'CONVERSION' - Pope Benedict's first step.

                  'CONVERSION' - the first step in the 'New Evangelization' that leads to 'Porta Fidei.'



"Conversion' that leads to Faith. Another way of saying this is 'Evangelization' that leads to Faith. Pope Benedict referred to it as "New Evangelization" that leads to Faith. And the steps of Evangelization that leads to Faith are: Conversion, entrance to the Kingdom of God, encounter with Jesus Christ and Union with the Holy Spirit. The result of all these is attainment of 'Eternal Life.'

Christ came to earth to teach us the way to eternal life. And this Way of life had been entrusted to the apostles and eventually to the Catholic Church through her official spokesman the Pope. And the present Pope, like all other Popes is doing his duty of making sure that all the souls under his Pontificate know exactly 'The Way' without error.

Specially today where everything seems to be on the decline, and as the Pope mentioned, 'there is no way of stopping it.' The only imminent thing that we can look forward to is OUR DEATH, either through the revolt of nature against rebelling mankind or man's inhumanity to men. And there is no way to prepare for such eventuality except to assure that we have FAITH that leads to Eternal Life. With the ways things are going there is no other future.

Pope Benedict had not stopped repeating  this topic in all his talks to show the importance of FAITH. In fact if we gather all his addresses on the subject there was no need for a Bishop's Synod. He had spelled out everything necessary for the attainment of Faith. Pope Pius XII, when confronted with the suggestion to call an Ecumenical Council to face the enormous problems of his Pontificate, including a raging global war, his answer was NO. God has given the Popes the light to give the solution. Whether men will accept it or not is another question. Pope Benedict had given us the solution to all the world's problem today 'New Evangelization' that leads to Faith. FAITH that conquers the world.....is the solution. Without Faith, there is no other solution and the world's total decline is inevitable. And since the Holy Father sees that the world will not listen, not even amongst the Catholics, his last advice  is: 'Stop saving the world. You can't. What is happening is Divine Justice. Just concentrate in preparing your souls by taking the proper steps necessary that leads to FAITH.

But the evil spirits are also active. In fact, too active. Dark clouds are appearing at the horizon  of the Bishop's Synod. The Lineamenta issued from the Vatican to the Bishops is sounding an unclear bugle call, as St. Paul would describe it. The Instrumentum Laboris, a compilation of the responses of all the Bishop's of the world is also an unclear bugle call.  An ordinary soul,  by reading both documents would not even suspect where to begin and where to end. Even bishops who have began preaching the 'New Evangelization' are airing unclear bugle sounds. Some of them are even expert theologians invited to advice the Bishop's Synod.

But yesterday, a glow among the dark clouds. The Holy Father issued a list of other advisers to the Synod and they seem to be his picked men. We can only hope for a fine weather on those days in Rome.

The dark clouds omitted the two most important topics in Pope Benedicts schema, namely, first, 'conversion' and secondly 'entrance into the kingdom of God.' Let us leave for a moment the lengthy and the difficult to understand Lineamenta and Instrumentum laboris which Bishops are already preaching these days,  and concentrate on what Pope Benedict had already said.

Last March, the Holy Father addressed some priests and deacons. His message is 'on the importance of Conversion.' He said it was the most important element of the 'New Evangelization.'  He calls it the "motor" that makes the soul go through the steps of evangelization that leads to Faith. It is the motor that makes holy souls that will renew the Church. Without it we go nowhere.

The instrumentum laboris for the Bishop's Synod next month, however, mentioned that we don't need conversion. Contradiction? Maybe we are not agreed on the definition of conversion. Let us clarify the word.  Since Pope Benedict is highly influenced by both St. Augustine and Blessed John Newman, let us see what the two had to say about "conversion."

A soul must undergo complete conversion before he can deserve eternal life. Christ said: "Repent, believe." Repent is conversion and Christ showed how this is done by living for 30 years a hidden life. That is how long it ordinarily takes......unless God has  very special plans for you. Faith is received immediately after conversion. It might take someone a shorter time  but one has to undergo all the necessary steps. What are the steps and at what point does Conversion begin?

The three general steps that lead to Faith, using the words of St. Augustine are:

A. for the mind to return and discover the self as the image of God and at the same time see the God who gave us that image...and how God stands in reference to us as creature. This is a critical initial step. This is where a soul begins to be a saints or begins to be a pagan.

B. if a soul does well in the above first step, his mind will realize that he is much inferior to God who is above all and Creator of all, .....and as a consequence will submit himself to this Almighty God in all things. This is still in the level of the mind but with the cooperation of the free will....which we shall describe later. This is accomplished by a right Conscience, says John Newman.  This is humility that makes a soul disposed to receive the beginnings of grace. God gives the soul grace here. Conversion begins here. But it is only a beginning. It has a long way to go.

