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Portanto, é assim:

Os emigrantes comem, fazem a digestão e evacuam. Os dejectos vão para a natureza e, de um modo ou de outro, acabam por adubar a terra, fertilizando-a e ajudando o trigo a nascer e crescer.

Depois, o trigo é colhido, metido em sacos e transportado pelos emigrantes para Fátima.

Lá, nesse lugar mágico, os eclesiásticos transformam o trigo em hóstias.

Mais tarde, nas peregrinações periódicas, os mesmos eclesiásticos enfiam as hóstias nas bocas dos emigrantes.

E o ciclo recomeça.

(Com a devida vénia ao sempre perspicaz Coiso.)

Theologian Hans Küng sent the following open letter to all Catholic Bishops on Friday.

Venerable Bishops,

Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and I were the youngest theologians at the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Now we are the oldest and the only ones still fully active. I have always understood my theological work as a service to the Roman Catholic Church. For this reason, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, I am making this appeal to you in an open letter. In doing so, I am motivated by my profound concern for our church, which now finds itself in the worst credibility crisis since the Reformation. Please excuse the form of an open letter; unfortunately, I have no other way of reaching you.

I deeply appreciated that the pope invited me, his outspoken critic, to meet for a friendly, four-hour-long conversation shortly after he took office. This awakened in me the hope that my former colleague at Tubingen University might find his way to promote an ongoing renewal of the church and an ecumenical rapprochement in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.

Unfortunately, my hopes and those of so many engaged Catholic men and women have not been fulfilled. And in my subsequent correspondence with the pope, I have pointed this out to him many times. Without a doubt, he conscientiously performs his everyday duties as pope, and he has given us three helpful encyclicals on faith, hope and charity. But when it comes to facing the major challenges of our times, his pontificate has increasingly passed up more opportunities than it has taken: [more]

Missed is the opportunity for rapprochement with the Protestant churches: Instead, they have been denied the status of churches in the proper sense of the term and, for that reason, their ministries are not recognized and intercommunion is not possible. [more]

Missed is the opportunity for the long-term reconciliation with the Jews: Instead the pope has reintroduced into the liturgy a preconciliar prayer for the enlightenment of the Jews, he has taken notoriously anti-Semitic and schismatic bishops back into communion with the church, and he is actively promoting the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of not offering sufficient protections to Jews in Nazi Germany.

The fact is, Benedict sees in Judaism only the historic root of Christianity; he does not take it seriously as an ongoing religious community offering its own path to salvation. The recent comparison of the current criticism faced by the pope with anti-Semitic hate campaigns – made by Rev Raniero Cantalamessa during an official Good Friday service at the Vatican – has stirred up a storm of indignation among Jews around the world.

Missed is the opportunity for a dialogue with Muslims in an atmosphere of mutual trust: Instead, in his ill-advised but symptomatic 2006 Regensburg lecture, Benedict caricatured Islam as a religion of violence and inhumanity and thus evoked enduring Muslim mistrust.

Missed is the opportunity for reconciliation with the colonised indigenous peoples of Latin America: Instead, the pope asserted in all seriousness that they had been “longing” for the religion of their European conquerors.

Missed is the opportunity to help the people of Africa by allowing the use of birth control to fight overpopulation and condoms to fight the spread of HIV.

Missed is the opportunity to make peace with modern science by clearly affirming the theory of evolution and accepting stem-cell research.

Missed is the opportunity to make the spirit of the Second Vatican Council the compass for the whole Catholic Church, including the Vatican itself, and thus to promote the needed reforms in the church.

This last point, respected bishops, is the most serious of all. Time and again, this pope has added qualifications to the conciliar texts and interpreted them against the spirit of the council fathers. Time and again, he has taken an express stand against the Ecumenical Council, which according to canon law represents the highest authority in the Catholic Church:

He has taken the bishops of the traditionalist Pius X Society back into the church without any preconditions – bishops who were illegally consecrated outside the Catholic Church and who reject central points of the Second Vatican Council (including liturgical reform, freedom of religion and the rapprochement with Judaism).

He promotes the medieval Tridentine Mass by all possible means and occasionally celebrates the Eucharist in Latin with his back to the congregation.

He refuses to put into effect the rapprochement with the Anglican Church, which was laid out in official ecumenical documents by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, and has attempted instead to lure married Anglican clergy into the Roman Catholic Church by freeing them from the very rule of celibacy that has forced tens of thousands of Roman Catholic priests out of office.

