Blinding FrancisMercy Assault Undone in a Day

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Blinded by all the mercy

Briefly blinded to the Truth

It’s only September 2nd and the Obama network of dictators, the UN, their Vatican, its hierarchy, and the entire media machine are all hyping FrancisVisit ahead of the Paris Summit.  Right out of the box they hit us with a bewildering cocktail of assaults of course under the banner of ‘mercy.’  With his left he disarmed his faithful critics.  With his right Pope Francis made the entire faithless world think he just forgave abortions.

Though extremely clever, the Francis brand is better with its right than its left because it’s only taken a day for us to bounce back.  Mahound’s Paradise chimed in.

One of the headlines yesterday was that in honor of the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has granted to every priest the authority to absolve the sin of abortion, at least for the Jubilee year. The implicit subtext is that priests did not have this authority before. The relevant text is reprinted at the end of this post.

While this declaration has been hailed in many quarters as a sort of stunning development–an example of the Pope’s new Church of Mercy in action, its actual effect in terms of the practical ability to obtain absolution for abortion is . . . wait for it . . . almost zero.

Why do I say that?

Because priests could do it anyway.

Or to put it differently, as with many things surrounding this Pope, the reality is different from the hype.

The word ‘hype’ is so apt for this Propagandist-Pope.

The writer goes on to describe the many, many ways that the restrictions on Confession and absolution for abortion are legally lifted already.  In reality there are no limits upon the Mercy of God for the repentant.  Of course, most people do not know that.  They think the Church is all about hating people.

Here the reader may stop and ask, isn’t this all just so complicated? Shouldn’t the Pope be commended for making it simple and transparent (during the Jubilee Year only, we should add, then we go back to the regular rules)? The answer to this is that while the rules might be somewhat complicated–it’s taken me 1,000+ words to explain them–the reality or the practice is not. If one has been a party to abortion, “easy” absolution has always been available, or, more accurately, has been available at least since 1983 and in many cases earlier.

The truth of the matter of course is that the real impediment is not some 24 hour waiting period that would apply in only a small minority of cases anyway, but the state of mind of the potential penitent–not desiring to obtain absolution from a priest, or being afraid of it, ignorant as to its importance or whatever.

The Pope’s announcement was, to put it simply, a PR move.

This is the cold hard truth about FrancisMercy.  It’s PR.  ‘Mercy for the peripheries’ to put it another way.  It’s supposed to reel in the lost, but it will only serve to do two things:

  1. Confirm them in their sins.
  2. Make Pope Francis look like the Messiah again so he can be harnessed by the Left.

He is a ‘transformational figure,’ remember, meaningful to much more than just ‘catholics.’

But those who are wise as serpents in these matters might look on it in another way: It’s a PR move to stress the goodness and mercy not of God, but of this Pope, and to implicitly condemn the “old” or “traditional” Church (in other words the eternal Catholic Church) of being, well, mean.

(I should note that the sub-headline to many stories on the Pope’s announcement plays exactly into that–“traditionalists” were “dismayed” at the Pope offering an “easy out” to such a grave sin. Given the stress by traditionalists on confession, that’s almost a complete inversion of the truth.)

If the Pope were truly interested in saving those who were prisoners of mortal sin, he would call all non-Catholics to convert (you need to be a Catholic, obviously, to receive the sacrament of absolution) instead of implying that it doesn’t matter and condemning those who think it does–“proselytism is solemn nonsense…the most important thing is to journey together towards the good.”

If the Pope were truly interested in reminding his flock of the necessity of confession, he would ask all Catholics to go and go regularly, and require that his bishops and priests make it more readily available. Announce it from the pulpit often, allot more time to it, put the confession booths back and stop storing hymnals in them.

If the Pope were truly interested in offering absolution to those who were a party to abortion, he would implore them to see a priest today, not wait until the start of his own Jubilee Year on December 8.

That is the last word on the subject of yesterday.

 

Pope Francis Gets Around To The Gist of the Final Judgment

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Salvation at short notice?

Salvation at short notice?

Does Pope Francis believe in Hell, I mean for other than faithful Catholics?  If he does, then why doesn’t he act like it?  He sounds like a Lutheran.

Christians are to comfort each other through good works and kind words and not with useless chatter.

In his first public daily Mass at his residence since his summer break, Francis called on Catholics to realize our God lives and will come to find us, and therefore, to live accordingly, reported Vatican Radio.

In the responsorial psalm, the Pope noted how we repeat the words, ‘I am sure I will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living,’ and then posed a question to those present.

“Are you certain you will see the Lord?” he asked.

Like Job, Francis said, despite many misadventures, we are to firmly believe we’ll see Christ with our own eyes and let this give us hope.

“It’s true, He will come to judge and when we go to the Sistine (Chapel) we see that beautiful scene of the Last Judgement,” the Pope said. “But we must also believe that He will come to find me because I see Him with my eyes, I embrace Him and am always with Him.  This is the hope that the Apostle Paul tells us to explain to others through our life, to give witness to hope.  This is the true comfort, this is the true certainty: ‘I am sure I will see the Lord’s kindness.'”

Liberals are always embracing, embracing.  It’s wonderful to think of embracing Jesus but isn’t there a bit more to it?  Michelangelo’s Last Judgment is beautiful yes, but also terrifying.  There isn’t any embracing at all.

