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Letter #62, 2016: On the Knife's Edge[2016-10-03][Engleză]October 3, 2016, Monday -- The Pope Walks on the Knife's Edge"Today there is a world war to destroy marriage." Pope Francis on Saturday, October 1, in Georgia, two days ago, in a meeting with priests, men and women religious, seminarians and pastoral workers at the Church of the Assumption "There are ideological colonizations that destroy. Therefore we must defend ourselves against ideological colonization." Pope Francis, in the same talk (you can see the Pope speak these words, in Italian, at the 2:10 mark on this Rome Reports link) "In my life as a priest and bishop, even as Pope, I have accompanied people with homosexual tendencies, I have also met homosexual persons, accompanied them, brought them closer to the Lord, as an apostle, and I have never abandoned them. People must be accompanied as Jesus accompanies them, when a person who has this condition arrives before Jesus, Jesus surely doesn't tell them 'go away because you are homosexual.'" Pope Francis, in his in-flight press conference yesterday evening, October 2, as he returned to Rome from his trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan, when asked to explain his remarks on "ideological colonization" the previous day "A French father told me that he was speaking with his children at the table, he and his wife were Catholics... And he asked his 10-year-old son: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A girl." The father realized that in the school books they were teaching his son gender theory. And this is against the natural things. One thing is that a person has this tendency, this condition, and there are those who even change their sex, but it's another thing to have instruction in the schools along these lines, in order to change the mentality. This is what I call ideological colonization." Pope Francis, in the same in-flight press conference yesterday "The principle is that, but human weaknesses exist, sins exist, and always the last word is not spoken by weakness, the last word is never spoken by sin. Mercy has the last word. "I like to tell I do not know if I told you, because I repeat it so much that in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen in Vezelay (France), there is a beautiful capital, dating more or less from the 13th century. The medievals used the sculptures of their cathedrals for catechesis. On one side of the capital there is Judas, hanged, with his tongue out, and eyes (bulging) out, and on the other side of the capital there is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who takes (Judas) and carries him with him. And if we look closely, the face of Jesus, the lips of Jesus, are sad on the one hand, but with a small smile of understanding on the other. These people had come to understand what mercy is! With Judas! "And for this reason, in Amoris laetitia marriage is spoken of, the foundation of marriage is spoken of, as it is ... but then come the problems. How to prepare oneself for marriage, how to bring up the children... And then, in Chapter Eight, when the problems come, how you solve them." Pope Francis, in the same in-flight press conference yesterday Poor Judas, just what went on in his soul I dont know. He is one of the most mysterious figures in the Passion of the Lord. I wont even try to explain it to you, all I ask is for you to have some mercy on our poor brother Judas. Do not feel ashamed about the fact that you are related to him. I personally am not ashamed, as I am conscious of how many times I have betrayed the Lord; and I do not think any of you should be ashamed of him. In calling him brother, we use the language of the Lord. When Judas offered the kiss of betrayal in Gethsemane, the Lord responded to him with words we must never forget: Friend, with one kiss you betray the Son of man! Don Primo Mazzolari, parish priest of Bozzolo in northern Italy, homily on Judas, the Traitor given on Holy Thursday, 1958. Mazzolari was a pioneer of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis cited this homily on June 16, 2016, at the opening of the Convention of the Diocese of Rome. At that time, Francis also referred to a carving on the top of a column in the medieval Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Vezelay, France. The carving seems to depict, on one side, Judas hanging himself, and, on the other side, Christ the Good Shepherd carrying the dead Judas on his shoulders. Francis described that same carving to journalists yesterday when responding to a question about the "world war" against marriage during his in-flight press conference coming back from his trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan (link) (Here below, the 800-year-old capital carving in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in VĂšzelay, France, which Pope Francis referred to in his airplane press conference yesterday evening as he returned from his three-day trip to Georgia and Azerbaijan. The capital depicts Judas, on the left, with his tongue hanging out, hanging himself after he betrayed Christ, and, on the right, the treacherous apostle being carried by Jesus, the Good Shepherd) Don Primo Mazzolari gave a beautiful speech on this, he was a priest who understood the complexity of the Gospels logic well: getting ones hands dirty like Jesus did, he was not clean, he went and met people and accepted people as they were, not as they should be." Pope Francis, June 16, 2016, St. John Lateran, address to the Convention of the Diocese of Rome (link) =================== Pope Francis gave us a special and new insight into his thinking yesterday during his in-flight press conference on the flight back from Georgia and Azerbaijan to Rome. For three years now, much of the world, inside and outside of the Church, has been debating Francis' true meaning and intent regarding questions of marriage, divorce, remarriage, reception of Holy Communion, and the entire complex of questions related to "gender theory." Some conservative voices in the Catholic Church are now angrily denouncing Francis for allegedly breaking with traditional Catholic moral teaching on many of these matters. And, strikingly, many liberal voices in the Catholic and secular media have seconded the position of these conservatives that Francis is breaking with past teaching but these liberals have praised Francis, not blamed him, for doing so. Still, there are problems with this interpretation of what Francis has done and is