Posted on 06/16/2016 9:22:17 PM PDT by ebb tide
Pope Francis, spiritual leader of a billion people, has just informed them that ‘the great majority’ of sacramental marriages are invalid because couples don’t go into them with the right intentions. He was speaking at a press conference in Rome. Here’s the context, from the Catholic News Agency (my emphases):
‘I heard a bishop say some months ago that he met a boy that had finished his university studies, and said “I want to become a priest, but only for 10 years”. It’s the culture of the provisional. And this happens everywhere, also in priestly life, in religious life,’ he said.
‘It’s provisional, and because of this the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null. Because they say “yes, for the rest of my life!” but they don’t know what they are saying. Because they have a different culture. They say it, they have good will, but they don’t know.’
Uh? You can read the full report here but you won’t be much the wiser. The Pope, thinking aloud in the manner of some maverick parish priest after a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, has just told millions of his flock that they are not really married.
Did he mean to say that? What does he really think? What authority do his words carry?
And why should Catholics even have to ask these questions? Francis’s off-the-cuff ramblings on matters of extreme pastoral sensitivity are wreaking havoc in the Catholic Church, as I’ve written here.
Ross Douthat of the New York Times has just tweeted this response:
Screen Shot 2016-06-16 at 23.54.41
I suspect that even the Pope’s most liberal admirers will have difficulty extricating him from this mess.
Oh. He’s right.
Catholicism. No it says nothing about Catholicism. Most people who call tgemselves Catholic in the western world right now practice nothing like Catholicism in their daily lives. I would venture that less than one percent have a catechism and less than that reader to it for basic guidance
Less than one percent of Catholic marriages of baby boomers and younger have both spouses practicing their faith
At least 90> I would just guess practice artificial birth control That is a sham of a marfiage right there
To his point: if every Catholic married person divorced and applied for annulment, nearly all would have grounds and would be granted. And remember annulments are granted based on conditions that exist at the time of the marriage.
So, it appears he is correct, technically.
The problem: There must be a theological explanation, but he doesn’t know it.
Seriously, I guess we Catholics need to rely on Catholic Freepers for moral truths. (No sarc tag)
Discuss...
Ah—we miss the good old days when there was a Pope and an anti-Pope—and armies fighting it out across Europe...
;-)
This is a prelude to de facto Catholic divorce. He’ll simply say that any couple who separates didn’t really understand marriage, so the marriage wasn’t valid. Automatic annulments will be no different than civil divorce. The Church does grant annulments which, for the average person, is a rigorous process and not granted as of right (unless you are a Kennedy).
Antichrist
But Jorge has been pushing for “gay marriage” all along. From his maneuvering at his Synods to his statements and actions retarding homosexuality. This is a Satanic attack on real marriage between a man and a women. Period.
He is a Jesuit. That's what they do. That is who they are.... anti-Christ, political (Socialist leaning), fanatical, and I might add, with an agenda to drag the Catholic church into the One World Religion of the New World Order. The Jesuits were formed to be the Pope's deterrent to the Protestant Reformation.
Red Frank is a disaster for the Catholic Church.
My favorite here on FR is “you’re not a Chatolic, you have to have a Chatholic mind to understand what he said”
Also, the presumption in canon law is always that a marriage is valid until proven otherwise. What the Pope said is equivalent to me looking out over a crowd of people and saying, “Now I know that most of you are guilty of felonies”. No, I don’t. It has to be *proven* on a case-by-case basis.
The cardinals need to convene again and sent this guy to quiet little monastery where he does no more harm to the Church.
Thank you. That is the obvious conclusion. Sad how few people have arrived at it.
The Church wants to bring divorced people into the fold. Annulments, communion, whatever it takes to haul them in. And the Devil take those pesky rules, laws, sacraments, moral absolutes. We need to be relevant, not reverent. Strive for tolerance, not holiness.
Understood!
But, here’s what I’m asking, and what Francis is admitting he can’t answer:
Given they COULD be annulled on request, are nearly all marriages invalid/null NOW? If not, why not?
“This is a prelude to de facto Catholic divorce.”
We’ve already seen the prelude to “de facto Catholic divorce” in the New Canon Law of 1983. Again, Francis is just pushing things even farther down the heretical hill.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/k012rpAnnulments_Stretenovic.html
Pope Francis is deeply calculating and manipulative. By characterizing quick marriages by the young as null due to a lack of the necessary sacramental intent, he is setting the basis for wide scale Catholic annulments of any such failed “starter marriages.” Once established, such a practice will have to be accommodated by the Vatican or suppressed at the risk of a schism.
You really have to wonder just how far Francis needs to go before “the Vatican” actually condemns him. Then again, I suspect “the Vatican” is totally okay with his remarks.
The only disaster is the current pope. Like the country for the last 7 and half years being without a president the Catholic Church has been without a pope from the minute this charlatan was appointed pope.
By “the Vatican,” I assume that you mean the Roman Curia, the Vatican based administrative structure of the Catholic Church. I am sure that Pope Francis has them deeply worried and buttoning down the hatches for the sake of survival. They are obliged though to be at least nominally loyal to the Pope.
They are more obliged to be loyal to God.
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