Aboard the papal plane, Sep 11, 2017 / 10:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his conversation with journalists on the return flight from Cartagena to Rome on Monday, Pope Francis touched on a variety of topics, notably the US government’s decision to end DACA and the crisis in Venezuela.
He also touched on the peace process in Colombia, Hurricane Irma, climate change, and migration during his Sept. 11 flight.
Please find below CNA’s full transcript of the Pope’s in-flight press conference.
Greg Burke: Thank you, Holy Father, for the time you are dedicating to us today after an intense, tiring trip; very tiring for some, but also a very fruitful trip. On several occasions you thanked the people for what they taught you. We also learn many things in this culture of encounter and we thank you for it.
Colombia in particular, with its recent past, and not only recent, offered us some strong testimonies, some emotional testimonies of forgiveness and reconciliation. But it also offered us a continuous lesson of joy and hope, two words that you used a lot in this trip. Now perhaps you want to say something, and then we can go to the questions. Thank you.
Pope Francis: Good afternoon and thank you very much for your work. I am moved by the joy, the tenderness, the youth and the goodness of the Colombian people. A noble people that isn’t afraid to express how they feel, isn’t afraid to listen and to make seen how they feel. This is how I perceive it. This is the third time I remember [that I have been in Colombia] – but there is a bishop who told me: no, you have been a fourth time – but only for small meetings. One time in Laceja and the other two in Bogota, or three, but, I did not know Colombia well, what you see on the streets. Well, I appreciate the testimony of joy, of hope, of patience in suffering of this people. It did me a lot of good. Thank you.
Greg Burke: Okay, Holy Father. The first question is from César Moreno of Radio Caracol.
Moreno: Thank you, Your Holiness. Good evening. First of all, I would like to thank you on behalf of all the Colombian media that are accompanying us here on this trip, and all of the colleagues and friends for having come to our country, for having given us so many beautiful, profound and affectionate messages, and for such closeness that you demonstrated to the Colombian people. Thank you, Your Holiness.
You arrived, Holy Father, to a divided country. Divided on account of a peace process, between those who accept and those who don’t accept this process. What concretely can be done, what steps can be taken, so that the divided parts grow closer, so that our leaders stop this hate, this grudge? If Your Holiness returns, if you could return to our country in a few years, what do you think, how would you like to see Colombia? Thank you.
Pope Francis: I would like the motto to at least be: “Let us take the second step.” That at least it is this. I thought that there were more. I counted 60, but they told me 54 years of the guerrillas, more or less. And here it accumulates a lot, a lot. A lot of hatred, a lot of resentment, a lot of sickness in the soul. And the sickness isn’t to blame. It comes. The measles grabs and drags you…oh, sorry! I’ll speak in Italian. The sickness is not something to blame, it comes. And in these guerrilla wars – that they really waged, whether they were guerrillas, paramilitaries, or others – and also the corruption in the country, they committed gross sins that lead to this disease of hatred, of…But if they have taken steps that give hope, steps in negotiation, but it has been the last. The ELN ceasefire, and I am very grateful for it, very grateful for this. But there is something else that I perceived. The desire to go forward in this process goes beyond negotiations that they are being done or should be done. It is a spontaneous desire, and this is the strength of the people. This people wants to breathe, but we must help them with the closeness of prayer, and above all with the understanding of how much pain there is inside so many people.
Greg Burke: Now Holy Father, José Mojica, from El Tiempo.
José Mojica: Holy Father, it’s an honor to be here, to be here with you. My name is José Mojica and I am a journalist for El Tiempo, the editorial home of Colombia, and I also greet you in the name of my Colombian colleagues and all communications media in my country.
Colombia has suffered many decades of violence due to the war, the armed conflict and also drug trafficking. However, the ravages of corruption in politics have been just as damaging as the war itself, and although corruption is not new, we have always known that it exists, now it’s more visible because we no longer have news of the war and the armed conflict. What can we do in front of this scourge, up to what point can we stand the corrupt, how do we punish them? And finally, should the corrupt be excommunicated?
Pope Francis: You ask me a question I have asked myself many times. I put it to myself in this way: do the corrupt have forgiveness? I asked myself like this. And I asked myself when there was an act of…in the province of Catamarca, in Argentina, an act of mistreatment, abuse, the rape of a girl. And there were people stuck there, very attached to political and economic powers in this province.
An article published in La Nacion at that time moved me a lot, and I wrote a small book which is called “Sin and Corruption.” …always we are all sinners, and we know that the Lord is close to us, that he never tires of forgiving. But the difference: God never tires of forgiving, the sinner sometimes wakes up and asks for forgiveness. The problem is that the corrupt get tired of asking for forgiveness and forget how to ask for forgiveness, and this is the serious problem. It’s a state of insensitivity before values, before destruction, before the exploitation of people. They are not able to ask forgiveness, it’s like a condemnation, so it’s very hard to help the corrupt, very hard. But God can do it. I pray for that.
Greg Burke: Holy Father, now Hernan Reyes, from TELAM.
Hernán Reyes: Holiness, the question is from the Spanish language group of journalists. You spoke of this first step that Colombia has made. Today at the Mass, you said that there hasn’t been enough dialogue between the two parts, but was it necessary to incorporate more actors. Do you think it’s possible to replicate this Colombia model in other conflicts in the world?
Pope Francis: Integrating other people. Also today in the homily I spoke of this, taking a passage from the Gospel. Integrating other people. It’s not the first time, in so many conflicts many people have been involved. It’s a way of moving ahead, a sapiential way of politics. There is the wisdom of asking for help, but I believe that today I wished to note it in the homily – which is a message, more than a homily – I think that these technical, let’s say ‘political’, resources help and interventions of the United Nations are sometimes requested to get out of the crisis. But a peace process will go forward only when the people take it in their hands. If the people don’t take it in hand, it can go a bit forward, they arrive at a compromise. It is what I have tried to make heard during this visit: the protagonist of the peace process either is the people or it arrives to a certain point, but when the people take it in hand, they are capable of doing it well… that is the higher road.
Greg Burke: Now, Elena Pinardi.
Elena Pinardi (EBU): Good evening, Holiness. First of all, we would like to ask how you are doing. We saw that you hit your head… how are you? Did you hurt yourself?
Pope Francis: I turned there to greet children and I didn’t see the glass and boom!
Pinardi: The question is this: while we were flying, we passed close to Hurricane Irma, which after causing … deaths and massive damage in the Caribbean islands and Cuba, it’s feared that broad areas of Florida could end up underwater, and 6 million people have had to leave their homes. After Hurricane Harvey, there have been almost simultaneously three hurricanes in the area. Scientists say that the warming of the oceans is a factor that contributes to making the storms and seasonal hurricanes more intense. Is there a moral responsibility for political leaders who reject collaborating with the other nations to control the emission of greenhouse gas? Why do they deny that climate change is also be the work of man?
Pope Francis: Thanks. For the last part, to not forget, whoever denies this should go to the scientists and ask them. They speak very clearly. The scientists are precise. The other day, when the news of that Russian boat came out, I believe, that went from Norway to Japan or Taipei by way of the North Pole without an icebreaker and the photographs showed pieces of ice. To the North Pole, you could go. It’s very, very clear. When that news came from a university, I don’t remember from where, another came out that said, ‘We only have three years to turn back, otherwise the consequences will be terrible.’ I don’t know if three years is true or not, but if we don’t turn back we’re going down, that’s true. Climate change, you see the effects and scientists say clearly which is the path to follow. And all of us have a responsibility, all… everyone… a little one, a big one, a moral responsibility, and to accept from the opinion or make decisions, and we have to take it seriously. I think it’s something that’s not to joke around with. It’s very serious. And you ask me: what is the moral responsibility. Everyone has his. Politicians have their own. Everyone has their own according to the response he gives.
I would say: everyone has their own moral responsibility, first. Second, if one is a bit doubtful that this is not so true, let them ask the scientists. They are very clear. They are not opinions on the air, they are very clear. And then let them decide, and history will judge their decisions. Thanks.
