We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Influence of Relativism on Church and the Eucharist
FREE Catholic Classes
Interview With Monsignor Nicola Bux
BARI, Italy, DEC. 22, 2005 (Zenit) - A consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has studied the influence of relativism on the relationship of Catholic communities with the Eucharist.
Monsignor Nicola Bux's conclusions have been published in a book in Italian, "Il Signore dei Misteri. Eucaristia e Relativismo" (The Lord of Mysteries: The Eucharist and Relativism), with a preface by Cardinal Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice.
Monsignor Bux is also a consultor of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, a professor of comparative liturgy, vice president of Bari's Ecumenical Institute, and a consultor of the international theological review Communio.
He has also published a dozen other books, including a 1996 work presented in Rome by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
In this interview with us, Monsignor Bux talks about the influence of relativism on the Church and on the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Q: The Eucharist and relativism: the title of your book is thought-provoking but disturbing. What do you mean exactly by linking the Eucharist with relativism?
Monsignor Bux: The book points out numerous attempts to diminish the truth of the sacrament. One of the most serious is to deny that Jesus Christ is present in the species of bread and wine on which the priest pronounces the words of consecration.
On the contrary, the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms in Article 283 the efficacy of Christ's words and the power of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately this tendency [to deny Christ's presence] is also widespread among priests and catechists.
Q: "The crisis of Christianity is the crisis of its claim to truth," warn the Church's adversaries, as you write in your book. Is this true?
Monsignor Bux: This affirmation is true if one looks at the interventions of some ecclesiastics who are concerned not to wound sensitivity or who are even convinced that faith in Jesus Christ is not the only truth that saves man, but only one among others.
This affirmation is not true if one listens to the interventions of Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops united to him.
Q: At times Catholics themselves find it difficult to celebrate the sacraments with joy. What is happening?
Monsignor Bux: It is necessary to speak about the sacraments as the prolongation of the Lord's presence, who has come to love us as Father, to adopt us as orphans, to give us the strength of his Spirit, to nourish us with the Bread of his Life, to forgive the sins that weigh down and condition life, to cure our physical and spiritual illnesses, to give us the capacity to serve him and the people in the Church and the world, to establish a relationship of true and eternal love between man and woman, similar to his love.
Each one of these actions is a gesture that Christ fulfilled in his earthly life and continues to fulfill in his immortal life through his ecclesial body. We call such effective gestures and words "mysteries" and "sacraments," in keeping with the Greek and Latin tradition.
They give true joy as they renew, cure and give back to man the capacity to overcome evil and death. The liturgy should be capable of making one live like this, without trusting too much in words but in the eloquence and efficacy of the signs.
God has become incarnate, has taken on human nature to tell us that he saves us through the matter of water, of bread, of oil, etc.
Q: You say that there is "disturbance" in the face of Catholic thought. Why?
Monsignor Bux: St. Paul says: We have Christ's thought. The truth is Catholic because it is Christ that lives and it always has value, wherever it is and in all places -- as the medieval monk Vincenzo de Lerins said -- and does not conform to passing fashions. Wedding the latter, one ends up by being a widower.
Contact
Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org
CA, US
Catholic Online - Publisher, 661 869-1000
info@yourcatholicvoice.org
Keywords
Eucharist, Relativism, Catholic, Bux, Faith, Catholic
More Catholic PRWire
Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716
A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain
Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.
The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul
A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.
Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell
My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz
Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell
Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online
Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online
Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online
State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online
Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online
2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online
Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online
Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online
Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online
Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online
Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online
Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online
Full Circle
Robert Gieb
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite
Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony
Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell
World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online
Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA
Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online
A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe
Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly
Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard
The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely
Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow
A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow
Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea
Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard
Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol
Edging God Out
Paul Sposite
Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow
George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online
Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell
Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey
Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite
Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol
Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol
Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online
Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online
Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online
Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online
Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online
Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online
Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol