Vatican City, Oct 3, 2018 / 02:59 pm (CNA).- At the end of a synod of bishops, the pope customarily issues a document- a post-synodal apostolic exhortation- that summarizes the gist of the meeting, and offers his reflections on whatever pastoral issue the synod took up for discussion.
Synods- at least modern synods- involve a great deal of time and expense, and often involve the best minds and hearts in the Church. But synodal documents- good or bad, well-constructed or hastily strung together- tend to have the same unhappy fate: they are consigned to library or chancery shelves, where they get dusty from disuse.
While there are some notable exceptions, post-synodal documents tend generally to have very few practical outcomes, and very little long-term impact on the life of the Church.
Apart from the substance of its controversy, Amoris laetitia, the exhortation that followed the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family, is an unusual post-synodal document because it actually provoked a controversy of any kind- one still unresolved as the Church begins another synod, this one focusing on young adults, the faith, and vocation discernment.
During his Oct. 3 remarks opening the 2018 Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis mentioned the reputation of synodal exhortations for irrelevance, quipping that a synodal text is “generally only read by a few and criticized by many.”
Optimistically, Francis told the bishops gathered for the synod that he hopes the gathering will lead to “concrete pastoral proposals capable of fulfilling the Synod’s purpose.”
Earlier Wednesday, during the synod’s opening Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis called for a meeting “anointed by hope.”
“Hope challenges us, moves us and shatters that conformism which says, ‘it’s always been done like this,’” the pope said.
He added that young people expect of the synod’s participants “a creative dedication, a dynamism which is intelligent, enthusiastic and full of hope.”
The pope’s call for creativity Wednesday encouraged bishops to update their prepared interventions- the short speeches each synod participant gives during the meeting’s initial sessions- suggesting that bishops “consider what you have prepared as a provisional draft open to any additions and changes that the Synod journey may suggest to each of you.”
Despite this call, there are synod observers who argue that the synod structure makes creativity and original thinking a difficult proposition. In the initial meetings of the synod, each synod participant will be given the opportunity to make a very short speech of approximately four minutes. While those speeches are added into the record, observers say they are not always reflected in the synod’s final report.
Of slightly more importance is the subsequent discussion on the resolutions that form synod’s final report, undertaken in groups divided by language. But even that discussion has only a limited capacity to shape the synod’s final text.
There are observers who ask whether the synodal structure allows for any genuine dialogue or debate, and whether the narrowly circumscribed window for intervention is a suitable environment for the prophetic ministry of bishops. Critics argue that the current structure gives most of the power to the Vatican staffers who organize the synods and do much of the report drafting, rather than to the bishop delegates.
At least one observer close to the synod has told CNA that bishops sometimes complain they are called only to rubber stamp texts mostly regarded as faits accomplis.
Francis last month issued a set of changes to the procedural rules for episcopal synods, that, according to some observers, further centralize real decision-making authority within the synod, placing considerable power over proceedings and final report in the hands of the general secretary. Those changes, critics say, mean that bishops will have even less influence over the final text than they did before. And, because of the new rules, the final text of the meeting can now be immediately approved by the pope, in place of an apostolic exhortation released months later.
Still, for the American bishops participating in the synod, Francis’ call for a new way of doing things is likely to resonate. Several members of the U.S. delegation are known as original thinkers and leaders, and some have already begun to signal that they’ll bring to the synod uniques ideas and approaches.
As the synod begins, it’s worth noting what some bishops from the U.S. delegation might bring to the table.
Bishop Robert Barron
Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary of Los Angeles, is perhaps the U.S. bishop whose intervention in the synod is the most difficult to predict. Barron is a well-known public intellectual, a social media superstar, and the driving force behind the popular “Catholicism” series and Word on Fire catechetical apostolate.
Intellectually, Barron is difficult to pigeonhole. A polyglot with a doctorate from the theology faculty at the Institut Catholique du Paris, Barron’s intellectual interests and influences are broad-ranging. He’s managed to bring those interests to film and television reviews, to YouTube videos immensely popular with young people, and to seminars on preaching and pastoral work that have built a following among millennial priests.
The breadth and depth of Barron’s intellect make him hard to place consistently as a member of any of the ideological camps in which U.S. bishops are typically classified.
