CNA Staff, Jan 16, 2021 / 04:28 pm (CNA).- Catholic bishops have welcomed an Irish government report on 20th century homes for unmarried mothers and babies run by local governments and often operated by religious orders. They have apologized for the harsh treatment of unmarried mothers and their children, calling this a betrayal of Christ.
“Although it may be distressing, it is important that all of us spend time in the coming days reflecting on this report which touches on the personal story and experience of many families in Ireland,” Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh said Jan. 12.
“The commission’s report helps to further open to the light what was for many years a hidden part of our shared history and it exposes the culture of isolation, secrecy and social ostracizing which faced ‘unmarried mothers’ and their children in this country.”
He urged continued outreach to those whose personal testimony was central to the report.
“We owe it to them to take time to study and reflect on the findings and recommendations of the Report, and commit to doing what we can to help and support them,” he said. “We must identify, accept and respond to the broader issues which the report raises about our past, present and future.”
The Irish Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes released its report Jan. 12. The six-year inquiry concerned 14 “mother and baby” homes and four “county homes” in the time period of 1922 to 1998. The report examines individual homes and individual witness testimonies as well as providing historical context for the actions of the women, their babies’ fathers, their families, government officials, and religious leaders involved.
“Women who gave birth outside of marriage were subject to particularly harsh treatment. Responsibility for that harsh treatment rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families,” said the report. “It was supported by, contributed to, and condoned by, the institutions of the State and the Churches.”
“However, it must be acknowledged that the institutions under investigation provided a refuge – a harsh refuge in some cases – when the families provided no refuge at all,” it added.
About 56,000 women and girls, as young as 12 or in their forties, were sent to these institutions. The county homes were government-run and -operated, while the mother and baby homes were generally run with government support by Catholic religious religious orders, technically under the authority of their local bishop.
About 57,000 babies were born in the homes over this 76-year period. There was a significant mortality rate, with 15 percent of babies dying before they left the homes. The high mortality rate was known to authorities and recorded, but there was no outcry and little effort to address these problems. The commission report said the high infant mortality rate was the institutions’ most “disquieting feature.” Before 1960, the institutions appeared to have “significantly reduced” survival prospects.
Some county homes had “appalling physical conditions,” as did the homes at Tuam, in County Galway, and Kilrush, in County Clare. Other homes were “considerably better.”
While poor living conditions were common in Ireland, poor sanitary conditions in the group homes had “much more serious consequences.” There was oversight and inspection reports were critical of conditions, but maximum capacity figures were not set for mother and baby homes until the 1940s. These figures were not enforced, because they would have massively reduced the homes’ capacity.
Archbishop Martin welcomed the report, saying, “as a Church leader today, I accept that the Church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatized, judged and rejected.” He “unreservedly apologized” to the survivors and all impacted for the enduring hurt and emotional distress.
“As Church, State and wider society we must ensure together that, in the Ireland of today, all children and their mothers feel wanted, welcomed and loved,” Archbishop Martin said. We must also continue to ask ourselves where people today might feel similarly rejected, abandoned, forgotten or pushed to the margins.”
“Mindful of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which calls us to protect life and dignity and to treat everyone – especially little children and all who are vulnerable – with love, compassion and mercy, I believe the Church must continue to acknowledge before the Lord and before others its part in sustaining what the Report describes as a ‘harsh … cold and uncaring atmosphere’,” Martin said.
While some 200 women who gave birth died while living at mother and baby homes, the report indicated that they likely received better maternal care than most Irish women through the 1960s or 1970s, as most gave birth at home with the aid of a midwife or even an untrained aid. Many Irish homes lacked running water. At the same time, county hospitals discriminated against unmarried women and would not admit them to maternity wards until the 1960s.
The report attributed the end of the homes to massive improvements in living conditions, changes in religious and moral attitudes, as well as gradual improvements like free post-primary education, the establishment of legal adoption in 1953, and an allowance for unmarried mothers in 1973.
Providing historical context, the report said that such homes were not particular to Ireland, at the same time the proportion of unmarried mothers admitted to these homes in the 20th century was “probably the highest in the world.” The group home system was believed to reduce the women’s risk of entering prostitution or committing infanticide. The system also purported to advance their moral reform.
