The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released a note on Saturday on discerning the validity of the sacraments.
The new document signed by Pope Francis and DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Fernández is titled “Gestis Verbisque,” or “Deeds and Words.”
Fernández wrote in his introduction to the text that the note on the sacraments was written “to help bishops in their task as promoters and custodians of the liturgical life of the particular Churches entrusted to them.”
“The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith intends to offer in this Note some elements of a doctrinal nature with regard to discernment on the validity of the celebration of the Sacraments, paying attention also to some disciplinary and pastoral implications,” he wrote.
The 11-page text published only in Italian on Feb. 3 reiterates that for all sacraments in the Catholic Church, the “observance of both matter and form has always been required for the validity of the celebration.”
“Both matter and form, summarized in the Code of Canon Law, are established in the liturgical books promulgated by the competent authority, which must therefore be faithfully observed, without ‘adding, removing or changing anything,’” it says.
The document adds that arbitrary changes to either matter or form “jeopardize the effective bestowal of sacramental grace, to the obvious detriment of the faithful” and that the “severity and invalidating force” of such changes. “must be ascertained on a case-by-case basis.”
Fernández writes that in 2022 cardinals and bishops taking part in the DDF’s January plenary assembly had already expressed concern about “the multiplication of situations in which they were forced to note the invalidity of the Sacraments celebrated.”
Specific examples, listed by the cardinal, include using “I baptize you in the name of the Creator …” or “In the name of your father and mother … we baptize you,” instead of the established baptismal formula.
“While in other areas of the Church’s pastoral action there is ample room for creativity, such inventiveness in the context of the celebration of the Sacraments turns rather into a ‘manipulative will’ and therefore cannot be invoked,” the cardinal prefect said.
“We ministers are therefore required to have the strength to overcome the temptation to feel like owners of the Church,” Fernández added.
The cardinal later commented that when the priest acts “in persona Christi capitis,” it does not mean that the priest is “the boss” with the ability to exercise arbitrary power, but that Christ alone is “‘the head of the body, the Church,’” citing Colossians 1:18.
“It seems increasingly urgent to mature an art of celebrating that, keeping at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination, leads to a discipline to be respected, precisely in order to be authentic disciples,” Fernández said.
Pope Francis approved the text of the DDF note during a private audience with Fernández on Jan. 31 after the note was discussed and unanimously approved by the cardinals and bishops who attended the dicastery’s recent January plenary assembly.
Fernández and Monsignor Armando Matteo, the secretary for the dicastery’s doctrinal section, signed the note on Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
“Precisely by constituting the Church as his Mystical Body, Christ makes believers partakers of his own life, uniting them to his death and resurrection in a real and mysterious way through the sacraments,” the note says.
“Indeed, the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit acts in the faithful through sacramental signs, making them living stones of a spiritual edifice, founded on the cornerstone that is Christ the Lord, and constituting them as a priestly people, partakers of the one priesthood of Christ.”
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Pope Francis with Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery of Divine Worship and Discipline of Sacraments, at the consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica, Aug. 27, 2022 / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Rome Newsroom, Aug 27, 2022 / 08:31 am (CNA).
Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals for the Catholic Church during a liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica Saturday.
“Jesus calls us by name; he looks us in the eye and he asks: Can I count on you?” Pope Francis said in a homily addressed to the College of Cardinals and its new members on Aug. 27.
“The Lord,” he said, “wants to bestow on us his own apostolic courage, his zeal for the salvation of every human being, without exception. He wants to share with us his magnanimity, his boundless and unconditional love, for his heart is afire with the mercy of the Father.”
The pope’s reflection followed a reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verses 49-50: “In that time, Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!’”
“The words of Jesus, in the very middle of the Gospel of Luke, pierce us like an arrow,” Francis said.
“The Lord calls us once more to follow him along the path of his mission,” he said. “A fiery mission – like that of Elijah – not only for what he came to accomplish but also for how he accomplished it. And to us who in the Church have been chosen from among the people for a ministry of particular service, it is as if Jesus is handing us a lighted torch and telling us: ‘Take this; as the Father has sent me so I now send you.’”
