Pope Francis attacks traditional Catholics, appears to contradict St. Paul in Epiphany homily by Michael Haynes for Life Site News
Pope Francis delivered his comments in his Epiphany homily, January 6, in St. Peter’s Basilica.
In his homily for the feast of the Epiphany on Thursday, Pope Francis once more attacked Catholics attached to the tradition of the Church. He also seemed to contradict the words of St. Paul when describing the Catholic faith.
Delivering his homily for the Epiphany in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis used the journey of the three Magi as a basis for promoting his personal concept of Catholicism, and for issuing one of his trademark criticisms of traditional Catholics.
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The pontiff directly rejected St. Paul’s language of the “shield of faith,” urging Catholics instead to view faith as “a constant and restless movement.”
‘Desire’ must carry Church ‘forward’ away from ‘formal religiosity’
Speaking of the Magi’s “desire” which fueled their journey, Pope Francis attacked Catholics who did not have a desire which “carries us forward.”
“The journey of life and faith demands a deep desire and inner zeal,” he said. “Sometimes we live in a spirit of a ‘parking lot’; we stay parked, without the impulse of desire that carries us forward.”
“We do well to ask: Where are we on our journey of faith? Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives?”
In comments seeming to allude to the Traditional Latin Mass, Pope Francis attacked the liturgical devotees of a “dead language.” “Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a ‘dead language’ that speaks only of itself and to itself?” he asked.
Instead of such “dead” liturgy, Pope Francis pushed for a style of Catholicism filled with “unsettling joy of the Gospel” and moments of being “startled by Jesus.”
“It is sad when a community of believers loses its desire and is content with ‘maintenance’ rather than allowing itself to be startled by Jesus and by the explosive and unsettling joy of the Gospel,” continued the Pope. “It is sad when a priest has closed the door of desire, sad to fall into clerical functionalism, very sad.”
Vatican’s ‘school of desire’ vs St. Paul’s epistles
Presenting a method to follow the Magi’s “school of desire,” Pope Francis appeared to contradict the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians when referencing faith.
“The Magi teach us that we need to set out anew each day, in life as in faith, for faith is not a suit of armour that encases us; instead, it is a fascinating journey, a constant and restless movement, ever in search of God, always discerning our way forward,” declared the Pontiff.
