Posted on 01/16/2015 8:46:35 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
In points he’s made before in other settings, Pope Francis on Friday criticized what he called the “ideological colonization of the family,” language that many took as a reference to gay marriage, and also defended a previous pope who upheld the Church’s ban on contraception.
“The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life,” Francis said.
A Vatican spokesman confirmed Friday evening that, at least in part, the pope had gay marriage in mind.
The remarks came in a session Francis held with more than 1,000 families in a downtown Manila arena, amid the pontiff’s Jan. 12-19 trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
The pope also issued a strong defense of Pope Paul VI’s controversial 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which upheld the Church’s traditional ban on birth control.
“He had the strength to defend openness to life at a time when many people were worried about population growth,” Francis said.
To be sure, the pontiff also asked priests hearing confessions to be “very generous” in individual cases, meaning that they should show compassion to couples using birth control, but he left no doubt that the broad Catholic rule isn’t about to change.
The pope has said before that marriage is between a man and a woman, and has also defended Paul VI and his position on contraception on multiple occasions — including beatifying Pope Paul last October, the last step before sainthood.
In November 2014, for instance, Francis defended the traditional concept of marriage to a three-day Vatican conference.
The man/woman nature of marriage, he said, is “an anthropological fact … that cannot be qualified based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history.”
The comments also came less than a week after a speech to diplomats at the Vatican in which Francis criticized “legislation which benefits various forms of cohabitation rather than adequately supporting the family for the welfare of society as a whole,” saying that such legislation had contributed to a widespread sense of the family as “disposable.”
On contraception and Paul VI, Francis said in a November 2014 interview with an Italian newspaper that his predecessor’s “genius was prophetic.”
“He had the courage to stand against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to exercise a ‘brake’ on the culture, to oppose [both] present and future neo-Malthusianism,” he said.
Nonetheless, the fact that Francis chose to repeat those two points here, in a country that recently went through a national debate over a “Reproductive Health” law guaranteeing universal access to contraception despite strong Catholic opposition, is noteworthy.
The comments take on additional significance ahead of a summit of Catholic bishops scheduled for October on issues pertaining to family life, where issues such as marriage and contraception are expected to arise.
During a similar summit last October, called a “Synod of Bishops,” there was robust debate between progressive bishops determined to adopt a more positive language on gays, people living together outside of marriage, and the divorced, and more conservative prelates determined to uphold tradition.
There was a widespread assumption at the time that Francis was backing the progressive side in that argument, leading to speculation in some conservative Catholic circles that the pontiff had stacked the deck to favor certain outcomes.
In light of the pope’s comments in the Philippines, those conclusions may have to be rethought.
Class, discuss.
But..... I thought he was a lefty, that’s what I keep hearing. /s
Yep. Frank was getting some real bad press, so he backtracks to safer ground.
This pope defends those who assassinate and behead those who disagree with them. While I disagree with gay marriage, who would listen to another word this pope says about anything?
Your thoughts?
On what planet?
That is a lie.
"Who would listen to another word this 'bramps' says about anything?'"
You disagree with gay marriage, but what about the fundamentals of birth control? Or divorce? When biblical principals make your life more difficult, do you just ignore them and make up your own rules ie: your own church that reinforces your false biblical beliefs?
Remember, Christ made the Catholic Church.
If the Muslim world does not behead The Pope the gays will crucify him.
RE: Your thoughts?
Well, he isn’t saying anything that previous Popes haven’t said.
Martyrdom has a long and honorable legacy in this Church.
Your thoughts?
BTTT!
Marriage was instituted for the societal need to manage reproduction: reproductive tendencies need be encouraged to occur within a context of direct active responsibility for any subsequent offspring (intended or not).
This institution does not apply where reproduction is an utter nonsensical impossibility; attempts to make it apply are likewise nonsensical.
Contradicts everything that the MSM has provided as 'analysis' on Pope Francis.
I never criticize gay “marriage”. That would be as pointless as criticizing unicorns. They’re both completely fictional, but if pretending they’re real keep people out of my way, i don’t mind. I will criticize those who want government to join in the game of make believe.
His "bad press" has been just that: misinterpretation of his remarks, taken out of context. Check out EWTN television, radio, internet for verbatim remarks. Check their libraries and the Vatican website. Hear both sides, then make your own decision. At least you will be giving the man a fair chance!
God bless you!
He is not defending the assassinations, nor the beheadings. What he is saying is that religion should be respected; the media, while having the right to freedom of speech, has the responsibility to handle it with respect, not derision.
The fact is, Muslim terrorists will defend what they believe with violence. We all knew that prior to this episode. Hebdo and his people knew they were dealing in a crass, obscene, disgusting way with people's religions, Christianity included. We as Christians are called NOT TO resort to violence; not so with Muslim extremists, who consider it a privilege to destroy anything that is opposed to their philosophy.
Hebdo knew what he was doing; 12 people suffered the consequences. Sadly enough, instead of mourning that his irresponsible journalism toward a volatile religious extremist group resulted in 12 people's deaths, he went on, while people stood in line to buy it, yet another paper with the same derision. He must have made a tidy profit off of this...
Sad, but true. Go to EWTN news, radio, internet, mobile: watch/hear verbatim, often live! Listen to his Wednesday audiences; go to the Vatican website. Check things out for yourself, compare with MSM then draw your own conclusions!
God bless you!
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