Letter of Pope Benedict XVI To Catholics in China
In his letter of 27 May 2007 to the Catholics in the People's Republic of China, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged their faithfulness to Christ and the Church, "sometimes at the price of grave sufferings", but also expressed concern at some aspects of ecclesial life in the country, in particular the division caused by "the significant part played by entities that have been imposed as the principal determinants of the life of the Catholic community", so that "persons who are not ordained, and sometimes not even baptized, control and take decisions concerning important ecclesial questions, including the appointment of Bishops, in the name of various State agencies", with a consequent "demeaning of the Petrine and episcopal ministries".
The Pope distinguished three groups among the Catholic bishops in China. He first mentioned those who "have felt themselves constrained to opt for clandestine consecration"; he expressed the Holy See's hope "that these legitimate Pastors may be recognized as such by governmental authorities for civil effects too". The second group is that of those who, "under the pressure of particular circumstances, have consented to receive episcopal ordination without the pontifical mandate, but have subsequently asked to be received into communion with the Successor of Peter and with their other brothers in the episcopate"; in view of the existing confusion on the part of Chinese Catholics, the Pope said: "It is indispensable, for the spiritual good of the diocesan communities concerned, that legitimation, once it has occurred, is brought into the public domain at the earliest opportunity, and that the legitimized Bishops provide unequivocal and increasing signs of full communion with the Successor of Peter." The third group is that of the "very small number ... who have been ordained without the Pontifical mandate and who have not asked for, or have not yet obtained, the necessary legitimation"; these, the Pope said, "are to be considered illegitimate, but validly ordained", and "the faithful, taking this into account, where the eucharistic celebration and the other sacraments are concerned, must, within the limits of the possible, seek Bishops and priests who are in communion with the Pope: nevertheless, where this cannot be achieved without grave inconvenience, they may, for the sake of their spiritual good, turn also to those who are not in communion with the Pope."
Read more about this topic: Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association
Famous quotes containing the words letter of, letter, pope, benedict, catholics and/or china:
“Shears: You mean, you intend to uphold the letter of the law, no matter what it costs?
Colonel Nicholson: Without law, Commander, there is no civilization.
Shears: That’s just my point. Here, there is no civilization.
Colonel Nicholson: Then perhaps we have the opportunity to introduce it.”
—Michael Wilson (1914–1978)
“This letter will be delivered to you by my child,—the child of my adoption,—my affection! Unblest with one natural friend, she merits a thousand. I send her to you innocent as an angel, and artless as purity itself; and I send you with her the heart of your friend, the only hope he has on earth, the subject of his tenderest thoughts, and the object of his latest cares.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“We have done scant justice to the reasonableness of cannibalism. There are in fact so many and such excellent motives possible to it that mankind has never been able to fit all of them into one universal scheme, and has accordingly contrived various diverse and contradictory systems the better to display its virtues.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“Communism, my friend, is more than Marxism, just as Catholicism ... is more than the Roman Curia. There is a mystique as well as a politique.... Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate.”
—Graham Greene (1904–1991)
“It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)