Aboard the papal plane, Mar 8, 2021 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- Please read below for CNA’s full transcript of Pope Francis’ in-flight press conference from Baghdad, Iraq, to Rome, Italy on March 8, 2021.
Pope Francis: First of all, thank you for your work, your company, your fatigue. Then, today is Women’s Day. Congratulations to the women. Women’s Day. But they were saying why is there no Men’s Day? Even when [I was] in the meeting with the wife of the president. I said it was because us men are always celebrated and we want to celebrate women. And the wife of the president spoke well about women, she told me lovely things today, about that strength that women have to carry forward life, history, the family, many things. Congratulations to everyone. And third, today is the birthday of the COPE journalist. Or the other day. Where are you?
Matteo Bruni, Holy See press office director: It was yesterday.
Pope Francis: Best wishes and we should celebrate it, right? We will see how we can [do it] here. Very well. Now, the word is yours.
Bruni: The first question comes from the Arabic world: Imad Atrach of Sky News Arabia.
Imad Abdul Karim Atrach (Sky News Arabia): Holiness, two years ago in Abu Dhabi there was the meeting with the Imam al-Tayyeb of al-Azhar and the signing of the document on human fraternity. Three days ago you met with al-Sistani. Are you thinking to something similar with the Shiite side of Islam? And then a second thing about Lebanon, which St. John Paul II said is more than a country, it is a message. This message, unfortunately, as a Lebanese, I tell you that this message is now disappearing. Can we think a future visit by you to Lebanon is imminent?
Pope Francis: The Abu Dhabi document of February 4 was prepared with the grand imam in secret during six months, praying, reflecting, correcting the text. It was, I will say, a little assuming but take it as a presumption, a first step of what you ask me about.
Let’s say that this [Ed. meeting with al-Sistani] would be the second [step] and there will be others. It is important, the journey of fraternity. Then, the two documents. The Abu Dhabi one created a concern for fraternity in me, Fratelli tutti came out, which has given a lot. We must… both documents must be studied because they go in the same direction, they are seeking fraternity.
Ayatollah al-Sistani has a phrase which I expect to remember well. Every man… men are either brothers for religion or equals for creation. And fraternity is equality, but beneath equality we cannot go. I believe it is also a cultural path.
We Christians think about the Thirty Years’ War. The night of St. Bartholomew [Ed. St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre], to give an example. Think about this. How the mentality has changed among us, because our faith makes us discover that this is it: the revelation of Jesus is love, charity, and it leads us to this. But how many centuries [will it take] to implement it? This is an important thing, human fraternity. That as men we are all brothers and we must move forward with other religions.
The [Second] Vatican Council took a big step forward in [interreligious dialogue], also the later constitution, the council for Christian unity, and the council for religious dialogue — Cardinal Ayuso accompanies us today — and you are human, you are a child of God and you are my brother, period. This would be the biggest indication. And many times you have to take risks to take this step. You know that there are some critics who [say] “the pope is not courageous, he is an idiot who is taking steps against Catholic doctrine, which is a heretical step.” There are risks. But these decisions are always made in prayer, in dialogue, asking for advice, in reflection. They are not a whim and they are also the line that the [Second Vatican] Council has taught us. This is his first question.
The second: Lebanon is a message. Lebanon is suffering. Lebanon is more than a balance. It has the weakness of the diversity which some are still not reconciled to, but it has the strength of the great people reconciled like the fortress of the cedars. Patriarch Rai asked me to please make a stop in Beirut on this trip, but it seemed somewhat too little to me: A crumb in front of a problem in a country that suffers like Lebanon. I wrote a letter and promised to make a trip to Lebanon. But Lebanon at the moment is in crisis, but in crisis — I do not want to offend — but in a crisis of life. Lebanon is so generous in welcoming refugees. This is a second trip.
Bruni: Thank you, Your Holiness. The second question comes from Johannes Neudecker of the German news agency Dpa.
Johannes Neudecker (Deutsche Presse-Agentur): Thank you, Holy Father. My question is also about the meeting with al-Sistani. In what measure was the meeting with al-Sistani also a message to the religious leaders of Iran?
Pope Francis: I believe it was a universal message. I felt the duty of this pilgrimage of faith and penance to go and find a great man, a wise man, a man of God. And just listening to him you perceived this. And speaking of messages, I will say: It is a message for everyone, it is a message for everyone. And he is a person who has that wisdom and also prudence… he told me that for 10 years, “I do not receive people who come to visit me with also other political or cultural aims, no… only for religious [purposes].” And he was very respectful, very respectful in the meeting. I felt very honored; he never gets up even to greet people. He got up to greet me twice. A humble and wise man. This meeting did my soul good. He is a light. These wisemen are everywhere because God’s wisdom has been spread all over the world.
It also happens the same with the saints, who are not only those who are on the altars, they are the everyday saints, the ones I call “next-door saints.” Men and women who live their faith, whatever it may be, with coherence. Who live human values with coherence, fraternity with coherence. I believe that we should discover these people, highlight them, because there are so many examples. When there are scandals in the Church, many, this does not help, but we show the people seeking the path of fraternity. The saints next door. And we will find the people of our family, for sure. For sure a few grandpas, a few grandmas.
Eva Fernandez (Radio COPE): Holy Father, it is great to resume the press conferences again. It is very good. My apologies, but my colleagues have asked me to ask this question in Spanish.
[In Spanish] During these days your trip to Iraq has had a great impact throughout the world. Do you think that this could be the trip of your pontificate? And also, it has been said that it was the most dangerous. Have you been afraid at some point during this trip? And soon we will return to travel and you, who are about to complete the eighth year of your pontificate, do you still think it will be a short [pontificate]? And the big question always for the Holy Father, will you ever return to Argentina? Will Spain still have hope that one day the pope will visit?
Pope Francis: Thank you, Eva, and I made you celebrate your birthday twice — once in advance and another belated.
I start with the last question, which is a question that I understand. It is because of that book by my friend, the journalist and doctor, Nelson Castro. He wrote a book on [the history of] presidents’ illnesses, and I once told him, already in Rome, “But you have to do one on the diseases of the popes because it will be interesting to know the health issues of the popes — at least of some who are more recent.”
He started [writing] again, and he interviewed me. The book came out. They tell me it is good, but I have not seen it. But he asked me a question: “If you resign” — well, if I will die or if I will resign — “If you resign, will you return to Argentina or will you stay here?”
I said: “I will not go back to Argentina.” This is what I have said, but I will stay here in my diocese. But in that case, this goes together with the question: When will I visit Argentina? And why have I not gone there? I always answer a little ironically: “I spent 76 years in Argentina, that’s enough, isn’t it?”
But there is one thing. I do not know why, but it has not been said. A trip to Argentina was planned for November 2017 and work began. It was Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. This was at the end of November. But then at that time there was an election campaign happening in Chile because on that day in December the successor of Michelle Bachelet was elected. I had to go before the government changed, I could not go [further].
So let us do this: Go to Chile in January. And then in January it was not possible to go to Argentina and Uruguay because January is like our August here, it is July and August in both countries. Thinking about it, the suggestion was made: Why not include Peru, because Peru was bypassed during the trip to Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and remained apart. And from this was born the January trip between Chile and Peru.
But this is what I want to say so that you do not create fantasies of “patriaphobia.” When there are opportunities, it must be done, right? Because there is Argentina and Uruguay and the south of Brazil, which are a very great cultural composition.
About my travels: I make a decision about my trips by listening. The invitations are many. I listen to the advice of the counselors and also to the people. Sometimes someone comes and says: What do you think? Should I go or not? And it is good for me to listen. And this helps me to make the decision later.
I listen to the counselors and in the end I pray. I pray and I think a lot. I have reflected a lot about some trips, and then the decision comes from within. It is almost spontaneous, but like a ripe fruit. It is a long way, isn’t it? Some are more difficult, some are easier, and the decision about this trip comes early.
The first invitation of the ambassador, first, that pediatrician doctor who was the ambassador of Iraq, very good. She persisted. And then came the ambassador to Italy who is a woman of battle. Then the new ambassador to the Vatican came and fought. Soon the president came. All these things stayed with me.