He has actively reinforced the anti-conciliar forces in the church by appointing reactionary officials to key offices in the Curia (including the secretariat of state, and positions in the liturgical commission) while appointing reactionary bishops around the world.

Pope Benedict XVI seems to be increasingly cut off from the vast majority of church members who pay less and less heed to Rome and, at best, identify themselves only with their local parish and bishop.

I know that many of you are pained by this situation. In his anti-conciliar policy, the pope receives the full support of the Roman Curia. The Curia does its best to stifle criticism in the episcopate and in the church as a whole and to discredit critics with all the means at its disposal. With a return to pomp and spectacle catching the attention of the media, the reactionary forces in Rome have attempted to present us with a strong church fronted by an absolutistic “Vicar of Christ” who combines the church’s legislative, executive and judicial powers in his hands alone. But Benedict’s policy of restoration has failed. All of his spectacular appearances, demonstrative journeys and public statements have failed to influence the opinions of most Catholics on controversial issues. This is especially true regarding matters of sexual morality. Even the papal youth meetings, attended above all by conservative-charismatic groups, have failed to hold back the steady drain of those leaving the church or to attract more vocations to the priesthood.

You in particular, as bishops, have reason for deep sorrow: Tens of thousands of priests have resigned their office since the Second Vatican Council, for the most part because of the celibacy rule. Vocations to the priesthood, but also to religious orders, sisterhoods and lay brotherhoods are down – not just quantitatively but qualitatively. Resignation and frustration are spreading rapidly among both the clergy and the active laity. Many feel that they have been left in the lurch with their personal needs, and many are in deep distress over the state of the church. In many of your dioceses, it is the same story: increasingly empty churches, empty seminaries and empty rectories. In many countries, due to the lack of priests, more and more parishes are being merged, often against the will of their members, into ever larger “pastoral units,” in which the few surviving pastors are completely overtaxed. This is church reform in pretense rather than fact!

And now, on top of these many crises comes a scandal crying out to heaven – the revelation of the clerical abuse of thousands of children and adolescents, first in the United States, then in Ireland and now in Germany and other countries. And to make matters worse, the handling of these cases has given rise to an unprecedented leadership crisis and a collapse of trust in church leadership.

There is no denying the fact that the worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics was engineered by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger (1981-2005). During the reign of Pope John Paul II, that congregation had already taken charge of all such cases under oath of strictest silence. Ratzinger himself, on May 18th, 2001, sent a solemn document to all the bishops dealing with severe crimes ( “epistula de delictis gravioribus” ), in which cases of abuse were sealed under the “secretum pontificium” , the violation of which could entail grave ecclesiastical penalties. With good reason, therefore, many people have expected a personal mea culpa on the part of the former prefect and current pope. Instead, the pope passed up the opportunity afforded by Holy Week: On Easter Sunday, he had his innocence proclaimed “urbi et orbi” by the dean of the College of Cardinals.

The consequences of all these scandals for the reputation of the Catholic Church are disastrous. Important church leaders have already admitted this. Numerous innocent and committed pastors and educators are suffering under the stigma of suspicion now blanketing the church. You, reverend bishops, must face up to the question: What will happen to our church and to your diocese in the future? It is not my intention to sketch out a new program of church reform. That I have done often enough both before and after the council. Instead, I want only to lay before you six proposals that I am convinced are supported by millions of Catholics who have no voice in the current situation.

1. Do not keep silent: By keeping silent in the face of so many serious grievances, you taint yourselves with guilt. When you feel that certain laws, directives and measures are counterproductive, you should say this in public. Send Rome not professions of your devotion, but rather calls for reform!

2. Set about reform: Too many in the church and in the episcopate complain about Rome, but do nothing themselves. When people no longer attend church in a diocese, when the ministry bears little fruit, when the public is kept in ignorance about the needs of the world, when ecumenical co-operation is reduced to a minimum, then the blame cannot simply be shoved off on Rome. Whether bishop, priest, layman or laywoman – everyone can do something for the renewal of the church within his own sphere of influence, be it large or small. Many of the great achievements that have occurred in the individual parishes and in the church at large owe their origin to the initiative of an individual or a small group. As bishops, you should support such initiatives and, especially given the present situation, you should respond to the just complaints of the faithful.

