The sex scandals that broke in about 2002 made the perfect opportunity for Catholics to give up a broken church structure and join another church committed wholly to the Lord. All too few took the opportunity to do so. But—hey!—now’s still a good time: Better late than never.
That’s a really good article. How the bleep does this guy stay employed by the NY Times?
Holy cow! Reading the comments on the Times website... There is some hard core hatred there and lots of liberal heads exploding.
There are an inordinate number of comments that don’t get it. Does the pope refuse divorced but not remarried catholics communion? Many are talking like divorced people cannot receive communion. They can and for a long time where I live but they have held the line on divorced and remarried sans annulment catholics receiving communion.
Actually, the CDF could and would oppose it, and it's highly unlikely that Francis would be able to stand up to that or that he could get anybody except the Gemran bishops and his aging Latin American liberation theology bishops to accept his authority in that case. Authority must be accepted in order to be exercised, and his would be rejected.
But we're not ou of the woods yet. What he plans to do is to dissolve the CDF - according to a Roman correspondent who seems to be in the know - and claim that its powers now reside with the local bishops' conferences, many of which are controlled by elderly liberals and most of which don't give a darn about what happens in Rome anyway, unless it agrees with them.
He removed Burke last year and this year he will simply get rid of the whole thing, because he sees the CDF (the former Holy Office of the Inquisition) as the only serious threat to him. And he's going to act fast, before opposition can coalesce. Radical leftists like the Pope - or Obama - have mastered the technique of acting rapidly, stealthily, and autocratically, knowing that their law-abiding opposition will be caught off guard and too dumbfounded and disbelieving to react in time. They're playing by the rules, but he's not, in true Alinsky fashion.
NYT...satan’s newspaper. Read it and weep and gmash your teeth along with him.
I'm not sure that's exactly right.
An equal cannot bind an equal. And a subsequent Pope at the head of an ecumenical council is just what the doctor ordered when the Pontiff goes off the rails.
PlaceMark
NYT is NOT a great source for understanding what is going on within the Catholic Church.
This dawned on me last night. This pope and other recent popes have been trying to unite Christianity. In the distant past, when the Catholic church tried to do this with the pagans of Rome, they adopted some of the pagan symbolism and ceremony into their cathedrals, rituals, holidays and in other ways so the pagans would feel at home in the Catholic church.
We know this Pope is into globalism (with embracing climate change and agenda 2030 as it’s solution in a big way). We know Francis and other popes have called for a global banking and currency system. This pope also wants, not only Christians to unite, he wants all the world religions to unite.
On the Christian uniting effort, I was wondering if he will adopt Anglican church beliefs about sex and marriage (sex and marriage originally split the Catholic church) at the family Synod so that they can be united in belief and “come home” to Rome. The other liberal Protestant churches may be united in sexual beliefs in this way too. The Vatican may be dissolving differences and objections.
He also seems to be diminishing the role and meaning of the Pope within the Catholic church. The office of the Pope is a big division between Protestant churches and the Catholic church. For example, Francis said “who am I to judge” a homosexual’s sin. In the past, Popes judged right from wrong; good from evil. There has been more indications that he is not attached to the office of the Pope continuing, too.
I have read where he said those Christians who stay apart are listening to Satan. I foresee liberals officially uniting with Catholics to persecute conservative Christians. I see this theme of it being satanic to disagree with leftism or liberalism or being dangerous or even terrorism as it is under Obama.
The other thing he said that runs along this effort to remove differences between religions is that Jesus failed at the cross. I could not believe my ears. What a horrible thing for a Christian to say...especially a pope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnMb7c1CNyw
But if you see him with the central purpose of trying to unite Christians and Muslims, he needs to diminish Jesus from being the “Son of God” to a failed man or just a wise prophet who was killed and died (did not rise from the dead).
What separates Christians from other religions is our belief that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to heaven is through Him (as Jesus said). Francis canceled this by saying that everyone can go to heaven, including atheists if they live life obedient to their own consciences.
He also reached out to evolutionists by saying that God is not a magician when referring to creation further isolates conservative Christians who believe in Creationism in disagreement with Francis (those who listen to Satan according to Francis.)
When I begin to see what he says and does and who he is in light of his true purpose - globalism or creating global economic, social and political uniformity - Francis make more sense.
Divorced people are not excommunicated. They are still part of the Church. All the sacraments are still open to them (except of course Matrimony, since they are still married).
People who are divorced and civilly remarried are not excommunicated, either. They too are still part of the Church. However, they are living in adultery and are guilty of mortal sin. The only sacrament open to them is Confession, but for that they must abandon their adultery.