Absolution Under fire.

Discussion in 'Books, movies, links, websites.' started by padraig, Oct 2, 2017.

  1. padraig

    padraig Powers

    I have started reading a very interesting but so very,very sad book by Father William Corby, 'Absolution under fire'

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    'William Corby’s compassionate, sometimes humorous, and articulate account of his time as a chaplain in the Civil War is simply one of the best memoirs of the conflict. For three years he was with his brigade under fire, ministered to their emotional and spiritual needs, and was with several men before their executions. At Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottslyvania, and more, Corby was there. Twice president of Notre Dame University, the statue of Father Corby at Gettysburg was the first non-general statue erected on the site. It stands on the very rock where he delivered absolution to members of the Irish Brigade on the second day of the battle while scores of others watched. At the twenty-fifth anniversary of Gettysburg, Corby got up to speak: “I happened to make this statement—‘Here is what is left of us; where are the others?’ when I filled up very unexpectedly and could not speak for several minutes. I had struck a very tender chord. The celebrant, although eleven years older than I, wept like a child, and the brave old warriors before me who had stood the shock of many battles also wept.” Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.'


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    Last edited: Oct 2, 2017
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  2. padraig

    padraig Powers



     
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  3. Heidi

    Heidi Powers

    Thanks for posting this! I love US Civil War history.
     
  4. I'm hearing reliably that in some churches today in Ireland general absolution is being administered without the need for individual confession.
    This is contrary to church teaching which allows for such events only in exceptional circumstances where no alternative exists and there is danger of death.
    Alas as with so much in the Roman Catholic Church the breakdown of ecclesiastical discipline continues apace.
     
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  5. padraig

    padraig Powers

    Yes it is a bad mistake
     
  6. padraig

    padraig Powers

    Fr Corby reminds me of older generations whose Faith was as rock solid as the mountains. It reminds me of my grandmothers and parents, as much a part of them as the air they breathed.

    We today come from a much different world than theirs. Pope Benedict when he was Cardinal Ratzinger ; he said that the Church of the future would have to be a much more mystical Church. We would only keep our Faith through much prayer. Instead of our Faith being like a rock it has to be like a river. We have to constantly draw from the waters of life.

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    https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/future-christianity-cardinal-ratzinger/

    ON THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY
    Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – Pope Benedict XVI

    1October-2001 — ZENIT.org News Agency
    “Above All, We Should Be Missionaries”
    VATICAN CITY, (ZENIT.org-Avvenire).- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has a blunt message for Catholics today. “We cannot calmly accept the rest of humanity falling back again into paganism,” says the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in “God and the World,” the new book-interview he granted German journalist Peter Seewald. St. Paul´s in Italy recently published the book. Following are some of the book´s questions and answers that were highlighted by the Italian newspaper Avvenire.

    • Q: Many years ago, you spoke in prophetic terms about the Church of the future. At the time you said, “it will be reduced in its dimensions, it will be necessary to start again. However, from this test a Church would emerge that will have been strengthened by the process of simplification it experienced, by its renewed capacity to look within itself.” What are the prospects that await us in Europe?

    • Cardinal Ratzinger: To begin with, the Church “will be numerically reduced.” When I made this affirmation, I was overwhelmed with reproaches of pessimism.

    And today, when all prohibitions seem obsolete, among them those that refer to what has been called pessimism and which, often, is nothing other than healthy realism, increasingly more [people] admit the decrease in the percentage of baptized Christians in today´s Europe: in a city like Magdeburg, Christians are only 8% of the total population, including all Christian denominations. Statistical data shows irrefutable tendencies. In this connection, in certain cultural areas, there is a reduction in the possibility of identification between people and Church. We must take note, with simplicity and realism. The mass Church may be something lovely, but it is not necessarily the Church´s only way of being. The Church of the first three centuries was small, without being, by this fact, a sectarian community. On the contrary, it was not closed in on itself, but felt a great responsibility in regard to the poor, the sick-in regard to all. There was room in its heart for all those nourished by a monotheist faith, in search of a promise. This awareness of not being a closed club, but of being open to the totality of the community, has always been a constant component of the Church. The process of numerical reduction, which we are experiencing today, will also have to be addressed precisely by exploring new ways of openness to the outside, of new ways of participation by those who are outside the community of believers. I have nothing against people who, though they never enter a church during the year, go to Christmas midnight Mass, or go on the occasion of some other celebration, because this is also a way of coming close to the light. Therefore, there must be different forms of involvement and participation.

    • Q: However, can the Church really renounce its aspiration to be a Church of the majority?
    • Cardinal Ratzinger: We must take note of the decrease in our lines but, likewise, we must continue to be an open Church. The Church cannot be a closed, self-sufficient group.

