Happy Christmas and Prayers...

A very happy, holy and blessed Christmas to all readers.

Please pray for my friend, George, known to long-term readers of this blog, who was rushed to an isolation ward in a Brighton hospital ward last night. Jesus, mercy. Mary, pray.

15 Diseases, but only 12 cures....

...does that mean 3 of the 15 diseases are incurable?

I love the way that the Holy Father waits a year to tell the Curia what the cures are for the ailments diagnosed last year. Now, that's what I call professionalism. 

But seriously, I think in his modest gentleness, the Holy Father has kindly overlooked the shortcomings of his Curia as diagnosed last year (for this is the Year of Mercy) and gone for a different approach this year simply guiding his team towards virtue.

Hmm...nothing quite says "Happy Christmas" like pointing out 'cures' for workplace failings, does it?

Pray for Fr Tim Finigan

Fr Tim Finigan has been posting from a hospital bed having suffered a heart episode.

Pray for his full and swift recovery.

Can a Catholic Be Righteous in the Sight of God?

Interesting question. Now that we know that the Salvation of Jews does not depend on faith in the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, we can dare to ask the question: 'Can a Catholic be righteous in the Sight of God?' I look forward to the next Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews document to fill us in.

Apparently, according to at least one Jewish sect - and a powerful one at that - Chabad Lubavitch, the answer is yes, which for us Catholics - though we are known only as Gentiles, will come as a great relief. Apparently, you can be righteous in God's sight, as long as you follow the Noahide Laws, as one Italian Catholic, who enquired to the organisation about becoming a Jew, discovered. 

Of course, some 'rigid', 'fundamentalist' types might believe there may be some conflict between being 'righteous' by following the Noahide Laws and proclaiming faith in the Saviour of all mankind, Our Lord Jesus Christ, because a proportion of Jews (it's so unfair to treat them en masse as a block, don't you think?) may well regard faith in Jesus Christ as somewhat idolatrous or blasphemous, but the Pontifical Commission will, I am sure, fill us in on the details and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. These are just petty details that can be ironed out later on when we are all 'united'.

I'm sure that Our Blessed Lord - and St Paul - had much to say on these matters, but we've moved on now and we're not so 'self-enclosed' as we once were. I'll let Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin fill you in for the next two or three hours on how you, as a Gentile, as a Catholic indeed, can be made righteous in God's sight, here, here and here. 

After all, if the Catholic Faith - if Faith in the the only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father is no longer necessary for Jews to attain Salvation, there's no reason faith in the only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father is necessary for Gentiles either - even Catholics. So let's all just be righteous together and be righteous dudes and dudesses. Then, at last, we will be united and the world will have peace. Quite why the Church is telling Jews they can have Eternal Life without the Divine Faith of Christ is a mystery in itself, because Jews don't seem to believe in Eternal Life nor in the Man Who promises it to those who are faithful to Him. Why does the Vatican want to tell Jews they can have something they don't even believe in or even want? Jews don't believe in Salvation in the sense in which Jesus taught it, if at all. The question is: Do we?

The Vatican Can't Improve on St Juan Diego's Tilma

Papal Insults Decoded in the Light Show

What a Catholic Light Show Looks Like

Happy Feast of the 

Immaculate Conception everyone!

Details of Controversial St Peter's Lightshow Emerge

Seriously though, if it happens to me, I want it in Latin.

Nobody's going to excommunicate me in the vernacular.

I assume my right to the Latin rite of excommunication was covered in either Summorum Pontificum or Universae Ecclesiae.

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Because you never know who's going to knock on your Presbytery door.

Papal Plane Joke

Have you ever noticed that the controversial plane interviews are always on the way back from his trips abroad? Saying the controversial things on the way there would be like telling your dinner host the food was bad before arriving. It just wouldn't make sense, would it? Far better to tell everyone else after the event, that way people will know not to go there for dinner in future, and your offended hosts can't rebuke you for your bad manners to your face.

Holy Door Caption Moment

'I came here to preach about mercy 

and to insult Catholics. 

And I just misplaced my homily.'

National Geographic Front Cover for the Blessed Virgin Mary

National Geographic has Our Blessed Lady on the front cover this December. Usually, magazines available in newsagents depict women in a rather graceless fashion.

How refreshing it is, then, to see our Heavenly Queen, full of grace, grace such a widely read magazine.