But there is one thing behind my decision that I would like to mention. One of you gave me a Spanish edition [of the book] “The Last Girl.” I have read it in Italian, then I gave it to Elisabetta Piqué to read. Did you read it? More or less it is the story of the Yazidis. And Nadia Murad tells about terrifying things. I recommend that you read it. In some places it may seem heavy, but for me this was the trasfondo of God, the underlying reason for my decision. That book worked inside me. And also when I listened to Nadia who came to tell me terrible things. Then, with the book… All these things together made the decision; thinking about all the many issues. But finally the decision came and I took it.
And, about the eighth year of my pontificate. Should I do this? [He crosses his fingers.] I do not know if my travel will slow down or not. I only confess that on this trip I felt much more tired than on the others. The 84 [years] do not come alone, it is a consequence. But we will see.
Now I will have to go to Hungary for the final Mass of the Eucharistic Congress, not a visit to the country, but just for the Mass. But Budapest is a two-hour drive from Bratislava, why not make a visit to Slovakia? I do not know. That is how they are thinking. Excuse me. Thank you.
Bruni: Thank you, Eva. Now the next question is from Chico Harlan of the Washington Post.
Chico Harlan (Washington Post): Thank you, Holy Father. I will ask my question in English with the help of Matteo. [In English] This trip obviously had extraordinary meaning for the people who got to see you, but it did also lead to events that caused conditions conducive to spreading the virus. In particular, unvaccinated people packed together singing. So as you weigh the trip, the thought that went into it and what it will mean, do you worry that the people who came to see you could also get sick or even die. Can you explain that reflection and calculation. Thank you.
Pope Francis: As I said recently, the trips are cooked over time in my conscience. And this is one of the [thoughts] that came to me most, “maybe, maybe.” I thought a lot, I prayed a lot about this. And in the end I freely made the decision. But that came from within. I said: “The one who allows me to decide this way will look after the people.” And so I made the decision like this but after prayer and after awareness of the risks, after all.
Bruni: The next question comes from Philippine de Saint-Pierre of the French press.
Philippine de Saint-Pierre (KTO): Your Holiness, we have seen the courage and dynamism of Iraqi Christians. We have also seen the challenges they face: the threat of Islamist violence, the exodus of Christians, and the witnesss of the faith in their environment. These are the challenges facing Christians through the region. We spoke about Lebanon, but also Syria, the Holy Land, etc. The synod for the Middle East took place 10 years ago but its development was interrupted with the attack on the Baghdad cathedral. Are you thinking about organizing something for the entire Middle East, be it a regional synod or any other initiative?
Pope Francis: I’m not thinking about a synod. Initiatives, yes — I am open to many. But a synod never came to mind. You planted the first seed, let’s see what will happen. The life of Christians in Iraq is an afflicted life, but not only for Christians. I came to talk about Yazidis and other religions that did not submit to the power of Daesh. And this, I don’t know why, gave them a very great strength. But there is a problem, like you said, with emigration. Yesterday, as we drove from Qaraqosh to Erbil, there were lots of young people and the age level was low, low, low. Lots of young people. And the question someone asked me: But these young people, what is their future? Where will they go? Many will have to leave the country, many. Before leaving for the trip the other day, on Friday, 12 Iraqi refugees came to say goodbye to me. One had a prosthetic leg because he had escaped under a truck and had an accident… so many escaped. Migration is a double right. The right to not emigrate and the right to emigrate. But these people do not have either of the two. Because they cannot not emigrate, they do not know how to do it. And they cannot emigrate because the world squashes the consciousness that migration is a human right.
The other day — I’ll go back to the migration question — an Italian sociologist told me, speaking about the demographic winter in Italy: “But within 40 years we will have to import foreigners to work and pay pension taxes.” You French are smarter, you have advanced 10 years with the family support law and your level of growth is very large.
But immigration is experienced as an invasion. Because he asked, yesterday I wanted to receive Alan Kurdi’s father after Mass. This child is a symbol for them. Alan Kurdi is a symbol, for which I gave a sculpture to FAO [the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]. It is a symbol that goes beyond a child who died in migration. He is a symbol of dying civilizations, which cannot survive. A symbol of humanity. Urgent measures are needed so that people have work in their place and do not have to emigrate. And also measures to safeguard the right to emigrate. It is true that every country must study well the ability to receive [immigrants], because it is not only about receiving them and leaving them on the beach. Receive them, accompany them, help them progress, and integrate them. The integration of immigrants is key.
Two anecdotes: Zaventem, in Belgium: the terrorists were Belgians, born in Belgium, but from ghettoized, non-integrated Islamic immigrants. Another example: when I went to Sweden, during the farewell ceremony, there was the minister, of what I don’t know, [Ed. Alice Bah-Kuhnke, Swedish Minister of Culture and Democracy from 2014 to 2019], she was very young, and she had a distinctive appearance, not typical of Swedes. She was the daughter of a migrant and a Swede, and so well integrated that she became minister [of culture]. Looking at these two things, they make you think a lot, a lot, a lot.
I would like to thank the generous countries. The countries that receive migrants, Lebanon. Lebanon was generous with emigrants. There are two million Syrians there, I think. And Jordan — unfortunately, we will not pass over Jordan because the king is very nice, King Abdullah wanted to pay us a tribute with the planes in passage. I will thank him now — Jordan has been very generous [with] more than one and a half million migrants, also many other countries… to name just two. Thank you to these generous countries. Thank you very much.
Matteo Bruni: The next question is in Italian from the journalist Stefania Falasca.
Stefania Falasca (Avvenire): Good morning, Holy Father. Thank you. In three days in this country, which is a key country of the Middle East, you have done what the powerful of the earth have been discussing for 30 years. You have already explained what was the interesting genesis of your travels, how the choices for your travels originate, but now in this juncture, can you also consider a trip to Syria? What could be the objectives from now to a year from now of other places where your presence is required?
Pope Francis: Thank you. In the Middle East only the hypothesis, and also the promise is for Lebanon. I have not thought about a trip to Syria. I have not thought about it because the inspiration did not come to me. But I am so close to the tormented and beloved Syria, as I call it. I remember from the beginning of my pontificate that afternoon of prayer in St. Peter’s Square. There was the rosary, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. And how many Muslims with carpets on the ground were praying with us for peace in Syria, to stop the bombing, at that moment when it was said that there would be a fierce bombing. I carry Syria in my heart, but thinking about a trip, it has not occurred to me at this moment. Thank you.
Matteo Bruni: Thank you. The next question comes from Sylwia Wysocka of the Polish press.
Sylwia Wysocka (Polish Press Agency): Holy Father, in these very difficult 12 months your activity has been very limited. Yesterday you had the first direct and very close contact with the people in Qaraqosh: What did you feel? And then, in your opinion, now, with the current health system, can the general audiences with people, with faithful, recommence as before?
Pope Francis: I feel different when I am away from the people in the audiences. I would like to restart the general audiences again as soon as possible. Hopefully the conditions will be right. I will follow the norms of the authorities in this. They are in charge and they have the grace of God to help us in this. They are responsible for setting the rules, whether we like them or not. They are responsible and they have to be so.
Now I have started again with the Angelus in the square, with the distances it can be done. There is the proposal of small general audiences, but I have not decided until the development of the situation becomes clear. After these months of imprisonment, I really felt a bit imprisoned, this is, for me, living again.
Living again because it is touching the Church, touching the holy people of God, touching all peoples. A priest becomes a priest to serve, to serve the people of God, not for careerism, right? Not for the money.
This morning in the Mass there was [the Scripture reading about] the healing of Naaman the Syrian and it said that Naaman wanted to give gifts after he had been healed. But he refused… but the prophet Elisha refused them. And the Bible continues: the prophet Elisha’s assistant, when they had left, settled the prophet well and running he followed Naaman and asked for gifts for him. And God said, “the leprosy that Naaman had will cling to you.” I am afraid that we, men and women of the Church, especially we priests, do not have this gratuitous closeness to the people of God which is what saves us.
And to be like Naaman’s servant, to help, but then going back [for the gifts.] I am afraid of that leprosy. And the only one who saves us from the leprosy of greed, of pride, is the holy people of God, like what God spoke about with David, “I have taken you out of the flock, do not forget the flock.” That of which Paul spoke to Timothy: “Remember your mother and grandmother who nursed you in the faith.” Do not lose your belonging to the people of God to become a privileged caste of consecrated, clerics, anything.
This is why contact with the people saves us, helps us. We give the Eucharist, preaching, our function to the people of God, but they give us belonging. Let us not forget this belonging to the people of God. Then begin again like this.
