WHEREIN I AGREE WITH POPE FRANCIS

Unlike the czars of the silly synod on synods, who seem to deify the synod and shunt God to the side, except by using the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity to manipulate an outcome, Pope Francis in his talks, even if they are harsh, scolding, critiquing and mean-spirited, especially to the mentally ill which he calls rigid or traditionalists, which he call backwardists, he is Christo-centric and acknowledges the devil and seeks salvation in this world and the next. 

What I appreciate about the post Vatican II Church is the pastoral theology that has evolved. We need to build people up to become adult members of the Church where Catholicism is a “yes” to all the good things that God brings us which is freedom from sin and damnation and new life in abundance delivered from the evils done to us and we do. This begins now and is fulfilled in eternity.

I appreciate what Pope Francis wrote to the new Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is part of it:

 “I entrust to you, as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, a task that I consider very valuable. Its central purpose is to safeguard the teaching that flows from the faith to ‘give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns’ (Evangelii gaudium, 271).”

 (My comment: if only the Pope would follow his own advice and not be such a scold and so negative about people with whom he disagrees, like traditionalists, mentally ill rigid people,  pickled pusses, backwardists, and what ever other insults that have be catalogued in the past 10 years).

“We need a way of thinking that can convincingly present a God who loves, who forgives, who saves, who liberates, who promotes people and calls them to fraternal service.”

“This happens if the proclamation concentrates ‘on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary.’ You know well that there is a harmonious order among the truths of our message, where the greatest danger occurs when secondary issues end up overshadowing the central ones.”

“In the context of this richness, your task also implies a special care to verify that the documents of your own dicastery and others have an adequate theological foundation, are coherent with the rich soil of the Church’s perennial teaching, and at the same time embrace the recent Magisterium.”