“Some pregnancies were the result of rape; some women had mental health problems, some had an intellectual disability. However, the majority were indistinguishable from most Irish women of their time,” said the report.
In the first decades of the time period concerned, most women admitted to the institutions were domestic servants, farm workers, or unpaid domestic workers in their family homes. In later decades, women were clerical workers, civil servants, professionals, and schoolgirls or post-secondary students.
Many of these pregnant women had failed to secure support from their families or the fathers of the babies and were destitute. Some women entered the homes to prevent family and neighbors from learning they were pregnant. Some were forcibly brought to the homes by family members. There was no evidence that pregnancies among under-age women were routinely reported to police. There is no evidence Church or state officials forced them to enter, but most women “had no alternative,” the report said.
Most were financially supported in the institutions by the local government health authority. Many women were cut off from the world and assigned a “house name.”
Both Irish men and women were more likely to be dependent on their parents into their early twenties. Families tended to have many children and would be less able to support an unmarried daughter’s baby. An out-of-wedlock birth could destroy marriage prospects for both the woman and her siblings.
Irish men were also reluctant to marry, especially to marry young. The commission said it is possible that fewer men married their pregnant girlfriend than they did in other countries. Land inheritance customs and economic necessity meant land passed only to one son.
It was often impossible for pregnant women to prove paternity claims, and compared to other countries a low proportion of Irish men acknowledged paternity or provided financial support. Before 1950, many fathers were themselves financially imperiled, working low-wage jobs or unpaid jobs for family farms and businesses.
Most children born in the institutions were too young to remember, but some stayed after their mothers left through age seven. Legal adoption, which the report called a “vastly better outcome,” was not available until 1953, with farming communities still proving less likely to adopt. Children often ended up in industrial schools or were boarded out.
While the Catholic hierarchy evidently had no role in the day-to-day operation of mother and baby homes, religious congregations who opened such homes required the local bishop’s permission. Local authorities often deferred to the views of these religious orders or to the views of the local bishop.
“The Catholic church did not invent Irish attitudes to prudent marriages or family respectability; however, it reinforced them through church teachings that emphasized the importance of pre-marital purity and the sexual dangers associated with dance halls, immodest dress, mixed bathing and other sources of ‘temptation’,” said the report.
There is no evidence the religious orders running these homes made a profit, said the report, which added: “At various times, it is clear that they struggled to make ends meet.”
The report suggested that the mortality rate was higher than the Irish norm either because of the high risk of infection, or because the children born in mother and baby homes came from less privileged backgrounds than other women who gave birth out-of-wedlock but had healthier pregnancies and healthier babies. Women who gave birth in the homes had more stressful lives and worse pre-natal care and nutrition. There was a failure to implement appropriate hygiene standards at the homes and to educate mothers about hygiene. Almost all the homes lacked the staff needed to perform such education.
Infant mortality rates at the homes peaked in the 1940s, a time of economic difficulty due in significant part to the Second World War.
Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin welcomed the report’s publication, saying such reports “bring to light the profound injustices perpetrated against the vulnerable in our society over a long period of time – against women and children whose lives were regarded as less important than the lives of others.”
“The silence which surrounded this shameful time in the history of our land had long needed to be shattered,” he said. “The pain of those who were hidden away must be heard; those once largely without a voice now can speak clearly to our world, and we need to listen, even when what we hear pierces to the heart.”
“A genuine response is required: ours – as a Church and a society – can only be a full apology, without any reservation. There should never have been a time for avoidance and facile solutions,” he said. “This country, the Church, our communities and families are better places when the light of truth and healing are welcomed. May the Lord’s compassion be the touchstone of our response. May the light of Christ bring healing to all.”
Bishop Tom Deenihan of Meath also apologized, saying: “While a lack of resources and an intense social poverty go some way towards contextualizing the period of this report, the lack of kindness and compassion, as identified by the commission, is also clear.”
Residents and children born in these institutions suffered from “unacceptable conditions” and inadequate assistance, and they have been “unfairly burdened with an unwarranted but enduring sense of shame,” he said.
The long-closed Tuam Children’s Home in County Galway became notorious after the discovery of an unmarked mass grave for children. Some 2,219 women and 3,251 children had been at the home, and 978 children died—80 percent before their first birthday.
