Sunday 5 January 2014

Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood...



Two things that strike me about His Holiness Pope Francis's comments on the children of same-sex couples (but are they really 'their children'?) picked up on by La Stampa and Rorate Caeli. First, a papal desire to 'micromanage' every pastoral situation that may crop up in the life of the Catholic Church and, second, the problem that arises when a Pope abandons his traditional role of safeguarding Catholic doctrine and becomes the World's friendly, inclusive pastorally-minded parish priest. Really, I guess these two trends each feed into each other. Hence, horror from traditionalists and delight among liberals, which is still most likely unfounded.

Micromanagement: How it really works...
By such means does a 'loyal son of the Church' muse on different pastoral situations that may confront parish priests either now or in the future and then just speak his mind and give his opinion, thereby sending both media shockwaves and confusion across the World. Do we really need a papal pronouncement on every single possible pastoral issue that may come across a parish priest? Why cannot parish priests be entrusted to act with justice and mercy according to the situation that comes their way?

Does Pope Francis think all parish priests are all potential 'little monsters' who need firm guidance and direction in 'forming hearts' on how to act with justice and mercy in every situation? Let's face it, in most situations traditionally-minded priests will desire to act justly and with mercy towards children and liberal priests will not really mind either way because 'I can see no problem here'. There are far more liberal priests now and not many traditional priests who could thwart kindness to children with their 'pelagian, restorationist neo-promethean' ways, so why the need for papal pronouncement on everything? Let's face it, most priests would sign off any child into a Catholic school nowadays as long as he or she is baptised because they realise that they or the Church could potentially get done for discrimination, though perhaps that is an exaggeration.

Recently, the Cardinal Meisner story on divorce and remarriage and Holy Communion gave the impression that Pope Francis does not understand that the pastoral, doctrinally vague comments he offers produce a certain 'effect'. Is His Holiness living in a bunker under the Domus? I know most Bishops do not read blogs, but does His Holiness really not read any newspapers? Even the one contributed to by Scalfari?

I first picked up on the desire to 'micromanage' the Church in Gaudium Evangelii during the Pope's words on preaching...as if Priests do not each have their own style of preaching. Why should priests conform to a particular style of preaching and preparation of preaching dictated by the Pope? Isn't that kind of an aspect of their training when they go to seminary? And yet, the micromanagement of pastoral affairs (we vaguely should do this/that or something else in this/that situation) produces nothing but more howls of delight from the liberal crowd, consternation among circles of loyal sons and daughters of the Church and confusion all round as the 'vultus' on the papacy as to whether the Pope will uphold doctrine is exposed once more and bleeds all over the newspapers and blogs.

For the time being, Nina Simone's 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' is the theme tune to this papacy. For how long a Successor of St Peter can go misunderstood or misconstrued before people start thinking it might be deliberate is debatable. The Supreme Pontiff might at some stage like to give the World and the Church a lesson on right and wrong and the difference between the two that doesn't involve sociology or economics - then the sadness of 'same-sex couples' adopting other people's children and bringing them into their world - a world which will always be morally and socially confusing for children - may be mitigated by a powerful preacher with zeal for Souls, because we're not talking about just any children or 'parents' here, we're actually talking about Catholic children and Catholic 'same-sex couples' adopting or, worse, going through gravely sinful methods in order to obtain children through artificial means with no formal, if loving, rebuke from His Holiness, the Chief Shepherd of Souls on Earth. How many souls are in the care of this man? The mind boggles!

Again, Francis here is addressing the painful situation, not the problem of sin which creates the situation, nor its remedy, Jesus Christ, giving his hearers the impression that the Sovereign Pontiff of the Holy Roman Church only cares about the happiness of life in this World and nothing - that's zilch - for that of the World to come. If I conduct myself, as a Catholic, in such manner, then introducing such confusion to Souls is not just scandalous. It is anti-Christ. I can't see there being much difference, except in the vastness of the number of Souls affected, when the Successor of St Peter does the same.

