Rev. Matthew Fox on Ratzinger, the New Pope Benedict XVI

[G_j]

some background on Rev. Dr. Mattew Fox:
http://www.dci.dk/?artikel=215&emne=New%20Age

Fox joined the Dominicans in 1960. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1967 he continued his studies at the Institut Catholique in Paris under the historian of Catholic spirituality, M-D Chenu. He returned to the United States in 1970 and for several years taught at his old college, the Aquinas Institute. It was during this period that he wrote his first works calling for a new approach to Christian spirituality.

<snip>
However, as Fox’s popularity incre­ased so did doubts about his orthodoxy. Matters came to a head in 1984 when a conservative Catholic pressure group began picketing his lectures and complained to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In July 1984, the head of the congregation, Cardinal Joseph Rat­zinger, responded by ordering the Domi­nicans to investigate Fox.

A commission of enquiry was duly set up and its report, published in May 1985, found in Fox’s favour. In December of that year Cardinal Ratzinger rejected the commission’s findings. Fox’s Provincial responded by defending him against the cardinal’s accusations.

In September 1987 Cardinal Ratzinger again went on the offensive with a document summarising his objections to Fox’s theology. Again his Provincial leapt to Fox’s defence. But this time he was ordered to take disciplinary action: a move which led to the silencing of Fox during 1989.

<snip>


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http://www.opednews.com/foxMatthew_041905_ratzinger.htm

On Ratzinger, the New Pope Benedict XVI ; Ratzinger

by Matthew Fox

www.OpEdNews.com

Why should we be surprised that the current Catholic hierarchy, who elevated Cardinal Law the poster boy for pedophile clergy, to a special place of power in Rome, has just elected Cardinal Ratzinger as pope? The “Yes Men” of Pope John Paul II’s church have chosen one of their own who is guaranteed to play the Punitive Father.

Now we have the Inquisitor General of the 21st century, who led the assault on theologians and women, yoga (“dangerous” because it gets you too much in touch with your body), homosexuals (who are “evil”), liberation theology, ecumenism and interfaith, made “spiritual head” of 1.1 billion people.

Cardinal Ratzinger is living proof of the dictum coined by Catholic historian Lord Acton after the First Vatican Council’s declaration of papal infallibility when he said “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Ratzinger, far from supporting movements of justice, has committed his career to silencing those who have and elevating the rich and powerful, such as Escriva, fascist sympathizer and founder of opus dei, to sainthood. It is a sad day and a decisive one for the Roman Catholic Church.

Dr. Matthew Fox, Wisdom University Author Original Blessing www.wisdomuniversity.org

This article, is also by Matthew Fox

Opus Dei Sunday

(written in 2002 when Pope John Paul II canonized Escriva)

Matthew Fox, PhD

Opus Dei is a “personal prelature” approved by the Vatican and founded in 1928. The recent canonization in October, 2002, of its founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, rushed through in record time of twenty-four years, is the 800 pound gorilla now sauntering through the palatial halls of the Vatican. It is in the open. This Emperor is without clothes. The naked agenda of this papacy is staring us all in the face and it is not pretty. The media, the religious pundits, the priests, bishops, provincials and cardinals, can no longer hide in denial mouthing pious shibboleths of “wait for the next pope” or “this pope is conservative.”

Was Hitler conservative? (The man they just rushed into canonization is on record as praising Hitler—for his “stopping communism.”) Was Mussolini conservative? Or Franco? (The man they just canonized admired Franco so much—and vice versa--that several of his opus dei members were on Franco’s cabinet and Franco’s special attentions gave them access to higher education and much financial support.) These people are not conservatives! (Any self-respecting conservative should rise up and shout about this. Where is George Will when we need him?) These people are ideologues. This has been the agenda all along of Cardinal Ratzinger and others running the German mafia in the Vatican these days: To dismantle Vatican II and replace all theological debate with ideology.

The expulsion of theologians—I think of Leonardo Boff in Latin America and Eugene Drewermann in Germany and myself in North America—this happened all the same year—was a necessary step in this triumph of ideology. Silencing and expulsions spread fear instead of creative thinking among future theologians.

..more..

[deutsey]

1. I really like Matthew Fox

Thanks for posting.

I have a friend who has Fox as a teacher in San Francisco. Lucky guy!

[G_j]

3. bit of trivia

http://hake.com/gordon/news.html

Thursday August 10 - there was open casket viewing of Jerry (Garcia)
at the St.
Stephan's Episcopal church in Belvedere CA. Jerry was reportedly
dressed in a black t-shirt and sweatpants.

Friday August 11 - funeral service at the St. Stephan church in Belvedere
starting at about 4pm. The officiant Matthew Fox was the pastor who
married Deborah and Jerry last year. The church is small only holding
200 to 250 people. Many people gave eulogies including Bob Weir, Steve
Parrish, Robert Hunter, John Barlow, Ken Kesey and Anabelle Garcia
(one of Jerry's daughters). Hunter recited a poem he just wrote (see
below). Musicians in attendance included band members, Bruce Hornsby
and Bob Dylan. A very small grave site service was held, it was
primarily for family and the band.
<snip>

[Bryn]

2. I am Matthew Fox's Fan...He would made a great pope!!

Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian who has been an ordained priest since 1967. He holds Masters degrees in philosophy and theology from Aquinas Institute and a Doctorate in spirituality, summa cum laude, from the Institut Catholiques de Paris. A liberation theologian and progressive visionary, he was silenced by the Vatican and later dismissed from the Dominican order. After dismissal he was received as an Episcopal priest by Bishop William Swing of the Diocese of California.

