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Confused old Catholic John Thursday, July 6, 2017

Question:

Bro. Ignatius,

I sent this to you around June 09 or 10th but somehow it has not been answered, perhaps it was not sent properly, if so, I apologize.

In an article published by the World News on 6/08/2017 titled,
“What to Call God: Pray to ‘the Father,” Pope Francis Urges Catholics by Christina Silva of Newsweek wrote this:


“The first Jesuit pope in more than 1,200 years, Francis has sought to change the direction of the church on divisive issues such as poverty, clergy reform, climate change and divorce. He has criticized the church as being “obsessed” with abortion, same-sex marriage and contraception, and said it should become a “home for all.” He also called for decentralizing power in the church by uplifting bishops and laypeople, including women. In April 2016, Pope Francis released a 256-page document urging church leaders to be less judgmental toward single parents, gay people and unmarried couples.”

Does this mean that we will soon see divorced people living together, or divorced and re-married people without first acquiring an annulment and being permitted to freely go to Holy Communion? 

Does this mean that gay people living the homosexual lifestyle, a lifestyle considered one to be a lifestyle condemned by the Catholic Church may now freely receive Holy Communion?

And, does this also mean that our younger generation, as well as our older unmarried generation living together as if they were married, also considered a grave sin, can now also received Holy Communion?

And last, is our Pope now leaning toward the possibility one day soon women should become priests?


I’m confused? This is not what Jesus has taught us. I would greatly appreciate whatever clarification you can provide on this matter of great concern to me.

God bless,

John



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCD, LTh, DD, LNDC

John:

We had some glitches in our system back then, so your question may have been lost. I apologize for the tardiness of this answer. We have been backlogged for a while.

The answer to all your questions is "no." All of these issues are infallible teachings of the Church and cannot be changed by anyone, even a Pope.

Pope Francis is a troubling pope. What he says and writes is always ambiguous, which allows liberal bishops to exploit that ambiguity for their own agendas. Several bishops around the world have already done this in allowing communion to divorced and remarried couples who have not had an annulment.

What is being challenged here, however, is not the teaching on the Sacrament of Marriage but the procedure for annulment. Procedures are not infallible teachings and can be changed by the Church at anytime. With that said, the procedural changes suggested by the Pope are troubling because of the ontological nature of the Sacrament of Marriage. Nevertheless, I think that particular flavor of procedural change will be corrected eventually by a succeeding pope.

Pope Francis wants to be a pastor to all people. That is a good motivation, but his vision of how to do this is flawed. His worldview seems to be "compassion over thinking". The problem is that the Church teaches that "feelings" and "emotions", two elements that comprise compassion, must always we guided by "reason", that is, thinking, thinking about the truth of God and how to express that compassion with love (which requires truth and fidelity to Church teachings or it is not genuine love).

Another example of the Pope not thinking is his impromptu discussions with the Press. He is careless about what he says. He does not think it through so out comes a problematic statement that the Press jumps on but later has to be explained or backtrack by the Vatican. His famous "who am I to judge" is an example. The context of that statement was who are we to judge a homosexual who is trying to live a holy life in chastity. 

Pope Francis is a man, as reported by his friends, with a history of ambiguity. It is said that if two people with opposite views come to Francis for resolution, both parties will come out of the meeting thinking their view was accepted by him. It is also reported that Francis will always lean left if he is pushed as he does not wish to look doctrinaire. That is an interesting paradox, because as we have seen, Francis is very authoritarian, by self-admission, and is brutal with anyone who disagrees with him. This, by the way, is not humility. You can read more about that and other issues in the article, Pope Francis is playing with fire. Hell fire. In another article, The A - Z list of concerns with Pope Francis, is outlined the many concerns we have about the Pope.

I think that God has allowed Francis to be Pope for two reasons:

  1. as a form of chastisement upon the Church
  2. to sift the wheat from the chaff

There may be a schism coming. This situation is bring out the liberals and exposing them in major ways. If a schism comes, it will not be the good and loyal Catholics, but will be the liberals. I would not mind that schism, as unfortunate as it would be, as it would get the chaff out of the Church. This will make the Church smaller, but more faithful.

In any event, the Church will survive. That we can be absolutely sure of.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


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