I met in Iraq, in Qaraqosh… I did not imagine the ruins of Mosul, I did not imagine. Really. Yes, I may have seen things, I may have read the book, but this touches, it is touching.
What touched me the most was the testimony of a mother in Qaraqosh. A priest who truly knows poverty, service, penance; and a woman who lost her son in the first bombings by ISIS gave her testimony. She said one word: forgiveness. I was moved. A mother who says: I forgive, I ask forgiveness for them.
I was reminded of my trip to Colombia, of that meeting in Villavicencio where so many people, women above all, mothers and brides, spoke about their experience of the murder of their children and husbands. They said, “I forgive, I forgive.” But this word we have lost. We know how to insult big time. We know how to condemn in a big way. Me first, we know it well. But to forgive, to forgive one’s enemies. This is the pure Gospel. This is what touched me the most in Qaraqosh.
Matteo Bruni: There are other questions if you want. Otherwise we can…
Pope Francis: How long has it been?
Bruni: Almost an hour.
Pope Francis: We have been talking for almost an hour. I don’t know, I would continue, [joking] but the car… [is waiting for me.] Let’s do, how do you say, the last one before celebrating the birthday.
Matteo Bruni: The last is by Catherine Marciano from the French press, from the Agence France-Presse.
Catherine Marciano (AFP): Your Holiness, I wanted to know what you felt in the helicopter seeing the destroyed city of Mosul and praying on the ruins of a church. Since it is Women’s Day, I would like to ask a little question about women… You have supported the women in Qaraqosh with very nice words, but what do you think about the fact that a Muslim woman in love cannot marry a Christian without being discarded by her family or even worse. But the first question was about Mosul. Thank you, Your Holiness.
Pope Francis: I said what I felt in Mosul a little bit en passant. When I stopped in front of the destroyed church, I had no words, I had no words… beyond belief, beyond belief. Not just the church, even the other destroyed churches. Even a destroyed mosque, you can see that [the perpetrators] did not agree with the people. Not to believe our human cruelty, no. At this moment I do not want to say the word, “it begins again,” but let’s look at Africa. With our experience of Mosul, and these people who destroy everything, enmity is created and the so-called Islamic State begins to act. This is a bad thing, very bad, and before moving on to the other question — A question that came to my mind in the church was this: “But who sells weapons to these destroyers? Because they do not make weapons at home. Yes, they will make some bombs, but who sells the weapons, who is responsible? I would at least ask that those who sell the weapons have the sincerity to say: we sell weapons. They don’t say it. It’s ugly.
Women… women are braver than men. But even today women are humiliated. Let’s go to the extreme: one of you showed me the list of prices for women. [Ed. prepared by ISIS for selling Christian and Yazidi women.] I couldn’t believe it: if the woman is like this, she costs this much… to sell her… Women are sold, women are enslaved. Even in the center of Rome, the work against trafficking is an everyday job.
During the Jubilee, I went to visit one of the many houses of the Opera Don Benzi: Ransomed girls, one with her ear cut off because she had not brought the right money that day, and the other brought from Bratislava in the trunk of a car, a slave, kidnapped. This happens among us, the educated. Human trafficking. In these countries, some, especially in parts of Africa, there is mutilation as a ritual that must be done. Women are still slaves, and we have to fight, struggle, for the dignity of women. They are the ones who carry history forward. This is not an exaggeration: Women carry history forward and it’s not a compliment because today is Women’s Day. Even slavery is like this, the rejection of women… Just think, there are places where there is the debate regarding whether repudiation of a wife should be given in writing or only orally. Not even the right to have the act of repudiation! This is happening today, but to keep us from straying, think of what happens in the center of Rome, of the girls who are kidnapped and are exploited. I think I have said everything about this. I wish you a good end to your trip and I ask you to pray for me, I need it. Thank you.
[…]
Thanks for the warning. So it is our respect for human life and actual human biology that is their problem. Do they plan to do away with medicine and health care too as this is also directed at our actual human natures. How can one advance things like sodomy which has killed over a million young men in the west? Can we now stab each other in the eye with sticks too?
Medicine and health care went the trip during the covid-19 scare. They compromised themselves for money and government approval, when it was more profitable to kill people than to help them (see federal payment schedule for hospitals with covid patients during the pandemic).
Though folly abounds in the upper echelons of the church, those who love Christ and His bride, the church, denounce pretenders who do their best to remake the church into their own image!
1 Corinthians 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
Matthew 18:15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
3 John 1:9-10 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
2 John 1:9-11 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
Absolutely! This Cardinal and their associates are not part of the Catholic Church, they are Gentiles with Cardinal’s clothes (that’s Francis’s mistake). I want to think Pope Francis is very patient in trying to avoid a schism and would understand him being so but, let’s face it, the Church cannot negotiate with “popularity”, we are not in the business of being popular, we are in the business of TRUTH no matter what is the price we have to pay. I will rather be part of a smaller and poorer Church that does not negotiate truth.
“Francis’ mistake?” No, this is Francis’ intent. None of this is lacking consent from Francis. He knew exactly whom he made a cardinal when he gave McElroy the red hat.
Exactly! People have been making excuses for him long enough. Few of us knew this from the beginning. No surprise.
God bless you as you strive to serve Him in spirt and truth.
Francis wants schism. He is on the side of McElroy whom he named Cardinal and is on the side of the Germans. He just plays the game. Loves to create confusion, ignore the faithful, and write James Martin personal letters…
Too bad so many of you are so rigid and non-inclusive in your shameful comments. Pope Francis and Cardinal McElroy are reaching out to ALL people, inviting the marginalized and outcasts to our Church. Geez, sounds like something Jesus taught!
So quit patting yourselves on the back and try to welcome people to our Church!
Dear Joe, our Church is not a supermarket nor a cocktail lounge, where everyone is welcome. Simple logic . . .
Our Church is a community of people who have repented of their sins, accepted the death of their old ways, so as to live the new life given by baptism in water and The Holy Spirit. A new life, whose members profess The Creed, with genuine faith. A new life with regular repentance and Holy Communion in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ are our common bond.
The sacramental life & obedience to The Catechism of The Catholic Church are inherent of the shared beliefs and lifestyle of our Church.
Please be honest, Joe: there are many people who do not want a new life. They want their old life of sin and rebellion against God to be normalized.
Genuine Catholics have a love for all those people, too, without any desire for them to become unbelieving, unrepentant members of our Church.
Always in the mercy & grace of Jesus Christ, who invites everyone to repent and believe His teachings; love & blessings from marty
Truth is Truth and Sin is Sin through out all of history. Read the Bible.
Christ called people out on their sins, forgave them and said “Go and SIN no more”
Catholics are being called to accept the sin as normal…and not really sin.
You have to obey the 10 commandments… if you sin then you go to confession before going to Communion.
Why are you commenting anyway. You don’t sound like a true Catholic.
Joe, Our Lord welcomed people on His Father’s terms; He loved them far too much to welcome them on their own sinful terms.
Quit the narcissism, friend; eternity is a very long time.
We already have that inclusive, “big tent” church. It’s called Protestantism.
To suggest that McElroy is not part of the Church is divisive and unhelpful. The Story of Emmaus reminds us we are to walk the road of life in conversation trying to understand the mystery of Christ. In that conversation Christ becomes present and we can sit at the table and Brea the Bread in joy and celebration
Dear Steve,
Rekon you’ll think differently if you read an interview with Archbishop Chaput:
“Archbishop Chaput: Only worthy agenda for synod is one given to us by Jesus in the Gospels.” Catholic News Agency and CWR – February 10, 2023
Ever in the love of Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
The ‘story’ of Calvary reminds us of the walking and conversation of Christ with, if we do not say yes we remain without Him, a goat, only the repentant Dismas hears the conversation ‘this day you will be with Me in Paradise’….the unrepentant goat hears to his conversing with Jesus, silence on Calvary, in the end, Christ’s conversation is [Mt 25],’away from Me into Eternal Punishment’ you did not visit or free those imprisoned in sin, you did not cover their garden nakedness nor feed their hunger and thirst for My Saving Words, I who wished to be the Shepherd whose Voice they heard and followed, you did not free then from the devils deceits and damnation… when you speak against Christ and try to harm and persecute Him, your hope should be to receive the grace Saint Saul/Paul received so that you can return to the Household of God and put aside the evils of being a goat…Lents blessings, Father
As a convert and one who was not raised a Catholic, I have tried to educate myself over the years on the exact definition on what is meant by a sin against the Holy Spirit as to be extra cautious against committing it, and I have been confused over discovering several conflicting definitions. But witnessing this silly “Synodal Process” has pretty much resolved the confusion. When “princes of the Church” are so freewheeling about trashing what the Holy Spirit has endowed to the Church over centuries, sought to replace it with profound idiocies that even an immature teenager can see through, and calling such idiocy the work of the Holy Spirit, well it pretty much makes crystal clear of what it means to sin against the Holy Spirit.