The pope ended his homily mentioning that one cardinal-elect, Richard Kuuia Baawobr of Wa (Ghana), was not present. Francis asked for prayers for the African prelate, explaining Baawobr had been taken ill.
At the beginning of the consistory, Pope Francis pronounced the opening prayer of the ceremony in Latin.
During the ceremony, the new cardinals made a profession of faith by reciting the Creed. They then pronounced an oath of fidelity and obedience to the pope and his successors.
Each cardinal then approached Pope Francis, kneeling before him to receive the red birretta, the cardinal’s ring, and a document naming the titular church he has been assigned.
Pope Francis embraced each new cardinal, saying to him: “Pax Domini sit semper tecum,” which is Latin for “the peace of the Lord be with you always.” Each cardinal responded: “Amen.”
The new cardinals also exchanged a sign of peace with a number of the members of the College of Cardinals, representative of the whole college.
While placing the red biretta on the head of each cardinal, the pope recited these words: “To the glory of almighty God and the honor of the Apostolic See, receive the scarlet biretta as a sign of the dignity of the cardinalate, signifying your readiness to act with courage, even to the shedding of your blood, for the increase of the Christian faith, for the peace and tranquility of the people of God and for the freedom and growth of the Holy Roman Church.”
As he gave each new cardinal the ring, Francis said: “Receive this ring from the hand of Peter and know that, with the love of the Prince of the Apostles, your love for the Church is strengthened.”
In his homily, the pope said: “The Lord wants to bestow on us his own apostolic courage, his zeal for the salvation of every human being, without exception. He wants to share with us his magnanimity, his boundless and unconditional love, for his heart is afire with the mercy of the Father.”
He also recalled another kind of fire, that of charcoal. “This fire,” he said, “burns in a particular way in the prayer of adoration, when we silently stand before the Eucharist and bask in the humble, discreet and hidden presence of the Lord. Like that charcoal fire, his presence becomes warmth and nourishment for our daily life.”
“A Cardinal loves the Church, always with that same spiritual fire, whether dealing with great questions or handling everyday problems, with the powerful of this world or those ordinary people who are great in God’s eyes,” he said.
The pope named three men as examples for the cardinals to follow: Saint Charles de Foucauld, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, and Cardinal Van Thuân.
The consistory to create cardinals also included a greeting and thank you to Pope Francis, expressed by Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the liturgy dicastery, on behalf of all the new cardinals.
Cardinal Arthur Roche speaking on behalf of the new cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica, Aug. 27. 2022. Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
“All of us, coming from different parts of the world, with our personal stories and different life situations, carry out our ministry in the vineyard of the Lord. As diocesan and religious priests, we are at the service of preaching the Gospel in many different ways and in different cultures, but always united in the one faith and the one Church,” Roche said.
“Now, in manifesting your trust in us, you call us to this new service, in an even closer collaboration with your ministry, within the broad horizon of the universal Church,” he continued. “God knows the dust of which we are all made, and we know well that without Him we are capable of falling short.”
Roche quoted Saint Gregory the Great, who once wrote to a bishop: “We are all weak, but he is weakest of all who ignores his own weakness.”
“However, we draw strength from you, Holy Father,” he said, “from your witness, your spirit of service and your call to the entire Church to follow the Lord with greater fidelity; living the joy of the Gospel with discernment, courage and, above all, with an openness of heart that manifests itself in welcoming everyone, especially those who suffer the injustice of poverty that marginalizes, the suffering of pain that seeks a response of meaning, the violence of wars that turn brothers into enemies. We share with you the desire and commitment for communion in the Church.”
At the end of the consistory to create cardinals, Pope Francis convened a consistory for the cardinals to give their approval to the canonizations of Blessed Artemide Zatti and Giovanni Battista Scalabrini.
