Another scandal from the Holy Father

Open adulterers no longer need to repent of their mortal sin in order to receive Holy Communion in Christ's Holy Catholic Church, says Pope Francis (Amoris Laetitia). 

Quote from Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing: "Indeed, Catholics have a new teaching now, not only on divorce and remarriage. We have a new vision of the Eucharist. It’s worth recalling that in January the pope, coyly, not ruling it out, suggested to a group of Lutherans in Rome that they, too, should “talk with the Lord” and “go forward.” Indeed, they later took Communion at Mass in the Vatican. In a way, that was even more significant. A Catholic couple, divorced and remarried, are sinners, but – at least in principle – still Catholic. Has intercommunion with non-Catholic Christians also been decided now without any consultation – almost as if such a momentous step in understanding the Sacrament of Unity hardly matters? 
I say this in sorrow, but I’m afraid that the rest of this papacy is now going to be rent by bands of dissenters, charges of papal heresy, threats of – and perhaps outright –schism. Lord, have mercy." [clipped] 

Source: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2016/09/14/a-bizarre-papal-move/

The good folks at EWTN are just as dumbfounded as the rest of us at this latest scandal from our current 'merciful' pope. 

Clearly they are stunned, unhappy and (I think) holding back the desire to scream their outrage at this latest horror from our current pope. 

EWTN's Raymond Arroyo on his show "The World Over" first stepped up to the plate about this pope, just months ago... 

(my post on that: http://connecticutcatholiccorner.blogspot.com/2016/06/ewtn-takes-on-pope-francis-problem.html )

I'd ask  "what's next?" but we already know what is coming, Christ's Holy Catholic Church is about to celebrate excommunicated heretic Martin Luther with Pope Francis presiding over the entire event. God help us!

This pope continues to scandalize the faithful. Some in the Catholic media warn that for Catholics to point these scandals out we are putting fear into the faithful and causing people to leave the Church. Yet I believe, the pope is sending a great many people out the doors of the Church, not Catholic bloggers, newspapers or media outlets.  This falls squarely on the pope. 

On September 14, 2016 over at "Torch of the Faith" Catholic website I found an excellent article called "A Timely Reminder", I want to share a quote from that article for Catholics like me who are scandalized with our current pope and all that is going on with our Church today...

quote (in part): A Timely Reminder
"Today's feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross provides a timely reminder that the ultimate victory will be that of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
No matter how bad things get for the Church and Her members, we can rely on that great certainty.
During the last couple of days, I have read comments at other sites about people who were getting shaky in their Faith because of all that is happening to the Church: I read of one woman who had decided that Pope Francis had so contradicted previous Magisterial teaching that she had given up on the whole thing; I read of a man who had stopped going to Confession and was now beginning to have doubts about the whole notion of organized religion; and I read of others who thought their efforts to be faithful to Christ had all been in vain.
I feel for people in this situation. I really do. We can make no bones about the fact that these are extremely grim times for Catholics everywhere.
However, it is essential to bear in mind that Christ has promised that He shall remain with His Church until the end of time; and that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her (Matthew 16:18).
As we generally remind ourselves and our readers each New Year's Day: ''Jesus Christ is the Lord of the cosmos and of history. In Him, human history and indeed all Creation are 'set forth' and transcendently fulfilled'' (Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 668).
We also do well to have a solid grasp of real Catholic doctrine. For example, the Church teaches that popes are Infallible under certain clear conditions. The Church has never taught that popes are impeccable.
Awareness of Spiritual Warfare
Because of our fallen nature, it is a classical trick of Satan to try and get us to rebel against God, in the manner of our First Parents Adam and Eve, when things either go wrong, or appear to be going wrong for us.
Also, Satan being the ultimate deceiver can confuse us into thinking that things are much worse than they truly are.
Thoughts and feelings of despair come from the infernal enemy of our souls. Inspirations of faith, hope and charity come to us from God's grace; mediated to us by Our Lady, the Saints and our Guardian Angels.
Unfortunately, the person who chooses to despair and give up the Faith has at some deep level made a decision that they know better than God and the Church. This is a classical example of pride. It is important to grasp the fact that this final collapse has normally been achieved through defeats and compromises with incremental attacks from Satan and his minions.
For the person that has practiced the Faith, the destruction wrought by Satan once they leave the protection of the Church would perhaps be swift.
This is why it is essential to remain focused on Christ and His promises to the Church. There is no way that any of us, or even all of us together, could defeat Satan without Christ and His Church. We are fallen creatures with a tendency to sin and intellects far below that of Satan. Without Christ we can do nothing; with Him we can do all things (Philippians 4:13). 

