Posted on 04/08/2016 4:25:28 AM PDT by DeathBeforeDishonor1
ROME — In a broad proclamation on family life, Pope Francis on Friday called for the Roman Catholic Church to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and he seemingly signaled a pastoral path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion.
The 256-page document — known as an apostolic exhortation and titled “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love” — calls for priests to welcome single parents, gay people and unmarried straight couples who are living together.
“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough to simply apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives,” he wrote.
But Francis once again closed the door on same-sex marriage, saying it cannot be seen as the equivalent of heterosexual unions.
The document offers no new rules or marching orders, and from the outset Francis makes plain that no top-down edicts are coming.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
As far as remarried Catholics and single moms receiving communion? All through my life there's been the hypocrisy of the Church granting annulments very easily to the favored few. Because of that, this issue always seemed a bit bogus.
One reason I have a lot of trouble with the acceptance of those who lead an openly homosexual lifestyle is because of the priest scandal. That hasn't and won't go away. The Church has to clean up its act, and that'll take a few generations.
FWIW, I'm not member of a religion, but am a believer that we have an existence that's spiritual and attached to a greater entity we can't fully know and separate of our physical being. Just don't know that a Church is where my beliefs belong.
Thank you for the excellent discussion.
Sadly I am leaning towards economics being the driver of this.
Another indicator of that is the way the Church seems to be freaking out about Hispanics, a traditionally reliable Catholic population, who are suddenly now flocking to Evangelical churches.
To divorced Catholics, Make a good act of Confession and be in the state of Grace to receive Communion.
Your connection is with Jesus Christ.
Please send sinners to your local evangelical church.
We will patiently witness to them, sharing the Gospel of grace to lead them to faith in Christ, teach the converts God’s Word, and baptize those who entrust themselves to Him alone for eternal life.
If they are tattooed, pierced, broken, etc., we will welcome them as the begin their journey to Him.
“When Jesus heard it, He said unto them, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Thank you.
I miss Pope Benedict too!!!
I haven’t seen the text, only four different summaries, and the authors of those seem to disagree about just how bad this new document is.
As Fr. Z has said: Tens of people are going to read it.
Given the source, I don’t see how this document can do anything but damage.
Given that the Catechism of the Catholic Church has a section on Matrimony, the need for the two synods and this document is not obvious.
Hey Frank...bite me!
Thank you for that post. I’m a Catholic and I’m totally in favor of that.
“Hate the sin; Love the sinner.”
You have summed up the way most Christians view the matter (and, from my reading of the Bible, the way Christ himself does).
That however is NOT the way the Catholic Church has handled things for a couple of millennia.
Living in the same house with a woman not your wife? Fine, so long as the arrangement is non-sexual, like brother and sister.
Want your marriage annulled? Fine. Just appear before the Tribunal and attest that due to some deep mental or spiritual flaw in your spouse your marriage NEVER EXISTED (even though you were married for 25 years before she looked up an old flame online and ran off with him, and the two of you had raised several children through adulthood and stuggled through good times and bad).
In other words, be willing to support the proper LIE, and the Church was hunky-dory with you.
I for one could not do it. Neither could a lot of others. Hence the outflow to Evangelical churches.
“Bringing gays more into the flock is just another step towards a PC and meaningless church.”
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My last pastor was extremely PC. His sermons were infuriating, the hippie music group he allowed to perform during mass was obnoxious, and he never provided any guidance come election time with regard to voting catholic values.
The pope isn’t trying to recruit homos. He’s trying to make its members feel more comfortable about being catholic. No so embarrassed that their church isn’t cool. He wants them to remain members, and continue to fill the collection plate.
A church can’t be politically correct and morally correct at the same time.
The other BIG problem I have with the Pope’s letter is that he specifically states that Feminism did NOT play a role in breaking down the family.
Huh?? Seriously????
Bringing ANY unrepentant sinner into the flock is foolish. Being non-judgmental is also not the greatest virtue BTW. It’s one thing for people like this to attend services, but unrepentant sinners should not be allowed to join and have a vote in church matters. If a member is found in sin, then the body of believers is supposed to correct the sinner in love. If they continue to remain unrepentant, then they should be expelled from the body.
So let’s say a homosexual offender wants to come in and listen to a service. Welcome them with open arms! How will they ever repent and be saved if they never hear the truth? Homosexual wants to join church? Are they celibate and repentant? Do they believe in Christ? I’d say let them join. Homosexual wants to become a leader. No way! Leaders are supposed to be the very best of the best—not Christians who are struggling with things like homosexuality.
And yes, believers are supposed to judge other believers so that heresy isn’t introduced into the church. We don’t decide if someone is saved or not—that’s for Christ. We also don’t judge unbelievers. But if a person professes to be a Christian and preaches heresy, they must be dealt with!
Where did you come up with that? A gay person can accept communion now, if not acting on his impulses.
Temptation is clearly not sin. The Bible explains the sin process very clearly, and temptation is not sin. If I see a pretty woman and notice/admire her beauty, that’s not sin even though some churches burden believers with impossibly high standards. Sin happens when I let the temptation grow into desire. If I want that woman in my heart, even if I restrain myself out of fear of her husband, society’s judgment or whatever, I’m sinning. I see pretty women all the time, but I don’t want to bed them.
BTW, the Bible explains that Christians grow in discipline over time. It’s even possible to learn how to nip temptation in the bud, and we’re supposed to get better at that as we grow in Christ.
Am I wrong to expect that those who have private lives that do not meet the ideals of their religion should not flaunt them?
God hates divorce, and divorce is sin. Anyone who remarries after divorce is an adulterer/adulteress if I’m reading scripture correctly. However, divorce is not an unpardonable sin! I don’t know why Christ’s blood would be sufficient for murderers, but insufficent to wipe away a divorce. The key, I think, would be to admit the sin, repent, and then try very hard to never repeat it.
Most shocking statistic from that news story: 55% of CATHOLIC children in our Diocese are being raised in single-parent households.
The Church NEVER HAS rejected single parents !
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