The new cardinals are:
— Cardinal Arthur Roche, 72, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and former Bishop of Leeds (England);
— Lazarus You Heung-sik, 70, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy and former Bishop of Daejeon (South Korea);
— Jean-Marc Noël Aveline, 63, Archbishop of Marseille, the first French diocesan bishop to get the honor during Pope Francis’ pontificate;
— Peter Ebere Okpaleke, 59, Bishop of Ekwulobia in the central region of Nigeria, who was created bishop in 2012 by Benedict XVI;
— Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, 77, Archbishop of Manaus, in Brazil’s Amazon region, a Franciscan who played a leading role during the Amazon Synod and as Vice President of the recently created Amazonian Bishops’ Conference;
— Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, 69, Archbishop of Goa (India), appointed bishop by St. John Paul II in 1993;
— Robert McElroy, 68, Bishop of San Diego (United States), whose diocese is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, led by the President of the USCCB, Archbishop José Gomez;
— Virgilio do Carmo Da Silva, 68, a Salesian, since 2019 the Archbishop of Dili (East Timor);
— Oscar Cantoni, 71, Bishop of Como (Italy), appointed in January 2005 by St. John Paul II, who is suffragan to Milan;
— Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, L.C., 77, president of the Governorate of the Vatican City State and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State; the Spaniard is the first Legionary of Christ to become a cardinal;
— Anthony Poola, 60, Archbishop of Hyderabad (India), a bishop since 2008 and the first dalit to become a cardinal;
–Paulo Cezar Costa, 54, Archbishop of Brasilia (Brazil), the fourth archbishop of the Brazilian capital to become a cardinal;
— Richard Kuuia Baawobr, 62, Bishop of Wa (Ghana), former Superior General of the White Fathers, and bishop since 2016;
— William Goh Seng Chye, 65, Archbishop of Singapore since 2013;
— Adalberto Martinez Flores, 71, Archbishop of Asunción (Paraguay) and the first Paraguayan cardinal;
— Giorgio Marengo, 47, Italian Missionary of the Consolata and Apostolic Prefect of Ulan Bator in Mongolia, the youngest cardinal in recent history, along with Karol Wojtyla, who also was created a cardinal at 47, during the consistory of June 26, 1967.
Furthermore, Pope Francis appointed the following prelates over the age of 80, who are therefore excluded from attending a future conclave.
Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, 80, Archbishop Emeritus of Cartagena (Colombia); Arrigo Miglio, 80, Archbishop Emeritus of Cagliari (Italy); Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit and former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, who extensively collaborated in the drafting of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium; and Fortunato Frezza, 80, (Italy) currently a Canon at the Basilica of St. Peter, who collaborated for several years at the Secretariat General for the Synod of the Bishops.
Pope Francis had originally also nominated Ghent Bishop Luc Van Looy, 80, who later declined to accept the post because of criticism of his response to clergy abuse cases.
Eleven Christian leaders were sentenced to prison and ordered to pay $880 million on March 19, 2024, by the dictatorship in Nicaragua. / Credit: Credit: ADF International / Mountain Gateway Order, Inc.
Personally Robert I will not be convinced that the Pachamama Vatican lawn worship, the Pachamama St Peter’s Basilica enshrinement ceremony, cardinals dancing and chanting carrying the idolatrous effigy into the sanctuary has not had dire daemonic repercussions.
Although it is a perfectly clear and required document on the validity of the sacraments in respect to some, who ‘create’ their own meaning of both the words of consecration during the Mass and the conferring of other sacraments, after 11 years of dilution of the power of the sacraments by suggestion and duplicity the DDF is apparently following the exact pattern of following some scandalous statement with pristine orthodoxy. Sort of like following being beaten with soothing music and a favorite dish. The mind’s apprehensive faculty eventually becomes numbed and incapable of moral discernment.
Reconciliation after an injury, doesn’t come because the person gives evidence that they aren’t completely depraved, but because they repent of and work to reform the specific sinfulness that caused the injury.
One might rejoice over finding that a Protestant isn’t completely wrong about the Faith. Finding out that a *Cardinal* has managed to say something that about the Faith that is neither wrong, nor misleading, (with help from an entire Dicastery available) nor hyper-sexualized, seems like it should be expected. The fact that it cannot be, is no reason to rejoice.
A covering gesture that merely states a few obvious points that should not be necessary were the Church not hemorrhaging from the same sources that refuses to acknowledge their critical wounding, which has wounded the whole of humanity, not a mere idiosyncratic internal error. Given the history of duplicity of these two men, one can rationally expect an upcoming assault on sacramental orthodoxy and shameful indifference from their acolytes.