A Personal Experience

I have shared before that I was tempted to leave the Church back in 2009, when Modernists seemed to be stitching up the last vestiges of orthodox hopes here in England. I remember thinking that we had been through so much at the hands of dissenters, and that things had become so corrupt, that I was just getting out of the Church. At that point, I saw a mental picture of myself standing at the edge of a ship, about to step off into a black and storm-tossed sea. Thanks be to God, this helped me to come to my senses and remain lashed to the Barque of Peter by the Sacraments, Sacred Scripture and Tradition, prayer and reading key spiritual writers. God's grace enabled me to see that I would have been rapidly destroyed if I had tried to fight corruption by leaving the only supernatural means available to do this in this world. That is because I, like everyone else in this world, am also corrupted by my own sins and sinful tendencies." [clipped] 

Please read the full article: http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1409.1

What a beautiful way to express what so many Catholics are facing right now! 

We must NOT abandon Christ's Holy Catholic Church, but rather cling to Her in this time of so much corruption coming from inside the Church. 

Satan wants us to "abandon ship" and leave the Ark of our Salvation that Christ gave us on earth. He is cunning, sly, deceitful and wicked. We must not fall for his traps- even if they come in the form of a merciful pope spouting things never taught before by the Church. 

Stay with the only Church Jesus Christ created on earth, focus on the things of God officially taught by our Holy Church for centuries, not the current ramblings of any wayward clergy. 

They speak with forked tongues. 


In Christ, 


Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner 

***

Other articles I've written on this issue: 

We have a pope problem and we can't ignore it!

The New Age of Pope Francis' Church 

Is it a sin to tell Pope Francis to shut up? 

How do you stop a pope who has gone off the rails? 

How do you stop a pope who has gone off the rails?

"If the faith is in imminent peril, prelates ought to be accused by their subjects, even in public." -St. Thomas Aquinas 

How do we stop a pope who has clearly (for a while now) gone off the rails? 

No, seriously.  What do we do?  Sit by and watch as Pope Francis continues the downward spiral of spouting heretical ideology that is causing chaos and mass confusion in the world?

We do nothing?  Just stand by and watch people go to hell with a helping hand from the Vicar of Christ? 

How long do we keep saying "He hasn't officially changed Church teaching" to comfort ourselves when we've got a pope saying things like fornicators have "real marriages" because of their "fidelity to each other"? 

Quote: He [Pope Francis] said that in Argentina’s northeast countryside, couples have a child and live together. They have a civil wedding when the child goes to school, and when they become grandparents they “get married religiously.”
“It’s a superstition, because marriage frightens the husband. It’s a superstition we have to overcome,” the Pope said. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity, but there are local superstitions, etc.”

When did fidelity fornication become sinless?  Is this not a "new teaching" by a Catholic pope?  How many people living in the mortal sin of cohabitation will now not even consider an actual valid marriage because Pope Francis has just made this latest SCANDALOUS statement?

So go ahead and fornicate folks, if you are loyal to each other Pope Francis "is sure" you have a "real marriage" even though you've never gotten married.  Pope Francis has just redefined the word "fornicator". 

Can the rest of the Catholic world now call Pope Francis' ideology heresy? 

What else will it take before we collectively call a spade a spade? 

When our first pope, Saint Peter was wrong about his treatment of the Gentile converts nearly everyone was silent.  It seemed no one was willing to step up and tell the pope he was wrong- then Saint Paul stood up and opened his mouth and corrected Saint Peter.  Peter accepted the correction and world didn't end.  Should it be any different today? 

I don't have to list all the things this pope has said and done over the last few years - you all know what I am talking about.

Is there no one at the Vatican willing to correct Pope Francis?  No one? No backbones to be found among the clergy?  What a disgrace!

Is it to fall to the laity here and there around the world, whom the pope probably doesn't hear and wouldn't listen to anyway, to speak up?

I know everyone sees it - including clergy, too many simply will not tell the truth about what we all see happening. 

Shame on you for your silence, souls are being lost and you sit by and do nothing to stop it!

In Christ and weeping, 


Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner 


Source: 
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/most-marriages-today-are-invalid-pope-francis-suggests-51752/



Catholic Church teaching (before Pope Francis): 

Catechism:

2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.

2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.


***ADDITION: 
Fox News article asking for Pope Francis to resign: 

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/06/17/enough-is-enough-pope-francis-should-resign.html

Same Sex Couples And the Catholic Church

Buster writes: I have a few questions. If me and my same sex partner were to come in to your church and hold hands like an opposite sex couple would we get dirty stares? Would your minister/priest serve me and my partner communion like my MCC does together? Would your church marry me? Would your church give me a position? Probably not. So therefore your church doesn't welcome all people.

