God does things on His schedule, not ours.
I see many going the way of worldly values and choosing to ignore the values that we have been taught.
I also see many following the way of Christ.
God allows us to choose.
I am concerned that many do not choose the right path.
Yeah a little off indeed.
I heard something interesting about this topic from Jimmy Akin on Catholic Answers a few weeks ago. Basically he said that if any priest or bishop interprets the controversial portions of AL in the more “liberal” way, even if they do that in their parish/diocese, that still wouldn’t necessarily be teaching/promoting heresy on their part of the Pope’s.
Why? Well because even if one believes the Pope was saying, in AL, that divorced and civilly remarried should be permittted to Communion, which is itself still debatable (but let’s say he did indeed say that and not just in a footnote but that was his intention). If that is the thrust of the portion of AL, then it’s still not heresy (according to Akin). According to him, it’s not because no where in AL does it ENCOURAGE anyone in that state to receive, the most it says (again arguably) is that such be “permitted” to receive. And indeed in other places AL reaffirms previous teachings that such relationships are irregular and not the desired final outcocme.
So in other words, AL, at most, puts the onus on the communicant to discenrn when (or if) he is in a state of mortal sin, and not on the priest distributing communion. And this, Akin said, is not a heresy. It’s at most a disciplinary matter, which are addressed by the Code of Canon Law. And that Law can be changed (since again it’s a disciplinary measure)
He (Akin) then gave this example to illustrate: if a person went to Confessjon yet in the confessional made it clear to the priest he had no intention of really stopping his sin, the priest could then withhold absolution and then of course the person would still be in mortal sin (and thus not be able to receive).
However if that same person then after that (fake) confession presented himself for Communion, then the priest wouldn’t be able to deny that person communion even though he (the priest) would obviously KNOW that person was in mortal sin. Why?
Because while Canon 915 permits (and even mandates) priests to withhold communion from those they reasonably can know are in mortal sin, another Code (I believe it’s 911 but I’m not sure) prohibits priests from divulging what was said in Confession. And by withholding Communion in this case, the priest would actually be divulging what was said under the Seal (divulging it by his withholding, because otherwise he wouldn’t have known the one in mortal sin was in sin if it weren’t for the failed confession)
So, reasoned Akin, the same reasoning applies here to even the most “liberal” interpretation of AL. Even if the Pope is saying in AL that those in civil remarriage shoujd be permistted to the Eucharist, that isn’t heretical since again it’s shifting the responsibility to the communicant to know when (or when not) to present himself for communion.
Now all that said I (and Akin) certainly don’t believe that would be a “good” thing for any priest or bishop to do in such a situation but it wouldn’t technically be “heresy” on the part of the Pope. It’s not “good” at all, for the Church as a whole or any memeber to take such a hands off approach to One’s flock. But it’s not technically “heresey”.
So before anyone says I’m some fan of Francis, stop before you make a fool of yourself. I’m only saying this isn’t the disaster so many Chicken Littles on the Internet would have us believe.
The Church survived much worse than this. She will continue on to face, and triumph over, the next scandal the Devil will invent.