Saturday, October 5, 2013

PAUL VI,Message for our Times

December 8, 1975
32.

We must not ignore the fact that many, even generous Christians who are sensitive to the dramatic questions involved in the problem of liberation, in their wish to commit the Church to the liberation effort are frequently tempted to reduce her mission to the dimensions of a simply temporal project. They would reduce her aims to a man-centered goal; the salvation of which she is the messenger would be reduced to material well-being.

Her activity, forgetful of all spiritual and religious preoccupation, would become initiatives of the political or social order. But if this were so, the Church would lose her fundamental meaning. Her message of liberation would no longer have any originality and would easily be open to monopolization and manipulation by ideological systems and political parties.

She would have no more authority to proclaim freedom as in the name of God. This is why we have wished to emphasize, in the same address at the opening of the Synod, "the need to restate clearly the specifically religious finality of evangelization. This latter would lose its reason for existence if it were to diverge from the religious axis that guides it: the kingdom of God, before anything else, in its fully theological meaning...."

[62]

Paul VI message was a call to evangelization in the modern world. A theme,an effort,taken up especially by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It is referred to now as the New Evangelization.Paul VI message in his apostolic exhortation is important. While he was calling for the Church to go out into the modern world he qualified that call with his warning. The Church's mission is always the same. It must have its "religious axis" to guide her. I have put it another way.The Church is NOT an NGO and Jesus is not a socialist. We do not become captive to ANY party. He doesn't mean as Catholics that we do not participate in political activities. He does not mean we keep our religious life out of the public square.Nor does he mean we do not join a particular party. What he does mean is this is not our mission. Our mission,as Catholics,is the Kingdom of God. We don't evangelize people to become part of a political party. We do evangelize people to liberate them-for people to find true freedom.

Lately we have seen some people who identify themselves as liberals [aka progressives] attempt to use religion and the teachings of Jesus to promote Obama,promote liberalism, promote Socialism,promote the Democratic party. It's like the nonsense I saw on The O Reilly Factor from the Notre Dame teacher.She claimed Jesus would approve of Obamacare. It's the same mind set when people say Jesus was a Socialist. I don't speak for Jesus. Jesus can speak for Himself through His Church.They use religion to promote an agenda.As Catholics we have been given a mission,not an agenda

I'm sure it begs the question with some;would Jesus be a Democrat or Republican? If you have to ask you missed the call of Paul VI, Blessed John Paul II and Benedict the XVI,ignored it or failed to understand it.

Mother Therese summed up the mission of the Church in these words,"If we are contemplatives in the heart of the world with all its problems, these problems can never discourage us."

Yes,I am affiliated with a party.My husband and I are both registered Republicans. We vote pro life & pro marriage(the REAL meaning). We realized the danger of electing Obama. We were not thrilled with the Democratic convention when they booed at the mention of God and the pro abortion,pro contraception agenda.We are definitely not thrilled with Obama's attacks on the Church and his corrupt administration. He is a secular humanist and believes the state is God. However,I am not here to convince anyone to join a party;not even Republican. I am here to answer the call for a new evangelization and to stand up in the battle for true freedom. We vote our conscience and make sure it's an informed conscience.We are baptized Catholic. We we do not leave our Catholic faith off at the door when we vote or when we run for political office.There is no way on earth to be ignorant of Church teaching re the matters of abortion,same sex marriage, euthanasia or contraception. There is also no way on earth to claim that we can vote for a candidate who promotes these intrinsic evils because they "care for the poor." IMHO it is exactly what Paul VI refers to when he said," the salvation of which she is the messenger would be reduced to material well-being." We can discuss how best to care for the poor but permitting the killing of the unborn, destroying marriage and taking the life of the elderly,sick and disabled is NOT charity.

Again,I go to Mother Therese who summed it up in these words,"I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

We ARE called to go out into the world,the public square or in the streets as John Paul II said,and witness to the truth a.The title of the blog is TESTIFY to the TRUTH. THAT is our call.

49. Jesus' last words in St. Mark's Gospel confer on the evangelization which the Lord entrusts to His apostles a limitless universality: "Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation."[73]

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