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EWTN Panel: Pope’s Comments on Marriage “Unacceptable”, “Reckless”

On the June 23rd episode of The World Over With Raymond Arroyo, we witnessed one of the best (if not the best) discussions of papal impropriety in mainstream Catholic news. Again and again, Arroyo shows us that he gets it. And his guests (even with Robert Royal’s tendency to softpedal things) are right there with him.

If the video doesn’t take you there directly, go to 27:46. Even if you’re not a regular viewer of the show (or not a fan) this is definitely worth your time:

The awakening continues. Please pray for these men, and for their continued courage and honesty.

88 thoughts on “EWTN Panel: Pope’s Comments on Marriage “Unacceptable”, “Reckless””

  1. Yes, and this fact was most appropriately addressed on today’s official communique
    by the Society of Saint Pius X.

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  2. Mr. Royal bends over backwards to paint the Pope as “trying to be welcoming” yet that is not the scent I persistently pick up from the comments they discuss. I can’t help but see all the Pope’s comments as aggressive towards something he is trying to dismantle. He is destructing something, not building something. The comments are all “not that, but this” against something that is tradition on one level or another.

    The subtext of nearly all the Pope’s comments seems to be fighting an idea he does not like, one he wants to destroy, change, alter, whatever you want to call it. I do not hear, in the least, the kinds of words that are reaching out to people. The people he wants to reach are not tuned into these speeches. He knows this. They speeches and comments are directed towards something in the air he does not care for.

    When someone wants to get right with God from afar, the stereotypical pattern is to do something like “finally go to Mass on Sunday after x years”, or “stopped in the church to pray”. The point of contact is Mass, the pastor, etc. True outreach to the those on the fringes is the reality of local parishes and most importantly, going forward, the existence of the traditional Liturgy.

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    • Obviously the “supportive” words of being welcoming are the fear of being accused of “attacking the pope.” I am pleased that Raymond Arroyo is willing to broadcast these concerns while the other usual media suspects ignore them or do the usual crying “out of context” or “misinterpreted” or “bad liberal media”.

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  3. So based on this anyone that received the sacrement of holy matrimony is dumb…… You couldn’t make this up!

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  4. Thank God for priests like Father Murray who are unafraid to speak out and respectfully acknowledge that what Pope Francis is preaching is not Catholicism as we know it. He did the same thing with his analysis of the flaws with AL; as a canon lawyer, he knows precisely that the novelties introduced by this pontiff cannot be squared with Church teaching, no matter how many mental gymnastics one tries to perform in order to do so. If only all priests and bishops would have the courage to do the same.

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    • Yes. Bless these men who speak the truth. I’m also thankful that this site seeks the truth and doesn’t just endorse what the Pope says especially when it doesn’t square with church teachings. Other catholic sites don’t do this and in fact delete posts that speak against his opinion.

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  5. As Fr. Murray points out, the doubt about the sacrament of marriage would affect all the sacraments. By the same logic, “most priests” are not really priests, which would invalidate “most masses” because a priest whose vows are not understood right, because of his culture, can not say a valid mass, correct? But by extending the logic even further, in the same way cohabitors can have “fidelity” (to what if there are no vows?), Protestant liturgies are “valid” because…he is “sure they mean to have a valid liturgy”? The descent into chaos is absolutely sure with this kind of reasoning. But it does open the way for all kinds of novelties one can only vaguely guess at.

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  6. Clear teaching of the truth. Good for EWTN, they finally seem to be grasping the seriousness of the situation with this “Pope” who seems unwilling or incapable of teaching the truth.

    I know Royal was trying to find good motives behind the “Pope’s” errors, but he did clearly denounce his words as preposterous. Have we ever had a Pontiff in history who could be denounced as “preposterous” on a weekly basis? I think not, and I pray to God that when this one goes to his judgment we will never have to endure such a blasphemous papacy again.

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  7. I would like t apologize to the Gay Community. I apologize for anything I have done to be an enabler of any associated sinful acts which may have caused the Eternal Father pain.

    I apologize for failing to speak out the Truth that homosexual unions are an abomination before God, falling silent rather than speaking out…consenting to error rather than opposing it.

    I apologize to the Gay Community for the hardness of my heart; I could not overcome my repulsion when I felt forced to accept the agenda against everything I believe as a practicing Catholic in fidelity to the dogma of the Church.