3. Act in a collegial way: After heated debate and against the persistent opposition of the Curia, the Second Vatican Council decreed the collegiality of the pope and the bishops. It did so in the sense of the Acts of the Apostles, in which Peter did not act alone without the college of the apostles. In the post-conciliar era, however, the pope and the Curia have ignored this decree. Just two years after the council, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical defending the controversial celibacy law without the slightest consultation of the bishops. Since then, papal politics and the papal magisterium have continued to act in the old, uncollegial fashion. Even in liturgical matters, the pope rules as an autocrat over and against the bishops. He is happy to surround himself with them as long as they are nothing more than stage extras with neither voices nor voting rights. This is why, venerable bishops, you should not act for yourselves alone, but rather in the community of the other bishops, of the priests and of the men and women who make up the church.

4. Unconditional obedience is owed to God alone: Although at your episcopal consecration you had to take an oath of unconditional obedience to the pope, you know that unconditional obedience can never be paid to any human authority; it is due to God alone. For this reason, you should not feel impeded by your oath to speak the truth about the current crisis facing the church, your diocese and your country. Your model should be the apostle Paul, who dared to oppose Peter “to his face since he was manifestly in the wrong”! ( Galatians 2:11 ). Pressuring the Roman authorities in the spirit of Christian fraternity can be permissible and even necessary when they fail to live up to the spirit of the Gospel and its mission. The use of the vernacular in the liturgy, the changes in the regulations governing mixed marriages, the affirmation of tolerance, democracy and human rights, the opening up of an ecumenical approach, and the many other reforms of Vatican II were only achieved because of tenacious pressure from below.

5. Work for regional solutions: The Vatican has frequently turned a deaf ear to the well-founded demands of the episcopate, the priests and the laity. This is all the more reason for seeking wise regional solutions. As you are well aware, the rule of celibacy, which was inherited from the Middle Ages, represents a particularly delicate problem. In the context of today’s clerical abuse scandal, the practice has been increasingly called into question. Against the expressed will of Rome, a change would appear hardly possible; yet this is no reason for passive resignation. When a priest, after mature consideration, wishes to marry, there is no reason why he must automatically resign his office when his bishop and his parish choose to stand behind him. Individual episcopal conferences could take the lead with regional solutions. It would be better, however, to seek a solution for the whole church, therefore:

6. Call for a council: Just as the achievement of liturgical reform, religious freedom, ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue required an ecumenical council, so now a council is needed to solve the dramatically escalating problems calling for reform. In the century before the Reformation, the Council of Constance decreed that councils should be held every five years. Yet the Roman Curia successfully managed to circumvent this ruling. There is no question that the Curia, fearing a limitation of its power, would do everything in its power to prevent a council coming together in the present situation. Thus it is up to you to push through the calling of a council or at least a representative assembly of bishops.

With the church in deep crisis, this is my appeal to you, venerable bishops: Put to use the episcopal authority that was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council. In this urgent situation, the eyes of the world turn to you. Innumerable people have lost their trust in the Catholic Church. Only by openly and honestly reckoning with these problems and resolutely carrying out needed reforms can their trust be regained. With all due respect, I beg you to do your part – together with your fellow bishops as far as possible, but also alone if necessary – in apostolic “fearlessness” ( Acts 4:29, 31 ). Give your faithful signs of hope and encouragement and give our church a perspective for the future.

With warm greetings in the community of the Christian faith,

Yours, Hans Küng

Europe is often referred to as a Judeo-Christian culture but historically it has always been more of a Jew-hating Christian culture thanks entirely to the Catholic Church.

For centuries the Church in Europe preached open hatred against Jews, assiduously embedding Jew hatred into the very fabric of society, just as it is in many Muslim countries today.

They made it virtuous to despise Jews, and it became, as it's becoming again in modern Europe, politically correct to be anti-Semitic.

And this was no lapse of judgment or a flash of insanity by some crazy pope. This was centuries of institutionalized and deliberately focused hatred.

Via: interdum vulgus rectum videt

A timeline of defrocked priest Stephen Kiesle:

- 1972: Ordained at St. Francis De Sales, Oakland.

- 1972-1975: Associate pastor at St. Joseph's Church in Pinole.

- 1975-1978: Assigned to Our Lady of the Rosary in Union City.

