Comments for The New Ocean at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 18:44:08 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15955 I think that the last 2 comments of Ben H and Graham C are very true, and work very well when read together. - Chris in Maryland Mon, 25 Feb 2013 06:09:38 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15947 I found Mr. Warren's perspective reassuring and yet I remain anxious. In this archdiocese at least I seem to casually encounter so many Catholics who want -- demand -- change. Or more change or change more quickly. And insist on depicting Holy Mother Church in veiled implications of sexism and homophobia and other prejudices. And of course this is the author's point about the media and those who embrace and encourage its dessicated and shriveled world view. Thankfully I frequent a parish where the pastor, a monsignor, has continually and especially in recent months reminded parishoners that the the media cannot be trusted because it is not only poorly educated but unchurched. But how many priests speak as he does from the pulpit? I'm afraid I will continue to worry for the Church and pray. And be grateful for prayers of our Holy Father Emeritus. - Graham Combs Sun, 24 Feb 2013 16:42:40 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15944 I thought Benedict was being very understated, identifying the anti-counsel as the 'Counsel of the Media.' While there is some truth to 'blaming the media' the real activity against the counsel (consisting largely in perverting the meaning of the counsel to gown-ups and refusing to teach the young Catholic truth or traditions) was carried out by people inside the church. The media was and is just one of the tools available to the anti-counsel people to wage their campaign. - Ben Horvath Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:07:01 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15942 Athanasius, may I make a few corrections to your post? The Church recognized Who Jesus was from the moment the Church came into being! It did not start with Athanasius. Also, we are not called to be one flesh with Jesus. Marriage is the only relationship about which that can be said. We are in a mystical relationship with Christ that is so intimate and complete that there is nothing to perfectly illustrate it on the physical level. Two images have been used - the body with its head and members and marriage but neither is a perfect illustration because it is a mystery of Faith. - Louise Sun, 24 Feb 2013 09:47:24 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15934 Oh, Grump, anyone can pray for another; indeed, we are required to do so. - Mack Hall Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:01:32 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15933 Benedict is a Catholic man for the ages, a supreme mind, an unsurpassed teacher, with a gentle heart, an open hand, and a spine of steel. Thank you for your exquisite tribute to him Mr. Warren, and Amen to Athanasius! Instead of the esay path of simply dictating that "error has no rights" he has shown the more excellent way...to offer the illuminating reason of The Lord of Love. - Chris In Maryland Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:14:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15932 Let me offer my humble opinion. I think the greatest mystery of our faith is the Incarnation. The eternal Son of God actually took on human flesh and became man, a species lower than the angels. Further, he completely emptied himself by his painful and humiliating death on the cross. All this to invite us to spend eternity with him. The Church's mission throughout time is to bring the Incarnate, Crucified, and Risen Christ to the world. As early as St. Athanasius (hence my moniker), the Church began to recognize who Jesus really was. This has continued in recent times through PVI with Humanea Vitae, JPII and his Theology of the Body, and BXVI through Deus Caritas and his Jesus of Nazareth writings. I would think that the next pope would, above all these other things, have to continue to bring the mystery of the Incarnation to the world. The sexual, familial and dignity of life sins of today can be directly attacked by a proper understanding of the Incarnation, and how even in our human sexuality God built part of his message of creation and eternal life. The Church is the mystical Body of Christ. We are called to be one flesh with our Blessed Lord. When we see how great is the dignity of Christian sexuality and family life, then we will see the profanity of our society's sexual sins. When we see that mass is heaven on earth, a place to enter into Holy Communion with our Lord through the Eucharist, then we will have the strength to journey on through this pilgrimage. In my humble opinion, that is where the next pope needs to lead the Church. - athanasius Sat, 23 Feb 2013 09:57:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15931 'firm hand on the tiller'? An overstatement, I think. Let's hope the next one has more interest in administration, and reforming the Curia. - tom Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:55:31 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15929 Brilliant article. We should reach out to those who are eager to become a part of the Church, but who are now largely ignored in favor of secularist "social justice" projects. (This is the one area in which the Evangelical and some other Protestant churches trump the Church. It's ok if you think it's more noble to come to the Church without being welcomed, but there are those who want to be welcomed and plenty of us who are wasting our time on less noble activities.) We must pray that Catholics will start once again building cultural bastions for other Catholics, rather than seeking approval from and ministering to the secularists who spend their lives working to destroy the Church. - Jacob Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:29:43 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15928 "The prayers of a pope, in mediation between God and more than a billion living Catholics, cannot be an insignificant part of his office." Doesn't Scripture say there is only one mediator between man and God -- Jesus Christ? - Grump Sat, 23 Feb 2013 03:58:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2013/the-new-ocean.html#comment-15927 This is a pretty summation Mr. Warren, but both you and Pope Benedict in his address to the Roman Clergy leave out a very important fact: there was so much confusion WITHIN THE CHURCH after the Council that Cdl Law, and others, requested that a CATECHISM be produced so that what the teach taught could be known. In fact it required two editions (the second "fine-tuning" the first) to accomplish this in 1992-1994. Recall that after the Council of Trent which initiated the Counter Reformation, the Roman Catechism was produced and was authoritative until the recent Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992. Note that the source for the "Baltimore Catechism" was the Roman Catechism. No, if Cdl Joseph Ratzinger really wanted to correct problems in the Church when he was still fit, he would have taken the name Pius. His two appointments of Prefects for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for example, have been extremely suspect. - Manfred Sat, 23 Feb 2013 02:23:59 +0100