So what will he offer the synod?
In a Oct. 2 interview with L.A’s Angelus News, Barron said that he would prioritize ministry to young people in the context of their own culture. “We have to get them, we have to invade their space,” Barron told Angelus.
Barron told Angelus that he feels it important to address what he calls “the culture of self-invention.”
That culture, he said, “celebrated almost constantly: that I decide what my life is about, I decide what I’m going to believe, how I’m going to act, and no one tells me what to do.”
While calling for a methodology intended to speak in the language of a fluid culture, Barron told Angelus that calls for doctrinal and fluidity would be a mistake.
Saying the doctrine is “not ours to play with,” Barron added that “dumbed-down Catholicism has been a disaster.”
Archbishop Jose Gomez
Barron is not the only U.S. delegate from Los Angeles. His boss- L.A.’s Archbishop Jose Gomez, was also elected to the synod. Gomez, who is vice-president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, can be counted on for a perspective that differs significantly from that of his brother American bishops.
Gomez seems to very capably straddle notably different worlds. He is Mexican-born, and also the bishop of the largest diocese in U.S. He is a member of an ecclesial movement, and has also spent decades in diocesan ministry. He is regarded as a doctrinal conservative, and has also become the most outspoken American bishop on immigration reform.
From that unique position in the Church, Gomez has appeal and credibility across a remarkably broad swath in the Church. His intervention will carry a great deal of weight among a number of bishops.
The archbishop is likely to discuss themes that reflect his Opus Dei formation- most especially, the universal call to holiness, and the importance of intentional sacramental and devotional formation for young people. Gomez’ intervention will likely be Christocentric, and call for distinctive place for lay Catholics in the life of the Church.
To Angelus, Gomez said this week that “we need to change gears and say that the lay faithful are also called to holiness and to be leaders in the Church.”
“We need to understand that we all are called to holiness; that sometimes we are still in the process of understanding that the Church not only belongs to the pope and the bishops and the priests, but to everyone — the lay faithful,” he added. His intervention is likely to follow along similar lines.
Gomez is also likely to emphasize works of mercy, especially service to the poor.
“The young people of today, it seems to me, are trying to do something, to take action. It is difficult for them to stop and learn the teachings of the Church. The first encounter with Christ in serving other people is what I think is most important for us,” he said in an Oct. 2 interview.
Cardinal Blase Cupich
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago was appointed to participate in the synod, along with Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, who withdrew in response to fallout from the sexual abuse crisis in his diocese.
Cupich is reported to be a close collaborator of Pope Francis. He was appointed personally by Francis to this synod, rather than being elected by the U.S. bishops, and was similarly appointed by the pope to attend the 2015 synod.
After the synod, he became a vocal supporter of Pope Francis’ Amoris laetitia, hosting closed-door conferences on the document for bishops and theologians, and saying this February that the document “represents an enormous change of approach, a paradigm shift holistically rooted in Scripture, tradition and human experience.”
Cupich has been expected by observers to play a significant role in the 2018 synod. The cardinal, however, has had a difficult summer.
He become a central figure in the sexual crisis dubbed the “summer of hell,” especially because of an Aug. 27 interview in which he argued, or appeared to argue, that Pope Francis would focus on environmentalism and migration rather than going down the “rabbit hole” of an investigation into allegations of widespread corruption and misconduct leveled Aug. 25 by former Vatican diplomat Archbishop Carlo Vigano.
Cupich apologized for his remarks in a Chicago Tribune op-ed issued nearly a month after the interview.
“It was a mistake for me to even mention that the Church has a bigger agenda than responding to the charges in the letter by former Papal Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano,” he wrote.
“What I should have said, because it has been my conviction throughout my ministry, is that nothing is more important for the Church than protecting young people. I apologize for the offense caused by my comments. It pains me deeply to think that my poor choice of words may have added to the suffering of victim-survivors.”
Those difficulties do not seem to have prevented Cupich from getting an early start to active participation in the synod. After Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia published Sept. 21 an anonymous theologian’s criticism of the synod’s working document in the journal First Things, Cupich sent the magazine a letter, saying that the “use of anonymous criticism in American society does not necessarily contribute to healthy public discourse, but in fact can erode it.”