Dear Edward:
That you are concerned that you may sin against the Holy Spirt, gives evidence of your reborn spirit and that God’s Holy Spirit dwells within you. This reminds you of your salvation which is assured by your belief in Jesus Christ. Showing worry about the matter, demonstrates one has not grieved the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit.
Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.
Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
If you would like to address that matter more fully, it would be an honour.
Your in Christ,
Brian
I agree, Edward. When I was in school (a long time ago!) we were taught that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins and call us to repentance. Hence, a sin against Him would be to insist that what is sinful is actually good, or what is good is actually sinful.
I fully agree … sins need to be FREQUENTLY confessed … to avoid the complacency … everyone goes to Heaven … sins can become habitual and difficult to rid of … frequent Confession attacks demons in the Soul and rids them …mortal sins are forgiven in Confession … but if not confessed
Sins compound … that only Confession will clean the soul of sin and demons … the Archdiocese should allow priests in all parishes to reschedule Confessions weekdays to all people come to Confession with daily Mass … the early morning Mass and Confession only accommodates the older retirement folks … what’s needed is Confession with 12:00
Mass for the working sector … people will come …. It works!
sins become a breeding ground for demons and control of the Soul …
control … unfortunately Confession is mostly not available on
weekdays and maybe an hour or two on Saturday. This
supports the “all go to Heaven” concept … and many disregarding Confession line up receiving the Holy Eucharist sacrilegious … if the Archdiocese is truly concerned with saving Souls for Heaven … then allow the parish priests to schedule Confessions weekdays … and tell the people why
of going to Confession … and witnessing long lines of
parishioners going to receive Communion … some
sacriligious while in mortal sin … for starters … reschedule Confessions for weekdays and tell the parishioners of why it’s being done … like starting on Ash Wednesday … with a Homily on … Death … Judgment … Heaven … Hell… mGb
Thank you, Larry for this brilliantly informed and informative article.
“The game’s afoot. The stakes are high.”
Couldn’t be higher than instructing the faithful that obdurately unrepentant sinners are included; and, that any of us who think this is wrong are the real sinners.
Did any Catholic ever think we’d hear Church leaders declare that homosexual sinning can be so tender and loving as to be Eucharistic? Saint Peter Damian please pray for us.
Always in the grace & mercy of Jesus Christ; love & blessings to all from marty
Dear Dr Marty:
Carl O brings us solid expository writers that leave us better than when we started. Our faith is such a precious gift and needs to be nurtured, so too as we need to eat! The dialogue that follows the article, gives us encouragement that we are not alone.
Courage to rebuke is vital. Not everyone who wraps themselves in priestly garments is a fit teacher.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
1 Corinthians 2:5 So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Blessings of peace and discernment as you and others spur us onwards,
Brian
McElroy- a Cardinal in the Protestant Branch of the Catholic Church. Schism is a fact.
A wider tent? What makes Protestants so evil?
Are you too a protestant masquerading as a Catholic like Robert McElroy, Morgan?
Interesting theology, but not the Beloved’s nor biblical…by Baptism everyone is already catholic, just imperfectly so…for there is “only One Baptism, One Faith, One Church/Body/Spouse”… everyone is already in the Covenant Tent, but not in the manner and mystery the Beloved gave us or called us too…
There is no protestant branch of the catholic church……….he’s 100% catholic
The Protestant branch of the Catholic Church is invisible. Like sin, it prefers to be in the dark.
Deacon, respectfully McElroy is not even a good Protestant. I do not think any faithful Christian would claim him as one of them. I am not his judge but based on his corpus of work he is to judged lacking. And those who chose him for this new position are judged similarly, I am afraid.
“Let us wait and see what the Pope’s end game in all of this really is.”
Are you kidding?
Whose idea is the whole Vatican III synod of synods farce from start to finish? Who is the one who has pushed this farce with winks and nods for the past 10 years? Who is the one who appointed as synod ringleaders homo-heretics Hollerich, Grech, McElroy, Cupich, and Tobin as “cardinals”? Who is the Sunday Angelus DIE (“Diversity, Inclusion and Equity”) cheerleader of Homosexuality and Transgenderism? Who is the lawless and faithless dictator whose proteges and confidants are Martin, Rupnic, Zanchetta?
Paul:
I couldn’t agree more, especially your opening line.
We are governed by Jesus, not the false shepherds of the parasitic, post-Christian “colonizers” of the Francis pontificate.
Thank you, Chris. I agree wholeheartedly with your view of the parasitic hirelings of Bergoglio’s Vatican Ape Church and the reality that we are governed by Jesus. Given, though, that these hirelings, from Bergoglio down, are faithless, lawless, corrupt liars and hypocrites, the question that must be answered is how a Catholic who strives to be faithful should deal with them. Apart from expiatory prayer for their conversion and fraternal correction of their heretical and apostate manifestos, the answer to me is that they must be publicly confronted, publicly contradicted, and publicly resisted.
“Apart from expiatory prayer for their conversion and fraternal correction of their heretical and apostate manifestos, the answer to me is that they must be publicly confronted, publicly contradicted, and publicly resisted.”
Well said. Drastic times call for drastic measures. The faithful need to apply pressure relentlessly until these false shepherds step aside or are removed from office.
I have written on all of those topics and I have been critical of Pope Francis. I think you are missing the deliberately understated sarcasm in my closing remark.
Yes, I have read a number of your articles on this site and am familiar enough with your content and style. As a 74-year-old with doctorates in canon law and civil law and a professional lifetime of working in the Church, nationally and internationally, at senior levels, I don’t think that I would miss “deliberately understated sarcasm” if it had been there. It wasn’t, and isn’t.
Paul, yet you missed it, how?
I agree 100%. To hope that ‘Pope Francis can clarify this apparent incongruity” is the acme of wishful thinking or, if meant sincerely rather than sarcastically, self deceptively naive.
Good point, dear Carmel.
Those who consider that the current Pope has subtly engineered the whole script of yoking Jesus-loving & obeying Catholics with Jesus-despising and disobeying ‘Catholics’ in a broad tent, have plenty of supporting evidence.
YET: let’s pray that this Pope be overcome by the power of The Holy Spirit of Christ, acknowledge his errors, and be transformed (like Saul of Tarsus), so as to do what popes exist to do: that has always been to faithfully represent The New Testament Apostolic witness to Christ, come hell or highwater.
Always in the grace & mercy of Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Dear Dr Marty:
Righteous prayers come from righteous men.
God bless you dear brother,
Brian
Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
It almost sounds like there’s no more sin. Everything is okay. No worries. Why does it seem that “progressives” ruin everything they touch?
Chapp asks, what does it all mean? Four points:
FIRST, it means that IF one is obsequious toward the homosexual culture, THEN one has bought into an erosive and intellectually-genetic (not biologically genetic) “orientation” that ALL binary distinctions must be penetrated and dissolved. All that the Church responsibly upholds and teaches is, therefore, a “polarity” to be replaced by synodality.
The “throwaway society” is mimicked in the Throwaway Church!
SECOND, the “tension” (etc.) exposed by synodality, then, is nothing less than the fact that 60% of Catholics in the United States already are totally duped, in that they are willing to accept gay marriage as a civil right (rite!) rather than being a poison pill for the the baked-in natural law and entire Church (and millennia of Civilization). One is even reminded of the inebriated passengers on the deck of the Titanic who thought that falling ice chunks on the deck were simply another plaything on the Shuffleboard courts!
THIRD, the hour is late…as for McElroy’s “crypto Vatican III,” when the bishops actually DO meet this year and in 2024, should we watch for the Synod on Synodality being positioned, so to speak, to penetrate and radically update even the first ecumenical council—the Council of Nicaea (https://www.catholicworldreport.com/category/the-dispatch/)? Do councils still exist, and have a future at all? Instead, the “endless journey” of a tautological, bottoms up (!), and ongoing Synod on Synodality?
