THE NEWS ABOUT POPE FRANCIS' ORTHODOXY AND HERMENEUTIC OF REFORM IN CONTINUITY JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER!

I start this post with Pope Francis embracing a poor gentleman with a skin disorder. Was it any sin of his or his parents that caused this? No, except for our first parents, Adam and Eve and the Original sin they introduced to God's created order. Because of them, we are disordered to one degree or another. All of us, some more than others, are so disordered, that we experience horrible diseases such as the one above, quite visible to the naked eye. For others, our diseases are mental and spiritual and just as disfiguring to who we are as created in the image and likeness of God as the picture above, but not seen with the naked eye.

There is great symbolism in the Holy Father embracing this "Leper." He is showing us what Christ did. In Jesus day, physical illness was always associated with some kind of personal sin. Jesus embraces sinners. Then he heals them. He forgives them. The two go hand in hand.

Isn't that the ministry of the Church. Shouldn't the Church embrace sinners, such as homosexuals who are "disordered" as the rest of us, but for them in a particular way that leads to disorders in specific sexual sins chosen, knowing that these sins are wrong, but choosing them nonetheless and with full consent of the will? Shouldn't we embrace these sinners too and lead them to healing, especially through the Sacrament of Mercy, that of Confession or Penance, also known as Reconciliation?

I see nothing in what Pope Francis has said either in actions, symbol or in words to indicate that all of us who are disordered, which is all of us, except of course the Glorious Ever-Virgin Mary, our Mother, are not embraced by God and thus through the Church and her ministry. But the embrace is to lead to healing and forgiveness, which will be completely realized in heaven. But the sinner must acknowledge his disorders and thus come to the font of Mercy and the Sacrament of Penance where forgiveness   is sought and granted as well as penance for the remission of sins.

But the news that Pope Francis embraces Pope Benedict's teaching that the Second Vatican Council must be interpreted within the hermeneutic of reform in continuity is truly stunning and is quite evident in all of Pope Francis' teachings thus far, both in word and symbol. You can read another story about this by pressing the following words for a link to an actual news story about this!

CARDINAL KOCH SUPPORTS THE INTERPRETATION OF VATICAN II AS POPE BENEDICT AND POPE FRANCIS DO, WITHIN THE HERMENEUTIC OF REFROM IN CONTINUITY!