My response to this community, to fallensaint, and to the pope is this: without life, social justice is meaningless.
What church was that and was there a cemetery that was detached from the church grounds in a different area off of Sheridan?
Hi fallen saint, I see your posts as coming from a left field. A place that is painful. A place that needs to question everybody and everything, as one can feel lost and have no place to call home! This disenfranchised feeling one may have, is so deep that one craves communion with their brothers but keeps themseves aloof so they can bear the pain of rejection. Just remember Jesus suffered in the garden, an agony so horrendous it caused blood to drip from his sweat glands and He did this for you and for me!
I am spreading no false rumours. People are living longer, and more likely to succumb to dementia. This is undeniable truth. Popes are not immune from the fate of their peers (unless there is a doctrine I have missed). In that case, it would be imprudent in the extreme to continue as if it could not happen. Therefore, when a pope contradicts a previous one at 35,000 feet regarding Humanae Vitae; presents rambling, contradictory and partially incoherent letters to the faithful; contradicts his own Exhortation in subsequent comment (I refer specifically to his statement that the young do not want to marry as opposed to his assertion in the Exhortation that they love to do so); and cannot remember crucial segments of it when asked for comment; it might well be charitable and prudent to speculate a factor such as I have suggested rather than some of the alternatives. I categorically did not state as a fact that Pope Francis has dementia. I speculated it as a possibility on a forum patronised by well-formed and cathechised Catholics. Although Padraig might wish otherwise, we don't have the reach of the BBC or the Times, are a very restrictive forum indeed, and I consider it legitimate to debate these matters-if not, what are we at? We are advised in the Scriptures to be as clever as serpents while remaining as innocent as doves. This means that to only observe the second clause is to leave oneself facing mortal peril.
I only had time to listen to the start of this this morning. I will listen to the rest of it tonight. It brought me back to London and a small flat in Chiswick that was owned by a Russian Orthodox priest and where I worked with John at the start of SPUC. John has given his whole life to the Pro Life fight as did the founder of SPUC Phyllis Bowman (Canty). Amazing to think he has been fighting since the 1960s. The Third secret of Fatima was meant to have been released by 196o. Our Lady mentioned abortion at Garabandal in the 60s. In Russia Abortion was basically used as a contraception. I wonder if the request made T Fatima by Our Lady for the consecration of Russia related directly to this loss of life. 2 billion deaths from abortion since then.
Letter from John Smeaton to Holy Father, Pope Francis Your Holiness, With reverence and with attention to common advantage and the dignity of persons, and as a husband and father, I consider that the section of Amoris Laetitia entitled “The Need for Sex Education” seriously fails parents at a time when parental rights regarding sex education are under serious and sustained attack in many nations of the world, and at the international institutions. This section spans more than five pages without making even one reference to parents, albeit parental rights are mentioned earlier in another context. On the other hand there is reference to “educational institutions”. Yet sex education is “a basic right and duty of parents” which “must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centres chosen and controlled by them” as your predecessor, Pope John Paul II, taught the faithful in Familiaris Consortio, Number, 37. Your Holiness, Catholic Bishops’ Conferences around the world, including in Britain, are collaborating with our anti-life opponents in the birth control and sex education lobbies, in helping to impose corrupting sex education programmes on primary and secondary schoolchildren. Such programmes, including in Catholic schools, involve providing our children with access to abortion and contraception. Thus, Holy Father, the Bishops’ Christ-given authority, which we the faithful hold in such reverence, is being instrumentalised to scandalise and cause terrible harm to our children. Amoris Laetitia will serve to make this terrible situation even worse. Holy Father, I believe, as all Catholics believe, that the Pope is Peter, the rock Christ chose on which to build His Church. The Pope serves the unchangeable truth of Christ’s teaching. However, Your Holiness, the Pope is not the master but the servant of the truth. Your Holiness, once again with reverence and with attention to common advantage and the dignity of persons, as well as with my authority as a husband and father, I note that there are references to public adultery in the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia which fail to point out the intrinsic evil of adultery. I consider that such references will result in scandalising little ones in the way contained in Jesus Christ’s warning in verse 92, chapter 9, of the Gospel of St Mark. Even