The home was operated by the Bon Secours Sisters in from 1925 to 1961. In addition to unmarried mothers and their babies, it also accepted children of destitute and homeless families as well as children with special needs.
It is likely that many children who died are buried in the memorial gardens, but while there are records of their deaths there is no record of their burial places.
The Bon Secours sisters offered “profound apologies.” They said that the children who died at the home were buried in a “disrespectful and unacceptable way,” the Irish Times reports.
Sister Eileen O’Connor, the local superior of the Bon Secour Sisters, said Jan. 12 that the report “presents a history of our country in which many women and children were rejected, silenced and excluded; in which they were subjected to hardship; and in which their inherent human dignity was disrespected, in life and in death. Our Sisters of Bon Secours were part of this sorrowful history.”
“We failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the home. We failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed. We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness and terrible hurt,” O’Connor said. “We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry.”
Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam also welcomed the report and asked forgiveness for “the abject failure of the Church for the pain and suffering visited on those women and their children.”
“The Church of Jesus Christ was intended to bring hope and healing, yet it brought harm and hurt for many of these women and children,” he said. “Many were left broken, betrayed and disillusioned. For them, and all of us, these revelations seriously tarnished the image of the Church.”
The Galway County Council owned the Tuam home and was responsible for the residents, and the sisters operated it. The diocese had no administrative role. However, Neary emphasized, the diocese had a pastoral role, “in that the priests of Tuam parish served as chaplains.”
“Today, how can we even begin to comprehend the raw pain and psychological damage of family separation and its devastating consequences on loving mothers and on the emotional development of their children?” he asked. “Must we ask as to the whereabouts of the fathers? Had the Church been more forthright in acknowledging the responsibility of the men who fathered these children, the outcome for many young mothers and their children would have been very different indeed.”
The diocesan archives on the home have been shared with the commission, but the archive does not have information on the living conditions. Neary lamented the absence of burial location records, saying the burials have “understandably, caused the most outrage.” He welcomed any progress in uncovering the full truth.
Dublin’s Regina Coeli hostel, founded by the Legion of Mary, appeared to show some ability to break with the trends of Irish society. The full report’s 21st chapter says that the hostel was “the only institution that assisted unmarried mothers to keep their infant” before the 1970s, the Iona Institute reports.
“Although the mothers who kept their babies were a minority until the 1970s, the proportion was undoubtedly much higher than for any other institution catering for unmarried mothers”
Venerable Frank Duff, the layman founder of the Legion of Mary, wrote a 1950 memorandum to the Department of Health about encouraging women to keep their children. Duff opposed committing children to Ireland’s industrial schools, which have also been the target of historical inquiry for poor conditions and abuse of their residents.
The hostel received no regular state support. At the same time, babies of women at the hostel suffered a high mortality rate, which peaked in the 1940s, and other reports have questioned the conditions there.
[…]
Hi ho, hi ho, y’all clap yer hands for the German block party! Not synod, but sin-nod…
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode announces that all things, even ecumenical councils, have a “context!” The “tyranny of relativism” under a new name! The sin-nod apparently would normalize McCarrick’s actively homosexual priests, plus radical secularism’s gender theory, and ordination of women as priestesses (resuscitating what, according to Tacitus, was the “barbarian” German attribution “to many of their women prophetic powers and, as the superstition grew in strength, even actual divinity”).
Behold, the “fundamental equality of all believers”! The German bubble-universe would define the mythical Procrustean Bed as dogma. If too tall, then vestments to be shortened by a head; if too short, then a stretch on the rack (as Maltese Cardinal Grech literally explains about lengthening moral theology, “to stretch the grey area”).
And, what about that dead white dude, John the Baptist who, in the presence of Christ, found himself “not worthy to untie the straps of His sandals” (Lk 3:16). Culture-bound reject! Obsolete! Never even heard of today’s high-heeled shoes that don’t even have straps! And what, too, about synthetic polyester pants on the altar? After all, during an earlier Reign of Terror a prostitute, the ordained Goddess of Reason, danced nude on the altar of Notre Dame.
That went well. And, now, open-collared Bishop Batzing also has a problem…it’s about eating crow and not about a white dove with a German accent:
“Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (Pope St. John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 1994).