Cupich wrote that the commentary published by Chaput “raises essential questions about the nature of theological dialogue in our Church,” before criticizing the text for “selectivity, condescension, and the deployment of partial truths” which served to “obfuscate the fullness of truth.”
“What is needed is the spirit of synodality that Pope Francis has made the very heart of the Church’s upcoming moment of dialogue and teaching in search of ways to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the next generations,” Cupich added.
Cupich, it seems, is likely to offer an intervention, and points for discussion, in support of the synod’s working document, or instrumentum laboris. In recent months, he has discussed publicly the importance of listening to young adults, the gifts young people offer to the Church, and the importance of dialoguing with young people about sexuality and gender- topics which all receive considerable treatment in the instrumentum laboris.
“Young people today are living in a whole different world than when I grew up. So they find their classmates, maybe even themselves, in situations where their family is broken and they’re in blended families,” Cupich said in August interview with Rome Reports.
“The same thing too is with young people who have friends who have same-sex attraction, who are gay and lesbian. They treasure those friendships. So how can we speak to them in a way that challenges them – no matter what their attraction is – to live a life that’s in-tune with the Gospel?”
Archbishop Charles Chaput
Archbishop Charles Chaput has not been hesitant to express his views on the synod’s instrumentum laboris. In addition to the theological commentary he published last month, the archbishop has published or cited comments from young Catholics critical of the synod’s preparatory documents on several occasions.
On Sept. 29, the archbishop published an op-ed in the prominent Italian newspaper Il Foglio, saying that “the synod’s instrumentum laboris or ‘working document,’ needs to be reviewed and revised. As it stands, the text is strong in the social sciences, but much less so in its call to belief, conversion, and mission.”
Citing the Sept. 21 theological reflection, Chaput lamented within the document “‘serious theological concerns…including: a false understanding of the conscience and its role in the moral life;’ a ‘false dichotomy proposed between truth and freedom,’ a ‘pervasive focus on socio-cultural elements, to the exclusion of deeper religious and moral issues,’ an ‘absence of the hope of the Gospel,’ and an ‘insufficient treatment of the abuse scandal.’”
“The synod’s success depends on a profound confidence in the Word of God and the mission of the Church, despite the sins of her leaders,” his commentary added.
Chaput’s commentary proved criticism from Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the synod’s secretary general. Baldisseri told journalists Oct. 1 that because Chaput, whom he alluded to but did not name, is a member of the synod’s planning council, he could have raised objections to the instrumentum laboris early in the planning process.
In fact, sources tell CNA, the instrumentum laboris was given to members of the planning commission only days before they were asked to approve it, as is typical for the synod council. Sources also say it was likely available only in Italian. If those things are true, it seems improbable that Chaput, or any bishop, would have been able to adequately study the document and give meaningful feedback before it was released.
Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that Chaput will focus on the instrumentum laboris during his intervention.
Instead, Chaput, as a frequent observer of culture, is likely to comment on the way that family, public, and ecclesial culture impact the development of young people- and he will probably raise the sexual abuse crisis, since most of his recent public remarks have addressed the imprudence of holding a synod on young adults without recognizing that sexual abuse and misconduct will be rather significant elephants in the room.
Following the trajectory of his recent remarks, Chaput will likely call for a pastoral focus on forming young people from a genuinely Christian anthropology, and toward a Christocentric self-identity.
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Whether the interventions of any American bishop will make a major difference in the synod’s final text remains to be seen. Indeed, whether the final text will have an impact on the Church, or merely gather dust on chancery shelves, also remains to be seen. But the interventions and actions of the U.S. delegation can teach a lot about what kind of men lead the Church in the U.S., and what kind of future that Church might have.
[…]
The Church in distress. Come Holy Spirit…
Amen Deacon.
Maybe I missed it but I haven’t seen Pope Francis or any of the priests who are proponents of the LBGT community admit that it is a grave sin to commit sodomy, and repentance and reconciliation is required.
— July 30, 2013. During his first press conference, Pope Francis says “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a purportedly gay priest. “On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” the pope later explained. “I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”
“I am glad that we are talking about ‘homosexual people’ because before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity,” he continued. “And people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies: let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love.”