    I apologize for failing to point out the numerous places in Holy Scripture which makes clear that homosexual unions cannot be acceptable within Natural Law or in God’s eyes.

    However, I do not apologize for continuing to pray for souls that their sins might be understood and reconciled before God. Nor do I apologize for holding FIRM to the TRUTH of the Catholic Faith. Nor do I apologize for my belief that this man, who today occupies the Throne of Peter, is an anti-pope of heretofore unprecedented expertise at half-truths, obfuscation, and omission.

    OK, there now. I have apologized. I feel better.

    PRAY FOR ALL SOULS. Every soul. Especially the souls in great darkness. Pray out of LOVE. For God will accept your prayer for the salvation of a soul who refuses to seek salvation for himself.

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  8. What is wrong wit this Pope…..could he be having onset of Alzheimers disease or is he causing confusion on of the traits of the evil one.

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  9. Raymond Arroyo has always been a good Catholic. Maybe he has a more optimistic view of the Church abd the Council most of the time than most trads, but his heart is Catholic.

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      • Indeed, Raymond LOVED Mother Angelica. I do believe he wants to ‘carry on her legacy’ of being a true soldier of Christ, and Mother could be pretty fierce if she thought the Church was going in the wrong direction. I’m asking for her prayers for this terrible crisis we are in, because if she’s not in Heaven, she is surely in Purgatory and even those souls can pray for us. (But…..I have a feeling she won’t be there for very long, if at all)

        And…..Fr. Murray ALWAYS tells it like it is. Thankful for Priests like him!

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  10. So “Thou shalt not kill” has an “absolute value”, but “Thou shalt not commit adultery” ……. not so much.

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      • That’s not what T.W. meant. T.W. meant that PF is in inflexible in re to sins against the fifth Commandment the arms trade etc and more flexible on Communion for the divorced and “remarried”, for example.

        I think you owe T.W. an apology .

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    • The fact is that what Pope Francis states regarding the death penalty has NO support in Scripture or the entire Tradition of the Church. The same point occurred to me about the absolute value of the 5th commandmen (according to Francis) t and the 6th apparently with sophisticated Jesuitic casuistry it can be gotten around.

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  11. This show is refreshing because the 3 discuss this serious problem calmly, and don’t avoid any of the “tough stuff”. It’s worth watching the entire thing because there are nuggets of gold throughout. Surprisingly, you may feel a bit better after doing so; I know I did. As they say, misery loves company. When it’s informed company, it seems to ease the misery somewhat.

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  12. I think you guys are missing the point. Basically if you know co-habiting couples who are not sacramentally married, just have them move to North Eastern Argentina.

    This seems to be a magical and faithful area of the world where everything is done backwards by the grace of God. Basically you go to the end of the world oops I mean the bottom of the world for this logic.

    Happy 80th birthday great grandma and great grandpa and by the way also Happy 1st anniversary!

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  13. My repost from another combox :

    In his recent homily (June 26th), Fr. Larry Richards (homilies are archived on the Reasons for Our Hope website) chastised priests who supposedly criticized Pope Francis.He called up a Catholic radio station and said that he’d tell people not to support them if they’ll continue to feature the priest from the Fathers of Mercy who criticized the Pope.

    Fr. Larry also indirectly criticized EWTN-owned NCRegister (didn’t mention this explicitly, but I know he was referring to this, because he said it was a popular conservative Catholic newspaper), saying that they published the recent article of a monsignor (Msgr. Charles Pope). He even said that the monsignor lacked humility. Wonder what he’ll say if he listens to this panel discussion on EWTN.

    His homily is on the website, and it’s less than 10 minutes long.

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  14. Yea,Frankie has become quite the ecclesiastical gang banger of late…and I say that as a non Catholic….but even I know enough Catholic doctrine to recognize a skunk at a garden party when I smell one

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    • Of course, this Pontiff is dangerous for the Church. As for you, you ought to enter into the Catholic Church, for your own sake; it’s the one true Church, the true Religion which comes from Christ.

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        • Knox, the treacherous English-backed conspiratorial co-murderer of a church Cardinal (Beaton), and misleader of souls, and bullier of a Catholic Queen.. is nobody to be claiming to infallibly know God’s will and Word.

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  15. We as traditional Catholics must revisit Fatima. If people continue to avoid Fatima and doing as she told we will see more and more heresies coming out of Rome. I don’t know what is wrong with our priests, bishops and cardinals because they should know better. The time has come for them to talk about the diabolical infestation that is now inside the Catholic Church.

