Good pastors must imitate the Good Shepherd and warn their sheep of ravenous wolves. When Cain murdered his brother, Abel, God said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10).
Particular mortal sins are so evil that they are said to be sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: homicide (Gen. 4:10), sodomy (Gen. 18:20-21), oppression of widows and orphans (Exod. 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas. 5:4).
Sins against the Holy Spirit are mortal sins that harden a soul by rejecting the Holy Spirit: despair, presumption, envy, obstinacy in sin, final impenitence, and deliberate resistance to the known truth.
In a passage in his upcoming autobiography, titled Life: My Story Through History, Pope Francis says that homosexual couples, even if they should not have access to legal marriage, should still be able to “live the gift of love” with legal support.
Excerpts of the autobiography, which was written with Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, have been published by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, including the following:
Same-sex marriage is not possible, but civil unions are: “It is right that these people who live the gift of love can have legal coverage like everyone else. Jesus often went out to meet people who lived on the margins, and that is what the Church should do today with people from the LGBTQ+ community, who are often marginalized within the Church: make them feel at home, especially those who have received baptism and they are, to all intents and purposes, part of the people of God. And whoever has not received baptism and wishes to receive it, or who wishes to be a godfather or godmother, please be welcomed.”
Pope Francis also says about the blessings to irregular couples: “I just want to say that God loves everyone, especially sinners. And if brother bishops decide not to follow this path, it does not mean that this is the antechamber of a schism, because the doctrine of the Church is not called into question.”
Accurate or not, the autobiography as a personal memoir has zero magisterial value, regardless of authorship. The trademark ambiguity is unmistakable, and its pronounced heterodox implications require a pastor’s commentary to protect the integrity of his confessional.
As many have noted, these remarks by Pope Francis are at odds with the 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons,” which makes some very strong statements:
There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. … In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. … The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.
The violence of homosexual relations has nothing to do with Christian love. Various types of sodomy in no way are loving acts. Jesus did not condone the lives of sinners; he elicited their conversion. We are all sinners, including those who do not act on immoral sexual inclinations. However, those who act on immoral sexual inclinations do not participate in authentic human love. Promiscuous–same-sex or heterosexual—activity has nothing to do with human love elevated by God’s grace.
The phrase “LGBTQ+” is unscientific and morally mendacious. “Gay” is a homosexual activist term. “Bisexual” celebrates promiscuous sodomy and fornication. A person can’t be “transgendered.” Hormonal treatment and genital mutilation cannot change a person’s sex. The chromosomes remain male or female. “Queer” is a slovenly and politically-charged term for promiscuity. The + sign opens the door to every perversion, including pederasty and bestiality.
The Church is our mother and welcomes us all to conversion and worship. But unrepentant manifest grave sinners should not present themselves for Communion or be approved as sponsors for the Sacraments. The suggestion that sinners–like those suffering from dysfunctional sexual inclinations–are “judged by us” suggests we ourselves are without sin. But, again, every Christian is a sinner. As the saying goes, we judge the sin, but not the sinner. But if there is sufficient evidence of a sinful lifestyle, we must judge evil behavior.
No thoughtful Christian turns his back on sinners. We must acknowledge common-sense reality and fundamental moral truths. We also pay attention to the correct meaning of words. There are no “transexuals,” “gays,” “queers,” “bisexuals,” or “transgendered” individuals. We are children of God and must not define ourselves by sinful proclivities. But if we dare, we promote and politicize unrepented sins with those words and even deny reality. In matters of human sexuality, there are only violations of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments calling for repentance and the healing that comes with the sacraments.
Self-interest partially drives this painful critique. A good confessor must not allow these errors to compromise his duties in the confessional. Faithful witnesses to the Ten Commandments are never schismatic. But those who depart from the Ten Commandments and suggest changes in Church teaching are guilty of grave error and even schism (under the right conditions). Let’s not call into question the authentic doctrines of the Church or deny the reality of human sexuality.
These apparently private opinions of Pope Francis, published as an autobiography or recorded in interviews, have no doctrinal authority. Because of his history of causing doctrinal confusion, we must carefully compare the Pope’s utterances to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church. When not in accord with that teaching, we must reject or ignore them.
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Thank you, Fr. Pokorsky and CWR, for calling out this madness clearly and directly.
This papacy is an assault on the Church, her teachings, her faithful adherents, and even humanity itself.