Yes, it is a typical pattern of emotional abuse: abuse – normality – abuse – normality etc. The more people will recognize that pattern the better is for them and for the Church.
I see another thing here: in effect, there are two Churches now, one is true and another is fake (a shadow). The fake one endorses all those “blessings”, Synodality, perverse mysticism and so on. The true one is trying to stick to the revealed truth. The fake Church cannot exist without the true one (because it needs a credibility of the true Church, it needs her very Body to parasitize on it) though so it is in her interest to keep the true Church around. Those two Churches will continue to exist under the same roof.
Hence Fernandez, after throwing the necessary food (‘FS’) into the fake Church to grow her, now throws something suitable into the true Church. It is very much akin to a narcissistic abuser who occasionally interrupts his abuse with “love bombing” to the victim would perk up a bit and continue providing to an abuser with emotional resources.
When speaking above of an emotional abuse in a toxic family I forgot to mention a crucial role (for perpetuating a circle of abuse) of “good-willing explainers” i.e. those who keep telling the victim “He is not bad, look, he gave you such a nice present, don’t cause unpleasantries in your family” and so on. (Note that they blame a victim for “unpleasantness” and not an abuser). In a case with the Church, the words are usually “You are bad Catholics, you only see bad things, you create disunity” thus attacking those who point the wrong instead of engaging in a rational discussion about that wrong.
There is a way to verify whether an abuser is “good” so the victim should “trust him”. If an abuser repented his actions and did reparation then yes, he is moving towards good and a victim may cautiously trust him (if she so desires). But if an abuser did none of the sort but bought her flowers then no – because there is no reason to believe that he changed. Analogically, if ‘FS’ was cancelled/condemned, those responsible for it and other scandalous things repented and did reparations then the faithful would have a reason to rejoice and to begin trusting again. As long as nothing of that has been done = the past abuse is not addressed and its consequences have not been repaired then the faithful would be very unwise “to trust” and to rejoice.
Fernandez is the very last person on the face of the earth to be chiding others for an “unbridled imagination.” Pot and kettle going on here, a la “mystical orgasms.”
I suspect this is put out there to build some sort of credibility following the FS fiasco.
I meant to reply this person, regarding those who cannot stop their partisan behavior long enough to recognize the DDF, Fernandez, and/or Francis doing their job and celebrating it. But I guess it applies to almost every comment here.
This is a papacy that has played foot-loose with the Sacrament of Marriage and now it wants to shore up the entire sacramental system because some ministers are coming up with personal interpretations of the various rites. Ironic, indeed.
The sacrement of matrimony was “shored up” with annulments, regaining your Catholc faith after a divorce. A marriage that has absorbed too much pain of mental and physical abuse and suffering will cease to exist.
My new wife suffered 30 years of torture from a criminal gambler who took the family into bankruptsy. Thank God she and her four chidren survived.
US Conference of Catholic Bishops: “declaration of nullity when there is no longer any hope of reconciliation of the spouses”. The only relief is when a couple divorces, they must remarry in the Church. We could not because they were not divorced since he refused. The children from such a seemingly, impossible to get divorce will have lingering issues. Dad is still admired.
Thank God for Gail. She is not only my wife, she is my life.
Throw the dogs a bone after creating a global scandal with “Fiducia Supplicans”?
They have no credence. I would not take the advice of Bergoglio or Fernandez on how to exit a paper bag. I’ll abide by the orthodox teaching provided over two thousand years in the perennial magisterium. No one requires any counsel from manipulative deceivers toying with the minds of the faithful.
We witness the collapse of the two voices for freedom in Western Civilization. The Catholic Church is in retreat from authentic faith and the United States — with the grotesque leadership of many post-conciliar Catholics — abandons its role in insuring the liberty of the globe.
Its far beyond time to wake up. Church and State are in the hands of atheist Fascists.
It used to be trendy to baptize “In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier” to replace those offensive terms “Father” and “Son.” After a non-Catholic friend witnessed such a ceremony in the ’80s, I suggested that she might baptize the infant herself with the correct form, if she could get the child alone by a faucet. I don’t know if she ever did. But there must be quite a number of Catholics in that area who were never properly baptized–and don’t know that.
