake Douthat makes is equating Spong with Ratzinger’s Catholic critics. These Catholic critics are people with strong moral values who want to see a gospel Catholicism as opposed to an inquisitional one. Such people as Elizabeth Johnson, John O Malley, Thomas Reese, Hans Kung, Bernard Haring, Charles Curran, Tissa Balasuriva, Paul Collins, Joan Chittister, and a host of others, are hardly people who are laissez faire Catholics. Douthat further shows his certified ignorance with the following statement. “This doesn’t mean there isn’t some further version of reform, some unexpected synthesis of tradition and innovation, that would serve Catholicism well.” If he had seriously read the above authors (and other Catholic scholars) he would have found solid avenues for renewal. While he is clever and outlines the problems of the church he continues to show a stubborness for superficial analysis. As far as Ratzinger is concerned it seems to me that he has come full circle and even like a man without a country, as it were. The young progressive theologian bolted to the right when radical students took over his podium which made him choose a different path. That fifty year turn to the right has had the same result with his own traditionalists making him irrelevant where he could not even control them.

Those Censured by Benedict XVI have more Gospel than he.

Favorable sentiments for Benedict XVI is a result of the “damnatio memoriae” which the Vatican does so well. Indeed, I had to take a double take at feeling sorry for Benedict as he departed from the papacy. It is the power of “teflon” and staging. History will be kinder to Kung than all the theologians you cited. He stayed the course and did not relent under those who truly sought to undermine Vatican II. It would have been very difficult to have the constructive opposition to Rome without Hans Kung. In fact what is best about the great documents of Vatican II bear Kung’s imprint. Mostly everybody else caved in while Kung stuck to his principles. His masterpiece “On Being a Christian” will be read by future generations more than anything by JP II and Benedict XVI. The Vatican can erase the memory, “damnatio memoriae”, of Haring, Guttierez, Kung, Curran and others. But the truth will come out in their favor.

Send the Vatican a Message

“For the Catholic Church, it has been “all bad news, all the time” since Benedict took office in 2005: a papal insult to Muslims; a papal embrace of a Holocaust denier; molesting by priests and cover-ups by their superiors. When the Scottish cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned on Monday amid reports of “inappropriate” conduct toward priests in the 1980s, the routine was wearingly familiar. It’s enough to make any Catholic yearn to leave the whole mess for someone else to clean up.” Benedict messed up. Are we going to face it or continue the absurd rhapsody? Yes it has been all bad news all the time.” Those of you who zero in on missing Mass have not thought it out. Ellie also promised to go to about ten other services on Sunday. Simultaneously!! Of course it is Satire. But do we get the point? Ellie is trying to wake us out of our unconscionable sleep. Where we tolerate the most egregious behavior from the pope and bishops. The scandals that continue are really our fault. Our heroes cannot be wrong. We can’t get out of idolizing humans. The Vatican is more important than jesus. We love the Empire over the church of Jesus Crucified.