Clear it is...not a single alcoholic nor petty thief at time of death to heaven will go. I think I'm with the Princess on this one. Oh, almost forgot, what ho re Heedenfreuden?
Your somewhat unequivocal observations confuse me regularly Padraig But truly, what heretical local synods are you speaking of .
No, no ,Blue, I am not getting involved, life is too short. There are loads of others who will fence away with you.
I want, i want, i want, and i want it now...! Somethings you just can't have - every child has to learn that. I have zero idea whether remarried divorcees should be permitted to receive the Eucharist, but the argument based on "they want to" is a very poor argument.
Sparrrows "It used to be a mortal sin to eat meat on Fridays... But you don't hear that being enforced anymore?" Actually it is still there: http://www.catholic-pages.com/life/fridaymeat.asp and I think it was the English bishops conference that emphasized the requirement recently. Also there are now probably hundreds of thousands of Catholics completely fasting on Friday because of the influence of Medgugorje where it is encouraged. Church teaching doesn't change because the truth doesn't? Also it's not impossible for divorced couples to abide by this Church teaching, difficult but not impossible as I was writing on the synod thread? And I have to say too that I don't agree that even lapsed Catholics getting married do not know that for Catholics it's for life. Even at the age of 23 or whatever, and even with very little Catechism, I think they all know that for a Catholic you can only marry once although of course we should be sympathetic that the full implications therein might not have sunk in. So look, basically they have to return to a single state while the first spouse is alive, that's difficult but for example we ask priests to stay in that state forever so it's not impossible by any means. And also why would those sincere now faithful Catholics have only the emphasis here on receiving Communion. They don't receive Communion because they are in a state of public mortal sin, sleeping with someone who is not their Church recognized spouse, but surely they should be more worried about that state of mortal sin than about the Communion? That means, according to Church theology, that they are going to hell so they should be happy to correct that state straight away as soon as they become more sincere Catholics?
Was it ever actually a MORTAL sin to eat meat on Fridays? Though the requirement hasn't changed I am fairly sure the practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays is not bound on pain of mortal sin. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The Church offers the solution: live as brother and sister with the new spouse. What's the problem here??No sex?? Too bad, this is your ETERNAL SOUL we're talking about here.
Maybe the Holy Father is rolling out the "Welcome Mat" because he knows what is about to befall us and he is trying to catch as many fish as possible? We are not in the position to judge because WE are sitting in the dark.
I remember listening to a beautiful talk given by Father Deter [ I'm not sure of the spelling of his last name], anyway he gave a most beautiful talk about his family and especially about his mum. He was probably around his mid 50s at the time, so would now be in his mid 60s; he said that he was the eldest of seven brothers and that his mother had to leave his father, as his father was severely abusive to his mother and to the children. He was seven years old at the time when his mother left his father. So therefore his mother had had these seven children within seven years, from Father Deters birth. Back in the 40s and 50s there was a terrible social stigma when a wife left or divorced their spouse and there was very little government support for any women that left their husband in those days, so they lived in poverty for many years. Father Deters mother certainly felt immence shame and isolation after leaving her husband, she sent her sons off to mass every Sunday and would spend this time in deep prayer reading the bible and in devotions by herself at her home. Father deter frrom the age of seven had the responsibility of taking his younger brothers to mass every Sunday. Father Deter said that the gossip and exclusion that his mother felt from the catholic community was so pervasive and vehement towards his mother that she never attended mass again, but she always remained a faithful catholic. And she raised a wonderful priest for our catholic community. How sad that she felt excluded, from that community! Father had everyone in tears I think, I know I was in tears!, it was a beautiful, touching story; of a mothers love and a womens devotion to God and her children.
Yes Adoremus, I was as shocked as you when I read it, but the official Church teaching for the whole world is that the faithful must abstain from meat of Fridays under pain of mortal sin. Obviously if you or anyone didn't know it was a mortal sin, you will not be held to that. In the U.S. sometime in the 70's the U.S. bishops got a special dispensation from that so that people in the U.S. could eat meat on Fridays, but if they did then they needed to substitute another penance instead.
Well in that case I have definitely been mis-informed. Yikes! Not that I go out of my way to eat meat on Fridays but I certainly haven't given it much thought on the many occasions that I've slipped up.
AAAH, pretty soon nobody's gona wana fight with you BH, then what you gona do? I'm sure you've irritated the Chinese Emperor to pieces by now also.
The question is not how many times a person was married, which denies them the Real Presence of Jesus in Eucharist. The question that must be answered is whether they were ever married in God's view. If the persons two or three marriages were only man made, and not in a valid Catholic ceremony they can still receive Communion after receiving the Sacrament of Confession. I don't see what is so hard to understand. Jesus' clear words that whatever marriage God blesses, let no man separate is bedrock clear. It is not charity or love to violate what God has ordained. It is not about forgiveness, it is about living out the truth of our God in a valid Sacrament of Marriage. God is the same yesterday, today and always. He is truth. Thus truth cannot change. If a person walks away from a valid marriage they are to remain single until their spouse dies. This is God's truth. Period. Yes, we will be judged on love and love is based on unchanging truth. Mercy too, is based on truth.
A few years ago, I took some older ladies (in their 80's) to Our Lady of Good Help Shrine near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Gay marriage was being voted on in our state and discussion began on this issue. One of the old ladies, who was a daily Mass goer, prayed the rosary daily etc., said, "well their God's children too....... their made in God's image and likeness too." To which I asked, do you know what "being made in God's image and likeness means"? I said, it means we have a mind for thinking and a will for choosing, just as God and His angles do. She got mad and said, 'who told you that', to which I replied it is based on Pope John Paul II, writings on human sexuality. Needless to say, the ride got quiet for a while . However, the same principle is now being applied to the divorced and remarried receiving communion. The argument moves to a false sense of love and charity, as if our feelings defines what love is and not God's law. This is a design of Freemasonry. I has redefined what love is and now it is about any type of sex no matter if it is God's definition or not. Be careful not to adapt to man's redefinition of the human language as in many cases it is not God's definition.
From a secular / state perspective if you marry a second time without going through the proper divorce procedures, you are commiting bigamy - there is rarely any debate around this. Why is there so much debate around the religious equivalent? Is it preferable to be labelled an adulterer rather than a bigamist? I'm not a fan of labels but in many ways i just don't understand the problem.
Bingo. I quit questioning him last year when it was clear to me this was his strategy. Chastisment coming? Eternal damnation awaits those who enter it in a state of mortal sin? Then get as many on the boat as possible beforehand where the Church can heal them. Makes sense to me
SB would you disagree we me in observing that for some divorcees (say a loving 30 yr old stay at home mum dumped by her philandering husband and left with the kids) with a calling from God to a sexual family vocation (just as some are called to a celibate vocation) that it would take heroic virtue to not seek a mate and a father for her children? "Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." They said ... it is better not to marry." But He said to them, "Not all men can accept this...there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven..."
