Sunday, May 16, 2021

The DEADLY WOUND & HEALING--- in Jesuits' own words...

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;
and his deadly wound was healed
and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:3
 
From America the Jesuit Review  (2015)----read how Jesuits
actually, likely unknowingly for some, agree with our SDA interpretation of Revelation 13:3.
 
"....in what sense was the Roman Catholic Church, and the papacy in particular, the same institution before and after Vatican I? ...... the church in the 19th century—and the papacy in particular—was a radically different institution in the century after the French Revolution,...." America the Jesuit Review
 
THE DEADLY WOUND
"Arguably, the church received the most profound shock and
injury, nearly fatal, in its entire history during the revolution
....In the course of the French Revolution, the papacy came as close to becoming extinct as it ever had.
There was real doubt whether there would be a conclave to elect a new pope after the death of Pius VI, who had been deposed and was a prisoner of the French revolutionary armies. Rome was occupied by French revolutionary troops, and the number of cardinals was at a historic low. And, of course, the agenda of the most radical phase of the revolution had been to eliminate Christianity itself, replacing it
with the Cult of Reason. There were even many Catholics at this time, including bishops and priests, who were resigned to the possible disappearance of the papacy, wondering whether it had outlived its usefulness.
 
The threat to the Catholic Church and the papacy through the 19th century was real, and the church’s reaction to that threat was understandable.
---On the left, secular liberals sought to reduce or eliminate the role of the church in public life and civil society (by suppressing church schools, for example, and expelling religious congregations). The more radical heirs of the revolution and the socialists and communists into whom they evolved remained committed to the church’s utter destruction. 
---But the threat was also from the nationalist right. Otto von Bismarck’s Kulturkampf was aimed directly at the Catholic Church, imposing state supervision of Catholic schools and seminaries and government appointment of bishops with no reference to Rome." America the Jesuit Review
 
 First Vatican Council Begins Healing the Wound
"The definition of papal infallibility at Vatican I ....  it was the establishment of the juridical position of the pope in “Pastor Aeternus” as “ordinary and immediate” pastor of the universal
church that worked a revolution in the governance and structure of the church and represented a significant departure from earlier practice....now the pope would, for the most part and increasingly, appoint bishops directly (and he could dismiss them, too). And while the definition gave significant new juridical powers to the papacy, the veneration of the pope—in his person as well as in his office—grew up initially around Pius IX and around every pope subsequently until it reached its apotheosis in the rock star status of St. John Paul II. This exaltation of the pope gave individual popes a moral and spiritual authority and a personal popularity and recognition unlike anything that had been seen before.
Pius IX Body on Display

Discipline in the church was extended, in new and significant ways, over national churches, religious orders, intellectual life and seminary training, and over the political and social engagement of the faithful in the name of Catholic Action—political movements in various countries directed by the hierarchy. All were enhanced by a dramatic expansion in the reach, authority and personnel of the Vatican congregations. Historians speak of the “devotional revolution” effected in the course of the 19th century....the church mirrored and imitated the great empires and national states of the 19th century, which used new means of communication and transportation to consolidate power, enforce unity and build bureaucracies. It did so, once again, out of a great sense of urgency, driven initially by the conviction that its very survival and existence were at stake."  America the Jesuit Review
 
PIUS IX STEPS ONTO WORLD STAGE
"He was notable for convoking the First Vatican Council in 1868.....He refused to leave Vatican City, declaring himself a "prisoner of the Vatican". His diplomacy mixes many failures with some successes such as Austria-Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Tuscany, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti... 
---In his encyclical Ubi primum he emphasized Mary's role in salvation. In 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin.  
---His 1864 Syllabus of Errors was a strong condemnation against... separation of church and state
---He centralized power in the church in the Holy See and Roman Curia, while also clearly defining the Pope's doctrinal authority. His chief legacy is the dogma of papal infallibility. 
---The election of Pius IX created much enthusiasm in Europe and elsewhere. "For the next twenty months after the election, Pius IX was the most popular man on the Italian peninsula, where the exclamation "Long life to Pius IX!" was often heard. English Protestants celebrated him as a "friend of light" and a reformer of Europe towards freedom and progress. He was elected without political influences from outside and in the best years of his life. He was pious, progressive, intellectual, decent, friendly, and open to everybody.
---Church life, religious vocations, new foundations and religious enthusiasm all flourished at the end of his pontificate." wiki
 
THEIR OWN SUMMARY
"....the outcome of the church’s near-death experience at the beginning of the century was the emergence of an organization at the end of the century that was incomparably stronger, more united (and more monolithic), with a more triumphalist sense of its own institutional identity than it had ever possessed." America the Jesuit Review
 
There you have it----in the words of Jesuits---Adventist Interpretation Vindicated.....from the Deadly Wound to the Healing....Pius IX began the Healing process by dabbling with baby steps back onto the world stage then with Vatican 1 there was a new pep in the step of Catholicism and Pope Pius IX was just about everywhere on the global political stage...
 
Also, The 70 years of Isaiah 23....1798-1868 with the commencing of Vatican I?
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: 
after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; 
make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
Isaiah 23:15-17