They tend to be too 'wordy' to keep it that simple, Dolours. But there are plenty on the internet who in a much more long winded way do try to tell us just this.
Maybe they fancy having their statues displayed in the Vatican. At least, David, you aren't telling us that that it is inconceivable for married homosexual women priests to say Mass in a Catholic church. Do you think it possible that belief in purgatory and the Immaculate Conception could become optional for the sake of Christian unity?
Bet you would have said the same a year or so ago about Communion for divorced and remarried or people in same sex unions.
Not at all, Dolours. I anticipated and hoped for the relaxation of discipline in this area for those seeking a closer relationship to Jesus in their lives. I have no doubt whatever that it is what Jesus wanted.
I wish I was as sure as you are about what Jesus wanted. Very protestant. I go by tradition and the last two thousand years of pope's teachings and tradition. This pope and you do not. Very confusing.
Here is a report of this morning's homily from the Pope. All Christians need to learn from the Holy Father: “Beneath rigidity there is something else, there is often wickedness” At this morning’s mass in St. Martha’s House, the Pope said rigid people lead a “double life”, they seem good but they often aren’t; they are strangers to God’s freedom, “slaves of the law”. “How they suffer”! 24/10/2016 DOMENICO AGASSO JR VATICAN CITY Beneath the rigid exterior of a person who is not free because he or she is a slave to the law, is a double life, something hidden, some sort of disease. Often wickedness. By contrast, the Lord gives freedom, in addition to meekness and kindness, Pope Francis said in this morning’s homily in St. Martha’s House. In today’s Gospel story, Christ heals a woman on a Saturday, stirring feelings of contempt and protest in the synagogue chief who claimed the “Law of the Lord” was violated: “It is not easy,” the Pope remarked, “to walk in the Law of the Lord,” it is “a grace we need to ask for”. The Son of God calls the synagogue chief a hypocrite, a word “he uses so often to refer to those who are rigid and unyielding in their insistence on applying the law down to the last letter”. These people are not free, “they are slaves of the Law”. But “the Law was not made to enslave us but to set us free, to make us children” of the Lord. “Beneath rigidity there is something else, always! This is why Jesus says: hypocrites!” Francis said: “beneath rigidity there is something hidden about a person’s life. Rigidity is not a gift of God. Meekness is; kindness is; benevolence is; forgiveness is. But rigidity is not! Beneath rigidity there is always something hidden, in many cases a double life; but there is also some sort of disease lingering there. How the rigid suffer: when they are sincere and they acknowledge this they suffer! Because they are unable to feel the freedom that God’s children feel; they do not know what it is like to walk in the Law of the Lord and they are not blessed. And they suffer so much!” They seem “good because they follow the Law; but beneath that there is something not so nice about them: either they are bad or they are hypocrites or they are ill. They suffer!” The Bishop of Rome recalled the parable of the Prodigal Son: the elder son’s attitude of indignation shows what lies behind some forms of goodness; “The arrogance of believing oneself to be right”. “Beneath one’s good actions lies arrogance. He knew he had a father and in his darkest hour he went to his father; he had only ever seen his father as a master not as a father. H ewas rigid; he walked in the Law in a rigid way. The other one set the Law aside and went off without the law, against the Law but there came a point when he remembered his father and came back. And he was forgiven. It is not easy walking in the Law of the lord without drifting towards rigidity.” The Pope concluded by invoking God and inviting faithful to pray “for our brothers and sisters who believe that walking in the Law of the Lord means becoming rigid. May the Lord show them that He is the Father and He likes mercy, tenderness, kindness, meekness and humility. May he teach us all to walk in the Law of the Lord, adopting all of these attitudes”. http://www.lastampa.it/2016/10/24/v...wickedness-rBftfZf89uXhk6Wmc0Gf5O/pagina.html
So, all those assertions we read on the forum about the media misquoting the Pope were wrong when they said that the Pope would open Communion to the divorced and remarried? Some folk got very heated, accusing others of hating the Pope. Now, if I say that the Pope will permit people who deny the existence of Purgatory, dispute the Immaculate Conception and don't believe in transubstantiation to receive Communion in a Catholic Church so long as they are married to a Catholic, would you say that will never happen?
