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

Priest refuses Sacrament of Confession

As I’ve mentioned before on my blog, my own parish is now yoked with another parish so many things have changed for us.  My parish no longer offers a Saturday Vigil Mass or Confession on Saturdays – the only time you can have confession at my parish is to set up an appointment during the week.

Well, I didn’t get around to setting up an appointment this week, so this afternoon I drove to another town where I have occasionally attended Mass and gone to Confession on Saturdays.  Today when I arrived at this parish at 3 pm (Mass is at 4 pm), the priest was in the confessional with someone, but no one else was waiting.  So I was next.

I prayed for a good while before the confessional opened up and out walked a friend of mine, we greeted each other briefly as he went on to sit in another pew.  The priest, (I’ll call “Father S”) walked out behind my friend, nodded at me waiting for confession and then walked passed me.

So I prayed a bit more and waited for “Father S” to return to the confessional.

He did not.

When I looked around I found Father placing pink envelopes on pew seats.  I watched him for a moment, and then noted the clock reading 3:15 pm.  Since I’d been at this parish before, I know there is a rosary at 3:30pm led by a deacon so that confessions continue until 3:45 pm.  Still plenty of time for my confession I thought.

Thinking perhaps Father didn’t know I was sitting near the Confessional because I was waiting for Confession I said, “Father will you hear my confession?”

Father said, “No!”

I said “Excuse me?” I was sure I had misunderstood him.

There were three other parishioners sitting in the pews who looked just as stunned as I felt.

Father (slapping down pink envelopes on pews) said “No, I cannot hear any more confessions today because SOMEBODY didn’t do their job so now I have to do it.”

I was stunned.  I didn’t respond for a moment as he continued making his way from pew to pew placing pink envelopes on the seats.

At this point, I see my friend who had just left the confessional go over to assist Father with his envelopes – my guess is my friend was offering his services so that Father could hear my Confession, but it didn’t work.  Father would not stop placing pink envelopes on pews, even with someone else offering to do it.

I tried again, “So you won’t hear my confession?”

Again, he said “No, I have to do someone else’s job because they didn’t do what they were supposed to do.  This is what happens when people don’t do their job.”

I nodded at him, not knowing what to say, knelt before the Tabernacle, crossed myself and made my way toward the door still not believing that a priest would refuse to hear someone’s confession.

On my way out, Father called after me, “I will hear your confession AFTER Mass.”

‘After Mass’? I wasn't there for Mass (I attend at my own parish on Sunday), I was there solely for Confession.

I walked out shocked that a priest would CHOOSE to place envelopes on pews rather than hear a person’s confession.  He was clearly angry at someone for not placing the pink envelopes in the pews, but to take that anger out on someone wanting and waiting for the Sacrament of Confession is just unbelievable to me.

It's hours later and I am still in disbelief with what happened.

Shouldn't a Sacrament be a priority over envelopes? 

What sort of priest refuses a Sacrament to someone in order to place envelopes on pews?  He still had a half an hour of time to be hearing Confessions and he had 45 minutes before Mass was to begin. I can think of no excuse for his behavior.

Stunned, I got in my car, drove home and wrote a detailed letter to his Bishop telling exactly what happened.

I am not sure what the issue is with this particular diocese but if you recall me telling another nightmare Confessional story about this year’s Holy Week when another priest in another parish (same diocese) was texting while hearing confessions.

What is going on?

I did not write to the Bishop that time- I probably should have.  Many of my readers told me I should but I let it go.  Now that this has happened again… I am not letting it go.  The Bishop needs to do something about this so that it does not continue. 

I hope I hear back from the Bishop (I gave him my name, email and phone number), and an apology from the priest would be nice too.

In Christ,

Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner

Penance and the Rosary

Going to Confession you can never be sure just what penance a priest will give you.  Sometimes one priest will seem to always tell you the same thing and you might make the mistake of falling into the routine of committing the same sins week after week and then doing the same penance without even thinking about it.  If you keep committing the same sins and doing the same penance perhaps you might stop and contemplate that YOU aren't doing the penance correctly.

Do you run through ten Hail Mary's and five Our Father's to simply finish the penance given to you?  If so, you've lost much and probably haven't learned a thing.

Confession is for our healing, Penance is for our growth and strength against temptation.  The priest can heal our relationship with God if we confess our sins WHOLE heartedly and with sorrow for offending God - that's Absolution.  When we are absolved of our sins our relationship with God is healed.  The wounds that sin inflicted on our souls Confession heals.  Those healed wounds are made stronger with our Penance by the Grace of God. 
Embrace your Penance as a gift of love from God Himself.  It is love and strength given to you for your help.  Don't rush through it.  Take your time, talk with God and remember to SHUT UP so you can hear God speaking gently into your hearts.  Telling you how much He loves you and is pleased with you for participating in His Sacraments.  When we repent the very angels in heaven celebrate! [Luke 15:10]

I've never publically shared my personal experiences with Confession before, but today I am going to because I feel it may help other parents and perhaps inspire other priests to follow what a priest recently gave me for a Penance.  Generally speaking, near the end of my Confession, I conveyed to the priest a worry I have about raising Godly children in today's secular, sexual, drug addicted society.  'What's a parent to do?' I asked.

Father said to me (something that should be obvious but wasn't)... 'If you want Godly children, be a Godly woman in all things.  When you suffer, suffer with joy because Christ allows it for a reason that you don't have to know, only trust in Jesus to know.  Trust Him in good and bad because He loves you and died for you. Give Him praise always, during that suffering and in times of happiness, always praise Jesus.  Now go home and for your Penance you are to pray the rosary with your entire family."

:::blink*blink:::

The rosary?  With everyone?

I'd never been given a Penance that I had to involve others in to complete.  I was surprised, but very happy because I had just recently been thinking of the old saying "The family that prays together, stays together."  A saying that I had heard decades ago, and learned some years later is from a Catholic priest named Fr. Peyton.

Father Patrick Peyton - "The family that prays together, stays together."



Returning home from Confession that day, I gathered my family at our home altar (if you don't have one, I highly recommend them).  I lit all the candles on the altar along with the incense (which I love) and together with one of my children kneeling on our kneeler before the altar (the rest of us seated) we all prayed the rosary together for the first time outside of our parish as a family.  What joy!  It was wonderful and something I am intending to practice in my family more often.

Is It Pagan?

Al writes: JESUS NEVER UTTERED THE PAGAN WORD "SACRAMENT." SO WHY IS YOUR "CHURCH" DOING IT? IS IT PAGAN?

My response: Perhaps not in scripture, but every word Christ uttered is not recorded so we don't really know that now do we? As far as scripture goes, Jesus never said "Trinity" either but Christians believe in it. The word "sacrament" isn't any more of a 'pagan word' than the days of the week are. It comes from the Latin word "sacrare" meaning 'to consecrate'. The seven Sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Marriage, Holy Orders, Extreme Unction, Penance, Confirmation) in the Catholic Church are not pagan. Sacraments are rites instituted by Jesus Christ. They can't be changed by anyone, not even a Pope. Many Protestant denominations have sacraments, though usually only 2 (Communion, Baptism). Some Protestant denominations prefer to use the term "ordinance" rather than "sacrament". I see nothing "pagan" in either terms, and certainly not in the Christians participating in these sacraments.