worse, Holy Father, Amoris Laetitia, the Apostolic Exhortation, at the very least, raises the possibility that adulterous sexual acts may be justifiable. This shows a lack of mercy because it denies Catholics the truth about right and wrong. It denies Catholics the knowledge they need to exercise true freedom, freedom from sin. It also shows a lack of mercy because it sends children the false message that marriage is not indissoluble. Arguably, Your Holiness, the most effective way of destroying children is to destroy marriage as an indissoluble lifetime union of a man and a woman. Holy Father, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that certain actions are “intrinsically evil,” such things as adultery. I believe, Your Holiness, as all Catholics believe, because Jesus Christ Himself taught, that marriage is indissoluble and, Jesus taught, if someone divorces or puts away their spouse and marries another, he or she commits adultery – which is considered a mortal sin, the kind of serious sin by which one cuts oneself off from God’s love. (Matthew, 19) I believe, as all Catholics believe, because Jesus Christ Himself taught, that in going to Holy Communion we receive the body of Jesus Christ, God Himself: we receive life and the promise of eternal life. (John, 6:54) Finally, Holy Father, I believe, as all Catholics believe the teaching of St Paul, that if a person eats and drinks the body and blood of Jesus Christ unworthily, we don’t receive life or grace, we eat and drink judgement to ourselves “not discerning the body of the Lord”. (Corinthians: 1,11.29) Holy Father, I know lots of ordinary Catholics both in my family life and through my work. I know women and men who’ve been deserted by their spouse for another person and either left alone with children or left alone without their children. If that deserted spouse were then to see their wife or husband with a new partner, receiving the Body of Christ in Communion, that sends the message to everyone, including the children, that marriage is not indissoluble after all. This is destructive of the truth about marriage. It’s also damaging psychologically and spiritually, not least for the children. Holy Father, with reverence and with attention to common advantage and the dignity of persons, I appeal to you to recognise the grave errors in the recently published Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, in particular those sections which will lead to the desecration of the Holy Eucharist and to the harming of our children, and to withdraw the Apostolic Exhortation with immediate effect. Yours sincerely in Christ, John Smeaton
My dear friends, we must call for the immediate withdrawal of Amoris Laetitia. The grievous errors in Amoris Laetitia, which threaten the souls of our children, have brought the crisis of truth and the crisis of leadership within Catholic Church structures to a dramatic climax. I have been told by a number of good bishops that God is calling on lay Catholics to tell the truth to our episcopal and parish pastors and to carry out our duties under Canon 212. We must launch and lead a worldwide prayer campaign involving bishops, priests, religious orders, seminarians, families and pro-family and pro-life groups worldwide, begging God that Amoris Laetitia be repudiated either by Pope Francis or by one of his successors. We must be prepared to spread the truth, with prudence and charity, through seminars, publications, and conferences for both clergy and laity. We must identify good bishops with whom we can collaborate closely, bishops who are prepared to suffer in upholding Christ’s teaching and to pass it on to our children, as we are suffering in upholding Christ’s teaching and passing it on to our children. We must be prepared to live ourselves in accordance with Catholic teaching and the natural law. We must reform our campaigning and educational strategies so that instead of serving short-term political goals which deny the truth about God in Whom we live and move and have our being, they reflect the full truth about God and about Man, His creation, Whom He loved so much He sent His son to redeem us. My dear pro-life friends. It’s time for lay Catholics to step forward and to build a Catholic Resistance Movement. John Smeaton SPUC's chief executive, and co-founder of Voice of the Family
So know I am a demon...it just keeps getting better. Even on this forum the lines are drawn. Not sure I said anything wrong. Some might not like what I say and how it sounds...but that is the life of a forum. I have been faithful to Our Holy Father and the Catholic Church. Some insights might be over the top but they are spiritually sound. Not to say I am always correct but at least spiritually sound. Maybe my welcome is coming to a close. we will see fallen saint
I can live with that. Seems to me that we're in this mess because people know far too much about sex, not enough about love, and use mercy as a cover to commit sin. We have merciful divorce, merciful contraception, merciful abortion, merciful euthanasia, and now we have a merciful Exhortation giving the nod and wink to adultery.
If more people knew more about the spiritual implications of sex it would help. So I agree with you to that extent. Just keep your insults to yourself.
