Posted on 01/11/2017 1:07:31 PM PST by ebb tide
The Pope’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia has caused widespread concern among cardinals and bishops, according to new reports.
Edward Pentin, veteran Vatican reporter for the National Catholic Register, reports: “Before the document was published, 30 cardinals, having seen an advance draft of the apostolic exhortation, wrote to the Pope expressing their reservations, especially on the issue of Communion for remarried divorcees, warning that the document would weaken the three essential sacraments of the Church: the Eucharist, marriage and confession.”
Pentin also said that a “significant number” of bishops’ conferences have expressed concerns about the document. Furthermore, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), having seen a draft, submitted several pages of revisions. These were not accepted, according to Pentin. The Pope has also not replied to either the 30 cardinals or the bishops’ conferences.
The most significant public response to Amoris Laetitia so far has been the five dubia issued by four cardinals, asking for clarification. One of the four, Cardinal Raymond Burke, has recently said they might issue a formal correction of the Pope if he does not reply. Another, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, said that any such correction would first be issued privately.
I really feel for the poor Catholic people being stuck with this guy. Can a Pope be impeached or whatever it’d be called?
My read on all this is that the decision has already been taken. This IS going to happen. Those opposing will eventually be silenced or exiled.
This is being driven by the bottom line. The Church is experiencing a demographic and financial collapse. In my own diocese membership, Mass attendance and financial contributions are all down 50% in just fifteen years.
One of the major sources of outflow are Catholics who have a spouse divorce them, and are thus cut-off from full participation if they choose to remarry. Most of them opt to join other churches, where they TITHE.
This is really what is roiling the Vatican. They intend to bring them back, come hell or high water.
I understand the position of my fellow Catholics who oppose this....but thinking they can stop it is just as crazy as those people who thought they could flip enough electors to stop Trump.
The die has been cast.
The die is in the hands of God. He promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against his Church. In the end, the job of the Church is to get people into Heaven, not just to fill the pews. A church filled with those who willfully rebel against God is a sham.
Not Catholic, but I suspect the argument would be that the Church shouldn’t change itself based on temporal-society changes in morality. Also, the slippery slope argument would probably enter into it, I expect.
TIME FOR A COUP
Churches that get more liberal and abdicate claims to moral truth end up hemorrhaging members. Every time it's tried. Their solution, more liberalism, will only accelerate the trend.
Meanwhile business is booming in evangelical churches, as it is in radical islamic mosques.
People have no time for churches that say they stand for nothing. People interested in religion seek it to be part of something bigger, more universal, than themselves. Those churches that claim they have the answers and you better change your ways or get lost find themselves filling up. Those that say there are no answers and you can make your own way end up empty. Simple as that.
The catholic church has stumbled along for 60 years after Vatican II under the strength of it's own momentum but every step of the way has been weaker and weaker, and you can predict where it is weakest by where it is the most liberal. Francis' policies are poised to push the whole tottering thing over, unfortunately.
Just as the monestaries preserved the truth in the middle ages, the Church still has refuges within. This Papal Positivism has not conquered the entire Church, nor will it.
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