The bishop's words aren't even coherent. "...sexuality isn't just a part of me, it's part of my whole being". There is either a mendacious sleight-of-hand being attempted here or the bishop doesn't know what he's talking about. The effect of the sentence is to imply to those only half-listening that sexuality is the whole of being, an appalling reductionism, while actually affirming that which was firstly denied. Ironically, this type of language is presented as a counter to what he dismisses as 'waffle' and 'gobbly-gook'. This imprecision of language is treacherously dangerous, and is symptomatic of much that is emerging from the Vatican lately. They urgently need to get back to the Latin. The peril in which we find ourselves is clarified by his perception that traditional Christian teaching is regarded by those he seems to wish to ally himself with as 'demonic'. There is only one source of a desire for such an infernal inversion.
The Early CHurch Fathers warned that anyone who took the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily risked ill health of death. This in fact is contained in Scripture. 1 Cor. 11:26-29, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly." Clearly if someone makes a sacrilgoes communion as a result of this document it will not be their fault. It will be the fault of the Holy Father and the Bishops who permit it, but primarily the Holy Father, as the prime source of this. We are not talking of couse here about one single sacriligeous communion taking place but probably many thousand. So the Judgement wil lrest on the Holy Father's head and I would expect him to be struck dead by an angel of God for this as, probably as sooon as this comes into effect. Actually a very Holy Carmelirte Father wrote to the Pope a while back a letter warning the Pope he risked being struck dead, but clearly the Pope Decided he new best in this matter. What is more worrying is not simply that the poor guy risks being struck dead bbut his soul being thrown into hell, so much to pray for here. I really do believe he will be struck dead, for I don;t see what esle God can do to stop these sacrilgeous communions. God has no choice. But the next Pope after Francis should correct this at once in case he shares the same terrible fate.
This entire scenario is frightening. I had been praying for the Pope and the Church. This morning I cried for what they have done and are doing to the body of Christ. The situation we have now is that a Catholic can be in a state of grace in Vienna and in a state of mortal sin in, say, Innsbruck. This isn't leading just to a Catholic Church of Germany, Austria, Nigeria, Ghana, etc., it's more a loose federation of autonomous diocesan Catholic Churches with a titular head in Rome, much like the Anglican Communion or Lutheranism. No wonder the Pope is participating in the celebration of the Reformation. Does obedience to the Magisterium only apply to lay Catholics? If Cardinal Schonborn has been practising this internal forum solution for fifteen years, that means that he hasn't been obedient to the Magisterium, unless he is a one man Magisterium. The alternative is that Pope Benedict knew about this and said and did nothing about it. We are not getting the whole truth here. The Holy Spirit is not the father of confusion or deceit. Another thought that struck me is whether this Exhortation was actually written by the Pope? He seemed flummoxed and angry when asked about the controversial footnote, referring people to Cardinal Schonborn for an explanation. This so-called love letter to the Church implies that Pope Francis loves the Church more than Jesus did because what they are saying is that Jesus, St. Peter and all popes prior to Pope Francis has placed an undue burden on the faithful. I don't know how all this can be the work of the Holy Spirit.
Personally I am expecting God to strike the Holy Father dead for what he has done. It certainly would not surprise me in the least.
So what has the Holy Father Francis actually "done" that would cause any faithful Catholic to wish him dead?? I think that's the very attitude that would influence the dreaded overt schism and the mistake of following some "little pope" into a false church....just because he sounds good. And frankly, if you're talking about "autonomous" churches disconnected with the truth of the Faith by locality, well, we've had proof of that ignorance and confusion of the faithful now for ages with many ways of influencing the answers they get from authorities, so often via the monetary means. Francis is attacking the corruption within and exposing it for heavens sake. Hopefully he'll even repeat what he said about all those "holy" apostolates that make a living off of "selling" their devotionals attached to them. I mean some handle a myriad of apostolates to the point that they tend to confuse one with the other. Where's the real understanding and respect for the holy in that?? And just right now how many confess anything while the Eucharist has for such a long time, and without such hysterics toward the hierarchy or another Pope, been abused? Rather, Francis is getting to the very core of the Gospel and has led himself by his own example of his entire life of offering his very life for the poor and suffering, knowing that now since he enters into the very belly of the Beast in different parts of the world he offers himself knowingly as a target for martyrdom..."at the end of the day we shall be judged on love"!