C. After the soul has re-entered into his mind and discover both his mind confronted by God..........  AND realizing he must subject himself completely as creature to Creator......which is conversion....he begins to discover through revelation the Will of God.....not all of them immediately. He learns is slowly beginning with the commandments of God in the Old Testament  (10 commandments of the Father thus coming to know the Father as reflected in his own mind). Then he proceeds to study all the commands of Christ in the New Testament (specifically numbering more than 80) and how to obey them.....thus encountering Christ. This is the beginning of Faith in which the souls knows the Father and the Son. Faith will mature depending on how much of God's commands he learns.Faith is when he has learned WHAT are all the commandments of God the Father in the Old Testament and WHAT are all the commandments of God the Son in the New Testament. To perfect that Faith the soul must also learn HOW those commands must be obeyed. Strictly speaking this is Evangelization. This is the contents of the Apostolic Commission given by Christ to the Apostles in the last chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew in the 'commissioning of the disciples'.

We cannot do C, which is to have Faith and develop it into mature Faith unless we have done B, that is receive the grace of Conversion.....which is not given to all because of a defective letter A.

When by the grace of God we know all WHAT are the commandments of God, both in the Old and New Testament and, also the HOW all those commandments are to be obeyed,  this is mature Faith. When we put into practice what our minds have learned through Evangelization, this is the virtue of Charity. With Faith and Charity we would be deserving of Eternal Life.

The main reason why there is a great lost of Faith seen all over the Church from the sands of Africa to the Bishop's palaces, from the priests to the chambers of the Pope, from the nuns to the seminarians....is because of a defective A...... a  defective first step.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XV

                                                        Pope Benedicts XVI's main point.


In 6 Sundays in Ordinary time, ( 19 - 25 Sundays in Ordinary time) the Gospels taught an important lesson missed by most seminaries  that caused them to teach theology wrongly which became the main reason for the crisis of Faith in the Church today.

There are two levels of knowledge in man. The first is natural;  the second is supernatural. The first, natural knowledge is everything man can naturally learn, like everything learned in schools and everything learned by the senses. This knowledge can be learned by man and can be taught by man or books.  There can be different degrees in this level of knowledge; we can have grade school, high school, college, masters and so on. But they all remain in the natural knowledge. That Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary living in Nazareth....is a human knowledge the same way we know Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison.

Then there is the supernatural level. In this level are the truths of Divine Revelation, the truths about the Catholic Church, who is Jesus, the teachings of Christ, the way to Union with God and happiness. Man in his natural faculties cannot learn any of this and neither can any man teach these truths. Only God can teach these truths. That Jesus is the Son of the Living God which is the mystery of the Incarnation is a supernatural knowledge and Christ said::  ' No flesh and blood can teach this truth but My Father in Heaven.'  This truth falls in the supernatural level. Only God can teach this. The listener must also be in the supernatural level....or must have the supernatural  and theological virtue of Faith.

Note that in the Gospel in the 25th Sunday in Ordinary time the CROWD knew Christ as a prophet just like the prophet Jeremiah. They were in the natural level and their knowledge of Christ was in the natural level. But when Christ questioned them on the mystery of the Incarnation, "And who do you say I am?" They, led by Peter, answered correctly: "You are the Son of the Living God." And Christ complimented them: "No man had taught you this but My Father in Heaven."  Knowledge of the Incarnation, a supernatural truth,  showed that the apostles had Faith and where in the supernatural level (in which all of them were since the time Christ called them to follow Him). But the apostles were NOT  high enough in the supernatural level so they could not understand Christ when He presented to them the mystery of the Redemption : 'The Son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men who will put him to death.' And the Gospel states: "And they failed to understand His words." The Apostles had Faith, they were in the supernatural level, how come they did not understand His words? Because Christ had not yet explained it to them! Christ had to teach them. Christ had to explained it to them before they could understand it. They had not gone high enough in the supernatural life to be able to understand the mystery of the Redemption. How can they go higher and thus make Christ, not the theology professor, explain it to them?

Let us go back to the Mystery of the Incarnation. The crowd because they remained in the natural level  recognized the historical Christ only. The Apostles recognized the supernatural Christ, the God-Man because they had done something that raised them up from the natural level to the supernatural level. What is this? Christ, Himself said in the Gospel (24th Sunday in Ordinary Time), to understand the Incarnation "he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."  Note that Christ did NOT  say "Teach them the Mystery of the Incarnation." He, in effect, said: if you want to rise from the natural level and go up to the supernatural level and understand the mystery of the Incarnation......"deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me." Note  WHAT is taught and WHAT is learned.  "Deny yourself..."is taught.  "The Incarnation" is learned.

