Most marriages today are invalid, Pope Francis suggests

Alan, thank you for your beautiful post. Yes, there must have been many lovely marriages, and no doubt are still today. I don't think Holy Father is talking about the good marriages, or the old days.

I was trying to think how to relate to the concerns the Pope may be trying to address in our times. And what can we honestly see around us; the signs of the times so to speak.

 

Thanks for sharing that video with us BrianK. It was very Protestant of you.

 

So now EWTN and Raymond Arroyo is "very Protestant?"

No. It's 100% plain spoken truth.

 

Listen, im not getting into it again with you. The Blessed Mother says PRAY FOR OUR POPE. Not criticize his every word and move that he makes.

 

You can pray for the pope without being silent in the face of things being said, which they addressed in the EWTN video.

The error is silence in the face of this.

Even worse is to attack those defending the Faith in the face of such serious error. Finally it can be gravely sinful to misrepresent their faithful witness as "constant attacks," "negativity," "constant criticism," etc.

 

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While setting the Roman Missal today, I noticed this beautiful picture of St. Peter and St. Paul. I know Mother of God forum must be affecting me because then I thought that maybe there is a resemblance to Mac and Brian. May God bless you my Brothers. I may not always agree with you but I'm glad that I'm in the same ship you are.

Peace, Ed

 

No one here is criticising his every word and move. Just the words and moves that are Pope Bashing the last couple hundred Popes.

Someone is certainly guilty of Pope Bashing. But it is not Brian K.

 

Ok, fair enough, but what im saying is....have you ever posted Anything positive about the Pope, or do you focus souly on the negative?
Also, I hope you don't share this opinion you have about the Pope with others who are not Catholic.


Im still not worried. Im sorry you are.

 

If someone pours you a glass of very fine wine, but adds a couple drops of arsenic to it right in front of you, are you going to fixate on its fine fruity aromatic nature and it's delicate bouquet and the wonderful mellowing effects of the aging process?

No, you're simply going to point out that "Hey, you put poison in my drink!!!"

If despite your friends' admonition that "What's wrong with you?!? That's a great, expensive French wine?!?" are you going to be silent and just drink it?

No.

You're going to keep asking, "What's wrong with you?!? Are you trying to kill me?"

And when your friends say "Oh, don't be silly. Don't be rude to our highly esteemed host!" and reach for their glass, you're not going to remain silent, if you love them.

You're going to be even more insistent, despite the uncomfortable situation and the fine exalted reputation of your host.

Because if you love them, you have a duty and obligation to your friends.

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This is pure poison, despite any flowery words about the poor or seemingly orthodox statements surrounding it.

 

It is pure poison, there is no two ways round it. Pure poison. If my next door neighbour said this I would tell him it to his face. If my Parish Priest or Bishop said this I would spell it out for them, pure poison.

I don't see why I shouldn't stop saying its poison because a Pope said it.

For that's what it is, pure and simple and I am not a bit shy of saying it.

Pure Poison.

Either something is right or something is wrong. I don't care who said it. It's just plain wrong and I'm not afraid to say it

 

Thank God my parents are not alive to see these sad times we are living in. It would have broken their hearts to hears thing like this from the lips of a Pontiff.

The Good Lord knows it has just about broken mine.

 

Padraig, , what if God is setting Pope Francis up for a St Paul like conversion? St Paul had a zeal for God but a skewed world view. He lacked the deeper understanding of The Way until confronted by Christ. Similarly, if Pope Francis, were to denounce his Latin American intellectual view, this would jolt no small number of the faithful into something deeper. Pray, hope, and do not worry.

 

I don't speak for him but this is an honest question.

If so, and that's a might big if, only God knows that, and until we know it for certain, error must be opposed. And frankly there are some who are already converted but persist in their error. And souls are at risk in the meantime.

We must pray for him and hope he will respond to God's grace.

But silence in the face of grave error is not an option while we wait.

 

Remember this in 2014?

Pope marries 20 cohabiting couples in sign of papacy shift
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29198491



I wonder if the majority of these marriages are valid?

(Don't answer - it is a rhetorical question).

 

We won't understand until after we die how everyone of us (including people with different cultures) how unique, individual and personal our relationship is with God. No two are the same.
You don't walk into someone's house and Immediatly start rearranging their furniture.
He is reaching out to everyone.
Then I think he will slap people with some truth. Be patient. I know there is a method to this madness.

 

When I study the words of Jesus in scripture, he surely addressed peoples needs (spiritual and physical), both within the Jewish faith and outside of it. He was compassionate like Pope Francis is. However, Pope Francis doesn't seem to admonish the sin of the person he is healing like Christ did so often, "go and sin no more". Peter was even called Satan by Jesus when he did not trust or understand his words. My point is, Pope Francis is continually reaching out to those whom the Church teaches are living lives contrary to the gospel, which is what Jesus did, but there is a silence on his part when it comes to addressing their sin. In doing this, it seems he is not challenging people to look inward and connecting their soul with their behavior. Is this false compassion? If so, is not false compassion keeping one in their sin while going through the motions of being faithful? Mercy is much deeper than forgiveness. It seems mercy can be given without repentance, but at some point it can and will be removed by God without it. Is what Pope Francis doing mercy? Does he know we are at the end of an age? And is he banking on God clearing things up during the Warning? All a mystery at this point. Just some thoughts in trying to make some sense of the disconnect between the compassion of Jesus in the gospels and the compassion of Pope Francis in real time. This seems to be what is so frustrating, at times, with what Pope Francis is doing. He will admonish those who are trying to live by the truth as Pharisees (perhaps some are lacking love in their zeal for truth), but will reach out to those in adultery, fornication, sodomy, divorce and remarried etc..... with no judgement upon their sinfulness and no spoken intention for them giving up on their practices before God's forgiveness is possible. Very different from what St. Paul's writings and the Catholic Catechism etc.. There appears to me to be something much different with this Year of Mercy that does not equate to the aforementioned. So what is left is to pray, do penance and trust as always.

 

Great post.

What if he is right and we are wrong?

What if we are right and he is wrong?

Boy, I am being tossed by the waves of confusion.

My instincts tell me that the changes are so different from previous teachings of the Church that we are into very sticky territory indeed.

As, Padraig said - watch this space - we may see even more radical ideas being proposed soon.

 

If it doesn't look Catholic, feel Catholic or sound Catholic.

Well, it then isn't Catholic!!

 

This is what bothers me, too.