Benny Hinn Crusade In India Attracts 4.8 Million

[M.SIGGA]

For some reason the link was working today on my computer. The same this was said in another article about the canonization mass of St. Juan Diego - Intergrating culture is an important tool of evangelism and some Catholics today need to realize this is how Christianity has always spread. The only difference is that in the West it was done to the Pagan Greeks, Gauls, Celts, Slavs, and Romans.

The Malankara Christians probably would have been unpset anyway because the Mass was done according to the Roman Rite, and this particular Cardinal is from the Roman Rite. Her canonization mass also was an action of the Roman Rite, not the Malankara Church.

In 1963, Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium (nos. 37-40) approved inculturated liturgies, but the Tridentine Mass could not be paganized because Latin, as noted by Pius XII, was "an effective safeguard against the corruption of true doctrine."(2) Inculturation must involve the language of a particular culture.

Cardinal Lourdusamy, chief architect of Hinduizing the Church in India, was a co-celebrant with Pope John Paul at the Hinduized Mass of Beatification. Although taking place in Rome, not India, it was inculturated following another rule of Abp. Marini. Monsignor Michael Wren, a commentator on the Knights of Columbus-funded EWTN broadcast of the ceremonies, said Marini "has explained that there is an attempt to incorporate cultural expressions from the nations from which new saints or blesseds come." The matter-of-fact patter of Monsignor Wren and co-host Raymond Arroyo added a surreal air to the broadcast as they seemed anaesthetized, unable even to express surprise at the obvious novelties. Their nonchalance helped tranquillize viewers into accepting paganism as a nice cultural touch. The mark of a Modernist is his love of novelty. In his condemnation of Modernism, Pope St. Pius X exclaimed, "Far, far from the clergy be the love of novelty! God hateth the proud and the obstinate mind."(30)

It disses the Pope, a Cardinal, the Knights of Columbus, and EWTN. This article is dangerous and misleading and bias and it looks a little bit SSPX along with the rest of the website.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Yep, that's the article I read a while back. As I said before it was trash. It was worse than SSPX in my opinion.

[Laudate_Dominum]

I was just thinking. If the church approved some kind of Indian stuff for their Masses I don't see why it's that big of a thing. First of all it's absurd to say that the Vatican would approve pagan rituals, they aren't stupid! So the thing that they are cultural things and don't imply hindu stuff is probably true.

And I think the Church would want this because historically different cultures had culturally adapted Liturgies (to some extent), that is part of why there are so many rites in the Church. After Trent the Church in the West was mostly consolidated. Maybe the Church wants there to be more liturgical pluralism like there used to be. I don't see what's so scandalous about that when you consider Church history. This is part of the way the Church has been from the beginning.

But of course this should be a prudent thing, it could be taken too far no doubt. I trust the Church's decisions.

[M.SIGGA]

Halos are an example of how Roman culturalism was intergrated into Christianity. Only gods, goddesses were pictured with the Halo behind the head because it was a belief that if a deity appeared to people, the sign it was a deity or a demi-god was that the sun would stand still and follow the person until the deity disappeared. Christmas trees, wedding rings, Yule logs, the unusual placement of our Feast Days is another example. This is why Jehovah's Witnesses and some members of the Church of Christ obstain from these practices to separate themselves from "Romanism." As Catholics we understand that some aspects of culture can be appreciated and intergrated and not conflict with our Faith.

[Hananiah]

I realize that inculturation has a proper place in liturgical development. However, if the people percieve the changes as paganization, I don't think the changes should be forced on them.

[phatcatholic]

btw, if anyone wants to know how big of a wack-job Benny Hinn is, just check out the info i have in the Anointing of the Sick entry on the Word-Faith Movement

[the_rev]

He can attract millions, but yet we can only attrract a few 100 for weekend mass, usually 200 per mass!