Sorry, lefties -- the pope didn't open the gates to gay marriage

Eric Hoffer used to marvel at how the Catholic Church was able to distinguish the essential from the cosmetic in its teachings, calling it its discovery of the secret to survival.

Which brings us to Pope Francis's statement on whether the Catholic Church was all in for gay marriage, as many on the left had eagerly anticipated might be declared at the current Church Synod meeting. Synods are gatherings of the faithful which are periodically held, and which a determined faction of the Church has been attempting to get the pope onboard for. The press was full of such high hopes, as were individual leftists. The Synod will start on Oct. 4.

That hoopla triggered a response from five retired conservative cardinals, including Joseph Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong, persecuted for his faith by the atheistic Chicoms, who asked the pope in turn to reiterate the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.

He noted that there are situations that are objectively "not morally acceptable." But he said the same "pastoral charity" requires that people be treated as sinners who might not be fully at fault for their situations.

Francis added that there is no need for dioceses or bishops conferences to turn such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, saying the issue could be dealt with on a case-by-case basis "because the life of the church runs on channels beyond norms."

More detail can be read here.

What's he saying here? Is he saying that priests can bless gay marriages and with it, open the gates to having the Church perform gay marriage as a headline of a Catholic News Service piece published in the Jesuit publication 'America" implied?

Read the answer and it does not sound like it.

He says that priests can bless individuals, so long as they were clear that it wasn't gay marriage they were blessing. Presumably, if it were a gay couple, they could bless the individuals involved, but there isn't going to be a blessing or recognition or endorsement of gay marriage here. Presumably, a gay couple could be blessed for having a friendship that didn't include sexual relations, let alone cruising for a third partner together, which is what a lot of gay "marriages" amount to.

I’m done with professional Catholics telling me I don’t have the reading comprehension of a fig newton. Maybe I’m just exhausted by people who are paid to be Catholic. Bergoglio is clearly a heretic, not the Pope, not even Catholic. It’s the paid class of Catholic pundits who have been propping the naked emperor up with their theological gymnastics.

The “fun” part is they sound remarkably similar to the paid class of neocon pundits. In religion and politics we’ve been plagued by people pretending to be faithful who never miss an opportunity to move the line in the sand as far left as they can. I think it’s so they can feel better about their own sins. I read the latest garbage from the new loon at the DDF/CDF and my initial reaction was “stop telling us how to sin between the lines and start telling us how to avoid sin and the near occasion of sin!”

I wonder how culpable we regular people will be for not reacting like people who actually have the Faith.

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