This “note” from the DDF is nothing more than what the military calls a DIVERSIONARY TACTIC. A transparent move to distract our attention from “Fiducia Supplicans” and their continuing and resolute defense of same!
This is a bone for faithful Catholics – stating nothing more than obvious Church teachings which Pope Francis’s Vatican will studiously continue to sidestep or ingore, as has been their modus operandi from the start. All while they continue with their chief military objective – the wreckovation of the Catholic Church!
This might be a side issue, but I’m throwing it out here: Unsurprisingly, the document just HAD to make that remark about “keeping at a distance…from rigid rubricism.” There’s those two dirty “R” words, again! The same snark from the current Vatican leadership, repeating this hackneyed canard– a “rigidity” which by and large doesn’t even really exist in the post-Conciliar liturgy. (Remember why “Read the black, do the red” has been such a big deal for the last half-century?) Ironic…the very thing they are complaining about as far as being “creative” with celebrating the sacraments (whatever that means) is, in fact, kept in check by being OBSERVANT (= rigid) yet being within the bounds entails a certain degree of real standardization (= rigidity), doesn’t it?
It’s frankly scandalous when faithful Catholics are reduced to placing the Vatican in the same category as the US Federal government i.e. you can’t trust a word they say.
“It’s frankly scandalous when faithful Catholics are reduced to placing the Vatican in the same category as the US Federal government i.e. you can’t trust a word they say.”
Yes it is scandalous and you must consider the fact that those Baptized Catholics in the U.S. government calling for “ the new catholic springtime” are the same group of catholics who deny that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage and thus The Author Of our unalienable Right to Life, to Liberty, and, to The Pursuit of Happiness, the purpose of which can only be, what God intended, because they desire to change both The Letter And Spirit Of The Law, and thus The Letter And Spirit Of The Constitution , by rendering onto Caesar or themselves, what Has Always, and Will Always belong to God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
When you render onto Caesar, what belongs to God, anything can become permissible, including the destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter, residing in their mother’s womb.
Woe to us!
As The Veil is being lifted, the atheist materialist overpopulation alarmist globalist are being exposed, including those who are attempting to make it appear as though they are part of The One Body of Christ, which is not possible, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost.
I missed this. Being put together, it is quite remarkable:
#1 “Both matter and form, summarized in the Code of Canon Law, are established in the liturgical books promulgated by the competent authority, which must therefore be faithfully observed, without ‘adding, removing or changing anything,’”
and
#2 “It seems increasingly urgent to mature an art of celebrating that, keeping at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination, leads to a discipline to be respected, precisely in order to be authentic disciples,”
Well, the person cannot help two express two contrary spirits in one message:
#1 – he states what is correct and expected of him: do that “without ‘adding, removing or changing anything”
#2 – he creates a room for his own rules urging the faithful to keep “at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination”. Note how the masterfully added “unbridled imagination” softens the absurdity of condemning “rigid rubricism” after advising to embrace that very “rigid rubricism” = “without ‘adding, removing or changing anything”.
It is the same duplicity that ‘FS’ has “we do not change the Church’s teaching” – “we order to bless homosexual couples”. One cancels another. I will also add that there is a sense of emptiness behind the latter document, as if it was crafted automatically.
Pulling it down to where it belongs i.e. a toxic family’s constellation: a narcissistic parent as a rule has his own set of rules, often contradictory which he exercised as it suits him. He creates chaos without which he cannot live. Instead of upholding the moral law as something above him, such a person uses it as a mere tool of his to control others and never obeys it himself. He is the only law-giver there.
Those in the Vatican and in local churches who preach anti-rigidity do this only for one reason: to obtain a license to rule as they wish, without obeying the objective rules created by the Church. It is like a bad parent who corrupts their own children with all-permissiveness so they could be “loved” and manipulate children as it suits them.
PS When I first saw the title “Vatican doctrine office releases note on discerning the validity of the sacraments” I thought that the Vatican is reassuring the faithful that Eucharist is still the Body and Blood, even after ‘FS”. Probably because it was what I have been thinking about since ‘FS’.
