Pope Benedict Speaks - Can dialogue substitute for mission?



 

Message of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

for the naming of the reformed Aula Magna

of the Pontifical Urbaniana University

October 21, 2014

"The Risen Lord gave this task to his Apostles, and through them disciples of every time, to carry his Word to the ends of the earth and to make all men his disciples. ... But is this still possible? Many ask this question, both inside and outside the Church. Is this mission really possible in the world as it is today? Would it not be more appropriate that all religions get together and work together for the cause of peace in the world? The counter-question is: Can dialogue substitute for mission? Today many have the idea, in effect, that religions should respect each other, and, in dialogue with each other, become a common force for peace. ...

This is, however, lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and seriousness, if everything is reduced to symbols that are at the end interchangeable, capable of referring only from afar to the inaccessible mystery of the divine."

H/t:- [Translation by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, DPhil]

 

The Greatest Persecution of the Church Comes not from Her Enemies Without, but Arises from...Within

H/t http://rosarycrusadeofreparation.blogspot.co.uk/ re:photo

On the journey to Fatima in 2010,  Pope Benedict noted that the message of Fatima is still ongoing and that the greatest threat to the Church comes from not from outside but from within the Church: he stated:-

 " Consequently, I would say that, here too, beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope, which we can in the first place refer to Pope John Paul II, an indication is given of realities involving the future of the Church, which are gradually taking shape and becoming evident. So it is true that, in addition to moment indicated in the vision, there is mention of, there is seen, the need for a passion of the Church.... As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on....the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from...within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice.

 Forgiveness does not replace justice. In a word, we need to relearn precisely this essential: conversion, prayer, penance and the theological virtues. This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history."

Taken from http://www.vatican.va.