So in Theology class, I must not teach the Mystery of the Incarnation....because the seminarians will not understand it being still in the natural level. I must teach them "to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Christ." That is what I must teach. If I do it well, the seminarians will be raised to the supernatural level, received the supernatural theological virtue of Faith and will KNOW Jesus Christ, the God-man. And that is Faith.......but a weak or small Faith. Faith must increase and be perfect.

The Gospel continues and states that Christ presented the Mystery of Redemption to the Apostles, "and they will put Me to death,"  and the Gospel says "they failed to understand His words." So Christ said: 'for you to understand the mystery of Redemption, I should NOT explain it to you. What you must do is to go higher in the supernatural level. To do this you must 'Welcome this child for My sake.'  Notice what I did not teach, namely "Redemption." Note what Christ wants me to teach "To welcome children for Christ's sake." If I teach this latter well, then the seminarians will understand the mystery of Redemption and know how the Sacrifice of the Mass can save souls.

In the Gospel, the Apostles remain ignorant of the Mystery of Redemption... why Christ had to go and be crucified. And Peter showed his ignorance as something out of place that made Christ call him 'Satan.' It will still take some time before Christ tells them why He should die. See, you cannot rush studying theology because God is the teacher and He loves to take His time even when He is in a rush. This will explain why Pope Benedict keeps on repeating the word 'contemplation' in his 'New Evangelization."

Evangelization does not consist in teaching natural truths. Neither does it consist in teaching supernatural truths.  Evangelization is teaching HOW to rise from the natural level and go up to the supernatural level.  As the Gospel states: 'unless the Father draws us up....'  To rise up to the supernatural level is an act of grace and it is up there where God teaches us.  No flesh and blood can teach up there...in the school of the Lord's service.

In his 'New Evangelization' Pope Benedict noted that the method by which seminarians studied  Divine Revelation was wrong. We should  not teach seminarians the Mystery of the Incarnation. We teach them 'to deny themselves, to take up their crosses and follow Christ.'  If they obey they will know the mystery of the Incarnation, they will know  the supernatural Christ and believe in the True Christ, (not the mere historical Christ). In the New Evangelization Pope Benedict does NOT want us to teach seminarians the Mystery of the Redemption, why Christ had to suffer, why we have to suffer and how the Sacrifice of the Mass saves souls. He wants us to teach souls how to "welcome children for the sake of Christ."

But where can we get the knowledge on how "to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ"  and how 'to welcome Children for the sake of Christ?'   From the Fathers of the Church. Nowhere else! And the Holy Father had re-written all these information for us today. And so we have no good reason to Evangelize in the wrong way AGAIN as what has been happening for the last 400 years......unless we are overcome by the spirit of DISOBEDIENCE.......and still use the "wrong method" and "wrong contents" as he mentioned in his address on the year 2000 in Rome to catechists.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XIV

 Why is it described as "New Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei?"


When Christ begun His public ministery His preaching was: "Repent, believe." Another word for 'repent' is repentance or more completely 'a life of repentance.' This way of life was lived by Christ during His 30 years of hidden life. After His hidden life He showed signs of Faith (though Christ had this virtue from the beginning but we like to show how Christ was instructing us on what steps to take that leads to Faith.) This hidden life was followed by His sojourn in the dessert where He overcome all the temptations of Satan.....this is the sign of Faith. So Christ demonstrated to us through His 30 years of hidden life the  'life of repentance' that leads to the 'door of Faith.'

The apostles, too, lived their lives of repentance when they were followers of St. John the Baptist. John the Baptist's preaching was 'Repentance' as taught in the Old Testament. After their repentance, Christ called the apostles to follow Him. Their ability to leave all things and follow Christ showed they had Faith. Faith enabled them to leave all things to follow Christ. Christ gave them first the virtue of Faith that enabled them to leave all things.

So the words of Christ "Repent, believe" is Pope Benedict's Pontifical call to the Church during this "year of Faith.'  The Church is calling all bishops and priests to evangelize themselves by 'repenting and believing' and then  evangelize the rest of the Catholic World by calling them to a life of 'repentance' that leads to the 'door of Faith'. Pope Benedict's 'New Evangelization' corresponds to Christ's "Repent" and the Pope's 'porta fidei' corresponds to Christ's 'Believe." So far, there is nothing new in what the Holy Father had said. And He mentioned the fact that there was nothing really new here. It is the same classical, traditional evangelization mentioned by Christ in the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

So what is NEW in the 'new evangelization?' Nothing! Except that IT was forgotten for the last 400 years up to the present and if priests are reminded of it they will ALL find it so new. So we might as well call it 'NEW.'
If we study all the addresses of the Pope on the 'New Evangelization", which we shall review, it will be very clear that there is nothing new. It is exactly the same 'evangelization' instructed by Christ to the first Apostles, it is the same one used by the Fathers of the Church, it has been the same one used by the Catholic Church from 60 AD up to the 1500 AD but suddenly forgotten after the Council of Trent up to the present. Nobody today remembers how it was before that is why the Pope just allowed himself to fall into calling it 'NEW.'

