IF QUOTING JESUS IS JUDGEMENTAL THEN I PLEAD GUILTY.
We have an exciting few days in front of us in the Catholic Church. What will the Pope say about the Divorced and Remarried receiving Holy Communion. Well the Synod on the Family had next to nothing to say about it in the Final Report, but that did not stop those in favour of making a great noise and claiming that it did. Cardinal Kasper is making louder noises than usual and claiming that 1400 years of Catholic practice is about to change. All the Liberals in the Church are almost celebrating already. Myself, I have a 'deja vu/ sense about the whole thing.
I was a young man in my twenties when Pope Paul gave us Humanae Vitae. I remember the clamour and the voices of the experts before the event. There was no doubt about it the Church was going to change its teaching on Contraception. And indeed it may well have been what many many Catholics expected. But there was one player in the drama that was ignored and is being ignored on the present issue. That player was the Holy Spirit. He was the One who was guiding the Church, not the Cardinal Kasper's or the other liberal and scholarly persons. What happened in the end was when the Church said 'No to Contraception' they became very angry and a group took to the steps of Westminster Cathedral to protest. I suspect such demonstrations are already being planned after the Holy Spirit guides the Church since the Kasper's and others know that the Final Report gave them no encouragement whatsoever.
And getting back to 'Humanae Vitae' everything that that document claimed would be the result came to pass. It is the children especially who have suffered from societies Contraceptive Mentality leading to Divorce and the breakdown of Marriage. And what hope for the young when priests now from the pulpit put forward that successful marriages are an 'ideal'. Was that what Jesus Christ intended his priests to preach?
In Mark 10 we find what Jesus unequivocally and with no mention of conscience thought of Divorce. He was so scathing in his attack that the disciples questioned if marriage was to be so strict that a man could not divorce his wife perhaps it would be better not to marry. Jesus did not contradict them or say that no he did not really mean it that way but went on to teach the circumstances in which a man would be better off not marrying.
But let me get back to the children. Divorce has a devastating affect on them. Indeed in Britain 50 per cent of children aged 15 have gone through the trauma of their parents divorcing. I has been found that the children are damaged to the extent that few actually achieve their potential in life. This report comes from the secular society and not the Church. Where does the Church stand. Well of course we still have a situation where as a result of the new catechesis introduced by experts 95 per cent of Catholic Children have left Church long before they have left school. But it does not seem to matter to the people who attend Catholic Churches. There is a blank refusal to acknowledge that a faith crisis exits in the Catholic Schools. Everything is wonderful and the children are swept under the carpet so that Tom, Dick and Harriet can run the parish in peace. And any mention of Jesus on Divorce will be met with an angry and hurt response. Those who follow Jesus should keep their mouths shut and not be 'judgemental' Nevertheless there are many Catholics who will be found still following the teachings of Christ and not a lax conscience and if they are called judgemental it is Christ who is being judged. And while there are suffering children many of us will speak out and bear the insults as Christ had to do.
I was a young man in my twenties when Pope Paul gave us Humanae Vitae. I remember the clamour and the voices of the experts before the event. There was no doubt about it the Church was going to change its teaching on Contraception. And indeed it may well have been what many many Catholics expected. But there was one player in the drama that was ignored and is being ignored on the present issue. That player was the Holy Spirit. He was the One who was guiding the Church, not the Cardinal Kasper's or the other liberal and scholarly persons. What happened in the end was when the Church said 'No to Contraception' they became very angry and a group took to the steps of Westminster Cathedral to protest. I suspect such demonstrations are already being planned after the Holy Spirit guides the Church since the Kasper's and others know that the Final Report gave them no encouragement whatsoever.
And getting back to 'Humanae Vitae' everything that that document claimed would be the result came to pass. It is the children especially who have suffered from societies Contraceptive Mentality leading to Divorce and the breakdown of Marriage. And what hope for the young when priests now from the pulpit put forward that successful marriages are an 'ideal'. Was that what Jesus Christ intended his priests to preach?
In Mark 10 we find what Jesus unequivocally and with no mention of conscience thought of Divorce. He was so scathing in his attack that the disciples questioned if marriage was to be so strict that a man could not divorce his wife perhaps it would be better not to marry. Jesus did not contradict them or say that no he did not really mean it that way but went on to teach the circumstances in which a man would be better off not marrying.
But let me get back to the children. Divorce has a devastating affect on them. Indeed in Britain 50 per cent of children aged 15 have gone through the trauma of their parents divorcing. I has been found that the children are damaged to the extent that few actually achieve their potential in life. This report comes from the secular society and not the Church. Where does the Church stand. Well of course we still have a situation where as a result of the new catechesis introduced by experts 95 per cent of Catholic Children have left Church long before they have left school. But it does not seem to matter to the people who attend Catholic Churches. There is a blank refusal to acknowledge that a faith crisis exits in the Catholic Schools. Everything is wonderful and the children are swept under the carpet so that Tom, Dick and Harriet can run the parish in peace. And any mention of Jesus on Divorce will be met with an angry and hurt response. Those who follow Jesus should keep their mouths shut and not be 'judgemental' Nevertheless there are many Catholics who will be found still following the teachings of Christ and not a lax conscience and if they are called judgemental it is Christ who is being judged. And while there are suffering children many of us will speak out and bear the insults as Christ had to do.
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