Sunday, December 31, 2023

Brazilian Bishop: Vatican Document on ‘Same-Sex’ Blessings Cannot Be Applied in Diocese

 


Bishop Adair Guimarães via Youtube

CV NEWS FEED // Bishop Adair José Guimarães of Formosa, Brazil, has announced that the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans authorizing blessings for “same-sex couples” will not be implemented in his diocese.

Guimarães announced on December 23 at the end of a priestly ordination Mass that “in the diocese of Formosa the requests and suggestions from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will not be observed.”

In his short statement, the bishop said he would not go into “the merit of the theology, or the pastoral and moral dimension of this declaration, nor its opportunity at this time,” but highlighted that the Vatican statement has “sparked great debates in the media and apprehension among the faithful.”

Guimarães also said he consulted several lay leaders and priests of the Diocese of Formosa as to whether carrying out such blessings “would cause scandal and misunderstanding, as the declaration itself foresees this for the analysis of the bishops.” 

According to Guimarães, “the laity were unanimous in saying yes,” the blessings would cause scandal. Of the priests who responded, practically all said “the application (of the Vatican document) would bring misunderstanding and scandal,” he added.

The bishop said he also met with the presbyteral council and the college of consultants of the diocese and “everyone was unanimous” in saying that the diocese of Formosa “is not in a position to implement these suggestions.”

Remembering Benedict XVI: Requiesscat in pace

 


“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” - BXVI

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Friday, December 29, 2023

What will you do after the next conclave is rigged?

 

Still alive, but perhaps no longer a cardinal?

What do you bet Burke’s audience with the LGBTQ blesser involved removing him from voting status or perhaps even participation in the next conclave? Francis ALWAYS doubles down. It’s his M.O.

Probably the first step toward rigging the next conclave to secure the desired successor. Will you still apologize for and explain away all the filth issuing from the desks at the Vatican after all the Cardinals who still talk Catholic are removed by Francis?

He’s determined. I’ll give him that.

Erasing the Legacy of Benedict XVI

 INTERVIEW

Seewald: Francis wants to erase Benedict XVI's legacy

Gay couples, Latin Mass, sexual abuse, purging of the men most closely associated with Benedict, the appointment of Fernández: Pope Francis has done everything he could to destroy what his predecessor had built. One year after the death of Benedict XVI, his biographer and friend Peter Seewald speaks out.


Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger would have been a figure to be remembered in the history of the Church even if he had not been elected to the papal throne. In 2005, however, the Lord called one of the greatest living theologians, the man to whom Saint John Paul II entrusted the custody of Catholic orthodoxy for 23 years, to become Pope. Benedict XVI's pontificate ended, traumatically, more than a decade ago as his earthly life ended a year ago, depriving the precincts of St Peter's of that 'service of prayer' promised at his last general audience on 27 February 2013. Also in light of the new season under the banner of a claimed discontinuity at the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith, what has become of Ratzinger's legacy in the current pontificate? This is a question the Daily Compass asked Peter Seewald, a German journalist, friend and biographer of Benedict XVI with whom he has written four interview-books.

Is it fair to say that the relationship between Benedict XVI and Francis was "very close", as Francis recently declared?
Good question. We all remember the warm words that Cardinal Ratzinger spoke at the requiem for John Paul II. Words that touched the heart, that spoke of Christian love, of respect. But no one remembers Bergoglio's words at the requiem for Benedict XVI. They were as cold as the whole ceremony, which had to be rather brief so as not to honour his predecessor too much. At least that was my impression.

Your judgement is harsh.
I mean, how does one manifest friendship? With a mere statement in words or by living it? The differences between Benedict XVI and his successor were great from the start. In temperament, culture, intellect and above all in the direction of the pontificates. In the beginning Benedict did not know much about Bergoglio, except that as a bishop in Argentina he was known for his authoritarian leadership. He promised his successor obedience. Francis obviously regarded it as a kind of blank cheque. Even his predecessor remained silent so as not to give the slightest impression of wanting to interfere in his successor's governance. Benedict trusted Francis. But he was bitterly disappointed several times.