Our problem is that the 'Lineamenta' and 'Instrumentum laboris' did not follow the schema already made by the Pope which is according to the teachings of Divine Revelation and expanded by the Fathers of the Church. The two documents omitted the first two steps enumerated by the Holy Father. If a preacher followed the Liturgical calendar he would be on track if they wanted to prepare their parishioners ahead of the 'Year of Faith." The bishops of China had begun preparing their faithful by praying the rosary and by studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church....they are on track. But a bishop-theologian gave a talk on TV to a huge audience on the "New Evangelization" and said that the first step was to be docile to the Holy Spirit. The way he described it he was explaining the third step of Pope Benedict's schema. But he said it was the first step omitting the first two steps. The new Bishop of Scotland addressed his new diocese with the same message: that in the "new Evangelization" the first step is 'encounter with the person of Christ."  This is not the first step. It is the third step in Pope Benedict's schema. The first two steps were omitted. Without the first two steps no one can  reach the third or fourth step.

The schema in the 'Lineamenta' and 'instrumentum laboris' has not yet been imposed. It can still be modified or changed during the Bishop's Synod this October. But most bishops are already using it with it's important omissions....omissions that will prevent the faithful from reaching the 'Porta Fidei.'

A cardinal who just passed away described the Church as several hundred years old and tired. He was looking at the wrong church. He was looking at a cloned Church who like the cloned sheep suddenly grew very old and died. That was not the Church. The Church is young and alive.  She is growing slowly to maturity and, so, a few minor improvement, fruit of the development of Christian Doctrine as penned by Blessed John Cardinal Newman is expected. This  is what is 'new.' It is the OLD that has grown slightly to maturity and so slightly different but essentially the same. .....the same tree but slightly bigger and more perfect.......as expected in a living Church.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XIII

                                                                      What Caused the Crisis of Faith?

We have seen the "New Evangelization" introduced first by Pope John Paul II and expounded by then Cardinal Ratzinger in a speech to Cathechists in Rome. Cardinal Ratzinger's outline consists of four steps: 1. Conversion,  2.the Kingdom of God,  3. Jesus Christ and  the Holy spirit, 4. Eternal Life. As Pope  Benedict XVI he emphasized the first, 'Conversion' that will lead to Faith. Christ, Himself emphasized, also, the first "Repent'  that will lead to "Believing," "Repent, believe."  The entire Scriptures is mostly about 'Conversion.' And so with the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Because it is only in 'Conversion' that men can contribute something in the work of his own salvation.  The rests is God's role.

The second step,  the Kingdom of God, the third, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the fourth, Eternal LIfe are supernatural topics and we usually leave them to God, because He alone can explained these to us "I will teach you all things." "Flesh and blood had not taught you this but only My Father in Heaven." In effect we never study  truths pertaining to the Catholic Church  and how to go to heaven because these fall under the supernatural level. And Pope Benedict explained that the Method of Evangelization consist in teaching others, NOT the doctrines of Divine Revelation, but to teach others how to rise from the natural level to the supernatural level. Christ's apostolic commission in the Gospel of Matthew confirms this.

Then we noted that the 'Lineamenta,' a document issued by Rome addressed to the Bishops of the world  for their reactions, had deliberatly removed the need for "Conversion" which both Christ and Pope Benedict  declared as the only way towards Faith. And the 'Instrumentum Laboris', which contains all the reactions of the bishops around the world  did not touched upon  " Conversion"  following the instruction from the  'Lineamenta.' If this defective outline is given to the whole Catholic World on October, which is the beginning of the Year of Faith, the ignorant Catholics would follow the outline and because "Conversion" is not taught, they will never reach Faith and lose their souls. But if the few who have the right knowledge because they have read some of the talks of Pope Benedict ......and hear the Bishops and priests omit the need for "Conversion" and follow suit, they, too, will not reach Faith and would be lost.

What is the Church confronted with?  With the words of Pope Benedict, most Catholic Bishops, priests, nuns and faithful are without Faith. The Liturgy of the Mass alone teaches us more than 30 signs of the presence or absence of Faith, during what we call the Sundays in Ordinary Time.  So any honest Catholic can just sit down during Sunday Mass and ask  themselves if they have Faith or not. With more than 30 signs in the Liturgy  it would be easy for anyone to find out if he has faith or not. And because these signs are external signs we can even discern if others have faith or not ......and if not evangelize them.