I don't think so, Padraig. The Exhortation is not infallible, so most likely we will go the way of Protestantism for a decade or so, or maybe even a century or two. When (if) it is corrected, it will be explained away as not an official teaching of the Church, in the same way as that other clever innovation of selling indulgences. Cardinal Schonborn's solution has been operating in Vienna for well over 15 years. It isn't bearing much fruit. About 2% of Viennese Catholics attend Sunday Mass. I have read that Cardinal Kasper started the practice of admitting the divorced and remarried to Communion in 1993 but was stopped by Pope St. John Paul. Cardinal Kasper seems to equate spiritual Communion with Sacramental Communion. This is how he explains it: "In no way do I deny the indissolubility of a sacramental marriage. That would be stupid. We must enforce it, and help people to understand it and to live it out. That’s a task for the church. But we must recognize that Christians can fail, and then we have to help them. To those who say, “Well, they are in a sinful situation,” I would say: Pope Benedict XVI has already said that such Catholics can receive spiritual communion. Spiritual communion is to be one with Christ. But if I am one with Christ, I cannot be in a situation of grave sin. So if they can receive spiritual communion, why not also sacramental Communion? I think there are also problems in the traditional position, and Pope Benedict reflected a lot about this, and he said that they must have means of salvation and spiritual communion. But spiritual communion goes very far: it’s being one with Christ. Why should these people be excluded from the other Communion? Being in spiritual communion with Christ means God has forgiven this person. So the church, though the sacrament of forgiveness, should also be able to forgive if God does it. Otherwise there is an opposition between God and church—and that would be a great problem." In the same interview, the Cardinal said that in the past theologians who had been criticised by the CDF had not been given due process. I have seen Cardinal Kasper described as a protege of Hans Kung, which might explain the forthcoming meeting between Kung and the Pope. This interview gives a flavour of Kung's opinion of St. John Paul and Pope Emeritus Benedict http://www.spiegel.de/international...nization-of-the-catholic-church-a-787325.html I'm having something of a crisis of faith here. Where's Joe Crozier when you need him?
Is an overt schism worse than a covert schism? You justify this breaking of Church unity by talking about individual so-called cafeteria Catholics presenting themselves for Communion. That's not quite the same as the Church authorising a situation where sin in one diocese is not sin in another, depending on the view of individual bishops, or even individual priests. Sin is sin no matter the location of the sinner. How has Pope Francis presented himself as a target for martyrdom? He has more security than many a secular Prime Minister or President. As the servant of the servants of God, he has a duty to explain this change in clear language to the faithful rather than, arrogantly in my opinion, brushing aside questions. Let's not forget that at the end of the Synod he stated clearly that there would be no Communion for people living in adulterous unions. Now, it appears from this Exhortation that he has changed his mind. There's more than one kind of corruption. What could be more corrupt that changing 2000 years of tradition and pretending there's no change, especially when the change pertains to the very Body and Blood of Christ?
The other scenario that may develop should the Pope decide to give public scandal is that God might allow the barbarians known as ISIS that have set their sights on the Vatican to finally break through the walls. Once the spiritual walls are breached it is not long before the physical walls are breached.
To expect is not to wish. Many of us expect catastrophe consequent to the direction the world has taken, but we certainly don't wish it. A couple of his posts ago, Padraig expressed the need for prayer for Pope Francis so that it might not come to this.
We won't go the way of Protestantism. Trust in God and don't worry. It is true that the Exhortation isn't infallible, and must be read in continuity with the rest of the Magisterial teaching in the past. I agree with you that Cdl. Kasper is out in left field with "if they can receive spiritual Communion, why not sacramental Communion?" How can a Cardinal say such a thing? Anyone in the world may (and hopefully will) make a spiritual Communion!
