Monday, September 21, 2015

Will you please please please please please please please stop talking?

"I live in a van down by the river."

Havana, 20 September, 2015:
You are standing up and I am sitting. How unmannerly. But you know why I sit down? It’s because I took some notes of some things that our companion here said, and what I want to say is based on these. 
One word that struck a chord is "dream." A Latin American writer has said that people have two eyes: one of flesh and another of glass. With the eye of flesh, we see what is before us and with the eye of glass, we see what we dream of. It’s nice, no? In the objectivity of life, the capacity of dreaming has to enter in. A young person who is not capable of dreaming is cloistered in himself, he’s closed in on himself. Sure, a person sometimes dreams of things that are never going to happen. But dream them. Desire them. Seek the horizon. Open yourselves to great things. 
I’m not sure if in Cuba they use this word, but in Argentina, we say, Don’t be wimpy. Open yourselves and dream. Dream that the world with you can be different. Dream that if you give the best of yourself, you are going to help this world be different. Don’t forget. Dream. If you get carried away and dream too much and life cuts you off, don't worry. Dream and share your dreams. Speak about the great things that you want, because inasmuch as your capacity to dream is greater, when life leaves you only half way, you will have gone farther. So, first dream. 
You said a phrase that I underlined and took note of: "that we might know how to welcome and accept the one who thinks differently than us." Truly, sometimes we are closed in. We shut ourselves in our little world: "This is either the way that I want it or we’re not doing it." And you went even further, "that we don’t close ourselves into the 'little convents' of ideologies or in the 'little convents' of religions. That we might grow in the face of individualism." 
When a religion becomes a "little convent" it loses the best that it has, it loses its reality of adoring God, of believing in God. It’s a little convent of words, of prayers, of "I’m good and you’re bad,’ of moral regulations. I have my ideology, my way of thinking and you have yours; I close myself in this "little convent" of ideology. 
Open hearts. Open minds. If you are different than me, why don’t we talk? Why do we always throw rocks at that which separates us? At that in which we are differing? Why don’t we hold hands in that which we have in common? Motivate ourselves to speak about what we have in common, and then we can talk about the differences we have. But I said, talk, I didn’t say fight. I didn’t say close ourselves in. I don’t say "shut ourselves into our little convent," to use the word you used. But this is possible only when I have the capacity to speak of that which I have in common with the other, of that by which we are able to work together. 
In Buenos Aires, in a new parish, in a very, very poor region, a group of university students was building some rooms for the parish. And the parish priest told me, "Why don’t you come some Sunday and I’ll introduce them to you." They worked on Saturdays and Sundays on this construction. They were young men and women of the university. So I arrived, I saw them and they were introduced to me. "This is the architect. He’s Jewish. This one is Communist. This one is a practicing Catholic." All of them were different, but they were all working together for the common good. 
This is called social friendship: to seek the common good. Social enmity destroys. A family is destroyed by enmity. A country is destroyed by enmity. The world is destroyed by enmity. And the biggest enmity is war. And today we see that the world is destroying itself with war because people are incapable of sitting down and talking. OK, let’s negotiate. What can we do in common? In what things are we not going to give in? But let’s not kill more people. When there is division, there is death, death in the soul because we are killing the capacity to unite. We are killing social friendship. And that’s what I ask of you today: be capable of creating social friendship. 
There was another word that you said, the word hope. Youth are the hope of a people; we hear this everywhere. But what is hope? Is it to be optimistic? No. Optimism is a mood. Tomorrow, you wake up with an upset stomach and you’re not optimistic, you see everything in a negative light. Hope is something more. Hope is something that endures through suffering. Hope knows how to suffer to bring forward a project. It knows how to make sacrifices. Are you capable of making sacrifices for a future or do you only want to live today and leave what comes to those who come after? Hope is fruitful. Hope gives life. Are you capable of giving life? Or are you going to be a spiritually sterile young man or young woman, without the capacity to create life in others, without the capacity to create social friendship, without the capacity to create a homeland, without the capacity to create greatness? 
Hope is fruitful. Hope is given in work, and here I want to mention a very grave problem that is being experienced in Europe: the number of youth who don’t have work. There are countries in Europe where as many as 40% of youth 25 years old and younger live unemployed. I am thinking of one country. In another country, it’s 47% and in another 50%. 
Evidently, when a people is not concerned with giving work to youth — and when I say "people," I don’t mean government, I mean the entire people — it doesn’t have a future. 
The youth become part of the throwaway culture and all of us know that today, in this empire of the god money, things are thrown away and people are thrown away, children are thrown away, because they are unwanted, because they kill them before they are born, the elderly are thrown away — I’m speaking of the world in general — because they don’t produce anymore. In some countries, there is legal euthanasia, but in so many others there is a hidden, covered up euthanasia. Youth are thrown away because they are not given work. So then? What is left for a young person who doesn't have work? A country that doesn’t invent, a people that doesn’t invent employment opportunities for its youth, what’s left for this youth are addictions, or suicide, or to go around looking for armies of destruction to create wars. 
This throwaway culture is doing damage to all of us; it takes away hope, and this is what you asked for the youth: "We want hope." Hope endures suffering, it’s hardworking, it’s fruitful, it gives us work and it saves us from the throwaway culture. Hope that brings together, brings everyone together, because a people that knows how to bring itself together to look toward the future and build social friendship, as I said, despite thinking differently, this people has hope. 
And if I find a young person without hope, I've said this before, "a young retired person." There are young people who seem to have retired at 22 years old. They are young people with existential sadness, they are young people who have committed their lives to a basic defeatism. They are young people who lament. They are young people who flee from life. The journey of hope is not easy. And it can’t be made alone. There is an African proverb that says, "If you want to go quickly, walk alone, but if you want to go far, walk together." 
And I, Cuban young people, though you think differently from each other, though you have your own points of view, I want you to go along accompanying each other, together, seeking hope, seeking the future and the nobility of your homeland. We began with the word hope and I want to conclude with another word that you said and that I tend to use a lot: the culture of encounter. Please, let us not have "un-encounter" among us. Let us go accompanying each other, in encounter, even though we think differently, even though we feel differently, but there is something bigger than us, which is the greatness of our people, which is the greatness of our homeland, which is this beauty, this sweet hope for the homeland to which we have to arrive. 
I take leave wishing you the best, wishing you all of this that I have said, this I wish for you. I am going to pray for you. And I ask you to pray for me. And if one of you is a non-believer and cannot pray because he doesn’t believe, may he at least wish the best for me. May God bless you and bring you to walk along this path of hope, toward the culture of encounter, avoiding these "little convents" that our companion spoke about. May God bless all of you.

