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| Somebody take away his mike....PLEASE! |
Some maintain that nothing has changed with respect to the discipline that governs the access to the Sacraments for the divorced and remarried, and that the law and the pastoral practice and obviously the doctrine remains the same; others maintain instead that much has changed and that there are many new openings and possibilities. The question is for one person, a Catholic, that wants to know: Are there new concrete possibilities, that did not exist before the publication of the Exhortation or not.The pope's answer? “Io posso dire sì. Punto.” In English: “I can say yes. Period.” (Source)
The pope refers to Cardinal Schonborn's statement found here. Schonborn's gushing review of Amoris Laetitia is far from my experience in reading the exhortation and I haven't even reached the infamous Chapter 8 yet. I found this statement absolute nonsense:
Pope Francis is convinced that the Christian vision of marriage and the family also has an unchanged force of attraction. But it demands “a healthy dose of self-criticism”: “We also need to be humble and realistic, acknowledging that at times the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people has helped contribute to today’s problematic situation” “We have also proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families. This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God’s grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite” (AL 36).That's ridiculous. Back in the '50s when I was a child families were much more intact and happy. Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Make Room for Daddy, Leave it to Beaver, etc. may have been somewhat idealistic, but they were also realistic. I could identify with those families, because they looked like my family with a stay-at-home mom and a dad who went to work every day. They ate dinner together and engaged in family activities shared by all the members of the family. Those TV families also had struggles and problems, but they loved each other and worked through them. And they didn't live in a country that was sending Dad's job overseas and making it impossible to live on one income.
Co-habitation and divorce were rare. The culture supported families especially the authority of parents. You didn't have schools teaching children to be little unbridled sex-pots who treated their parents with contempt. School administrators didn't have parents arrested if they opposed the LGBTQXYZ agenda being promoted to Kindergarteners and had highschoolers reading pornography.
And our family was by no means unique. Most families were intact, even among the poor and minorities. It took liberals with their welfare programs that rewarded teenagers for having babies and set them up in their own households with Uncle Sammy as Daddy to devastate so many families. And did the Church stand up to proclaim the truth and fight the prevalent evils that entered the culture during the next generation (feminism, abortion, contraception, pornography, etc.)? No, in many cases the Church actively enabled evil by silence or complicity. Liberal bishops and priests along with dissenting laity helped bring us to the situations we face today.
The pope would have us believe that the Church has never been merciful, that the confessional up until now was a "torture chamber" with the penitent kneeling before Torquemada, that somehow "regular" families are composed of saints and expecting real-life couples to live up to that "idealistic" vision is impossible. Sorry, but that is just plain baloney!
It is true that the last few generations have been coddled and trained (I mean that word deliberately) to be narcissistic, selfish, and immature. They don't keep promises because they've been taught that there is no truth and everything is relative, so when situations change they can pick a new reality, a new truth. Like Pilate, they sneer. How many times have I heard, "That's your truth."
Is the solution to affirm those irresponsible traits? I don't think so.
If anyone has failed to "inspire trust in God's grace" it is this pope and his clique of liberals. Yes, God's grace is sufficient to help couples live in an indissoluble marriage until death. They can live with a spouse "in good times and bad" when their partner gets cancer, is disfigured in an accident, has Alzheimers, becomes impotent, or just no longer attracts. God's grace can help couples who are "promise-keepers" to keep their promises when times are challenging.
Is this document part of the solution? Or is it one more excuse setting up Church doctrine on marriage and the family as an unrealistic ideal that God couldn't possibly expect anyone to meet, that must be changed, not formally, but by "pastoral" practice, an act of hypocrisy to make Caiaphas blush.
In the first century after Christ, we were a Church of martyrs -- martyrs who went singing to their gruesome deaths. Today what are we? A Church of crybabies whining that life is "just too hard" and the Church needs to change its doctrines, because who can possibly keep those rigid commandments that call us to forego adultery, fornication, same-sex sodomy, and other evils.
Somebody accused me the other day of being angry. I am! I'm angry at Church leaders who are robbing my grandchildren of the one, true faith and are setting them up to be eaten by the wolves. These false shepherds talk about love and mercy, but their actions show neither. May God forgive them and rescue us soon from their reptilian grip!