My reply: Hello Buster and thanks for writing. I can't answer for every Catholic out there, so I will just answer for myself and what the Church officially teaches, ok? And anyone who would like to share their opinion on this, please comment or email me, I'd love to hear from you.

I suspect a same sex couple holding hands (publicly declaring their relationship) would get quite a few stares and curious looks, maybe even some 'dirty' looks should they enter a Roman Catholic sanctuary that way. My question to you, is why would you want to? The Catholic Church is very clear on same sex relationships- it's a sin. Period. To walk into a Catholic Church the way you described is to flaunt your sinful relationship and your lack of respect for the Catholic faith and try to force your opposing views on an entire faith. You would be very wrong to do so. I don't know if a priest would or would not serve you Communion, I am not a priest and it's not my job to make such judgments. What I can tell you, is that NO sexually immoral person, homosexual or heterosexual should even go up for Communion unless they have confessed their sins, repented of them and gone to Confession for absolution. To take Communion in an unworthy manner is a grave sin on yourself! Why would you do that to yourself?

Catholic Catechism #1385 "To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself." Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion."

You also ask if the Catholic Church would marry you (assuming you mean a same sex marriage). The answer is no. The Catholic Church teaches and believes that marriage is a sacrament between one man and one woman- until death do us part. That's it.

Catholic Catechism #2360 "Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament."

Catholic Catechism #2359 "Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection."

The last question you ask is about a position. I don't know what you mean by this. If you mean employment of some type or if you mean a position with the Church like as an altar server or Eucharistic Minister etc. As far as a job working at the church I would think that wouldn't be an issue because how would anyone know you were in a gay relationship unless you broadcast it? For example if a gay electrician applied for a job to rewire a parish, how would anyone know that he/she was gay unless they perhaps showed up wearing a shirt that broadcast it or having some pro-gay sign on their vehicle to make a statement? That could and probably would be a problem for the Catholic parish. Though I really couldn't say with any sort of authority on this matter. As far as a position within the Church (i.e. Eucharist minister), that I don't believe would happen because you are obviously embracing sin and refusing correction from God's Church on this matter. Blatant opposition to Church authority and rejecting of the faith is a fast way to excommunication from the Church, not a position with the Church.

You make one final statement about the Church not welcoming all people. You are wrong. The Catholic Church does welcome all people, the Church also teaches all people to repent from sin. That's the part some people have problems with. That is the part that will stop same sex couples from ever marrying within the Catholic Church because the Church will not condone or over look the sin to suit society. The Church's authority comes from God and God alone. It's not a democracy and it never will be.

The Holy Sacrament Of Marriage: An Act Of Love And A Leap Of Faith

“So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
(Matthew 19: 6.)

Doug writes: I read in the newspaper today that John and Cindy McCain have a prenuptial agreement. When I remarked on that discovery aloud to my wife, she replied, “Cindy McCain has a lot of money.” We then discussed prenuptial agreements and both agreed that if one of us were engaged to a fiancé who demanded, or for that matter, even suggested the signing of a prenuptial agreement that we would instantly call off the wedding. That scenario, of course, is hypothetical. First of all, my wife and I love each other deeply and are committed to our lifelong marriage vows to each other, with 20 years already behind us, and hopefully many more ahead of us. Secondly, given our financial state, even the very mention of a prenuptial agreement is downright hilarious!

I find nothing in the Catechism that specifically cites prenuptial agreements, but 1662 sheds sufficient light on the matter: “Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually, and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love.”

A prenuptial agreement, by its very definition, is, at the very least, a “what if” condition, and at its very worst, an “out clause,” to coin a legal term. In either case, it is the antithesis of faith, a staple of which marriage is to be founded upon.

Marriage is also founded upon love. We know from 1 Corinthians 13, a favorite passage of many couples, and often read at their wedding ceremonies, that love is patient, not jealous (or might I add, to paraphrase the 9th and 10th Commandments, “covetous”). Love does not demand its own way. It isn’t resentful. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. It is even greater that faith or hope. St. Paul didn’t exactly leave a whole lot of wiggle room there for a pre-nup, did he?

Jesus taught us and expects us to be of His world, and not of this one. The 3rd Joyful Mystery of the Rosary is a rightful reflection on poverty, as it depicts from Luke 2: 7, the birth of Jesus in a manager, with the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. With their faith and love, an impoverished Joseph and Mary got along just fine. A close friend of mine formerly worked in the cut-throat corporate world and got laid off due to downsizing about three or four times before finally going into business for himself, but not entirely without hardship for him, his wife and their three children. After the last time he lost his job, I offered condolences to him, to which he calmly, succinctly and faithfully replied, “God provides,” and shortly thereafter, He did.

A prenuptial agreement is a simultaneous clinging to materialism as it is an actual barrier to love, a barrier just as much as contraception is, or as is a continued refusal to share conjugal love in a marriage. Marriage is a unity, and in any real unity, there is no room for barriers.

