It is reported that a day after the Pope told a divorced and remarried couple they could go receive communion, he said something about the indissolubility of marriage to a group of South African bishops.
I am told that such is significant.
Except that it isn't. Not really. My first reaction was "Whoop. De. Doo. Nothingburger."
Wha-?!!!! But he just said it! What more do you want, H8r?
Again, it's insignificant. Why? Because, in that Kasper presentation so volubly praised by the successor of Peter, the Cardinal from restive, pro-divorce Allemagne swore up and down how indissoluble sacramental marriage is before insisting that we had to give communion to those who remarried after a divorce. "Tolerating what we cannot accept," yadda yadda yadda.
So...in the Pope's mind, the phone call and his speech to the RSA bishops aren't inconsistent. Even though under every objective and reasonable standard they are, in fact, irreconcilable, they aren't to him.
Unless you share his understanding, you are misreading him.
Yes, I know--I'm out of communion and not worth listening to. Contradicting the spirit of Jesus and whatnot. Perhaps. But the problem seems to me that those who are celebrating this are just engaging those statements of Pope that reassure them that we're always going to have really good, prudent, smart and careful Popes, and shelving those that don't fit the template.
Even though we aren't promised any such thing.
Anyway--carry on.
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New digs for ponderings about Levantine Christianity.
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You may already be familiar with the opening quotation in this post, but it's as apt as ever, and encouraging in these dark times--which probably aren't without precedent in the great span of the saga of carrying the torch of the Catholic faith.
ReplyDeleteGetting the distinct impression that there are now fewer and fewer inclined to give Francis a pass when it comes to these episodes, the financially linked Jimmy Akin or the ostrich-like Scalia of this post excepted, of course. And given the immense ego of this man, the butt-covering follow-ups will become predictable accompaniments. He has no consciousness - or concern - about the negative implications of his impulses, he just sallies forth, a loose cannon. Its like riding shot-gun with a drunken driver. One sees the future of the Catholic Church being built upon a pattern of self-indulgence and stunned realization. I refuse to subordinate the content of my life as a Christian to such a man.
ReplyDeleteThose whose faith has lived by ultramontanism may live to see it die by ultramontanism.
ReplyDelete