    Our Lady of Fatima pray for us. People should practice and promote the first Saturdays devotion to Our Lady.

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  16. Steve, in your June 27 post, you noted Christian Geyer observed of Pope Francis: “the Biblical Parable of the Leaven experiences an inversion: accordingly, culture seems to be now the salt of the earth which penetrates the Leaven of the Faith – instead of the reverse.” The Pope’s recent marriage comments do seem to reflect that worldview. Indeed the Pope himself, sadly, seems to be salted by a culture permeated with the many errors of Marxism, one of which has been described as the idea of Man as a mere product of his environment, who cannot help but act as he does, and then only in his own selfish interest. Since Marxism (or whatever label it’s going by since first articulated by its namesake) is a thoroughly materialistic worldview, first posed by a hate-filled, bitter human and held by such since, it cannot allow for invisible realities such as one’s soul, love, the working of God, Father, Son or Holy Spirit, or ones power of free will. Sadly it seems this Pope subscribes to this false worldview, whether he realizes it or not. The true source of such ideas are not apostate Jews, nor Germans, Russians, Jesuits, liberation theologists nor wild eyed South American “revolutionaries,” we well know the source is Satan, aided and abetted by human beings who have exercised their free will to choose evil. Please everyone, pray and fast for the Pope. The only thing he ever said without dispute was to ask “the crowd outside Saint Mary Major on March 2013, “I pray for you, but I ask you to pray for me, because I have need of it. Three Aves for me.” if it is true he is tainted by Marxism and other false ideas, and is in fact misleading the flock…well, we all well know what Our Lord said about leading the little ones of His astray…. he will need all the praying and fasting we can offer and then some.

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    • In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church we have the Fast of the Apostles (aka Petrivka or St. Peter’s Fast). It starts on the Monday after the Sunday of All Saints (Trinity Sunday on the Latin calendar). It lasts up to and including June 28. So this year it was from May 25 to June 28.

      I know that the Latin Church has a different fasting discipline, but I think that if everyone made an effort (with God’s help) to pray and fast for the Pope, then God will grant him the grace to reveal the Third Secret of Fatima (the exact words of Our Lady). That would bring about the Collegial Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That’s the only way to peace in the Church and the world.

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  17. I been sayin it for years… You know you have deep, deep issues when the pope might actually be less mature than me.

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  18. So utterly helpful a video– along with men like these, and the faithful popes, Church fathers, and saints– God does not leave himself without witnesses, even if we must pray and be patient under a reckless pope for a while. Use it for good, for repentance, for evil to show itself, for truth to shine through the lies, because we serve a Living Christ.

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      • Agreed. But so are their obfuscations of Pope Francis’ obvious sowing of confusion, throughout. They’re as good at it as Federico Lombardi, S.J. (but they can’t edit the text).

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        • Started off good, I believe they lost their way. An example and warning to all would be apostolates out there. I always says only one institution is indefectible, the Church, and she is now very much shaken.

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  19. This Pope is praising people who are living in mortal sin.
    Praising a “fidelity” that will destroy their souls in HELL???

    Pope Francis words versus the Bible:

    “They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task.
    Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help
    Fidelity to mature…I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a
    Real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity.” – Pope Francis

    “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither FORNICATORS [including monogamous fornicators/cohabiters], nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.”
    – 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10

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  20. Wow. That was a fantastic discussion conducted by Raymond Arroyo. All three of them were really quite good. Well worth watching!

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  21. Never underestimate this pope. Have you paid attention what has he done so far? Assault Jesus’ teachings any which way he can. His purpose is to stir up marriage matter not bringing people into the Church, but destroying the marriage foundation, insulting and pulling down Jesus’ divinity to secular human level. This pope is very evil, should be resigned. Keep praying that God will put him aside.

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  22. Yeah and confessions are valid even when the penitent holds back and deliberately omits confessing grave sin.

    Or maybe not.

    Just because Kasper and Francis said it doesn’t make it automatically wrong.

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    • (Needless to say, Kasper and Francis being right about one thing – that many modern putative marriages are invalid – also doesn’t make them right about anything else).

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  23. Also, the comparison to Holy Orders doesn’t really work.