So does this mean that American Bishops can finally vote the Latin Mass back in?
A weather vane the German Synodal Way gains momentum bishops falling in line with the trend. Turbulence though welcome is overstated. Surprisingly, perhaps not, Cardinal Kasper offered a powerful theological rebuttal [recent article shown here]; Thomas Aquinas could not have done better [an exaggeration].
Kasper’s strong arguments, citing both ecclesiology and theology have referential content to themes openly proposed by Synod on Synodality [SS] relator Cardinal Hollerich [member of the three Synodal Francis aficionados including Cardinals Grech and Farrell] though there hasn’t been word in rebuttal from Kasper. Perhaps SS is the more elite corps of the German suicidal march toward a Hazel Motes Church of Christ without Christ as described by some on Flannery’s classic Wiseblood and by some in Germany and without.
Unfortunately, as much as I’m edified by Cardinal Kasper’s repudiation of the Synodalweg, and here I hope I’m wrong, that he really may be using a foil strategy, downplaying of heterodoxy, while similarly playing the keys ever so expressively in a not uncommon dissonance.
In June, Kasper remarked that:
“there could be no ‘Synodal Council,’ given Church history and theology: ‘Synods cannot be institutionally made permanent. The tradition of the Church does not know a synodal church government. A synodal supreme council, as is now envisaged, has no basis in the entire history of the constitution. It would not be a renewal, but an unheard-of innovation.’”
Is Kasper actually opposed to a permanent and rolling synod or, by offering this wording, is the same ol’ Kasper deliberately rendering such a thing thinkable and, through a “foil strategy,” advancing the innovative (!) “new paradigm” where a rolling council or process replaces the deposit of faith? As with Hollerich, and with Grech who reassures that they only want to “stretch the grey area” (as in moral theology).
The orchestration seems abundantly obvious to this reader. Too much like smoke-and-mirror politicians.
But, as with Councils, synods also are only what the Church DOES, and not what the Eucharistic Church IS. Unless, of course, nominalism and historicism are the new doctrine…as in the still-okay but exploitable Evangelii Gaudium (2013): “realities are more important than ideas; time is greater than space; [and] unity prevails over conflict; and the whole is greater than the part.”
You described well what is too evident [despite hope for otherwise] to ignore, never mind dismiss as some do who believe the Church cannot be misguided. All done peripherally and by stealth. What with the agenda of the great Synod orchestrated by Cardinal Hollerich produced by His Holiness and the theater of absurd come to life, should I say come to an abhorrent finale?
German Catholicism is no longer recognizable if this Synodalweg represents the majority of Germans, which it appears to.
“Catholics in Germany seek to remain faithful to the Church’s magisterium. These doctrinally faithful Catholics consider themselves a small minority within Germany. ‘The schism is coming out in all its brutality’, said Bernard Meuser, a founder of the lay group Neuer Anfang” (Ed Pentin NCReg 02.21.22).
At this critical stage a public admonition to the Synodalweg should be pronounced by His Holiness Francis. The universal Church must hear from him, that this sinful, heretical path will not be tolerated. Otherwise, it will be perceived as an informal approbation of the serious, soul killing errors held by Synodalweg, and its majority supporters in Germany – and elsewhere in the universal Church. Fear of aggravating a break with Rome is no longer an issue – the break is evident. They are not simply in schism, which is defined as an obstinate disagreement on an issue with the Roman pontiff. What’s occurred in Germany is apostasy.
Kasper is not a friendly ghost…..er, spirit…
Father Morello:
As an 80-year-old practicing Roman Catholic I am very distressed to find that the spirit of Luther and Calvin are still alive and actively functioning in Germany. I firmly believe that the sitting Holy Father comes only through God Almighty. The Holy Father speaks on behalf of Almighty God, His only Son Jesus our savior and all Roman Catholics here on earth. How difficult is that to accept for ordained mortal men? I am sorry to say that SCHISM, again, is in the air and on the rise in Germany. All that we mortals can do is pray and hope that The Holy Roman Catholic remains intact! However, I do feel revolution within is well on it’s way.
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS MERCY in this matter!