[Enraged_Ape]

4. Matthew Fox does a great job on ABC's LOST

Who knew that he was so profound?



I've heard that Evangeline Lilly (Kate) is a major liberal, as well.

[Bryn]

5. Fox's 1988 Letter to Cardinal Ratzinger

http://www.matthewfox.org/sys-tmpl/htmlpage12/

Matthew Fox's Public Pastoral Letter to Cardinal Ratzinger in 1988.
To Cardinal Ratzinger, 1989: Is the Catholic Church Today a Dysfunctional Family?

In 1989 I sent the following letter to Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation of the Faith. The occasion was his silencing me for a year a bad habit he was developing at the time, having sentenced Brazilian Franciscan theologian (and his former student) Leonardo Boff to similar treatment. <snip>

August 8, 1988
Feast of St. Dominic
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
Vatican City

Dear Brother Ratzinger,

<snip>

In spite of this, your Congregation has continued to insist that my work is unorthodox. Your request that my provincial hold a new trial was turned down by him, yet you persist in demanding that I be silenced and that my work at the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality 'be terminated, as you put it in your most recent correspondence. <snip>

<snip>

I write you as a brother human being and a brother Christian. I hope that the ear of your heart is opened to hear. It is evident from reading your letters over the years that your concerns are not theological so much as political and pastoral.

<snip>

<snip>

<snip>

What is Creation Spirituality? It is the oldest tradition of the Bible. The Yahwist or J source of the Hebrew Bible is creation-centered, as are the prophets and the wisdom literature. Even the Genesis story as we have it begins not with human sin but with the goodness of creation. John's Gospel begins, ' In the beginning was the word, not, 'In the beginning was human sin. Creation Spirituality is thus non-anthropocentric; it begins with the amazing news of the gift of the universe over nineteen billion years to us, a creation story now being retold by science that elicits wonder and awe at our being here on this amazing planet with so many generous creatures who give their very lives for us. Creation Spirituality is not found only in the Bible, however; it is the tradition of native people of America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. <snip>

This tradition speaks deeply to persons all over the world today because Mother Earth is so wounded; the young are in such despair; worship is so one-dimensionally anthropocentric; the human soul is so cosmically lonely; our patriarchal institutions are so arrogant; the artist is secularized an therefore cut off from spirituality; good work is so scarce; women and minorities are so oppressed. Creation Spirituality is in many respects a liberation theology for so-called 'First World' peoples because it comes from the deep and ancient traditions of the most oppressed peoples, the native or primal peoples of the world, and from women's experience. Creation Spirituality liberates peoples and structures from consumerism and materialism, dualism and patriarchy, colonialism, anthropocentrism and arrogance; boredom homophobia; adultism and the trivializing of our lives. Creation Spirituality liberates us from the bondage of Newtonian mechanisms and from one-dimensional education that haunts the 'First World.' Creation Spirituality liberates because it moves us from head to body where heart and passion (the source of compassion) will be found. In reawakening the divine child, the mystic within and around us, Creation Spirituality leads persons from self-consciousness to unself-consciousness, and this capacity to let go and to play is vital to the liberation of so-called First World peoples over the most pressing moral issues of our time.

<snip>

A. Is the Catholic Church a Dysfunctional Family?

During my four years of waiting and watching while the Dominican Order, my bishop, students and others communicated with each other about my work, I have attempted to observe and analyze what was going on. Over the twenty-one years of my ministry as a priest, I have listened to the wounded ones in our church-women, married couples, divorced people, homosexual people, priests and former priests, sisters and the young.

<snip>

<snip>

2. The Vatican's obsession with sex is a worldwide scandal, which demonstrates a serious psychic imbalance. In Ireland this is referred to as the 'pelvic morality' of the Catholic Church. Repression and obsession go together. Misogyny in the church grows daily as the hierarchy accepts married clergy from the Anglican Church so long as they are abandoning their tradition over the issue of women's ordination. Now we have married clergy not Catholics but ex-Anglicans - who could not accept ordained women. Obsession with sex is characteristic of the dysfunctional personality (Schaef, P. 92).
<snip>

Forgetfulness means that we are frequently unable to learn from past mistakes. The Vatican erred in the sixteenth century in missing the point of Luther's effort to reform the church. Why do you insist on repeating the same error in the twentieth?<snip>

<snip>

<snip>

Like Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Creation Spirituality calls the church to repentance and wellness. In her day, Hildegard wrote the pope the following warning: 'O man you who sit on the papal throne, you despise God when you don't hurl from yourself the evil but, even worse, embrace it and kiss it'

[G_j]

6. "The Vatican's obsession with sex is a worldwide scandal,"

"The Vatican's obsession with sex is a worldwide scandal, which demonstrates a serious psychic imbalance."

amazing letter, thanks!

[G_j]

7. kick