Reporter: May I ask you if the Church will have women cardinals in the future?
Pope Francis: “I don’t know where this idea sprang from. Women in the Church must be valued not “clericalised”. Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism.”
MY COMMENTS: The heterodox left in the Church always speak of Holy Orders as power and empowering those who have no power in this regard, those who are not called to Holy Orders need to be empowered so they can be called to Holy Orders. This is the drivel of the left. They are consumed with power and empowering. They do not see Holy Orders as service and for only one gender, only those who can be fathers. That's men folks and that is imprinted in natural law. It is about natural law, the true order of spousal relationships and the generation of children (spiritual or physical) as well as service in these areas! It is not about the obsession with power or empowerment. Holy Orders and the honorary titles given the fathers of the Church, whether monsignors or cardinals, is about service, not power or empowerment. The left just doesn't get it since they are power mongers.
It is also clear that Pope Francis will uphold the traditional Catholic family and find ways to strengthen it given the cultural milieu that is deconstructing traditional Catholic marriage and family life. There will be no empowerment of abberant forms of marriage and so-called family life as the Holy Father makes crystal clear in his Apostolic Exhortation. The Holy Father holds up the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in their valiant attempts to curb the empowerment of secularism in our own country. He also upholds the heroic efforts of the French bishops who mobilized the service of orthodox Catholics to send a message to the French government to uphold and be of service to the natural and traditional definition of marriage rather than redefining it to empower the secularists who wish to experience its power rather than its service:
"The process of secularization tends to reduce the faith and the Church to the sphere of the private and personal. Furthermore, by completely rejecting the transcendent, it has produced a growing deterioration of ethics, a weakening of the sense of personal and collective sin, and a steady increase in relativism. These have led to a general sense of disorientation, especially in the periods of adolescence and young adulthood which are so vulnerable to change. As the bishops of the United States of America have rightly pointed out, while the Church insists on the existence of objective moral norms which are valid for everyone, “there are those in our culture who portray this teaching as unjust, that is, as opposed to basic human rights. Such claims usually follow from a form of moral relativism that is joined, not without inconsistency, to a belief in the absolute rights of individuals. In this view, the Church is perceived as promoting a particular prejudice and as interfering with individual freedom”.[59] We are living in an information-driven society which bombards us indiscriminately with data – all treated as being of equal importance – and which leads to remarkable superficiality in the area of moral discernment. In response, we need to provide an education which teaches critical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.
65. Despite the tide of secularism which has swept our societies, in many countries – even those where Christians are a minority – the Catholic Church is considered a credible institution by public opinion, and trusted for her solidarity and concern for those in greatest need. Again and again, the Church has acted as a mediator in finding solutions to problems affecting peace, social harmony, the land, the defence of life, human and civil rights, and so forth. And how much good has been done by Catholic schools and universities around the world! This is a good thing. Yet, we find it difficult to make people see that when we raise other questions less palatable to public opinion, we are doing so out of fidelity to precisely the same convictions about human dignity and the common good.
66. The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another; it is also the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensible contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born “of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life”.[60]
67. The individualism of our postmodern and globalized era favours a lifestyle which weakens the development and stability of personal relationships and distorts family bonds. Pastoral activity needs to bring out more clearly the fact that our relationship with the Father demands and encourages a communion which heals, promotes and reinforces interpersonal bonds. In our world, especially in some countries, different forms of war and conflict are re-emerging, yet we Christians remain steadfast in our intention to respect others, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2). Today too, various associations for the defence of rights and the pursuit of noble goals are being founded. This is a sign of the desire of many people to contribute to social and cultural progress."
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