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Francis urges priests to ‘welcome’ cohabitating couples in the ‘style of the Gospel’ [Cath Cauc]
LifeSite News ^ | February 27, 2017 | Jan Bentz

Posted on 02/27/2017 3:45:40 PM PST by ebb tide

Pope Francis urged parish priests participating in a Vatican-run course titled the “New Marriage Procedure” to “welcome” cohabitating couples living in fornication who “prefer to live together without getting married.” The pope did not ask priests to admonish such couples for living in grave sin nor did he ask them to work for their conversion and repentance.

“At the same time, make yourselves close with the style of the Gospel itself, in the encounter and welcome of those young people that prefer living together without getting married,” he told priests at the Saturday, February 25 event organized by the Roma Rota, the Vatican’s highest ecclesiastical court.

“On the spiritual and moral plane, they are among the poor and the little ones, toward whom the Church, following in the footsteps of her Teacher and Lord, wants to be a Mother that does not abandon but comes close and takes care. These persons are also loved by Christ’s heart. This care of the last, precisely because it emanates from the Gospel, is an essential part of your work of promotion and defense of the Sacrament of Marriage,” he added.

Last year Francis said that cohabitating couples are in a “real marriage” and receive the grace of the Sacrament. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity,” he said at that time.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls fornication “gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children.”

It further states that situations such as cohabitation “offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.”

The formative course was designed to teach parish priests working in their own respective diocesan courts on marriage annulments, and other related matters, how to implement the changes of the two Motu Proprio, Mitis Iudex and Misericors Jesus, with Amoris Laetitia giving the larger framework.

Francis told the priests that for “every person and every situation you are called to be fellow travelers to witness and support.”

He urged them to “support” all couples who have determined by themselves that their marriage is invalid and want it officially declared as such.

“When you offer this witness, may your care be also to support all those who have realized the fact that their union is not a true sacramental marriage and want to come out of this situation. In this delicate and necessary work, proceed in such a way that your faithful recognize you not so much as experts of bureaucratic acts or juridical norms, but as brothers who put themselves in an attitude of listening and of understanding,” he said.

Francis stated that priests are often the first representative of the Church to whom young people encounter when they get married and at the same time the first to whom they turn when their marriage is in crisis.

“It is you to whom the spouses turn, when serious problems in their relation occur and they find themselves in crisis and have the need to revamp the faith and rediscover the grace of the sacrament; and in some cases ask indications to begin a process of annulment.”

The process of discernment he left in the hands of the individual in their parish since “nobody better than you knows and is in contact with the reality of the social grid of that territory, and experiences the various complexities.”


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: fornicators; francischurch; sin
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An added gem from Bergoglio:

"He (Francis) urged them (priests) to “support” all couples who have determined by themselves that their marriage is invalid and want it officially declared as such."

1 posted on 02/27/2017 3:45:40 PM PST by ebb tide
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To: ebb tide

What?


2 posted on 02/27/2017 3:47:42 PM PST by GregB (Prayers to Pennsylvania Mom's family.)
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To: ebb tide

The Gospel says, Go, and sin no more!


3 posted on 02/27/2017 3:49:05 PM PST by xkaydet65
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To: ebb tide
Every single position I've heard this Pope take on matters of great importance has been in direct opposition to everything the nuns taught me in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
4 posted on 02/27/2017 3:55:18 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Deplorables' Lives Matter)
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To: ebb tide

All this because his DIVORCED NIECE is Living with someone and wants to be able to receive Holy Communion!!


5 posted on 02/27/2017 3:55:22 PM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: ebb tide

If this is TRUE, the Pope is a HERETIC!!!


6 posted on 02/27/2017 3:57:33 PM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: ebb tide

“Go and sin no more.” seems to have been replaced with the tag from an old country song “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”


7 posted on 02/27/2017 4:02:23 PM PST by jimfree (My16 y/o granddaughter continues to have more quality exec experience than an 8 year Obama.)
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To: ebb tide

[The pope did not ask priests to admonish such couples for living in grave sin nor did he ask them to work for their conversion and repentance.]