In our modern hedonistic world, narcissism is running amok and ruining marriages and lives. Singles now “hook-up” upon meeting. In other words, sex begins before dating, and certainly outside of marriage. Most women especially often regret such hook-ups after they occur. Dating barely lasts, when it exists at all, before couples engage in premarital sexual relations and very soon often cohabitate. From there, a new and disturbing trend is now emerging: as if so-called “accidents” weren’t bad enough, many couples now deliberately conceive children while unmarried and then later and cavalierly “see if things work out” before even considering marriage. It’s all part of the same gratuitous, corrosive, and dehumanizing evil. Human dignity is being discarded, if not defiled, for immediate sexual gratification, knee-jerk emotions, greed, and overall gross self-centeredness.

By doing things the right, or “traditional” way, slowly, deliberately, and with wholesome courtship and sexual abstinence, both parties can truly come to know each other, and true love can be fostered and nurtured, but even then, only after time, prayer, reflection and discernment. Love is more than an emotion. It is also a decision. The mental aspect must be as deeply present, if not more, than the emotional aspect. Such is the difference between love and infatuation.

With this deliberate and focused slowing down of the intended and seemingly almost obsolete relationship process, fact will trump fantasy, if not fiction, and discernment can overcome the potentially destructive blindness of infatuation-driven denial. Some people are very astute at deception, and others are less savvy at reading people, but all too often, those in infatuation are also in denial, and thus cannot as easily detect someone who is not trustworthy, or places materialism on a higher plain than his or her supposed soul mate.

A decision to love is also a decision to sacrifice. It is also a decision to stay, “in good times, and in bad, in sickness, and in health.” My wife and I can regale you with 20 years worth of roller coasters of “good times and bad,” and of “sickness and of health.” I have known several physically disabled people whose spouses left them because he or she just could not, or more appropriately, would not tolerate the later-acquired disability of his or her spouse. Words have meaning. A promise is more substantive than an agreement, and likewise, a vow is greatly more significant than a promise. In marriage, we take wedding “vows” for a specific reason, in much the same way that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and not “a few helpful suggestions.” There isn’t supposed to be a “what if,” or “an out clause” in marriage, hence the “vow.” That is where the mental overcomes the emotional, and the decision can and must override the circumstances. Suffering hardships in life draw us closer to Christ, grant us special graces, and make us stronger in our faith and relationships to Him and to each other, in much the same way that intense fire is used to forge the defects off of precious metals, and in the end, making them that much stronger, and even more precious and valuable.

The divorce rate in the US is currently at about 50%, and sadly among Catholics, it is about the same. Being Catholic in name only is one factor, as roughly 75% of American Catholics don’t regularly attend weekly mass and receive the Eucharist. Cohabitation is also a relevant factor. Roughly 80% of cohabitating couples later and permanently separate, even after later marrying each other. That stark statistic brutally debunk the popular, but detrimental folly that cohabitation is better way for a couple to get to know each other prior to marriage, if marriage is even truly in the picture at all. Too many Catholic couples get married in the Church to only placate their families, often parents and/or grandparents, who may be paying for all or part of the wedding, and thus want their say. Some Catholic couples don’t marry in the Church. The Church thus does not recognize their marriages and then those couples live in a state of unrepentant and grave manifest sin, may not receive the Eucharist, even if they so desire, and are in danger of eternal damnation if they do not confess and repent in time.

We Catholics are not called to be of this world, but that of our God and our Savior. To save marriage, and to limit needless misery, we must culturally change our mindset. That begins with being faithful to our Church, up to, including, and long after receiving the Holy Sacrament of Marriage. In the Catholic engaged couple ministries, we teach couples that marriage is not comprised of two entities, that being just of husband and wife, but rather, of three entities, God, husband and wife. Without that crucial and intended trilateral relationship, the marriage is potentially doomed before it even begins.

A prenuptial agreement is symptomatic of idol worship. It places love of money before love of the person, and thus, before love of God as well. It is conceivably a violation of the 1st Commandment, if even only indirectly so. It is steeped in greed, lacking, if not devoid of true faith and true love, and effectively says, “Just in case…”

Students study for exams. Athletes practice for competitions. Soldiers train for battle. Firefighters drill for that inevitable fire or other catastrophe. Likewise, before even considering the vocation of marriage, and marriage truly is a vocation, we must also genuinely, earnestly and diligently prepare. Money is at or near the top of the short list of causes for arguments, and in some cases, divorces among married couples, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. Our Catechism refers to “consent” and “covenant” in marriage. The consent must first be full before the covenant can ever be solid.

Then there will be no need for a “…just in case…”

Doug