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The cancellation of the papal trip to Dubai is a blessing in disguise.
The cancellation is a blessing, even as the cause is regrettable. The trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate conference would have reduced the Church to an NGO and the Vicar of Christ to her chief activist. Catholics ought to pray for the Holy Father’s recovery from illness — and in thanksgiving that he is not going to Dubai.
The intense inward focus of the Synod on Synodality for a synodal Church marked the death of the evangelical urgency of Evangelii Gaudium. The 2019 Amazon synod’s revelation that the Latin American Church was still underserving the Amazon region marked the death of the great continental mission envisioned for Latin America at Aparecida in 2007. In similar fashion, the papal trip to Dubai for the U.N. climate conference would have marked a significant erosion of the Church’s identity.
Those are strong words. But it was Pope Francis who said as much the day after his election as pope in March 2013.
“If we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord,” he preached that day, contrasting an NGO, a non-governmental organization, with the identity of the Church.
“When the Church wants to boast of its quantity and makes organizations, and makes offices, and become somewhat bureaucratic, then the Church loses its main substance and is in danger of turning into an NGO,” the Holy Father said a month later. “And the Church is not an NGO.”
Continued below.
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The cancellation is a blessing, even as the cause is regrettable. The trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate conference would have reduced the Church to an NGO and the Vicar of Christ to her chief activist. Catholics ought to pray for the Holy Father’s recovery from illness — and in thanksgiving that he is not going to Dubai.
The intense inward focus of the Synod on Synodality for a synodal Church marked the death of the evangelical urgency of Evangelii Gaudium. The 2019 Amazon synod’s revelation that the Latin American Church was still underserving the Amazon region marked the death of the great continental mission envisioned for Latin America at Aparecida in 2007. In similar fashion, the papal trip to Dubai for the U.N. climate conference would have marked a significant erosion of the Church’s identity.
Those are strong words. But it was Pope Francis who said as much the day after his election as pope in March 2013.
“If we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord,” he preached that day, contrasting an NGO, a non-governmental organization, with the identity of the Church.
“When the Church wants to boast of its quantity and makes organizations, and makes offices, and become somewhat bureaucratic, then the Church loses its main substance and is in danger of turning into an NGO,” the Holy Father said a month later. “And the Church is not an NGO.”
Continued below.
The Dangers Pope Francis Avoided by Not Going to Dubai
COMMENTARY: Catholics ought to pray for the Holy Father’s recovery from illness — and in thanksgiving that he is not going to Dubai.