FOURTH, we “backward”-types (“rigid bigots!”), who adhere to doctrinal and moral soundness and clarity, and the magisterium (what’s that?) of course still will be included! Butt as only one option among many within the “big tent” pseudo-church…In the same way that binary marriage still remains an obsolete option within the flattened spectrum imposed by the oxymoron “gay marriage.”
So, while the poison pills scattered throughout the synodal word-puzzles might not be explicitly endorsed by the new big-tent/plebiscite (c)hurch, neither will they be rejected. Silence at the center, as in the response to the dubia–which opened the trapdoor to where we are now…
Is THIS “the endgame” queried by Chapp? As a former President put it after multitasking with Monica in the Oval Office (and himself a Protestant who received the Eucharist on April Fools’ Day in South Africa, back in 1998):
“It all depends on what the meaning of is is!”
We’re supposed to listen, not direct, the Holy Spirit. Cardinal McElroy would do well to immerse himself in the Catechism of the Catholic Church to direct him instead of going it on his own, as is evidenced by his truly awful essay in America Magazine.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Satan is the greatest deceiver…..lots of deception is being revealed and continued in the Catholic church……is anyone besides me starting to see the connection??
Every SSPX chapel and TLM parish should boost the topline number on their capital campaigns.
Radical Inclusion? One wonders if the good Cardinal has actually ever read the Bible:
Jesus – MT 10:14-15 “Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”
Jesus – MT 18:15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Jesus – LK 10:10-12 “Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”
St. Paul – ROM 16:17-18 I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by fair and flattering words they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.
St. Paul – 1 COR 5:1-2 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
St. Paul – 1 COR 5 11-13 But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person. For why should I be judging outsiders? Is it not your business to judge those within? God will judge those outside. “Purge the evil person from your midst.”
St. Paul – 2 COR 6:14-16 Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Be′lial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?
St. Paul – EPH 5:6-8 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
St. Paul – 2 THES 3:14 If anyone does not obey our word as expressed in this letter, take note of this person not to associate with him, that he may be put to shame.
St. Paul – 2 TIM 3:1-5 But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them.
St. Paul – TITUS 3: 10-11 After a first and second warning, break off contact with a heretic, realizing that such a person is perverted and sinful and stands self-condemned.
St. John – 2 JN 9-11 Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him in your house or even greet him; for whoever greets him shares in his evil works.
It’s been my impression that we already have dozens of denominations that have taken this path of conforming to the orthodoxies of the age. How are they doing at retaining faithful congregations when teaching and positions are little different than one can get by watching TV from the comfort of their couch? The very people the innovators are pandering to will have little or no interest in the Church as soon as they achieve what they want–conformance to the culture of the moment and the irrelevancy of the Church.
That’s the whole point, isn’t it? People who do not have the Church’s best interest in mind know how that strategy has diminished Protestant denominations. The more a congregation takes it values from the world the faster it shrinks & ages. And eventually becomes irrelevant.
The Church & the Family are the last two roadblocks to an all-powerful secular state. Hence the pressure, divisions, & attacks.
As the Anglican divine William Ralph Inge aptly put it long ago: He who marries the spirit of the age is soon left a widower.
Thank you, Mr. Chapp, for calling our attention to this *deeply* disturbing revelation from a leader of our church.
It is clear that the evil ratfaced character is in the process of replacing the truest, most beautiful human institution ever seen on earth, the Holy Catholic Church, with a faux church in which serious sin — which inevitably leads to misery and death — is celebrated as love and acceptance.
We must pray, speak truth and never give in to despair. And support precious websites like CWR where the rot is exposed for all to see.
Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. But if you warn the wicked, and they do not turn from their wickedness, or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity; but you will have saved your life (Ezekiel 3:17, 19).
A priest’s duty is foremost that of a sentinel. He must tell the truth come hell or high water, the first condition eminent for all concerned. No bishop, priest, deacon, layperson may give assent to this Card McElroy agenda, which has been the putative agenda of our reigning pontiff Francis beginning with the publication of Amoris Laetitia. Refusal to suppress McElroy, and the longstanding German Synodaler Weg is assent. Assent must remain with and to Christ and his commandments.
Notwithstanding my assessment of His Holiness in this matter, I fully advocate Larry Chapp’s hopeful appeal, “Perhaps, as the synodal process moves forward, Pope Francis can clarify this apparent incongruity, using his papal authority, for the sake of ecclesial unity and peace, to rein in the kinds of excesses championed by Hollerich, McElroy, and Co”.
Yeah, right.
I empathize with Larry Chapp’s appeal, “Perhaps, as the synodal process moves forward, Pope Francis can clarify this apparent incongruity”. Although it’s evident by now that Francis favors a welcoming pastoral, rather than doctrinally motivated Church – substantially indicated by his recent testimony that no one should be refused the Eucharist.
I hope, however unlikely, that he would comply were Chapp, or some other were to make such an appeal.
Fr Peter Morello:
“We are suffering because of the evil of abortion” — etc
Could you send us a link to this essay
Robert Ferrez. Where do you find this quote, “We are suffering because of the evil of abortion”?
The double sadness for me is that in refusing to recognize sin Cardinal McElroy and friends are denying the sinner the opportunity to learn about sin, repent and experience holiness through Christ’s peace. This peace is what’s missing in our world. How can these brilliant men be so deceived by the evil one?
A great question, dear Bern: “How can these brilliant men be so deceived by the evil one?”
In Acts 20:28-31, Saint Luke reports on Saint Paul exhorting the leaders of the church at Ephesus: “Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock . . . I know quite well that when I have gone fierce wolves will invade you and will have no mercy on the flock. Even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them. So be on your guard . . . ”
Our Lord, Jesus had also taught us that such things have to happen, as in Matthew 18:7 & Luke 17:1.
Jesus tells us that these offences must happen, but we should be sure they don’t happen through us!
So, right from the start until this very day, there is a clear binary in the Church that we must all be alert to.
No comfort in that but I’m hoping it addresses your question, Bern.
Ever in the persevering love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
God created some people for honorable use and some for dishonorable use. By reading scriptures, it’s easier to spot these people. The Catholic church is filled with these people…. unfortunately, God has shielded your eyes to be able to spot them.
Dear Brian, in regard to: “The Catholic church is filled with these people.”
Please tell us of any church you know of, where that is not so.
Always in the love of Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
Has McElroy fallen into idolatry? indeed, isn’t LGBT ideology a form of sexual idolatry?
McElroy enjoins us to the worship of sex idols through actions of the synodal process, just as Pope Francis brought ecological idol worship of the Pachamama into the sanctuary of St Peters (did this unleash COVID and the closing of the churches throughout the world? you decide.)
If you think this all sounds extreme, consider that we are coming to the end of an era, and meditate on the first command that God gave to us in Gen1;27-28: “And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.”
Consider that the demonic knows that God delivered His first commands to us with the Genesis creation narrative, so if he can conceal these commands from the center of the human spirit, he severs mankind from the divine lifeline.
As for us Catholics, we wont be fooled if we consider that our prelates today are more susceptible to idolatry, and when they have their way with it, all hell breaks loose.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Romans 1:25
Who would have ever thought that a Prince of the Church would be spewing such Satanic deceptions?
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience…Ephesians 1:1,2
The prince of the power of the air is Satan
Do we, the orthodox, traditional believers in Christ, truly “wait and see” the plans of a pope who has more than a few times allowed or encouraged or furthered the betrayal, fudging, misconstruing or misrepresenting of the apostolic deposit of faith handed onto him? Already we have known and seen the saving power of our God. We cannot but compare the Lord’s straight and narrow path to that of Bergoglio and his winged, fair-weathered friends. Those friends are fiends who have, for far too long, raised alarms against the Lord’s straight and narrow road. Their ‘non-exclusionary’ way is sinuous and circuitous. It leads deeper into the desert. We have had glimpses of that land in which Bergoglio portends to live. We do not await more clarity by Bergoglio and his wings. We walk the way of the Lord, and we await His call.
On target, timely and profound. I think this reflection by Larry Chapp may be enriched by Bishop Robert Barron’s latest take on the Synod on Synodality linked here: https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/barron/inclusivity-and-love/
Thanks for the link. I think Bishop Barron is doing his best by his own lights, but I do not share his confidence that “shaking the foundations” is not really what Pope Francis has in mind.
Francis recently reiterated that sex outside marriage is a sin, but that the Church distinguishes between sin and culpability. It is true that my lack of full knowledge or deliberate consent may mitigate or nullify my culpability for sin, but this does not make the sin somehow permissible. An intrinsically disordered act is never a “necessary evil.”
