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11. To provide a correct framework for better understanding how collegial union is manifested in the joint pastoral action of the Bishops of a geographic area, it is useful to recall—even briefly—how individual Bishops, in their ordinary pastoral ministry, are related to the universal Church. It is necessary, in fact, to remember that the membership of individual Bishops in the College of Bishops is expressed, relative to the entire Church, not only in so-called collegial acts, but also in the care for the whole Church which, although not exercised by acts of jurisdiction, nonetheless contributes greatly to the good of the universal Church. All Bishops, in fact, must promote and defend the unity of faith and the discipline which is common to the whole Church, and foster every activity which is common to the whole Church, especially in efforts to increase faith and to make the light of truth shine on all people.(47) “For the rest, it is true that by governing well their own Church as a portion of the universal Church, they themselves are effectively contributing to the welfare of the whole Mystical Body, which is also the body of the Churches”.(48)
Bishops contribute to the good of the universal Church not only by the proper exercise of the munus regendi in their particular Churches, but also by the exercise of the offices of teaching and sanctifying.
Certainly the individual Bishops, as teachers of the faith, do not address the universal community of the faithful except through the action of the entire College of Bishops. In fact, only the faithful entrusted to the pastoral care of a particular Bishop are required to accept his judgement given in the name of Christ in matters of faith and morals, and to adhere to it with a religious assent of soul. In effect, “Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth”; (49) and their teaching, inasmuch as it transmits faithfully and illustrates the faith to be believed and applied in living, is of great benefit to the whole Church.
The individual Bishop too, as “steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood”,(50) in the exercise of his office of sanctifying contributes greatly to the Church's work of glorifying God and making men holy. This is a work of the whole Church of Christ, acting in every legitimate liturgical celebration carried out in communion with the Bishop and under his direction.
12. When the Bishops of a territory jointly exercise certain pastoral functions for the good of their faithful, such joint exercise of the episcopal ministry is a concrete application of collegial spirit (affectus collegialis),(51) which “is the soul of the collaboration between the Bishops at the regional, national and international levels”.(52) Nonetheless, this territorially based exercise of the episcopal ministry never takes on the collegial nature proper to the actions of the order of Bishops as such, which alone holds the supreme power over the whole Church. In fact, the relationship between individual Bishops and the College of Bishops is quite different from their relationship to the bodies set up for the above-mentioned joint exercise of certain pastoral tasks.
The collegiality of the actions of the body of Bishops is linked to the fact that “the universal Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation of particular Churches”.(53) “It is not the result of the communion of the Churches, but, in its essential mystery, it is a reality ontologically and temporally prior to every individual particular Church”.(54) Likewise the College of Bishops is not to be understood as the aggregate of the Bishops who govern the particular Churches, nor as the result of their communion; rather, as an essential element of the universal Church, it is a reality which precedes the office of being the head of a particular Church.(55) In fact, the power of the College of Bishops over the whole Church is not the result of the sum of the powers of the individual Bishops over their particular Churches; it is a pre-existing reality in which individual Bishops participate. They have no competence to act over the whole Church except collegially. Only the Roman Pontiff, head of the College, can individually exercise supreme power over the Church. In other words, “episcopal collegiality in the strict and proper sense belongs only to the entire College of Bishops, which as a theological subject is indivisible”.(56) And this is the express will of the Lord.(57) This power, however, should not be understood as dominion; rather, essential to it is the notion of service, because it is derived from Christ, the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.(58)
13. Groupings of particular Churches are related to the Churches of which they are composed, because of the fact that those groupings are based on ties of common traditions of Christian life and because the Church is rooted in human communities united by language, culture and history. These relationships are very different from the relationship of mutual interiority of the universal Church with respect to the particular Churches.
Likewise, the organizations formed by the Bishops of a certain territory (country, region, etc.) and the Bishops who are members of them share a relationship which, although presenting a certain similarity, is really quite different from that which exists between the College of Bishops and the individual Bishops. The binding effect of the acts of the episcopal ministry jointly exercised within Conferences of Bishops and in communion with the Apostolic See derives from the fact that the latter has constituted the former and has entrusted to them, on the basis of the sacred power of the individual Bishops, specific areas of competence.