“I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together,” said Pope Francis. “You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way, and accompany them along it.”
— Jan. 24, 2023: Pope Francis declares in an Associated Press interview that “Being homosexual is not a crime.” “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime,” said Pope Francis.
— Jan. 28, 2023: Pope Francis clarifies his comments to AP which implied that while homosexual activity was not a crime it is a sin in the eyes of the church. “When I said it is a sin, I was simply referring to Catholic moral teaching, which says that every sexual act outside of marriage is a sin.”
“In the end, the best way to help those who oppose” LGBTQ, Martin wrote, “is to meet them, listen to them, and come to know them as beloved children of God, that is, our brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Sorry James, but people who oppose the vile LGBTLMNOP agenda don’t need help, from you or from your sycophants. You need to repent or be laicized.
I have a question.
Is there a process by which the Catholic Church, assailed and assaulted, pilloried and subverted — by its own leader and his diabolical henchmen — throws in the towel and declares itself null and void?
It’s hard to see how the Church can survive much more of this abuse.
It won’t declare itself to be null and void, it will describe itself as being “welcoming” and “inclusive.” The end result will be the same, however. A lifeless church filled with unbelievers.
Christ said that He would be with His Church until the end of time, and we have to rely on that no matter what traitors try to do to it. It is mind-boggling that in spite of everything, it is still vigorous in administering valid Sacraments (including confession) and preaching Jesus.
To be sure Synodaling is a gay affair. So why are these guys talking about fertility and germination? Maybe they meant the futility of the Faith in the German nation?
I had an email from Bishop Barron saying that this LGBTQ+ issue as well as two others are off the table now.
Quick! Alert the synod and a waiting world! All genuflect!
Radcliff and Martin have written a memo or two! A couple! Barely a millennium after St. Peter Damien wrote the entire “Book of Gomorrah.”
Was I poorly educated? Where in this article are “prelates” named? That term, I thought, was usually reserved for bishops. Or was that headline nothing more than click bait?
I’m really kind of sick of all this.
Is there anyone out there who would want either of these priests as a confessor?
So these two priests are prominent? Only in the minds of the woke.
“The 79-year-old Dominican wrote that same-sex desires, like all desires, are God-given”. According to Fr Radcliffe’s logic the desire for adult men to sexually penetrate other men, must also include as God-given the desire to sexualize and rape young boys, and girls.
Like most considering homosexuality as a good, Fr Radcliffe follows his sentiments, meaning well although more likely given to, realistically speaking, moral derangement. It doesn’t require genius to agree that the natural desires are given us by God. However, the unnatural desires by Man. Native desires are what Aquinas called appetites. Man is a moral as well as a rational being, and inclines by the will his natural desires for good or for evil. It defies reasoned knowledge of the infinite good that is God that he would place desires in his children that contradict their biology, their physical body. That men should by nature seek to sexually penetrate other men, or more egregiously boys, and little girls.
No, Fr Radcliffe OP, similar to Diocesan Fr Maurizio Chiodi recently assigned to the Synod select committee, Synod Relator General Cardinal Hollerich SJ, Fr James Martin SJ all suffer from moral derangement, an equal opportunity disease.
…and they likely suffer from Same Sex Attraction, themselves, which actually Archbishop Vigano accused Francis of in the not distant past. Heard against the backdrop of so many of the mindboggling appointments that Francis has made, including roles that he has given to these two perverts, it simply cannot be seen as a wild accusation. Morally broken men are at the helm of the Barque of Peter.
Agreed.
Dear Father. Your graphic elocution describes our current dilemma of today’s Sodom and Gomorrah well. The worn dilemma as to whether they are born GAY or choose that lifestyle remains. I have had difficulty with the choice issue. One can only wonder why they would exit the closet to openly admit their Gayness when they are rejected by society with disdain?
I am a military veteran. I remember when Gays were discharged as “undesirables”. In the 60s I processed those discharges at the Pentagon. Enter “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Time: President Bill Clinton attempted to unilaterally repeal the ban after taking office in 1993. The effort foundered. Congress instead passed a law under which gays could serve as long as they kept quiet about their orientation. But while the Pentagon agreed to stop asking about sexual orientation during the recruiting process, it continued to investigate those serving in the military. Since 1994 more than 12,000 service members have been discharged because of their sexual orientation.