32 comments:

  1. When a religion becomes a "little convent" it loses the best that it has, it loses its reality of adoring God, of believing in God. It’s a little convent of words, of prayers, of "I’m good and you’re bad,’ of moral regulations. I have my ideology, my way of thinking and you have yours; I close myself in this "little convent" of ideology.

    This is repellent.

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    1. And The Year of Murky doesn't even begin until December!

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  2. Where do I begin? I hate almost every single paragraph!

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  3. Lord, have mercy! When will this end???

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  4. Where is Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Light in all this? The poor youth of Cuba are fed stale and rat-dung ridden crumbs by this pope. Lord have Mercy!

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  5. I was entertained when I watched Evita. I am not amused seeinng the real life version in the pope.

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  6. Well.....Lifesite News is rejoicing over the few anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia words.
    Personally I simply don't believe him even when he says anything remotely orthodox.

    "Sanctity of life will be held in derision..even by those who publicly profess it........For in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true pastor, but a destroyer."----St Francis of Assissi, 1226

    Seattle kim

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  7. Here's a nice summation:

    http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/index.htm#.VgDBUr-9Kc3


    Sent from my iPhone

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  8. "Hope is fruitful" - Pope Francis

    “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” - St. Augustine

    I don't think that there's any way of reconciling the weakness that this Pope emanates with the pillar of strength that is the Church, and our absolute need, especially now, to channel Heaven unto the world with prayer. Where are the exhortations to draw inspiration from Christ? Where is the affirmation that worldly goods don't matter? Surely the Pope chides the wealthy for such things, but the deadly sin of greed is just as often held by men who have nothing; the problem is what is worshiped not what is had. Where is the reminder that it is not the individual who should be worshiped? If anything this speech seems almost to encourage humanism. Sure, he speaks of good fruits but with no mention of the tree which creates them. This is borderline idolatry. It is infuriating. "Blessed are the poor". Why can't he focus on this? Why do I have to feel like this after reading something the Pope said?

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  9. Spot on comments. The St. Francis quote is important and disturbing. And "This is repellent" says about all that needs to be said.

    Satan is often rightly portrayed as supernaturally intelligent and cunning. But there's an alternative tradition that identifies evil as also involving mind-numbing imbecility. Recall the hypnotically annoying game that Satan plays with Ransom in C.S. Lewis' Perelandra--"Ransom?" "Yes?" "Nothing." . . . "Ransom?" "Yes?" "Nothing."

    I think we will all need our wits about us in the coming months.

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  10. I am not so sure I want Francis to stop talking. If you recall, his ghostwriter, Archbishop Fernandez made the following claim:

    “No, there’s no turning back. If and when Francis is no longer pope, his legacy will remain strong. For example, the pope is convinced that the things he’s already written or said cannot be condemned as an error. Therefore, in the future anyone can repeat those things without fear of being sanctioned. And then the majority of the People of God with their special sense will not easily accept turning back on certain things.”

    I jokingly called this the Buenos Aires School of "Theology", but this is not to say that there will not be a gaggle of followers who will try to promote just this stupidy post Francis. And IMHO, the best way to eradicate this idiocy is to mock Francis when he speaks in platitudes befitting a pre-teen shool girl wall poster.