- August 1978: Kiesle is arrested and pleads no contest to lewd conduct, a misdemeanor, for tying up and molesting two boys. Sentenced to three years probation, record is later expunged.

- 1978-1981: Takes extended leave of absence, attends counseling and reports regularly to probation officer.

- July 1981: Oakland Bishop John Cummins sends Kiesle's file to the Vatican in support of the priest's petition for laicization.

- November 1981: Vatican asks for more information.

- 1982: Kiesle moves to Pinole.

- February 1982: Cummins writes to Ratzinger providing additional information and warning of possible scandal if Kiesle is not defrocked.

- September 1982: Oakland diocese official writes Ratzinger asking for update.

- September 1983: Cummins visits Rome, discusses Kiesle case with Vatican officials.

- December 1983: Vatican official writes Oakland to say Kiesle's file can't be found and they should resubmit materials.

- January 1984: Cummins writes a Vatican official to inquire about status of Kiesle file.

- 1985: Kiesle volunteers as a youth minister at St. Joseph's Church in Pinole.

- September 1985: Cummins writes Ratzinger asking about status of Kiesle case.

- November 1985: Ratzinger writes to Cummins about Kiesle case.

- December 1985: A memo from diocese officials discusses writing to Ratzinger again to stress the risk of scandal if Kiesle's case is delayed.

- 1987: Kiesle is defrocked.

- 2002: Kiesle is arrested and charged with 13 counts of child molestation; all but two are thrown out after U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidates a California law extending statute of limitations.

- 2004: Kiesle pleads no contest to felony charge of molesting a young girl in 1995 at his Truckee vacation home.

- 2004: He is sentenced to six years in prison for the 1995 molestation.

- 2010: Registered as a sex offender living in Walnut Creek.

Source:

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/09/1867364/timeline-of-defrocked-priest-stephen.html#ixzz0l3KmNfLQ

Smoking Gun:

Um cão que nasceu sem as patas dianteiras ganhou uma "cadeira de rodas" para conseguir se locomover.

A ideia partiu do dono do cachorro, Avi Kozi, que adotou o animal quando soube que ele seria sacrificado pelos proprietários originais.

Kozi, que é diretor da Sociedade Protetora dos Animais de Israel, disse que esperou o primeiro ano para ver se o cão, Hoopa, aprenderia a andar usando apenas as patas traseiras, o que não ocorreu.

Por isso, encomendou a "cadeira de rodas".

Agora, ele aguarda a fabricação de uma prótese que deve ajudar Hoopa a se sentar e a se levantar sozinho.

Fonte: BBC Brasil

In the early 20th century, the Roman Catholic Church had its own secret police. A zealous Vatican functionary, Monsignor Umberto Benigni, set up a group of trusted clerical informers, called the Sodalitium Pianum, to spy on priests and even bishops suspected of heresy. Benigni's ecclesiastical smersh even had its secret code and pseudonyms: then-reigning Pope Pius X was "Lady Micheline," and the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val, was "Miss Romey."

The target of Benigni's agents was the heresy of modernism—a broad term encompassing the efforts of certain scholarly priests and laymen to bring Catholic teaching into line with contemporary scientific and philosophic thought. In 1921, long after the leading modernists had been excommunicated, Pope Benedict XV sensibly suppressed Benigni's spy ring. The memory of modernism has been kept alive, however, by a solemn oath against the heresy* that every Catholic priest since 1910 has had to take before receiving holy orders. (…) Pope Paul VI decided to abolish the oath-taking requirement, which a generation of seminarians has viewed with bemusement if not contempt; in the future, priests will simply be required to make a general statement of support for the teachings of the church.

History's Backwater

Modernism flowered at a time when Catholicism seemed to be a backwater of intellectual history and the Pope was the intransigent "prisoner of the Vatican." By far the most famous modernist was Abbe Alfred Loisy(1857-1940), a Frenchman, whose book The Gospel and the Church (1902) used the critical tools of modern Scriptural scholarship to justify the dogmatic development from primitive Christianity to the complex Catholicism of his time. In so doing, he conceded that the doctrines of the 20th century church were different from the simple faith of Jesus' first disciples—a judgment that Rome denounced as heretical. In his 1907 encyclical, Pascendi, Pius X issued a formal condemnation of modernism as "the compendium of all heresies," making several allusions to Loisy's work; one year later, Loisy was excommunicated.