I used to go to Mass every second day. I cannot live without Holy Communion. Since ‘FS’ I have been just a few times, overcoming myself. Last time I did not want to go, forced myself and felt totally numb. I cannot help but wonder if it is good to receive Holy Communion while being very aware of the covert heresy hanging over the Church, so to speak. If I was worshiping with a congregation which publicly rejected ‘FS’ I would not have such a dilemma.
My problem then is of an inner conflict, of my desire to receive Our Lord and of my emotional inability to do so. To shut down my correct emotions is wrong; to stay without Christ is also bad. By the way, I perceive ‘FS’ to be a double bind for a believer’s psyche because it creates a dilemma that breaks that psyche: “come to the Church which accepts a heresy and receive Christ”; Christ thus is used as a tool. This is the fruit of ‘FS’ and of similar things. “By their fruits…”
We, the faithful, should have the minimal rights: to be able to come to Mass and worship and receive the Lord without lies, twists and convert heresies making it a torture if not impossible. Those covert lies are a form of emotional abuse and emotional abuse is not compatible with Christ. In fact they do something to the Eucharist, via a violation of the psyche of the faithful.
Right after allowing Anglican ‘Mass’ in Catholic basilica. The Church is in the hands of demons.
Yeah, uh, demons are insisting people stop messing with and thus preventing the bestowal of grace specific to … the Sacraments. That makes sense.
Personally Robert I will not be convinced that the Pachamama Vatican lawn worship, the Pachamama St Peter’s Basilica enshrinement ceremony, cardinals dancing and chanting carrying the idolatrous effigy into the sanctuary has not had dire daemonic repercussions.
Although it is a perfectly clear and required document on the validity of the sacraments in respect to some, who ‘create’ their own meaning of both the words of consecration during the Mass and the conferring of other sacraments, after 11 years of dilution of the power of the sacraments by suggestion and duplicity the DDF is apparently following the exact pattern of following some scandalous statement with pristine orthodoxy. Sort of like following being beaten with soothing music and a favorite dish. The mind’s apprehensive faculty eventually becomes numbed and incapable of moral discernment.
That is certainly the pattern.
Sick, those who cannot accept he is upholding the Faith as he is required. Stop playing teams and be faithful disciples. Uou should be rejoicing!
Reconciliation after an injury, doesn’t come because the person gives evidence that they aren’t completely depraved, but because they repent of and work to reform the specific sinfulness that caused the injury.
One might rejoice over finding that a Protestant isn’t completely wrong about the Faith. Finding out that a *Cardinal* has managed to say something that about the Faith that is neither wrong, nor misleading, (with help from an entire Dicastery available) nor hyper-sexualized, seems like it should be expected. The fact that it cannot be, is no reason to rejoice.
A covering gesture that merely states a few obvious points that should not be necessary were the Church not hemorrhaging from the same sources that refuses to acknowledge their critical wounding, which has wounded the whole of humanity, not a mere idiosyncratic internal error. Given the history of duplicity of these two men, one can rationally expect an upcoming assault on sacramental orthodoxy and shameful indifference from their acolytes.
Yes, it is a typical pattern of emotional abuse: abuse – normality – abuse – normality etc. The more people will recognize that pattern the better is for them and for the Church.
I see another thing here: in effect, there are two Churches now, one is true and another is fake (a shadow). The fake one endorses all those “blessings”, Synodality, perverse mysticism and so on. The true one is trying to stick to the revealed truth. The fake Church cannot exist without the true one (because it needs a credibility of the true Church, it needs her very Body to parasitize on it) though so it is in her interest to keep the true Church around. Those two Churches will continue to exist under the same roof.
Hence Fernandez, after throwing the necessary food (‘FS’) into the fake Church to grow her, now throws something suitable into the true Church. It is very much akin to a narcissistic abuser who occasionally interrupts his abuse with “love bombing” to the victim would perk up a bit and continue providing to an abuser with emotional resources.
When speaking above of an emotional abuse in a toxic family I forgot to mention a crucial role (for perpetuating a circle of abuse) of “good-willing explainers” i.e. those who keep telling the victim “He is not bad, look, he gave you such a nice present, don’t cause unpleasantries in your family” and so on. (Note that they blame a victim for “unpleasantness” and not an abuser). In a case with the Church, the words are usually “You are bad Catholics, you only see bad things, you create disunity” thus attacking those who point the wrong instead of engaging in a rational discussion about that wrong.