The problem facing the Church today is this: that because of the wrong method of instruction in the Faith, which Pope Benedict mentioned as the first defect, most do not have Faith.  The second point is the more serious problem.  The supernatural truths which only God can teach and explain well were spoken by God to men in the form of WORDS..... and this is the contents of Divine Revelation. St. Thomas states that the deep, penetrating meaning of the Words of Divine Revelation can only be explained and interpreted by God and cannot be taught by human professors even in seminaries.  But these words have sounds which the natural man can hear. So the natural man can try to learn the natural, dictionary meaning of the words of Divine Revelation without being able to learn the deep penetrating meaning of the same. And because they study the human, dictionary meaning of the words of Divine Revelation they think they know the supernatural teachings of the Catholic Church. They don't! Because those teachings are so deep only God can teach them.

So we are faced with an almost impossible task......of trying to Evangelize Catholics who do not have Faith but who firmly believe they have Faith. Priests, seminarians and religious nuns and brothers think they have Faith because of their status. All members of lay communities think they have Faith because they belong to this or that Catholic organization. In fact, we believe that all Catholics who die go to heaven. Even Protestants believe they have Faith. And all pagans believe they go to heaven when they die. All converts believe they have Faith just because they converted. Writers and publishers in the internet think they know the Faith. Then here comes Pope Benedict and tells all of us to check if we have the true Faith on the 'Year of Faith.' And the Lineamenta' says, we don't have to discuss 'Conversion' that leads to Faith because we are already Catholics. What we have is natural Faith, a faith in which we only have a natural understanding of Divine Revelation though we use the sophisticated language that gives the impression we know supernatural truths but we do not have the supernatural, deep  and penetrating meaning of Revelation.....which is given to us by God with the supernatural theological virtue of Faith.

Conversion is a work of grace. Today, there is so much human efforts to convert, efforts on the verge of Pelagianism. Is this why such efforts seems futile?

The "New Evangelization" is meant for such a chaotic situation: where we have a 'catholic' population that has no Faith but who think they have Faith. And where human efforts have supplanted Divine Mercy. This is the backdrop of Pope Benedict's 'New Evangeliation' so that we shall only understand his description of it with this backdrop.

Though a better understanding of the steps he had spelled out will be more appreciated if we have a background of St. Augustine's treatise on Conversion , the Pope's favorite Father of the Church; St. Bonaventure's  theology of history  and St. John Newman's 'Development of Christian Doctrine'. This we hope to clarify first to ourselves and express it in the next articles.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XII

                                              CONVERSION
                                     The Goal of Evangelization.

Just one more time, then we will make a comparative study between Pope Benedict's schema on the 'New Evangelization,' the schema in the "Lineamenta" sent by the Congregation to all the Bishops, and the "Instrumentum laboris" which is the schema of  the compilation of all the responses made by the bishops around the world in response to the 'Lineamenta.'

Again! There are two levels of knowledge in man. The first is natural knowledge: this consists of everything man can know through his natural faculties. The other is supernatural knowledge; this consists of all Divine knowledge, like Divine Revelation, the Blessed Trinity and, in short, how to go to heaven. Supernatural knowledge  is totally inaccessible to man. Man can only learn these divine knowledge through infusion by God.

Through CONVERSION man tries to rise up from the natural level to the supernatural level.   'Evangelization'  is teaching men how to undergo 'Conversion.'  Pope Benedict has been telling us to concentrate on Conversion because that is the only role man has to accomplish for the salvation of his soul.  After Conversion everything else is God's work which consists in Perfection.  The goal of Evangelization is the conversion of souls that leads to Faith. From Faith on is God's work.

Christ preached conversion: "Repent, believe." Repent is another word for conversion. And it leads to Faith which is in the supernatural level. The New Testament, the Fathers of the Church, the Doctors of the Church and the writings of the saints are all about conversion. They cannot teach more because everything after conversion is God's work.

To evangelize is to teach souls how to rise from the natural level up to the supernatural level where God, Himself, will teach the supernatural truths like Divine Revelation. Pope Benedict noticed that the error that occurred in seminaries is that professors taught the supernatural truths without teaching souls how to climb to the supernatural level. If the professor does not go to the supernatural level he will not be able to give the supernatural meanings of Divine Revelations. And if the seminarian is not taught how to rise up to the supernatural level he will not be able to understand supernatural truths even if explained by St. Thomas of Aquinas. Pope Benedict is urging today both professor and seminarian to rise up to the supernatural level ...and this is through the process of Evangelization.  It is an invitation for both to undergo 'Conversion' that leads to 'Porta Fidei.' Without 'Conversion' souls cannot have Faith, Hope and Charity. And as a consequence cannot have Eternal life.

