Pope's recent failure strengthens my Catholic faith

Alabama Media Group ^ | November 04, 2015 | J. Pepper Bryars

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks for this insight. I do not concur entirely, because what I (and many others) was afraid of, was not a formal change in doctrine (which is impossible on things like the form and matter of the sacraments, the gravity of an adulterous civil "second" marriage, etc.) That's not gonna happen.

What dose happen, is that through a crafted ambiguity of documents, the easily foreseeable "massaging" of the media message, and a lack of strong direction and discipline from the Holy Father, a spurious "pastoral" culture emerges which, while leaving doctrine alone in theory, disables it functionally.

I understand, for instance, that the German and Austrian National Bishops' Conferences have basically announced their intention to carry on what they already do de facto, which is, admit people to sacrilegious Communion.

The doctrine are solemnly incensed, locked in a reliquary, and then put back on the shelf for the seminarians to peruse if they're interested. Then stuff jut "goes on" as usual in the chanceries of Kasper, Marx, and who's that odious --- oh yes, Danneels.

No outcry. It's just done.

It becomes like the doctrines on usury (which was condemned by the Prophets of Israel and the Fathers of the Church) --- or, for that matter, contraception.

I am grateful for Humanae Vitae. A miracle that Pope Paul VI published it. Habemus Papam. But you can't say it has been seriously taught for 45+ years.

The same may well happen to Jesus's teachings on the inadmissibility of divorce/remarriage. It will be classified, in practice, not as an expected norm, but as one of those impossible Counsels of Perfection.

Keep in mind that almost none of the crap that hit the Church in the aftermath of VatII was called for in the actual documents of VatII. Tant pis.

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[Mrs. Don-o]

Yes.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Of possible interest:

German and Swiss Bishops say sin is no longer called sin, and that is a victory

[Unam Sanctam]

But we still have the Pope’s Apostolic Exhortation to go, so I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. And the proposed decentralization of doctrine and practice to Bishop’s Conferences could wreak its havoc on the clear teachings of the Church.

[Unam Sanctam]

But Cardinal Kasper (whose book the Pope praised) claims that allowing divorced and remarried not living as brother and sister to take communion would not affect doctrine, but that is clearly not the case. It contradicts Our Lord’s teaching that this situation is adultery, and St. Paul’s teaching that one should not take communion unworthily (i.e., in unrepentent mortal sin). So the proposal, seemingly being pushed by the Pope DOES affect doctrine quite directly and would be a disaster for the Church, opening the way for anyone to completely ignore the Church’s moral teachings and take communion with the Church’s blessing.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I agree that the (maybe) upcoming Apostolic Exhortation and the shenanigans of the National Bishops' Conferences are realistically sources of worry for ecclesial worryworts like me.

However I think the coming crapulosity --- unless it is averted by, say, a new pontificate--- will be not in theory (doctrine) but in practice (pastoral approach.) Even the Geramn and Austrian Bishops Conferences --- as far as I know --- haven't used their Magisterium-Be-Gone Magic Markers to blacken out doctrine in the formal sense. They do their deviltry while all the while claiming Denzinger-like fidelity.

I consider this divergence between doctrine and practice to be the very definition of the term "clerical corruption."