This morning, I noticed that the Drudge Report was leading with this: 
As I’ve said countless times, the “Magisterium of the Media” trumps the technically true (but pragmatically irrelevant) claim that “the pope hasn’t changed any doctrine.”
Nope. He can’t. He won’t. He doesn’t need to. All he needs to do is gut praxis, and the rest follows.
This afternoon, a reader sent me a collage of the headlines from various outlets online. If this doesn’t paint the picture of how Amoris Laetitia — which few of the lay faithful will ever actually read — will be received, and how it will impact behavior, I don’t know what does (click to enlarge):
Steve Skojec is the Founding Publisher of OnePeterFive.com. He received his BA in Communications and Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2001. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Crisis Magazine, EWTN, Huffington Post Live, The Fox News Channel, Foreign Policy, and the BBC. Steve and his wife Jamie have eight children. You can find more of his writing at his Substack, The Skojec File.
“Pope says conscience, not dogma, must guide Catholics in family life.”
But if one’s conscience is properly formed, then there should be absolutely no dissonance whatsoever, as a well-formed conscience should be in line with Church dogma. This false dichotomy between conscience and Church teaching that keeps getting shoved in our faces is the direct result of documents like the exhortation that are so ambiguous as to leave all of us wondering just what the hell they actually say.
But again, all the average Catholic in the pew is going to hear is “the Pope says divorced and remarried Catholics can receive Communion without an annulment.” So . . . bully for them, I guess . . .? After all, it’s not like countless souls could very well be damned or anything.
Not in the New Church of Mercy™, at least.
DIVORCE:
Separation of God & Man
Separation of Source & Scripture
Separation of Church & State
Separation of Science & Philosophy
Separation of Rights & Responsibility
Separation of Truth & Conscience
Separation of Means & Ends
Separation of Justice & Mercy
Separation of Law & Order
Bernie supporters unite.
By your powers combined, ….
And here are the headlines of an allegedly “conservative” priest. The confusion is astounding.
Southern Orders:
“FOR THOSE IN IRREGULAR MARRIAGE OR MARRIAGE LIKE SITUATIONS, NO, NO, NO TO HOLY COMMUNION, BUT YES TO THE ABILITY TO CONFESS AND BE FORGIVEN FOR OTHER SINS WHILE NOT ALLOWING A RETURN TO HOLY COMMUNION!”
WHAT??????
I have made the comment that here in the UK the BBC best summed up the report this morning
by saying on one news that it all depends on where we live whether adulterers can have Communion or not, and then on a later news that well, we can all decide for ourselves. Now that is not based on sound theological analysis but then neither it seems is Amoris Laetitia, and the BBC opinion is what society and lets face it 90%+ “Catholics” will accept.
@SteveSkojec my mind is wondering like everyone down below, so much error has come from the current Pope, one wonders if he knows that he is causing scandal, and if he is a closet protestant, due to him liking his friends who are Pentecostals more than us Catholics who do not waver from the Authentic Faith and not afraid to correct or point out certain statements that are error filled and help those who made them come back to the Faith.
I’ve said it before and it bears repetition today: This papacy is an unmitigated disaster for the Church. Francis is simply not up to speed for the job, is clearly out of his depths. To paraphrase Roberta Flack, he’s killing us softly with HIS mercy.
Re: Conscience:
This is the Pope imposing his own practice on the whole Church. It is said that in Argentina, he indiscriminately gave communion and we of course have witnessed him doing his own thing as regards the Holy Thursday’s Foot Washing ritual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD4OpbWKD6g
The “gospel” according to Pope Francis.
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Consistent though. Since man/wife relationship [ought to] mirror Christ/His bride the Church, the pope wanting the Bride to be disobedient to her spouse [he, errant shepherds/sheep can be but the Church can’t], must of course encourage wives to be disobedient to their husbands [the head].
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There are bombs everywhere in this document.
The problem with this presentation is that while there was an equality in dignity between Adam and Eve that he recognized (which the other creatures presented to Adam did not have), there was not a utopian leveling of position which modern man calls “equal.”
As even this “third eagle” had to admit was possible, Eve learned about the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from Adam. This makes sense only if we admit that hierarchy was built into mankind from our first parents onward.
It also makes the devil’s attack on Eve first a pattern for future revolutions up to and including the one now in the Church.
This dude is batty. Had a conversation with him once. He literally believes himself to be the ‘third eagle of the apocalypse’.
Uh. Yeah.
He also calls himself “a co-prophet of these end-times”, seems like more of a Mormon claim than a Catholic one. I wonder who his fellow “co-prophet(s)” is/are.
This is a major victory for the world, the flesh and the devil!!!
What is the Litmus Test for one person – divorced or remarried – to be given Communion but another to be refused the same? Interestingly the role of the Bishops does not seem to play a great part here – only the priests. That lets the Bishops off the hook, doesn’t it. Mind you, they have never really been on the hook anyway! Not for decades, most of them!
Happy Jubilee!
A natural progression of the errors of Vatican II.
Everything has to be reinterpreted under the umbrella of modernity. The Bible, the definition of the Church, the liturgy, the Sacraments, the governing structure of the Church, the canonization process, the annulment process, the reception of Communion, the teachings of the Doctors and Fathers of the Church and of the Saints, the dogmatic teachings of prior Ecumenical Councils, the moral precepts, Original Sin, sin in general, Hell, the primary ends of marriage, the “judgmental” and “negative” passages of Sacred Scripture, salvation, the earth, evolution, free will, the conscience, grace, and on and on.
Nothing the Church has always taught is to be left untouched.
All has to be “reformed” under the new theory that truth, or dogma, simply “evolves” through time and experience. The “spirit of Vatican II’ is the spirit of Teilhard, Lubac, Urs Von Balthasar, Kung, Rahner, Loisy, Bea, Martini, Hegel, Kant, Crammer, and Martin Luther.
Withal he failed to learn from scripture, Luther did learn the truth of faith in Christ’s death and resurrection (I Cor. 15:1-4)
for eternal life. Rome has never learned that.
If any of you think the Eucharist is a prize, you need to reflect on your sin. We do not “win” by being sinners.
Just this Saturday while at a baby shower a devout older woman I was speaking to said “did you hear the Pope has said it’s ok to receive communion if you have been divorced” she hadn’t been receiving for over 40yrs as she is remarried. I told her to talk to her pastor as it was not a blanket statement. I think people most people won’t confer with a pastor and just now go ahead and receive. Confusion is on the prowl!