The Brothers All Encyclical is not what I thought it would be

Brothers All encyclical is here. It contains plenty for the papal accusers to use to accuse the Pope again of heresy and of being part of a secret plan of one world religion and freemasons and all the other ridiculous conspiracy theories.

But he did not address the doctrinal issue of salvation for non-Christians, as I had hoped. It is implicitly addressed only.

He did fight back against the critics of Human Fraternity. He stated that the Tower of Babel story is one of sinful pride, implying that the diversity of languages is only permitted by God. This undercuts the argument of his accusers, who say that all the other items in the list of diversities willed by God are positively willed. No. The diversity of languages, which offers many goods, was initiated by divisions caused by pride. So God brought good out of that sinful pride, by the benefits of different languages to express different points of view. But the event at the beginning was of sinful pride, and so was only permissively willed.

He also reasserts Human Fraternity, in an encyclical, thereby making Human Fraternity now clearly a document of the papal Magisterium.

He asserts more clearly that the Church must reject the death penalty. But he in no way claims it is intrinsically evil, but only that the circumstances are such that it is not necessary. (I disagree in his evaluation of the circumstances.) But he is right that the death penalty is always, in my words, of the fallen state and therefore always morally inadequate. It is always a result of many grave sins, not only the grave sins of the criminal, but also the grave sins of society, which provided the “fertile” soil for crimes to rise up.

Freedom of religion is a “fundamental human right” — something the papal accusers deny.

“And God’s love is the same for everyone, regardless of religion. Even if they are atheists, his love is the same.”

This encyclical will rekindle the conflict between the papal accusers and the Pope. But unfortunately, it does not clarify Church teaching on salvation for non-Christians, as I had hoped and predicted.

I am disappointed in one thing, that the encyclical never uses the word Muslim or the word Islam, but instead references that religion by words such as Crusades and Sultan and the Grand Imam. Why?

RLCJ

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4 Responses to The Brothers All Encyclical is not what I thought it would be

  1. Thomas Mazanec says:

    Difference of languages is just a result of the fact that languages change, and change differently in different areas. In the time of Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar German and English were one language.

  2. RR says:

    Church militant’s article called the pope “a dog-petting hippie prancing nude in the woods and staring at clouds.”

  3. Alex says:

    Did we enter the complete madness before the inevitable crash? The pope just warned that Covid exposed the inability of the world’s economic system (still called by him and others “capitalism” although not the names would make it better or worse). We witness how devote people and people in position including presidents reject the obvious necessity of distancing in case of contagious disease, in the name of politicizing, conspiracy theories that reject the existence of the virus, and even in the name of traditional religion!? What so different then from the time of Galileo when influential persons defended an outdated pseudo scientific status quo?

    Then comes the latest shocking words, a cardinal appointed by pope Francis who said the pope compared the current situation to 9/11, WW2 and more… (below).

    What if they know of inevitable event to come, such as asteroid? And that’s why some politicians play clones and the top world news start with the so much important announcement whether the US president put his mask or not? Excuse me, but what does it concern me, my family, everything I care about in this world or even the next world?

    Yes the pope is right the capitalism failed, although even the name “capitalism” is desperately outdated to describe what we have today: the complete ultimate maddness before the inevitable catastrophe. Regardless of what kind that catastrophe will be.

    Cardinal Michael Czerny:
    “I think Pope Francis feels today the world needs a message comparable to what we needed during the Cuban missile crisis, or World War II or 9/11 or the big crash of 2007/2008,” he said. “We’re on the brink. We need to pull back in a very human, worldwide and local way. I think that’s one way to get into Fratelli Tutti.”

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