To say that "the Church acknowledges her children are now adults and lovingly provides them with alternative choices" insinuates a couple of things: (1) that before the Church treated them like children and (2)that the Church did not act "lovingly" because it didn't give us a choice.
From a latter 20th / early 21st century perspective, it does look that way but you need to step back to that period in time, to better grasp the reasoning. Take, for example, my great great grandparents. She was from Ireland and he was from France. They arrived in the US around 1885. It took a long time to find their 1900 census record because the family name was totally misspelled. When I finally located the document, I laughed because the name was phonetically spelled based on her Irish brogue. IOW, she was illiterate. Her husband, born in Paris, had been orphaned as a child during the Franco/Prussian War; his education was acquired through life on board a French naval vessel. They lived in NYC's Hell's kitchen, a ghetto for Irish immigrants. Because they were Catholic, they were doubly discriminated against but made sure their children were all baptized in the faith. Those children achieved a higher level of education than the parents but not much beyond elementary school.
These immigrants had it better than those in 3rd world countries. Hence, they turned to the Church for guidance and direction. I doubt either of my great great grandparents would have been intellectually able to grasp the notion of choice when their entire life was spent in poverty and self sacrifice raising 5 children in a ghetto where discrimination and crime abounded. Hence, the Church approach of telling them what to do.
As literacy rates increased, Catholics began to study more theology and questioned the rationale behind these directives. With the introduction of electricity, air travel and the growth of industry, Catholics soon found themselves in situations where eating meat on a Friday posed a challenge (ex: a baseball game). To address the changing dynamics of society, the Church proffered an alternative such as making some other form of sacrifice in lieu of abstinence.
To sum up, the Church acted lovingly in both the past and the present. If anything, my great great grandparents "lived" a life of self sacrifice in poverty and taught their children to "offer up" their discomforts instead of complaining. This was an act of love acquired through Church teachings. Unfortunately, with the expansion of intellectualism, the desire to follow Church teachings has been superseded by self aggrandizement. This has resulted in a loss of the sense of personal sin. This challenges the Church to find a new way to communicate its loving care and concern to those who believe they know better. Pope Benedict recognized this in 2005.
We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate standard consists solely of one's own ego and desires."
You and I understand and appreciate the beauty of Catholic Church teachings. Pray daily for the Church.
Do you even realize how Protestant this sounds?
I doubt either of my great great grandparents would have been intellectually able to grasp the notion of choice when their entire life was spent in poverty and self sacrifice raising 5 children in a ghetto where discrimination and crime abounded. Hence, the Church approach of telling them what to do.
This comes off incredibly insulting to all of the faithful Catholics, including many saints and martyrs, who lived under the "old" rules. Of course, they could intellectually understand choice. They just didn't think it was owed to them because they were "now adults".