Enzo Romeo (TG2): Good afternoon, Holy Father. I unite myself to the question my colleague made earlier because you frequently in the speeches you gave in Colombia, called again, in some way, to make peace with creation. Respecting the environment as a necessary condition so that a stable social peace may be created. The effects of climate change, here in Italy – I don’t know if you’ve been informed – has caused many deaths in Livorno…
Pope Francis: After three-and-a-half months of drought.
Romeo: … much damage in Rome. We are all concerned by this situation. Why is there a delay in taking awareness, especially by governments, that nevertheless appear to be solicitous perhaps in other areas, for example, in arms trade? We are seeing the crisis in Korea, also about this I would like to have your opinion.
Pope Francis: Why? A phrase comes to me from the Old Testament, I believe from the Psalm: Man is stupid. He is stubborn one who does not see, the only animal of creation that puts his leg in the same hole is man… the horse, no, they don’t do it… There is arrogance, the sufficiency of “it’s not like that,” and then there is the “pocket” God, not only about creation, so many decisions, so many contradictions (…) depend on money. Today, in Cartagena, I started in a part, let’s call it poor, of Cartagena. The other part, the touristic side, luxury, luxury without moral measure… but those who go there don’t realize this, or the socio-political analysts don’t realize… ‘man is stupid,’ the Bible said. It’s like that: when you don’t want to see, you don’t see. You just look in another direction. And of North Korea, I’ll tell the truth, I don’t understand. Truly, I don’t understand that world of geopolitics. It’s very tough for me. But I believe that what I see, there is a struggle of interests that don’t escape me, I truly can’t explain… but the other important thing: we don’t take awareness. Think to Cartagena today. Is this unjust. Can we take awareness? This is what comes to me. Thanks.
Valentina Alazraki, Noticieros Televisa: I’m sorry. Holy Father, every time you meet with youth in any part of the world you always tell them: ‘Don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope, don’t let yourselves be robbed of the future.’ Unfortunately, in the United States they have abolished the law of the “dreamers.” They speak of 800,000 youth: Mexicans, Colombians, from many countries. Do you think that with the abolition of this law the youth lose joy, hope and their future? And, after, abusing your kindness, could you make a small prayer, a small thought, for all the victims of the earthquake in Mexico and of Hurricane Irma? Thank you.
Pope Francis: I have heard of this law. I have not been able to read the articles, how the decision was made. I don’t know it well. Keeping young people away from family is not something that brings good fruit. Every young person has their family. I think that this law, which I think comes not from parliament [sic], but from the executive, if this is the case, which I am not sure, I hope that it will be rethought a little, because I have heard the President of the United States speak as a pro-life man. If he is a good pro-life man, he understands that the family is the cradle of life, and unity must be defended. This is what comes to me. That’s why I’m interested in studying the law well.
Truly, when youth feel, in general, whether in this case or another, exploited, in the end they feel that they have no hope. And who steals it from them? Drugs, other dependencies, suicide…youth suicide is very strong and comes when they are taken out from their roots. Uprooted young people today ask for help, and this is why I insist so much on dialogue between the elderly and the youth. That they talk to their parents, but (also) the elderly. Because the roots are there…[inaudible] to avoid the conflicts that can happen with the nearest roots, with the parents. But today’s youth need to rediscover their roots. Anything that goes against the root robs them of hope. I don’t know if I answered, more or less.
Alazraki: They can be deported from the United States…
Pope Francis: Eh, yes, the lose a root. But truthfully, on this law I don’t want to express myself, because I have not read it and I don’t like to talk about something I don’t understand.
And then, Valentina is Mexican, and Mexico has suffered a lot. I ask everyone for solidarity with the dean (Editor’s note: a reference to the journalist, who is a veteran reporter and on friendly terms with the Pope) and a prayer for the country. Thank you.
Greg Burke: Thank you, Holy Father. Now, Fausto Gasparroni from ANSA.
Fausto Gasparroni: Holiness, in the name of the Italian group, I’d like to pose you a question about the issue of immigrants, particularly about what the Italian Church has recently expressed, let’s say, a sort of comprehension about the new policy of the government of restricting the exit from Libya in boats. It has been written also that about this you had a meeting with the President of the Council, Gentiloni. We’d like to know if effectively in this meeting this topic was spoken about and especially what you think of this policy of closing the exits, considering also the fact that after the immigrants that stay in Libya, as has also been documented by investigations, live in inhuman conditions, in very, very precarious conditions. Thanks.
