Posted on 11/10/2020 7:14:21 AM PST by ebb tide
November 10, 2020 (Crisis) — “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.”
That’s a quote from Pope Francis. Pope Francis — the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ, the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. And not only has he come out in support of civil unions for same-sex couples: he has also confirmed old rumors that he did so in his native Argentina as early as 2010. For at least a decade, Francis has quietly but actively dissented from Church teaching on human sexuality.
Lest there be any doubt, in 2003 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — then led by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who was appointed by John Paul II — declared:
The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions…. Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself.
That is indeed the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church. And the Pope is now on the record dissenting from that teaching, publicly and unambiguously.
Up to this point, I’ve tried very hard to give Francis the benefit of the doubt. No longer. The Pope has made it abundantly clear that his mind is not with the mind of the Church. He doesn’t believe in the sacred deposit of the Magisterium. He doesn’t feel bound to the Church’s traditions.
Little wonder that progressive Catholics are thrilled by the Pope’s comments. Father James Martin, who has long worked to undermine the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, tweeted: “This is a major step forward in the church’s support for LGBTQ people.” His colleague at the Jesuit-run America Magazine, Michael J. O’Loughlin, likewise wrote: “People downplaying the Pope’s words, on camera, endorsing civil unions for gay couples should ask LGBT Catholics how the remarks make them feel…. I assure you this is big news.” Indeed, it is.
Of course, the Catholic Left will weaponize the Pope’s comments against orthodox believers. Father Daniel Horan, the wayward Franciscan, wonders “what bigoted church leaders who have been firing Catholic school teachers and parish ministers for entering into same-sex unions are thinking right now. Maybe they’re thinking about what their own resignation letters might look like.” No doubt. Progressive bishops and diocesan bureaucrats will use Francis’s endorsement as a cudgel against orthodox Catholics in our schools, colleges, and chanceries.
What’s astonishing is how many “conservative” Catholics can’t see that. Ryan T. Anderson, who gained prominence as a critic of Big Trans and now teaches at the University of Dallas, also took to Twitter in support of Francis. Dr Anderson noted that he himself had also “proposed something like ‘civil unions’ for non-married people.” Again, one tries to give Francis the benefit of the doubt. But that clearly crosses the line into cognitive dissonance.
* * *
Francis may be one of those fifth-columnists that Paul VI opposed. Or maybe he’s one of their useful idiots. But this much is perfectly clear: Pope Francis doesn’t think of himself as pope. Whatever his idea of the papacy is, he’s dead wrong.
The duty of the pope is to safeguard and clarify the Sacred Deposit of the Faith. He’s supposed to think with the mind of the Church and follow the Magisterium; instead, he speaks whatever happens to be on his mind and expects the Magisterium to follow. The papacy hasn’t humbled him, as it did his predecessor. It has emboldened him.
Francis embraces the worst Protestant caricature of his office. He sees himself as a man with universal competence, one given to him directly by God Himself. That competence allows him to opine authoritatively on any matter, sacred or secular, that happens to tickle his fancy. That’s not what a pope is, by any stretch of the Catholic imagination.
But we know that. We also know that, when the Pope flatly contradicts the Magisterium, we may ignore him. Better yet, we can — and we must — contradict him loudly, for the sake of those who might otherwise follow the Holy Father into error. “This isn’t what the Church teaches,” we say. “This isn’t what Catholics believe.”
What a horrible burden this pope has put on the faithful. A good Catholic wants nothing more than to respect, trust, and obey the Successor of Saint Peter. Francis has made that impossible for so many. If he were really as wise and compassionate as he believes himself to be, he would recognize how many of his poor children he’s leading into scandal and disbelief.
Yet sometimes a dutiful son can do nothing but resolve to be a bigger man than his father. And that’s the sad situation we now find ourselves in. Pope Francis is leading our family down a dangerous path, and we can’t “accompany” him on that journey. We have to plant our feet firmly in the Church’s sacred traditions, and encourage our brothers and sisters to do the same.
Pray for our Holy Father, who needs our prayers now more than ever. If you love him, stand your ground. Please God, he’ll turn away from his error someday. Then we, the faithful remnant, may lead him back home.
Published with permission from Crisis.
Ping
Frankie the commie is not the pope. Neither is he a bishop, nor even a Catholic.
The Political Pontiff.
Taking a step back - its amazing to me how literally EVERYTHING in the world has been corrupted by existentialism and then post-modernism and relativism, and its political brother, Neo-marxism ideology.
Even the Catholic Church, is undergoing this struggle.
Prayer won’t change this Pope.
Wow, Michael Warren Davis is a little slow. I had Francis pegged after 2 weeks. That seems like years ago. Oh, it was.
The pope practices what appears to be Christian Socialism, which is a perversion of the Christian faith and is completely unbiblical. He has also expressed a belief in what he called “Christian humanism”, humanism being a generally atheistic view of humans has animals with no spiritual aspect. Combining Christianity with these temporal ideologies is like mixing wine with piss. You can’t take something that is holy, mix it with something unholy, and still call it holy.
The author compressed two quotes into one sentence without ellipses and then got angry at the result. From the source article:
“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film, of his approach to pastoral care.
AFTER THOSE REMARKS, and in comments likely to spark controversy among Catholics, Pope Francis weighed in directly on the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples.
“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” the pope said. “I stood up for that.”
Here’s what the author did with that:
““Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.”
That’s a quote from Pope Francis. “
And no that’s not a quote from Pope Francis. It’s two separate quotes combined into one in a way that changes their meaning.
Warning sinners to escape hellfire through Christs sacrifice is no longer in fashion I guess.
Francis is a heretic.
He’s running for Nancy Pelosi’s job?
Where is the split then between the quotes.
/sarc
I would argue that this is more than Christian Socialism, this is liberation theology, which ironically, is truly employed as the opiate of the masses.
It is communists employing (pseudo)religion for the exact purposes and ends communists have always claimed they despise about religion.
So many are dropping their masks and showing us their true leftist-socialist selves.
“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.”
I thought Biden said that.
Stop accepting the false base premise. Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not now and never has been the Pope. Ann Barnhardt lays it out clearly:
https://www.barnhardt.biz/the-bergoglian-antipapcy/
Not any sort of defense of past or present politically motivated “religious leaders” but ...
Someone can still be political without their tree growing the sort of spiritual fruit that Romans 1:18-32 talks about (championing homosexuality in society). That fruit is like a proverbial canary that dies in a coal mine ... you see it you know the air is already deadly and it’s past time to beat feet.
Real miners will flee the mine. Many in our so-called “culture” see the “canary die” and party on.
Some people are a bit slow on the uptake.
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