The homilies and allocutions of the Roman Pontiff presently reigning:
Mr Neumayr is not a writer whose work I read very much, chiefly because he is associated in my mind (rightly or wrongly) with a certain party who are convinced that Franciscus is very mad and very bad semper et ubique, and simply as a matter of, as it were, intellectual hygiene I limit my exposure: I read their tweets when I see them, however.
In this case, Neumayr puts his finger on two aspects of the Reign that I see, too, and deplore: many issues are settled yet Franciscus insists on returning to them, in one imprecise way or another (!hagan lio¡), and instead of consulting the great doctors and theologians of our incandescently brilliant patrimony he seems to think that Dx (what ought to be the standard abbreviation of the Latin feminine 'doctor' i.e. doctrix) Ignota in the faculty of sociology at the Angelicum's poor cousin in Pittsburgh or Panama City is a blinding light of learned insight-- one suspects his Holiness might be bothering with her nonsense for reasons other than theological profundity, not to say orthodoxy. Ecce Dóminus non est cógnitus dum loquerétur, et dignátus est cognósci, dum páscitur: see how the Lord was recognized not in his conversation (St Gregory the Great, from the 3rd lesson at Matins this morning) but deigned to be known in the mystery of the Breaking of the Bread: which, for my purposes here, I convert to: 'less talk, more solid action'.
But happy Easter Monday, in any case: hæc dies quam fécit Dominus: exsultémus et lætémur in ea.
Here, as on so many other matters, the pope seeks to open up an issue the tradition of the Church had closed. The doctors of the Church, such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, have never hesitated to say that Judas went to Hell. Pope Francis takes his cue, instead, from contemporary theology, which is very eager to say that Hell is empty.
Mr Neumayr is not a writer whose work I read very much, chiefly because he is associated in my mind (rightly or wrongly) with a certain party who are convinced that Franciscus is very mad and very bad semper et ubique, and simply as a matter of, as it were, intellectual hygiene I limit my exposure: I read their tweets when I see them, however.
In this case, Neumayr puts his finger on two aspects of the Reign that I see, too, and deplore: many issues are settled yet Franciscus insists on returning to them, in one imprecise way or another (!hagan lio¡), and instead of consulting the great doctors and theologians of our incandescently brilliant patrimony he seems to think that Dx (what ought to be the standard abbreviation of the Latin feminine 'doctor' i.e. doctrix) Ignota in the faculty of sociology at the Angelicum's poor cousin in Pittsburgh or Panama City is a blinding light of learned insight-- one suspects his Holiness might be bothering with her nonsense for reasons other than theological profundity, not to say orthodoxy. Ecce Dóminus non est cógnitus dum loquerétur, et dignátus est cognósci, dum páscitur: see how the Lord was recognized not in his conversation (St Gregory the Great, from the 3rd lesson at Matins this morning) but deigned to be known in the mystery of the Breaking of the Bread: which, for my purposes here, I convert to: 'less talk, more solid action'.
But happy Easter Monday, in any case: hæc dies quam fécit Dominus: exsultémus et lætémur in ea.
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