Pope Francis: The meeting with Minister Gentiloni was a personal meeting and not about that topic. It was before this issue, which came out later, some weeks later. Almost a month later. (It was) before this issue. Secondly, I feel the duty and gratitude toward Italy and Greece because they opened their hearts to immigrants, but it’s not enough to open the heart. The problem of the immigrant is: first an ever open heart, it’s also a commandment of God, no? “Receive them, because you have been a slave in Egypt.” But a government must manage that problem with the virtue proper of a governor: prudence. What does that mean? First: How many places do I have? Second: Not only to receive… (but to) integrate, integrate. I’ve seen examples, here in Italy, of precious integrations. I went to Roma Tre University and three students asked me questions. One was the last one. I looked at her and said, “I know that face.” It was one who, less than a year earlier, had come from Lesbos with me in the plane. She learned the language, is studying biology. They validated her classes and she continued. She learned the language. This is called integrating. On another flight, I think when we were coming back from Sweden, I spoke about the policy of integration of Sweden as a model. But also Sweden said prudently: this number I cannot do. Because there exists the danger of no integration. Third: it’s a humanitarian issue. Humanity takes awareness of these concentration camps, the conditions, the desert… I’ve seen photographs. First of the exploiters. The Italian government gives me the impression that it is doing everything, in humanitarian work, to resolve the problem that it cannot assume. Heart always open, prudence, integration, humanitarian closeness.
And there is a final thing that I want to say, above all for Africa There is a motto, a principle in our collective consciousness: Africa must be exploited. Today in Cartagena we saw an example of human exploitation, in any case. A chief of government said a truth about this: those who flee from war are another problem, but there are many who flee from hunger. Let us invest there so that it may grow, but in the collective consciousness there is the issue that when the developed nations go to Africa it’s to exploit it.
Africa is a friend and must be helped to grow. Today, other problems of war go in another direction. I don’t know if I clarified with this.
Xavier Le Normand (iMedia): Holy Father, today you spoke in the Angelus, you asked that all kinds of violence in political life be rejected. Thursday, after Mass in Bogota, you greeted five Venezuelan bishops. We all know that the Holy See is very committed to a dialogue with this country. For many months you have asked for an end to all violence. But President Maduro, on one hand, has many violent words against the bishops, and on the other hand says that he is with Pope Francis. Would it not be possible to have stronger and perhaps clearer words? Thank you.
Pope Francis: I think that the Holy See has spoken strongly and clearly. What President Maduro says, he can explain. I don’t know what he has in his mind, but the Holy See has done a lot, it sent there – with the working group of four ex-presidents there – it has sent a first-level nuncio. After speaking with the people, it spoke publicly. Many times in the Angelus I have spoken about the situation, always looking for an exit, helping, offering help to get out. It seems that it’s a very hard thing, and the most painful is the humanitarian problem, the many people who escape or suffer…we must help to resolve it in anyway (possible). I think the UN must also make itself heard there to help.
Greg Burke: Thank you, Holiness. I think we have to go.
Pope Francis: For the turbulence? They say there is some turbulence and we need to go. Many thanks for your work. And once more I’d like to thank the example of the Colombian people. I would like to conclude with an image. What most struck me about the Colombians in the four cities was the people in the streets, greeting me. What must struck me is that the father, mother, raised up their children to help them see the Pope and so the Pope could bless them, as if saying, ‘This is my treasure, this is my hope. This is my future.’ I believe you. This struck me. The tenderness. The eyes of those fathers, of those mothers. Precious, precious. This is a symbol, a symbol of hope, of future. A people that is capable of having children and then shows them to you, make them see as well, as if saying, ‘This is my treasure,’ is a people that has hope and future. Many thanks.
[…]
Sfiducia supplicans is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy.
I thank God that there are still faithful bishops left to object after Bergoglio’s ongoing purge.
Amen.
Dear Brineyman, not simply arrogance & hypocrisy; FAR worse, a massive ignorance of the fundamentals of our Catholic life in Christ.
