,,Papolatrija“ je stvarna

“Papalotry” is real

Last month my wife and I visited a Catholic religious store, looking for something to give one of our children as a present for a baptismal anniversary. We found something suitable — a lovely pewter cross featuring a medallion in the center showing the image of our child’s name saint.

It was one of several such pewter crosses, each of them featuring a different saint or archangel. But we were soon horrified to find that one of the pewter crosses at the store had neither a heavenly saint nor an angel. So shocked were we that we took this quick snapshot using the camera on my wife’s cellular phone:

The image quality may not be easy for all eyes to make out, but surrounding the image of Pope Francis is this inscription: “Pope Francis, pray for us.”

It should not be necessary to explain why this is completely and utterly un-Catholic — in fact, a grievous offense against all piety and devotion.

We Christians pray for each other every day, and every day one will hear some Christian asking another, “Please pray for me,” or groups of Christians asking, “Would you please pray for us.”

We also invoke the saints and angels with the words, “Ora pro nobis.” “Pray for us.” We carry blessed sacramentals and devotional images dedicated to heavenly saints and angels as a means of invoking their intercessory patronage. It is only right that we should accord such honor to the members of the Church Triumphant. Whom God has greatly honored we also must greatly honor.

But we do not make sacramental, devotional images and articles dedicated to any of our fellow Christians whom the mortal flesh still detains in this life. No matter how holy he or she might be. No matter how impressive he or she is to us. No matter how much authority he has in the Church.

Not even of the Pope.

To accord to anyone here below — even the Pope — the honors and accoutrements of a formal sainthood cult is to give him much greater honor than God gives him, and is therefore functionally and effectively, if not literally, a kind of idolatry. After death, if Heaven confirms his sanctity, comes the sainthood cult — not until then. To do otherwise would scandalize the faithful and put the one so honored at grave risk of sinful pride.

Catholics love and honor and respect and obey the Pope, and accept that under certain strictly defined conditions his teachings are infallible. We pray for him constantly and especially.

However, among the many disorders of the modern Church is excessive, inordinate respect or adulation for the person of the Roman Pontiff. Examples of improper respect for the Pope in various quarters came to be particularly evident during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, whom many seemed to idolize as if he were a rock star or some other kind of celebrity. There were probably even some illicit sacramentals that honored John Paul II just as the above pewter cross illicitly honors Pope Francis, though I personally don’t remember any.

Faithful Catholics often term this disordered devotion and respect “papolatry,” pope-worship. That pewter cross isn’t the only reason to believe papolatry is a serious spiritual malady afflicting many Catholics today. So too is the way many Catholic commentators and bloggers have gone to risible lengths to defend even the most indefensible words and actions of Pope Francis. But one of the worst expressions of papolatry (if not the worst) were these heretical, un-Catholic, blasphemous words uttered on 25 Jan. 2017 by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta:

“Whoever wants to discover what Jesus wants from him, he must ask the Pope, this Pope, not the one who came before him, or the one who came before that. This present Pope.”

On the contrary, it is to the Scriptures, the Apostolic Tradition, the unanimous consent of the Fathers, and the constant Magisterium of the Church over the course of the entire past two millennia to which we must turn to discover what Jesus wants of us as a Church and individually. A pope’s magisterium is only valuable and edifying to the extent that it conforms to and confirms the Faith of the Church.

The Church was not founded in 2013, and Pope Francis is merely the Vicar of Christ, not Christ Himself, nor will it be refounded when the pontificate of Jorge Bergoglio ends in the near future.

Let us love and pray for the Pope. But let us never give to him greater honor than Jesus gives him.

And if you own one of those pewter Pope Francis crosses or anything like it, throw it away.

Pray for the Pope. Don’t pray to him.
Labels: Frankenchurch, papolatry, Pope Francis
Posted by Confitebor at 4/04/2017 05:25:00 AM
– See more at: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/04/papalotry-is-real.html#sthash.yVEbE4Sj.dpuf

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,,Papolatrija“ je stvarna

Prošlog mjeseca supruga i ja posjetili smo katoličku trgovinu, tražeći nešto što bi poklonili jednom od naše djece kao dar za godišnjicu krštenja. Našli smo nešto prikladno – lijepi križ od kositra na kojemu je u središtu medaljon s likom sveca čije ime naše dijete nosi.

To je bio jedan od nekoliko takvih križeva, a svaki od njih je imao različitog sveca ili arkanđela. Ali uskoro smo se užasnuli kad smo vidjeli da jedan od kositrenih križeva nema niti nebeskog sveca niti anđela. Tako šokirani uslikali smo križ koristeći kameru na mobitelu moje supruge:

S obzirom na kvalitetu slike ne može se lako razabrati, ali oko lika pape Franje nalazi se ovaj natpis: ,,Papa Franjo, moli za nas“.