It is estimated that the US Gay population is 5.5%. That excludes Gays still in the closet. I have always thought what would I do to if my child was Gay? My sister-in-law, a staunch Catholic, disowned her son when he came out. Sadly, he was the closest of her four children to her. He never returned.
UCLA Williams Institute of law: LGBT identification varies by age. Nearly one in six young adults 18 to 24 identifies as LGBT.
Is continued isolation an “answer” to solving the Gay issue? Does the damning rhetoric here provide progress? I don’t see that. I still consider the LGBTQ community our separated brethren. I hope others will. We need to lower the attack rhetoric.
“I still consider the LGBTQ community our separated brethren. I hope others will. We need to lower the attack rhetoric.”
Those who are committed to living in blatant, willful disobedience to God- whether due to biology or choice – are not “our separated brethren.” They are under divine judgment. The wise response is to keep our distance so as not to be consumed when the fire falls.
Homosexualism is crime. It has to be treated as crime. Just like abortion. Just like trans; drugs. Law handles it on a scale. Sidelining law on it is crime.
Sharing the truth is not “damning rhetoric”. Fact of life like all crime and/or all good helps. The “open acceptance out of the closet” worsens the problems.
President Biden positions a moral high-ground against “fact of life” -yesterday.
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/who-the-hell-do-these-people-think-they-are-biden-calls-out-trump-and-vance-for-their-responses-to-school-shootings/vi-AA1rhsKh?ocid=BingNewsSerp
A well articulated overview morganD. There are instances when homosexual tendencies, SSA begins at a very early age, and there are no biological indicators why, such as lack of hormones. There are indications that most others willfully acquire the behavior at a later stage. That the behavior has shown a marked, growing increase in past decades circa the sexual revolution and the wide use of mind altering drugs. An amoral mentality of freedom that believes anything goes.
Yes. You’re correct that insulting accusations are neither helpful to the person nor is it morally correct. I call it a moral derangement especially in regards to the prelates Cdl Hollerich, Cdl McElroy, priests given ranking appointments Fr James Martin Vat communications, Fr Radcliffe within the Synod who promote normalizing homosexuality, at least among consensual adults [it is a disorder or derangement of order]. That’s because it’s a disorder primarily of the will. Considering causality, whether it’s psychological, or perhaps due to physical impairment the Church is obliged to condemn the same sex act as immoral because it abrogates the natural law, although the attraction itself is not, likely because the person may not be entirely culpable, whereas in instances when it’s freely adopted it’s sinful.
If we study the phenomenon historically we find periods among cultures when the increase in the behavior burgeons. As it did among the Romans who initially disdained and condemned it as effeminate. The Apostle Paul addresses the sudden increase in practice among the Romans due to their disfavor with God regarding his existence evident in nature. As you suggest charity should be the rule, though there are scenarios in which perpetrators merit measured retribution.
Mortal sin can separate us all Mr. Morgan.
morganD: spare us the homosexual playbook lines. You’re castigating those who disapprove of unnatural acts because we just won’t submit to it the common zeitgeist.
Morgan D.,
Yes, “we need to lower the attack rhetoric.”
Unfortunately, the rhetoric is in reaction to the more radicalized homosexual faction and its aggression to redefine “marriage,” and then the capitulation of get-along-go-along corporate America and even the inventive rhetoric of the U.S. Supreme Court. Over a century ago Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. already signaled our modernday undermining of human civilization, in only a few decades:
“. . . I often doubt whether it would not be a gain if every word of moral significance could be banished from the law altogether. . . .” (Harvard Law Review, 1895). Earlier, he also had written: “I think that the sacredness of human life is a PURELY MUNICIPAL IDEA of no validity outside the jurisdiction” (cited in Mark de Wolfe, ed., The Pollock-Holmes Letters, 1874-1932, 1942, Vol. 2, p. 36, CAPS added).
Nearly one in six young adults 18 to 24 identifies as LGBT.
Grooming works. If this was some innate occurrence; it wouldn’t be increasing.
Grooming and gaining social credits both.