The article, which features Marian Shrines new and old, recognised and unrecognised, is entitled 'How the Virgin Mary Became the World's Most Powerful Woman' and it can be read here.

'Thou art beautiful above the sons of men: grace is poured abroad in thy lips; therefore hath God blessed thee for ever.'

Let's pray that more magazines more and more look to Mary as the full expression of womanhood and the true model of beauty and strength, 'for charm is deceptive and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.'

Warning: The National Geographic article features Medjugore and a bare breasted African lady nursing a baby.

Solemn Litany of Pope Francis

Just a bit of solemn nonsense I've been working on.

If you can think of more titles pop them in the combox, why not?

Thank you for the contributions and apologies for any scandal caused by my previous effort.

Catechism and Solemn Nonsense

'Christian education -- the Pope says -- is not only teaching catechism and proselytizing. Never proselytize in schools.'

Don't worry, Your Holiness. Catechism isn't taught in schools and there is no proselytizing. Why try and 'fix' a 'problem' that doesn't exist?

Is it just me, or does anyone else think ecumenism (at least in its modern format) is solemn nonsense?

After all, Our Lord never commanded it.

Still, well done to the Anglicans for trying (but failing) to get cinema goers to pray during Advent.

You can watch the 'offensive' advert below.



The bizarre thing is what with all this papal talk against the solemn nonsense of proselytism, one wonders, or perhaps one already knows, what the Holy Father would say about such a brazen attempt to spread one's religion in the public square.

Never proselytize?

New Papal Diagnosis Concerns Revealed

Perfect love casts out fear.

Even fear of neurotic priests who need a doctor for their illness.

Pope Insults Celebrations of the Birth of Christ

She isn't talking about how to make mince pies.

I'm been compiling the Pope Francis Little Book of Insults (Volume 1) this week. I've nearly a hundred pages and I don't consider I've really got started...

Each page gets its own insult, but as well as the insults against Priests, Bishops and others, I now have one against the celebration of Christmas.

'It's a charade', apparently.

Why? Because of hatred and war, that's why.

You could well think that hatred and war are a 2015 phenomenom, unknown before but, like the poor, they are with us always.

Why this year, is Christmas' a charade' then, you might ask, but not last year? Or was it a charade last year too? Let's face it, there has been enough grave and deprave evil in the world, should you decide Christ's birth makes no difference to the world at all, for a long, long time.

The fact is, we could strike war and terrorism off our list of evils and still have the rampant crime of abortion (as well as youth unemployment!) to find as reasons to call Christmas a 'charade', if we really wanted to stop evangelising and give people the impression that the birth of Christ heralds nothing but Christmas lights, trees and the exchanging of presents. After all, abortion is the destruction of human life where the Nativity is the birth of Life Itself, entering into our wartorn and sinful world.

Just my thoughts, but I've been wondering about those who compare our Western democracies to Islam and its extreme adherents, calling their culture barbaric, about mutilation, decapitation, slaughter and the rest, fair enough, that culture has all these evils, but let's face it, our societies are doing exactly the same with unborn babies so let's not get too much on our high horse.

On the surface our 'values' are far superior to those seen in the Islamic world, but you don't have to scratch the surface very far to see that they are perhaps not worlds apart. Is life sacred to us?

As for 'charade', has His Holiness forgotten the Synod already? You can buy Edward Pentin's book on the 'Rigging of a Synod' here. It will make a nice Christmas present for somebody.

'Virtue, without which Terror is Baneful'

Now is the time for France to stop glorifying Terror and turn to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

May the victims of the Paris attacks and all the victims of Terror in France, 

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Move Along Now...

I'm not sure if these are the 'official' chasubles for the Year of Mercy but they are for sale, it would appear from the photograph, in Mancinelli's, Rome.

I really hope - I really pray - these aren't going to be mandated for all Catholic priests to inaugurate the Year of Mercy.

The Pope, the People, the Priest and Conscience

The pontificate of Pope Francis, just when you thought things had perhaps reached some sort of equilibrium, albeit a very unnerving one, took another nose dive yesterday.

I don't know whether the Pope is informed beforehand as to the nature of the questions he will be asked, I expect he is, but regardless, the Successor of St Peter yesterday entered into an epic Category 5 hurricane and, quite incredibly, called upon help from his personal doctor of the law, Cardinal Kasper, rather than Our Lord Jesus Christ as he slid further into the water. Sorry, Your Holiness, Cardinal Kasper cannot save you, or anyone, from choppy waters!

