Vatican City, Aug 9, 2017 / 03:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said the Church doesn’t exist for people without faults, but for sinners in need of God’s mercy – a point he often returns to – and lamented the fact that there are many Catholics who believe the opposite.
“We who are accustomed to experiencing the forgiveness of sins, perhaps too much like ‘a cheap market,’ we should at times remind ourselves of how much we cost the love of God,” the Pope said Aug. 9.
“Jesus didn’t go to the Cross because he heals the sick, because he preaches charity or because he proclaims the beatitudes,” he said. Rather, “the Son of God goes to the Cross above all because he forgives sins, because he wants the total, definitive freedom of man’s heart.”
“He does not accept that the human being consumes their entire existence with this irremovable ‘tattoo,’ with the thought of not being able to be welcomed by the merciful heart of God.”
And this, Francis said, is how sinners are forgiven. Not only are they reassured at a psychological level, feeling free from a sense of guilt, but Jesus does more: “he offers the people who have erred the hope of a new life, a life marked by love.”
Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for his weekly general audience, continuing his catechesis on hope.
He began by pointing to the Gospel reading from Luke in which, after Jesus forgives the sins of a woman who anoints his feet with oil, the Simon the Pharisee asks “who is this who even forgives sins?”
Jesus’ act of forgiving the woman’s sins was “a scandalous gesture,” Francis said, noting that to have a known sinner come into the house of Simon to anoint Jesus was startling, because at the time the mentality was “between the holy and the sinner, the pure and the impure, the separation had to be clear.”
“But the attitude of Jesus is different,” the Pope said, noting that from the beginning of his ministry Jesus embraced lepers, the sick and the marginalized.
“Such behavior was by no means normal, so much so that Jesus’ sympathy for the excluded, for the untouchables, will be one of the most disturbing things for his contemporaries,” he said, adding that “wherever there is a person suffering, Jesus cares for them, and that suffering becomes his own.”
Rather than following the stoic philosophers, who linked physical suffering to sin and believed such “punishment” had to be endured with heroism, Jesus shared in human pain, “and when he encounters it, from the depths of his being bursts that attitude which characterizes Christianity: mercy.”
Jesus shows compassion, but “literally: Jesus feels his insides quiver.” This is often referenced in the Gospels, where Christ incarnate “reveals the heart of God” and offers healing to those who suffer.
“It is for this reason that Jesus extends his hands to sinners,” Francis said, noting that there are many people today living a life of error “because they can’t find anyone willing to look at them in a different way, with their eyes, or better, with the heart of God, which is hope.”
At times we forget that Jesus did not act with an easy love that comes “for a cheap price,” he said, adding that Jesus understands not only the physical pain of those who suffer, but also the internal pain of those who feel that they are “bad” people or that there is something essentially “wrong” with them because of their faults.
Francis closed his address telling pilgrims that it would do them well to think about how “God did not choose people who have never done wrong as the first dough to form his Church.”
Rather, “the Church is a people of sinners who experience the mercy and forgiveness of God,” he said, adding that St. Peter understood the truth about himself when the cock crowed, instead of his generous works, “which swelled his chest, making him feel superior to others.”
The Church is not for the perfect, but for sinners, he said, adding in off-the-cuff remarks that he can think of “a lot of Catholics who think they are perfect and they despise others, (and) this is sad.”
“We are all poor sinners in need of God’s mercy, which has the strength to transform us and radiate hope to us every day,” Pope Francis said.
And to the people who understand this, “God gives the most beautiful mission in the world, which is to tell of his love for their brothers and sisters, and the announcement of a mercy that he does not deny to anyone.”
After greeting pilgrims from various countries around the world, Pope Francis closed his audience with an appeal for an end to violence in the world following an attack this week in Nigeria, in which a gunman entered a Church and opened fire, killing 11 and wounding several others.
He also pointed to an uptick in “homicidal violence” in the Central African Republic this week, directed against the Christian population.
“I wish that all forms of hatred and violence would cease, and that no more such shameful crimes be committed in places of worship, where faithful are gathered to pray,” he said, and led pilgrims in praying a Hail Mary for the people of Nigeria and CAR.
[…]
If the Pope is correct to say this to Ukraine then he is wrong to restrict the TLM.
Compare this quick action to defend Russian Orthodoxy versus papal inaction to defend the Catholic Faith after the Paris Opening Blasphemies.
Exactly right on both counts, dear Fool.
“Churches are not to be touched!”???
Hah!
Unless they offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the same way it’s been offered for scores of generations.
Here contrary to disagreement, in instances conscientious resistance to the moral and structural policies including softening of perennial doctrine of Francis I, I’m in agreement with his stance on religious freedom, particularly the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches. He holds the same correct position in Ukraine as well as Russia.
