Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals, says all share blame for church divisions

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In an unusual video message, recorded on an iPhone by a Pentecostal pastor Pope Francis knew in Argentina, the pope says all Christians share blame for their divisions, speaks of his “longing” for their unity and insists that God will bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion.

“Pray to the Lord that he will unite us all,” the pope tells a group of Pentecostals meeting in the United States. “Let’s move forward, we are brothers; let us give each other that spiritual embrace and allow the Lord to complete the work he has begun. Because this is a miracle; the miracle of unity has begun.”

In the video, posted on YouTube and never released by the Vatican, the pope quotes a character from a novel by Alessandro Manzoni; the character says, “‘I have never found that the Lord began a miracle without finishing it well.’ He will finish well this miracle of unity,” the pope added. Continue reading “Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals, says all share blame for church divisions” →

New book recounts historic 1964 peacemaking retreat at Gethsemani Abbey

A new book by Gordon Oyer recounts the history of a little known yet foundational event in the development of Mennonite-Catholic collaboration in peacemaking and ecumenical dialogue. The book is Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest: Merton, Berrigan, Yoder, and Muste at the Gethsemani Abbey Peacemakers Retreat. Here is the publisher’s summary of the event and the book:

In the fall of 1964, Trappist monk Thomas Merton prepared to host an unprecedented gathering of peace activists. “About all we have is a great need for roots,” he observed, “but to know this is already something.” His remark anticipated their agenda—a search for spiritual roots to nurture sound motives for “protest.”

This event’s originality lay in the varied religious commitments present. Convened in an era of well-kept faith boundaries, members of Catholic (lay and clergy), mainline Protestant, historic peace church, and Unitarian traditions participated. Continue reading “New book recounts historic 1964 peacemaking retreat at Gethsemani Abbey” →

Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans hold second round of dialogue on baptism

Co-chairs of the commission (from left): Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, Friederike Nüssel, Alfred Neufeld. Photo by Eleanor Miller

Release date: Sunday, 9 March 2014

Strasbourg, France – “I continue to be inspired by the mutuality of our work,” commented John Rempel of Toronto, Ontario, one of the Mennonite participants in the 26-31 January 2014 second meeting of the Trilateral (Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite) Dialogue Commission on Baptism.

The general topic of the dialogue, which is to extend over four years, is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The theme for this year was “Baptism: God’s Grace in Christ and Human Sin”.

“Everyone is treated equally even though we are by far the smallest confession,” noted Rempel. “We are all trying to rethink the issues in terms of the 21st century, not only the 16th century.”

He commented further, “I find myself grappling especially with two aspects of this year’s meeting. I’m discovering how important sacraments are to Lutherans and Catholics as expressions of God’s initiative: God is mysteriously at work by means of prayer and water, whether we respond to it or not. And yet I can’t understand God’s initiative in the New Testament without the human response to grace.”

“At the same time our partners fear that we put so much weight on the human decision to believe that God’s initiative is pushed to the background. The participants are aware that only through the work of the Holy Spirit will this dialogue lead us closer to the mind of Christ.”

Continue reading “Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans hold second round of dialogue on baptism” →

Bridgefolk Conference 2014 to be held on the theme of service

The thirteenth annual Bridgefolk Conference is slated for July 24-27, 2014 at Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN. Our conference theme this year is Service–An Overflow of Christ’s Love. The Catholic keynote speaker will be Vincent Guider, director of the North Lawndale Kinship Initiative at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago’s West Side. The Mennonite keynote speaker will be Elizabeth Soto Albrecht, moderator of Mennonite Church USA. In addition to keynote addresses, the conference will include times and spaces for worship, discussion, reflection, story-sharing, and fellowship as well as participation in service projects. Please look for conference registration information to be posted in the near future on the Bridgefolk website (www.bridgefolk.net). As a grassroots movement of Catholics and Mennonites “proceeding through friendship,” Bridgefolk welcomes all those interested to join us at the conference. We hope to see you there!

The pope to the World Council of Churches: take the path to full communion without fear

Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father met with Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, secretary general of the World Council for Churches, accompanied by a delegation. The Pope remarked that this encounter “marks an important chapter in the long and fruitful relationship between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches”, and acknowledged “the service it performs in the cause of unity between believers in Christ”.