Rocco Palmo covered the story of Francis's incredible - and rambling - response to a Lutheran woman's question on whether she can receive Holy Communion because her husband is Catholic and its saddening that they can't receive Holy Communion together in a Catholic Church. The story has now been taken up by Vatican Insider. So here it is in all its gory reality...

'I dare not say anything more.' Ah, if only these words were acted upon on a more regular basis by Pope Francis, we would not have half the confusion that now exists. Why say, 'yes' or 'no' to a question when a thousand incoherent words will suffice?

Just another Francis moment in the Church

As if to confirm the content of all those unconfirmed Scalfari interviews, the Pope places a spotlight once again on the 'supreme role' of personal conscience on reception of Holy Communion. What he neatly overlooks, however, is that the question from the Lutheran woman is a direct question asking the Successor of St Peter to educate her conscience. This, and this is a recurrent theme of this papacy, is a duty he deftly avoids on crucial matters pertaining to the Faith. Whatever she takes away from his response, her actual conclusion will surely be that the Pope has nothing to say to the consciences of non-Catholics, nor to the consciences of even Catholics.

Make no mistake, we have, in Pope Francis, an embryonic new dogma, while not one universally accepted by the Catholic Church, which turns 'do whatever He tells you' into 'do whatever you think best according to your lights' and the post-Synod of the Family Church should be left in little doubt that, ultimately, this is a message that Pope Francis seems to sink into the minds of Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The really frightening thing about it, is that the Eucharistic Lord is being callously used in this way to advance an agenda. In the Eucharistic Jesus, clearly Pope Francis believes there is nothing, Nobody, to protect. Nor is safeguarding souls, it would seem, from profaning the Eucharistic Lord, a priority.

You might very well think that if - and I know this is radical - the Lutheran woman one day decides that she no longer sees any obstacle to becoming one with Jesus Christ in His One True Church, that there may come a time when she can receive Holy Communion - because then she would be in full Communion with the Church, but I don't know whether if you believe that, you are really on Pope Francis's wavelength. From his perspective, perhaps, this whole conversion thing is a bit backward, an outmoded concept that has kept adulterers, souls in mortal sin, manifest heretics and schismatics from the 'brotherhood' to be found in the Catholic Church.

It would seem that in the Pope's view there are issues of conscience, even for him. This is implied by his 'I dare not say anymore' comment at the end of his reply, but we're left in doubt as to whether he dares not to say anymore on the matter because he wishes not to imperil her soul, or his, or whether he is worried that Cardinal Kasper may disagree with him, or that those 'rigorist' faithful Catholic bishops, priests, cardinals and laity might disagree with him and call him out on it.

Why does Francis not consider the conscience of the other person involved in the reception of Holy Communion?

Yet this issue of conscience is a lot more thorny than the Pope will publicly say because while His Holiness, on such crucial matters of faith and morals, sends the 'conscience' ball back into the court of the layperson or the non-Catholic of another denomination what we never hear from him is a defence of consciences of those who are charged with the duty to protect the Blessed Sacrament as custodians of the Eucharistic Lord. Who His Holiness never considers in this kind of banter around Holy Communion is the parish priest.

It is as if, like an evil Government that wishes to instigate war, bloodshed and finally martial law in a civilian population through covert false flag operations, the Holy Father wishes to instigate war between the uninformed or dulled consciences of the persons sitting in the pews and the priest whose conscience is served not necessarily by giving Holy Communion to all people, no matter what, but undergoing his own 'discernment' as to whether to give Holy Communion to someone whose salvation, he may judge, is served better by refraining until a particular time in the future when the person is properly disposed to receive it.

Jesus Christ, the Priest

Francis has never mentioned this but there are in fact two consciences involved in the reception of Holy Communion. One belongs to the priest and the other belongs to the communicant. Arguably, in terms of divine judgement, the more weighty conscience belongs to the priest because he is the one who will have to answer for his custodianship of the Eucharist and care for souls. There are times and, seasons, occasions, periods that can be lengthy, when the Church asks many people to refrain from receiving Holy Communion. Francis refused to say it to a Lutheran but just one example of this is that if you are not a Catholic that you are asked not to receive Christ in the Eucharist because you are not in full Communion with His Church, not because the Church hates you. Other times include those times or periods in which the faithful themselves are in mortal sin, or are living a lifestyle that is in stark contradiction to the Gospel which they have not renounced. Due to the nature of the times, most Catholics will have experience of this often painful, but necessary truth.

