The Pope has accepted invitations from Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser
Arafat to visit in 2000.. The mayor's office in Rome expects 26
million pilgrims to descend on the city during the
church's millennium jubilee.. He has filled the College of Cardinals
with like-minded conservatives, choosing nearly 90 percent of the
men who will elect his successor. (Tampa Tribune 10.16.98)
The Vatican is finally conducting its own inquisition
of the Inquisition. "It is the desire to keep the
discussion at a cultural level appropriate to the importance of the
initiative which led us to close the sessions to the public," said
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who heads the Vatican's main committee
on the year 2000.. The three-day symposium is part of
the process Pope John Paul II began when he called for the church
to start an "examination of conscience," as Christianity prepares
to enter the third millennium. The Inquisition was established by
Pope Gregory IX in 1231 as a special court to curb the spread
of heresy. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV officially sanctioned
the use of torture to extract the truth from suspects. The papal
tribunals took different forms in different countries over the centuries,
investigating and stamping out various forms of heresy, from witchcraft
to Judaism.
The Spanish Inquisition when tens of thousands were forced
to convert, many secretly practiced the rituals of their old faith,
was established in 1748 by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand,
with Rome's approval. It mostly focused on forcibly testing the
sincerity of Jewish converts. The secular authorities also used
torture to eliminate political enemies. (Tampa Tribune 11.1.98)
Later that month Pope John Paul II spoke to the gathering, emphasizing
the church's willingness to own up to its shortcomings,
but "only after the historians have established the truth of the
facts."
Carlo Ginzburg, one of Italy's most distinguished
historian, wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II, 20 years ago,
asking "as a Jew, an atheist and a historian" that the Vatican
open its long-sealed archives on the Inquisition.
The latest word from the Pope is his offer for a way
out of purgatory for deeds during the millennium celebration.
Pope Paul II says sinners can avoid atonement in purgatory
if they quit smoking for day or visit someone in prison.
In other words they can earn an "indulgence" that will eliminate
time in purgatory.
The Medieval church sold indulgences, a practice
that drove Martin Luther to rebel, leading to the Reformation.
They remain a source of theological debate between Protestants and
Catholics even though the Roman Catholic Church
has played down their importance. They claim indulgences are
linked to sincere repentance. The Pope is signaling to
other churches that he has no intentions of giving up
any of the Catholic traditions.
In a papal bull titled "Incarnationis Mysterium" (The Mystery
of the Incarnation), John Paul proclaims the year 2000 a Holy Year,
and issues edicts that in many ways serve as a practical guide to spiritual
salvation during the period. He decrees that the jubilee will begin
on Christmas Day 1999 and end on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan.6,2001.
Among other things, being a Jubilee when God forgave
all of Israel's debts, the Pope asks the rich nations
to ease THIRD WORLD debt. The pope says individual
sinners will be granted a "plenary indulgence,"
a full pardon for sins as opposed to a shortening of the time spent in purgatory.
In the unbiblical Catholic theology, souls in
purgatory are purifying themselves before their entry
into heaven. The Pope includes personal acts of penitence
or local charity work as a way of earning an indulgence.
Throughout the period of the Jubilee, believers will be offered a wider
selection of ways to receive a plenary indulgence. They may follow tradition
and attend Mass in one of several designated churches (most
likely in Rome or in Israel to ascertain large crowds
of visitors in Rome and Israel) and perform such devotions as the
rosary or the stations of cross. Or, an appendix to the pope's
letter explains, they may visit the sick, the imprisoned or
the handicapped, or give to the poor. Or they may choose an
act of private sacrifice. As the appendix, signed by Cardinal
Williams Baum, a top Vatican official, explains, "This
would include abstaining for at least one whole day from
unnecessary consumption (e.g. from smoking, or alcohol or fasting.")
The text points out that sinners must also fulfill the "usual
spiritual and sacramental conditions" and say
the "usual prayers." An Archbishop pointed out
that it is not easy for some to give up smoking for a
day and it might be easier to visit a prison inmate.
The Pope's favorite icon is again getting her share of publicity. She has become "Our Lady of Finance" in Tampa because she has brought many visitors to Clearwater, Florida. A new book "Searching for Mary: An exploration of Marian Apparitions across the U.S.", by Mark Garvey describes an extensive subculture surrounding six Mary apparition sites in this country alone. Mary is supposedly highly critical of the modern church and made predictions of "a giant, fiery comet known as the "Ball of Redemption" was on its way to destroy unrepentant humanity. The approach of the comet was well known to astronomers prior to its appearance and has passed us right by. Mary you have to do better than that.
The question is asked "Should the Church Repent?" Some
contend that it cannot repent for it is supposed to be always
holy. The Pope carefully avoided speaking of the Church itself as
sinful or as committing sins. Those who sin are outside of the Church
and risk excommunication.