We pray for that Henry, that is all the faithful need to pray for Christ’s Mystical Body, again suffering crucifixion. Tomorrow is the Feast day Exaltation of the Holy Cross. At this trying time Christ calls us to share the bearing of the Cross with Him. A priority intention is to pray and offer sacrifice for those whose souls are in jeopardy, many being misled to believe that what was always judged sin has now become acceptable. This intention gives us a cause to fight for that is purely charitable, and most pleasing to God. It brings interior joy rather than despondency.
Get on with it and join the Lutherans. When you find what you’re looking for, issue a report on it.
Cue the Holy Spirit.
The Gates of Hell in a full court press…
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2016/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20160913_for-a-culture-of-encounter.html-
Golden words indeed from the Holy Father ,in the above homily 6 years ago to the date and Feast Day of today , narrating beautifully what encounter is…’Each encounter returns people and things to their place.’ – Thus men and women to be in their place and roles ..
Encounter which involves compassion,’that returns to each person , their dignity as children of God , the dignity of living ‘, on how ‘every time that Jesus finds pain , a sinner ..he looks at them .. returns them to His Bride ‘.
http://www.preghiereagesuemaria.it/DV-inglese/THE%20BLESSED%20VIRGIN%20MARY%20IN%20THE%20KINGDOM%20OF%20THE%20DIVINE%20WILL%20%20FINAL%20EDITION%202014.pdf
Came across recently, in the above the rather surprising words on what false pity that make persons rebel against God’s Holy Will can do as well – given on the meditation of Wedding at Cana –
‘ Marriage is the substance from which life of all human generations arise …There are so mnay souls that find themselves filled with passions , weak, afflicted , unfortunate and wretched . Although they pray and pray, they obtain nothing becuase they do not do what my Son asks of them – heaven it seems is irresponsive to their prayers . And this is the cause of sorrow for your mother , for I see that as they pray , they greatly distance themselves from the source that contains all blessings , namely the Will of my Son .’
The focus given by the Holy Father on our Bl.Mother , her intercession to help overcome the effects of the rebellions of the human will .. to bring other in conformity to the Divine Will …and same as measure of holiness , such as the beatification of Bl.John Paul 1 recently ..
the reverse too , such as the prayers of the rebellious, moving them away from God..
? what we are seeing in Russia, Germany .. the pandemic itself , in our contraceting culture as the chastisement of keeping persons away from each other ..even the stars said to move away from each other ..
Thank God for our Mother and the intercession of holy angels and Sts , that we can offer ourselves to the Heavenly Father , through all the wounds of Jesus Christ , with sorrow deep and true , adoring His Wounds – esp.also on the Feast of the Holy Cross .
https://flameoflove.us/wp-content/uploads/FlameOfLoveCenaclePrayersReversed.pdf
What he give the impression of believing when he reads from a prepared script and what he actually believes are two different matters, actually many different matters because they are subject to his changing moods of the day, the week, the month, the year, as well.
Or the Church of England, which is in freefall, by all reports.
The documents approved will be voted on in spring 2023; however the document on changing the sexual ethic and morals of the church teachings failed 60/40% did not get two thirds majority. A lot of great holy things happening in Bavaria by young adults and new evangelization (Adoratio 2021 @ home, Bishop Stefan Oster and Eucharistic adoration). Just like the first reformation brought forth the Holy Spirit to strengthen the Church, so even in this evil age “all time, all ages” belong to Christ who sends the Holy Spirit to renew.
That’s very good news Miss Edith. Thank you so much for sharing this!
So many important saints have come from Germany. I know they are praying for the future of the German Church & for Germany’s young people.
Good news Edith. I assumed the document on sexual ethics, although rejected earlier was still included in the final. Also, the faith in Bavaria, the largest [I believe] Catholic region as you say is growing. I had an internet friend, Alexandra, a young Bavarian lady who had a wide, impressive breadth of knowledge. She later entered a contemplative community. She mentioned Bishop Oster of Passau as a highly commendable Catholic bishop. Hopefully Woelki, Voderholzer and other German prelates will restore Catholicism.