Taking that into account, our dilemma is the West, and Roman Catholicism’s lack of coherency to its doctrines in practice, whereas Russian Orthodoxy in particular can claim far greater adherence to moral principles both Churches share. Abortion in Russia is limited to 12 weeks after conception – the US and most of Europe abortion is open season. Homosexuality is permitted in Russia between consenting adults, beyond that it’s prohibited under severe penalty, particularly LGBT promotion. It’s homosexuality in all its disordered forms that will destroy America unless the Church takes a strong stand against, which it doesn’t under Francis I who gives indication of acceptance.
Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church insofar as these key moral positions are now actually the world’s primary challenge to the moral decay of the West, including the Zelensky government and Ukraine. Although war with Ukraine has other political motives besides religion. Nevertheless it’s a factor. And likely why PM Orbán of Hungary with a large Catholic population is leaning toward Putin’s Russia due to EU opposition to his policies against the Gay conglomerate and its growing prominence in the West.
As usual, I agree with Father Morello. And I offer a few thoughts of my own.
The Russians’ contempt for the moral abyss into which the West has fallen is at the core of their struggle to keep Ukraine out of NATO and the EU. (It also has perfectly legitimate geopolitical motives.)This is written off by Western elites as “authoritarian contempt for ‘democracy'”. But we who are subject to those elites know all too well what they mean by “democracy”.
It was the Clinton/Bush/Obama neocon “nation builders” who thrust NATO and the EU up to the western frontiers of the Russian rump state that Putin now leads. Biden, as their proconsul, and the Biden family grifters fomented the so-called “Maidan revolution”, which overthrew the duly elected Ukrainian government and encouraged the subsequent Zelensky government to pursue a ruthless ethnic cleansing campaign in the Donbas. The alleged Russian aggression in Crimea merely undid the phoney “transfer” by the Ukrainian Soviet boss, Khruschev, of the peninsula from the Russian FSSR to the Ukrainian SSR, during the 1950s — all in the Soviet Communist family.
I long since have given up trying to read the mind of Pope Francis. It may well be that his view is grounded in the neo-Pelagian modernist quicksand of Dignitatis Humanae. But, from my perspective as an indietrist, an historic Christian people (albeit, regrettably, one whose church is in schism) have a duty to express resistance to a militantly secularist regime that afflicts their country.
I pray (as I did this morning, the Rosary in Latin, with a small congregation made up largely of Roman Catholic Poles and Ukrainians) for peace in Ukraine. Let us not forget that, when in 1917 Our Lady of Fatima asked for prayers for the conversion of “Russia” and for its consecration to her Immaculate Heart, “Russia” was “all the Russias”, including Ukraine. Maybe, after all, Francis got the consecration right in the way he proclaimed it a few years ago!
You cannot licitly fight evil by means of another evil. The Russian Orthodox Church is a schismatic and heretical Tsar-worshipping, warmongering sect that is out of communion with the rest of Orthodoxy, let alone Rome.
Russia is the abortion capital of the world, with regular church attendance in the low single figures, much lower than in Poland and Ukraine. In the territory of Ukraine under Russian occupation, there is no Catholic life at all, nor any Christian life other than that overseen by the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Yes Michael, Russia has the world’s highest abortion rate. Although it has a higher birth rate than some European nations. Example: Birth and death rate per increment of 1000 persons
UK 10/9.5 Poland 7.4/11.1 Russia 8.9/11.3 France 9.9/9.2 Italy 6.4/11.2 Spain 6.7/9.0 Germany 8.3/12.3 Institute National D’etudes Démographique. Russia has a higher birth rate than Poland, Italy, Germany, and Spain, while death rates except Spain are similar. What that likely indicates is greater usage of abortifacients and contraceptives in Italy, Poland, and Spain v abortions in Russia.
I agree with your assessment of Archbishop of Moscow Kirill and the Russian myth of a greater universal Russia. My comment was not to imply Russia is a moral paragon, rather based on face value it is better disposed on those moral issues.
“You cannot licitly fight evil by means of another evil. The Russian Orthodox Church is a schismatic and heretical Tsar-worshipping, warmongering sect that is out of communion with the rest of Orthodoxy, let alone Rome.”
I agree with you re: one should never fight evil by means of siding with another evil. Your description of the Russian Orthodox Church is a bit off. For a start, it does not worship tsar but there is a sect of so-called “tsarebozhiki” who worship emperor Nicholas II, considering him to be a co-redemptor with Our Lord. This sect was condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church. Also, there is an antiwar resistance within the Russian Orthodox Church and many priests were prohibited to serve or even arrested as a result of their activities. As for schismatics, “no, it is you (Catholics) who are schismatics because you broke off from the true Church” as any Orthodox (especially Greek) would say to you. Also, common believers learnt not to take mutual excommunications too seriously – if they did, we would not have a centuries-long precedent of Roman Catholics receiving communion in the Russian Orthodox Church and vice versa (please check how Catherine the Great saved Jesuits and how Catholic and Orthodox worshiped together in the USSR – persecution tends to release people from secondary things).