AMEN Mary Ann!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Frankfurt School concocted a false association between the 50s family and the racism one would find in American society back then. So when the 60s "freed" the blacks via civil rights, the welfare society that was simultaneously introduced got to bask in the positive association with "civil rights". So now that we are seeing the negative consequences of the welfare programs, the progressives tell us we can't "turn the clock back" to those bad old 1950s.
ReplyDeleteRecommended reading - Alan Keyes' "Masters of the Dream". He explains that the black family was indeed much stronger before the 1960s and argues compellingly for a rewind. That doesn't have to mean a return to segregation and Jim Crow, which was, after all, more indulged by the Democrats than anyone else.
I was also puzzled by the Pope's comment that the confessional up to now has been a "torture chamber". I've never encountered a confessor with the slightest resemblance to Torquemada!
ReplyDeleteThen I realised what he means. The Pope thinks a priest is "torturing" his penitents if he tells them to turn away from their sins.
Let there be no ambiguity. This Pope thinks a confessor should let the flock continue happily in their sins. And that trying to shepherd them to Heaven is just not "merciful".
I'm echoing what susan and Restore DC said: AMEN MARY ANN!! The anger some of us feel, I do believe is RIGHTEOUS ANGER! If the faithful don't feel any anger at the wolves that are systematically destroying the Church of Christ and helping to lead our children and grandchildren to hell......something is wrong, me thinks. Mother Angelica saw this years ago, thus, the video she produced for the world to see. She had had it up to her eyebrows when at World Youth Day, they ever so boldly recruited a girl to portray Jesus in the Passion Play for John Paul. These Bishops, Cardinals and especially the Pope are the ones that are supposed to be helping us attain our eternal SALVATION, not leading us to Hell!! I guess I could go on and on at the outrageous contradictions to the faith this Pope is so obviously in adherence to, but you already know, and the faithful that have been paying attention do as well, but I am ever THANKFUL for you and other faithful bloggers for shining the light on the prevailing and ever deepening darkness that has crept into the Church of Christ! Cannot thank you and others enough for your courage and hard work in helping to keep the faithful aware.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend reading "Merchants in the Temple" by Nuzzi for an enlightening read taken from actual documents and tape recorded meetings as to why this Pope was elected and what his mission really is for the Vatican.
ReplyDeletehttp://us.macmillan.com/merchantsinthetemple/gianluiginuzzi
As one priest who returned from his studies in Rome for his second PhD told his mother , "If you think the politics and corruption are bad in the US Diocese, Rome is a thousand times worse!" According to what I was told, he said he will never work here as a Diocesan priest because his hands would be tied and he would be scrutinized For every hint of orthodoxy either in word or deed by not only his Bishop, but by every member of the hx clergy in the Diocese.
There is a new agenda in Rome. The agenda is to cut costs and garner more donations because the Vatican and Vatican City finances are in trouble. Whether or not the agenda includes the Truths of the Faith or not appears to be not so important but bringing in more money is. If that goal can be achieved through false mercy, it seems it is all okay.
What they do not realize is that in doing so ,rather than acquiring more adherents, they water down Faith even more which recent past history has already proven to be the source of the financial crisis in the first place!
I can use a personal analogy that we currently,"... find ourselves in" (to use Pope Francis' words for those living in the SIN of adultery). In truth, we have chosen to place ourselves in this situation because we want to relocate.
Common sense dictates that ONLY by cleaning out a house and removing clutter and filth, can we expect to find buyers for our present home.
When searching for a new home I know we will be looking for one that not only has a good foundation but also is CLEAN and has quality floors, doors, windows, roof and cabinetry. If not, we will either have to replace everything at great expense or sell and move again. As buyer ,since we plan to stay wherever for a long time, we will be looking for the best our money can buy. We want clarity as to what we can expect for our money.
.......So why aren't the stewards of the flock thinking along those lines for the Church too?
Why do they seem to assume we are all stupid and uninformed people who willingly accept ambiguity and mediocrity in place of the One True Faith?