POPE FRANCIS IS RESTORING THE PATRIARCHAL AND MATRIARCHAL NATURE OF OUR GOD AND CHURCH

The Holy Father is quite aware of the silly season of the Church of the 1970's and what His Holiness said to a group of young people on Saturday night, June 28, is quite telling in this regard.

I think it is safe to assume that in God and the Church the Holy Father sees both the patriarchal and the matriarchal and that the two are complimentary and necessary.

In the 1970's theology that I learned, patriarchal was changed to patriarchy and considered evil, bad, and off-putting. Thus there was the trend to make neuter the pronouns normally ascribed to God, such as He,Him and Father. Even the Biblical terms for Jesus was neutered, Son of Man to Person of Humanity. Gender neutrality was the name of the game for referring to God.

The same for Holy Mother Church. Matriarchal was changed to matriarchy and matriarchy was bad, evil and not good either. The Church became neutered. She became it and one did not speak of it as her or mother or bride.

Of course popular devotions in general and Marian devotions in particular were cast aside in the 1970's. And it is here that Pope Francis laments what he experienced in the 1970's:


Pope Francis said he feels sad when he hears Christians say they do not seek the Mary or pray to Mary. He recalled a conversation with two young catechists in the seventies, a couple with young children, who spoke beautifully about Jesus:

“At one point I said, ‘And devotion to the Madonna?’ ‘But we have passed that stage. We know Jesus Christ so well, that we have no need of the Madonna.’ And what came into my heart and my mind was ‘Oh… poor orphans!’ … because a Christian without the Madonna is an orphan. And a Christian without the Church is an orphan. A Christian needs these two women, these two women who are mothers, two women who are virgins: the Church and the Madonna. And to make a ‘test’ of a good Christian vocation, you need to ask yourself: ‘How is my relationship with these two mothers going?’ with mother Church and with mother Mary. This is not a question of ‘piety,’ no, it’s pure theology. This is theology. How is my relationship with the Church going, with my mother the Church, with the holy mother the hierarchic Church? And how is my relationship going with the Madonna, who is my Mamma, my Mother?”

My Final Comments:

Pope Francis knows that when God is neutered and the Church is neutered then the truth is neutered. The truth about the priesthood as an image of Jesus Christ the Bridegroom, the truth about the Church as the Bride of Christ and Holy Mother, the truth about marriage (secular or religious) about the complementarity of male and female, bride and groom open to becoming a co-creator with God through sex based upon natural law.

When you neuter God and Church you get the perversions of female priests, same sex marriage (secular or religious), and the loss of the significant complementarity of being husbanded and wifed,  mothered and fathered and the need for both. A husband needs a wife and a wife needs a husband! Children need both a mother and a father and the Children of God need both God to be a Father and the Church to be a Mother and Jesus to be the Bridegroom and the Church to be the Bride of Christ.

It is that simple and that necessary--it is pure theology, doctrine and dogma!