Some wrongly think that love is opposed to discipline. But the Bible is clear that we cannot love our brothers and sisters in Christ if we do not deal with their sins in the way that God prescribes. Because God loves us, He disciplines us so that we may share His holiness (Heb. 12:6, 10). Because sin destroys people and relationships, to be indifferent toward someone who is sinning is really to hate that person.

https://bible.org/article/dealing-sinning-christians-overview-church-discipline-matthew-1815-17-1-corinthians-51-13


8 posted on 02/27/2017 4:03:43 PM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12)
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To: ebb tide

How the hell did this CLOWN become Pope?? ...and I am a Catholic...a pissed off Catholic


9 posted on 02/27/2017 4:35:11 PM PST by RaginRak
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To: ebb tide

#1

The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls fornication “gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children.”

It further states that situations such as cohabitation “offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.”

CCC is ultimately the condensed Magisterium of Our Holy Faith, and thus; it is the very words/teachings of Our Lord - regarding cohabitation (properly interpreted) and so should NEVER be twisted in such a disingenuous way.

Jesus spoke VERY clearly to the ancients, as well as the neo-post-modernists in our present days...


10 posted on 02/27/2017 4:36:52 PM PST by heterosupremacist (Domine Iesu Christe, Filius Dei, miserere me peccatorem!)
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To: Ann Archy

Every person who wants some western stronghold to fail is because of some soppy relative. Never fails, Annie. But for the Pope? Almost makes me want to laugh if not to cry.


11 posted on 02/27/2017 4:37:52 PM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: ebb tide

Would I be incorrect in saying that Pope Francis is doing for the Catholic Church what Barack Obama did to the Democrat Party? Sure looks like it.


12 posted on 02/27/2017 5:23:16 PM PST by Trumpnado2016 (It's time for America to dream again.)
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To: ebb tide

I’ll take the words of Jesus Christ from last Friday’s Gospel.

Gospel Mk 10:1-12

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan.
Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.
The Pharisees approached him and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”


13 posted on 02/27/2017 5:26:29 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: ebb tide

Ok, new marriage procedure:

people who ARE married but want a divorce are really NOT married because they have decided together that their marriage is invalid.

People who are NOT married and have no intention to marry, but are cohabiting, really ARE married because of fidelity.


14 posted on 02/27/2017 5:35:06 PM PST by opus1
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To: opus1

Yup. You have it right.


15 posted on 02/27/2017 5:36:58 PM PST by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome)
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To: opus1

Apparently, many cohabitating couples do so for financial reasons. “Married, filing jointly” does not appeal to all. But mostly it’s probably men who can’t commit, again for financial reasons.


16 posted on 02/27/2017 6:03:36 PM PST by Theodore R. (Let's not squander the golden opportunity of 2017.)
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To: RaginRak
How the hell did this CLOWN become Pope?? ...and I am a Catholic...a pissed off Catholic

One thing - when JPII wrote the directives for the selection of the popes after him, one of the rules was that no more than three votes could be taken in one day. Frank got voted on the 4th vote of the same day. I am sure there are other irregularities that took place.

I have a feeling that he and the progressive left will at some point team up. So, when you see Frank and Barry getting chummy, well, it ain't gonna be good.

17 posted on 02/27/2017 6:10:43 PM PST by Slyfox (Where's Reagan when we need him? Look in the mirror - the spirit of The Gipper lives within you.)
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To: ebb tide
Last year Francis said that cohabitating couples are in a “real marriage” and receive the grace of the Sacrament. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity,” he said at that time.

Is this fake news ?
18 posted on 02/27/2017 6:15:12 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: GregB
What?

Looks suspect (fake) to me; I searched for the quotes and found a different context and report here:

Propaganda like this really saps the credibility of some sites ...
19 posted on 02/27/2017 6:29:00 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: RaginRak

Don’t fall for propaganda; judge fairly and justly.


20 posted on 02/27/2017 6:29:55 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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