There is a way to verify whether an abuser is “good” so the victim should “trust him”. If an abuser repented his actions and did reparation then yes, he is moving towards good and a victim may cautiously trust him (if she so desires). But if an abuser did none of the sort but bought her flowers then no – because there is no reason to believe that he changed. Analogically, if ‘FS’ was cancelled/condemned, those responsible for it and other scandalous things repented and did reparations then the faithful would have a reason to rejoice and to begin trusting again. As long as nothing of that has been done = the past abuse is not addressed and its consequences have not been repaired then the faithful would be very unwise “to trust” and to rejoice.
Fernandez is the very last person on the face of the earth to be chiding others for an “unbridled imagination.” Pot and kettle going on here, a la “mystical orgasms.”
I suspect this is put out there to build some sort of credibility following the FS fiasco.
Go home, Your Eminence.
I meant to reply this person, regarding those who cannot stop their partisan behavior long enough to recognize the DDF, Fernandez, and/or Francis doing their job and celebrating it. But I guess it applies to almost every comment here.
This is a papacy that has played foot-loose with the Sacrament of Marriage and now it wants to shore up the entire sacramental system because some ministers are coming up with personal interpretations of the various rites. Ironic, indeed.
“Shore up? Foot lose”? Explain.
The sacrement of matrimony was “shored up” with annulments, regaining your Catholc faith after a divorce. A marriage that has absorbed too much pain of mental and physical abuse and suffering will cease to exist.
My new wife suffered 30 years of torture from a criminal gambler who took the family into bankruptsy. Thank God she and her four chidren survived.
US Conference of Catholic Bishops: “declaration of nullity when there is no longer any hope of reconciliation of the spouses”. The only relief is when a couple divorces, they must remarry in the Church. We could not because they were not divorced since he refused. The children from such a seemingly, impossible to get divorce will have lingering issues. Dad is still admired.
Thank God for Gail. She is not only my wife, she is my life.
Sorry, Fernandez. Not listening anymore.
Throw the dogs a bone after creating a global scandal with “Fiducia Supplicans”?
They have no credence. I would not take the advice of Bergoglio or Fernandez on how to exit a paper bag. I’ll abide by the orthodox teaching provided over two thousand years in the perennial magisterium. No one requires any counsel from manipulative deceivers toying with the minds of the faithful.
We witness the collapse of the two voices for freedom in Western Civilization. The Catholic Church is in retreat from authentic faith and the United States — with the grotesque leadership of many post-conciliar Catholics — abandons its role in insuring the liberty of the globe.
Its far beyond time to wake up. Church and State are in the hands of atheist Fascists.
It used to be trendy to baptize “In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier” to replace those offensive terms “Father” and “Son.” After a non-Catholic friend witnessed such a ceremony in the ’80s, I suggested that she might baptize the infant herself with the correct form, if she could get the child alone by a faucet. I don’t know if she ever did. But there must be quite a number of Catholics in that area who were never properly baptized–and don’t know that.
This “note” from the DDF is nothing more than what the military calls a DIVERSIONARY TACTIC. A transparent move to distract our attention from “Fiducia Supplicans” and their continuing and resolute defense of same!
This is a bone for faithful Catholics – stating nothing more than obvious Church teachings which Pope Francis’s Vatican will studiously continue to sidestep or ingore, as has been their modus operandi from the start. All while they continue with their chief military objective – the wreckovation of the Catholic Church!
This might be a side issue, but I’m throwing it out here: Unsurprisingly, the document just HAD to make that remark about “keeping at a distance…from rigid rubricism.” There’s those two dirty “R” words, again! The same snark from the current Vatican leadership, repeating this hackneyed canard– a “rigidity” which by and large doesn’t even really exist in the post-Conciliar liturgy. (Remember why “Read the black, do the red” has been such a big deal for the last half-century?) Ironic…the very thing they are complaining about as far as being “creative” with celebrating the sacraments (whatever that means) is, in fact, kept in check by being OBSERVANT (= rigid) yet being within the bounds entails a certain degree of real standardization (= rigidity), doesn’t it?