The joint exercise of certain acts of the episcopal ministry serves to make effective the solicitude of each Bishop for the whole Church, notably expressed in fraternal assistance to other local Churches, especially those which are closer and more needy,(59) and which likewise is conveyed in the union of efforts and aims with the other Bishops of the same geographic area, in order to promote both the common good and the good of the individual Churches.(60)
Remember that we will be accountable before God if we put ourselves in the near occasion of sin. It should be enough for anyone to know that something immoral had taken place, and that President Clinton was guilty by his own admission. Aside from that it would be best to stay away from any news medium (including the Internet) which we perceive could possibly touch upon this matter.... and stay away from it until the commotion settles down.
Of course, every portion of the report does not contain immoral material, but realistically we know that the ONLY portions that will be quoted everywhere are the MOST immoral and the MOST scandalous portions. It can only take a few seconds to allow this moral poison into ones head for the rest of your life. We see no excuse for anyone, after reading this warning, to deliberately read such material. Don't let Satan tempt you with thoughts such as, "You really should know what is going on in your own government!", or, "I shouldn't be ignorant and misinformed of the details of the headline news!"
It has been traditionally the practice of the Catholic Church, for the spiritual welfare of Her members, even to put books on the "Index of Forbidden Books" where a Catholic would be excommunicated simply for possessing the books! And that was in the days before TV when these forbidden books contained FAR LESS immoral things, of FAR LESS severity than is today vomited into the faces and minds of millions in one short television commercial!
When we look at St. John Vianney in the mid 19th century, we see that he forbade people to attend dances, even if they were just there to watch, because of the occasion of sin. He knew human nature well as he spent most of his life in the Confessional hearing the sins of his parishioners. And the Church has officially made the saint the "Patron Saint of Parish Priests". How much more in this day and age?!
A few words ought to be said about President Clinton, from a Catholic perspective. The man is immoral in his personal life which is well established. He is a man who DOES NOT make his own decisions. He simply has a job, and plays the part well. The things he says publicly, the policies he makes, and the places he goes (and even probably the way he wears his hair) is determined by the "advisors" around him. It is not revealed exactly who all these advisors are but they want to keep the world looking and pointing at him for guidance and blame.
Before this Lewinsky scandal, there had already been a serious and VERY organized movement in this country, that has been felt in congress, to impeach Clinton for constitutional and political reasons. Aside from all the immoral reasons, there is already ample reason to impeach Clinton for violations of the constitution and for other political reasons. These, in our educated opinion, are issues which the "advisors" do not want to be made public because the violation of the constitution is an ongoing thing. The legalization of abortion is a blatant example.
Bringing the Lewinsky scandal to the public forum serves two purposes, in our opinion. It serves as a smoke screen to cover the more important and serious reasons for impeachment. Rather than bring political and constitutional violations to the public forum thereby educating the public on these necessary things, both young and old have their heads filled with soap-opera-like immoral and X-rated material across the nation and world . This serves to further bring down Christianity and make the public desire more and more immorality in their daily entertainment and news media.
Clinton can be impeached, but since he really does not decide the issues, things will still continue along the same course through the man who takes his place....because the advisors will still be there, briefing the next man in meetings, handing him his speeches and tickets, and warning him what to avoid saying in conversation. - Catholic Dispatch.
Tell them that by their prayers they shall cause many conversions, and through prayer and fasting there is yet a chance for Mercy upon the world and upon your own country. Tell them to be an example because if many hearts are not converted there will be total anarchy throughout the United States.
I solemnly tell you my heart bleeds for my children, for all the suffering they have to endure. Only by your prayers, by your commitment can you change satan's plans for the world.
I love you so much, my little ones. I embrace each of you with my Immaculate Heart. I draw you beneath my Mantle.
Pray! Pray! Pray! Thank you for responding to my Call!