Well, when judging only the heart a covert schism is evil...which can only be known by God Himself (and those closest to His heart).... while it continues to influence the innocent and trusting faithful since its influence remains hidden and rather justified by the institution itself in doing so. So an overt schism would be more important as far as exposing the wiles of Satan for the whole world to see and make a decision based on reality and just like the Warning, people could no longer pretend that their dastardly deeds have gone unexposed. So an overt schism would also expose those faint of heart if they wish only to cling to some structure and thus follow those who "seem" to play by the rules but with no qualms about willfully taking on the role of a little pope to their own individual faithful followers using their fear and attachment to institutional security rather than the truth....some kind of substitute for when that institutional church comes physically tumbling down around them. And such a little "pope" could then very well become the "false prophet" used by the AC to justify his forming of his own "institutional world church" since such a hierarchical traitor would lend him some credence by his authority within that "former" worldwide institutional church. That is what the AC would need to convince those attached to the former in order to gain their trust. He would then be able to "ape" what they had formerly trusted by attempting to copy those "external trappings". "How has the Pope presented himself for martyrdom"?? Where have you been? Even his own and rather limited contingency of guards (compared to the threat) have refused to enter into some of the places of radical existential threats he's visited. He has refused to be protected with what has been offered for such protection (keeping him out) within such places of harm while already several times leaders of the radical Islamic forces have declared him to be a target if he should go there...and they are in place and he knows it. He has spoken of it when he says hopefully such will happen quickly since he doesn't like pain! It seems to be your p0int of view that placing responsibility upon the Bishops who oversee those other priest shepherds, far from any pastoral touch by the Vatican, to carry out the mission of the Church while abiding by Church dogma which has btw not changed, constitutes some authorization of mortal sin. Rather, it's finally an intentional involving of local authorities to learn their Faith themselves so they can live it beyond the protection of their walls of administration type activity only. In the coming times each person will have to walk alone according to what is asked of him/her. There will be distrust of even one another Christian when even those thought to be the most traditional and who preach the loudest will be tried and many will leave the true fold due to the unexpected degree of trials. So it will be the heart and conscience that will be put to the test...and the love and faith that continues...alone! For if the time wouldn't be shortened even the most faithful would fail.
The covert schism I'm talking about is the one where Cardinal Schonborn and, apparently, Cardinal Kasper have been administering Communion to people in overtly adulterous unions despite this practice having been forbidden by Pope St. John Paul and not permitted until the footnote in this recent Apostolic Exhortation. Of course, the schism in practice was covert, while at least one of the Cardinals continued to lobby for it to be authorised. Wouldn't an overt schism at least be honest, while the covert schism is both dishonest and disobedient - a double whammy? The "some structure" you talk about is the teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ on what constitutes adultery, the effects of adultery on the soul and the effects of receiving the Eucharist unworthily. The Exhortation didn't spell out a change in the Dogma. What it did, sneakily in my opinion, was change the practice that supports the Dogma. That practice is more than a mere discipline. It is Church tradition based on Christ's own words - a fundamental part of the deposit of faith handed down to us both in Sacred Scripture and tradition. Catholics, including Bishops, are required to inform their consciences in accordance with Church teaching. If one Bishop's informed conscience tells him that giving Communion to people in non-Sacramental marriages is sinful and another Bishop's informed conscience tells him that it is not sinful, they cannot both be right. One of them has an insuffiently informed conscience. St. Paul told us that if anyone, even an Angel from Heaven were to preach a different Gospel than he and the Apostles, we should reject it. This new definition of adultery differs from what the Church has always held to be true, no matter how much BS its proponents dress up in theological language. One of the reasons they are giving for changing the rules is that divorced women need a man to support their children, dressing it up as a new problem for the Church that requires a merciful solution. There was neither alimoney nor social welfare in ancient Jerusalem, yet Jesus forbade marriage with a divorced women. Are these people seriously telling us that Jesus was less merciful than Pope Francis or the Cardinals who appear to be pulling his strings? Many people have told us that the False Prophet will be a member of the Church hierarchy and will appear to be merciful while teaching falsehood. From where I'm sitting, it's a toss-up whether Cardinal (you can be a Freemason and fully Catholic) Schonborn or Cardinal Kasper fits the bill. They were disobedient to previous popes (Cardinal Kasper openly defiant and critical and Cardinal Schonborn surreptitiously so), yet they have been rewarded rather than punished, and the practice that previous Popes have forbidden has now been allowed at their behest. You talk as though Pope Francis is protected by a couple of Swiss Guards in fancy dress. The Vatican has plenty of very well trained and armed security personnel and there are Italian security forces protecting the perimeter roads to the Vatican. Every time he sets foot outside the Vatican he is also protected by the security forces of the country he visits. If he's martyred, it will be because the terrorists got lucky. They would need to be a lot luckier to hit the Pope than to kill or maim the people who go to his public events. He talks a whole lot about the poor, with faithful Catholics being his favourite whipping boys, yet there's no shortage of rich and powerful anti-Catholics being entertained in the Vatican. When he's looking for money for the same poor, who does he turn to but the same faithful Catholics that he's so fond of belittling. Our Church is being steered on the Protestant route, where proclaiming oneself to have a personal relationship with Jesus covers just about any sin, heresy or sacrilege all for the sake of populism. It won't be long before the Church sanctions open Communion and, to be honest, it also looks like it will become very hard to find a priest who actually believes in the Real Presence, meaning that a genuine Sacrifice will become rare and probably banned eventually. Sr. Lucy of Fatima said that Satan was gearing up to win many souls through an attack on marriage. It looks like the battle is on, and I can but pray for some kind of transformation in Pope Francis because right now he looks out of his depth. All we need now is for Hans Kung to be drawn into the inner circle for confirmation that the outcome of the last Conclave was more the fruits of Cardinal Daneels' self styled mafia than the Holy Spirt. All the indications are that Cafeteria Catholicism is reigning in the Vatican.