PF, CF, JM, & cohort go right off the rails by conflating the physiological joy of biologically determined endocrine action [flesh driving soul], with the totally distinct cerebral joy of divine encounter in praise & worship [spirit driving soul]. As The LORD Jesus exhorts us in Luke 10:20 – “. rejoice that your names are written in Heaven.” That sort of rejoicing is, in every way, distinct from sexual joys.
The ECSTASIES of a soul driven by The Holy Spirit are as cheese to the chalk of the JOYS of our soul driven by our flesh. For a Christian pastor, is there anything more derelict & damaging than confusing these two distinct kinds of joy?
As part of all that Jesuit education were they never taught the difference between flesh, soul, & spirit? This displays shocking ignorance of The New Testament, where ‘soulishness’ is repeatedly contrasted with true spirituality. Natural persons are lost eternally. To be saved a person must have Christ’s Spirit (Romans 8:9).
Is this not damnable doctrinal malfeasance in Rome, since the rampant soulishness advocated by PF, CF, JM & cohort can never save our souls. What a deception!
The truth is that The Father will deluge those who ask with The Holy Spirit, often manifesting as personal ECSTASY. I can vouch for this in my life. As a visible example: touches of divine ECSTASY can readily be observed on the faces of the performers, led by Matt Redman, & many of the audience at The San Juan Capistrano Mission, singing: ‘The Praise Is Yours.’
https://www.bing.com/search?q=Matt+Redman+-+The+Praise+Is+Yours+(Live+From+The+Mission)&cvid=65f39257407b4fe4b08706c16e02a17e&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg9MgYIAhBFGEDSAQgxOTY0ajBqNKgCALACAA&FORM=ANAB01&PC=HCTS
Catholics have lived this truth from the start. Every Catholic needs to ask: “Where is it that PF, CF, JM & cohort get their ‘new teaching’ from?”
Always in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Crist; love & blessings from marty
He must be told he has ipso facto separated himself from Christ and His Church for blasphemy against The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
One realistic way to RESIGN, and to help the Holy Father also save face, would be to broaden (as in un-narrow) the upcoming document on human dignity…
(We read elsewhere from Fernandez that, “We are preparing a very important document on human dignity that not only includes social issues but also strong criticism on moral issues such as sex changes, surrogacy, gender ideology, etc. In that sense, the people who are most concerned will be able to take it easy.” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/01/18/cardinal-fernandez-says-pope-francis-knew-about-his-book-mystical-passion/ ).
So, as PART of the awaited document and in a few crisp sentences of clarity, why not rescind and recast Fiducia Supplicants? Surely, the current version is really only a draft, now vetted howver clumsily among the collegial Church (as was the Catechism, etc. etc.)
The REAL DEAL, no longer cleverly dismembered, is only now to be proclaimed! Fiducia Supplicans can be lipsticked as a sort of China-style “provisional agreement”—BUT that need not be sustained or renewed. For Fernandez a plausible exit via the side door rather than via the dumpster.
And, thus, no further attempts to QUARANTINE (!) loyal dissent from within the universal (?) Church: all of continental Africa, Poland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Peru, at least part of France, Cardinal Zen, and former Prefect Cardinal Muller who merits more than three minutes at Synod 2024, and uncounted others either confused or intimidated into silence.
AND, then, perhaps a Synod 2024 which also withdraws, so to speak, from the infiltrated German model conflating “collegiality” among the Successors of the Apostles with (categorically distinct) “consultation” of non-ordained and voting laity ostensibly responding to the “universal call to holiness”?
For such a brilliant man whom I always enjoy reading, you seem, shall I say, overly optimistic. What you hope for is on the order of expecting Karl Marx to admit he was wrong and then open up a Burger King franchise.
By “plausible” yours truly meant slightly better than “if pigs had wings, they could fly,” but still much less than “likely.” Butt more imaginative than we can expect, if only the words of truth could be inserted into next document, politically sidestepping a more forthright retraction of the current document, which is more unlikely.