The Apostles Evangelized by preaching 'conversion' of life. The listeners listened and obeyed the commands that led to 'conversion' or change of life.  The process by which the Apostles preached  'Conversion' of life and by which the listeners obeyed thus changing their lives is......Evangelization. What follows, namely, Faith, Hope, Charity  and  eventually Eternal Life are God's exclusive role. Note why Pope Benedict was constantly insistent on the importance of "Conversion" and encouraged us to stick to that alone.  Because  'Conversion' is the only role assigned by God to man in saving his soul.  The Holy Father enumerated 'Conversion' as the first step among the four steps needed for the salvation of our souls.  The second, third and fourth steps are God's exclusive domain.  So the Holy Father discussed 'Conversion' lengthily while hardly  discussing  the last three steps .

To show the urgency of the matter, as early as October last year , Rome issued a 'Lineamenta,' that is a draft on the "new Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei" for the Bishop's Synod this October and sent it to all bishops around the world for their reaction. Their reactions had been received and collated in a document called "Instrumentum Laboris." 

Of course, we all expected the 'Lineamenta' and 'Instrumentum Laboris' would be working  on the ideas of the Holy Father on the 'New Evangelization" that will lead Catholic souls to the 'Door of Faith' and eventually Eternal Life. Those documents should be explaining how the lost of Faith that is prevalent in the Catholic Church has been caused by the inability of souls to mature in their conversion of life due to very poor Evangelization.  So the documents should  'evangelize' by teaching souls how to undergo 'Conversion' so that they may again  have or regain the theological virtue of Faith that God gives only to those who have undergone full  conversion 'ad Deum', as St. Augustine would say.

However the Lineamenta comes out stating;  that because the 'New Evangelization  "is directed  at people who are already baptized the question of  'Conversion' doesn't really arise  - in theory they are already in the Church." If Evangelization is directed to the conversion of souls, and there is not need for conversion, therefore, there is no need for Evangelization.

And this is the common belief. Because they are baptized, because they are priest and nuns, because they are bishops, because they belong to ecclesial community, because they have bishop friends, because...because...they are already inside the Catholic Church and does not need 'Conversion.'

Wait a minute! The Holy Father stated that what we have is a 'Crisis of Faith.' That means people have no Faith, they are outside the Catholic Church, they have no grace, they have no virtue whatsoever, they know nothing about the teachings of the Catholic Church, their minds are filled with heresies,  their hearts and minds are in love with the world and with themselves, they are 'adversus' a Deo.  And the Lineamenta states that they are already inside the Church. Where are the Catholic  Signs of One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Where are the more than 30 signs enumerated during the more than 30 Sundays in Ordinary time. Or at least where are the five general signs given by St. Thomas of Aquinas. "The question of 'Conversion' doesn't really arise." ......when the Pope had been repeating the great need for 'Conversion.'

And the Bishops all around the world responded to that Lineamenta accepting fully that great presumption that we are already Catholics and do not need conversion. If Bishop's and priest use the "Instrumentum Laboris" based on the Lineamenta with the erroneous presumption that there is no need for 'Conversion' this coming "Year of Faith" will be a total disaster. Why?  Because Faith will only be given to us by God  after a total life of 'Conversion.' And the "Year of Faith" was meant by the Holy Father for all Catholics to check if they have the right theological virtue of Faith that comes only after conversion. To tell the Catholic World that there is no need for conversion because they are all already converted for whatever reason is to prevent all souls from having Faith. He who does not believe is already condemned. 

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part XI

                                        HOW COME FAITH WAS NEVER ATTAINED.



Before he became Pope, the holy father wrote the 'Ratzinger Report' where he outlined the 'Crisis in the Church'   and described it as a crisis of Faith.'  This was not due to lost of Faith but due to the inability of souls to make an act of Faith. The solution is not renewal because there is nothing to renew. It must be evangelization because it is teaching everything from the beginning.

Fr. Servais Pinckners, a Moral Theologian tried to pin point what might have happened; how come very, very few were making the act of Faith.

