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Pope Francis criticizes gay marriage, backs ban on contraception
Cruxnow ^ | January 16, 2015 | John L. Allen Jr.

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.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; humanaevitae; philippines
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Some good news. Thanks for posting.


21 posted on 01/16/2015 12:56:40 PM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: BarbM
"Remember, Christ made the Catholic Church."

And entrusted it to Peter and his successors. Nobody said it was going to be easy to follow the rules, but it is a blessing and a joy to those who choose to follow it; a burden to carry out of love for God, as in the "easy" yoke of Matthew's Gospel.

Peace be with you!

22 posted on 01/16/2015 1:07:02 PM PST by Grateful2God (And Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

I thought we weren’t pinging or posting to each other. Why did you just ping me?


23 posted on 01/16/2015 1:10:28 PM PST by piusv
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Thank you for posting! God bless you!


24 posted on 01/16/2015 1:18:39 PM PST by Grateful2God (And Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Again, he is upholding the truths of Humanae Vitae.

Humanae Vitae

25 posted on 01/16/2015 1:33:24 PM PST by Grateful2God (And Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.)
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To: piusv
Oops! Copied a list. I take it back.

!GNIP


26 posted on 01/16/2015 2:02:11 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Seriously.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o; Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; ...

Catholic ping!


27 posted on 01/16/2015 2:02:36 PM PST by NYer (Without justice - what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

God bless Pope Francis. I believe that he is a good and kind man.


28 posted on 01/16/2015 2:07:48 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Dear Mrs. Don-o,

This is why I think Pope Franky is more stupid than evil. He's a putz. He doesn't understand that the logical conclusions of some things he thinks contradict other things he thinks. As an example, in allying with the climate hoaxers and anti-frackers and other people who are against plentiful, cheap energy, he is allying himself with population controllers, abortionites, human-haters, euthanasianists, and folks who wish to keep the most impoverished folk son the earth in poverty (or eliminate them, outright).

As an example his desire to somehow square the circle with regard to divorce/remarriage/communion allies him with the homosexualists, the polygamists, and others who are the enemies of the family.

He just isn't very bright.


sitetest

29 posted on 01/16/2015 2:38:37 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: sitetest
This is why I think Pope Franky is more stupid than evil. He's a putz. He doesn't understand that the logical conclusions of some things he thinks contradict other things he thinks.

No. Not a putz at all. This is how modernists operate.

30 posted on 01/16/2015 3:06:52 PM PST by piusv
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To: piusv

I’m not persuaded.


31 posted on 01/16/2015 3:12:31 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: sitetest

Of course not.


32 posted on 01/16/2015 3:16:55 PM PST by piusv
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To: piusv; sitetest
Pope Pius X on Modernists (Pascendi):

This will appear more clearly to anybody who studies the conduct of Modernists, which is in perfect harmony with their teachings. In their writings and addresses they seem not unfrequently to advocate doctrines which are contrary one to the other, so that one would be disposed to regard their attitude as double and doubtful.

33 posted on 01/16/2015 3:20:28 PM PST by piusv
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To: sitetest

Well, this time his talk (which I just read in Spanish) was very good, on both the family and the population control issues. It was a prepared talk, of course, and I doubt that he wrote it himself, although he may have added some of the personal anecdotes to it. It’s when he’s allowed to speak spontaneously - for example, in his interviews or weekday homilies - that he really runs amok.

That said, this was good, although I notice on the birth control issue we had the urging for a “merciful pastoral approach” on the issue from confessors. It sounded like the Kasper technique: in other words, keep the doctrine or law but don’t actually put it into practice or even recommend that your clergy help people put it into practice. And nobody confesses using birth control anyway, because they have been badly taught to begin with.

But at least he didn’t oppose the doctrine, he had very nice words about families and he seemed to be supportive of natural marriage (although he described poverty and materialism as one of the “ideological deformations,” so I don’t know exactly what he meant by it).

On the whole, I think it was good, though, and his speechwriter deserves thanks!


34 posted on 01/16/2015 3:21:59 PM PST by livius
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To: livius
That said, this was good, although I notice on the birth control issue we had the urging for a “merciful pastoral approach” on the issue from confessors. It sounded like the Kasper technique: in other words, keep the doctrine or law but don’t actually put it into practice or even recommend that your clergy help people put it into practice.

That stood out to me as well.

35 posted on 01/16/2015 3:24:38 PM PST by piusv
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To: piusv
Dear piusv,

I generally avoid imputing evil intentions when stupidity will do.

I'm not saying that I think Pope Franky is “pure of heart.” I think he's shrewd in a political way, crafty in that way. I think he has an authoritarian streak that is a mile long. I also think he's very vain.

But I also think that if you were walk through his deepest theological thoughts, you wouldn't get your ankles wet.

This is why he often dichotomizes between the “teachers of the law” and the “faith of old women.” He's just not smart enough to keep up with the “teachers of the law,” so he denigrates them, and discounts their knowledge and expertise. This helps him to believe that his own deficient theological understanding is not problematic, and gives him the confidence to pronounce things that are flying 30,000 feet over his head. It also means that he sincerely doesn't understand the doctrinal implications of everything he says or does, and actually believes that his understanding is compatible with Catholic faith.

It may be that the overall effect on the Church will be little different between whether he's a full-blown, evil modernist, or just a dumb material heretic, as it appears that the actual modernists may be leading him around by the nose.

Nonetheless, charity requires me to give the benefit of the doubt - he's stupid, not evil.


sitetest

36 posted on 01/16/2015 3:26:56 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: livius
Dear livius,

“It was a prepared talk, of course, and I doubt that he wrote it himself, although he may have added some of the personal anecdotes to it. It’s when he’s allowed to speak spontaneously - for example, in his interviews or weekday homilies - that he really runs amok.”

I've noticed that. That's why I think he's stupid, not a formal heretic. He reads the speeches they write for him, and he says, “Oh, yeah, this is good Catholic stuff.”

Then he speaks nonsense off the cuff, and I think in his own mind, the two are the same. I think he fails to understand how what he says is incompatible with Catholic doctrine.

So then, Cardinal Kasper comes along and says, “Let's do it this way, and this is how it's in accord with Catholic doctrine,” and Franky says, “Oh, yeah, that sounds good, too!”

As for the remark on a merciful approach in the confessional to artificial contraception, that's just a reiteration of the guidance given by the Vatican from the time of Pope Paul VI. I don't think there's anything new, there.


sitetest

37 posted on 01/16/2015 4:08:49 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: sitetest

How long does one give the benefit of the doubt? What line have you drawn, if any?


38 posted on 01/16/2015 4:09:33 PM PST by piusv
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To: piusv
Dear piusv,

It's not a timing thing but a fit thing. Which theory better explains the data in a more fitting way.

I expect Pope Franky will be a putz till the day he dies. I expect him to be a poor pope for the rest of his reign.


sitetest

39 posted on 01/16/2015 4:23:19 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: livius
keep the doctrine or law but don’t actually put it into practice

Tagline: read.

40 posted on 01/16/2015 5:17:02 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Doctrine doesn't change. The trick is to find a way around it.)
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