Rick Santorum and Pope Benedict Talking Personal Relationship With Jesus

I saw this the other day Catholic Santorum's Rise Is Evangelical Progress: Noah Feldman



Once the caucus votes were cast, Santorum again spoke in strikingly evangelical terms. In ..explaining how he had found the strength to conduct his 99-county campaign, he said that "when I was getting up in the morning to take on that challenge, I've required a strength from another particular friendship, one that is sacred." There is nothing un-Catholic in this, of course. But the friendship of a personal savior who walks beside you as you perform your daily tasks is a staple of American evangelicalism of the Tim Tebow variety -- not the austere, rational religion of Pope Benedict XVI...

Well I am not sure of that. As to Tim Tebow theology on the subject , I am not sure we know enough about his view.

However ; it does seem the Church of novenas, saints for every cause to intercede and pray for us, daily devotions, etc has not been actually abolished by Pope Benedict.

Now there are interesting valid discussions about Santorum recently ,and if he is really more "Catholic" or more Evangelical in world outlooks.

However besides world outlook ,I really wonder if some are still not used to the language.

A language that has again come much more common place in Catholic talk from the Charismatic renewal, to the neo - catechumenal movement , to a much more Pentecostal Charismatic outlook of immigrant Catholics from African and Latin American.

Again it's not all language by any means in these discussions. However I think it's playing a role. Of course "having a personal relationship with Jesus" or "accepting Christ as Lord and Savior" can be still mean different things in a a Catholic versus evangelical context at times.

However often they can be very much like alike. We see this in a particular depressing way when this relationships does not seem to involve a lot of "obeying" all those rules of "religion" AKA Scripture , Tradition etc .

I think Catholic's have always had this language but in the United States it had to be reclaimed a tad.



First a few words from some recent Popes and a relationship with Jesus.

The task which awaits you—the new evangelization—demands that you present, with fresh enthusiasm and new methods, the eternal and unchanging content of the heritage of the Christian faith. As you well know it is not a matter of merely passing on a doctrine, but rather of a personal and profound meeting with the Saviour. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Commissioning Families, Neo-Catechumenal Way. 1991.

Sometimes even Catholics have lost or never had the chance to experience Christ personally: not Christ as a mere ‘paradigm’ or ‘value’, but as the living Lord, ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, L’Osservatore Romano (English Edition of the Vatican Newspaper), March 24, 1993, p.3.

Conversion means accepting, by a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple. —Ibid., Encyclical Letter: Mission of the Redeemer (1990) 46.

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. —POPE BENEDICT XVI; Encyclical Letter: Deus Caritas Est, "God is Love"; 1.

Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God. —Ibid. 28.

Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ. —Ibid. 34.

...we can be witnesses only if we know Christ first hand, and not only through others — from our own life, from our personal encounter with Christ. Finding him really in our life of faith, we become witnesses and can contribute to the novelty of the world, to eternal life. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Vatican City, January 20th, 2010, Zenit

While hearing about Christ through the Bible or through other people can introduce a person to Christian belief [Pope Benedict said], "it must then be ourselves (who) become personally involved in an intimate and deep relationship with Jesus." —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Catholic News Service, October 4th, 2006

More recently

Prayer has its center and founds its roots in the most profound being of the person … However, the full realization of man’s search is found only in the God who reveals himself. Prayer, which is the opening and raising of the heart to God, becomes a personal relationship with Him” (Pope Benedict XVI General Audience, St. Peter’s Square, 11 May 2011

Also See from Februaruy 18th 2011 Pope: Preach a Personal Relationship With Christ

Also Faith,” said Pope Benedict, “opens us to know and accept the true identity of Jesus, His novelty and uniqueness, His Word, as the source of life, to live a personal relationship with him.” Pope Benedict XVI's Sunday Angelus 14/08/2011

Needless to say I am not advocating the Santorum is the PERFECT Catholic politico. I just find the fact that some people still think the "language" is evangelical and not Catholic interesting.