In England, the modernist movement found a voice in Irish-born Jesuit George Tyrrell. A convert from Protestantism, Tyrrell proposed that the church restate its beliefs in the light of discoveries made by science and philosophy—a view that Rome found no more palatable than the novelties of Loisy. Expelled from the Jesuits, Tyrrell was excommunicated in 1907; he refused to confess his errors, died two years later. Yet even Pius X was moved by Tyrrell's death. "Unlike most arch-heretics, he died a good Christian," the Pontiff was said to have told a friend.

At its peak of influence, modernism was an intellectual movement involving at most a few thousand avant-garde Catholics in France, Germany, England and Italy. The church nonetheless moved to suppress it as if a phalanx of Luthers were in its midst. Pius' encyclical Pascendi ordered that all seminary teachers who were tainted by the heresy be fired, required bishops to take other stern measures to eradicate the spiritual disease. Loyal Catholics suspected of involvement with the movement were forced to issue humiliating public denunciations of modernism.

Stunted Development

Some church historians now contend that the repressive measures of Pius X (who was proclaimed a saint in 1954) stunted Catholic intellectual development for a generation. Biblical experts were particularly suspect. For years Catholic exegetes were required to abide by the conservative judgments of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, set up at the beginning of the century; among its dicta was the ruling that Moses authored the Pentateuch—even though it contains an account of his death clearly penned centuries later. Not until Pius XII's 1943 encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu, were Catholic Biblicists able to study Scripture with the same freedom enjoyed by their Protestant counterparts.

Shortly before his death, Tyrrell wrote to a friend that "my failure and many another may pave the way for eventual success." Today, Loisy's argument that the Bible must be scrutinized in the light of scholarship is an accepted premise of Scripture experts; Tyrrell's proclamation that the church needs to restate its faith in the language and terms of modern man is a common place on the lips of Popes. Whatever their specific errors—and most of their writings look terribly dated today—the modernists have a fair claim to be regarded as genuine precursors of the Second Vatican Council.

* Among other things, the 600-word oath requires seminarians to state that they believe in miracles and also in rational proofs of God's existence, and that they "totally reject the heretical notion of the evolution of dogmas."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837117-2,00.html#ixzz0fUw6FYx5

O jesuíta egípcio mais destacado nos âmbitos eclesial e intelectual, Henri Boulad, lança um SOS para a Igreja de hoje em uma carta dirigida a Bento XVI. A carta foi transmitida através da Nunciatura no Cairo. O texto circula em meios eclesiais de todo o mundo.

Santo Padre:

Atrevo-me a dirigir-me directamente a Vós, pois meu coração sangra ao ver o abismo em que a nossa Igreja está se precipitando. Saberá desculpar a minha franqueza filial, inspirada simultaneamente pela “liberdade dos filhos de Deus” a que São Paulo nos convida e pelo amor apaixonado à Igreja.

Agradecer-lhe-ei também que saiba desculpar o tom alarmista desta carta, pois creio que “são menos cinco” e que a situação não pode esperar mais.

Permite-me, em primeiro lugar, apresentar-me. Sou jesuíta egípcio-libanês do rito melquita e logo farei 78 anos. Há três anos sou reitor do Colégio dos jesuítas no Cairo, após ter desempenhado os seguintes cargos: superior dos jesuítas em Alexandria, superior regional dos jesuítas do Egito, professor de Teologia no Cairo, director da Cáritas – Egipto e vice-presidente da Cáritas Internacional para o Oriente Médio e a África do Norte.

Conheço muito bem a hierarquia católica do Egipto por ter participado durante muitos anos de suas reuniões como Presidente dos Superiores Religiosos de Institutos no Egipto. Tenho relações muito próximas com cada um deles, alguns dos quais são ex-alunos meus. Por outro lado, conheço pessoalmente o Papa Chenouda III, que via com frequência. Quanto à hierarquia católica da Europa, tive a ocasião de me encontrar pessoalmente muitas vezes com alguns de seus membros, como o cardeal Koening, o cardeal Schönborn, o cardeal Martini, o cardeal Daneels, o arcebispo Kothgasser, os bispos diocesanos Kapellari e Küng, os demais bispos austríacos e outros bispos de outros países europeus. Estes encontros se produzem por ocasião das minhas viagens anuais para dar conferências pela Europa: Áustria, Alemanha, Suíça, Hungria, França, Bélgica… Nestas ocasiões me dirijo a auditórios muito diversos e à media (jornais, rádios, televisões…). Faço o mesmo no Egipto e no Oriente Próximo.