I do not want, my children, your soul's intellect to be narrow but broad. When you pray from the heart you must seek true peace first within your own state of life and then in your country and then the world. Without this divine awareness given you be the Holy Spirit you are forgetting that my Divine Son came not only for the people of Israel, but for all the world, for all who would be gathered beneath His eternal sign. Israel was meant to represent Jew and Gentile alike, and so many have forgotten this.
I solemnly tell you great shall be the sufferings of this world because of lukewarm souls who do not seek God, because of satan's plans to rain down terror, confusion, discord upon all of mankind. I have spoken many times of the severe trials which would befall mankind and so few have believed. Now, again I say, open your hearts that your eyes may be cleansed.
I weep, my children, for all mankind. I plead constantly before the Triune Divinity. Do not grow cold. The hand of God shall strike the unrepentant world. I, his Mother, desire you to be beneath my Immaculate Mantle. There, by God's authority, I help you to know my Divine Son and to love Him Who is Love.
Pray, my dear precious little ones. Let God be your life. Trust in Him completely and He Who is without limit shall not fail to provide for you in every way all that is necessary to purify you for eternal life.
Lift up your hearts again. Say 'yes' to God and deny the world which is swiftly passing away. Do not fear, but rejoice, for I proclaim the time of the Triumph of my Immaculate Heart and the reign of my Son's Sacred Heart is near.
Pray and prepare, my children, as I have shown you. I love and bless you. Thank you for responding to my Call!
As in all of life, nothing is for nothing; everything has its price. In order for one to have an implant of the Divine Heart, one must pay the price of giving over to Jesus one's own heart. That this is quite an unfair exchange is evident; that it is quite a bargain is exciting.
We cannot help but be touched by Jesus' generosity when He makes it clear by word and deed that He has come to give each of us a fullness of life. He came to redeem, that is, to unslave, to unleash us from the bonds of darkness and weakness. Each one of us has come into life, bonded to self, at the moment of conception. The Father Creator had brought mankind into being to share a happiness in Him, with Him, through Him. He did the same for the angels. Lucifer, choosing to take His glance away from God, looked at himself and fell in love with himself, thus enslaving himself to the love of himself. Adam and Eve fell victim to lucifer, and by turning themselves upon themselves, they too became enslaved to the love of themselves. Jesus came to help us to take our attentions from ourselves and put it on Him and through Him, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to put it back upon the Father, thus finding for ourselves that which we, through our first parents, had lost.
In truth, Jesus did much more than that. He opened the floodgates of Love so that there continues to flow into mankind a new source of power, love power. In exchange for the limitations of the human heart, we are now in the position to have Divine Love flow into the human heart and raise it up to a level wherein it can produce acts far above its human capacity. It has as a result become possible for the human heart, giving itself over to the divine Heart, to receive in exchange the Love power of the Divine Heart to the degree of being able to love one's enemies.
Nor is this all. It has become possible because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the human heart to make it possible for that heart to produce actions of a meritorious quality, meaning that, now it can act in such a way as to be continuously pleasing to the Father, which actions are deserving of additional reward in eternity.
It should not be understood that now that Divine Love has taken up its abode within my human heart that my human heart no longer exists. It means that the love and power that emanate from the Divine Heart has so inflamed my human heart that it takes on the qualities of the Divine Heart in a similar way as the piece of steel held within the fires of the steel mill furnace becomes so inflamed by the fire that it is not easy to separate it from the fire, but that it almost takes on the characteristics of fire itself and yet without losing its identity as a piece of steel. The human heart can become so inflamed with the Love of the Divine Heart that it takes on the qualities of that Divine Heart without itself losing its own identity.
There are times when we hear or read such statements as "My son, My daughter, give Me your heart." We may have heard it said that, at Communion time, I am to give my heart to Jesus and in turn He will give me His. We are not to understand by this that in doing this there is an exchange of hearts and now my heart is a divine heart.
Not so. What it means is that as I give my heart to Jesus, He is able to transform it so that the life and love that is within the Heart of Jesus can now flow into my heart.
Next week: Part Two - how the human heart can overcome humanism.