It’s frankly scandalous when faithful Catholics are reduced to placing the Vatican in the same category as the US Federal government i.e. you can’t trust a word they say.
“It’s frankly scandalous when faithful Catholics are reduced to placing the Vatican in the same category as the US Federal government i.e. you can’t trust a word they say.”
Yes it is scandalous and you must consider the fact that those Baptized Catholics in the U.S. government calling for “ the new catholic springtime” are the same group of catholics who deny that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage and thus The Author Of our unalienable Right to Life, to Liberty, and, to The Pursuit of Happiness, the purpose of which can only be, what God intended, because they desire to change both The Letter And Spirit Of The Law, and thus The Letter And Spirit Of The Constitution , by rendering onto Caesar or themselves, what Has Always, and Will Always belong to God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
When you render onto Caesar, what belongs to God, anything can become permissible, including the destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter, residing in their mother’s womb.
Woe to us!
As The Veil is being lifted, the atheist materialist overpopulation alarmist globalist are being exposed, including those who are attempting to make it appear as though they are part of The One Body of Christ, which is not possible, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost.
I missed this. Being put together, it is quite remarkable:
#1 “Both matter and form, summarized in the Code of Canon Law, are established in the liturgical books promulgated by the competent authority, which must therefore be faithfully observed, without ‘adding, removing or changing anything,’”
and
#2 “It seems increasingly urgent to mature an art of celebrating that, keeping at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination, leads to a discipline to be respected, precisely in order to be authentic disciples,”
Well, the person cannot help two express two contrary spirits in one message:
#1 – he states what is correct and expected of him: do that “without ‘adding, removing or changing anything”
#2 – he creates a room for his own rules urging the faithful to keep “at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination”. Note how the masterfully added “unbridled imagination” softens the absurdity of condemning “rigid rubricism” after advising to embrace that very “rigid rubricism” = “without ‘adding, removing or changing anything”.
It is the same duplicity that ‘FS’ has “we do not change the Church’s teaching” – “we order to bless homosexual couples”. One cancels another. I will also add that there is a sense of emptiness behind the latter document, as if it was crafted automatically.
Pulling it down to where it belongs i.e. a toxic family’s constellation: a narcissistic parent as a rule has his own set of rules, often contradictory which he exercised as it suits him. He creates chaos without which he cannot live. Instead of upholding the moral law as something above him, such a person uses it as a mere tool of his to control others and never obeys it himself. He is the only law-giver there.
Those in the Vatican and in local churches who preach anti-rigidity do this only for one reason: to obtain a license to rule as they wish, without obeying the objective rules created by the Church. It is like a bad parent who corrupts their own children with all-permissiveness so they could be “loved” and manipulate children as it suits them.
PS When I first saw the title “Vatican doctrine office releases note on discerning the validity of the sacraments” I thought that the Vatican is reassuring the faithful that Eucharist is still the Body and Blood, even after ‘FS”. Probably because it was what I have been thinking about since ‘FS’.
I used to go to Mass every second day. I cannot live without Holy Communion. Since ‘FS’ I have been just a few times, overcoming myself. Last time I did not want to go, forced myself and felt totally numb. I cannot help but wonder if it is good to receive Holy Communion while being very aware of the covert heresy hanging over the Church, so to speak. If I was worshiping with a congregation which publicly rejected ‘FS’ I would not have such a dilemma.
My problem then is of an inner conflict, of my desire to receive Our Lord and of my emotional inability to do so. To shut down my correct emotions is wrong; to stay without Christ is also bad. By the way, I perceive ‘FS’ to be a double bind for a believer’s psyche because it creates a dilemma that breaks that psyche: “come to the Church which accepts a heresy and receive Christ”; Christ thus is used as a tool. This is the fruit of ‘FS’ and of similar things. “By their fruits…”
We, the faithful, should have the minimal rights: to be able to come to Mass and worship and receive the Lord without lies, twists and convert heresies making it a torture if not impossible. Those covert lies are a form of emotional abuse and emotional abuse is not compatible with Christ. In fact they do something to the Eucharist, via a violation of the psyche of the faithful.