Back in the day everyone wanted to identify as an American Indian.
Yes indeed, a friend (with four children, the last of which is a recent public school escapee, er I mean graduate) spoke about how “identifying” as part of the alphabet groups results in special treatment; especially attractive at a time when one starts to crave external affirmation.
Thanks for adding my oversight.
If Martin were to publicly reveal a homosexual inclination would anybody be shocked?
Interesting how he’s used his Wharton MBA to make his disordered advocacy into cottage industry.
To “Rev.” Radcliffe, “Rev.” Martin and their ring-leader Pontiff Francis:
I have a dear friend in Christ who took your bad counsel as a young man, and lived the G and B lifestyle of your LGBTQ ideology. He left it and stopped listening to false men like you, and he told me the truth that this “gift” you are promoting is “Satanic,” and the people he encountered were openly and literally Satan worshippers. He suffers grievously with STDs and AIDS (thanks to your counsel), and knows he is dying, middle-aged, from the ravages of this lifestyle you encourage on the young.
He says this about your LGBTQ ideology: “It is insanity for adults to teach children and young people that it is OK for a man to inseminate another person’s intestines.”
Listen to him, and perhaps in turn, repent of your ideology if sexual sinfulness and the spirit of fornication and sodomy and death, and consider following Jesus instead.
I’m so very sorry, Chris. Truly, a voice in the wilderness.
Every now and then it is necessary simply to state that Everyone is welcome in Christ’s House – LGBTQ++ & whatever, but – it’s HIS house and HE makes the rules.”
Exactly. And those who choose not to live under His authority will be cast out of His presence, for all eternity. People should take sin seriously. God certainly does.
Yes. Define prominent.
If, by prominent, you mean showing up everywhere, Fr. Martin is certainly prominent today. Fr. Radcliffe may have been prominent at one time.
If one believes that God positively wills sinful desires, then one believes either that God wishes us ill, or that those desires aren’t actually sinful. Either way, one has departed from Catholic faith and teaching. One has become an Episcopalian or some other phony type which instrumentalizes Christ in the service of narcissism. If these priests believe some other sect has the truth, why do they not join join that sect and evangelize for it? It is due to their pride and their lusts.
There has been far too much dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight regarding these pathetic losers. No one who clings to, works to justify and promulgates grievous and disgusting sins of the flesh is, at the same time, in Christ. That is the root lie which all of these poor souls and, indeed, bergoglio himself have embraced. In their obstinacy, let them dance. Just don’t make the deadly mistake of cutting in.
Lukewarmness has no rights, but it often can illuminate that which is True, in this case, shedding light on the counterfeit church that has been attempting to subsist in The True Church Of Christ, which exists “Through, With, And In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque).
“I know your deeds…because you are lukewarm, I am about to spit you out of My mouth.” – Jesus The Christ.
Jesus promises that “those who overcome lukewarmness” and return to The Catholic Faith, will be Saved.
We can know through Faith and reason, that “spiritual ambivalence “, is not of The Holy Ghost.
“Penance, Penance, Penance.”
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2021/02/penance-penance-penance-she-came-to.html
Under the radar was (and is) the U.S. retail ban on the movie “Kubi” by Takeshi Kitano (2023). The very violent but historical accurate movie of the rise of power of the samurai warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1500’s offends the LGBTQ community because of the real practice of the samurai involving homosexual acts to demonstrate fidelity and allegiance. Very much a learned, social norm, not of love, nor attraction but as a symbol of power of one man over another – like contemporary American prisons. If the Pope cannot see this is the return of paganism then we need to continue to pray for him and for the Holy Spirit to protect our church.
Pardon me while I nonchalantly vomit. Fr Martin is a disgrace.
I suspect that Our Lord will soon visit upon the Church and the world the well-deserved Sodom and Gomorrah treatment.
Enough about these lifestyle choices! The most important thing is to get to heaven. The English comedian Kenny Everett was a successful comic in the early 80s and was a baptised Catholic, but accepted the lifestyle choice forested by Radcliffe and Martin. He died, but not before his devoted sister pressed him to reconcile with the Church which he readily did and a Catholic priest spent a day helping him to go through his life. The priest said it was one of the most beautiful experiences of his life. THAT IT WHAT SHOULD BE SPOKEN ABOUT: THE Four LAST THINGS!! NOT CLIMATE, NOT ADAM AND STEVE BUT GETTING TO HEAVEN!!! HEAR THAT MARTIN, RADCLIFFE AND POPE FRANCIS??