Sad to say, Bergoglio is not inspired by the Holy Spirit, but instead by that other one.
Impossible, accorcing to previous ecumenical councels.
Unfortunately, previous ecumenical Councils carry absolutely no weight at all with Pope Francis – it is simply a matter of whatever he wants to do, based on his own idiosyncratic reading of VII, the only precedent that seems to matter to him.
A very clear picture of Francis’ views on homosexuality has emerged over the last four or five years, especially. Far from being a sin that “cries out to heaven for vengeance”, he does not regard it as being a particularly big deal. His advocacy of legal recognition of civil unions is not that much different than the “I am personally opposed to abortion but don’t wish to impose my morality” baloney we used to hear from politicians before they started openly calling it a positive good. But he does say that we can’t these relationships “marriage” (at least for now), so all must be well in Holy Mother Church.
This is what Jorge Bergoglio said,
prior to his election as pope, on page 117 of his book, On Heaven And Earth, demonstrating that he does not hold, keep, or teach The Catholic Faith, and he continues to act accordingly:
“If there is a union of a private nature, there is neither a third party, nor is society affected. Now, if the union is given the category of marriage, there could be children affected. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help shape their identity.”- Jorge Bergoglio, denying The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and the fact that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, while denying sin done in private is sin.
“For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the Revelation, the Deposit of Faith, delivered through the Apostles. ”
It is precisely because Jorge Bergoglio, Cardinal Fernandez, and a multitude of other Baptized Catholics, deny The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, and our Call To Be Temples Of The Holy Ghost, that we can know through both Faith and Reason that these “separatist” are apostates from the Catholic Faith, they are certainly not those who remain in communion with Christ, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque).
We can know that the current crisis in the Catholic Church is intentional because confusion is not of The Holy Ghost.
Any cardinal who was aware that prior to his election to the Papacy, Jorge Bergoglio, by his willingness to affirm same-sex “unions”, and thus same-sex sexual acts, had defected from Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, but voted for him to be elected to the Papacy, has defected from Christ’s Church, his vote being null and void.
A Council must be Called to validly elect a Catholic to The Papacy, as Jorge Bergoglio was never canonically elected to the Papacy.
“Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith” .
You sound intelligent don’t you, but you are right the confusion is not of the Holy Ghost. It’s by man.
When it happens once or twice, you write it off to amateurism.
When it happens 11 years into one’s pontificate, the amateur hour is over: it’s deliberate confusion.
“Confusion” is too delicate a word.
Brother John, you rightly say the Pope has been sowing deliberate (intentional) confusion for 11 years. Now, you need to be even braver and poke the elephant in the room, which is what we all know in our discerning spirits and hearts, and that elephant is this: Such deliberate and intentional confusion does not come from a confused man, but from the DEVIL himself. Do I hear any AMENS! from my fellow humble catholic souls? So, if there is ever a time to pray to our Blessed Mother Mary to assist this poor old man dressed in the holy attire of a pope, it’s now. And if there ever was a time to pray to St. Michael the Archangel, to cast out the evil spirits that prowl around not only the world, but even more our Lord Jesus Holy Vatican itself, the holy halls of St. Peter’s, THEN IT IS RIGHT NOW!
COME LORD JESUS! AND JACALAS FOREVER!
Excellent article Father Pokorsky, and very astute comment Mr. Grondelski.
I would only take issue with one small phrase in the article – “The trademark ambiguity is unmistakable.” I think that we are well past the ambiguity phase, and into the clear and deliberate error phase.
Stop listening to the wrong people and you won’t be confused.
I kindly suggest that you consider a different approach, especially when talking to people who do know what they are talking about. And work on your grammar/spelling.
I thought you weren’t supposed to start out a sentence with “and?”
Certain grammatical rules are made to be broken. As when one wants to EMPHASIZE some point or another. As when one wants redundancy, as in placing prepositions where they are unnecessary, as in “start ‘out’ a sentence…” I was an English teacher, and you will find I routinely break all rules in haste to make a point. Read eecummings’ poetry if you can bear it.
A far cry, this “book” compared to, say, Pope St. John Paul II with, for example, his also unofficial “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” (1994).
Or, emeritus Pope Benedict with his unofficial “Jesus of Nazareth.” For example, Volume II on Holy Week, where in cleaning out the temple, it was the use of idolatrous Roman currency (the emperor’s image) that was the reason for non-inclusive holy righteousness, not simply the presence of the money-changers themselves or the cattle-merchants (“everyone, everyone!”).