What do you mean by this?
Bergoglio continued to write nice letters to the Pope Emeritus after his election. He knew he could not hold a candle to this great and noble spirit. He also repeatedly spoke of the gifts of his predecessor, calling him a 'great Pope' whose legacy will become more evident from generation to generation. But if one really speaks of a 'great Pope' out of conviction, shouldn't one do everything possible to cultivate his legacy? Just as Benedict XVI did with regard to John Paul II? As we can see today, Pope Francis has done very little indeed to remain in continuity with his predecessors,.

What does this mean in concrete terms?
Bergoglio is not a European. He has little knowledge of our continent's culture. Above all, he seems to have an aversion to the westernised traditions of the Catholic Church. As a South American and a Jesuit, he has erased much of what was precious and dear to Ratzinger. Decisions were mostly made autocratically by a small circle of followers. Suffice it to recall the ban on the Tridentine Mass. Benedict had built a small bridge to a largely forgotten treasure island, which until then had only been accessible through difficult terrain. It was a matter close to the German Pope's heart and there was really no reason to tear down this bridge again. It was obviously a demonstration of the new power. The subsequent purge of staff completed the picture. Many people who supported Ratzinger's course and Catholic doctrine were 'guillotined'.

Are you talking about the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, and the case of Monsignor Georg Gänswein?
It was an unprecedented event in the history of the Church that Archbishop Gänswein, the closest collaborator of a highly deserving Pope, the greatest theologian ever to sit on the See of Peter, was thrown out of the Vatican in disgrace. He was not even given a word of pro forma thanks for his work. Of course, the purge primarily concerned the man whose lineage Gänswein represents, Benedict XVI. More recently, it was US Bishop Strickland, Benedict's friend and critic of Bergoglio, who was removed from office on the pretext of financial misconduct; an obviously implausible reason. And when a Ratzinger supporter like 75-year-old Cardinal Burke is deprived overnight of his home and salary without any explanation, it is difficult to recognise the Christian fraternity in all this.

You mentioned the lack of continuity: do you think a document like Fiducia supplicans would have been published if Benedict XVI had still been alive?
In his small monastery in the centre of the Vatican, the elderly Pope Emeritus acted like the light on the mountain. The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben also sees it as a katechon, a restraint, based on the Apostle Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians. The term katechon is also interpreted as 'obstacle'. For something or someone stands in the way of the end times. According to Agamben, Ratzinger, as a young theologian, in an interpretation of St Augustine distinguished between a Church of the wicked and a Church of the righteous. From the beginning, the Church was inextricably mixed. It is both the Church of Christ and the Church of the Antichrist. From this point of view, Benedict's resignation inevitably led to the separation of the 'good' Church from the 'black' Church, the separation of the wheat from the chaff.
However, Hong Kong's Cardinal Joseph Zen recently pointed out that Benedict himself had repeatedly warned of the "danger of a doctrinal landslide". When I asked Pope Benedict why he could not die, he replied that he had to stay. As a kind of memorial to the authentic message of Christ.

What are the most critical aspects of Fiducia supplicans?
In his speeches, Pope Francis says many right things. But a pastor, as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa (presumably a genuine candidate for the next conclave) recently clarified, should on the one hand "listen to the flock", but on the other hand "also lead, offer guidance and say where they should go". Pizzaballa said: 'One must not make oneself dependent on the expectations of others. The problem with Francis in the past has been that he has failed to keep many of his promises, sometimes saying 'white' and sometimes 'black', making ambiguous statements, contradicting himself repeatedly and causing considerable confusion. In the case of a document like Fiducia supplicans, which can be interpreted in so many different ways, there is also the fact that what has just been considered correct is suddenly declared wrong without much of a decision maturation process. Not to mention the divisive effect this has on the Church and the absolutely disastrous timing of its publication. The big issue before Christmas was not the commemoration of Christ's birth, but the apparently much more important blessing of same-sex couples by the Church. The media far from the Church were enthusiastic about it and no one thought about the fact that such an important document was not - as was customary under Benedict XVI - discussed and approved by the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but was simply decreed autocratically.