If the average Catholic priest faced this situation he would most likely wish to act justly towards the child and offer some compassionate, pastoral instruction to the 'parents'. As a Confessor, custodian of the Eucharist and Shepherd to his flock, he may wish to remind the couple of what the Church teaches in this regard so they may neither live nor die in ignorance and choose to strive to live chastely with the aid of the Sacraments.  If Pope Francis were still Fr Jorge Bergoglio, then he may wish to say these things to his fellow priests in his Deanery, in an environment of discretion, or the potential couple themselves, in discretion, but he is not. He is the Pope of the Holy Roman Church and his words, totally open to misunderstanding from a liberal media, are sent forth throughout the whole World.

Oh Lord, please do not let me be misunderstood. Let us pray for the Pope, for, as the old adage goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions (and the skulls of priests and bishops).

14 comments:

Lynda said...

Thanks for not giving into the prevailing intimidation not to speak the truth anymore, but to collude in the delusion that the Emperor is finely-dressed.

Genty said...

I wholeheartedly agree with Lynda. Your finely-tuned piece gets to the heart of my own deep misgivings about where the Bishop of Rome intends to take the Church.

Martina Katholik said...

What should one expect if the Vatican hires world's leading pro-homosexual corporations as advisors?
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/engel/140101

Over time the Vatican delivered an interesting puzzle:

Quote:
During his Boxing Day sermon, the Bishop of Córdoba, Demetrio Fernández, said there was a conspiracy by the United Nations. "The Minister for Family of the Papal Government, Cardinal Antonelli, told me a few days ago in Zaragoza that UNESCO has a program for the next 20 years to make half the world population homosexual. To do this they have distinct programs, and will continue to implant the ideology that is already present in our schools."
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/01/01/inenglish/1325398843_850210.html
Back then this sermon made headlines in German newspapers.

Last May Pope Francis promised Ban Ki-Moon to help him reach the UN Millenium goals.
Quote:
“We discussed the need to advance social justice and accelerate work to meet the Millennium Development Goals. This is vital if we are to meet the millennium promise for the world’s poorest,” Mr. Ban told reporters in Rome after his first meeting with Pope Francis.
http://www.undispatch.com/photo-of-the-day-ban-ki-moon-and-pope-francis

Quote:
Ban Ki-Moon said: ““I told His Holiness that this world is full of crises. So many problems. Regional conflicts, global challenges, climate change, human rights violations, so we need your spiritual inspiration, spiritual guidance. With that we can solve these problems.”
Everybody knows that „human rights violations” are code words for “LGTB rights violations”.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon-praises-pope-francis

Quote:
Last year Mrs Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, praised Ban Ki-Moon for his “extraordinary leadership in condemning homophobia and transphobia” and “promoting the human rights of LGTB people”.
http://unescoglobe.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/17-05-international-day-against-homophobia.pdf

Quote:
The event, “Leadership in the Fight against Homophobia,” was organized by Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission together with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Permanent Missions to the UN of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, the European Union, France, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States.

“Ban Ki-moon wholeheartedly denounced homophobia and transphobia and called for decriminalization of homosexual conduct,” said Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/17/un-ban-ki-moon-condemns-homophobic-laws

Is it really possible that Pope Francis doesn´t know the agenda of the UN and UNESCO who want to craft “ a generation that is changing”?

Deacon Augustine said...

Lynda, interesting that you should bring up "prevailing intimidation". I have noticed a distinct shift on the Telegraph blog and others in the last couple of days where the neo-ultramontanists are out in force to shout down any criticism. It is as though a switch had been flicked somewhere and now everything is supposed to be OK - from suppressing the FFI to the branding of Catholics as "self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagians" etc.

Wonder if the image-makers are pulling strings?

Православный физик said...

I agree totally with this.

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

Mr Laurence, God Bless.

but that's what marxists and or facsists, and/or people who should be on seroquel do when they're not (on seroquel).
micromanagement,dictatorship, nook'n'cranny specialist, cctv (catholic-collegialtv) red-eyed obsessive.

