Blogposts

Vatican commentator “Vaticanista” Sandro Magister wrote on October 25: At the Vatican the synod is heading into its final phase, which then again is not final, given that it will be reconvened in a year and only afterward will the pope, on his own, decide what conclusions to draw from it, at the tail end of a debate about which little or nothing is known, protected as it is by secrecy. But meanwhile there is also a synod “outside the walls,” of which the book … is a voice, on a topic, chastity, that has almost become a taboo for those in the Church who are calling for a “paradigm shift” in the Catholic doctrine on sexuality, led by that cardinal JeanClaude Hollerich whom Francis has put at the helm of the synod.

The context of the hard sayings: Therefore, Lord, we pray: graciously accept this oblation of our service, that of your whole family; order our days in your peace, and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation and counted among the flock of those you have chosen.

The First Eucharist Prayer/The Roman Canon

Years ago, a layman, Christian Browne, asked the question above in an essay in Crisis magazine. He quotes Jesus’ remark “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.” (Mk. 9:43)

Who’s Elizabeth Anscombe you ask? She was one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century and a Catholic convert in her early teens. Why Elizabeth Anscombe? A great part of the crisis in the Church and in this Synod in Rome is the amount of people, who hold themselves out to be Catholic, who, in fact, reject Catholic teachings especially, the Church’s moral teachings on sexuality, contradicting the Scriptures and the apostolic Tradition of the Church. In that regard they are no longer Catholic. This group includes bishops and clergy as well as laity.

That the Angels conduct our souls to heaven is a traditional doctrine

... Today we hear a lot about angels, but from a perspective that is not that of the Church. There is a false devotion to the Angels, which consists in imagining them as mythological creatures attributing to them almost magical potentialities to fulfill our desires, appease our feelings, regardless of the observance of God’s universal law, that is, respect for the objective order of creation. In fact, according to Catholic doctrine, angels are the invisible ministers God uses to govern created things.

The Church Is Not an NGO* *NGO stands for non-governmental organization. While there is no universally agreed-upon definition of an NGO, typically it is a voluntary group or institution with a social mission, which operates independently from the government.

The Church appreciates the high human and moral values espoused by democracy, but she herself is not structured according to the principles of a secular political society. The Church, the mystery of the communion of humanity with God, receives her constitution from Christ. It is from him that she receives her internal structure and her principles of government. Public opinion cannot, therefore, play in the Church the determinative role that it legitimately plays in the political societies that rely on the principle of popular sovereignty,…(emphasis added) The International Theological Commission on the Sense of the Faith 114