When Francis argues in Amoris Laetitia that I could discern that it is currently impossible for me to avoid sex outside marriage without falling into a greater sin, he is pulling a very Jesuitical sleight of hand. The reason that I am not culpable here is precisely because the sin is a “necessary evil.” This is a lot more dangerous, and a lot harder to call out, than McElroy’s frontal assault.
Who is surprised. Easiest cure is to break their plate.
And yet they defrock Fr Pavone becaused he ticked off a Bishop despite his leadership in the prolife movement. He is still an exemplary Priest for me and many others!!
In the latest breaking news, it’s just revealed that Pavone was not only disobedient to his bishop, but he was also credibly accused of sexual harassment. He was not defrocked because he was a pro-life or GOP hero, but as an anti-hero!
And what is your source for that breaking news please so we can check your claims?
“The Catholic always harmonizes differences. If we see how the Holy Spirit acts; it first causes disorder: Think of the morning of Pentecost, and the confusion and mess (lío) it created there, and then it brings about harmony. The Holy Spirit in the church does not reduce everything to just one value; rather, it harmonizes opposing differences. That is the Catholic spirit. The more harmony there is between the differences and the opposites the more Catholic it is.” (Pope Francis) ????
Very nicely written, Mr.Chapp. But if the chair of Peter doesn’t understand who the Holy Spirit is and how He is sent forth into the world to manifest the Word of God, then our only hope is for Christ to “take back” his church. He gave us His church. It is time for the voices in the desert to start by explaining just what Christ’s church is. We have enough confusion, the people need clarity in message. You provided it here. Thank you.
I couldn’t help but note the pope’s pronoun choice for the Holy Spirit: “it,” speaking volumes about the man’s sense of manhood and the man’s impropriety when discussing the deity. When “it” rewards good and punishes evil, may that great, omnipotent, indeterminate ‘thing’ mete to Bergoglio all good justice.
Yes, trust in the Holy Spirit that these false Shepherd’s will be dealt with in God’s time. Mark 4:35-41 – I am trying not to panic and stay calm. I find doing Vector Dynamics problems from my college old text book that I couldn’t solve as a twenty year old but can as a sixty year old and then calm prayer helps. Thank you Our Lady of Sorrows for that insight.
I would speculate that a majority of these Cardinals are in favor of watering down the doctrine of the Church only to absolve their own homosexuality.
For a brilliant priestly answer to the McElroy apostasy, we have the gift of the essay “A Bodily Faith,” written by Fr. Robert Imbelli, published at First Things, linked here:
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/01/a-bodily-faith
This is exactly what the Anglican,Episcopalian Church did several years ago. Pews emptied, donations fell off a cliff and its end is in sight.
I hope the hierarchical ecclesiastics from the Pope on down realize that us normie pew sitters can’t hear what they say because their actions shout so loudly that the words are drowned out.
The deception is that these so called shepherds believe that they can change the Word of God because they think they can. We don’t really have to follow the commandments of the Lord…just decide your own truth with your personal views.
May God help us and have mercy on this world!
Great, heartfelt comment, dear Lynn.
Yet, in all things, at all times, the resurrected, ascended, reigning King Jesus Christ IS having God’s way with us all. Never doubt it!
It is Jesus’ will that all pretend Catholics reveal their false hearts & rush off like lemmings, through the wide gate, down the broad & easy way to perdition.
Just as it is Jesus’ will for those who genuinely love & obey God to find the small door and ascend the narrow way to eternal Life.
In Matthew 7:13,14 the ruling words of our Lord and God and Savior are very clear.
Let the wise of God listen, pay heed, and warn those making foolish decisions.
Ever in the Majestic Rule of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Thanks for this article. I can’t believe the shallowness of McElroy’s “thinking”. He is an embarrassment.
Concern for the wellbeing of the church is widely expressed on this forum. Ungodly behaviour is denounced and Jesus Christ the righteous is held up as the head of the church. There have always been wolves among the sheep and the wolves need to be put out of the church.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
It might be relevant to revisit these recent comments:
The final part of an article in ‘The Catholic Herald’ January 31st, 2023:
“So those who wish to change the Church’s teaching on sex offer the following argument: what if the quality of sexual affection between two people who are not married to each other might justify their actions? What if, for example, they reach such levels of ethically impressive intimacy, tenderness, need, affection, fidelity and permanence, that the merits accumulated by all this virtuous emotion outweigh the “sin”?
To drive this home, it might be suggested that two homoerotically affectionate people have kind, generous and perhaps even a charming sexual intimacy; and if this is set alongside another (hypothetical) straight couple who are going through a difficult patch and whose sexual attraction is low, poor, unsympathetic, unsuccessful and badly-matched, then surely the gay sexual intimacy is ethically superior to the straight and rather more incompetent or unsympathetic intimacy? Is it not even “more loving”?
But immediately we can see that the highest value in this argument is “what kind of loving sex are you having?”. And that is very much a prime concern of our culture. This is the new gold standard of ethics; and not, “what is the category of relationship that you are in?”.
But is the integrity of the idea of a spiritual category undermined or reconfigured by the quality of sexual affection and intimacy (if such things can actually be judged)?
How can we test the growing progressive claim that the category does not matter as much as the quality of the “loving intimacy” expressed between a hypothetical couple?
What would we say to a brother and sister whose sexual relationship took place outside marriage and was incestuous? Does the quality of their “love” (remember always the mantra that “love is love”) outweigh the fact that this is incest and not marriage?
What about the “minor attracted” stepfather (previously known as a pedophile) who wants to express his love to his young stepdaughter with a degree of sincere, intense sexual affection and with a terrifying degree of permanence?
Let’s take the argument in another direction. Let us say two married people feel such an overflowing torrent of loving sexual and intimate affection that they feel its integrity requires them to invite a third person into the intimacy – what is known nowadays as turning a couple into a “thruple”?
The argument that context (or intention) may remove all blame, and by implication sin, will allow the erosion of the monogamous heterosexual couple.
By extending biological marriage of man to woman to same sex-couples on the basis of the intensity and authenticity of their romantic feelings for each other, the category of marriage is changed, and combined with the “elimination of fault”, the concept of sex outside marriage being a sin disappears.
Both James Martin and Austin Ivereigh are confident that when Pope Francis said:
“Every sexual act outside of marriage is a sin. Of course, one must also consider the circumstances, which may decrease or eliminate fault.”
That this “elimination of fault” reflects the progressive claim that the quality of sexual intimacy outweighs the belief that the category of marriage is non-negotiable in being able to tell what sin is in God’s eyes, and what isn’t.
Whatever it was that Pope Francis meant when he insisted that “the circumstances may eliminate fault”, the progressives insist he intended to and is changing Catholic teaching on sex, marriage and sin.”
So: we humans set aside obedience to God’s commands and flout all that the Apostles and Saints have taught us. A clique of 21st century sin-reformers becomes the sole judge of what is morally acceptable and push Almighty God off the Throne!
Pope Francis’ words seem to have all the treacherous appeal of Genesis 3:4, in denigrating God’s rightful authority to set the moral parameters for human life.
I deeply disliked having to write that, but the evidence seems unequivocal.
Then there is Genesis 4:7: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Can we all pray that this Pope wake up and remember that our Catholic lives in Christ Jesus are all about mastering ‘the croucher’; and that he has been given the sacred responsibility of exemplifying that mastery to more than a billion souls.
How difficult is it for ordinary Catholics to proclaim: “God’s Kingdom Come”, when our heavyweight hierarchs & institutes are working so assiduously for the world spirit’s kingdom to take over.
For example: this February & April, ‘Sacred Heart University Fairfield’ is hosting Archbishop Christophe Pierre and Cardinals Joseph Tobin & Robert McElroy in promoting: ‘Widening Our Tent: The Synodal Imperative for Radical Inclusion’.
For this top rank synodalism-soften-up-series, SHUF is flying the dubious flag of: ‘cum Petro et sub Petro’.
We only need glance at Saint First Pope Simon Peter’s witness in our New Testaments to notice that synodality and radical inclusivism could never be ‘with Peter’ and rather than ‘subject to Peter’, they vaunt themselves over Peter and above Peter’s LORD.