“Since its creation, the World Council of Churches has offered a great contribution to forming the sensibility of all Christians with regard to the fact that our divisions represent a major obstacle to our witness to the Gospel in the world. These divisions must not be accepted with resignation, as if they were simply an inevitable component of the historic experience of the Church. If Christians ignore the Lord’s call to unity, they risk ignoring the Lord Himself and the salvation He offers through His Body, the Church: ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name … by which we must be saved.’”

“The way to full and visible communion is a path which still proves today to be arduous and uphill. The Spirit, however, urges us not to be afraid, to go ahead with trust, and not to content ourselves with the progress that we have been able to experience in these decades. Prayer is fundamental on this path. Only in a spirit of humble and persistent prayer can we attain the necessary farsightedness, discernment and motivations for offering our service to the human family, in all its weakness and with all its needs, both spiritual and material”.

Mennonite and Catholic relief agencies partner

From Disaster News Network:

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen (CCDOM) and the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) have partnered to repair and restore homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. More than a year after the Storm, thousands of families are still unable to inhabit their homes in New Jersey.

The partnership between CCDOM and MDS is making it possible for families to return to their homes and neighborhoods, in homes rebuilt by volunteers recruited by MDS.

“This partnership is consistent with the mission our organizations share: to help others in their time of need,” said Larry Stoner, Disaster Response Coordinator (East), MDS , and Marianne Majewski, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen.

Continue reading “Mennonite and Catholic relief agencies partner” →

Habemus papam Mennonitum

In an article that appears in the March 1, 2014 issue of The Mennonite, Robert Brenneman admits to being “smitten” by Pope Francis. Despite seeing significant differences between Mennonites and Catholics in the areas of church structure and liturgy, Brenneman observes four areas in which Pope Francis’ message and example find resonance with Anabaptist values. He writes:

Although it will take time to do so, Pope Francis has pledged to move power outward, giving regional bishops more freedom to name the most appropriate candidates for offices in their own districts. This policy promises to allow them to build local institutions that are more responsive to the local context. Continue reading “Habemus papam Mennonitum” →

Pope Francis: The spirit of war draws us away from God

From Catholic Peace Fellowship

Pope Francis: The Spirit of War Draws Us Away from God

“War is a scandal to be mourned every day. We see war in the newspapers ever and we’re used to reading about it: the number of its victims is just part of our daily accounts. We hold events to commemorate the centenary of the Great War and everyone is scandalized by the many millions of dead. But today it’s the same… instead of one great war, there are small wars everywhere. When we were children in Sunday School and we were told the story of Cain and Abel, we couldn’t accept that someone would kill their own brother. And yet today millions kill their own brothers and we’re used to it: there are entire peoples divided, killing each other over a piece of land, a racial hatred, an ambition.

Think of the children starving in refugee camps… these are the fruits of war. And then think of the great dining rooms, of the parties held by those who control the arms industry, who produce weapons. Compare a sick, starving child in a refugee camp with the big parties, the good life led by the masters of the arms trade. And remember, the Pope added, that the wars, the hatred, the hostility aren’t products we buy at the market: they’re right here, in our hearts. The Apostle James gives us a simple piece of advice: ‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.’ But the spirit of war, which draws us away from God, doesn’t just reside in distant parts of the world: the spirit of war comes from our own hearts.

Let us pray for peace, for that peace which seems to have been reduced to a word and nothing more. Let us follow James’ advice: ‘Recognize your misery.’ Let us recognize that misery which breeds wars within families, within neighborhoods, everywhere. How many of us weep when we read the newspapers, when we see the dead on television? This is what Christians should do today, in the face of war: we should weep, we should mourn.”

– Homily given by Pope Francis at the Casa San Marta on February 25, A.D. 2014 (*We are grateful for the English Translation provided by News.va)

New Vatican document says violence in God’s name is “the greatest corruption of religion”

VATICAN CITY, January 17, 2014 (Zenit.org) – The International Theological Commission has published a new document clarifying that Christian belief is not only inherently incompatible with the incitement to violence, but that calls for violence are the religion’s greatest corruption.

The new document, published so far only in Italian on Jan. 16, will soon be made available in other languages. The title is “God, the Trinity, and the Unity of Humanity: Christian Monotheism and its Opposition to Violence”. It is the fruit of a five year study by the commission.

“Our reflection takes the form of a reasoned testimony, not an apologetic argument,” says a summary of the text, published Jan. 16 by the Vatican. “The Christian faith, in fact, sees the incitement of violence in the name of God as the greatest corruption of religion.” Continue reading “New Vatican document says violence in God’s name is “the greatest corruption of religion”” →