 Before the Council of Trent the Catholic Church was beginning to have serious problems. For one thing it was noticeable that after each Ecumenical Council there were always problems, even after the Council of Trent just as we have now. But before Trent, the heresy of Nominalism popularized by William was besieging the Church. This heresy was metamorphosing first, into Luther's Protestantism and forking out into communism on one side and into democracy on the other. Both political philosophies have their origin from the heresy of Nominalism.  Europe, specially France, was the experimental ground for these deviant philosophies. It tore Europe into fragments and was transplanted to the U.S. in its worst form. The Catholic Church was disintegrating in Europe. So the Council of Trent was summoned and basing her documents on the Fathers and Doctors of the Church plus her Tradition and Liturgy the Council made very good documents. But as we mentioned in the previous post, after the Council, the Dicasteries were in a hurry to implement the documents specially in Moral Theology. In rushing to train the priest with the new documents, specially the Diocesan priests in the seminaries, they did not follow the proper method of instruction.

The right procedure is this: theology professors must be contemplatives (i.e. they must be spiritually in the supernatural level having receive grace together with the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity and as a consequence their knowledge of Divine Revelation is infused or taught to them by God, Himself. And the seminary students must be taught, not the truths of Divine Revelation, but how to rise up to the supernatural level spiritually where it is God who would teach them.  In the rush the theology instructor who were merely in the natural level (bogged down in the spirituality of the Old Testament) were attempting to teach seminarians who were likewise in the natural level.  Strictly speaking both were not in the level of grace and devoid of supernatural Faith. The blind leading the blind.

As a consequence theology professors who were spiritually in the natural level were attempting to teach supernatural truths that they could not explain to students who were in the natural level who could not understand supernatural truths. The fault of theological professors was that in not being contemplatives thus not having the infused knowledge of Divine Revelation, they were explaining supernatural truths using words of Scriptures but explained by giving merely its natural dictionary meaning and not its deep, penetrating meaning as meant by God. It is exactly how the Protestants do it. They explain the words of God without giving what God really meant but by giving only the natural dictionary meaning. This is giving the seminarians a natural understanding of Divine Revelation and this is not Faith because this is not evangelization. Yet the theology professor and the seminarian after the lecture have the deceitful feeling that they had lectured and listened to a supernatural truth of the Catholic Church....thus the feeling that they had faith, that they are inside the Catholic Church and will attain eternal life. Poor souls. And this wrong method is carried on continuously up to the very present hour.

This first defect mentioned by Pope Benedict in his 'new evangelization'  is still in the 'Instrumentum Laboris' for the bishop's synod this October. If it is not corrected very few will ever reach Faith in this scheduled 'Year of Faith.' What a waste.Why don' we just all follow Pope Benedict's schema that he had already presented? The Bishop's schema is full of beautiful words describing natural  realities. If given to the people we will all feel as if we have been fed with supernatural truths when actually we were only fed with natural food. The Bread of life was nowhere except in words describing a mere bread.

Christ is the Bread of Life. The manna that fed the body was just a type. The Bread of Life are the sound teachings of Divine Revelation the fruit of which is an innocent mind. Who is Christ?  The Bread of Life that will give us Eternal life if we eat the Bread of Life. And the eating of the Bread of life is FAITH, the reason Pope Benedict is so insistent.

NEW EVANGELIZATION - Part X

This topic on Faith is important for Pope Benedict and for us. For the Pope, this is his most important job, to lead us to the door of Faith. For us we must enter the door of Faith otherwise we are damned. For the rest of the world it is either salvation or damnation. Logically, there is nothing more important for any of us. But this is not the case for most people. Not even for priests and nuns. Yet the Pope's plan to come out later with a letter on Faith shows the urgency of this call. It even sounds like a last call.

In the last post we saw the obvious difference between  Pope Benedict's schema on the "New Evangelization" that leads to "Porta Fidei" the door of Faith.... and the schema or 'Instrumentum laboris" of the Preparatory Commission for the Bishop's Synod on the same topic scheduled for this October. Pope Benedict's schema is in accordance with the Liturgy, Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church and the Magisterium from the earliest time up to the Council of Trent, at least.  The Instrumentum Laboris is not, confirming further the lost of Faith and the need to review the Catholic Church's evangelization efforts which the Holy Father had been harping at. 

The Holy Father is trying to pin point a problem for which his'new evangelization' towards the door of Faith is the solution. The problem is based on his analysis of the Gospel on the feast of St. Peter and Paul when he first announced the need for this program  to tackle the problem of the near complete lost of Faith.

The Gospel speaks about two levels of understanding. The first level is the natural level in which everything can be understood by the natural mind. The Old Testament falls under this level. Everything in the Old Testament, like the 10 Commandments can be understood by the natural mind.  The prophecies about the coming Messiah, the moral virtue and all of natural theology can be understood by the natural mind because they all fall in the natural level. So when Christ asked the disciples who the crowd think He is  the crowd gave answers that are naturally known, like He is a prophet. And Christ described their answer as a knowledge that can be taught by flesh and blood, i.e. by human teachers. Human teachers are teachers who teach Algebra, Physics, Philosophy and Natural theology and other natural sciences.

