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<div class="gmail-article-image"><img alt="Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider." src="http://www.ncregister.com/images/uploads/BurkeSchneider.jpg" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="188" height="142"></div>
<div class="gmail-article-image-caption">Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider. (Edward Pentin/EWTN News)</div><br><div class="gmail-article-title"><b><font size="4">Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider Announce Crusade of Prayer and Fasting</font></b></div><b><font size="4">
</font></b><div class="gmail-article-subhead">Citing <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>“serious theological errors
and heresies” in <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">the Amazon Synod’s</span> working document,</b></span> they call on the
faithful to<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> pray and fast over a 40 day period to prevent<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>such errors
being approved.
</b></span></div>
<div class="gmail-article-author"><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin"></a></div>
<div class="gmail-article-body"><p>Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have issued an <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/images/uploads/BurkeSchneider.pdf" target="_blank">eight-page declaration</a> warning against <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>six “serious theological errors and heresies”</b></span> they say are <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>contained in the </b></span><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/amazonian-synod-planners-chart-course-through-three-conversions" target="_blank"><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">Amazonian Synod </span>working documen</b></span>t</a>, and calling for prayer and fasting to prevent them being approved. </p>
<p>Cardinal Burke, patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta, and Bishop
Schneider, auxiliary of Astana, Kazakhstan, have also published the
appeal so Pope Francis may “confirm his brethren in the faith by an
unambiguous rejection of the errors” in the working document. </p>
<p>They propose that clergy and laity “pray daily at least one decade of
the Holy Rosary and to fast once a week” for such intentions over a 40
day period, from Sept. 17 to Oct. 26. </p>
<p>The working document, called an <em>instrumentum laboris</em>, is meant to guide discussions during the upcoming Oct. 6-27 synod of bishops whose theme is: <em>Amazonia, New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology. </em></p>
<p>But the text has received some trenchant criticism since it was
published in June from "various prelates and lay commentators, as well
as lay institutions." Most notably they include <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/cardinal-brandmueller-synod-document-is-attack-on-the-foundations-of-the-fa" target="_blank">Cardinal Walter Brandmüller</a>, president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, and <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/full-text-of-cardinal-muellers-analysis-on-the-working-document-of-the-amazon-synod-78441" target="_blank">Cardinal Gerhard Müller.</a> prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. </p>
<p>One particularly contentious area concerns <span style="background-color:rgb(249,203,156)"><b>the subject o</b>f </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>priestly
celibacy</b></span>. In their declaration, <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider ask
that the Pope not approve the “abolition” of priestly celibacy in the
Latin Church through the ordination of married men of proven virtue, the
so-called “<em>viri probati</em>”. </b></span></p>
<p>The working document proposes discussion of such <span style="background-color:rgb(249,203,156)"><b>a measure to help
bring the Eucharist to faithful in remote Amazon areas that are without a
priest</b></span>. Critics are concerned about such an innovation, in particular
that<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> it could undermine<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> mandatory priestly celibacy</span> universally by being
latterly applied to all areas suffering from a shortage of priestly
vocations. </b></span></p>
<p> <strong>“Principal Errors” </strong></p>
<p>The American cardinal and Kazakh bishop write that they believe it is
“their duty to make the faithful aware” of <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>six “principal” errors
</b></span>“being spread through the <em>instrumentum laboris.” </em></p>
<p>The first they list is <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>“implicit pantheism” </b></span>—<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> the identification of
God with the universe and nature where God and the world are one </b></span>— which
they say is rejected by the Magisterium. </p>
<p>Secondly, they criticize <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the notion</b></span> put forward in the working
documen<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>t that pagan superstitions are “sources of Divine Revelation and
alternative pathways for salvation.</b></span>” This implies Amazon tribes have
pagan superstitions that are an “expression of divine Revelation,”
deserving of “dialogue and acceptance” by the Church, they argue.</p>
<p>Citing Church documents, the two prelates state t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>he Magisterium
rejects</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>such “relativization” of </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>God’s revelation</b></span>, and instead “affirms
that <u><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>there is one unique Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Church is His
unique Mystical Body and Bride.” </b></span></u></p>
<p>Thirdly, they cite as erroneous <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the theory </b></span>contained in the
document <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>that “aboriginal people have already received divine
revelation, and that the Catholic Church in the Amazon should undergo a
‘missionary and pastoral conversion.’” </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The Magisterium rejects </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>such a
notion of missionary activity as “merely intercultural enrichment,” </b></span>they
argue, and that inculturation is primarily about “evangelization” that
makes the Church a “more effective instrument of mission.” </p>
<p>Fourthly, they criticize the working document for its support of
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>“tailoring Catholic ordained ministries to the ancestral customs of the
aboriginal people, granting official ministries to women and ordaining
married leaders of the community as second-class priests, deprived of
part of their ministerial powers but able to perform shamanic rituals.” </b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>“The Magisterium of the Church rejects</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>such practices, and their
implicit opinions,</b></span>” the prelates state, and draw on a number of Church
documents including Pope St. Paul VI encyclical <em>Sacerdotalis Coelibatus </em>and Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter <em>Ordiniatio Sacerdotalis, </em>to underline their point. </p>
<p>Fifthly, they state that consistent with <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the document’s “implicit pantheistic views,” the i<em>nstrumentum laboris “</em>relativizes</b></span>
<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Christian anthropology”</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> by considering man “a mere link in nature’s
ecological chain” and “socioeconomic development as an aggression to
‘Mother Earth.</b></span>’”<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> The Magisterium rejects </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>such beliefs </b></span>that man does not
possess “a unique dignity” above “material creation” and the
“technological progress is bound up with sin,” they state. </p>
<p>Lastly, they warn against <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>what the working document calls an integral
“ecological conversion” which includes “the adoption of the collective
social model” of aboriginal tribes, where <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">“individual personality and
freedom </span>are undermined.</b></span>”<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> The Magisterium</b></span>, the two signatories say, again<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>
“rejects</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> such opinions”</b></span> and they go on to quote from the <em>Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.</em> </p>
<p><strong>Manifestation of Confusion</strong></p>
<p>In conclusion, Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider say these
“implicit and explicit” errors are an “alarming manifestation of the
confusion, error and division which beset the Church in our day.” </p>
<p>They add that “no one” can say they were not aware of <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the “gravity of
the situation” </b></span>and so excuse themselves from “taking appropriate
action” for love of Christ and His Church. </p>
<p>Given such a threat, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>they call on “all members” of the Church to
“pray and fast” for her members “</b><b>who</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>risk being scandalized, that is led
into confusion, error and division” by the synod text.</b></span></p>
<p>They write that “every Catholic, as a true soldier of Christ” is
called to “safeguard and promote the truths of the faith” lest the synod
bishops “betray” the synod’s mission which is to assist the Pope in the
“preservation and growth of faith and morals.” </p>
<p>And recalling that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Blessed John Henry Newman will be canonized during
the synod, they reference two of his writings in which he “warned
against</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>theological errors similar to the above-mentioned errors in the <em>instrumentum laboris</em>.” </b></span></p>
<p>They close by <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>calling on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the intercession
of missionary saints to the indigenous American people to protect the
synod’s bishops and the Holy Father “from</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the danger of approving
doctrinal errors and ambiguities, and of undermining </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the Apostolic rule
of priestly celibacy.”</b></span></p>
<p><br></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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