We, little ones, thought all the clerical child sexual molestations and deceitful institutional, collusive cover-ups were as bad as it could get. What is being lined up now, is worse still. Hidden in the agenda of the synodalista is a normalization of clerical sexual activity, including clerical homosexual activity, and ‘tender, loving’ sexual exploitation of children & vulnerable adults.
Are the rogue clerics aiming to retrospectively justify all those who’ve been convicted of sexually abusing children and the handicapped?
‘Widening Our Tent’ sounds so innocent and homely, doesn’t it . . .
Blessings on all who love and obey King Jesus Christ; from marty
“How difficult is it for ordinary Catholics to proclaim: “God’s Kingdom Come”, when our heavyweight hierarchs & institutes are working so assiduously for the world spirit’s kingdom to take over.”
The “poor badly matched” couple is likely practicing, what brineyman below calls “sacrificial love”. Wonder—is there any room in the Big Tent for the practice of sacrificial love, self-denial, virtue and all the elementary necessities needed to attain salvation by God’s grace—looks like the tent will be jam packed–faith and reason will have to be left outside in the rain.
Marriage in the evil one’s new “Catholicish” church will not be about children or families — and certainly not sacrificial love.
Instead, it will be about the supreme good that all of humanity requires to be happy — orgasms.
You can see why our Jesuitical Pope Bergoglio picked this McElroy guy to be a Cardinal. He’s ready to move the church forward into a whole new direction — toward hell.
I am neither shocked or surprised by McElroy’s admission of the Trainwreck Synod’s ultimate end goal; that has been pretty clear from the start based on the Documents issued and even the “Art” surrounding this Clown Show.
But I am furious that he and his ilk refuse to leave their Church despite their open rejection and hatred of everything she teaches.
Unfortunately, the man at the top shares their views.
What’s sufficiently clear in McElroy’s elevation to Cardinal, his consequent espousal of radical inclusion, its tolerance by Pope Francis, is Pope Francis’ own words in support of radical inclusion, “no one should be denied the Eucharist, that the only requirement is the garment of faith” – is that His Holiness has adopted Martin Luther’s major premise. Francis’ ecclesial ideology is in essence that of Martin Luther.
Thanks to all those who have included in their comments the numerous Scriptural quotes showing how McElory’s views ignore and contradict the Word of God. He would create a non-Bible church adopting so completely the gospel of secular progressivism that the ultimate endgame would be: Who needs it?
Obviously, Cardinal McElroy et al both need it and want it, and they are moving toward compelling the rest of us to adopt those views as well.
Just adding that today’s lectionary reading from Hebrews affirms that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today,and forever.” McElroy’s views suggest otherwise. Rather He today is a woke warrior. In the sentence in Hebrews immediately following the above quote, the Holy Spirit instructs us “not to led away by diverse and strange teachings….” We must resist the teachings of all these friends of Uncle Ted McCarrick like McElroy.
Well said, dear Tom in Florida!
How encouraging it is to see you and so many others, so accurately wielding the Sword of the Holy Spirit, that is The Word of God (Ephesians 5:10-17).
May there be more and more use of this by ordinary faithful Catholics, to expose all the arrogant perversions that a clique of morally corrupt rogue hierarchs is trying to enshrine in Mother Church, under the banner of their, ever-so-clever, false version of synodality.
It’s past time for the faithful to bring in a true, Christ-obedient synodality.
Ever in the love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
Words of the Holy Father explicating the Beatitude of poor in spirit –
to bring more light as to what the Synod too may be about –
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-01/pope-francis-angelus-catechesis-beatitudes-throwaway-culture.html
The swords / weapons of the Holy Spirit revealed through the many incidents in The Word – to be used to heal and liberate the wounded , to prevent the wars –
in our times of much trauma , the triggers in the memory to which the enemy too has access, thus capable of keeping many in chains , to be undone by the Holy Spirit .
There is the sword of Elisha that blinded the Syrian army leading them instead to a place where they were fed and sent out – the ‘army of negative thoughts ‘ to be blinded in the Flame of Love of The Mother , to be redirected as an army of praise for The Blood that heals ..
The Sword of Jehoshaphat – of praise – for the gooness of God to scattter and remove enemy thoughts of lust/ greed / pride that lead to the issues of our times ..
The Messianic Sword – in The Garden – Judas and gang falling back as dead at the word of The Lord – ‘I AM ‘ ..allowed to rise up again as part of the Divine Will work of Redemption …to be used for memory of similar occasions – Power of The Spirit as a flash of the Holy Spirit , to free persons from effects of death spirits ..
Cursing of the fig tree – for every unfruitful, bitter , unholy thought / tree – even age old such forests as dried and burned to the root by the Holy Spirit to instead have Life giving Trees of praise in holiness in pure Love for God and His children ..
A big Tent of such prayer and praise and care – for all and each other – to see the Divine Will taking domain – freeing hearts and families from the effects of rebellion of the self will – Feb 2 also coincides when Luisa of Divine Will was asked to start writing her revelations on same –
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5980
Would not be surprised if most of those who are promoting the Synod are adherents of the above in varying degrees , thus anticipating eagerly for the Holy Spirit to pour forth the Light of the Sun of Divine Will to help make the yoke to be easy and the burden light, to attract all to rise up in Him ! FIAT !
Dear J.P.G. / M.:
Thought provoking! Words that bring us closer to our Saviour are valued. Words that encourage us to share Jesus Christ with the brotherhood of man enriches speaker and hearer alike. Yes, we are to be ambassadors for peace and the love that is Jesus Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Brian Young
Every time I see one of these testimonies about the wonders of Luigia Piccareta and her private revelations about the Divine Will, I want to point out that three of her vaunted works on La Divina Volonta were placed on the INDEX OF FORBIDDEN BOOKS. I have before me the 1940 edition from the pontificate of Pius XII. The citations against Piccareta are on p. 368. Although The INDEX itself was abolished, that did not automatically sanitize the condemned works. Where has Piccareta been thoroughly investigated and cleared?
“Perhaps, as the synodal process moves forward, Pope Francis can clarify this apparent incongruity, using his papal authority, for the sake of ecclesial unity and peace, to rein in the kinds of excesses championed by Hollerich, McElroy, and Co.”
When pigs fly! Of course, we should all hope for the best — I suppose that would be for Pope Francis to gather up all the dissidents, hear what they have to say, and dismiss it all in one fell swoop. THAT would be a psy-op! I don’t predict it but if it happened it would be amazing…
Dr. Chapp: We’re all going to Heaven eventually, right? So what does it matter?
Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Appreciate the Scriptural quotes. The author of this article disagrees with your interpretation. Or with the Scriptures since I don’t see much room for speculation.
Dear Brian Young and dear Brian Walsh,
Let us pray for enlightenment by The Holy Spirit of Christ of all those, otherwise good Catholics, who have been blinded by the false mercy of universalism.
1 Peter 4:18 – “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners?”
How then is God all-loving and merciful? Maybe because all who exclude themselves from The New Jerusalem (whose 12 vast doors are always open) have freely entrained their souls to loathe God and all that is of God.
Universalist illogicality requires God conscript everyone, both lovers AND loathers, as eternal zombie automata.
But: Basic to God’s enormous love is profound respect for each person’s free choices. All those in Heaven are willing volunteers, nary a single conscript.
People write heavy tomes about this but can never circumvent what The New Testament makes abundantly clear.
Ever in Christ Jesus; love & blessings from marty
Dear Brian:
Glad the verses were well received. God wishes that none perish and it helps us to know how He view matters.
All He asks us to do is to believe on the Lord Jesus. He not only saves us, He changes us, conforming us into His image. He also provides us with works (set out in advance for us to perform) so that we know that our salvation is assured. It is easy, yet impossible for some and that is the tragedy!
God bless you,
Brian
Thank you for this excellent analysis of what Cardinal McElroy intends in undoing the Faith of the Church. We all need to be prepared to push back on the goals of McElroy and others who pose a grave danger to the truth of Christ. What frankly is most disturbing is that Francis would elevate a man like McElroy to the College of Cardinals!! and yes- skip over someone like Archbishop Gomez. Let’s not forget that McElroy gets to vote for the next pope! Thus we are in serious danger. Those who believe in, live and defend the doctrines of the Church however are not “conservatives” we are simply loyal Catholics as our faith, the Truth that we profess is neither right nor left — as God is neither right nor left.
Jesus welcomed everyone and asked us to love one another. He was inclusive and saw the good in the despised Samaritans.
