Skip to main content

Pact of the Catcombs For the Common Home

“If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.” St. John Chrysostom

Not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth, but theirs. St. John Chrysostom


"The original 42 bishops who signed that day in 1965, and the more than 500 who eventually added their names, pledged to “try to live according to the ordinary manner of our people in all that concerns housing, food, [and] means of transport…. We renounce forever the appearance and the substance of wealth, especially in clothing … and symbols made of precious metals.”"



https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/10/20/vatican-iis-forgotten-apostle-of-the-poor-stages-comeback-at-amazon-synod/?fbclid=IwAR0j0oA7f7UMwy4R_W-5wjC0Zp2VjGx5oESSUMxOjge26URzb0TnDY5dEik


"In the document signed on Sunday, the participants of the Synod on the Amazon recall that they share the joy of living among many indigenous peoples, inhabitants of river banks, migrants and suburban communities. With them, they experienced “the power of the Gospel that works in the smallest”. “The encounter with these peoples”, the document says, “challenges us and invites us to a simpler life of sharing and gratuitousness”. The signatories of the document commit themselves to “renewing the preferential option for the poor”, to abandoning “every type of colonist mentality and posture” and to proclaiming “the liberating novelty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. They also undertake to recognize “the ecclesial ministries already existing in the communities” and to seek “new paths of pastoral action”.
Other commitments in the "Pact of the Catacombs for the Common Home" include pledges "to walk ecumenically with other Christian communities" and "to assume before the avalanche of consumerism a happily sober lifestyle". The signatory fathers also promise to recognize "the ecclesial ministries that already exist in the communities" and to seek "new paths of pastoral action".
"Aware of our frailty, of our poverty and smallness in the face of such great and serious challenges", the signers state, "we commit ourselves to the prayer of the Church"."


https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-10/a-group-of-synod-fathers-renews-the-pact-of-the-catacombs.html?fbclid=IwAR0GO0poMe3sVFggnKpsF4JTNszIhFT3AFmAZOTHoyp7YGKFRA_ruR0NFxQ



"SEATTLE – Archbishop Paul D. Etienne said he will not live in the 9,000-square-foot mansion on Seattle’s First Hill that many of his predecessors called home.
In a letter sent to priests and deacons on September 3 — his first day as leader of the Archdiocese of Seattle — the archbishop wrote, “While the Connolly House has been home to the archbishops since 1920, it will not be home for me.”
“I prefer to live a more simplified life,” he explained, adding that he was “exploring options on church properties” and hoped to find an alternative soon.
“Meanwhile, a prudent discussion will explore the possibility of selling Connolly House to help fund the great many needs across this archdiocese,” he wrote."



http://nwcatholic.org/news/local/archbishop-etienne-will-not-live-in-mansion-i-am-a-pastor-not-a-prince.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Just War and Just a War

One of the thorniest problems man face is when, if every is war justified.  The bible says there is a time for war and a time for peace, but that could be just a bow to the inevitability of war in the fallen world.  If also says that they will beat there swords into plough shares and study war no more.  Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, William Miller and other Catholic Workers often ascribed to pacifism or near total pacifism face with the near impossibility of every untangling the moral consequences of violence from the ends desired in undertaking it. But St. Augustine, faced with a world where Christians were starting to replace pagans as political leaders and Christians we soldiers in obedience to the leaders tried to come up with criteria by which war could be measured.   Augustine knew that the Gospel question on it was complex.  One the one hand Jesus told people to turn the other  cheek and also told Peter to put away his sword and not defe...

Alone but not Lonely

It seems that I am tied into interlocking conversations with people on all sides of me and with my blog readership.  Yesterday I wrote Many Things I Have Been #2  ( http://roominhouseblues.blogspot.com/2011/04/many-things-i-have-been-2.html ) in the morning. .  I wrote other things and did the tasks and errands of my day, including job searches. then in the evening I went to a "Mercy Night" a communal penance service (with private confession of course) in my parish.  I came home near the end of my roommate Scott's Bible study. Scott goes to Mars Hill, a conservative evangelical youth oriented church, and his perspective on some aspects of the bible is very different than my Catholic one, yet we focus more on what we have in common.   After the bible study Scott and KJ, who stayed, got into a conversation on various things.  I told them a little of what happened at Mercy Night. Then KJ asked a question.  I guess he...