Why does this kind of thing just keep happening and happening?

A childhood friend of Pope Francis has claimed that he intends to overturn the centuries-old ban on Catholic priests from getting married and that he told a divorcee ‘living in sin’ that she could receive Holy Communion.

The Pope considers the law on priestly celibacy ‘archaic’ and ‘not part of the doctrine of the Church’, according to the confidante.

The friend also claimed the Argentinian-born pope also vowed to reform another Catholic rule which bars divorced people in new relationships from taking the Holy Communion, MailOnline can reveal.

According to Oscar Crespo, Pope Francis said that changing the Catholic law which bars civil divorcees from taking a full part in church life is the ‘number one priority’ of his papacy.

Do you think Pope Francis will get on the phone with old friend Oscar now and ask him not to tell such lies about him?  I don’t.

Mr Crespo said that the Pope, 78, also sent a message to a divorced woman ‘living in sin’ with a new partner assuring her that she was free to confess and receive the Eucharist.

The Catholic church doesn’t recognise divorce, considering that anyone who remarries or starts a sexual relationship with another person other than the one they first married is committing adultery.

Taking Holy Communion while in a state of sin is considered an even graver sin.

Can you believe a secular paper just got something right about Catholicism?

Argentinian teacher Claudia Garcia Larumbe had sent a message to the Pope via Mr Crespo asking if she really was excluded from confessing or taking communion after moving in with her new partner.

After Mr Crespo reminded the Pope that church law ‘forbids’ divorcees in new relationships from partaking in the holy sacraments, Francis said: ‘Just tell her the Pope said that she can’.

Eh! Is the Pope Catholic? Eh!  What planet is this?

Ms Larumbe, 39, told MailOnline she was ‘speechless and emotional’ after receiving the Holy Father’s personal dispensation to partake in the key Catholic sacraments.

I get all emotional too now that I know the Pope, like God himself, can change any Church doctrine he wants.  How wonderful, she must think, to have a pope today that can help people like me go to Heaven!

The revelations will bring fresh hope to millions of civilly divorced churchgoers, as well as thousands of clergymen who are increasingly uncomfortable about their lifetime celibacy vows.

Increasingly uncomfortable?  That’s a stretch.  Can you think of a better time in history NOT to get married?

If unmarried people who live together cared about going to Holy Communion they would separate.  The only reason some might care about Communion would be if they believed they could go to Heaven now when before they couldn’t; but very few couples must be like that.  If it was wrong before it can’t be right now.  Do they really think Pope Francis can change right and wrong?  If they were right all along, what do they care what the Church says?

Remarried people really assume they can go to Heaven regardless.  They are just happy the Church may agree now with what they already thought.  It’s a hope, a false hope, and it’s being spread one way or another by Pope Francis himself.

As reported in the Vatican’s La Stampa, Madonna has made an overture to Pope Francis.  Am I the only one who finds this chilling?

“God bless Pope Francis. We’ve got to meet. A plate of pasta, a bottle of good wine. Do I have a chance?” This is what world-famous American pop star Madonna had to say in her interview with journalist Luca Dondoni for Italian radio station RTL 102.5, just as her new album is released.

Answering a question about the relationship the singer has with religion (some of the songs in her new album have strong religious connotations), Madonna said: “They are a bit to do with my relationship with God  and/or sexuality or playing with the idea of God and religion or sexuality; these are all themes that are present in my songs – as you know. It’s also the reason I have been excommunicated by the Catholic Church not once, not twice but three times… I don’t know…do you think the Pope would invite me?”

Sex, religion, religion, sex, a plate of pasta….I have these themes.

Do professional anti-Catholics like Madonna, so accomplished at driving the world into sin and contempt for God, honor Pope Francis because of his personality, or does it have something to do with what he seems to do to/for the Church?  Will Madonna start loving Catholicism now, or is she only reveling in it’s demise?

When the interviewer remarked: “I think that if you and this Pope meet, he’ll give you a hug,” the queen of pop replied: “fantastic, introduce me to him”.

You don’t have to say too much before you get an order.

 

During Holy Week Pope Francis will once again demonstrate to the world’s priests and bishops how not to follow the rules of Catholic Mass.

Catholic Herald Reports:

Pope Francis will visit a prison in Rome to wash the feet of inmates of Maundy Thursday, the Vatican has announced.

The Pope will visit Rebibbia prison on April where he will meet inmates, and follow Jesus in washing their feet.

FOX News adds:

The Vatican said Wednesday that inmates from the Rebibbia prison and a nearby women’s facility will participate in the Holy Thursday service, which is meant to show Francis’ willingness to serve others as Jesus did.

Francis’ decision in 2013 to wash the feet of women and Muslim inmates at a juvenile detention center helped define his rule-breaking papacy just two weeks after his election. It riled traditionalist Catholics, who pointed to the Vatican’s own regulations that the ritual be performed only on men since Jesus’ 12 apostles were men.

Is it a fitting honor to Holy Thursday to compare Jesus and his Apostles on the night before he died to an assortment of male and female prisoners of various religions?  The Pope seems to feel he’s acting like St. Francis, but if St. Francis were Pope he wouldn’t have done such things. Washing the feet of women prisoners is good to do, perhaps for a non-celibate man, but it’s not Mass yet. Can’t Pope Francis do that another time?

At 5.30 PM that evening, the Holy Father will celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the prison, carrying out the act for which he has become famous.

Infamous.

Last year on Maundy Thursday Francis washed the feet of elderly and infirm people. The year before he washed the feet of 12 young people, including Muslims and young women, at a juvenile prison.

I remember.  They looked as bewildered as one might expect. I wonder if many of these people ever feel like props?

Years ago I had a friend who would steal things from the common area of her school dormitory.  When I asked her about it she just complained about the strict college rules, but I knew she was just acting like a thief.

It’s one thing to use authority to remove strict rules in the name of freedom, respect.  It’s another to openly break good, necessary rules and deprive others of their rights.  In the forward-looking FrancisChurch there are many such ‘rules’ that should be disregarded.

Is this mercy, or is it just thievery?