    "If you love him, let him go. If he returns, you know he loves you. If he doesn't, you know he was never yours to be".

    Sorry, I couldn't resist.

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  11. Did the Cardinals elect Pope Oprah Obama? He sounds like a combination of both.

    Anthony

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    1. Actually, the cardinals, inspired by the guidance of the Holy spirit, selected the Pope. Are do you deny a basic tenet of our theology?

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    2. Certainly the cardinals elected the pope, but they were entirely free to reject the counsel of the Holy Spirit in doing so. The cardinal-electors do not surrender their free will when they enter the conclave, they do not become robots, mere amenuenses of the Spirit.

      We have had imprudent, foolish, or just plain bad popes in the past. Nothing whatsoever leads us to believe that we will never have bad popes in the future.

      Alternatively, it is entirely possible--even Scriptural--to speculate that the Holy Spirit might guide the cardinal-electors to select a bad pope as a chastisement. If God can use men to sack Jerusalem, destroy the Temple, and send the people of Israel into exile because of their iniquity, he can certainly send us a wake-up call once in a while.

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    3. Yes. I think 1 and/or 2 (probably "and") is precisely right.

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    4. Mr. Emmel,

      None other than Our Lord Himself selected Judas Iscariot as one of His Apostles, but that doesn't mean Judas was deprived of his free will (nor freed from the defects of original sin). Or do you deny a basic tenet of our theology?

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    5. I also recall that Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." By suggesting that the Holy Father (not Francis, the Holy Father in Rome) can be a servant of the Evil One when Christ Himself said that he would protect his Church, you're coming close to schism and heresy.

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    6. But Anthony, there have been "bad popes"--corrupt and immoral men. No catholic historian would deny this. So we therefore KNOW that Jesus' promise did not mean what you are implying it means. How would you explain the "bad popes"?

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    7. You, acknowledge, then, the reality that the Holy Spirit does not personally choose the pope?

      Our Lord's guarantee does not preclude the Church falling into catastrophe, and indeed she has done so several times in her history, even as a result of the misdeeds of her hierarchs. Jesus's promise would hold true even if the Church were reduced to one priest offering a valid Mass in a secluded cave. It is in no way a promise that everything will remain peachy-keen, and in fact a great many authorized apparitions foretell great crises and apostasy at the highest levels.

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    8. There's a difference between an immoral pope and a heretical one. Pretty sure there's never been a heretical pope.

      And Christ's promise extends to the Pope...On this Rock.

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    9. Yes, there have been heretical popes. This is not to say that any pope has attempted to define a heresy as dogmatic. But several popes have at one time or another, out of ignorance or obstinacy, embraced heretical views. This is not really in dispute.

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    10. Yes, Perhaps the most famous example is John XXII. He went around giving heretical homilies about the Last Judgment and was publicly resisted by many bishops and others. I believe he recanted on his deathbed. See http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-pope-who-fell-into-heresy-church-that.html

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  12. Benedict XVI, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was asked on Bavarian television in 1997 if the Holy Spirit is responsible for who gets elected. This was his response:
    "I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope. ... I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit's role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined."
    Then the clincher: "There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit obviously would not have picked!"

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    1. That's a great Benedict quote and deserves to be more widely known.

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  13. Am I wrong but is Jesus nowhere mentioned in that monologue?

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  15. There is something seriously wrong here.

    Recall JP II speaking to the youth of Chile. He dramatically points them to a huge picture of Jesus Christ's face (Che nowhere in sight) and exclaims "Who is He? A Social reformer? No! Mucho mucho mas!!" In Spanish.

    We hear nothing of the sort from Bishop Jorge.

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  16. Here's the link, found it.

    Please Francis, just watch this and do likewise. Talk about Jesus.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqS-bVrZlu8

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  17. Thanks Oakes for more evidence of the dementia of Catholicism in the hands of Pope Francis who has been brainwashed by modernist theologians. Perhaps it is time to circulate a petition for his removal.

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    1. You know, if you really want to join a Church where you get to choose your bishops, you can always join the Episcopal Church. They actually vote for their bishops.

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    2. No one is saying that. But there is canon law support for laypeople calling out bad bishops. And there is also provision for a council judging a pope as a formal heretic (and thus not pope). That obviously sounds extreme. It IS extreme. But then so is setting up a procedural mechanism to dissolve 50% of all marriages. I can't imagine that this pope wil be "removed" but at this point it is not unreasonable to speculate on these sorts of scenarios, as fantastic as they might sound (and are).

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  18. Oh! That was painful to read! What drivel! Nothing about a life for Christ, in Christ, with Christ. Christ is what gives meaning and purpose to our lives. The Living Bread. The Way, The Truth & The Life. Why be Catholic? Why go to church, to Mass?
    If I had read that not knowing who wrote or said it- I would NEVER guess it was a pope! It is completely secular.
    The best part of this post was the caption under the picture of Francis! I was hysterical! I needed a good laugh. Maybe after poping Francis can become a motivational speaker.

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