The idolatrous Roman currency—not unlike today’s idolatrous verbal currency!
Curious title, too, “Life: My Story through History.” As if all of subordinate “history” has been waiting with reverent anticipation for this very epiphanous autobiography. John Paul II gives us something seemingly similar, but refreshingly less self-referential:
“In the moment of departure
each is greater than history
although but a part
(a fragment of a century or two,
merged into one life).”
(From “A Conversation with God Begins,” in “The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II,” Random House, 1982).
Thank you Beaulieu I enjoyed that and appreciate it very much; and this the first I found out about it.
Didn’t the practice of money-changing involve swapping Roman coins for specially minted “shekels of Tyre” that also had pagan imagery. If I’m remembering correctly from coin dealers’ catalogs, the latter had an eagle on one side and the head of Baal-Melquart on the other.
Sandra,
You have a good memory.
I do not know how reliable this article is, but it has many interesting claims:
The Shekel of Tyre
Excerpt:
However, the talmud, which contains Jewish rabbinical teachings, instructed that the Temple tax had to be paid with a coin of the highest silver purity. This was a man-made stipulation and not one given in Scripture. Nevertheless, the primary coin in Jesus’ day that qualified for the silver content was the “shekel of Tyre.” Romans coins were only about 80% silver but the Tyrian coins were composed of 94% or more in its silver content.
It’s the LGB etc. lobby, not community.
At this point I think it has evolved into the LGBT Industrial Complex.
” the LGBT Industrial Complex”
Yes, reflected in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.
If it didn’t change weekly, they could get a trademark!
Christ would never reorder persons according to sexual desire/inclination/orientation, in direct violation of The Commandment regarding lust and the sin of adultery, and thus sexually objectify and deny the inherent Dignity of all His Beloved.
Pornography is what pornography does, it sexually objectifies the human person and denies the inherent Dignity of all human persons.
A disordered inclination is an inclination, it is not a person.
God desires that we desire to overcome our disordered inclinations so that we are not lead into temptation and sin, but become transformed through our acceptance of Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace and Mercy, available to all who desire to repent and believe The Good News!
agree
I found ‘Crux’ analysis of PF’s autobiography to be balanced and informative:
Pope Francis’s biography is revealing: Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67AYbGvnbEs
Neither balanced nor informative, unbalanced disordered propaganda…this gentleman has been, kindly speaking, dissembling for the biblical left, those who add to the truth, liberally, such that the truth is lost and misrepresented, misinformation…the Beloved says, “do not turn to the left or the right; or add or subtract from what I given you”….
“Come away from them and keep aloof, says the LORD. Touch nothing unclean; and I will welcome you and be your FATHER, and you shall be My sons & daughters, says the ALMIGHTY LORD.” Saint Paul at 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.
“You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of GOD: people of immoral lives, idolators, adulterers, catamites, sodomites, thieves, usurers, drunkards, slanderers, & swindlers will never inherit the Kingdom of GOD.” Saint Paul at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
It’s scandalous that PF and coterie refuse to do their duty to promulgate the Apostolic truth. They are manifestly & flagrantly anti-Apostles. Is it because they are mastered by sin that their doctrines are so aberrant? The early Church would have expelled them.
By standing firm for God’s commands, some of the LGBTQ+ menagerie eventually repent and are reconciled with Christ, just as sinners like Mary Magdalene, tax collector Zacchaeus, and multiple sinning Saul of Tarsus were. There are plenty of contemporary examples of every sort of sexual sinner coming to their sense and leaving their lives of immorality, to become good Catholics for the rest of their lives. This has been the well-worn, ‘Stand Firm’ path of Catholicism for nearly 2,000 years. It works!
In contrast, any church that implements PF perversions of Apostolic doctrine will discover (too late) their new LGBTQ+ recruits are fanatical proselytizers of every sort of immoral lifestyles. Parishioner’s innocent children & teens will be assiduously targeted. Even married adults will be at risk, once the spirit of disobedience gets established in a parish; erstwhile good Catholic husbands & wives will begin ‘discovering’ they are multi-sexual’! May GOD preserve us.
GOD did not instruct us to ‘come away from them and keep aloof’ for nothing.
Ever in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Did not Jesus touch a leper?
The leper had not made a sinful choice to be a leper.