Father Peter, the main document of “Sexualmoral” had a 61 yes and 39 no and did not get the two third approval necessary. It is still a disastrous and rebellious majority of German Bishops adopting all other documents. We shall see how it continues in spring 2023. I grew up in Bavaria and I am happy that under the banner of Mary many good things are happening there. I read the German SSPX news too because they bring it as it is at Katholisches.info. God bless you
I meant to write 61% to 39%
There are two ways for a Pope to lead the Body 0f Christ’s Church into hell. One way is for a Pope to directly lead the Body of the Church into hell. The other way is for a Pope to fail to anathematize evildoers who do lead the Body of the Church into hell.
Jesus Commands His Church, that if her hand, foot or eye, of the Body of His Church is its downfall, Apostolic Successors are Commanded by Jesus to ‘cut them off’ from the life of the Body of the Church and cast them into hell. Jesus teaches that it is better to throw a limb/member of the Body of His Catholic Church into hell than to have evildoers lead the whole Body of His Church into hell by their evildoing.
Matthew 18:5
“Whoever welcomes one such child for my sake welcomes me. On the other hand, it would be better for anyone who leads astray one of these little ones who believes in me, to be drown by a millstone around his neck, in the depths of the sea. What terrible things will come on the world through scandal! It is inevitable that scandal should occur. Nonetheless, woe to that man through whom scandal comes! If your hand or foot is your undoing, cut it off and throw it from you! Better to enter life maimed or crippled than be thrown with two hands or feet into endless fire. If your eye is your downfall, gouge it out and cast it from you! Better to enter life with one eye than be thrown with both into fiery Gehenna.
ANATHEMA
the formula of anathema which ends with these words: Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N– himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment.” Whereupon all the assistants respond: “Fiat, fiat, fiat.” The pontiff and the twelve priests then cast to the ground the lighted candles they have been carrying, and notice is sent in writing to the priests and neighboring bishops of the name of the one who has been excommunicated and the cause of his excommunication, in order that they may have no communication with him. Although he is delivered to Satan and his angels, he can still, and is even bound to repent. The Pontifical gives the form for absolving him and reconciling him with the Church. The promulgation of the anathema with such solemnity is well calculated to strike terror to the criminal and bring him to a state of repentance, especially if the Church adds to it the ceremony of the Maranatha…
…He who dares to despise our decision, let him be stricken with anathema maranatha, i.e. may he be damned at the coming of the Lord, may he have his place with Judas Iscariot, he and his companions.
Quoted from: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm
Matthew 18:17 Fraternal Correction
“If he ignores them, refer it to the church . If he ignores even the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. I assure you, whatever you declare bound on earth shall be held bound in heaven, and whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be held loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 11:20 Reproaches to Unrepentant Towns.
Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
The eyes of the Body of Jesus’ Church are our Catholic leaders.
Luke 11:34
The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness. Take care, then, that the light in you not become darkness.
“If it ain’t broke, dont fix it”, goes an old saying.One which too few Popes have heeded, with disastrous results for the church. V2 resulted in an emptying of our churches, a crisis level loss of religious priests and nuns, and a battlefield regarding the Latin Mass which continues. Now we have the absurd synods of…whatever its supposed to be. With Germany, as I have predicted, schism is on the horizon. Nothing less. They seem VERY intent on sexualizing the church. Too few Bishops voted against their proposals. And what to say of the outright cowardly Bishops who “abstained” in the votes for gay relationships and women priests. Why? Was the potential for sin and loss of traditional teaching not evident enough to them? Its a sad, sad day for the church. Especially since I do not expect the current pope to do a single thing to stop this precipitous slide to oblivion. He never seems to be able to take a stand for the church when it really matters. Look at his non-action with Biden, Pelosi, gay rights, or this. My feeling is that the Germans will barrel ahead with this into schism and found a new “liberal” church, which might as well be Protestant. ( Although, one notices that the super liberal Protestant denominations are losing members fast and furious. So, betraying your principals in favor of “niceness” is evidently not the way to go for a healthy church.) The only thing that MIGHT stop them is a truly clear and fierce set down by the Pope telling them such changes in the church will not be allowed, either globally or in Germany alone. Not if they wish to remain in union with the Catholic Church. Immediate discipline is called for and some unambiguous meetings with the German Bishops to lay down the law before this goes any further. Having said that, sadly, I do not expect any such meetings to happen.I imagine the heart of Jesus is bleeding right now.