High praise: Francis once warned seminarians not to be 'little monsters'...

This Peronist call to 'the people's consciences' is terribly damaging, unfathomably so. Francis is not just setting himself up against the Church in order to oversee 'reform', but he is, through statements, homilies and interviews, setting himself against priests, priests against priests, bishops against priests, bishops against bishops, cardinals against cardinals and laity against the priests set in authority over them, not to do the will of the crowd, not to heed the 'beats of the age' or even the 'voice of the people' but to do the will of the One who set them apart and sent them, to feed them, teach them and care for their souls. This ambiguity, willed or not, serves an agenda which is incredibly destructive within the Church.

Pray for priests, pray very much for the clergy, who, I am certain, still pray for the Chief Shepherd and Father in God everyday, but must by now long for God to place over them someone who supports, protects and encourages them in their priesthood, rather than threatens to leave them wide open to and completely unprotected from attacks from the enemy of God and mankind. In this whole 'debate' it is as if the priest does not even exist, just the 'people' and Holy Communion. We so often call them 'our priests'. The priest is for us, but that means the priest is for our Salvation, because the priest is Alter Christus, he is for Our Lord Jesus Christ, not just conceptually, but in the very person of Our Lord.

A short and helfpul guide to this issue of Communion of Non-Catholics may be read here.

Pope Francis Should Be Thankful for Those Who Respect Law

"Were you looking for this?"

I suppose that as much as Francis has recently been railing against the 'keepers of the law' and the 'doctors of the law', he should be thankful for people who think law should be respected.

After all, it would be both against the letter and the spirit of the law for a group of now labelled 'conservative Catholics' to storm the Domus and forcefully oust the Pope, in some manner depose him, or for some of his enemies in the 'conservative' camp in the Curia to poison the Pope.

Despite a litany of thinly veiled insults towards the crystal clear and eternal truths held and proclaimed by the Catholic Church, as well as those who hold them, even the most vociferous of Bishops and Cardinals still uses very respectful words about Francis and nowhere does it seem this is a trend that will cease.

What Catholics, lay and clergy, are enduring at the moment is like feeling compelled to use polite, deferential and charitable and respectful language while watching someone loot your house, go through your drawers and steal whatever takes their fancy, saying, "Now, you know, perhaps some friends have put you up to this, we assume you do not understand what you are doing, but its really not cricket. Please could you stop and reconsider." The thief just continues rifling through your stuff and taking what it pleases him to take and says, "We're in a new era now."

The patience and love of Catholics is being tested to breaking point. Fr Ed Tomlinson talks today about the parallels between the prevailing view Francis will take post-Synod - and I think we had a few clues while he was in Florence - and the Anglican Synod in the 1930s. The sense of dread and fear is palpable and, of course, Francis will know that, as will his advisers. I don't know what the 'plan' is should Francis do or say something that will crystallise, concretely, his intentions for the Church that will be in some way completely 'unacceptable'. I'm expecting, should that be the case, that vociferous clergy and bishops will seek to 'muddle through' the mess that Francis will have caused, but who knows what is in the pipeline?

He might rail against law-keepers and those who seek to uphold Church teachings, but one Church teaching that Catholics seek to uphold is the law of charity, love of enemies and prayer for them even in times of what can feel like warfare or latent persecution. Pope Francis should be thankful for those who take Jesus's teachings seriously, rather than wanting to throw them out.

Promoting Relativism Has its Drawbacks

Catholics! Boycott German Goods!

We could try this until the German Bishops back down and accept Catholic teaching.

Stop the Kasper proposal!

Boycott German goods!

Especially their porn!

End the Church Tax that enables German Bishops to live as pharaohs!

Follow what Pope Francis says and the vipers he is obviously denouncing!

Let's bring these godless Cardinals and Bishops to their knees!

No more Brunswick ham in this household!

No surrender!

Victory will be ours!

Insult Generator

A tech-savvy individual has created a Pope Francis insult generator.

Somehow, we have to get this book published soon. It would make a lovely Christmas gift.

Let's face it. The Curia will get one anyway for the Church's celebration of the Birth of Our Blessed Lord, just because its the season of peace and goodwill to men.

Remember Bishops, remember Priests, don't go living like pharaohs, in your marbled accommodation, with your room service and all mod con-luxury hotel existence, especially if you're going to talk about poverty a lot.

Oh sorry, that's the Papal privilege. Never mind.