Jesus resisted, rebuked, and sent Satan away at Satan’s tempting Him against the will of God. Jesus saw that it was good to turn his back on empty promises of sin. Jesus never asked us to love sin. There is good of the soul in every soul God created, but there is also non-good in the soul which welcomes sin, which entertains sin, and which relishes its dwelling in sin.
Dear Mary,
In the history of my family there have been women & men who honored & obeyed King Jesus Christ; there have been those who scorned & disobeyed King Jesus Christ.
I have loved and cared for all of them equally, perhaps even more for the obstinate sinners, because I know what a terrible fate awaits them in eternity if they don’t repent and turn their hearts to obey Christ.
Take care; always in the love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
Mary, where in the Gospels did Jesus literally welcome people? What he did was reach out to the sick and lost … and did what? Forgave their sins! Get it. He understood what was sinful and needed forgiveness … and then, “Go and sin no more.” Remember that? The reason he could do nothing with the Pharisees and other such like is they believed they were not in need of forgiveness for their sins. That’s where we are with McElroy, who is convinced all this acting out is NOT a sin. Therefore, not in need of forgiveness. Therefore, not in need of a Savior. Therefore, not in need of God become Man to save us from sin! And, by the way, have you forgotten all the parables that end with something like, “and they shall be thrown out” and worse. I know that’s not the side of Jesus we want to hear about, but we don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing the Jesus we imagine. And that’s why we need authentic shepherds, who don’t grovel for approval from nonbelievers, yes, maybe even including the Jesuits at Georgetown.
Jesus didn’t chase down those who walked away in John 6, Mary.
Well said, dear Monica. That is the heart of the matter. Blessings from marty
Can someone please explain Peter’s second letter to the red-hatted, empty-headed birds in the Vatican? It follows, in the NAB translated language even McCarrick understands:
“There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. In their greed they will exploit you with fabrications, but from of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction does not sleep.
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment; and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, together with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the godless world; and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [to destruction], reducing them to ashes, making them an example for the godless [people] of what is coming; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people (for day after day that righteous man living among them was tormented in his righteous soul at the lawless deeds that he saw and heard), then the Lord knows how to rescue the devout from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who follow the flesh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship.
Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings, whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord. But these people, like irrational animals born by nature for capture and destruction, revile things that they do not understand, and in their destruction they will also be destroyed, suffering wrong as payment for wrongdoing. Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are stains and defilements as they revel in their deceits while carousing with you. Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children! Abandoning the straight road, they have gone astray, following the road of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved payment for wrongdoing, but he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a gale; for them the gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, talking empty bombast, they seduce with licentious desires of the flesh those who have barely escaped from people who live in error. They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him. For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of [our] Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them. What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them, ‘The dog returns to its own vomit,’ and ‘A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire.'”
Blessings together with thanks for sharing this.
2023 and the old men are still discussing whether or not buggery is an acceptable behavior. I’m going back to sleep.
Saw a brief TV interview conducted with two, yes, handsome, arm-in-arm homosexuals. And, stumbled into the nature of Shanghaied “synodality” as it, too, has come to be redefined! They spoke broadly of their lifestyle “collaboration.”
What if the created human reality is confined to only the narrow bandwidth of non-binary “collaboration”? That, rather than, say, binary sexual “complementarity,” or even binary contradictions and really interesting differences, rather than only amalgamated diversity/equality/inclusiveness? And, not a manageable God, but always a veiled God as the totally Other!—and who also has revealed Himself? A binary universe of Creator and creatures? What if real dialogue rather than choreographed monologue?
Do we see how “collaborative” homosexuality penetrates from McCarrick’s beach cabin to his tunnel-vision ostpolitik with China? Or, to the non-“response” to the otherwise (as in “other”-wise) engaging dubia? Or, now to Cardinal McElroy’s tutorial exhibitionism?
Synodality—textually abused along the way into a “seamless garment” sort of thing, from cabin-bedroom homosexual grooming to a kitchen-blender homo-genization in the big tent? So, is this the ascendant mindset? God is no longer “Other” than the Process; instead, God is plebiscite “collaboration”–nothing is off the table, or whatever; “enlarge the tent!”
Thank you, Doctor, for your excellent summation. I would only add that Bergoglio is most probably the False Prophet mentioned in the Book of Revelation who will split the Church in actual schism and point out the Antichrist. Prepare for persecution.
That this article even questions Francis’ posture toward this sinodal (spelling intended) toxicity on the one hand gives a glimmer of hope for the proper response, being whatever is used these days to put down a lame horse; but on the other hand, assuming that the author has but the most rudimentary knowledge of Francis’ exercise of the office he (supposedly) inhabits, it is gargantuanly disingenuous.
Everything is collapsing. This decade of Pope Francis has been a freak show.
Laicize?
What he is dreaming exists in the Episcopal church. One of the fastest dying churches in the US.
Our Church is in crisis. No doubt about that. The pope seems to be making his decisions on what supposedly 1% of catholics think. He needs to hear, enmasse, from the rest of us that have been ridiculed as “trads”. Our parish, and at least 7 surrounding parishes in the area never even heard about a survey. People, we need to pick a month, a deadline date and shower the Pope with millions of physical letters that can’t be ignored and the media suppress. McElroy and his cronies need to know there is massive resistance to their agenda. satan is having a laugh and his legions are rising. I think of the purity of our Holy Mother Mary and cringe at the insult this immoral agenda is to her and to the Holy Spirit and I will not follow this ” sin-odal” way. Christ sought out sinners and does not shut out anyone, However, he asks us to repent of our sins and change our lives and not continue as before. As Cardinal Chaput stated “Popes and Cardinals come and go, even great ones. What matters, whatever the cost, is fidelity to Catholic teaching and no excuses need to be offered in pursing this path”. Amen to that.
An excellent and wholehearted comment, dear Maureen.
Yet are not the synodalista busy working the loophole in Cardinal Chaput’s plea for ‘fidelity to Catholic teaching’.
That is: having engineered the election of an amenable Pope, seen some strong opponents off the stage, promoted many fellow travelers, employed powerful but deceptive pr for ‘widening the tent’ to include unrepented serious sinners (as you point out, without proper consultation with the faithful), they are now ready to normalize sexual sins that are repugnant to God, the holy angels, and all the saints and martyrs in Heaven (these sins are highly pleasing to Satan & all the demons).
That is NOT compassion for sinners. Treacherously, it affirms their path to perdition.
The new ‘catholic’ teaching will give the plotters what they want: a whitewash of those many clergy who routinely break their solemn promise of lifetime celibacy; a wink to the ‘lilac mafia’ (homosexually active clergy); and even a lessening of the odor of criminality of the sexual molesters of children and vulnerable adults.
The big question is, how many real Catholics will accept the new ‘catholic’ teaching when the dragon’s egg finally hatches . . ?
How many will choke at even the thought of fidelity to such a betrayal of the Church’s teaching office . . ?
This is a season for intense prayer and for faithful Catholics to wake up and wake each other up to see where the well-organized plotters, with their puppet pope, are steering the Barque of Peter.
This is a time when we need all the true bishops to stand up and be counted.
Always in the love of King Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
I have come to believe that the catholic church is encultured in the numerous appearances of power and privileged that mirrored the growth of society over the past two thousand years. It uses the moral framework to portray paradigms of love, compassion and care that Christ brought to the world (as he knew it) and for others to choose this way of living faith. However, many were always persecuted for being different and the alignment with ruling power structures ( all autocratic) was in fact political (polis from the greek-community). This was not accepted as a reality of the catholic church as being separate. Until the social and political changes of democracy and the emergence of citizens as independent free to think for themselves, and decide how they were to be ruled. Many attempts have been made to contest the autocratic ruled of the vatican state through the Pope but have failed. The church cannot ever be democratic while women and children have no voice. It doesn’t matter what the Pope says who he appoints it will be deconstructed in a way that elicits resistance to the continuation of this political oppression. I believe pontifications from the pulpit no longer serve the purpose of reinforcing these oppressive forms of governance as society comes to realising that they cannot love Christ and HIS commandments (replacing the Old Testament of the Jews). I believe we are more jewish than catholic and one way to realise it is the comparison between singularity of the jewish faith (born into it-as a citizen of jewish kingdom) and the catholic baptised into the church (Vatican state)which makes them citizens for life of the church and of christ. The sole objective is to maintain their entrance into heaven as an unbreakable bond that cannot be broken._