Posted on 04/08/2016 6:53:23 AM PDT by Lera
In a major shift of Catholic tenets of faith, pope releases paper instructing Catholics on how to live, tells them to accept homosexuals
Pope Francis, who has long revealed his liberal positions through interviews, came out on Friday in an official statement calling on Catholics to be more accepting of homosexuals as well as divorced Catholics.
While he didn't change official church doctrines in his paper, which is an "apostolic exhortation" instructing Catholics on how to live, the pope paved the way for a serious shift in the Catholic church away from central tenets of the faith.
"A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws...as if they were stones to throw at people's lives," he wrote in the paper, cited by CNN. "By thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and growth."
"I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness," he added.
"Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration."
Pope Francis' statements appear in his paper "On Love in the Family," entitled "Amoris Laetitia" in Latin. It spans over 260 pages, and is based on two conferences of the world's Catholic bishops known as synods, which were called by the pope.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Remember folks adultery too is a sin. Murder is a sin.
How many of us guyz have looked at a woman in public or T.V.,Internet or magazine with lust in our hearts to some degree? How many of us wanted to bust some guyz head for being a complete jerk? Scriptures tell us both instances are either murder or adultery.
Well guess what folks, we've all sinned in our hearts and to hold such rigidity and dogma could quite possibly deny someone an avenue to healing.
Lust of the flesh is one of satan’s greatest weapons against God's creation. The other is PRIDE. The spirit of lust has many tentacles. Once a man feels he is free of lust, another tentacle will hook him. It sometimes takes a lifetime of struggle to overcome. Perhaps, this is what is meant by, “take up your cross and follow me”.
There are militant gays that will never come. They would rather die than humble themselves and bow before God. There are others who struggle with these demons of lust. Shall we as children of God give’m a chance?
“Is Apostolic Exhortation > Bible?”
For Catholics I believe it is at least of equal weight through I could be wrong
That takes courage, commitment, and empathy.
If you want the world to applaud you today, all you have to do is go along with the world's twisted falsehoods. Embrace earth worship, and get applause. Speak glowingly about "accepting" homosexuality and showing "dignity", and you will get head nods and pats on the back.
The truth is that unless homosexuals repent and seek Christ, they are going to Hell for all eternity. Why would someone who says they want pour out "dignity" and "respect" for them would knowingly aid in their condemnation to eternal torment?
The answer is: they really don't care about these people to the degree they say they do. It is illogical to say that you care about someone, and when they die they face damnation because in part you never lifted a finger to tell them God's truth about sin and about salvation in Christ. Those who speak with courage about the truth today face every persecution imaginable, from the loss of job, loss of friendships, loss of businesses, and as we have seen even jail time.
Satan is on the move - and I firmly believe we are in the last moments of human history.
Jesus forgave and welcomed a murderer who was being crucified on a cross next to him into the kingdom of heaven. It he could do that while He was suffering I can forgive some dude who likes hairy man ass. Tolerance and forgiveness is not the same as acceptance.
I tolerate screaming babies and toddlers on airplanes. Doesn’t mean that I like it.
Unfortunately, the Vicar of Christ’s position as pope, following in the footsteps of Saint Peter has become political and all about money. it’s a business. That’s why the US Catholic diocese is all in favor of illegal immigration. More seats in the pew and more money in the collection plate.
Pope Che Guavera may expand the church’s earthly political reach. But I thought that his job was to guide people into the kingdom of heaven and eternal life, not an ACLU and Greenpeace cocktail party.
Jesus forgave one thief, who expressed contrition, but not the other.
BTW, how did you come up with "murderer"?
Catholic Charities collects a lot of money from inner city schools (yes public) to provide social workers.
And.... No NGO is better positioned to profit from globalism more than the Catholic Church.
The Pope is just looking out for the bottom line.
Confusion is of the Devil.
That is an incredibly uncharitable calumny against those who wish to speak the Truth.
What part of anal intercourse is other that black and white, and how exactly is a faggot supposed to experience growth and grace though butt****ing?
What goodness, pray tell, does the Holy Spirit sow when a man masturbates inside another's fecal-slimed, E coli infected colon?
And now we are to believe the Holy Spirit sows good in the midst of adultery and murder.
I think you are right!
I am a Catholic but I recognize that we Christians are all in this together. I know well that my Church has the capacity to disappoint Christians of good will and firm faith. Popes are fallen men like the rest of us but with crushing responsibilities. This pope is not in the same league with Pope St. John Paul II in meeting those responsibilities. Where JP II was a giant, this guy is a liberal dilletante. His best quality is his advanced age which he concedes will make for a short papacy.
