Pope Francis to Schoenstatt movement: Marriage never been attacked so much as now

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said the institution of Christian marriage has never been attacked so much as nowadays where a temporary or throw-away culture has become widespread. He said marriage should not be seen just a social rite and urged priests to stay close to couples and especially children experiencing the trauma of a family break-up. The Pope was replying to questions put to him on a range of topics during an audience with more than 7000 pilgrims belonging to the Schoenstatt movement, an international Marian and apostolic organization that is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in Germany. The movement now embraces members, both lay and clerics, from dozens of nations around the world.

Mistaken views about marriage and its true meaning, our temporary or throw-away culture, the need to be courageous and daring, Mary’s missionary role, the disunity of the Devil and why the concept of solidarity is under attack. These were just some of the wide-ranging issues which Pope Francis spoke about in his off-the-cuff remarks during the question and answer session with the Schoenstatt pilgrims held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall on Saturday.

Asked about marriage and what advice he can offer to those who don’t feel welcome in the Church, Pope Francis stressed the need for priests to stay close to each one of their flock without becoming scandalized over what takes place within the family. He said a bishop during the recent Synod on the family asked whether priests are aware of what children feel and the psychological damage caused when their parents separate? The Pope noted how sometimes in these cases the parent who is separating ends up living at home only part-time with the children which he described as a “new and totally destructive” form of co-habitation.

He said the Christian family and marriage have never been so attacked as they are nowadays because of growing relativism over the concept of the sacrament of marriage. When it comes to preparing for marriage, Pope Francis said all too often there is a misunderstanding over the difference between the sacrament of marriage and the social rite. Marriage is for ever, he said, but in our present society there is a temporary or throw-away culture that has become widespread.

Turning to the missionary role of Mary, the Pope reminded people that nobody can search for faith without the help of Mary, the Mother of God, saying a Church without Mary is like an orphanage. When questioned as to how he maintains a sense of joy and hope despite the many problems and wars in our world, Pope Francis replied that he uses prayer, trust, courage and daring. To dare is a grace, he said, and a prayer without courage or daring is a prayer that doesn’t work.

Asked about reform of the Church, the Pope said people describe him as a revolutionary but went on to point out that the Church has always been that way and is constantly reforming itself. He stressed that the first revolution or way of renewing the Church is through inner holiness and that counts far more than more external ways such as reforming the Curia and the Vatican bank. Pope Francis also spoke about the importance of having a freedom of spirit and warned against closing ourselves up in a mass of rules and regulations, thus becoming a caricature of the doctors of law.

The theme of our throw-away society was also touched on again by the Pope in another reply when he said our present-day culture is one that destroys the human bonds that bind us together. And in this context, he continued, one word that is at risk of dying in our society is 'solidarity' and this is also a symptom of our inability to forge alliances. Pope Francis also warned about the Devil, stressing that he exists and that his first weapon is disunity.

“Pope Francis is fond of ‘creating a mess.’ Mission accomplished,” American Bishop Thomas Tobin said.

Bishop Tobin argued against what he called the pope’s suggestion that the Church “accommodate the needs of the age.” If that happens, he wrote, “the Church risks the danger of losing its courageous, counter-cultural, prophetic voice, a voice that the world needs to hear.”

Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI proscribed Liberation Theology as a beachhead of Marxists into the Catholic Church. As soon as Pope Francis took power, he welcomed back to the Church the leaders of the Marxist Liberation Theology. QUO O VADIS, FRANCIS?

By order of H.H. John Paul II, the Prefect of The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, published on August 6, 1984, the INSTRUCTION ON CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE "THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION" alerting the faithful about the dangers of the mixing of Marxism with the Gospels.

“The present Instruction has a much more limited and precise purpose: to draw the attention of pastors, theologians, and all the faithful to the deviations, and risks of deviation, damaging to the faith and to Christian living, that are brought about by certain forms of liberation theology which use, in an insufficiently critical manner, concepts borrowed from various currents of Marxist thought.”

9."Let us recall the fact that atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and rights, are at the core of the Marxist theory. This theory, then, contains errors which directly threaten the truths of the faith regarding the eternal destiny of individual persons. Moreover, to attempt to integrate into theology an analysis whose criterion of interpretation depends on this atheistic conception is to involve oneself in terrible contradictions. What is more, this misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the person leads to a total subordination of the person to the collectivity, and thus to the denial of the principles of a social and political life which is in keeping with human dignity."

When H.H. Pope Paul VI saw how Vatican II was separated from its original intend, with heartbroken words said: “It seems like smoke from Hell penetrated through the windows of the Vatican.” It seems that now the smoke from Hell entered the Church embraced to the “liberation theology.”

In the 2005 Conclave Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Benedict XVI. During the Conclave the powerful Cardinal Martini –the “Pope of the Liberal Catholics” -tried his outmost to get elected the Argentinian Jesuit, Cardinal Bergoglio.

Cardinal Martini was for Pope Francis, what Saul Alinsky was for Obama.

http://on-this-rock.blogspot.com/2012/09/cardinal-martini-pope-of-liberal.html

Cardinal Martini of Milan was for abortion, same sex marriage, condoms in Africa, etc. In his last interview before his passing, the Cardinal famously noted that the Church is 200 years behind the times.

William Doino on First Things blog has a lovely response: Father John Holloway said: “Cardinal Martini was vastly underestimating the situation. The Church is not 200 years out of date—it is 2,000 years out of date, and will remain so, for the eternal truths of Jesus Christ are timeless and not subject to the trends of any particular age, however “forward” it thinks it is.”

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