A second objection is that contrition on the part of the Church
involves the concept of collective guilt, which is theoretically questionable
and practically dangerous. The concept of collective guilt has been
responsible for great evils in history, such as blaming the
Jews as a people for the crucifixion of Jesus. Vatican II, attempting
to overcome this misunderstanding, declared that the sufferings
of Jesus could not be charged against all the Jews living at that time,
still less against the Jews of today.. It must be asked: Is
the Pope reintroducing the unfortunate concept of collective
guilt? Penitence for offenses committed long ago involves further difficulty.
All we can do is express sorrow for the wrongness of what they did.
It is artificial and insincere to apologize for the misdeeds
of other persons.
Corporate penance has an ecumenical goal. Since the faults
of Catholics have unquestionably contributed to Christian divisions,
repentance may facilitate the path to reunion. In his encyclical on
ecumenism, Pope Paul II speaks of the need to overcome
our exclusiveness, our reluctance to forgive, our pride, our presumptuous
disdain, and our unevangelical proclivity to condemn the
other side. By repentance and mutual forgiveness Christians
of different ecclesial bodies can heal the smoldering
resentments that derive from actions committed centuries ago. (Excerpts taken from: Should the Church Repent? by Avery
Dulles, First Things, December 1998)
In the United States, Bishops vote to convert pro-choice politicians,
laity. The document declared, "Catholic legislators and
elected officials have an obligation to place their faith at the heart
of their public service, particularly on issues regarding the
sanctity of life." Those issues include euthanasia, physician-assisted
suicide and the death penalty, as well
as abortion... The final vote was 287 in favor of
the document, "Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge
of American Catholics," with 30 bishops voting no and three abstentions..
"Any statement which gives the impression that we as bishops
are dictating to the Catholic people or to Catholic office-holders
how they must vote will, I fear, be ill-received by Catholic
and non-Catholic alike," said Bishop Hubbard. (Tampa
Tribune 11.1998)
The Pope made another major move toward unity he hoped, by canonizing
a Jewish nun. She converted to Catholicism at age 32 and became
a nun. Edith Stein, an orthodox Jew has been elevated to sainthood.
She died in a gas-chamber in Auschwitz, a concentration camp
during the Holocaust. She was arrested with 200 other Catholics 
who
were at least part Jewish as a reprisal against outspoken
Catholic bishops. The Pope said that Catholics should commemorate
all the Holocaust's murdered Jews each year when they mark the day
Stein died - August 9. He called Stein an "eminent daughter of
Israel and a faithful daughter of the church." She is the first Jewish-born
saint since the time of the Apostles and a first saint of
modern era. Edith was baptized in a Catholic church in
Germany.
Jews were not in favor of this act from the Pope because Israelis believe
she was murdered because she had Jewish parents which is true. All
German families had to do their genealogy four generations back
for Hitler to discover if they had Jewish blood in their
families which had nothing to do with Christian religions. Hitler
was a Catholic himself. Another reason Jews had a problem with the
Pope's action was that Edith Stein may become a role model
to Jewish women which would be undesirable.
"It sends a message that the best Jews are those who convert
to Catholicism and that the church was exclusively a victim
of the Holocaust rather than a collaborator. (Tampa
Tribune 10.12.98)
Thousands hear Mary's `statement'. More than
100,000 people descended on Nancy Fowler's farm in Georgia
to hear the last of the annual messages the homemaker said she relays
from the Virgin Mary. From October 1990 to May 1994, Fowler delivered messages
on the 13th of each month. She announced last October
that this year's public message would be the last... People
fell to their knees, gasped and clapped when Fowler said a multitude
of souls accompanied Mary in her vision. She said the souls were in
purgatory but were being released into heaven in honor of Mary... "We
in Mexico and Latin America believe in the power of Maria
and that's the only thing that can unify us," said
Christina Peschard. (Tampa Tribune 10.14.98)
The Berean Call gave an answer to how much truth is in the story "Our Lady of Guadalupe". 1) The appearances and erection of the church took place on a small hill, Tepeyac, where a temple to the Mother-Goddess of the Aztecs had once stood, thus confusing "Mary" with this goddess. 2) The "virgin" appeared to be a beautiful Mexican girl of fourteen, according to Juan Diego, the one who saw her. 3) She claimed to be "the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God.. Queen of angels and men" who had "trodden on the Serpent's head." 4) To this day, pilgrims to the shrine hail Teotl Inantzin (God's Mother) by her Aztec title, Coatalupej, and sing, "She freed us from great evil, She crushed the Serpent." 5) Juan Diego insisted that this "Mother of God" was a member of his own race, a young Aztec girl, and her starstudded mantle and other features of the image identify her as an Aztec queen. The true Mary does not appear as a young Aztec girl telling lies that exalt her as the Mother God and the one who crushed the Serpent's head, etc.. (The Berean Call 10.1998)