In a stunning move, a priest from the Denver Archdiocese has critiqued the atrocious questionnaire being distributed worldwide by the Vatican in advance of the next Synod on the Family.  This tool was supposedly circulated to gather some family-related data from what may remain of the Catholic Church, but it has all the characteristics of a frivolous pretense.

Rorate Caeli has published the points in Fr. James Jackson’s review.  Some examples:

The language of sin and redemption was missing from the documents.

Instead, we were treated to sentences like “The challenge for the Church is to assist couples in their emotive maturation and affective development.” This is an example of substituting sociology and psychology for the Word of God and the teaching of the Church, examples of which may be found throughout the document.

Many of the statements were too vague to understand.

For example, “…a reflection capable of reframing the great questions about the meaning of human existence, can be responsive to humanity’s most profound expectations.” I do not know what this means. And there seems to be little in the document about our obligation to be responsive to the expectations of the Lord.

Throughout the document there is a sentimental notion of mercy which can be quite misleading.

For example, “Jesus looked upon the women and men he met with love and tenderness…in proclaiming the demands of the Kingdom of God.” Except when He didn’t. The words He used to condemn the Pharisees were not words of tenderness.

It seems that the writers of these documents went to great lengths to avoid talking about sin.

For example, “…the Church turns with love to those who participate in her life in an incomplete manner…” If there is no sin, then there is no need of salvation. Which is why I suppose, that the sentence continues with “…recognizing that the grace of God works also in their lives by giving them the courage to do good, to care for one another and to be of service to the community in which they live and work.” There is no salvation in the “courage to do good etc.,” as the pagans do as much.

Beginning with #33, a list of solutions is proposed.

“Proclamation…in espousing values,” “…a more positive approach to the richness of various religious experiences,” and denunciations of poverty stemming from “market logic.”

      I have no idea what these mean.

Vatican City, 9 March 2015 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of Santa Maria Madre del Redentore in the peripheral suburb of Tor Bella Monaca, where he was welcomed by more than a thousand young people. Before entering the Church, the Holy Father visited the Caritas Centre to greet sick and disabled assisted by the Missionaries of Charity. “Jesus never abandons us”, he said, “because on the Cross he experienced pain, sadness, solitude and many other things. … Never lose your trust in Him”.

Later, in the church, he met with a group of children and young people, and answered their questions. The first was: if God forgives everything, why does Hell exist? The Pope replied that Hell is the desire to distance oneself from God and to reject God’s love. But”, he added, “if you were a terrible sinner, who had committed all the sins in the world, all of them, condemned to death, and even when you are there, you were to blaspheme, insults… and at the moment of death, when you were about to die, you were to look to Heaven and say, ‘Lord …!’, where do you go, to Heaven or to Hell? To Heaven! Only those who say, I have no need of You, I can get along by myself, as the devil did, are in Hell – and he is the only one we are certain is there”.

Finally, before celebrating Mass, Francis spoke with the parish pastoral council and their collaborators who described to him the situation in the area, in which many marginalised families live, and where there are many problems linked to drug abuse and crime. “The people of Tor Bella Monaca are good people”, emphasised Francis. “They had the same flaw that Jesus, Mary and Joseph had: they are poor. With the difference that Joseph had a job, Jesus had a job, and many people here do not, but they still need to feed their children. And how does one get by? You know how. Goodness is sorely tested by injustice; the injustice of unemployment and discrimination. And this is a sin, it is a grave sin. Many people are compelled to do things they do not want to do, because they cannot find another way. … And very often people, when they feel they are accompanied, wanted, do not fall into that web of the wicked, who exploit the poor. Mafiosi exploit the poor too, to make them do their dirty work, and then when the police discover them, they find those poor people and not the mafiosi who are safe, and also pay for their safety. Therefore, it is necessary to help the people. … The first pastoral commandment is closeness: to be close to them. … We cannot go to a house where there are sick or hungry children and say ‘you must do this, you must do that’. No. It is necessary to go to them with closeness, with that caress that Jesus has taught us. … This is my main pastoral advice to you”.

The Vatican’s UN Observer Archbishop Silvano Tomasi is always speaking and saying UN-type things on behalf of Christ’s Church.  Why on earth does the Vatican care to inform the UN of their eager and submissive collaboration?

As the Holy See stated during the UN Climate Summit, the enjoyment of a sustainable environment is an issue of justice, respect and equity. Environmental degradation can and does adversely affect the “enjoyment of a broad range of human rights.”[1] The Human Rights Council itself has stated, “environmental damage can have negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of human rights.”[2]

Climate change must be true despite the absence of evidence because if it weren’t then they wouldn’t need the FrancisVatican to step in and lend their depleted credibility to try and attach various forms of ‘justice’ to it.

These situations must be approached from the perspective of the principle common and distributive justice. Contributive justice in the sense that all shall contribute according to their financial and technological possibilities; distributive justice, in order to provide to each country the know-how as well as the possibility to develop, to produce goods and to deliver services. Reparative justice implies that those who have benefited more from the use of natural resources, and having thus damaged the environment more, have a special duty to work for its restoration and care.

I learned yesterday that my Alma Mater is now offering a Masters degree in Social Justice.  I suppose they will teach people to sub-divide social justice into billions of categories; one for every dollar’s worth of someone else’s property.

Let’s face it. Christ’s work of redemption is done. We’re all going to Heaven as long as we’re liberals, so lets’ get busy trying to make ourselves more comfortable while we’re alive. Does it seem like it’s getting hotter in here to you?

The human rights obligations relating to the environment also include substantive obligations to adopt legal and institutional frameworks that protect against environmental damage that would interfere with the enjoyment of human rights, including harm caused by private actors. As my Delegation has already stated in the intervention on Transnational Corporations, we reiterate our call to protect human rights from environmental harm. States have to strike a balance between environmental protection and other legitimate societal interests. But the balance should be reasonable and not result in unjustified and foreseeable infringements of human rights.

That’s quite specific, bringing in the human factor and all.  “Wait a minute, speaking on behalf of the Church I’d like to say don’t forget to think about humans, OK, and while you’re at it be sure to increase costs and restrictions on those ‘private actors,’ whatever unfortunate creatures they turn out to be.”