[Melian]

I live in a diocese that has been wracked with abuse, and cover up of the abuse. Most homilies are a string of feelgood platitudes. It is hard to pay much attention to what priests say these days. They seem so muddled/hurt/distrustful.

I firmly believe the Old Testament years are the age of God the Father; the years since Christ have been the age of the Son, and that we have now entered into the age of the Spirit. It is now up to the laity, inspired by the Spirit, to run the parishes and take charge of their own spiritual well being. Many parishes here don’t have an inspiring priest to lead them. At my last parish, there was a priest who only “worked until 6 pm.” Lord help you if you had an emergency call on his day off.

I think the underlying issue is that it hurts that our priests don’t seem to love their parishioners anymore. They will only be with us for a couple of years and don’t bother bonding with us. Nor we with them. The bishops have messed things up royally.

[Salvation]

Have faith. Pope Benedict is replacing those "so-so" bishops with orthodox ones!

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CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2271  (618 bytes )  preview document matches 1 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2271.htm

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CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2272  (580 bytes )  preview document matches 2 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2272.htm

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CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2322  (290 bytes )  preview document matches 2 From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a "criminal" practice (GS 27 § 3), URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2322.htm

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4:	CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2274  (554 bytes )  preview document matches gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2274.htm