At today's concluding Mass, the Holy Father once again asked Catholics to FIGHT against the insidious attacks on the family.
this is what the NCR wrote in this regard:
Speaking Sunday during a homily at an open-air Mass in Manila's Rizal Park, Francis also asked them to protect the family against what he called "insidious attacks."
Using the example of St. Joseph, who he called the "protector" of Jesus, Francis said the saint "reminds us of the importance of protecting our families, and those larger families [which] are the church, God's family, and the world, [our] human family."
"Sadly, in our day, the family all too often needs to be protected against insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture," said Francis.
"We too need to protect, guide and encourage our young people, helping them to build a society worthy of their great spiritual and cultural heritage," he continued. "Specifically, we need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed, cherished and protected."
My comment: Compare that last sentence above with the drivel from the so-called Catholic feminist writing for Crux, Margaret Egan where she saw it as heartbreaking that so many children were in an orphanage that Pope Francis had visited. In her thinking, it would have been better for these children not to be welcomed into the human family by artificially contracepting them or worse yet aborting them. In her thinking (some Catholic no?) it is better to have empty orphanages because of the contraceptive mentality and abortion. Talk about the influence of Satan!
39 comments:
Does he mean gov't attacks on the family and politicians that support anti-family laws, or does he mean attacks like those by Kasper, Forte, and other priests and religious who support "alternative" family structures? In many ways they are one in the same.
You sound as if you think of contraception and abortion as the same thing.
That is one Mass-ive crowd!
Laudetur Iesus Christus!
Abortion is used as contraception and is the logical conclusion of the contraceptive mentality and in addition, it is big business, both for pharmaceuticals and planned parenthood. This ties in very well with Pope Francis concern about money more important than people and the thow away culture.
Contraception and abortion are of the same mentality and lead to the same place. Both are anti-life.
They might be the same "mentality" to some of you (who have between you, what...2 children?). Not so for everybody. My wife and I gave life to seven children....used contraception....no abortions. (Abortion is not our "mentality".)
Tell me about how we're going to hell....
Indeed, it is something worse than murder, and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God and fight with his laws? The matter still seems indifferent to many men—even to many men having wives. In this indifference of the married men there is greater evil filth; for then poisons are prepared, not against the womb of a prostitute, but against your injured wife. Against her are these innumerable tricks.
--St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 24 (A.D. 391)
Ms. Egan was the first reason I stopped routinely reading Crux despite several Catholic bloggers (including this one) lauding it in the early days. Since then, there have been other reasons...
Nobody is telling you that you are going to Hell. The Church issues decrees based upon Scripture and doctrine and you may obey them or disobey them. The Church, and Scripture, also issues strong warnings regarding the consequences of ignoring them. No one knows, ultimately, how Christ the Righteous Judge will impart mercy or condemnation. The Church simply says, "you have been warned."
Anonymous:
Your argument is not with others on this blog. It is with God Himself, who has revealed Himself through Scripture, and whose teachings contained therein were handed on to His Holy Church and are embodied Her teachings. If there are those teachings you cannot accept, then we can only pray for you. No one here can judge you. Only God can. It is up to us to follow His laws and precepts and we can only do it with the help of His grace.
As far as contraceptives and abortion - yes there are some contraceptives which are abortifacients(a drug or substance which induces abortion).
A beautiful (if somewhat wet) Mass. Watched it live on "Fox News". A "sea of humanity", as they say.
Gene,
I think it's important to point out that there certainty about Hell as a consequence. The Church teaches that anyone who knowingly and freely commits a sin against the Ten Commandments and then dies unrepentant will indeed go to Hell. There's no ambiguity in this.
Even Vatican II teaches that anyone who knows the Catholic Church to be necessary for salvation but who chooses to leave the Church (or not join the Church) cannot be saved from Hell.
Anonymous,
You'll be right there on Judgement Day alongside such damned souls as slaveholders: "but, we had eight children and 50 friends whom we did not enslave; that ought to count for something".
I fear you'll hear God's response to you as: "what about all those times when you dared to block my creative hand with your plastics and poisons!"
You're going to Hell my friend, unless you repent. Please do so. Think of the children God intended you to have, and shed tears of repentance.
Paul,
I was surprised to see it on Fox News, even preempting regular programming. I'm impressed.
JBS, Of course, you are correct. But, ultimately, we cannot presume upon God's mercy or His judgement.
He is, after all, bigger than the Church. I was in a discussion in grad school once with several students, one of whom was a nun. The subject came up, "Who will be in Hell?" Well, we all agreed that certainly, if anyone could be guaranteed to be in Hell, it would be Hitler. Sister Faith responded, "Yes, but what if at the last minute before he died, in the bunker, he made a true Confession?"
Good old dependable JBS....I knew I could count on you to send me to hell.
Will you at least dip your finger in water and touch it to my tongue?
....probably not, huh?
"However, profoundly different from any contraceptive practice is the behavior of married couples, who, always remaining fundamentally open to the gift of life, live their intimacy only in the unfruitful periods, when they are led to this course by serious motives of responsible parenthood. This is true both from the anthropological and moral points of view, because it is rooted in a different conception of the person and of sexuality. The witness of couples who for years have lived in harmony with the plan of the Creator, and who, for proportionately serious reasons, licitly use the methods rightly called "natural," confirms that it is possible for spouses to live the demands of chastity and of married life with common accord and full self-giving." [Pontifical Council for the Family, Vademecum for Confessors Concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life, 2.6]
JBS said, "Think of the children God intended you to have, and shed tears of repentance."