Read the rest: https://newdailycompass.com/en/seewald-francis-wants-to-erase-benedict-xvis-legacy

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Monday, December 25, 2023

Cardinal Muller: “ THE ONLY BLESSING FROM MOTHER CHURCH IS THE TRUTH THAT WILL SET US FREE”


The difficulty of blessing a union or couple is especially evident in the case of homosexuality. For in the Bible, a blessing has to do with the order that God has created and that he has declared to be good. This order is based on the sexual difference of male and female, called to be one flesh. Blessing a reality that is contrary to creation is not only impossible, it is blasphemy. Once again, it is not a question of blessing persons who “live in a union that cannot be compared in any way to marriage” (FS, n. 30), but of blessing the very union that cannot be compared to marriage. It is precisely for this purpose that a new kind of blessing is created (FS 7, 12).

“Priests should proclaim God's love and goodness to all people and also help sinners and those who are weak and have difficulty in conversion with counsel and prayer. This is very different from pointing out to them with self-invented but misleading signs and words that God is not so demanding about sin, thus hiding the fact that sin in thought, word and deed distances us from God. There is no blessing, not only in public but also in private, for sinful living conditions that objectively contradict God's holy will. And it is no evidence of a healthy hermeneutic that the courageous defenders of Christian doctrine are branded as rigorists, more interested in the legalistic fulfillment of their moral norms than in the salvation of concrete persons. For this is what Jesus says to ordinary people: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11:28-30). And the apostle explains it this way: “And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who [indeed] is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Jn 5:3-5). At a time when a false anthropology is undermining the divine institution of marriage between a man and a woman, with the family and its children, the Church should remember the words of her Lord and Head: ““Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14).”

* Cardinal, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Full statement; https://newdailycompass.com/en/mueller-blessings-for-gay-couples-are-blasphemous

Venite, Adoremus!

 

The gift of the Savior is that we are blessed with heaven through the forgiveness of our sins. 

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 24, 2023

In Vigilia Nativitatis Domini

 What could be more necessary than a Savior to those who were lost, more desirable to the unfortunate, more advantageous to those overwhelmed by despair? Let us tremble and make known this sweet sentence, this sweet word: “Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem of Judea!”

                                                - Cardinal Robert Sarah






Marian Fathers: blessing individual sinners yes, blessing two people who present themselves so as to identify their sin, no.

 Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception: “blessing individual persons struggling with sin, but striving to do the will of God and conform their lives to Church teaching, are not only allowed, but strongly encouraged. Marian clergy will continue to bless the individual sinner, but we cannot in any way bestow blessings that may infer that we are condoning or blessing the sin of irregular unions.”



Men: Overcome Pornography

 


… with the help of Matt Fradd. Go to Strive21.com to sign up.

Monsignor Pope on 'Fiducia Supplicans' blessings: "I must therefore decline to offer them."

Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Church
A Message from Msgr. Pope

December 21, 2023

 

Dear Parishioners, 

 

I have received a number of calls and emails from parishioners seeking to understand a declaration released Monday by the Vatican entitled Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust). It is widely reported that the document permits a priest to bless same-sex couples. Some even see it as an approval of same-sex marriage. It is not.

 

The declaration in no way authorizes same-sex marriage.  In fact, it explicitly re-affirms the Church's teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman, and that sexual relations are only moral within marriage (declaration paragraph #s 4-6).  

 

The document does say that there may be times when people who are living in objectively sinful ways, such as cohabitation or homosexual relationships, could receive a kind of informal blessing in no way resembling the Rite of Marriage. However, the document also states that these informal blessings should only be given if there is no risk of causing confusion about the Church's doctrine on sexual morality, including the nature of marriage (#s 4,5,30, 39). 

 

On the whole then, the Vatican document does not change the Church's doctrine on sexual morality or the sacrament of matrimony. It sets tight limits on any informal blessings so that they do not contradict the truth about the true nature of what God teaches about marriage and human sexuality. 