Because...Modernity!

Because...2015!: You'll find one in many English towns

Ed West today pens a great piece for The Spectator on the intellectual crisis - virus - afflicting contemporary society, in which a Canadian President can flippantly answer the question, 'Why is gender equality important?' with the answer: "Because its 2015" and not think that's just a little meaningless.

There might be some interesting arguments to advance for the largely secularist cause for 'gender equality' but I'm not sure 'Because its Friday' quite cuts it.

Yet, this view that we are just so advanced and superior to those who came before us that whatever they believed was ridiculous and unbelievable is, inside the Church and outside the Church, dominant and widespread. The intellectual underpinnings of "Because its 2015" are just so weak and tenuous that those laughing at it should be in the majority, but I don't think they are. Are we more stupid and accepting of such laughable arrogance 'because its 2015'? Quite possibly!

Within the Church, "Because...modernity!" has something of a stranglehold over many a Catholic mind. I was talking with someone recently who said how much she 'couldn't stand' the previous Pope, Benedict XVI. She was unable to really explain why. She went on to explain why she loved Pope Francis, saying he has a 'human face', whereas Benedict XVI didn't. We had a little discussion about the Synod, she knew nothing about it, but when we talked about the issue of divorce, remarriage and Communion, she said something like, 'But I'm sure that Jesus was talking to the people of His time and now...Well, people live longer, so people can't be expected to...'

Behold, do I not too have a face that is human?

That's right. People can't be expected to live good lives anymore because its 2015 and we are irredeemable degenerates. Ross Douthat's letter to academics welcoming them to the intellectual battlefield was, I noticed, met with a flurry of comments saying that Ross shouldn't object to the liberalising of everything and destruction of the sacred because we're 'in the modern world now' and I'm pretty certain that the doctrine-lite/-less Christ presented by Pope Francis and his clique, prepping for battle against those who think Jesus Christ actually meant what He said for all times, has at its shallow root, this self-fascination modern man has with his own godless era.

And so, instead of the proclamation of Jesus's own, really quite divisive teachings, which so often require no filtering and little esoteric 'interpretation for today's realities', we are now presented with an image of Christ who has, through His representative (and his clique), adapted to the modern age, taking upon Himself the language of 'inclusion'. We have the Synod on the Family which introduces new language of 'accompaniment' and 'walking with your people', instead of the language that would enable modern man, just like ancient man, who is wandering around, lost but looking for the Light, being told that being a Catholic is all about 'inclusion', the kind of meaningless rhetoric that graces the pages of social worker reports on young offenders or Stonewall's latest LGBT propaganda for schools. If it means more than nothing, it certainly doesn't signify anything that is actually sacred and, the last time I looked, the Church of Christ was the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

"Because 1933!"

The stupidity of the 'Because its 2015' position for justifying any political or moral opinion that seems to have infected the West in a way gives us a clue as to why the Eternal Father decided to shed the rays of His mercy on the human race, by sending the Son of God to our Saviour, but thought better of forgiving fallen angels who rebelled against Him. Humanity is obviously, still, in 2015, quite stupid! The Angels were created with a vastly superior intelligence to men, an intelligence beyond our reasoning. God made man and saw that he was very good, but, perhaps, a little dim?

Anyway, good luck, Fathers, as you 'walk with your people', 'accompanying' them on their spiritual journey through life, but I think there are probably many Catholics who don't want their parish priest to walk with them to the sex shop, or to the gay bar, or to their mistresses bedrooms, or to a local prostitute, or to come round and pop-in to say hello while the poor, storm-tossed soul drops his guard and looks at online pornography or even to the husband and wife at each other's throats for no particularly good reason. None of those things happen because its 2015. They happen because men and women are still - yes, even in 2015! - sinners in need of grace, mercy and the truth that can set us free.

Keep it simple, Fathers. Be wise pastors, merciful confessors, call your flock to follow Jesus Christ and take up the Cross but beware, your 'accompaniment' probably won't be wanted until your penitent asks, "Can I accompany you into that Confessional box? I know its 2015 and everything, but I'm in mortal sin."

"Because 33!"

As for the Gospel of 'inclusion' that again places passive-aggressive papal ire in the direction of those who would think the Kasper proposal is irreconcilable with Christ's teaching, some could be forgiven for wondering how you can 'include' 'always' yet still 'in a measure of healthy prudence'.