Now to the current affairs: there is a natural evil and there is an unnatural evil. Natural evil is practiced by Russia and like-minded. It is murder, slavery and so on, brutality without sophistication, cruelty which is not ashamed of looking cruel. Unnatural evil is transhumanism, transgender ideology, euthanasia “for the sake of preservation of dignity” and so on. It is the evil which is afraid of being seen as such so it covers itself with various “for your own good”. Russia (Putin) is the natural evil, West (Biden) is an unnatural evil. They are like two apocalyptic beasts, two types of human psyche clashing. People choose what they prefer. Personally, I prefer natural evil because it is at least straightforward. The unnatural evil repels me much more. Yet, being a Christian I know that I must not choose any but stick to Christ.
Most importantly, b of those evils are postmodern. That means Putin is not Orthodox and Biden is not Catholic. Putin represents a FAKE RUSSIA and Biden represents a FAKE WEST. Hence one who chooses either chooses a fake.
If you read my comment, you’ll see that it says that the Russian Church is in schism from Orthodoxy, let alone from Rome. So either way, the Russians are in schism. The Russian Church always was unique in the extent of its subjection to the Tsars, which was even more abject than elsewhere in Orthodoxy.
I am glad that my comment seemed to cause you to reduce your generalisations a bit (from “heretical Tsar-worshipping” to more realistic “The Russian Church always was unique in the extent of its subjection to the Tsars, which was even more abject than elsewhere in Orthodoxy”). Indeed, the Russian Church has been severely oppressed since Peter the Great who abolished the instruction of Patriarchs. The fact that the Russian Orthodox Church elected the Patriarch immediately after it got freedom from the state after the 1917 revolution, shows that the Church knew it was an abnormal situation – at least the vibrant part of it which later was martyred or went into catacombs. I am a product of that free-thinking Church which never ceased to exist. It is the Church of Fr Edelstein, Fr Alexander Men, nun Juliana (Sokolova) and many others.
“If you read my comment, you’ll see that it says that the Russian Church is in schism from Orthodoxy, let alone from Rome. So, either way, the Russians are in schism.”
Again, a generalization. The Russian Orthodox Church broke a communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the latter giving an autocephalic status to the Ukrainian Church. Ecumenical Patriarchate is not (whole) “Orthodoxy”. Some local Churches supported Constantinople, some did not. It is a very sad event but it has happened in the life of the Orthodox Church before. Common believers, especially abroad, usually disregard that.
And yet he refuses to condemn the persecution of Catholics in communist dictatorships like Nicaragua, Venezuela and China.
There is a prophecy of Garabandal I and many others believe is coming during this pontificate. The prophecy is that a pope will make a trip to Moscow and as soon as he returns to the Vatican, “hostilities will break out in different parts of Europe.” This is in light of the message of Fatima. Francis is a globalist, and it is difficult to tell what his agendas are when he seems to make a comment such as this. He sides with China and shut down churches during Covid… I think he is working for the new word order that will come out of the crisis. He is always speaking of global human fraternity as if it is above the importance of Catholic doctrine and truth. Watch for a trip to Russia in 2025 to kick of the prophesied tribulation.
For once, I have to agree with PF.
I would be inclined to defer to the local Catholic bishop on this one, someone who knows what’s going on. I would like to hear a bit more from the Vatican about Russia attacking and destroying Ukrainian cities.
What the above comment illustrates is how far Roman Catholic Christianity has drifted from its own essential doctrines revealed to it by its author Jesus Christ.
Our Synod on Synodality process underway to assertedly renew and revitalize the Church reduces our Apostolic successors the bishops to facilitators for a diversity of Catholic and non Catholic laity committed to a search for meaning of Synodality with pretense of adopting the Jesuit discernment method by listening to the expected voice of the Holy Spirit for new revelation – defies both reason and St Ignatius’ methodology resulting in acceleration of the drift to a riptide. Resolution. Return to the Cross of Christ and revealed doctrine.
This is definitely a 50/50 argument. I’m
guessing that one of the reasons why Pope Francis doesn’t support this law is because he wants the Russian Orthodox to one day return to full communion with Rome. One the other hand, Abp Metropolitan Shevchuk’s support of the law makes for a compelling debate since the UGCC is a sui iuris (self governing) autonomous Church in full communion with Rome. Everything considered, I believe that Russian Orthodox faithful aren’t bad people. But Moscow Patriarch Kirill is a disgrace.
I think this act of Francis’ points up what so many have sensed: he is less ‘homo religiosus’ than he is ‘homo politico.’
Francis injects himself into the profane arena when it suits his own political proclivities. He sends a new papal nuncio to Venezuela after a three-year hiatus to send an approval signal to the dictatorship of the Maduro government. He says nothing about the persecution of the Church by the Marxist Daniel Ortega. He allows the dictatorial communist rulers of a billion Chinese to choose Catholic bishops, etc., etc. At the same time, he hates America, the Catholic Church in America, the Latin Mass, and traditional Catholic values. He gives protection to prelates who promote the desacralization of the Catholic Church.
We see Francis more clearly with every passing day by where he places his priorities.
How many churches have to be burned down or priests arrested for you lot to stop idolizing Putin?