[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis' race against the clock

The 82-year-old pope looks increasingly like a man rushing to complete a mission

It (Evangelii gaudium) is a rejection of a whole array of non-essential elements that have helped create over many centuries a Church culture and structures that are often more rooted in clerical power and control than the words and example of Jesus Christ.

The document and the vision of Church that it embodies have not been universally embraced by the holy People of God. The ordained men – notably priests and bishops – would seem to be, proportionate to their numbers, those Catholics who have been most critical or dismissive of the apostolic exhortation.

Young priests, especially, present one of the biggest challenges to Francis' reforms. They just are not with him. Most of the men under the age of 50 have been formed in a clerical ethos that this pope is trying to eradicate.

Obviously, there are exceptions. But particularly those who were attracted to priestly ministry during the previous pontificate are the clergymen who appear to be putting up the biggest obstacles to Francis' efforts to change the mentality of global Catholicism.

Francis has also faced opposition at the Vatican to his efforts to reform the Roman Curia.
Those efforts will be finalized in a document that is currently being reviewed by bishops, religious superiors and theologians who are extraneous to the curia. The text should be ready for publication by in the next weeks or months.
A testimony to the strength of the opposition in Rome was the way Francis and his closest aides released the recent "motu proprio" on procedures for reporting sexual abuse.
Usually, the Holy See Press Office gives about a week's notice for the release of a major document. But this time the text was released suddenly without even a day's notification.
The reason, say some, was to keep formidable forces in the Vatican bureaucracy from torpedoing the document's release.

Actually, Jesus Christ was against divorce and remarriage, where the Pope in some cases wants to allow absolution of ongoing sin without purpose of amendment. That is hardly “non-essential”. Also, the Church’s teachings against abortion and on sexual morality and sin, which the Pope wants to downplay, are not “non-essential”.

That is why there is the anullment process.

Which is rife with problems itself.

1) A lot of tribunals are staffed with Priests who are not morally straight themselves. The crime blotters are easy to Google. I know women who have gone through an annulment who described the process as humiliating and abusive...a bunch of leering old men grilling them about their sex lives.

2) The annulment itself is a legal fiction. “Your marriage did not really exist in the first place because your spouse was immature when they said their vows. Or whatever.” It’s really hard to see how that can be argued when a marriage has existed for 20 or 30 years.

3) In John 8:7 Jesus says “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. In a priesthood that has been infiltrated by those who commit sex crimes is it getting increasingly hard to see how they can be allowed to sit in judgment of others.

4) In Matthew 5:32 Jesus himself appears to say divorce might be allowable if one of the spouses is adulterous and unrepentant.

Depends on the reason for the anullment.

If one married outside of the Church, without special permission from the Church,it is called a “canniocial defect of form”,and is nothing more then gathering the paperwork and it is granted.This is one such sample. Glad that the anullment process is in place.

What you say is way far few.

The resistance in Africa to the watering down of the Church’s teachings on sexual morality is fierce. Even the general population in Africa is far from accepting anything like so-called same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, the Church in Africa has much to do to eradicate the acceptance of polygamy.

Ebb Tide,
As we’re both Washington DC Catholics, I know this letter must upset you as it does me:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sister-mary-berchmanss-letter-on-allowing-news-of-same-sex-unions-to-appear-in-alum-magazine/2019/05/13/370eb108-736b-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.66f3df57c562

My daughter is a graduate of a Visitation. It makes me sick that Sr. Mary was used, perhaps willingly, in this way. So very, very sad. Were there a strong bishop, were there any bishop, this would not happen.

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