The leper desired with all their heart to BE MADE FREE from their leprosy.
The leper richly deserved to be touched by our LORD & set free.
When did any leper ever say: “Bless me, Jesus, I want to stay leprous?”
A leper has no choice in being a leper. A person with same sex attraction has a choice about whether to act on their desires. Is your view of free will so low Armando?
He did indeed. But the leper had committed no sin, had he? And while Jesus did indeed forgive and save the woman caught in adultery, His words to her were “Go and sin no more.”
How does leprosy in any way equate to sin?
being inflicted with desire
Excellent: ‘inflicted’ being shorthand for ‘infected & afflicted.’
Sorry, I meant leprosy and sin in a medical way.
Leprosy only seems to affect a small percentage of people who are susceptible to it. Perhaps that differed in biblical times. I’ve read that armadillos can spread it but no one’s sure how that works exactly.
Best practice to avoid both armadillos and sin.
🙂
Countering this Pope’s ideas with logic and theological reasoning is a futile exercise. It would be similar to reasoning with someone who has progressive dementia or who is paranoid. These are not unkind thoughts because we perform no act of charity by tolerating the irrationality of anyone.
I think ypur anger is irrational. And you do have unkind thoughts. You are in denial
I’ll refrain out of charity from letting you know what I think about your comments, Lugo.
in anger Jesus says, “begone satan…. you are not ‘of God'”….Jesus, and His Deacon, are absent this irrational unkindness deniality, projection, Mr Lugo, is not a virtue or holy ‘visage’ either….nor ad hominems…you surrender too easily to said…
I think you are a paid troll, or a gay poster/activist trying to justify your sin. Either way, your position is indefensible.
I’m reminded of the late, great Pat Paulson’s skit where he talks out of both sides of his mouth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byIF64RaIa0 Strangely enough, it opens with him saying “Who are we to judge …” Just saying.
Would you liked to be judged for your sins? By the measure with which you judge with you shall be judged. Let he who hasn’t sinned cast the first stone.
Ah, of course. (Sarcasm on.)
Which is why I, personally, would never condemn, say, rape or murder or sexual abuse or theft. Who am I to judge?
And I’m sure it’s the same reason that Pope Francis never condemns rigidity, hypocrisy, Pharisaism, neo-Pelagianism, the Mafia, weapon traffickers, greed, etc.
(Sarcasm off.)
In the context of which he said it he was talking about those who come back to church to better their lives by repentance.
I’ve read his comments. And they, as Fr. Pokorsky correctly notes, are contrary in both essence and detail, with what the Church has consistently taught about “same-sex unions.”
Metanoia isn’t just about “bettering” one’s life, but about renouncing sinful actions and pursuing a life of holiness. As you know, I’m sure. What is not clear is why you seem to think that certain sins and lifestyles cannot be discussed or renounced.
why therefore does one cast, while leaving the beams within their ‘sight’??? Come, now, let us put aside the pretenses and return to putting on and remaining Christ! Blessings.
I think you mean “let him,” here. Correct grammar matters, doesn’t it?
I will add my thanks to Fr. Pokorsky and CWR for their charitable correction of the most recent of the many outrageous statements of this papacy that depart from Sacred Scripture, Church Tradition and what 265 previous popes have taught “always and everywhere” for 2,000 years.
It is past time for more bishops and priests to speak up and “to testify to the Truth!”
Yes.
What confuses me is why anyone would still feel confusion regarding where the current Holy [sic] Father stands on LGBTQIAAA+ issues. From the earliest days of his papacy (“Who am I to judge?”), the message has been getting progressively clearer every time he speaks or acts on the matter. He promotes to positions of power and authority those who consider the Church’s perennial teaching erroneous and who clearly don’t consider such actions sins at all, and he castigates as rigid, pharasaical doctors of the law and backwardists those who hold the traditional Catholic and Scriptural view. He writes adulatory letters to Martin and Grammick, but his silence regarding a group like Courage is deafening. Why should anyone experience any doubt or confusion on where he himself stands?
Don’t speak for the Pope. Who are you to say what he thinks it’s not particularly a big deal. Did he ever say he condones it? Show me where in his writings unless you think sin is not a particularly big deal.
?????? Confusing.
BTW, in today’s West, sexual “progressives” (obsessives) are at the center of society and culture, not on the margins. It is committed Christians who are on the margins. If evidence matters.
