Catholic Analysis

"catholic: 1: . . . broad in sympathies, tastes, or interests 2 cap . . . of, relating to, or forming the ancient undivided Christian church or a church claiming historical continuity from it; specif: ROMAN CATHOLIC"

--Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1990)

"There is much in Christianity which can be subjected to exact analysis. But the ultimate things are shrouded in the silent mysteries of God."

--Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) (emphasis added; nominated as cardinal just before his death)

"The institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential as it were to the Church's constitution. They contribute, although differently, to the life, renewal and sanctification of God's People. It is from this providential rediscovery of the Church's charismatic dimension that, before and after the Council, a remarkable pattern of growth has been established."

---John Paul the Great, Pentecost Address, 1998

"How much our world needs a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit!"

--Pope Benedict XVI (upon arrival at WYD 2008, July 14, 2008)

"Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church [citing 1 Cor. 12]."

--Catechism of the Catholic Church 2003 (quoted in part; emphasis added)

"But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; . . . . so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

--St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:27, 29 (ESV)

"I also urge them [Christians] to pay special attention to the Cardinal's [Suenens'] double plea, which deserves the greatest consideration: on the one hand, his appeal to those responsible for the ecclesial ministry--from parish priests to bishops--not to let the [Charismatic] Renewal pass them by but to welcome it fully; and on the other, his appeal to the members of the [Charismatic] Renewal to cherish and maintain their link with the whole Church and with the charisms of her pastors."

--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1982

"I then came into contact also with the reality of the Charismatic Renewal. In those years I had close contacts with a professor in Paderborn, Heribert Mühlen, who was a great enthusiast of this movement, since he himself had rediscovered the joy of the priesthood in it. Thus I had the joy and the grace, I would say, of seeing young Christians touched by the power of the Holy Spirit, of seeing that in a troublesome time for the Church, at a moment when people were speaking of a 'winter in the Church,' the Holy Spirit was creating a new springtime and that the joy of being Christian was being reawakened in young people, the joy of being Catholic, of living in the Church, the living Body of Christ, the people of God on pilgrimage."

--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1999 (emphasis added)

"Four hundred years is far too young an age for the Catholic liturgy--because in fact it reaches right back to Christ and the apostles and has come down to us from that time in a single, constant process. The Missal can no more be mummified than the Church herself."

--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Feast of Faith (published 1981 & 1986; emphasis added)

"The question . . . is a spiritual one and the solution is always the same: in so far as we have allowed it to be lost, we must rediscover the spirit of Christianity. In order to do so we must be plunged once more into its well-springs, and above all in the Gospel. The Gospel which the Church unvaryingly offers us is enough for us. Only, always new, it always needs to be rediscovered."

--Henri de Lubac (1896-1991; made cardinal in 1983)

"The charismatic movement is obviously God's answer to Pope John XXIII's prayer for a new Pentecost. Popes Paul VI and John Paul II both blessed it but said that it will fulfill its purpose only when, like the early liturgical movement, it ceases to have a separate identity of its own and is absorbed into the whole Church. In other words, every Catholic should be a charismatic, baptized in the Spirit, empowered like the apostles."

--Catholic apologist and philosopher Peter Kreeft (1988)

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

--St. Paul, Galatians 5:1 (ESV)

"We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God."

--St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:2b (ESV)

“Be who you are and be that well.”

--St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

"For the reader who lacks an upright intention, the rectitude of the writer is hard to find."

-- St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975)

"Si alguna cosa dijera que no vaya conforme a lo que tiene la santa Iglesia católica romana, será por ignorancia y no por malicia" ("If any thing I might say does not conform to what is held by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, it will be because of ignorance and not because of malice.")

--St. Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), Prologue, para. 4, Interior Castle

"Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage [the Traditional Latin Mass] cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books. The total exclusion of the new rite [the post-Vatican II Mass] would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Letter, July 7, 2007