“Anyone with common sense also knows that once a child is spoiled it’s too late to invoke parental authority.”
I disagree. In any case, apart from the spoiled child, there are younger siblings that will benefit from any discipline the spoiled child is given. They would have the chance to see that the parents hold these matters as being important, and they wouldn’t otherwise. By the Grace of God, they would then make better choices.
“But it won’t unspoil the children. Sorry, it won’t. To think that it will is a pipedream and we have much more important things to focus on.”
If what the bishops say is true about all these matters, then what could be more important? I reckon I don’t see how to attempt to fix anything without public dicipline being used.
Freegards
I wrote at least three times on this thread that the bishops should go ahead and excommunicate.
But it won’t “help” bring clarity or benefit younger siblings. The younger siblings who “get it” already get it. The younger siblings who don’t get it won’t start getting it when the bishops finally act. They will turn on the bishops and blame them and instead of the focus being on the malefactors like Sibelius, it will be on whether the bishops shoulda done that or not.
Once moral rot and moral confusion sets in, even proper moral discipline can be twisted by those who hate it into its opposite. We have lost control of our own narrative. The bishops of the 1970s are to blame for that.
The bishops of today suffer from the malfeasance of the bishops of the 1970s. There is no way out now except through the fire of persecution. Persecution will bring moral clarity to those who already had it or were at least open to having it.
For those who have bought the Lie, and that’s probably a majority of “Catholics,” confusion, not clarity, will reign in regard to what the bishops just did.