    Holy Orders are conferred by the bishop. Marriage is a sacrament confected by the couple themselves, the matter of the sacrament is their actual agreement and consent to marriage in its essentials, and therefore – like confession and unlike orders – the conditions for validity are dependent upon the couple actually agreeing to the essentials of marriage (e.g. indissolubility, no divorce even for adultery, etc).

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  24. I respect people who can honestly speak their mind – a yes is a yes, a no is a no. We should never use “insufficient translation’, “wrong interpretation”, or “news media twist” as excuses to cheat ourselves. What it is, is what it is!

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  25. Alright, I’ll try this one last time. Granted the issues they talked about are more than disturbing, especially that about cohabitation, but yet again there is no mention about the biggest bombshell statement of this papacy-that Martin Luther did not err on justification. I’m past the point of wanting any comment on that, now I would like to ask the question of why? Why hasn’t there been hardly any mention of this anywhere? Is this not proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a formal heretic? The only way he could not be is if he doesn’t know his own church’s teaching on the matter, and that is almost as disconcerting. If one could become a priest, a bishop, a cardinal, and a pope without knowing the teaching of the church on justification, what does that say about the state of the church? I’ll ask one last time, why isn’t this front page news? I mean, is there something I’m missing here?

    p.s. I’ve heard arguments that when a pope says something that is not in line with church teaching, that, well that’s just his private opinion, he’s not infallible but in certain situation Well yes, but he would still be a heretic, no? And what if he knew the teaching but said something different? Would he be a formal heretic? The argument that “well, it’s just his private opinion” renders the possibility that a pope could be called a heretic null, does it not? And can you even have a private opinion on settled Dogma? How is what he said not formal heresy if he knows what the teaching of the church is on the doctrine of justification?

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  26. God bless Raymond and his faithful and courageous panel and Msgr. Pope to speak the truth on this pontiff’s dubious teachings. Unfortunately it seems that Mr. Arroyo is the only EWTN program host who is willing to carry on Mother Angelica’s zeal and boldness in defending our Lord’s clear teachings by challenging even the top hierarchy in the Church.

    In contrast, many of the guests of EWTN News Nightly are not even Catholics, and the hosts hardly challenged their positions. It is very repugnant for this program to give Obama, a notorious president who is against all Catholic teachings, a microphone often without further comments.

    Both Michael Voris and Father Richards have done great work for our Catholic faith. Unfortunately they start to lose their creditability by utterly and illogically defending the indefensible harmful comments by Pope Francis.

    We owe our love and respect to the Vicar of Christ. Nonetheless, we are called to serve our Master, not his representative, in particular when this servant is not faithfully safeguarding his Master’s commandments.

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  27. In my opinion, the problem in understanding Pope Francis (“The Nutty Professor”) is due to his personality and communication style. I do not interpret his remarks as Arroyo’s guest does. The slippery slope analogy is a logical fallacy, for one thing. But I do get that there will be people who want to run with this ball as if they have a free pass to transgress. BUT that is NOT what the Pope is saying. We cannot be happy if we are sinning. The higher call of chastity and purity is the mark for which we must aim because Heaven is a state of being in which only Love may enter. We cannot lead the flock to a condition we have never ourselves experienced. Rather, we must strive for holiness, wisdom and CARITAS so we may feed His lambs. I found this link helpful. http://www.catholicity.com/commentary/zmirak/08004.html

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  28. Fr. Murray and Robert Royal have on some pretty thick blinders! What of the proliferation of divorces in Catholic marriages? Of the horrendous state of marriage preparation? Of the majority of the cases that come before marriage tribunal that are declared null? It’s as if they are all completely oblivious that there’s a huge problem within the institution of marriage and the utter collapse of catechesis in the Church.

    As for invalid ordinations and (thus) invalid Masses—yes I’m sure they exist as well.

    If there’s anyone living in a pretend world, it’s the men on this panel. They can’t handle the truth because it makes them uncomfortable.

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    • The fact that there is a huge problem with the institution of marriage and the collpase of catechesis in the church don´t make the marriages null.

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  29. Thanks for sharing! And thanks to Father Murray, RIchard Royal and Raymond Arroyo for speaking and standing up for the Truth of Christ and His Church and it’s teachings. I pray for the Holy Father everyday but everyday when I say my prayers and include him in my petitions it becomes more and more difficult to find charity in my heart in response to the most outrageous and contrary statements and comments he makes that contradict the Truth of Christ and 2000 years of Church teachings.

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