 

As your Pastor, I want to say that this declaration requires no changes at our parish and that there will not be the conferring of informal blessings here for relationships of couples in irregular unions. I say this because, in the discernment I am required to make as pastor, (see # 25, 37, 41), I think the blessings of such unions would, in fact, lead to confusion and scandal among the faithful regarding the Church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality. (see also # 30)

 

Having thus made this discernment and decision required of me, I ask your understanding and prayers, realizing that I have as my duty the care of all souls here and the duty to protect the faithful from confusion or error that would likely come from conferring such blessings. I must therefore decline to offer them. 

 

Yours in Christ, 

 

Rev. Msgr. Charles Pope

Pastor 


Thursday, December 21, 2023

Fr Thomas Weinandy: “… the teaching of a pope or bishop which contradicts previous magisterial teaching is not magisterial”

Weinsndy analysts Fuducia supplicans:

“… The Declaration elaborates on these two situations.  Within this pastoral vision “there appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.”

“Nonetheless, although these blessing “do not claim a legitimation of their status,” they “do beg that all that is true, good, humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”  The Declaration sees such blessings in accord with what’s been traditionally called “actual grace. ” The purpose of this grace is “so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of divine love.”

“”In all the above, there is the appearance of reason, but also a great deal of jargon, sophistry, and deceit.


" ...I would offer a thesis that Newman did not consider – one that I believe is important within our present ecclesial context. Newman presumed that all pontifical teaching or teaching from bishops concerning doctrine and morals is magisterial. I propose that any pontifical teaching or teaching from bishops that overtly and deliberately contradicts the perennial teaching of previous councils and pontiffs is not magisterial teaching, precisely because it does not accord with past magisterial doctrinal teaching.  

“The pope or a bishop may be, by virtue of his office, a member of the magisterium, but his teaching, if it contradicts the received previous magisterial teaching, is not magisterial. Such false teaching simply fails to meet the necessary criteria. It possesses no ecclesial authoritative credentials. Rather, it is simply an ambiguous or flawed statement that attempts or pretends to be magisterial, when it’s not.”

St Thomas: though doubting, not so as to lose Faith

 


“Mitte manum tuam, et cognósce loca clavórum: et noli esse incrédulus, sed fidélis.”         Joann 20:27

Even as the Lord before His birth willed that Mary should be espoused, and yet never lose her virginity, so, after His Resurrection, He willed that His disciple should doubt, and yet not lose his faith. For, even as the espoused husband was the keeper of the virginity of the Mother, so was the disciple who doubted and felt, the witness of the truth of the Resurrection. He felt, and cried out My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. When the Apostle Paul saith Heb. xi. i: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, he plainly meaneth that faith is the evidence of things that cannot be seen. When they are seen, there remaineth not faith, but knowledge.

Thomas, then, seeth, and believeth. Why is it said to him Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed? The truth is, he saw one thing, and so believed another. To mortal man it is not given to see God. He therefore saw only the Manhood, and yet had faith in the Godhead: My Lord and my God. This he said, seeing and believing, seeing Perfect Man, and yet believing in Perfect God, Whom he could not see. O what a comfort are the words which follow! Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. These words are specially meant for us, who have not seen even the Flesh, and who yet do believe. They are specially meant for us if we believe and do not, by our lives, give the lie to our belief. He only hath a saving faith, whose faith beareth fruit.

- Pope St Gregory 

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Fiducia Supplicans is “scandalous” document that contradicts preceding ruling by teaching office of Vatican

Rome: The DDF Authorizes the Blessing of Same-Sex or Unmarried Couples

DECEMBER 19, 2023


"It is important to point out the scandalous nature of this text, which, despite the semantic squirming, appears to counter the preceding decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The scandal lies in the fact that ... the result produced on the faithful ... is one of affirmation: 'The Church authorizes the blessing of same-sex couples,' without any other distinctions that the dicastery attempts to set down.

“But in the blessing of a 'couple,' the very object of the blessing is this illegitimate union that Catholic doctrine condemns. And to say, in paragraph no. 40, that in this blessing 'there is no intention to legitimize anything,' is at best a vain wish, at worst a perjury.