    Above all, we should be missionaries, in the sense of proposing again to society those values that are the foundation of the constitutive form that society has given itself, and which are at the base of the possibility to build a really human social community. The Church will continue to propose the great universal human values. Because, if law no longer has common moral foundations, it collapses insofar as it is law. From this point of view, the Church has a universal responsibility. As the Pope says, missionary responsibility means, precisely, to really attempt a new evangelization. We cannot calmly accept the rest of humanity falling back again into paganism. We must find the way to take the Gospel, also, to nonbelievers. The Church must tap all her creativity so that the living force of the Gospel will not be extinguished.

    • Q: What changes will the Church undergo?
    • Cardinal Ratzinger: I think we will have to be very cautious when it comes to the risk of forecasts, because historical development has always produced many surprises. Futurology often crashes.

    For example, no one risked forecasting the fall of the Communist regimes. World society will change profoundly, but we are still not in a position to predict what the numerical decrease of the Western world will imply, which is still dominant, what Europe´s new face will be like, given the migratory currents, what civilization, and what social forms will be imposed. What is clear, in any event, is the different composition of the potential on which the Western Church will be sustained. What is most important, in my opinion, is to look at the “essence,” to use an expression of Romano Guardini. It is necessary to avoid elaborating fantastic pre-constructions of something that could manifest itself very differently and that we cannot prefabricate in the meanderings of our brain, but to concentrate on the essential, which later might find new ways of incarnating itself. A process of simplification is important, which will enable us to distinguish between what is the master beam of our doctrine, of our faith, what is of perennial value in it. It is important to propose again the great underlying constants in their fundamental components, the questions on God, salvation, hope, life, especially what has a basic ethical value.

     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2017
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  7. garabandal

    garabandal Powers

    San Sebastian [de Garabandal]
    23 June 1962

    "The Virgin has told us that the world continues the same, that it has not changed at all, that few will see God. There are so few that it causes the Virgin much sorrow that it does not change. The Virgin has told us that the chastisement is coming; [as] the world is not changing, the cup is filling up. How sad the Virgin was! Although she did not let us see it, because the Virgin loves us [so much] and she suffers alone, since she is so good. Be good, everyone so that the Virgin will be happy. She has told us that we who are good should pray for those who are bad; we should pray to God for the world, for those who do not know Him. Be good, [be] very good."

    Maria Dolores Mazon, 13 years
    Jacinta Gonzalez, 13 years
     
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  8. padraig

    padraig Powers

    In my own small world, the people that I see this is the truth. Far from converting the wander further and further from God. In fact they run from Him.
     
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  9. I must take issue with this.
    What authenticity has the Roman Catholic Church given to these alleged messages?
    The church teaches that Christ redeemed the world.
    Claiming that only a few will see God dilutes that message.
     
  10. As God is everywhere it is not possible to run or wander away from God.
     
  11. garabandal

    garabandal Powers

    You can take issue all you want.
    Mais je ne me soucie pas vraiment
     
  12. Dolours

    Dolours Guest

    I think that your interpretation of that sentence is too literal.
     
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  13. padraig

    padraig Powers

    Psalm 139:7-10

    Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

     
  14. padraig

    padraig Powers

    You know it is a very strange thing to write but I believe God is even present in hell. Strange.
     
  15. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

    Redemption is not free. It is not a given. It must be merited through cooperation with God's sanctifying grace. Even Jesus said: 'when I return, will I find any faithful"?
     
  16. Fatima

    Fatima Powers

    Seriously? It's not possible to wander in mortal sin? What bible you reading from?
     
  17. padraig

    padraig Powers

    Father Corby mentions at one point that the priests has a very large tent , almost the size of a Circus Tent to say mass and to hear confessions. But although the ground was very,very muddy the men still knelt in the mud for mass and confession. So they arose their trousers covered in new mud. A little thing but I just find it quite amazing and touching. I can;t help comparing it to Churches today were people will often not even kneel on rich carpets or spotless wooden floors even at the Consecration. But I am a grumpy old gripe. :D:D:D:eek:

    Their patriotism, Fr Corby's in particular is just so striking. The men of the Irish Brigade were pretty much wiped out. Their deaths were the third highest in the entire Union Army. Fr Corby say at mass one time only 500 were left alive and the Father asked the question,' Where are the rest?' Whereupon they all began crying like children. They knew they were going to die , but they were happy to die in their many thousands for their country. I am lost in admiration. Great, great Patriotism It reminds me of the words of Jesus,

    'Greater love hath no man than this that he lays down his life for his friends'.

     
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  18. Mac

    Mac "To Jesus, through Mary"

    Ahh ,the Wolftones.
    Before I was married I use to listen to this band ,and sink the odd Beer or two.:D

     
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  19. AED

    AED Powers

    I am going to call on Fr Corby and the Irish Brigsde to intercede for our beloved Church and for our poor countries. Especially USA where some think a new civil war is brewing. So glad to know about them.
     
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  20. Light

    Light Guest

    Padraig

    I thought about this also. My conclusion is that is one of the very many things our human minds will not ever understand (at least in this life).

    I do not think we can understand except in a very feeble way (i) the nature of God (ii) eternity (iii) how one can exist before creation (time & space were created).

    God Bless
     
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