Since you are claiming to know God's plan, how many children did "God intend" for this couple of have? 12? 14? 20? It is not God's intention that in every act of marital intimacy a child is conceived.
The majority of acts of intercourse, even in highly fertile couples, do not result in pregnancy. Somewhere between 5% and 20% of pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion. (Factors influencing this are age of the woman, previous births, etc)
Married couples can choose, through natural means, to avoid having more children than they believe. God does it, it seems, "intend" that every act of intercourse should produce a child.
May I have your attention please? Virtually all, repeat, ALL sexually active couples, unmarried or married....Catholic or not Catholic, have used and/or do use some form of "artificial" birth control. Virtually all of them do not think they are sinning. They are not all going to hell.
It seems clear that some of you celibate priest experts are woefully uninformed about how real life human sexuality works. It would probably help if you were married.
Be careful of what you ask, most married Catholic priests, formerly Episcopal priests support natural law and Church teaching! My married associate priest for 14 years was quite vocal about it and one of his 7 children, his oldest daughter taught natural family planning.
I only know what the Church teaches: contraception is a mortal sin, mortal sin results in loss of God's grace, and loss of God's grace, if not recovered, leads to eternal damnation. I also know that contracepting couples can repent of their sins and be saved. I don't want anyone to go to Hell, but I can't help anyone who is not repentant.
"He [Onan] knowing that the children should not be his, when he went in to his brother's wife, spilled his seed upon the ground, lest children should be born in his brother's name. And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a detestable thing." Contraception=death.
So, if everybody doesn't believe they are sinning, they must not be…interesting theology.
Marie,
Fox News has previously (and quietly) presented live, uninterrupted broadcasts of concluding Papal Masses. Korea, for instance. I would watch it on EWTN but the quality (as rebroadcast by EWTN) is usually so poor, technically. Was the Holy Mass on the other news networks? Nope.
Anonymous,
I fall outside the group of "virtually all", including the group of NFP.
One cannot seek refuge in the false reality of the masses by sinning as they do. God cannot be deceived. Those who say the sin is OK will be held responsible as well. That is reality.
Gene,
Yes, we should apparently ask Catholics which of the Ten Commandments they break, and if, say, 90% use God's name in vain or commit adultery, then we should strike that commandment from the list.
Hey, let's start calling this Anonymous "Onananonymous." LOL!!!!
Gene,
About the Hitler example, she was certainly right, but we must still state clearly that a murderer who dies unrepentant will go to Hell.
The whole purpose of Christ becoming man, enduring His Crucifixion, and establishing His Church, was to free us from death and offer us to the Father. If people do not understand that death is the consequence of our mortal sins, then they do not understand Christ or His Church. Therefore, we must teach them about sin and death, and introduce them to the One who frees them.
Gene, have you ever heard of the three requirements for a mortal sin? Don't you have many advanced degrees.
Anonymous,
If one has full knowledge, consent of the will and commits the act itself, one then cannot later claim stupidity.
No degrees necessary.
So...JBS...we need to teach people who don't know about "sin & death" so that they get a chance to go to hell?
JBS, you and I are in complete agreement.
Anonymous, what in the Hell are you talking about? What have the three requirements for mortal sin got to do with a true confession at the last minute?
Anonymous,
We cannot judge the soul nor can we condemn the soul. We have been commanded to teach His word.
What will become of those who neither see nor hear His word through no fault of their own is Providence.
Thank you, Paul.
I did not watch the Mass in Korea. I didn't know that Fox News would even consider airing a papal Mass instead of just reporting bits of it. I hope they did not lose a lot of revenue for preempting regularly scheduled programming.
But I'm happy Fox did.
Every Mass we begin by acknowledging our sinfulness and need for God's mercy and forgiveness. If we are serious we include all our sins.
But what is remarkable is how left-wing, progressive "catholics" simultaneously accuse right-wing traditionalists of being pharisees, older brothers, judgmental smug self-righteousness prudes....while insisting that they don't sin or need to apologize for their sodomy, fornication, adultery, masturbation, porn, contraception, abortion, etc.
That they can indulge every sense, indulge every appetite, and so long as they intellectually are "for" helping the poor they don't actually need to personally do anything (other than vote the 'correct' way).
That they have nothing that needs God's mercy and forgiveness to heal - certainly nothing to drive them to confession on Saturday afternoon.
Much how they are the sexists and racists and xenophobes (hating and fearing people different than they by imposing 'speech codes' etc.) while accusing others of the very acts they indulge in.
You can't get more smug and self-righteous than a cafeteria Catholic who insists that the Pill is OK and sodomy is too.
Anonymous,
I encourage you to read the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church so that you'll have a foundational understanding of Catholicism.
Marie,
You're very welcome. We'll see what happens when His Holiness visits South America, France, United States and Central Africa later this year.
Bless your heart JBS, but I have had 12 years of Catholic catechism.
Anonymous;
12 years of Catholic catechism? I only had 7 and I thank God(and my parents of course) for that. Which was a challenge for them being that it was not free and I come from a large family.
How about asking the fundamental question:
"Father, please quote me the number, under which artificial contraception is condemned, so that I can look it up in DENZINGER.
Then sit back and see what answer you get.
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