Paradigm Shift, Chapter Seven, "An Example of the Paradigm Shift: Holy Communion for 'Remarried' Divorcees"

There isn’t a woke Catholic alive, I would say, who isn’t conscience of the effect the document published by Pope Francis, titled, Amoris Laetitia has had on the Church as a whole.  Chapter Seven in Paradigm Shift ends with the acknowledgment that we are in fact in the middle of a schism and Francis himself has been alleged to have said by a reputable Italian journalist, “It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic Church.”  This statement was reported in Der Spiegal in December, 2016 and was never denied or questioned by the Vatican. 

Paradigm Shift Chapter Six, "A New, Subjective Morality Without Absolute Imperatives"

“Philosophical relativism and the primacy of praxis” (accepted practice or custom) “inevitably lead to ethical relativism, according to which there are no moral absolutes.”  I agree completely with this opening statement by Jose Ureta in Chapter Six of Paradigm Shift.  Yet Pope Francis seems to say it’s not a real problem.  Responding to Eugenio Scalfari who asked, “Your Holiness, is there a single vision of the Good?  And who decides what it is?”  Francis responded,

“Each of us has a vision of good and of evil.  We have to encourage people to move toward what they think is Good….

…..everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them.” 

Paradigm Shift Chapter Five "Religious Indifferentism, Philosophical Relativism, Theological Evolutionism"

(This is a continuation of an ongoing review of each chapter in the book by Jose Antonio Ureta, "Pope Francis's Paradigm Shift, Continuity or Rupture in the Church")

One of my favorite go to sources is Papal Encyclicals Online.  It allows you to search by Pope or by subject discovering the most wonderful things about our past together as generation upon generation of Roman Catholics.  In just a couple of clicks I found the following quote so pertinent to the subject of this chapter of Paradigm Shift.  It comes from the Letter, Mirari Vos, On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism, by Pope Gregory XVI, 1832, addressed to “All Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World.

Paradigm Shift Chapter Eight, "The Paradigm Shift's Common Denominator: Adapting to Revolutionary and Anti-Christian Modernity"

Until a few months ago I had never heard of the book, The Myth of the Century.  Judging from the title you might imagine that it is dispelling some ill conceived concept of a particular time.  To the contrary, it is actually proposing a new myth, one that can be embraced by people in the future.  It was written by Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi closest to Hitler, a long time best friend from the days before Hitler’s rise to power.  They were conspirators together in the coffee shops

Paradigm Shift, Chapter Four, "Favorable to Islam and Migration, but Reluctant to Speak Out for Persecuted Middle Eastern Christians"

Ureta opens Chapter Four with this statement:

“…..according to Francis, opening the West to migrants seems to be a non-negotiable principle.”  Added to this is a policy of dialogue with Islam, whatever the cost.  The pope pursues this goal by minimizing Islam’s terrorism matrix while showing extreme caution in denouncing the religious nature of the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries. 

Paradigm Shift, Book Review Chapter Three, Promoting the Green Agenda, World Governance, and an Ambiguous 'Mother Earth' Mysticism

Jose Ureta begins Chapter 3 of his book with this:

“According to oft-reiterated Church social doctrine, there are issues such as abortion, divorce, and the natural structure of marriage, about which Catholics are bound to have a unanimous position.  Conversely, other topics are left to the judgment of the rightly formed consciences of the faithful.  However, by embracing environmentalist ideology, Pope Francis establishes a new paradigm.”

Paradigm Shift, Book Review, Chapter 2 Promoting the Neo-Marxist and Alter-Globalization Agenda of Popular Movements

Jose Ureta begins chapter two with this statement:

“Catholic doctrine teaches that communism is ‘intrinsically wrong.’  However, Marxist movements and leftist regimes around the world see Pope Francis as a point of reference.  Indeed, the current pontiff has shown himself very close to the claims of these groups and governments.”

When asked Francis always denies he is a communist, but on more than one occasion, he has said it was the communists who stole the flag of Christianity.  In an interview with Eugenio Scalfari, avowed atheist and founder of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Francis was reported to have said the following:

What We Can Learn from "Paradigm Shift" Chapter One

This review of the book by Jose Ureta will be done in chapters that appear one day at a time.  

Chapter 1 “Pastoral Retreat From ‘Non-negotiable Values’ “

You know how sometimes you just get an uncomfortable feeling about something and you can’t quite put your finger on it but you know something isn’t right.  Maybe you are getting sick, or you are in a stuffy room that badly needs a window open.  I felt like that for the entire “Year of Mercy” that Francis rolled out.  I thought it would NEVER end.  I was mercyed to death before it was over.  I felt if I heard the word mercy one more time I would scream.  I guess that sounds pretty unmerciful of me, but it’s the truth.  A WHOLE YEAR of nothing but mercy mercy mercy.   As it turns out, this was maybe the best way to get you and me and every other Catholic on the planet to relax a little, to not worry so much about serious stuff, to just chill out and love our neighbors.  Stop all this “is it a sin” if so, “how bad a sin.”  Does it really matter anyway or should we not just accompany people and try harder to see things from their perspective.  You know:  BE MERCIFUL!  Take a “pastoral approach” to things and get beyond the boundaries we have around stuff like sin and doctrine.