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| Pope Francis: General Audience of 5 August, 2015 |
Two days ago, Pope Francis addressed the divorced and remarried in his catechesis at the general audience. Actually, he repeated almost verbatim what Pope John Paul II said in his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, which was released a year after the Synod of Bishops on the family in 1980. But only almost.
Pope Francis announced the double-Synod of Bishops on the family of 2014/2015, by pointing out the Synod from 1980 had not dealt with all the challenges that marriage and family are facing today.
Pope John Paul II on November 22, 1981:
"Together with the Synod, I would like to exhort the shepherds and the whole community of believers to cordially assist the divorced in solicitous love, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, since they can participate as baptized persons in their lives, and are even obliged to. They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to pray regularly, to support the community in their works of charity and initiatives to promote justice, to educate their children in the Christian faith and to cultivate the spirit and the works of penance in order to call down God's grace from day to day. The Church is to pray for them, encourage them, to show them as a compassionate mother and so strengthen them in faith and in hope."
Pope Francis said on August 5, 2015:
"These people are not excommunicated: You are not excommunicated! And are absolutely not to be treated as such: You are always a part of the Church. [...] I earnestly call upon pastors and the whole community of the faithful to help the divorced, and with solicitous care to make sure that they do not consider themselves as separated from the Church, for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in her life.”
Identical statements with some differences
The two statements are almost identical with a few differences. "Francis exchanged a word and remained silent to a certain point," said the Vatican expert Sandro Magister.
Instead of the words "not separated" from the Church, Francis said that the divorced and remarried are "not excommunicated."
Pope John Paul II continued in Familiaris Consortio with the words: "However, the Church reaffirms its argument based on the Scriptures in practice not to allow divorced and remarried to the Eucharistic banquet. They can not be authorized because their state of life and their living conditions are in contradiction to that objective covenant of love between Christ and the Church, which the Eucharist makes visible and present. In addition, there is a special reason of pastoral nature: admitting such people to the Eucharist would cause errors and confusion among the faithful concerning the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage."
While John Paul II. clearly affirmed that divorced and remarried are not admitted to Communion, Francis remained silent on this point.
The silence makes (calculated or not?) the difference
The Argentine canon lawyer José Durant Mendioroz confirmed in his analysis of the papal speech that Francis gave on August 5, just to the constant teaching of the Roman Church (to see Durant Mendioroz Synod of Bishops - An Argentine Lawyer shows the Pope on What's Going On )
In any case the omission makes the big difference. The silence made for a "media bomb". Mass media claimed that the Pope had cancelled the excommunication of the divorced and remarried and approved allowing them to receive sacramental Communion.
Once again the question of the "hermeneutics" of the Pope's words will be raised: How are statements of the Pope to be interpreted? On the return flight from Paraguay to Rome Francis introduced the journalists themselves to the "hermeneutics" of his words (see "Beatification" Marxist Jesuits by Pope Francis ). A real clarification wasn't forthcoming. So the question remains affirmed whether the media reaction was a calculated effect or not.
Secular media calculated? Of course. It's the hallmark of this papacy.
ReplyDeleteBut surely he is right in saying that the divorced and remarried are not excommunicated. They are in a state of mortal sin which means they are not worthy to receive communion until they repent. Committing a mortal sin does not, generally, excommunicate you. Excommunication is defined in Canon Law and I believe only a Bishop can release you from such which is not the case with mortal sins in general. If I am right it would have been useful if Pope Francis or someone else in the Vatican could have explained the difference.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right Nicolas.
DeleteIt's (1) deceptive and (2) dramatic as a Greek Tragedy.
Mentioning 'excommunicated' implies exclusion and so he follows by saying:
"...I earnestly call upon pastors and the whole community of the faithful to help the divorced, and with solicitous care to make sure that they do not consider themselves as separated from the Church, ..." [Treat them with kid gloves, be PC, don't make them feel bad...]
What of course, he doesn't seem to be reiterating, is that they need to repent in order to cease being separated and give up the adulterous sex.
Does the Pope want Catholic adulterous couples giving their Catholic children an adulterous example of living?
I'm so-o fed up with all this now.
Manifest obstinate grave sin. A priest may not give the Blessed Sacrament to one in such a state. It is sacrilege, and endangers the soul of the priest, the person who receives in that state and potentially others who witness the reception.
DeleteI wish Pope Bemedict had never resigned.
ReplyDeleteMe too, but now we have this guy, wormtongue, jesuitic and casuistic and the worse is yet to come, let's pray for Our Lord to come soon. God bless+
ReplyDeleteNeither comment gives even the slightest hint of being concerned for where the divorced and civilly remarried will spend eternity. So much for the salvation of souls.
ReplyDeleteOr the souls of the Catholic community that they scandalise, particularly the young. And the wrong done to the abandoned wife or husband, and children.
DeleteIt is clearer by the day that Francis's trajectory is purely naturalistic (what Masonry ultimately boils down to, whether you are formally a Mason or not). We seldom hear him speak of Our Blessed Lord, the saints, Catholic doctrine. It is as if the spiritual realm did not exist for him. What a truly tragic man he is---and so typical of the Latin American clergy I had the misfortune of knowing in Miami (with glorious exceptions) when I was growing up in the sixties and seventies. I well remember Luis Oraa, later Superior General of the Jesuits for the Caribbean Province, preaching from the ambo (no pulpit---that is too old church and triumphalistic) of St. Raymond de Penafort Church that "Christ did not stay in the Eucharist to be adored but to be eaten" (exact words as I remember the crude preaching of that Modernist). Bergoglio reminds me very much of that type of Jesuit, the kind that, were it possible to weep in heaven, would make St. Ignatius weep. RC
ReplyDeletePost the link below to see where Francis is leading the Catholic Church and all good and Faithful Catholic souls. He must be stopped.
ReplyDeletehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C3jOX7Yge20/VcQKxGAiphI/AAAAAAAApjY/2Sv0_I6q9Ro/s640/rinbow.jpg