doing. Chief among these problems is that Francis continues to make very traditional statements about marriage and divorce, statements which are often passed over in silence by the secular media. And that is what happened over the weekend, when Francis was in Georgia and Azerbaijan. In Georgia, Francis denounced a powerful contemporary force of "ideological colonization" whose ultimate aim, he said, is to "destroy marriage." And during an in-flight press conference as he returned from Azerbaijan to Rome, he reiterated his view that this ideology of "gender theory" should be fought especially in elementary schools around the world, where it influences the young. The journalists on the plane were asking him what he meant by the phrase "ideological colonization." And he replied that the ideology is "gender theory," which (to summarize, perhaos unfairly) seems to hold that gender is fluid, that it is a social construct, not based in any physical or natural reality, and that therefore individuals should be free to choose their own gender. And he said, very clearly, that this theory is "against natural things" and that it should not be taught in schools to impressionable children to "change their mentality." In the same press conference, he was at pains to repeat the traditional Catholic teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that it is intended to be permanent, for life. "When we speak of marriage as the union of a man and a woman as God made them as the image of God, it is man and woman," the Pope said. "The image of God is not a man. It is a man with a woman. Together. Who are one flesh when they join in marriage. This is the truth. It is true that, in this culture, conflicts and many problems are not well managed, and there are even philosophies of 'today I do this [get married], when I get tired (of it) I will make another (marriage), then I will make a third, then I will make a fourth.' And this is that world war that you are alluding to against marriage. We must be careful not to allow these ideas to enter into us." This is a ringing reaffirmation of traditional Catholic teaching regarding marriage. Yet, Pope Francis has been at pains to make clear that he does not wish to exclude from the Church, or from God's mercy, any of those who fall short of this ideal, or sin against it, ending their marriages, remarrying, and so forth. As he has often said, the Church is a hospital for sinners. In yesterday's press conference, he insists on this: "There is sin, there is rupture, but there is also mercy, redemption, healing. Have I made myself clear on this?" So what is the overall situation? What is Pope Francis doing? Pope Francis is walking on the knife's edge. He is teaching traditional Catholic morality. His remarks on marriage yesterday are one more convincing example of this. But he is teaching this morality in such a way as not to exclude all who fall short of the full carrying out of that moral code and that group of those who fall short may even include... all of us. Francis is certainly aware that there are very powerful forces in the world today that wish to "deconstruct" marriage perhaps end marriage altogether, in its traditional form, perhaps as part of a not-always-openly-expressed plan to "remake" humanity itself. "Homo sapiens version 2.0.," as it were... These powerful forces seem to believe that traditional marriage is rooted in a patriarchal past in which the role of women was limited almost completely to child-bearing and in which families were primarily providers of soldiers, farmers, physical laborers bodies for various, mostly despotic, imperial states. The recent unprecedented affluence of our own age, its detachment from the annual cycles of agriculture and the land, of fertility and harvest, its increasing mechanization, computerization, robotization, is now creating a rather different context for marital life and human reproduction than ever before, providing a certain fertile ground for some of the arguments of the "gender agenda." In other words, the "gender agenda" is gaining considerable support. This is precisely the point, say some of the Pope's critics. Knowing that this is our situation, knowing that powerful forces are implementing a "gender agenda" for their own reasons and using their own logic, and that these forces are having a certain success in the post-modern societies of our time, Francis should never have allowed any opening to these forces to claim that the Catholic Church agreed with their views, or accepted them. These critics argue that the Pope has underestimated how his openings toward human weakness and his mercy toward human sin have in this peculiar, special context of our time been exploited to weaken the Catholic Church and her ability to withstand the massive "ideological colonization" he himself says is underway. So it becomes, as it were, a tactical question. The Pope seems to have chosen the tactic of presenting that merciful and understanding and forgiving aspect of God and Christ to the world as the defining characteristic of Christian faith, partly in order to avoid a direct and frontal clash with the enormously powerful cultural lobbies of our time. But there may come a moment when this tactic will have to change. Perhas it has not come yet, but it may be coming soon. And the Pope hints at something like this in his press conference remarks. He hints at it when he says that the instruction given in elementary school to the 10-year-old Catholic boy in France should not include that "gender theory" which leaves the boy doubtful about his own gender, and open to the thought that perhaps he would like to become a girl. The implication is that it might be more charitable, more merciful, to that boy, and to his family, to prevent that type of teaching in the schools, than to accept that type of teaching, and its consequences. And the Pope actually seems to say that: "One thing is that a person has this tendency, this condition, and there are those who even change their sex, but it's another thing to teach this in schools in order to change the mentality. This is what I call ideological colonization." So the Pope seems to be saying that a line needs to be drawn. But to draw out that position to its logical conclusions would seem to compel the Church to engage, rather rapidly, in an open culture war against many of the most powerful elites of the West. Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 839, Ultimul acces: 2026-07-30 02:10:01
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