In today’s letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul encourages early Christians to let hope grow in their hearts until the final day in which they meet him, the Pope recalled. Francis stressed how the Apostle also warned that this day could arrive without warning, like a “thief in the night.”

Though the thought of lack of notice could be frightening, Francis reminded those gathered that Jesus is coming to bring salvation to those who believe in Him and to have hope, comfort and help each other.

“Lack of notice?”  I feel like I’m being read to by my kindergarten teacher (A cruel woman with little respect for boys.)  Is Francis joining the chorus of ‘minders’ intent on removing every trace of freedom, power, or dignity from the human race?  Can we not get a true image of the final judgment from the Pope so we can know what to do with our lives?

It takes hope to follow the Lord, to be obedient to the laws of God and His Church.  It is not hope in Christ ‘no matter what,’ or in ‘faith alone.’  It’s the hope in His promises.

“Let us ask the Lord for this grace: that seed of hope that he has planted in our hearts so it germinates and grows until our final meeting with Him.”

“‘I am certain that I will see the Lord.’ ‘I am certain that our Lord lives.’ ‘I am certain that our Lord will come to find me’: This should be the horizon of our life.  Let us ask the Lord for this grace and let us comfort each other with good works and kind words, (let’s go) along this road.”

“This is my advice, ‘comfort each other.’ Speak about this: but I’m asking you: do we speak about this, that the Lord will come and will we meet Him? Or do we speak about so many things, including theology, things about the Church, priests, religious sisters, monsignors, all this?  And is this hope our comfort? ‘Comfort each other,’ comfort those in the community. In our community, in our parishes, are we speaking about this that we’re waiting for the Lord who comes?  Or are we instead chattering about this and that to help pass the time and not get too bored?”

The Pope concluded by exhorting the faithful to live lives they would be at peace with the day the Lord gives a surprise visit.

That sounds more like it.

 

 

 

 

 

Pew Survey Reveals Catholic Church Is Practically a Lifeless Husk

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Begetting new life requires a certain virility

Starting new life demands a certain virility.

The Washington Post is reporting a Pew survey which reveals stark information that  will immediately fall into a memory sieve.  The so-called ‘catholic’ population of the United States (and the world for that matter) is comprised almost entirely of apostates and protestants.  That vast majority of these people are both:

  1. Almost completely un-formed
  2. Brilliantly and ruthlessly mal-formed

They most certainly are not Catholic and should not be considered so.

Most Americans who were raised Catholic but have since left the church could not envision themselves returning to it, according to a new Pew Research Center survey examining American Catholics and family life. The survey’s findings were released Wednesday, weeks before Pope Francis makes his first visit to the United States, and as Catholic leadership contends with dramatic demographic shifts.

Seventy-seven percent of those who were raised Catholic but no longer identify with the religion said they could not envision themselves eventually returning to the church, according to the Pew survey. The survey also examined U.S. Catholics’ views on issues such as divorce, same-sex marriage and sinful behavior, finding an openness for non-traditional family structures.

This is unsurprising.  Outside the Faith everybody thinks the same.  On the other side of Heaven is only the reign of Hell.  It also has its ‘doctrines.’ Life has only two rooms really.

Although Catholics have long made up about a quarter of the U.S. population, recent data has shown that percentage dropping. In 2007, 23.9 percent of Americans identified as Catholic. In 2014, 20.8 percent of Americans said the same, according to previous survey results from Pew.

But the new survey illustrates something else about Catholic life in the United States: while the percentage of Americans who may identify their religion as Catholicism is dropping, a much larger group of Americans identify as Catholic in some way.

In all, 45 percent of Americans say they are either Catholic, or are connected to Catholicism. That larger percentage includes “Cultural Catholics” (making up nine percent of those surveyed) who are not practicing Catholics but who identify with the religion in some way; and “ex-Catholics” (also nine percent) who were formerly Catholic but no longer identify with Catholicism at all. And another eight percent said they had some other connection to Catholicism, for instance by having a Catholic partner or spouse. For the purposes of the survey, Pew kept each category mutually exclusive.

According to the survey, about half of those who were raised Catholic end up leaving at some point, while about 11 percent of those who left have since returned.

That means half of them don’t leave.  I wonder how old most of those people are.

The study also sheds some light on how Catholic American attitudes on family, sex, and marriage compare with church teaching. When asked whether they believed the church should change its position on a variety of issues, a very large percentage of religiously identified Catholics — 76 percent — expressed a desire to see the church allow the use of birth control. Sixty-two percent felt that the church should allow priests to marry, and about the same percentage thought that the church should allow divorced and cohabitation couples to receive communion.

These beliefs are easy to instill.  All you have to do is reject the sacraments and turn on the TV.

Fifty-nine percent of Catholics surveyed thought women should be allowed to become priests. Meanwhile, just 46 percent of Catholics believe the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples.

Among those Catholics who attend Mass weekly, support for these changes was lower overall. But Pew notes that even among this particular population, two-thirds of Mass-going Catholics think the church should relax its prohibition on contraceptives.

Heretics.  The vast majority of ‘catholics’ don’t even approach a Church.  The vast majority of those that do, still reject her teachings.  This would be strikingly clear to the world if only the bishops weren’t even worse themselves.

These people don’t need ‘mercy.’  They need the book thrown at them so they know where they stand.  The Pope and hierarchy are unable to do so today, but until clear lines are drawn around the Church militant, she will never be visible, and the world continue to spiral like a fireball.