Posted on 12/23/2023 8:20:12 AM PST by lightman
Pope Francis rattled Catholics yet again this week with the announcement that the Church will now bless people in same-sex relationships.
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The missive authorizes priests to bless people in same-sex relationships as long as the blessing doesn’t appear to legitimize same-sex marriage, which the Church continues to oppose.
And there’s the rub: what does that new blessing really do?
How is it supposed to work?
What does it mean?
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Priests can now bless same-sex couples, but not their actual relationships?
What’s the difference – and why the distinction?
There are more obscurities, enough to conclude that ambiguity has been purposely built into the new policy.
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This pattern of half-baked logic has become a speciality of sorts for Francis, who’s displayed a canny talent for throwing Catholics off balance ever since he rose to the Chair.
In 2013, for instance, the newly-installed Pope startlingly stated that God “has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ . . . Even the atheists. Everyone!”
The outburst left Catholics scratching their heads over the meaning of redemption and the value of observance if nonbelievers are also entitled to their benefits.
Three years later Francis confusingly weighed in on divorce, telling Catholics to “accompany” people who have divorced and remarried (a Catholic sin),.. never clarifying what “accompany” actually means.
Affirm them in their choices — or send them to confess their sins?
Take your pick.
The slippery rhetoric led the U.S. Bishop’s onetime head of doctrine to accuse the Pope of “intentional lack of clarity” and “chronic confusion.”
Declarations from the Vatican aren’t supposed to work this way.
Announcements should clarify, not confound — and this one has certainly confounded.
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The world in 2023 is baffling and dispiriting. We need church clarity now more than ever.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’ll be waiting...
“Confusing” is a rather mild way to put it.
But I’ll only agree with “ill,” no “-timed.”
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