However, I did not know this until just now and it was published by Lifesite news. This is what Pope Francis said to the United Nations yesterday:
Pope Francis calls on UN to uphold right to life and the natural family
“The defense of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman, and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions."“The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life,” he said, “of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic.”
My comments: I challenge all of you to read the second chapter of Laudato Si. In this chapter the Holy Father gives a brilliant explanation of Creation prior to the fall, what Original and Actual sin are and do to our relationship with God, each other and the environment, and the intrinsic value of natural law.
Natural Law and observing it is at the core of the pope's teaching on the environment which ties into every other moral teaching of the Church. Natural Law, though, it available to all even those who reject Scripture and Tradition. In the new evangelization, an appeal to Natural Law rather than Sacred Scripture and Tradition would seem to be obvious especially when dealing with non-believers as the Holy Father was doing both in Congress and especially in the United Nations.
12 comments:
The National Catholic Register reporter Jonathan Liedl writes that Pope Francis missed a golden opportunity when addressing Congress:
"Yesterday, Pope Francis addressed a number of issues by name when he spoke to Congress. He talked about immigrants; he delved into economics; and he got very specific on environmental degradation, the arms trade, and abolishing the death penalty.
One issue that Pope Francis did not get specific about was abortion.
To be sure, he made a reference to the practice when he said that “the Golden Rule…reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.” This line earned thunderous applause from the conservatives in the chamber.
... Abortion is one of the most contentious issues in American society, and the Catholic Church in this country has long decried its wide-spread practice as a crime against the most innocent among us. To have it not receive much air time from the earthly head of the Church was bound to raise eyebrows, a reality of which whoever was working with the Pope on this address had to be aware."
He raised this with Fr Lombardi and says he was disappointed in the response he received. I think this article sums up the problem with Francis's pontificate as many Catholics see it - over-emphasis on climate change and other issues to the detriment of the most fundamental issue of all which is surely the right to life. As Jonathan Liedl sums it up: "And so I wish the Holy Father would’ve spoken about the importance of the protection of the unborn in more explicit fashion, as he did on other important (but arguably less morally weighted) matters; not in a strident manner, but in a tone consistent with his call for dialogue and conversation."
Certainly this pontificate may be a popular one with the ordinary man in the street, but in my view it falls far short from the moral lead we were given by St John Paul II The Great and Benedict XVI ...
Jan
The Pope is also against air conditioning. So, the answer to the poor and the environment is to make everybody poor, dirty, and sweaty like the people in the Third World slum he comes from. Why don't we give up bathing (oh, those folks already have), deodorant (it has mean old chemicals in it), toilet paper (kills trees), and any other semblance of civilization just so guilt-ridden, self-hating liberals can feel good about themselves. Then, we will all smell as bad as the looney ideas we are listening to.
I read Laudatory Si and I find it incredibly telling that Francis cuts out the very last part of St. Francis' Canticle :
" Woe to those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are those whom death will
find in Your most holy willl,
for the second death shall do them no harm."
Why did he do that?
And, you see, here is how it works: You say all the right stuff about natural law and doctrine, etc, then have a gay guy read the lesson, invite gays to the Vatican, praise Dorothy Day and Merton, loosen up on marriage and adultery, and make glib comments like "who am I to judge." So, pay lip service but behave the way you really feel.
Wow for you to know all this I just know that you know Pope Francis mind like a palm reader. Do you dabble in the occult?
So....Gene's new secret identity is Clyde Catholic.....
Palm readers don't do minds. It doesn't take a clairvoyant to see the obvious. Or, in another phrase, "it don't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." BTW, Clyde Catholic is not "Gene," but I know who Gene is. We have actually spoken about this stuff from time to time. I do not think Gene aka Calvin, Augustine, Jansenist will be back. He is having cognitive dissonance.
I Googled "cognitive dissonance" and it said "bovine fecal impaction".
I, like Jan and Jonathan Liedl who she references, do not understand some of the things Pope Francis has emphasized while saying little about the moral evil of abortion. Keep in mind, by his own admission he does not watch television or use the Internet. We don't know what his advisers are telling him.
Holiness,sanctity,and wisdom are not conferred on one immediately upon being elected to the office of the papacy. The Pope is a human being as were all his predecessors. In the history of the Church there have been saintly popes, good popes, bad popes, mediocre popes and anti-popes. All very different but all very human with everything that entails. Some of the things the Holy Father does and says may perplex us but do not allow that to cause you to sin in any way. It is only due to the Power and Grace of God that no pope has erred in matters of faith and morals. Remember to include the Pope in your prayers.
There are times when one's faith is put to the test and if one's faith is weak and not as it should be, then this can be quite a difficult path to negotiate. The suffering we endure when being tested has a useful purpose, one of which is to increase and strengthen our faith and this to aid us on our spiritual journey. We must make a holy resolution to persevere and remain faithful through those experiences that trouble us and cause us great difficulty.
At such times one must be resolute and have recourse to frequent prayer, especially the rosary, and the sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Confession.
“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”
― Teresa of Ávila
“In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.”
― Teresa of Ávila
Yes, I agree with George and I agree with Clyde Catholic when he says, "You say all the right stuff about natural law and doctrine, etc, then have a gay guy read the lesson, invite gays to the Vatican, praise Dorothy Day and Merton, loosen up on marriage and adultery, and make glib comments like "who am I to judge."" That has been the troubling pattern in this pontificate on the one hand what good is said is then undermined by the actions of inviting homosexuals to do the reading, which is clearly a scandal and it then confuses Catholics as to what the Pope is actually saying. It seems on the one hand he wants to uphold Catholic doctrine but on the other lets feelings of empathy and sympathy undermine that teaching. I don't think it is a case of reading the mind of the Pope either, it is the ambiguousness of this pontificate which everyone can see.
Actually, we are studying everything that Pope Francis says not to undermine him but, in the HOPE that what he says upholds Catholic teaching. We shouldn't need to do that. We shouldn't even need to read what the Pope says. We should instinctively know and expect everything he says and his actions will uphold Catholic doctrine. We haven't had to do that with the vast majority of the Popes - why is there this problem now? There is more uncertainty and threat of schism than ever before since this pontificate began and that is putting it mildly.
Jan
Clyde,
It seems we run in similar circles. I wonder if we've met?
Flavius, possibly.
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