+ Brothers and Sisters in Christ, With all of the discussion of Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation, many are rightly trying to defend our Catholic Faith as if we were in normal times. Many might say that the time to defend the Faith is all the time no matter what. That is true but we if we do not consider what is to come upon mankind in a little while (the Warning and Illuminaiton of Conscience), the way we are fighting could be more profitable if we consider a few things, 3 to be precise. In John Cassian's (365 - 435 A.D. Monk) third conference, an older wise Monk tells him that in order for us to have contemplative unity with God (this will happen in the Warning) we must renounce 3 things: 1). The Body and all material goods which were given to us. 2). All of the grievances that we have committed against our God. 3). We must draw our spirit away from the here and now in order to contemplate the things of the future. Many of us can do a decent job of the first 2 above items. We realize that all we have, we have been given by God, even our body. Our sins we are sorrowful for and ask for forgiveness in Confession. To reach the goal of contemplative union with God, we must go through the third renunciation which involves us freely giving up to God the things we really own. These are the merits which God has granted to our soul and which we take to eternity and they are the only things we really have. We must lay these at our Lord's feet and freely give all that our life amounted to. This is what Christ did on the Cross and we must do the same. Brothers and Sisters, before the Warning, all of us will have to accomplish this 3rd renunciation because the warning will force our souls into a union that many will not be ready for. If there is anything that is causing you to lose the Peace of Christ, change your direction back toward Peace. Remember that Jesus gave us our Faith as a means toward union with Him, not an ends to worship. Can our Faith lead us to damnation. Yes it can, if it is not pointed toward hope and love (our Heavenly Father). Please consider that the fight we are in right now is an end game to bring all into the ark before the Warning. Can we lay down even our very selves so that we can have unity with our God? All of us will have to before or during the Warning. The only question is, will we welcome the unity we find in those moments, or will we be aghast that we were not able to lay down all that was dear to us. We know that what our Christ will give us back will dwarf any good we did on our own. In the short time remaining before the Warning, please consider what the Blessed Mother and Pope Francis are doing in this Year of Mercy and keep the Peace of Christ in your Hearts always. With Deepest Respect to All of my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Peace, Ed +
Considering what Pope Francis is doing is what's disturbing the peace in my heart. What if there is no Warning? Consider this......... Divorced and remarried Catholics living together and raising children cannot be expected to refrain from sexual relations because it is too heavy a burden so they should be permitted to receive the Blessed Sacrament. Homosexual couples also raise children. Isn't living together while remaining celibate also too heavy a burden for them? Aren't they entitled to merciful inclusion in the Church, and shouldn't they also be permitted to receive Communion since their union is no less invalid than the heterosexual union and their children are just as important as the children of the heterosexual couples? Nobody is condemned forever. Now, fast forward a few years when the practice of giving Communion to couples in various types of irregular unions has become commonplace. Time to formally acknowledge what has become acceptable development of Doctrine. Wait a few more years and it's time to stop this hypocritical discrimination against people with same sex attraction. Their unions cannot be sinful, otherwise they wouldn't be eligible to receive the Eucharist. The Church needs to confer its blessing and recognise the validity of their marriages and their stable family units, and this small change could hasten unity with our separated Protestant brethren. I wish I had your belief that there will be a Warning because we surely need some kind of divine intervention to put a stop to this madness.