In this dark moment, all parameters are being disrupted. Before long, they will designate the Christian God, the God to eliminate, in Christ. The Catholic Church will be the reality, the harlot to erase (because the true Church for Putin is the Russian one), as Israel is now for the Muslims. There are also the global elites, the big ones, the aspiring rulers of the world, who perhaps hope to make further gains through war. Our only reference point to look to is the Pope (representative of Saint Joseph, according to Ambrose of Milan), the Queen of Peace, and our Redeemer: do we want to remove them?
Personally, I have great help and devotion in Padre Pio.
When the friars dared to criticize the actions of the ecclesiastical hierarchies for the severe and unjustified restrictive measures against Padre Pio, he immediately raised his voice and demanded silence or even sent them away. Father Onorato Marcucci, a disciple of Padre Pio, once hinted at the measures taken against Padre Pio by the authorities in Rome and wrote, indeed, even on the occasion of restrictions and apostolic visits. Padre Pio always obeyed and always exclaimed, “This too is the will of God.” Giovanni Gigliozzi, journalist and responsible director of the periodical “La Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza,” recounts in his memoirs that Padre Pio was always obedient to the superiors in Rome, even when it was hard to obey. He would say, “The hand of the Church is gentle even when it strikes you: remember it is the hand of your mother.”
(Near my home, in Burano, in the Cathedral, there is indeed a famous painting by Tiepolo, from 1725. It depicts a crucifixion, at the foot of which devout women console the Madonna, lying on the ground like a mother, the Mother of the Church, about to give birth. This is the Church on Holy Friday, and perhaps just now.)
Despite this substantial obedience to the Church, he managed to maintain an inner independence that allowed him to be faithful to his divine calling and vocation. Only in this way was he able to carry out his works. And again, Padre Raffaele D’Addario, who spent a good 35 years in the company of Padre Pio, 13 as his superior, and had known him since they were boys, said: “For Padre Pio, any legitimately constituted authority deserved subjection and obedience. But above all was the Pope, whom he revered as the representative of Jesus on earth. He always spoke of him with great reverence to everyone, and wherever he was, he always bowed his head at the name of the Pope out of respect. For the Church and for the Pope, Padre Pio had special prayers every day.”
Do you fail to recognize that you too are a sinner. Sure what you say has value as sodomy is a grave sin, but is that any reason to mis-interpret what the Pope is saying. Did he condone it and is he condoning it. Show me in his writings where is condoning it. Hasn’t he said you can’t bless the sin of same sex couples. What about that same sin of heterosexual couples or are you going to say we don’t do that or haven’t done that.
You gaslight like the Pope. If I ignore his abuse, why do you think you will succeed? Why do you try to defend the Pope by not taking his teachings seriously?
With Amoralist Laetitia and Sfiducia Supplicans, etc., the Pope is enabling and encouraging sodomy, concubinage, and other forms of irregular couples in promulgating the unchristian pastoral practice of “blessing” these couples without the call to repentance. The whole point of a minister giving a blessing for couples in irregular relationships is for them to feel enabled and affirmed by ecclesial authority to stay in their objectively sinful partnerships.
As a Catholic, I worship Christ, not His Vicar. If the Vicar of Christ tries to lead us away from the Truth of Christ in practice, I follow the Good Shepherd – the Word of God, His Sacred Tradition, and His faithful previous pontificates.
Challenge accepted. From CNA: “Pope Francis meets with Father James Martin at Vatican”
“Pope Francis met with Father Martin in 2019 and expressed support for the American Jesuit’s ministry in a letter a year later, encouraging him to “continue this way.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252791/pope-francis-meets-with-father-james-martin-at-vatican#:~:text=Pope%20Francis%20received%20Father%20James%20Martin%2C%20SJ%2C%20in,the%20Apostolic%20Palace%20this%20morning%20for%2045%20minutes.%E2%80%9D
yes, Armando, think of all those who have done, and continue to live this homosexual life: serial priest, or worse, abusers, and he makes them part of his circle, hides and is unforthright about what is done, even those he appointed to fix this have departed from the lack of action and fidelity to the little he promised to be done…all this says its okay, we need to give them power and prestige positions and keep them from prosecution and attack the victims (remember he publicly did this, saying there is/was no evidence, when there was) and then had to say to the young man who had tons of evidence, “i was part of the problem” – itself a failure to do publicly acknowledge the ‘what’ he did that was wrong and publicly ask for forgiveness for this and then do public penance)….everything justifies and defends and promotes this HSex, remember the homosexually drug fuel orgy in the vatican… capisci, tu, ora??
ahem, this very article is about the latest instance of his condoning, writing it in his autobiog, id est, “this homosexual sex/sodomy is a gift of love which needs…”
The Gift of Love is God’s in which He Wills and Declares, “Let us make man, male and female, in Our Image and Likeness, each to leave their family and to become one in matrimony multiplying 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙛𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 – 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣 – to the ends of the earth”!
𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓…who proposes such things, as Jesus says in the Gospel today, 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 ‘𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒅’…not gathering with Christ but scattering from the Beloved….𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 “𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝑶𝑫”!
Armando, each sinner, sick and dead, must repent and live Christ and 𝑯𝙞𝒔 Gospel of 𝑯𝙞𝒔 Love, where there is no lust and no calling of God’s Will and Plan, rigid or backwards, such that the sinners must go and continue to sin, because “it is a gift of love…a grace to so…willed by God…a real marriage – and all for the sake of themselves and their children”! It would be a gift of love if this was said to be false, evil, satan’s, but it is the autobiog and AL, etc…
this very autobiog is the latest instance Armando, and the point of the article being, again, not only is it not being called a sin, but ‘a gift of love’…
Post 11 years a pattern appears within the usual pattern regarding sexuality, the overall heterodox suggestions, the errors, followed by an apparent effort to balance with traditional orthodoxy. That consistent pattern within is the proposed normalcy of consensual adult same sex relations.
Aspersions against LGBT by the Vatican have been strong. Pope Francis called transgender a dangerous ideology that eliminates identity. Whereas Fr Pokorsky in review of Francis’ Apologia pro Vita Sua quotes Francis’ appeal for leniency toward the LGBT community. Baptismal availability, sponsoring baptism welcomed. Pokorsky’s denunciations of His Holiness’ abjurations of the faith are themselves welcome and irrefutable.
Although that abjuration is consistent with the somewhat disguised pattern of Francis’ apparent main objective, the approval by the Church of same sex consensual adult relations. That objective is noticed in the change of messaging by Cardinals Hollerich and McElroy, Hollerich stepping back in a virtual recant but nonetheless in favor of the adult presumably more compatible with scripture interpretation advocated by McElroy. The danger for the Church is the subtleness of a seeming policy of the lesser evil eventually accepted as a good.
God is love. Sin is not love. God does not bless sin; He was crucified for our sins.
Happy Lent! Stay Catholic.
That’s it in a nutshell. God is agape; God is not eros, Battlestar Galactica notwithstanding. No Catholic who has gone through Confirmation has any excuse for failing to understand the distinction.
Is addiction no longer possible? I have a love for chocolate. It’s an abnormal relationship, I know, but I really do LOVE it. Father, can you bless me and my chocolate fetish? Please. RME/SMH
Never does the Pope propose to offer a same-sex marriage sacrament in the Church. A civil marriage offered at your local county courthouse is merely a monetary contract. Pope Francis does believe everyone should be welcomed to attend Church and listen to the Word of God. The Word of God is the most powerful tool we have to change people’s hearts. Even Judas should be welcomed in Church where he can listen to the Word of God. We don’t need more man-made laws written in Washington DC, we need more people in Church listening to the Word of God.
Very good.
The comment you think is “very good” is plainly very dumb. But you’re as entitled to erroneous thinking as your boy, Bergoglio.
I feel your hate.
You’re quite wrong and you mislead. It’s not the Church’s mission or role or place or purpose, to promote any such contract(s). Let alone for a Pope. And going by the press, Pope Francis did utter that it’s okay to promote it because homosexualism “is a sin not a crime”. Well, there you have it, where does he come off legalizing sin. Legalizing sin is itself a crime as well as sin and the Pope teaching it as something upright and as a kind of charity and docility, is grave sin. And a crime. He has to repent of that not have you confirm him in it. Not have the likes of you try to confirm us for him.
Amen!
And an idol is only a piece of wood, stone, or metal — but that does not make it harmless.
Well said. Recalling the prophets who, listening to GOD, directly equated sexual immorality with the fatal sin of idolatry.