And, as for Synod 2024, itself, if it’s not preceded by a surprise conclave, say, for health reasons, then the proceedings do seem much more vulnerable to the light of day than was the predictable 2023 town-hall open mic. Already old news! Now, the slippery slope into witless a German schism looms large. Such formalized ruptures require up to a millennium to even merit small talk about getting back on track (thinking back to the derailings of 1519 or 1054).
One need not be “brilliant” to recall concrete (!) history, and fantasize at least an imaginable path. One need be only less amnesiac than the “forwardist” experts, even at the risk of being branded either “backwardist” or overly optimistic.
God reward Cardinal Zen. There is a real priest.
I have but two questions regarding this whole debate. Do not the teachings of Christ supercede whatever doctrine the leaders of the church have created based on THEIR interpretation of the law? This is what He told the Pharisees
when they tried to trick Him. Would Jesus bless a homosexual if
He encountered one in the streets or in the temple? The clergy should behave according to the answered to those questions.
What you call the leaders of the Church do not create doctrine, and moral truth does not require “interpretation.” God creates doctrine. Jesus was not “tricked” when he told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin NO MORE, not a frequent occurance among anyone who worships his sins.
“Any office becomes vacant upon the fact and without any declaration by tacit resignation recognized by the law itself if a cleric:
4.° Publicly defects from the Catholic faith
(Canon 188 n.4)”
Father Elias Leyds left a parting gift, counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing the sinner – in the way of right. Listen to his video.
Filioque English (58) 2024 a remarkable start with Ad Theologiam Promovendam and Fiducia Supplicans / EWTN Lage Landen – Low Countries – Jan 16, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL1kf6Eql8k
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/256635/ewtn-mourns-death-of-fr-elias-leyds-heart-of-low-countries-apostolate
Oh, for a new St. Nicholas to arise and publicly slap these creepy wolves at the next synod gathering. Tucho should be tarred and feathered, along with Hollerich and the pope and many others. Let the progressives go be the apostates they already are and pray for them as they wander off into the world of man-made gods.
Cardinal Fernandez needs to be investigated as a child predator. He himself published an account of an erotic conversation he claims to have had with a sixteen-year-old girl. That he is a priest in good standing is a scandal.
“It is a sin to accommodate an occasion of sin and cooperate with evil.”
“Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith” (” A fide catholica publice defecerit“).
Who can deny that a schism is occurring in Christ’s Church, separating the counterfeit church from The True Church of Christ, as we are witnessing bishop v Bishop, cardinal v Cardinal, and pope v every validly elected Pope, due to the denial of The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, and thus Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and The Teachings of The Magisterium, grounded in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, The Deposit Of Faith that Christ Has Entrusted To His Church?
By failing to use The Charitable Anathema, Vatican II, did change a Dogma of The Catholic Faith.
We need to bring back The Charitable Anathema, and while we are at it, bring back the Altar Rails!
“Behold your Mother.” – Christ On The Cross
Dear Blessed Mother Mary, Mirror Of Justice And Destroyer Of All Heresy, Who Through Your Fiat, Affirmed The Filioque, and thus the fact that There Is Only One Son Of God, One Word Of God Made Flesh, One Lamb Of God Who Can Taketh Away The Sins Of The World, Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ, thus there can only be, One Spirit Of Perfect Complementary Love Between The Father And The Son, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And The Son, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity (Filioque), hear our Prayer.
At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
“For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
“Penance, Penance, Penance.”
May a Council be called so that Our Blessed Mother’s Heart Can Triumph and restore Peace to Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, outside of which, there is no Salvation, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque).
And depicted Jesus as a rapist, for which His mother approved.
A theologian assesses human acts from the perspective of God’s will expressed in nature, the divine ordering of all things to their ordained end. A sensualist instead seeks the pleasurable, and assesses the comfort, sense of well being that can be derived, say from a relationship. Regardless of who that might be. What’s lost in the sensualist’s translation of good and evil is the ordained good revealed by God in the natural law.
Cardinal Zen is a theologian. Cardinal Fernández is a sensualist. Fernández perceives intrinsic good in feelings of good. In doing so the moral order evaporates, because what is good becomes indistinguishable from what is evil. What may feel good and provide a sense of comfort and well being for some may not for others. The good becomes the consequence of caprice.