Visitei cerca de 50 países nos quatro continentes e publiquei cerca de 30 livros em aproximadamente 15 línguas, sobretudo em francês, árabe, húngaro e alemão. Dos 13 livros nesta língua, talvez Vós tenhais lido Gottessöhne, Gottestöchter (Filhos, filhas de Deus), que o seu amigo o Pe. Erich Fink, da Baviera, lhe fez chegar a suas mãos.

Não digo isto para me vangloriar, mas para lhe dizer simplesmente que as minhas intenções se fundam em um conhecimento real da Igreja universal e de sua situação atual, em 2009. [more]

Volto ao motivo desta carta e tentarei ser o mais breve, claro e objectivo possível. Em primeiro lugar, algumas constatações (a lista não é exclusiva):

1. A prática religiosa está em constante declive. Um número cada vez mais reduzido de pessoas da terceira idade, que desaparecerão logo, são as que frequentam as igrejas da Europa e do Canadá. Não resta outro remédio senão fechar estas igrejas ou transformá-las em museus, mesquitas, clubes ou bibliotecas municipais, como já se está fazendo. O que me surpreende é que muitas delas estão sendo completamente reformadas e modernizadas mediante grandes gastos com a ideia de atrair os fiéis. Mas não será suficiente para frear o êxodo.

2. Seminários e noviciados se esvaziam no mesmo ritmo, e as vocações caem vertiginosamente. O futuro é sombrio e há quem se pergunte quem irá substituir os sacerdotes. Cada vez mais paróquias europeias estão a cargo de sacerdotes da Ásia ou da África.

3. Muitos sacerdotes abandonam o sacerdócio e os poucos que ainda o exercem – cuja idade média ultrapassa muitas vezes a da aposentação – têm que se encarregar de muitas paróquias, de modo expedito e administrativo. Muitos deles, tanto na Europa como no Terceiro Mundo, vivem em concubinato à vista de seus fiéis, que normalmente os aceitam, e de seu bispo, que não pode aceitá-lo, mas que tem em conta a escassez de sacerdotes.

4. A linguagem da Igreja é obsoleta, anacrónica, chata, repetitiva, moralizante, totalmente desadaptada à nossa época. Não se trata em absoluto de acomodar-se nem de fazer demagogia, pois a mensagem do Evangelho deve ser apresentada em toda a sua crueza e exigência. Seria preciso antes promover essa “nova evangelização”, a que nos convidava João Paulo II. Mas esta, ao contrário do que muitos pensam, não consiste em absoluto em repetir a antiga, que já não diz mais nada, mas em inovar, inventar uma nova linguagem que expresse a fé de modo apropriado e que tenha significado para o homem de hoje.

5. Isto não poderá ser feito senão mediante uma renovação em profundidade da teologia e da catequese, que deveriam ser repensadas e reformuladas totalmente. Um sacerdote e religioso alemão que encontrei recentemente me dizia que a palavra “mística” não é mencionada uma única vez no Novo Catecismo. Não podia acreditar nisso. Temos de constatar que a nossa fé é muito cerebral, abstracta, dogmática e se dirige muito pouco ao coração e ao corpo.

6. Em consequência, um grande número de cristãos se volta para as religiões da Ásia, as seitas, a nova era, as igrejas evangélicas, o ocultismo, etc. Não é de estranhar. Vão buscar em outros lugares o alimento que não encontram em casa, têm a impressão de que lhes damos pedras como se fossem pão. A fé cristã, que em outro tempo outorgava sentido à vida das pessoas, é para elas hoje um enigma, restos de um passado que acabou.

7. No plano moral e ético, os ditames do Magistério, repetidos à saciedade, sobre o matrimónio, a contracepção, o aborto, a eutanásia, a homossexualidade, o matrimónio dos sacerdotes, as segundas uniões, etc., já não dizem mais nada a ninguém e produzem apenas desleixo e indiferença. Todos estes problemas morais e pastorais merecem algo mais que declarações categóricas. Necessitam de um tratamento pastoral, sociológico, psicológico e humano… em uma linha mais evangélica.

