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Slapped Chinese Lady & Sheen’s Beatification
Figaro on Ice
I hope you have some spare time to watch this amazing performance of this young figure-skater.
Happy New Year!
Keep up the good work,
P.H., Brazil
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Sheen’s Suspended Beatification
Happy Epiphany, 3 Kings!
I pray all is well!
There has been much controversy on the late Archbishop F.J. Sheen canonization...especially in the New York area.
Would you know if the following information (here, here and here) is something that is to be a major concern on the character of Arch. Sheen and the battle and delay of another controversial canonization.
Have a Blessed Christmas Season and Happy New Year!
God bless you,
In Jesus, Mother Mary and St. Joseph,
E.D.M.
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TIA responds:
Dear E.D.M.,
Thank you for sending the links to these videos, which confirms the articles we have printed on the progressivist path that Archbishop Sheen ardently took after the Council.
He became an enthusiastic champion of the new ecumenism, speaking to Catholics and Protestants in large gatherings, encouraging his priests to study Protestant Biblical commentaries.
Like Mother Teresa would later affirm, he declared that all religions lead to salvation: “The good Hindu, the good Buddhist, the good Confucianist, the good Moslem are all saved by Christ and not by Buddhism or Islam or Confucianism but through their sacraments, their prayers, their asceticism, their morality, their good life.” (Autobiography, Treasure in Clay p. 148)
He promoted many inter-faith meetings and events as Bishop of Rochester. When Billy Graham went to Rochester to preach, Sheen urged all his staff to attend as a gesture of good will and later became a personal friend of the Protestant heretic. In 1972, he traveled to Orange County, California, to preach at Protestant Robert Schuller's Garden Grove Community Church, where 6,000 persons came to hear Fulton Sheen's sermon.
At the Council Sheen was one of the American Bishops who took an active role in promoting religious liberty, as established in the Declaration of Independence, a liberal position that had earned the condemnation of pre-Conciliar Pontiffs (see condemnation of religious liberty here; of liberty of conscience here). This indicates that Sheen was already strongly infected with Americanism even before the Council.
He, who had preached vigorously against Communism during the Cold War years which made his name among conservative Catholics, took a turn for the left in this field also. In his Autobiography, he did not fear to praise Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara, known in Brazil as the Red Archbishop, In the name of helping the poor, Camara supported the communist movements in Brazil and is considered as a precursor of Liberation Theology. As shown by Patrick Odou, Sheen's plan of self-management and co-ownership of companies by the workers was essentially Socialist.
In his Autobiography, Sheen even went so far as to defend the "biological evolution" of the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, whose work had been condemned before the Council. He also predicted that one day Chardin would be recognized as the "spiritual genius of the 20th century."
Sheen left Rome determined to become “the first American Bishop to attempt to implement in a diocese the full teachings of the Second Vatican Council." And that is exactly what he tried to do.
All this would seem to make him a perfect candidate for ‘sainthood” in the Conciliar Church, entering the ranks of the Vatican II and Post-Vatican II Popes who also championed religious liberty, Liberation Theology and socialist programs, ecumenism, evolution, etc.
It seems that the only thing that could stop the process cold, as happened, would be evidence of Sheen covering up for pedophile priests. In fact, reports of such action were being circulated shortly after the beatification process was announced. In face of the continuing scandals of cover-up by Bishops, it would be bad timing to canonize Sheen if indeed he were guilty.
In view of his consistent progressivist action and thinking after the Council, we doubt strongly that it was his supposed "conservative" stand that stopped the process.
Cordially,
TIA correspondence desk
Posted January 7, 2020
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The opinions expressed in this section - What People Are Commenting - do not necessarily express those of TIA
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I have read both your comments on Pope’s Francis slapping that Chinese lady (here and here).
The criticism that I heard and read about your position is that it is unilateral, since it takes the side of the Chinese lady and does not acknowledge that she was wrong by pulling the Pope violently toward her.
I wonder what you have to say about this.
Thank you for your time.
J.D.S.
TIA responds:
J.D.S.,
We readily acknowledge that the lady should not have pulled the Pope’s hand the way she did. There is not any doubt about that. It is so elementary that this criticism seems more an excuse to attack us rather than a valid objection.
We did not mention it because we approve it, but because that this was not the point in focus.
The great unilateral flaw in this incident was that almost the entire media did not mention what was the real intention of the Chinese lady.
Our aim was to restore balance and justice in the story by explaining that she was waiting there to ask the Pope for help for the persecuted Catholics in China. We see that Francis’ fury was ignited when he heard the lady’s message because he knows full well the role he played in the betrayal of those Catholics.
The fact that she inappropriately pulled the Pope's arm too strongly can be explained (although not justified) by her nervousness. She was running a real risk of being ignored and set aside by Francis – as in fact she was – and also of suffering reprisals if she would return to China.
Post factum (after we posted our articles) it came to our attention that Msgr. Ferrari had already commented on the episode along the same lines. He knows the Chinese priest who oriented the lady to approach the Pope. Prudently, he did not reveal the name of the priest to avoid communist retaliations.
We hope that these explanations resolve your doubts.
Cordially,
TIA correspondence desk