Source: www.cwnews.com (Catholic World News)

Quote:

POPE TO ADD NEW BOOKS TO SCRIPTURAL CANON

VATICAN, May 31, 04 (CWNews.com) -- Vatican sources indicate that Pope John Paul II is planning to issue an apostolic letter in which he proposes that two of the so-called "Gnostic Gospels" (link) be included in future editions of Catholic Bibles.

The apostolic letter, said to be entitled Thesaurus Apostolici Lucis (Treasury of Apostolic Light), also proclaims a special year of dedication to the cause of religious unity, beginning 1 January 2005 and running through the same date following year. The Pope will ask Christians throughtout the world to pray particularly for world peace and understanding between religions.

The most startling message of Thesaurus Apostolici Lucis however is the Pope's proposal that the Gospel of Mary and the Apocryphon of James be added to the scriptural canon. Both works belong to a body of early Christian writings called "Gnostic Gospels," which were maligned for centuries by Church authorities as esoteric and dangerous. But in recent years, new scholarship combined with an openness to change have worked towards the rehabilitation of these lost writings -- or "treasures" (thesauri), as Pope John Paul calls them.

This dramatic gesture is thought by some Vatican observers to be an attempt to reign-in a fascination with Gnostic writings that seems to be steadily growing among the Catholic faithful. Best-sellers like The DaVinci Code (link) and even works of popular non-fiction draw heavily from the arcana of Gnostic sources, and Rome would have good reason to be concerned.

In a recent address to seminarians at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pope observed that he has always encouraged the study of the ecumenical Christian works. He lamented that the so-called Gnostic Gospels were condemned so harshly by the early Church Fathers, and said that these works "in the present historical and theological context can risk being wrongly devalued, and therefore no longer taught to the younger generation."

Making numerous references to the teachings of Vatican II, the Pope insisted that it is a mistake to believe that the Gnostic Gospels are incompatible with orthodox Christian belief. On the contrary, he said, these works are natural complements to the traditional biblical canon. While the traditionally recognized books form the "framework," the Gnostic Gospels foster a private devotion and a quiet encounter with Christ. "These early Christian testimonies, precisely because they build upon the Church's experience, are an exquisitely contemplative devotion," the Pope emphasized -- to rounding applause.

-- John (JcSsun@yahoo.com), April 01, 2004

Answers

bump

-- (bump@bump.bump), April 01, 2004.

This is an April Fools joke, right? I didnt see an article on CWN at all concernign new cannonisations.Can you perchance post the link?

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), April 01, 2004.

Thanks Zarove, I forgot it was April fools day. I actually thought so loony was trying to present this as true.

Duhhh!

Dano

-- Dan Garon (boethius61@yahoo.com), April 01, 2004.

happy april fools day!!!

-- paul h (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), April 01, 2004.

I read this and I immediately looked out my window expecting to see the angels and VERY large clouds rolling in and the sound of a trumpet in the distance...be still my heart...LOL

-- lesley (martchas@hotmail.com), April 01, 2004.

Well, I've got to say I don't have a very good sense of humor apparently. I started reading this and had the image of the walls of a church crumbling. Better get back to working on the "having faith" aspect of life!

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), April 01, 2004.

That was a good one! It reminds me of last April Fools Day, when a friend told me that the Rosary was going to have 20 mysteries, instead of the 15 it has had for centuries. I almost fell for that one too!

-- Nick (nixplace39@hotmail.com), April 01, 2004.

very funny nick,

except that there really ARE 20 mysteries in the rosary. The luminous mysteries were added to the joyful, sorrowful, and triumphant mysteries to make a total of four sets or twenty mysteries.

-- paul h (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), April 01, 2004.

Major error in the joke. The News posting is dated two months into the future on May 31, 2003.

-- Pat Delaney (pat@patdelaney.net), April 02, 2004.

Dear Pat: maybe there is not an error. After all, the author of such joke can claim that he is already in Eternity, where there is neither past nor future. LOL!!

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), April 02, 2004.

Wow, you really had me going. My heart started racing, my palms started sweating. YOU BAD BAD BOY!!!

Gail

P.S. Clever, though, very clever! LOL

-- Gail (rothfarms@socket.net), April 02, 2004.

"very funny nick, except that there really ARE 20 mysteries in the rosary."

Oh. Then the April Fools article above isn't all that far-fetched, is it? (Notice all of the "I almost fell for it" comments above. Catholics have been conditioned over these past few decades to expect constant changes).

-- Nick (nixplace39@hotmail.com), April 05, 2004.

You are equating a mere devotion with the eternal Word of God? Catholics have experienced changes in every generation for the past 2,000 years because the Church is a living organism, commissioned by God to meet the needs of all peoples in all times and places. Anything living must change over time, or die. What a tremendous work of the Holy Spirit that the Word of God and the doctrines of His Holy Church remain constant and true, even through the thousands of changes which have necessarily occurred in every other aspect of Church life and government continuously over the centuries!

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), April 05, 2004.

I agree. The Rosary is a devotion (the luminous mysteries were only a suggested change, anyway) and the Word of God should not be changed. So, it would be wrong, to give a hypothetical example as unlikely as it may be, to change our Lord's words at the Consecration, would it not?

-- Nick (nixplace39@hotmail.com), April 05, 2004.

Nick,

If it is wrong to change the Lord's words over the consecration, then then Tridentine rite is, and always was, in grievious error.

I would not generally echo Paul's emphasis on "the Church must change or die." That can be interpreted many ways; in one way, that very statement was condemned by Pius X's "Pascendi," which I'm sure you are familiar with.

But there is another sense in which the living Church must, and always has from her very first days, sculpt and mold the immutable truths of Christian faith, not for "political" reasons, but in accord with authentic human developments in study and worship. The novelty of Eucharistic adoration is one such development. So are the Holy Father's 'Luminous Mysteries'.

Taking seriously the traditions of the high medieval Church, alongside contemporary developments, go hand-in-hand. Faith's belief gaurantees their essential continuity and complementarity. If you set them in opposition, condemning one or the other, your faith is not Catholic faith.

-- anon (ymous@god.bless), April 06, 2004.