The second level is the supernatural level. The knowledge in this level cannot be taught or learned by flesh and blood. Only God can teach this to souls. Divine Revelation and/or the teachings of the Catholic Church would fall under this category. Natural man can read and know the words of these truths  but not the deep meaning of the Word of God which contains supernatural mysteries, precepts and counsels.  The deep breath of divine truths which comes from God can be taught by God alone. Though the New Testament teachings is a written law that can be learned by the mind, its  divine meaning can only be infused in the soul by God. And this is how St. Peter answered Christ's question. Christ said: flesh and blood had not taught you this but My Father in heaven.

In short, the Old Testament and all man- made scientific knowledge  fall under the natural level that can be taught by men.  The New Testament and all knowledge after Pentecost fall under the supernatural level that is taught by God alone.  To know supernatural knowledge like the teachings of the Catholic Church a soul must be raised up to the supernatural level and in that level God takes over and teaches him. We do not teach souls the Catholic Truths. We teach them how to rise to the supernatural level where God, Himself teaches the soul. The process of teaching the soul how to rise up to the supernatural level is called Evangelization. An Evangelizer does not teach Catholic Truths. He teaches souls how to rise to the supernatural level where God teaches the soul. We cannot over emphasize this because there lies the problem of Evangelization....we are teaching souls Catholic Truths instead of teaching them how to rise up to the supernatural level and become co-natural with Divinity. Pope Benedict noted this defect and described it as 'wrong method' of Evangelization.' The inability of Evangelizer to rise up to the supernatural level (the contemplative life) and as a consequence not to be able to raise their listeners to the supernatural level resulted in the second defect mentioned by the Pope as 'wrong contents' in Evangelization. Those are the two general defects mentioned by Pope Benedict in his 'New Evangelization.

It is impossible to teach Catholic Truths without teaching souls how to rise to the supernatural level because supernatural truths are taught in that level.  If we go the Christ's 'Apostolic Commission' to the Apostles at the end of Matthew's Gospel, His instruction is to 'teach all nations' how to rise to the supernatural level and not the teaching of Catholic truths.

To teach listeners to rise up to the supernatural level so God can teach them Divine Revelation  is to teach them to become contemplatives. The Evangelizer has to be a contemplative himself. This is an important element of the "New Evangelization" that the Pope had been repeating but which is lacking in the schema for the Bishop's Synod this October.

The error that Pope Benedict is correcting is this: preachers who are merely in the natural level and, therefore do not understand the deeper meaning of the teachings of Christ are teaching souls doctrines with words in the natural level which the hearers cannot understand the deeper meaning because they are not in the supernatural level. Neither the Evangelizer nor the hearer are learning about Faith. The Holy Father suspects that this was the cause of the nearly total lost of Faith today.

The Documents of the Council of Trent were superb morally and dogmatically because they were documents based of the Holy Tradition of the Catholic Church. But they were living on bad days.  The Protestant reformation was at full swing. The Council was pressured to rush the training of priests in the seminary for the Evangelization of the Church that was being swept by Protestantism. In the rush, they employed priests in the natural level trying to teach supernatural truths which they did not understand to seminarians who could not understand supernatural truths because they were not taught how to rise to the supernatural level. Since Faith is in the supernatural level we have a scenario where both the teachers and seminarians in the seminary had no Faith. If there were  few contemplatives who could have done a good job of teaching seminarians how to rise to the supernatural level, they would all be gone after two generations. That was the root of today's problem of a near total absence of Faith or the 'Crisis of Faith' the former Cardinal Ratzinger described as the state of the Church in his 'Ratzinger Report." There ought to be a few contemplatives in the Church otherwise Satan would have triumphed over the Church which cannot happen.

The schema prepared for the Bishop's Synod this October lacks the first two steps in the Holy Father's schema. These are the elements that teaches souls how to rise to the supernatural level. The topics for the bishop's synod were mostly natural, human topics.

The Holy Father's schema has the first two steps which are the provision in raising souls to the supernatural level so God can teach them Divine Revelations. The Bishop's schema does not contain these two provisions. Unless their schema is improved souls will not attain the supernatural virtue of Faith and eternal Life. Bishop Fisichella, head of the Congregation for the New Evangelization probably pin pointed the crux of the problem when he said: what we need is not new ways of evangelization but new Evangelizers. Preachers who are not bogged down in the spirituality of the Old Testament, the level of the natural. But souls who have risen up to the supernatural level into the spirituality of the New Testament and thus truly have Faith. Putting it the Holy Father's words: only contemplatives can teach other souls to become contemplative where God alone can teach them the truths of the Catholic Church. That is the 'New Evangelization'.