We'll put that down as another papal instruction that's clear as mud since some could easily think that means, in a parish setting, come but maybe best not to receive Holy Communion for the time being if you are in X, Y or Z state? Is that what His Holiness means? Is that the prudence he is looking for? For others, of course, it means, give Holy Communion to everybody, no matter what because, er, because...modernity! Because its 2015!

Perhaps we're left unsure but it does go some way to explaining why Cardinal Daneels was invited to the Synod on the Family but Cardinal Burke was not. You know, sometimes 'prudence', so easily mixed up with 'expediency', just has to kick in. Because 2015. Jesus spoke a great deal about wise and foolish virgins, faithful and faithless stewards, sheep and goats and talked about wheat and tares growing up to be harvested for Judgment Day. True, He even included, within His Apostles, Judas. Yet simply being included didn't help him. Receiving Holy Communion didn't actually help him. He, too, was given fame for being quite 'kissy-kissy', sometimes at the most inappropriate of times.

Order your copies today!

or (thanks to Torch of the Faith)...

Nothing New Under the Sun

So let's have less of this Christian 'newness' rubbish.

Sin is ancient, so is the serpent.

There is nothing new under the sun.

People have been attempting to overthrow the Moral Law since Adam and Eve.

People have been seeking ways to justify sin for, literally, ages.

He's Playing with Your Mind

Just accept it and try not to let it get you down.

That 'academic' liberal 'Catholic' argument in full...

I thought this was a rather good response to what was a very simplistic (and quite honestly, misleading) homily from His Holiness on sin and God's judgment, or rather, His divine 'impotence' which could give some the impression that those who consider themselves 'untouchable' in terms of the long arm of Divine Justice are precisely that.

But I told you not these things from the beginning, because I was with you. And now I go to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me: Whither goest thou? But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin: because they believed not in me. And of justice: because I go to the Father; and you shall see me no longer. And of judgment: because the prince of this world is already judged. I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. (St John 16: 5-12)

New Directives Issued from Vatican for Pastoral Language

To be sent out to all dioceses soon!

Remember now, Fathers.

Use pastoral language, not phrases that some people could find offensive!

In summary, use language that is neither "archaic" nor "incomprehensible".

Jesus, Mercy and the Synod

Mercy.

I know we as Catholics are called by Christ to be merciful. I know that Pope Francis has spoken not a small deal about mercy and about God's mercy.

'Mercy' is central to the Kasper proposal, but his is a mercy that is not rooted in the Gospel. It is, rather, a new Gospel devoted to mercy, but it isn't Christ's Gospel.

My understanding of God's mercy is that His mercy - available to all who desire it - isn't there for no reason. It isn't there to make us feel 'accepted' in a community. God's mercy is His very, very, very loving response to the scandal, the detestable offense that is our sin. As others have noted, mercy is certainly there as a theme in the Gospel, but it isn't the central theme. The central theme is Jesus Himself.

I hope that, soon enough, the same prelates who are singing canticles to the Mercy of God while advocating distributing Jesus Himself to unrepentant mortal sinners will outline the following:

What is so special and wonderful about God's mercy?

It is God's great mercy that saves us.

What does God's mercy save us from? 

Sin and the consequences of our sin. 

What are the consequences of our sin? 

If mortal, that'll be eternal damnation. 

'Damnation, yeah? You still believe in that medieval hogwash?'

Of course, there are other consequences to our sins too, in this life. Family break-up, addictions, self-destructive behaviour, societal breakdown and others, but you would think that the prelates banging on about mercy 24/7 would have some inkling - and at least mention it - as to why, in Catholic understanding, God's mercy is so wonderful and treasurable, why it should be proclaimed.

Alas, it doesn't seem to sink in. Many bishops can say the word 'mercy' a thousand times and never - for a moment - consider what the spiritual effects of God's mercy are - the bringing of the soul from death - eternal death, to life - Eternal Life.

Unfortunately, that would involve talking about sin and that's just not the kind of language that is fitting for modern man, so modern man and woman can go to Hell in a handcart as far as they are concerned. Instead we got things like 'pastoral accompaniment', whatever that means? If that means spiritual direction from a trusted priest when you're in a sinful state that you want to change, then that's great, but its so ambiguous that it could be interpreted as...

'I see there that you are in mortal sin and have zero desire to return to the practise of the Faith. Mind if I just walk with you a while and give you Jesus Christ so you can eat and drink your own condemnation, would that be okay? Save you? No, I don't want to save you, I'm here to assist your journey to Hell because I am merciful.' 