From the Catholic side, by analogy, I did not share some specifics of faith with the Rev. Messrs. Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer, or Jerry Falwell but I was always willing to listen and to learn that there were vast areas of agreement as well.
Like many Catholics, I tune out Bergoglio when he starts to blather about politics or economics which are well beyond his level of competence.
In all of history, Jesus Christ, both God and man, was uniquely capable of looking into the sinful hearts of men and women, to discern (indeed to unequivocally KNOW) the reality within each person. He came to suffer and die on the cross for each and every one of my sins, your sins, that woman at the well's sins and everyone else's sins. His love for us surpasses all human understanding but that love is the central fact of our existence.
While Bergoglio may be Christ's Vicar on earth (an administrator), he is not and can never be Christ's successor on earth. Bergoglio will be judged by how faithfully he accepted and adhered to and preached the Word of God without reservation and not on the advancing of warm and cuddly nonsense assuring sinners: I'm OK, You're OK. Sin is never OK. No pope and no one can make sin acceptable.
As you note, Jesus Christ loved the woman at the well but He did not love her sins. Quite the contrary. I once had a pastor who was fond of preaching that, in God, there is no time, that He invented time for our use since it helps us to order our lives. Everything about God is always present as He experiences it. This is far too great a challenge for mere mortals to appreciate or experience. We need to do something now and then move onto the next task.
The catechism of my youth taught, as to the attributes of God, that He always was, is and always will be and always remains the same. Simple words of profound meaning.
There is no "dignity" in the sinful lifestyle. There is, however, an inherent dignity to each human being, no matter how fallen, in that each of us is formed by God in His Image and Likeness. Inevitably, none of us live up to that dignity fully but we should strive to approach it as a limit and accept God's grace to turn from sin.
We also have an unfortunate human tendency to see greater evil in the sins of our neighbors (sins that are not the same as our own) as being worse sins than our own. How convenient of us! Certainly, the murder of an innocent unborn child seems far more shocking to the consciences of the rest of us than shoplifting a pack of chewing gum.
I do not claim to understand homosexuality which, Francis or no Francis, my Church has defined as "intrinsically disordered" behavior. I have homosexual friends (whom I have not seen since moving from Connecticut nearly two decades ago) who are living in a monagamous relationship and may even have purported to "marry" by now. They have adopted at least one child. OTOH, they are personally generous people of some means, very kind to their friends, actually pro-life, accept that those who do not share their way of life can be their good friends.
As practicing homosexuals, they well know that their way of life will never be truly accepted by Christians (nor should it be) and so they reject religion and are also atheists.
Recognizing that each of them was made by God to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world and be happy with Him forever in the next, I certainly fear for the ultimate disposition of their souls. He loves them but He does not force them to love Him back. Free will is part of human dignity attaching to each of us but its abuse can and often does lead to eternal damnation. And God is just, the very definition of justice.
Please pray, as I do, that God's grace will touch the hearts of those two friends living in sin and lead them out of sin and to love Him on His terms. He did lead them (by the exercise of their intellects) to become pro-life when they had been otherwise. They proselytize among "gays" and lesbians that it is, even without God, morally necessary to defend the unborn. Now they have to take the final, more painful step, of abandoning their "lifestyle" and accepting Him and His sacrifice for them. Since He loves them unreservedly, who are we to disagree? That is not to accept their sins. Loving them requires rejection of their sins in the hope that they may someday possess the greatest good of all: salvation!
Sorry to have rambled all over the lot.
May God bless you and yours!
At least you have shaken the dust of Connecticut off your boots. South Carolina is, IIRC, not the best place to encounter actual Catholicism. OTOH, I have never been one of those who imagines that only Catholics get to heaven. Behave. I am certainly hoping to share heaven with you.
Yes. Very nice post and very wise.
I don’t know what to think about that. It is at least possible that he had become too old and frail to carry on. It is also possible that Pope St. John Paul II’s example of remaining pope through such burdens as Parkinson’s worried Benedict as to what happens when a pope has not resigned but is utterly disabled for an extended period of time-—effectively an interregnum.
Liberation Theology is big in South America...and in Chicago with “Rev” Jeremiah Wright. obamatollah’s spiritual mentor.
You are wrong. This Apostolic Exhortation is certainly not an exercise of infallibility.
Benedict came in as a “place holder” like some elderly Soviet functionary temporarily elevated to El Supremo while the real power struggle could go on sub rosa for the permanent replacement.
The Social Justice Warriors among the cardinals clearly won the power play, and Pope Marx is the result. That’s how I see it.
Like a “contested convention,” as soon as the SJWs had their majority, they shoved Benedict out and brought in Pope Marx.
Once the Marxists gain control of an organization, like the Mafia, they are very hard to remove.
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