This Pope was raised on the continent that gave us Jesuit Castro applauding guerrillas for crying out loud. For post vii Jesuits 'the poor' is the watchword and the problem for every reaction 'solution' a Jesuit wants to achieve. I don't thing Papa Francis is dotty, really. I think he is shrewd as a serpent and gentle as a wolverine, except when he's on seroquel, then they let him out to smile at the kids.

One thing I've noticed since Pope Benedict's removal, even those parishes I might in my heathen outdated Traditionalism consider liberal, have not replaced the picture of the now Pope Emeritus with the now Pope Francis. I wonder why - all those priests whose liberation theology might have put them in a camp unbergoglio might not be so thrilled as a non-marxist might think. Or maybe they're just being sensitive to the large Latin American communities they serve. Who can say?

p.s. the traditionalist priest would take care of the children. For the liberal it's all about 'big people', unless it's letting the 'little people' make a mess of the Mass.

p.s.s seriously. Statistics show that people burdened with same-sex attraction are less than five percent for men (that erroneous 10% is just that) and maybe two percent for women. And of those, how many IVF or adopt? And add to that the how many are Catholic or even in any way shape or form christianised; one needs a microscope to make a mole hill of that whatever it is.

and this from an inherently disordered someone who thanks God they held firm on the, no, a child needs a Mother (born female) married to a Father (born male); otherwise it's just selfish.

We need a good dose of the TLM, the Saints of 'old', and the rosary, in order to innoculate ourselves against the laboratory developed spiritual virus of this papacy. God that I would be shamed and proved completely wrong, and do a long long penance if he turns out to be 'kosher'. But, as your post points out, who the knows? and when will we know? when its shrewdly too late? p.s.s.s.s.s After 14 years, First Saturday TLM (devotion to Our Lady) abolished at Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

oh, Blimey, according to Martina's info they've decided to gamma-gay the world to get rid of those pesky extra 7or so million. thing is, what if all those confused gamma-gayed people want to have kids?

just when I thought it wasn't making sense, for once.

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

p.s. meant 7 or so billion. as jacque Cousteau said, 'we need to be eliminating 300, 000 humans a day to save the planet. as someone said, jacque, R.IP., is finally helping the cause.

unfortunately I think people possibly could be 'trained to be gay'. how disturbed is the human race. if only papa Frankie cared to point the way to True peace rather than insisting it cannot be found where the Church has assured us it can be found since the Apostles looked up in consternation.

Lynda said...

Of course, the Pope knows what's going on, and much more so than most of us. He has been a leader moving in Church and political circles for decades.

Lynda said...

The long-time enemies of the Church are "pulling the strings".

Lynda said...

The evil programmes being imposed on innocent children in schools are calculated to corrupt their reason, affection and morals.

Long-Skirts said...

Lynda said...

"The long-time enemies of the Church are "pulling the strings"."

OF
MONSIGNORS & MONSTERS

They took away her beauty
Dulled her pregnant glow
Her re-enactment birthing Life
Is now a bawdy show.

They bullied those assisting her
Ignoring all who cried
Then appointed haughty-humble
Said we were full of pride.

And when we try to help her
To do the best we can
They tell us that our Janitor
Is not an approved man.

But all else, yes, they’ll hire
If they pretend they’re poor…
And Monsignor-monster miscreants
Are off the nuns’ bus tour!

Delia said...

I've just been watching a video on Spiked that records a discussion about the new atheism on 18 December with Brendan O'Neill. I was quite shocked at the comment one man made (about 4 minutes in), asking why the new atheism is so aggressive now, when religion is less influential than it's ever been. He said: 'Some of the things the new pope is coming out with, well, he's not really Catholic.'

PS Surely there are more legible programmes to prove one isn't a robot! This is my fifth try.

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

thanks for the quote, Delia, and wow!

the vatican has spent millions over the past few months hiring worldly consultants to 'sweep clean' the marble and the dust (previously known has the Fathers and Popes and Saints of old) and all that results is, 'the new Pope [oorah godlessness] he's not really Catholic? Was the money well spent?

BTW, now that I've morphed into a blog-comment robot, I understand these things. Have patience, one day you too will be able to decipher the weeblewords.

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