Yes, that's what happens when 'Pastors' think they are more 'merciful' than Christ. The Church's teaching is REAL mercy because it reminds all who attend the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus is neither a 'reward for the just' or 'medicine for the weak' but essentially the embracing of Communion with Jesus Christ. If we are not in Communion with Him, we should not receive Him because He is Holy. To receive Him in mortal sin is sacrilege.

Yes, we should be merciful. Priests and Bishops should be merciful, but when we are taught by Christ to be merciful in the Beatitudes it is with some purpose in mind.

'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy'.

Why do we want to 'obtain mercy'?

 In a nutshell, so that we may avoid the eternal punishments of Hell and gain admittance into Heaven.

Our Lord in the Gospel tells us that the unmerciful will not be shown mercy because that would insult His Justice, but there is zero evidence that within His definition of the 'unmerciful' are those pastors who follow the Church's discipline of not giving unrepentant mortal sinners the impression that their sin no longer matters, for the sake of their eternal salvation.

So to sum up...

If Pope Francis could do this with 'Kasperism' and/or 'regionalism'...

...that would be just great!

If the authority is there to be 'given away', then the authority is there to stamp out
dissent to the Magisterium and crush the evils within the Church.

Pray.

I see some protesters have already arrived outside Synod Hall, fearing the worst.

Regional Churches, Regional Faiths, Regional 'Gods'

The Sensible Bond today has a 'calm down, dear' post concerning this, on which I blogged yesterday...

Not only would it be impossible to see how the Church is One, Holy and Universal, but it would cast great doubt whether God is One and Holy, as if God would say, "No, no, do whatever you like. I'm liberal when I'm in Munich, but much more intolerant of sin in Warsaw."

What the Synod decides, obviously, has no effect on the Reality of God. There are obviously no theological implications for Almighty God. The Church cannot change God.

I didn't consider I was saying anything controversial, but was thinking about what impacts are at stake for the Catholicity of the Church. I was saying that if doctrinal authority were devolved that would give, say, the Germans, an entirely different presentation of God to the Poles, so that in Germany God would be presented as an affable uncle who overlooks sin entirely, whereas in Poland God would be presented in a different light, because it all depends on the quality of the Bishops country to country and their personal beliefs. The teaching on and the perception of God in Warsaw would be different to that of Munich. Perhaps it already is. It would, inevitably, create different Faiths, rather than sustain the oneness of the Catholic Faith, more than simply regional 'Churches'.

'We're not a subsidiary of Rome you know!"

I would have thought that the creation of a different Faith in Germany to that of Poland was, actually, already well under way. Polish Churches are full. German Churches are empty. Just look at what their respective Bishops say at the Synod. It would only be more official if the Pope devolved 'doctrinal authority'.

Two different presentations of the One True God would, I'm afraid, make the Church's faith in the One True God look a bit silly, if it varies from country to country. It seriously undermines the credibility of the One True Church and One True Faith because somehow, despite having abandoned a vital tenet of Catholic Faith, the German Church would still maintain some kind of communion (Shall we call it a financial communion?) with the Church of Rome.

It is true that at this stage we do not know what will happen. However, it is not true that we do not know what the Germans want. Alas, we can no longer say, after the Pope's speech, in which he once again referred to a 'conversion of the papacy' and talked of a 'healthy decentralisation' that the Pope does not want to give the Germans exactly what they want. They, as we know from Cardinal Marx's statements on precisely where Rome can shove its authority, do not care if the Church's Faith is no longer One, Holy or Universal. Let's be clear about this:

The Germans say, quite clearly, 'We do not recognise your authority over us.'
The Pope, in a speech, indicates, 'Yeah, come to think of it, me neither.'

Decentralisation in terms of doctrine would be saying, "It's not schism because...er...Pope says so!" Regional Churches and national churches mean regional 'Gods' (in terms of presentation) and national 'Gods' (in terms of the presentation of Faith). Not the Faith, but the Faiths. Of course, we'd all still sing or recite the same Creed, but like the Our Father, it would be made into something of a lie because...er...Pope says its okay! So...

That's all I was really trying to say. Of course, all of the above might be nonsense. I'm no theologian and the future is unknown but 'structural changes' of the kind muted by Pope Francis in the Church will have some serious ramifications. The most serious, I would suggest, is the possible effect as described below...

Catholic means 'Universal'