Hey, Fr. Morello, what’s this complication called “natural law”? Haven’t you heard that this here natural law moves around at will, or sensuality, or whatever…
Listen up! Rigid bigots, fixistic backwardists!
The Old Testament Moses got in wrong when he revealed: “[the command] is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts [!]; you have only to carry it out” (Deuteronomy 30: 1-20). Also, the New Testament St. Paul: “When the Gentiles who have no law do by nature [!] what the Law prescribes, these having no law are a law unto themselves. They show the work of the Law written in their hearts [!]” (Romans 2:14-15).
It’s almost as if the natural law is baked in from the beginning, and is not the plaything of ersatz theologians who seem to believe (believe?) that even the truth about ourselves is just a transient school of theological thought—destined now to be replaced by something more timely (“time is greater than space!”).
For some, the natural law does still hang around, but now it’s mounted on a skateboard, and the skateboard is called Fiducia Supplicans! The wide road: just like Broad-way’s 1947 “Streetcar named Desire,” or named sensuality, or whatever…
If there were no natural law by which we distinguish good from evil, then there wouldn’t be any basis, the undergirding for conscientious moral responsibility. Neither would there be right reason. Rather what we suffer are the capricious musings of Amoris and Fiducia.
A more succinct comment. “Such a relationship has an intrinsic goodness”, which Cardinal Zen perceives as heresy. Cardinal Fernández perceives intrinsic goodness in sentiment, in the comfort and compatibility two persons may have with eachother, rather than intrinsic good, because what is intrinsic good [or evil] is so by the nature of the act itself. Not by how positive we may feel about it. If that were so then any act contrary to what is ordained by God as good by nature, or natural law would be acceptable. Moral good would be indistinguishable from evil and non existent.
True, the desire to engage in a demeaning act of any nature, does not change the nature of the demeaning act. Acts that demean the inherent Dignity of the human person as a beloved son or daughter, are not and can never be acts of authentic Love. Love, which is rightly ordered to the inherent personal and relational Dignity of the persons existing in a Loving relationship, is devoid of every form of lust.
Godspeed!
When I go to confess my sins, I first ask the priest: “Bless me Father for I have sinned”. I have not yet received absolution and I am not yet in a state of grace. Once I receive the blessing,it becomes up to me to confess my sins, repent and seek the right path. The blessing is to help me in my endeavours. It has not condoned my sins… How can it be denied?
Michel. To enter a confessional indicates the willingness to confess our sins prior to the request for a blessing. The blessing has no positive effect if we enter a confessional determined not to acknowledge and confess our mortal sins. The penitent is in effect sinning against the Holy Spirit.
Father Morello, I am too old to be naive and I understand that some want to change the teachings of our Holy Mother the Church. These activists could easily move away from the Church and embrace another denomination, or even create their own denomination to accommodate their lifestyle. The activists don’t need a blessing, they only want to make a point and in the process, don’t care if this was to harm the Church. I am only thinking about the faithful ones who really struggle to reconcile their inclination or their current situation with their genuine faith. Can we make them aware that we are in communion with their struggle and would like to help ? Is there a better way to convey this message while seeking the Holy Spirit’s infinite power than to bless the struggling faithful ?
You express it well Michel. Yes, there is a way. I have had encounters with men and women inclined to same sex as a hospital chaplain with med staff. An example is an RN who was aware of my faith and my opposition to her behavior. Although that wasn’t transmitted to her by me personally. Insofar as she knew me I accepted her with kindness, and she showed appreciation by occasionally embracing me when I appeared in her unit. There’s a way of silent preaching that God helps us transmit. On occasion in other environments, I would let the trans person know that I would pray for them.
In the confessional I’ve absolved persons who were struggling, confessing frequently, some leading holy lives. In either forum the person would know by my demeanor that I would be readily available to convey God’s love to them. Much has to do with our demeanor Michel. Also, above all, the Church welcomes those who are afflicted to enter the Church physically as well as spiritually to receive guidance and solace.
Thank you, thank you so much.
I wonder… If the Vatican had authorized the clergy to, where appropriate, do the blessing… But who am I to write a script to the Vatican?…and as they say, hind sight is 20-20