Father Peter hit the nail on the head — “moral derangement.” I would add an accompanying pathology presently boldly on display at the Holy See — “theological derangement.”
Time to put the dogs back on the leash.
We are witnessing the deliberate deconstruction of Roman Catholicism from within by sociopaths who will lie to your face with a stole around their shoulders. Exhibit A: James Martin insisting that he is in conformity to the teaching of the Church. No, he is not, he is a liar, as are each of his enabling superiors and confreres in this subterfuge.
When are we going to start to say the truth to the faces of those who would deceive us? We are all sporting ecclesiastical Stockholm Syndrome.
The ‘online Synod ‘ here at CWR – good in its own way ..we are blessed in our times to be able to take in good surprises of our times including the approval of Medjugorje …the deeper awareness of the Divine Will revelations too , given through learned theologians such as below to add to aid in all these problems of our times which are interconnected , as often reminded by our Holy Father of the oneness in our wounds –
to trust that God is in the process of renewal of the earth -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP5TK5HhclQ&t=792s
Have listened to only a few of the talks; was good to hear in one such talk the words of Blessed Mother telling us to bring sorrows to her to respond – ‘ Love You Jesus and Mary in all our sorrows ‘- those words are like echoes of that of the Holy Father , that our oneness is in our wounds …we could trust that such occasions , persons involved in such , even generations can be brought to The Lord to say with each and all to transform pain of memories.. experiences ..of having had to leave little ones ..their pain ..pain and fear of rejection of all that likely underlie lot of the wounds around ..
The decision of the Holy Father to have a controversial figure – Fr.Chirodi as a consultant also can be seen in such a light of good intention , to help persons who feel rejected by The Church to have more trust that they too are being listened to …to help bring them to deeper ways of living in the Divine Will and its holiness as emphatically invoked by another good priest – Fr Celso – to seal holiness through intercession of Luisa and ministry of holy angels – all can join in such prayers for the Synodal occasion, all such occasions , elections..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT21uo8IzJ4
“The decision of the Holy Father to have a controversial figure – Fr.Chirodi as a consultant also can be seen in such a light of good intention, to help persons who feel rejected by The Church to have more trust that they too are being listened to.”
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and some leaders seem intent on leading lost people there. Do not make excuses for moral evil.
Please have the heart and mind of the Beloved and see with His eyes, thoughts and ways, Chiodi and his assignment is not to accomplish the Beloved’s Will but the ancient serpents…it it a work of darkness not the Beloved Light… may He bring His Good from every good and darkness
Brokeback Martin is a SJW pretending to be a priest. Any other Pope would have laicized him a long time ago and banished him to a remote monastery to pray for forgiveness.
Monasteries are not penal colonies. Best Mr. Martin go out into the world and earn his living with the insecurity and worry most of us shoulder and navigate by night some of the poisonous waters he encourages others to do. Maybe he would wake up and then come to a discernment in conformity to Christ.
Martin is the most tragic of figures. He requires our prayer, as do others who distort the the Gospel for their own consolation.
I’m getting the word … nonce!
Here we go again with the false linguistics about immoral homosexual. It is not a disorder but a preferred act like all sin. These two priest are using false language to justify homosexuality. This immoral sexuality like all immoral sexual acts art not “God-given” but are evil as is the words by Radcliffe and Martin.
Christ said that He would be with His Church until the end of time, and we have to rely on that no matter what traitors try to do to it. It is mind-boggling that in spite of everything, it is still vigorous in administering valid Sacraments (including confession) and preaching Jesus.
This bears repeating.
The explosion of vocations to the Dominicans in Ireland is phenomenal! Because they believe in the charism of their founder and they are orthodox and that is attracting so many young men and women who are tired of the fluidity that now stands for Catholic thought and belief. Radcliffe is a thankfully dying remnant to the hippy generation that offered nothing, to his vision that is poison to the vision of Dominic and Francis!