POPE FRANICS PROMOTES ARCHBISHOP LEONARD BLAIR WHO HELPED IN THE INVESTIGATION OF LCWR

NPR has an article with some audio of interviews it has done with Archbishop elect Leonard Blair who has been promoted to a very large archdiocese in Hartford, Connecticut. YOU CAN READ IT AND HEAR IT BY PRESSING HERE.

This is what he told NPR:  Blair said the LCWR undermined the Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality, birth control and "radical feminist themes." He spoke with Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air last year and addressed the findings. Here is what he had to say on gay marriage:

Well, I think another great issue of our society today is the defense of the God-given institution of marriage between one man and one woman. And I think everybody knows this is at the front line of moral issues in our country today. And so what we would imagine happening for the organization of Catholic religious women, would be that they would be front and center in speaking on behalf of this fundamental teaching. And yet we don't find that. 

And this raises another important point, I think; that no one is questioning the compassionate, pastoral care that has to be given to people - for example, people who have a homosexual inclination. And I think sometimes, there's a disservice done when it's made to sound as if the church condemns homosexuals.

The National Chismatic Reporter (NCR) also threw a nutty criticizing Pope Francis for appointing a Vatican bureaucrat to a large and influential archdiocese chiding the pope for reneging on one of his major proposal to Apostolic Nuncios to make pastors bishops, not princes.   You can read their nutty by PRESSING HERE.

Of course, Pope Francis asked his head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller to clarify what the Church teaches about conscience and divorce. This is what he wrote in synopsis below, but you can read the entire essay, certainly approved and commissioned by Pope Francis by PRESSING HERE!

Archbishop Müller: Care of remarried divorcees must not be reduced to the question of receiving the Eucharist

October 22, 2013: The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, has published an article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, speaking about the issue of re-marriage and the reception of the sacraments. He begins by re-affirming the Church's constant teaching that marriage is indissoluble, and that this is testified to both in Scripture and Tradition. In the article, Archbishop Müller acknowledges that modern misunderstandings over the meaning of marriage leads to more marriages being invalid than in previous times, but writes that couples should not decide for themselves whether or not their marriage is null.

"Marriage is not simply about the relationship of two people to God, it is also a reality of the Church, a sacrament, and it is not the individuals concerned to decide on its validity, but rather for the Church, into which individuals are incorporated by faith and baptism," he writes.

The Archbishop says he knows it is not an easy teaching, but those who are divorced and remarried should know that they are not alone, and the Church "as a community of salvation accompanies them on their journey."

"Clearly, the care of remarried divorcees must not be reduced to the question of receiving the Eucharist," he writes. "It involves a much more wide-ranging pastoral approach, which seeks to do justice to the different situations. It is important to realize that there are other ways, apart from sacramental communion, of being in fellowship with God. One can draw close to God by turning to him in faith, hope and charity, in repentance and prayer. God can grant his closeness and his salvation to people on different paths, even if they find themselves in a contradictory life situation."

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/10/23/archbishop_m%C3%BCller:_care_of_remarried_divorcees_must_not_be_reduced_to/in2-739721 

of the Vatican Radio website 

MY FINAL COMMENT: Thus one can see in these two important things that there is continuity between Pope Francis and Pope Benedict and continuity in Church doctrine.

Keep in mind also that Pope Francis is more of a direct leader than Pope Benedict. Pope Benedict took his time in "mandating" certain elements of his papacy and often proposed rather than mandated. This was perplexing to many.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, backs up what he models with action and mandates and does so quickly almost compulsively. In terms of continuity of certain aspects of Church teaching, Pope Francis has left more recent popes in the dust on the following major topics:

Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church

The influence of the very real evil spirit of the DEVIL

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother of God, of the Church and of all of us

Popular devotions practiced by rank and file Catholics at home without recourse to a priest--to strengthen families and individual Catholics to be "priests" in the world and influence the world with the New Evangelization

Noble simplicity for the Liturgy but doing it by the Book and when facing the congregation in an "ad orientem" sort of way--removal of the pope's and priests' personalities from the liturgy in other words