Pope Francis (photo credit: Aleteia Image Department via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
As I write I do not know what the final synod report will say. One of the drafters described it as being more questions than answers. “The questions will be clear,” said Oswald Cardinal Gracias of Mumbai at a press briefing Thursday. “The answers will not be so clear.”
So, after a two-year rollercoaster ride toward this synod, the Church may be left embracing more questions than answers, which is to say issues that have been considered closed for 2,000 years will likely remain open questions in Catholic life for the foreseeable future.
Absent a strong intervention from Pope Francis to affirm the Catholic teachings, the result is likely to be a profound dislocation in the authority structures of the Catholic Church.
We know that many synod fathers made powerful arguments in favor of the unbroken, distinctive Catholic teaching on marriage, drawn straight from the words of Christ and affirmed by Saint Paul. We now also know, thanks to the modern world, of the many bishops and cardinals who really wish to give Communion to people living in second marriages while their first spouse still lives. We cannot un-know what was on display, thanks in part to Pope Francis’s desire to build a more authentic church, with less hypocrisy, to let us in on the secret, to be frank about where the Church is.
We know from polls and from parish life that many, many ordinary churchgoing Catholics do not support many Catholic teachings. Dissent is not shocking; it has been normalized. A study from the Austin Institute found that on Mass at any given Sunday in the U.S., 40 percent of those in the pews describe themselves as “traditional Catholics,” 40 percent say they are “moderate Catholics,” and the remainder are “liberal” or “other” Catholics. There has been, in America at least, a massive collapse in the transmission belt of basic Catholic teachings, and not only about sex.
@Erasmus 52 jk105 Maggie Old Girl is belching about the Pope’s ideas and policies–not whether he is likable. When liberals didn’t like conservative Popes they were invited to leave the church. I am suggesting the Old Girl do the same that the roles are reverse.
I know Catholicism, Erratic One. According to Catholic policy, a murderer who confesses to a priest can receive communion, but someone who divorces cannot. According to Catholicism, murder is a lesser since than divorce.
Yes, I am very informed about Catholicism, Old Erratic.
jk105 Really? I am unaware that a Catholic has to LIKE the Pope. Pope Alexander VI was highly unlikable. Is she rejecting defined doctrine? In a word..no. The obnoxious German Cardinals seem to be doing that. Inform yourself about Catholicism, Old jk105.
Jesus, who never married, did praise people “who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom,” although he made it optional: “He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.’ This logia begins at Matt:19:12 and forms the conclusion of the discourse on marriage and divorce. Sorry to say, parlor exegetes make the mistake of attributing Matt: 19: 9-11 and the codicil beginning at v.12, to Jesus approving celibacy.
When Jesus rejects adultery and divorce, his disciples take this as an infringement of their polygamous interests. If you were not allowed to divorce, then it would be better not to marry, because otherwise you lose your sexual freedom and the possibility of getting rid of your wife. (19:9-10). Jesus answers: “Not all men can receive this saying. (v.11), and he launches into the conclusion of the teaching by referring to those as eunuchs in relation to the entire passage on marriage and divorce. He had perfect insight into human shortcomings, which insights were sadly not adopted by the Catholic Church.
Jesus, being a Jew, and called Rabbi in the Gospels, was excellent at Pesher. Unfortunately, the Western and African Church leaders are untutored in this critical exercise of judgement. Consequently, we see the self-made problems described in this article.
If Maggie Old Girl doesn’t like the Pope, then Maggie Old Girl should leave the church.
4 comments
@Erasmus 52 jk105 Maggie Old Girl is belching about the Pope’s ideas and policies–not whether he is likable. When liberals didn’t like conservative Popes they were invited to leave the church. I am suggesting the Old Girl do the same that the roles are reverse.
I know Catholicism, Erratic One. According to Catholic policy, a murderer who confesses to a priest can receive communion, but someone who divorces cannot. According to Catholicism, murder is a lesser since than divorce.
Yes, I am very informed about Catholicism, Old Erratic.
jk105 Really? I am unaware that a Catholic has to LIKE the Pope. Pope Alexander VI was highly unlikable. Is she rejecting defined doctrine? In a word..no. The obnoxious German Cardinals seem to be doing that. Inform yourself about Catholicism, Old jk105.
Jesus, who never married, did praise people “who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom,” although he made it optional: “He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.’ This logia begins at Matt:19:12 and forms the conclusion of the discourse on marriage and divorce. Sorry to say, parlor exegetes make the mistake of attributing Matt: 19: 9-11 and the codicil beginning at v.12, to Jesus approving celibacy.
When Jesus rejects adultery and divorce, his disciples take this as an infringement of their polygamous interests. If you were not allowed to divorce, then it would be better not to marry, because otherwise you lose your sexual freedom and the possibility of getting rid of your wife. (19:9-10). Jesus answers: “Not all men can receive this saying. (v.11), and he launches into the conclusion of the teaching by referring to those as eunuchs in relation to the entire passage on marriage and divorce. He had perfect insight into human shortcomings, which insights were sadly not adopted by the Catholic Church.
Jesus, being a Jew, and called Rabbi in the Gospels, was excellent at Pesher. Unfortunately, the Western and African Church leaders are untutored in this critical exercise of judgement. Consequently, we see the self-made problems described in this article.
If Maggie Old Girl doesn’t like the Pope, then Maggie Old Girl should leave the church.
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