8. A Igreja católica, que foi a grande educadora da Europa durante séculos, parece esquecer que a Europa chegou à sua maturidade. A nossa Europa adulta não quer ser tratada como menor de idade. O estilo paternalista de uma Igreja “Mater et Magistra” está definitivamente desfasada e já não serve mais. Os cristãos aprenderam a pensar por si mesmos e não estão dispostos a engolir qualquer coisa.

9. Os países mais católicos de antes – a França, “primogénita da Igreja”, ou o Canadá francês ultra-católico – deram uma guinada de 180º e caíram no ateísmo, no anticlericalismo, no agnosticismo, na indiferença. No caso de outros países europeus, o processo está em marcha. Pode-se constatar que quanto mais dominado e protegido pela Igreja esteve um povo no passado, mais forte é a reacção contra ela.

10. O diálogo com as outras igrejas e religiões está em preocupante retrocesso hoje. Os grandes progressos realizados há meio século estão sob suspeita neste momento.

Diante desta constatação quase demolidora, a reacção da igreja é dupla:

– Tende a minimizar a gravidade da situação e a consolar-se constatando certo dinamismo em sua facção mais tradicional e nos países do Terceiro Mundo.

– Apela para a confiança no Senhor, que a sustentou durante 20 séculos e será capaz de ajudá-la a superar esta nova crise, como o fez nas precedentes. Por acaso, não tem promessas de vida eterna? A isto respondo:

– Não é apoiando-se no passado nem recolhendo suas migalhas que se resolverão os problemas de hoje e de amanhã.

– A aparente vitalidade das Igrejas do Terceiro Mundo é equívoca. Segundo parece, estas novas Igrejas, mais cedo ou mais tarde, atravessarão as mesmas crises que a velha cristandade europeia conheceu.

– A Modernidade é irreversível, e é por ter esquecido isso que a Igreja já se encontra hoje em semelhante crise. O Vaticano II tentou recuperar quatro séculos de atraso, mas tem-se a impressão de que a Igreja está fechando lentamente as portas que se abriram então, e é tentada a voltar para Trento e o Vaticano I, mais que voltar-se para o Vaticano III. Recordemos a declaração de João Paulo II tantas vezes repetida: “Não há alternativa para o Vaticano II”.

– Até quando continuaremos jogando a política do avestruz e a esconder a cabeça na areia? Até quando evitaremos olhar as coisas de frente? Até quando seguiremos dando as costas, encrespando-nos contra toda crítica, em vez de ver ali uma oportunidade de renovação? Até quando continuaremos postergando ad calendas graecas uma reforma que se impõe e que foi abandonada durante muito tempo?

– Somente olhando decididamente para frente e não para trás a Igreja cumprirá sua missão de ser “luz do mundo, sal da terra e fermento na massa”. Entretanto, o que infelizmente constatamos hoje é que a Igreja está no final da fila da nossa época, depois de ter sido a locomotiva durante séculos.

– Repito o que dizia no começo desta carta: “São menos cinco” – fünf vor zwölf! A História não espera, sobretudo em nossa época, em que o ritmo se embala e se acelera.

– Qualquer operação comercial que constata um deficit ou disfunção se reconsidera imediatamente, reúne especialistas, procura recuperar-se, mobiliza todas as suas energias para superar a crise.

– Por que a Igreja não faz algo semelhante? Por que não mobiliza todas as suas forças vivas para um aggiornamento radical? Por quê?

– Por preguiça, desleixo, orgulho, falta de imaginação, de criatividade, omissão culpável, na esperança de que o Senhor as resolverá e que a Igreja conheceu outras crises no passado?

– Cristo, no Evangelho, nos alerta: “Os filhos das trevas são mais espertos que os filhos da luz…”.

Então, o que fazer? A Igreja tem hoje uma necessidade imperiosa e urgente de uma tripla reforma:

1. Uma reforma teológica e catequética para repensar a fé e reformulá-la de modo coerente para os nossos contemporâneos.
Uma fé que já não significa nada, que não dá sentido à existência, não é mais que um adorno, uma super estrutura inútil que cai por si mesma. É o caso actual.

2. Uma reforma pastoral para repensar de cabo a rabo as estruturas herdadas do passado.

3. Uma reforma espiritual para revitalizar a mística e repensar os sacramentos com vistas a dar-lhes uma dimensão existencial e articulá-los com a vida.