EVERYONE is welcome at church. That is NOT the same as saying everyone’s BEHAVIOR is welcome or approved. People know very well when they are doing the wrong thing. The church position on topics of sexuality is VERY well known, even in secular society I believe. In recent decades instead of expounding on sin, the church has caved to the tyranny of nice, fearful of hurting anyone’s feelings. They go along to get along. It is a mistake. It is no kindness to allow supposed christians to persist in sinful behavior. When the Pope suggests a civil marriage is ok he is giving tacit approval to continued sinful behavior. This goes for gays or straight couples who are living together unmarried. Does the pope seriously imagine that gay couples marry in order to live in chastity?? OR for medical insurance?? I think not. That is the reason that his going down this road at all has created such an uproar.
Please, please, stop with the “confusion” routine. No one here is “confused” by Pope Francis. We know exactly what he is up to.
What is confusing is the different views as evidenced by the comments.
I’ll leave it to God to judge his intentions, as I’ll leave it to the NTSB to judge why a pilot crashes a plane. It requires neither expertise nor divine insight to notice the disaster, though.
true enough: “Promiscuous–same-sex or heterosexual—activity has nothing to do with human love elevated by God’s grace”…but more, they have ‘nothing to do with human love’ itself, unelevated by grace to boot.
The Beloved didn’t go out to meet people, but sinners, to echo in the deepest abyss of every soul, His very first words in coming to meet each of us sinners, “repent and live[=believe] the Gospel, for I have come for the sick sinners, not the healthy righteous”! The Beloved did and does this, because He is Love and desires that all be ‘found in righteousness and living in Him’, not ‘lost in sin and unrighteously dead with the ancient serpent’. Each sinner, sick and dead, must repent and live Christ and 𝑯𝙞𝒔 Gospel of 𝑯𝙞𝒔 Love, where there is no lust and no calling of God’s Will and Plan, rigid or backwards.
The Gift of Love is God’s in which He Wills and Declares, “Let us make man, male and female, in Our Image and Likeness, each to leave their family and to become one in matrimony multiplying 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙛𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 – 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣 – to the ends of the earth”!
The meaning of God’s permissive will is not for the canonizing and spreading of credulity and indignity, then supposedly proving the results as from God’s ordaining will by always misrepresenting/misunderstanding God’s ordaining will (“rigid”, etc.) -so that you may impose it! Folly, socialized folly and betrayal, is what that is – not faith, evangelism and communion. You’d be working for the enemy.
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/how-to-recognize-false-mercy-according-to-ven-fulton-sheen
Even the devils know –
a) it is anathema
b) it doesn’t save /isn’t a path in salvation
c) they’re not called to reinvent the wheel
d) they could if they wanted to, dupe a reinvention of the wheel.
Their knowledge is from the perspective of the damned but it’s also true.
How about giving LGBTQ a new meaning?
LET
GOD
BE
THE
QUEST
Beware the wolves in sheep clothing. By their deeds you will know them.
“Pope’s remarks about the “LGBTQ+ community” cause further confusion”
It must be very convenient for CWR, or any news agency, to have a ready-made headline that can be used repeatedly, with slight adaptations, thus saving time.
“Pope’s remarks about _____________________ [fill in the blank] cause further confusion”
But assuredly truly convenient when it refers to what is actually happening!
The anti-Apostolic follies of a maverick pope & company are definitely newsworthy.
Bad News from where we expect only Good News is surely worth a headline or three . ?
Yes, I know it refers to what is actually happening. That is why I posted what I did.
I took the time to read thru the article and all the comments. I find little of the Love that Jesus showed according to Gospel stories. Instead I read judgements and criticisms and something I never thought I’d see in the church…deliberate refusal to truly listen to the Pope with an Open Heart. I can just imagine those same criticisms when Jesus used a Samaritan as an example of one who did the right thing in the past. Judgement, criticism, hostility toward the Pope has no place in a catholic (Universal) church. More psychological maturity is needed to distinguish “sin” and “demonic possession” from what are now treatable illnesses in the 21st Century.
The Christian faith is not all about love. That’s a progressive viewpoint. Your statement that “Judgement, criticism, hostility toward the Pope has no place in a catholic (Universal) church” is false and willfully ignorant. We are called to discern and judge, and holding the pope accountable when he supports, encourages, and protects sin is the appropriate and necessary response. More spiritual maturity is needed in your thinking.
Grace, there are differences between demonic possession, sin, & treatable illnesses but those can also coexist in us at the same time. If you’ve ever visited a psychiatric facility you may be familiar with that.