+ I agree, Dolours, that these are troubled times and hard to figure out. Think back for a moment when our Christ went home to Nazareth. The people were astonished when He read from the scroll of Isaiah and had a few good words for Him. After Jesus told them He couldn't work miracles there because of their lack of faith, they nearly threw Him off the cliff. Concentrate on the emotions of this story and how the crowd got whipped into a fury over what they simply didn't understand. How did Jesus cope with the chaos, He turned and vanished into their midst. We can choose this peace of His right now also. It does not mean we don't care, it just means that we use the tools of the Mass, Eucharist, Holy Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet...... There is only Peace in all of these. We chose to have Peace (a gift of the Spirit) by asking for it and staying away from the things that decrease it. This is Christ's Church. He is the Head and He has the plan that has already succeeded. Worrying about the details presumes that we are in control. Release the control to Him and His Mom and feel the peace that back fills in. We say, "God's Will be done" but do we believe it? If we do, let us be at peace in all these things for if we are not at peace in these little things (yes, they are little right now), we will not have a chance when we are not at Nazareth anymore but instead in Jerusalem at the foot of the Cross. Peace to You Dolours, you will remain in my prayers, please keep me in yours. Ed +
Ed is spot on! If you have no lasting peace and joy in your soul at the moment it is because you are putting your concerns in our world and not in what God is doing. This is a distraction of the devil. If those who are all wound up about Pope Francis or our government, or society, or our economic system etc... it will only get worse for you. You must enter into the ark. This means, as Ed has eloquently stated, we must leave the world or be swallowed up by its many distractions to the peace that God is calling us to. When we try to control outcomes, whether on the political front or in personal matters, we will always ride the roller coaster of ups and downs and we will fall. This is not where Christ wants us to be. If we are putting our hope and trust in our government (elections), our society (moral decline) or our well being (money for survival), we had better get on our knees and repent, because God is doing something profound that prophets from old have foretold. We can either wrestle with every thing in our world and environment that is going south or we can enter into the ark of Mary's mantle and trusting that our Lord has a plan or you will drive yourself crazy. The insanity of the world has only just begun. All the worrying in the world will not change the course of the moment, but prayer will. Don't loose your peace and if you already have, repent that you got caught up in the world allurements and have not been spending enough time in prayer and study as our Lord and our Mother have been telling us. Peace.
I would suggest the distraction is caused by ... , well ,partly the devil. Read this with honesty. And then if you think it contains errors , point them out. Dont just take to the defense saying the devil has caused this.http://www.onepeterfive.com/paragra...tm_campaign=Feed:+Onepeterfive+(OnePeterFive)
Yes , I heard Pope Pius x was very bad tempered, in fact in his pictures he looks like he is going to bite someone. I kind of like that, a bad tempered saint is kind of unexpected. Of course Padre Pio was famous for shouting at people in the confession box. Again I love this kind of hard edge. On Satruday we had the Feast of St Athanasius. They had a saying about Athanasius , 'Athanasius against the world', because he wa spretty well one of the very few Bishops to stick to the True Faith when everyone else went off the rails. But what I recall Athanasius best for was that his friend St Nicholas (Santa Claus) punched a fellow Bishop full in the face several times during a Church Council for preaching heresy. Fun times , fun saints. During the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (AD 325), Arius was called upon to defend his position on the inferiority of Christ. Saint Nicholas just couldn’t listen to all of Arius’ nonsense and so he stood up and laid in to Arius with his fist. The Emperor Constantine and the bishops present at the Council were alarmed by Nicholas’ act of violence against Arius. They immediately stripped Nicholas of his office as a bishop by confiscating the two items that marked out a man as a Christian bishop: Nicholas’ personal copy of the Gospels and his pallium (the vestment worn by all bishops in the East). Now if that were the end of the story, we probably wouldn’t know about Saint Nicholas, and our children wouldn’t be asking him for presents. However, after Nicholas was deposed, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Nicholas who was being held in a prison cell for his fist-fight with the heretic. Our Lord Jesus Christ asked Saint Nicholas, “Why are you here?” Nicholas responded, “Because I love you, my Lord and my God.” Christ then presented Nicholas with his copy of the Gospels. Next, the Blessed Virgin vested Nicholas with his episcopal pallium, thus restoring him to his rank as a bishop. Traditional icons of Saint Nicholas depict this miracle as in the image below: Notice Christ (left) holding out the book of the Gospels, and Mary (right) holding out the episcopal pallium, Nicholas (center) holding the Gospels and wearing the pallium When the Emperor Constantine heard of this miracle, he immediately ordered that Nicholas be reinstated as a bishop in good standing for the Council of Nicea. Today we recite the Nicene Creed every Sunday so we know how the controversy played out. The bishops at Nicea sided with Saint Nicholas and Saint Athanasius and they condemned Arius as a heretic. To this very day, we still recite in the Creed that Christ is “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.” I leave you with one last painting of the legendary event: http://taylormarshall.com/2011/12/saint-nicholas-allegedly-punched-this.html
