{"id":378,"date":"2015-03-10T19:14:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T19:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=378"},"modified":"2015-03-11T00:40:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T00:40:39","slug":"the-pope-francis-golden-ticket-to-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=378","title":{"rendered":"The Pope Francis Golden Ticket to Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"golden<\/a><\/div>\n
Is Pope Francis’ idea of Heaven Way Too Easy<\/a>?<\/div>\n
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Vatican City, 9 March 2015 (VIS) \u2013 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. \u201cJesus never abandons us\u201d, he said, \u201cbecause on the Cross he experienced pain, sadness, solitude and many other things. \u2026 Never lose your trust in Him\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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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\u201d, he added, \u201cif 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 \u2026!’, 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 \u2013 and he is the only one we are certain is there\u201d.<\/div>\n
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Not to say that Jesus isn’t merciful. Jesus is. But nevertheless it’s vital that we don’t presume upon His mercy, isn’t it?\u00a0 Notwithstanding those convenient and burgeoning tenets of ‘social justice’ there is such a thing as real justice.\u00a0 Pope Francis makes it sound like a serial killer can just call on the Name of Christ at the moment of death and it’s a golden ticket to Heaven! Why repent, atone, or confess?<\/div>\n
\nAnd what about all that ‘do-gooding’ we keep hearing about?\u00a0 Skipping that will negate all our prayers and ‘religious homages,’ rendering us hypocrites destined for Hell, yes?<\/div>\n
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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. \u201cThe people of Tor Bella Monaca are good people\u201d, emphasised Francis. \u201cThey 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. \u2026 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. \u2026 The first pastoral commandment is closeness: to be close to them. \u2026 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. \u2026 This is my main pastoral advice to you\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Take that pastoral advice for what it’s worth.\u00a0 Apparently it’s a mortal sin not to absorb and act upon socialist-sounding drivel, you mafioso-type exploiter.\u00a0 Don’t put demands on the marginalized. They might be driven to commit some unavoidable crime because of you.\u00a0 Just give them things and fulfill my first pastoral commandment of closeness.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Pope Francis’ idea of Heaven Way Too Easy? Vatican City, 9 March 2015 (VIS) \u2013 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 …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}