Teria muito a dizer sobre isto. A Igreja de hoje é muito formal, muito formalista. Tem-se a impressão de que a instituição asfixia o carisma e que o que em última instância conta é uma estabilidade puramente exterior, uma honestidade superficial, certa fachada. Não corremos o risco de que um dia Jesus nos trate de “sepulcros caiados”?
Para terminar, sugiro a convocação de um Sínodo geral a nível da Igreja universal, do qual participarão todos os cristãos – católicos e outros – para examinar com toda franqueza e clareza os pontos assinalados anteriormente e os que forem propostos. Este Sínodo, que duraria três anos, terminaria com uma Assembleia Geral – evitemos o termo “concílio” – que sintetizasse os resultados desta pesquisa e tirasse daí as conclusões.

Termino, Santo Padre, pedindo-lhe perdão pela minha franqueza e audácia e solicito a vossa paternal bênção. Permita-me também dizer-lhe que vivo estes dias em sua companhia, graças ao seu extraordinário livro Jesus de Nazaré, que é objecto da minha leitura espiritual e de meditação quotidiana.

Seu afetíssimo no Senhor,
Pe. Henri Boulad, SJ

Henri Boulad é autor de Deus e o mistério do tempo (Edições Loyola, 2006) e O homem diante da liberdade (Edições Loyola, 1994), entre outros.

A carta está publicada no sítio Religión Digital, 31-01-2010. A tradução é do Cepat.

Fonte: http://dar.ieab.org.br/2010/02/05/%E2%80%9Ca-igreja-precisa-de-uma-reforma-urgente%E2%80%9D-afirma-jesuita-egipcio-em-carta-dirigida-a-bento-xvi/

Serving as the basis for the latter charge was one brief, enigmatic document found in the British Foreign Office archive. In a ciphered dispatch dated 26 January 1944, the British minister to the Vatican, Sir Francis Godolphin d’Arcy Osborne, later the twelfth and last Duke of Leeds, reported that he had been summoned by Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione that very day. Maglione, who held doctorate, in canon low and theology, had been the papal nuncio in Switzerland and since 1939, had served as the Secretary of State. On 26 January, Maglione had sent for Osborne to say that "the Pope hoped that no Allied coloured troops, would be among the small number that might be garrisoned at Rome after the occupation."

Fonte : A Question of Race: Pope Pius XII and the "Coloured Troops" in Italy, Robert G. Weisbord & Michael W. Honhart, University of Rhode Island

Full article: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118941395/abstract

A propósito dos equívocos do ateísmo contemporâneo, eis o que escreveu uma comissão de prelados, num relatório enviado ao Papa em 1553:

“É preciso fazer qualquer esforço para permitir o menos possível a leitura do Evangelho... Que chegue o pouco que se costuma ler na missa, que não se permita a ninguém mais do que isso. Enquanto os homens se contentavam com aquele pouco, os interesses de Sua Santidade prosperaram, mas quando se quis ler mais, começaram a decair. Aquele livro, de facto (o Evangelho), foi o que, mais do que qualquer outro, suscitou contra nós aqueles turbilhões e aquelas tempestades pelas quais, por pouco, não ficávamos inteiramente perdidos. E, na verdade, se alguém o examinar inteira e cuidadosamente e depois comparar as instruções da Bíblia com aquilo que se faz nas nossas igrejas, reparará logo nas divergências e verá que a nossa doutrina, muitas vezes, é diferente e, ainda mais, contrária ao texto: se o povo entendesse isto, não pararia de reclamar contra nós, até que tudo fosse divulgado, e então nos tornaríamos objecto de desprezo e ódio em todo o mundo. Por isso, é preciso fazer com que o povo afaste os olhos da Bíblia, mas com muita cautela, para não suscitar tumultos.” Avvisi sopra i mezzi più opportuni per sostenere la Chiesa romana. Bologna 20 ottobre 1553. Biblioteca Nazionale di Parigi, foglio B, n.1088, vol.II, pp. 641/650.

Três séculos mais tarde diria Pio VII a propósito das traduções da Bíblia:

“As sociedades formadas em grande parte da de Europa, com o objectivo de a traduzir (a Bíblia) em línguas vulgares e divulgar a Palavra de Deus, fazem-me pavor. Temos que acabar com esta praga com todos os meios ao nosso alcance.” Bolla del 28 giugno 1816.

Eis como, durante dois mil anos, a Igreja confiou nos cristãos para usarem da sua razão e pensarem livre e inteligentemente.