"In conclusion, this Declaration ... introduces a seed of deep division and will do incalculable harm in the Church. We can only hope that reactions to it quickly give the authors an understanding of this."

God bless Malawi

 


“When the Son of Mam comes again will there be any faith left on the earth?”

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

“Satan will first attempt to destroy the power of the papacy”


Satan will first attempt to destroy the power of the Papacy and bring about the downfall of the Church through heresies, schisms and persecutions that must surely follow. Failing in this, he will then attack the Church from without. For this purpose he will raise up Antichrist and his prophet to lead the faithful into error and destroy those who remain steadfast.”

(Father R. Gerald Culleton, The Reign of Antichrist: A Sourcebook of Catholic Prophecies about "The Man of Sin")

Tolkien on scandals in the Church

“I think I am as sensitive as you (or any other Christian) to the ‘scandals,’ both of clergy and laity. I have suffered grievously in my own life from stupid, tired, dimmed, and even bad priests.


But I now know enough about myself to be aware that I should not leave the Church (which for me would mean leaving the allegiance of Our Lord), for any such reasons.

I should leave because I did not believe, and should not believe anymore, even if I had never met anyone in orders who was not both wise and saintly. I should deny the Blessed Sacrament, that is: call Our Lord a fraud to His face.” J.R.R. Tolkien, “Letter to Michael Tolkien” (November 1, 1963)

Monday, December 18, 2023

Same sex “blessings”: they don’t have to change the doctrine if they can change the practice

With all due respect to Edward Pentin, respected journalist quoted below on X, and the chattering classes: Rome all along under Francis cares only about changing the practice.

You don’t have to “change” doctrine, an impossibility, if you change the practice, whether by means fair or foul.

Doctrine exists to direct our actions. If Rome blesses actions contrary to doctrine they accomplish the same end as changing doctrine among those who applaud and comply with the new practice.



Actions matter. Actions change reality although they do not change truth. Whether giving Communion to those in an objective state of adultery as in Amoris Laetitia, or now as in the pretense on the part of officials in Rome to authorize blessing sin in the latest document Fiducia supplans, the faithful are encouraged to ignore doctrine, ignore truth. The reality can be changed to sideline doctrine and make it seem to disappear as you encourage more and more people to change the practice.


Blessing illicit sexual indulgence is the point of the whole exercise.



N.B. Anyone who never would have thought of asking for a blessing before this new document from Fernandez but who as a result of it would now be motivated to do so as a political stunt should for that reason not receive a blessing anyway. God cannot bless a bad will..

Breaking News: Pope Francis allows priests to bless same-sex relationships

 Weaponized ambiguity …

The New York Times
 

BREAKING NEWS

Pope Francis is letting priests bless same-sex couples, a major step in his efforts to make the church more welcoming to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics.

Monday, December 18, 2023 9:44 AM ET

“The Vatican announced the new rule on Monday. A church official said the blessings amounted to “a real development” that nevertheless did not amend “the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage.”

Pope Francis wants to force the bishops’ hands with this, so he can do more Burke and Strickland treatments and cause more schism and division in the church. This is absolutely diabolic.

Every bishop is now forced to ask himself this question: will I remain silent this time also?

USCCB: next move yours. And here it is; they’ve entered the dance:

https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/statement-usccb-vaticans-document-addressing-pastoral-blessings


Link to Vatican statement: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/0901/01963.html#en

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Recipient of the Sacrament of Penance: “any baptized person”

§ 19. The Recipient of the Sacrament of Penance

The Sacrament of Penance can be received by any baptised person, who, after Baptism, has committed a grievous or a venial sin. (De fide.) D 911, 917.

According to the sententia communis the three acts of contrition, confession of sins and satisfaction, which form the matter of the Sacrament, are necessary for the valid reception of the Sacrament of Penance. For worthy reception the disposition of contrition is necessary in addition to faith. As this is an essential constituent part of the matter, worthy reception coincides with the valid reception.

 Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Ott