Ne bi trebalo biti potrebno objašnjavati zašto je to posve i krajnje nekatoličko – zapravo, da je to ozbiljna povreda svake pobožnosti i štovanja.

Mi kršćani molimo jedan za drugoga svaki dan i svakoga dana čujemo kako nas znaju pitati: „Molim te, moli za mene“, ili kako skupine traže: „Hoćete li moliti za nas?“

Također zazivamo svece i anđele riječima: ,,Ora pro nobis“. ,,Moli za nas“. Nosimo blagoslovljene sakramentale i pobožne slike posvećene nebeskim svecima i anđelima kao sredstva zazivanja njihove zagovorničke zaštite. Ispravno je davati takvu čast članovima pobjedničke Crkve. Onomu kome je Bog iskazao veliku čast, i mi je moramo iskazati.

Ali mi ne pravimo sakramentale, pobožne slike i predmete posvećene bilo kojem od naših bližnjih kršćana čije je smrtno tijelo još uvijek u ovome svijetu. Bez obzira koliko on ili ona bili sveti. Bez obzira koliko on ili ona bili nadahnjujući za nas. Bez obzira kakav on imao autoritet u Crkvi.

Pa čak ni papi.

Iskazivati bilo kome ovdje na zemlji – pa čak i papi – čast i sve što pripada kultu formalne svetosti znači iskazivati mu puno veću čast nego što mu daje Bog i stoga je to funkcionalno i djelatno, ako ne i doslovno, oblik idolatrije. Nakon smrti, ako Nebo potvrdi njegovu svetost, dolazi kult svetosti – ne prije. Činiti drugačije bio bi skandal vjernicima i stavio bi onoga koga se časti u ozbiljnu opasnost od grješne oholosti.

Katolici ljube i časte i poštuju i slušaju papu i prihvaćaju da su pod određenim strogo definiranim pravilima njegova učenja nepogrješiva. Molimo za njega stalno i posebno.

Međutim, među mnogih poremećajima moderne Crkve, postoji i pretjerano, neprimjereno poštovanje ili dodvoravanje osobi Rimskog prvosvećenika. Primjeri neprimjerenog štovanja pape u različitim razdobljima posebno su postali očiti za vrijeme pontifikata Ivana Pavla II., kojega su mnogi idealizirali kao da je rock zvjezda ili neka druga vrsta poznate osobe. Vjerojatno su postojali nedopušteni sakramentali koji su častili Ivana Pavla II. kao što križ gore nedopušteno časti papu Franju, iako se osobno ne sjećam toga.

Vjerni katolici često nazivaju tu neurednu pobožnost i poštovanje “papolatrijom”, obožavanjem pape. Taj križ nije jedini razlog zašto vjerujem da je papolatrija ozbiljna duhovna bolest koja pogađa mnoge katolike danas. Također je tu i način kako mnogi katolički komentatori i blogeri nalaze razno-razne isprike čak i onih riječi i djela pape Franje koji se nikako ne mogu braniti. Ali jedan od najgorih izraza papolatrije (ako ne i najgori) su ove krivovjerničke, nekatoličke, svetogrdne riječi koje je 25. siječnja 2017. izgovorio nadbiskup Charles Scicluna s Malte:

,,Tko god želi otkriti što Isus želi od njega, on mora pitati papu, ovog Papu, ne onoga tko je došao prije njega ili onoga koji je došao prije toga. Ovoga sadašnjeg Papu.”

Upravo suprotno, moramo se obratiti Svetom pismu, apostolskoj Tradiciji, jednodušnom stavu Otaca i stalnom učiteljstvu Crkve kroz dva tisućljeća da bi otkrili što Isus želi od nas kao Crkve i pojedinačno. Papino učiteljstvo je jedino vrijedno i uzvišeno u onoj mjeri u kojoj se prilagođava i potvrđuje vjeru Crkve.

Crkva nije utemeljena 2013., a papa Franjo je samo Kristov namjesnik, ne sam Krist, niti će biti ponovno utemeljena kada u bliskoj budućnosti završi pontifikat Jorgea Bergoglia.

Ljubimo papu i molimo za njega. Ali nemojmo mu nikada dati veću čast nego što mu Isus daje.

Ako ste jedan od onih koji posjeduje takav križ pape Franje ili nešto drugo poput toga, bacite to u smeće.

Molite za Papu. Nemojte se moliti papi.

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