[livius]

He’s NOT saying that abortion is okay. He’s saying that we don’t start with the negatives first when we’re trying to convert people.

The Church is our Mother, something that people have forgotten since Vatican II, when the Church suddenly became a politicized bureaucracy. Our Mother calls to us and brings us back to Her, and through her to Her Son, Jesus, and we don’t have to be perfect to hear the call and respond. And we can even fall and come back once we’re there.

This doesn’t diminish the teachings of the Church on abortion, homosexuality, or anything else: it simply says that our first duty is to call to people, just as Our Lord did.

[jodyel]

“we don’t start with the negatives first when we’re trying to convert people.”

And yet Jesus never held back on the negatives. Neither should we.

[GreyFriar]

Very well said!

[steve86]

He’s saying that we don’t start with the negatives first when we’re trying to convert people.

But when you don't clearly and loudly elucidate sin and the boundaries of acceptable behavior as a Christian, you end up encouraging the very sins you hoped (because they offend God and result in loss of souls) to curtail. Witness #74 and also comments to NYT article: The death culture and deviancy lobbies are having an orgiastic field day over this. From my point of view this is not a Catholic success. I am holding my tongue and not saying more out of my duty to papal charity.

[ecomcon]

The Church is not our mother, it is the fellowship of the saved. As such, the Church calls no one; but God calls all to himself through his Son by his Spirit, to Him.

That said, the Church can be said to be like a mother in some ways.

Should we equate The Catholic Church with The Church?

[red irish]

what I believe is important here today concerning this story is confusion, our world is already chaotic enough with the breakdown of the family and millions of abortions, same sex marriage now being accepted not just in the political world but also by many churches now! The Holy Father should ALWAYS be sure to make a very clear point in the teachings of the church because that is divine love, that is divine mercy had imprisoned John the Baptist because he reproved Herod for divorcing his wife (Phasaelis) and unlawfully taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip I. Did Jesus condem John for his actions reproving Herod, judging him, NO. John was truly loving in his reproving because Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent. Our Holy Father has to be as clear on the subject of sin just as much as John, in this time in our cultural many are so readied to accept sin or believe there is no sin and no need to repent.