I have sympathy just like the Pope for all who are away from God in mortal sin. I have many friends and loved ones myself in that situation. It's not that they have never heard the gospel, it's not that they have been "left behind" by the Church, it's not that they do not have the ability to have a relationship with God. It is that they don't care to have a relationship with God or His Church. They don't want to stop sinning. Their own desires and relationships come before God and His commandments, and they want it that way. I have had many loving discussions with them and they understand, but do not want to change. They want GOD to change or they have no time for Him. Until grace changes them to love God as He is, we cannot beat them into submission, nor will allowing them to just participate without converting do any good for them. Prayer and the Truth are they only weapons that will bring them to God.
I've got to smile at your creativity, Dolours. I've been very patiently answering your questions in a direct and simple way. Yet you now come up with this latest rather ridiculous question. I'm afraid I do not sense any real search for the truth in your questions.
I am sick and tired of being called "rigid", a pharisee, judgemental, schismatic, protestant, etc. Is it not judgemental to hurl labels at others? I am a very loving person. Maybe that doesn't come across on the forum often because I am constantly battling people who are leading others astray. Why does everyone deserve mercy but those who try to follow the precepts of the Church? Something is very wrong. I tell you now, everything I believe was believed by every good Catholic up until 50 years ago. Yes, even the Popes too!!! Were they too "rigid"? I ask you: Has no one ever understood the teachings of Jesus Christ and mercy until recently? Or has the world developed a more morally lax interpretation of His laws to go along with our new morally bankrupt society? Which one is more likely? TRUTH doesn't change. Wake up!
I wasn't particularly talking about the Pope David. You yourself have accused me of being a protestant. It is a whole mindset of a certain group of people. They are called modernists. They say those who follow the "old ways" of the Church don't fit in with the plan anymore. Let's not be coy and play games here.
Pope Francis needs to be careful here. He seems to be quite rigid about rigidity, and beneath that is wickedness.
I'm certainly not playing games here and Pope Francis is most certainly not doing so. I have referred to a mindset very close to what the Pope is describing here that pervades many who comment on the forum and I stand by that. It is a mindset that needs to be recognised where it applies and its dangers to be pointed out. Most criticisms of Pope Francis tend to come from those who exhibit signs of this problem. You, Praetorian, presumably do not consider that the mindset that Pope Francis is highlighting applies to you. Then fair enough.
Pope Francis seems to be speaking here of fundamentalist Muslims or other extremist religions. If he were speaking of Catholics then the saints like Padre Pio would be include in his generalisations on 'rigid' thinking. There was nobody more rigid than Padre Pio when it came to sin in the confessional and the way to approach the altar of grace during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Pope Francis keeps talking about the 'old law' which applies to the Old Testament. We no longer live under the old law because Christ fulfilled the old law in his life and through his atoning sacrifice. Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
I would say that most Catholic progressives would consider me "rigid". As I mentioned you yourself called me a Protestant and I don't even criticize the Pope. I suppose I earned that title simply by not getting on the modernist bandwagon. Do I follow Tradition? Yes. Am I more apt to Quote Pope Leo XIII than a modern Pope? Yes. Do I believe all the "old" teachings of the Church? Yes. Does that make me schismatic, rigid, or wrong? No, it makes me Catholic. We can agree on one thing, sometimes the posts people put up about the Pope go too far. He is the Vicar of Christ on Earth. This site is tame compared to others I have seen where he is called "Frankie" or worse. There is definitely something going wrong in the Church, but in the hierarchy, those who disagree with Pope Francis like Bishop Schneider or Cardinal Burke, etc. do so with decorum and respect. In my opinion it is sinful (possibly gravely) to malign, disparage, and judge the inner motives of anyone much less the Pope. This is not to say we do not all need to be aware of what is going on. We do. We should all just temper our comments if they come from personal anger.
