Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Pope Francis "Opens the Door to Civil Unions"?




According to CNS, Pope Francis kicked off Lent with by suggesting "the Church" needs to recalibrate Its teaching on civil unions:

Pope Francis has famously declared a cessation of hostilities in the culture wars on same-sex marriage, contraception, and abortion that had defined the Catholic Church for much of the modern era.

On Wednesday, he signaled a new direction in that regard when discussing civil unions in a short but wide-ranging interview that also touched on his discomfort with the hero worship that's sprung up around him. While still insisting that marriage is "between a man and a woman," he explained why he thought civil unions were created in the first place.

"The lay states want to justify civil unions in order to regulate diverse situations of cohabitation, motivated by the need to regulate economic aspects among persons, for example in assuring medical care," said the pope, in a translation of the interview provided by John Thavis, the former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Services

When asked to what extent the church could understand this trend, the pope replied: "We need to look at the different cases and evaluate them."

The story written by the current Rome reporter for CNS said this indicated the church "could tolerate some civil unions."

Actually, it seems to me as though somebody asked him why civil unions were created in the first place and he said lay states want to provide medical insurance to everyone who is shacking up. Then, a luminary from the USCCB's news service(CNS)cracked the code of the Pope's intentions for everyone in the room.

Here's another version of the story that takes off like a rocket.

I've bolded what the Pope actually said, which appears to be taken out of context and surrounded by hysteria and conjecture:

(CNN) — Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage Wednesday but suggested in a newspaper interview that it could support some types of civil unions.

The Pope reiterated the church’s longstanding teaching that “marriage is between a man and a woman.” However, he said, “We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety.

For example, civil unions provide financial security to cohabitating couples, “as for instance in medical care,” the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily.

A number of Catholic bishops have supported civil unions for same-sex couples, including Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2010, according to reports in National Catholic Reporter and The New York Times.

This is the first time a Pope has “indicated even tentative acceptance of civil unions,” according to Catholic News Service.

n.b. I did exhaustive research on the assertion that Pope Francis supported civil unions in Buenos Aires and came up with bupkis. It is an urban legend. Somebody from the National Catholic Distorter knew a man who knew another man who said the Pope told him so.

A bunch of blarney.

The Pope's support of civil unions would signal his willingness to encourage mortal sin between the parties for the sake of obtaining medical insurance.

This kind of bartering away of the salvation of the soul is...it pains me to say it...daft.

One can "examine" abortion or contraception to find out how people are being hoodwinked, exploited and murdered in 2014. That doesn't mean the outcome of the spin is going to be favorable to people looking for license from the Church to do it.


However, given the Pope's recent statements on Communion for people married to more than one person - my jury is still out on the man. We will just have to wait it out and see where he goes in October.

There's going to be a big fugatz if tries to persuade his see to drink that koolaid.

At the very least, this is yet another incident that indicates there should be less talking and more waving and blowing kisses.

UPDATE

CNN takes First Place Blue Ribbon in headlines contest with this whopper: Church Could Support Civil Unions.

Here's a better one: Pope Francis says the Church SHOULD tolerate some civil unions.

Sure. Maybe that's where the synod will go with it in October. Do away with marriage all together.

The Church wouldn't support gay marriage but should support shacking up. So long as when you do, you don't indulge in the real evil: gossip (if we to understand the hoo-ha on Pope Francis' theology of the redemption of one's soul).

Here's how to crack the code:

"The question is not whether to change the doctrine, but to go deeper and make sure that pastoral care takes account of situations and of what each person is able to do," he said.

Get it?

It's all about the situation.

Each situation is different and they're going to take a look at it to see what each person is able to do.

Your next door neighbor who situated himself under his secretary's lap while he was married to another woman - he has a situation. Holy Communion for you.

Sexually attracted to same sex? You can't get married because the Church won't accept it. Move in with the person. That's a situation Pope Francis says the Church should accept. You've got a situation. Here's your Holy Communion.

After 2000 years, Pope Francis has arrived to show us how to go 'deep' into Church teaching.

Gee, I hope he includes one-night-stands so the folks in Hollywood and Washington, DC can receive Holy Communion.

This is getting ridiculous.

In his vacuum of not teaching, he makes foolish statements and watches the damage in silence.

As a mother and about to be grandmother, I am fed up with the confusion being sown. He is making it impossible for Catholic parents to defend truth in their own home.

It is regrettable.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We will just have to wait it out and see where he goes in October."

Why? What's happening in October?

Anonymous said...

"Civil unions": an issue whose time has GONE. "They" want the "real thing"; i.e., marriage.

One state (I think Rhode Island) instituted civil unions supposedly to settle the issue, but that action was merely a stepping-stone to legalizing same-sex marriage the next year.

TTC said...

Anon 11:38

A synod

http://www.news.va/en/news/francis-convenes-extraordinary-synod-on-the-family

Kd said...

Oh, this really helps me and my Religious position NOT to attend my Godsons marriage by a justice of the peace! I think I'll remain silent until October and PRAY only GOOD comes out of the Synod for The family in October. I fear the Great schism is upon us.

breathnach said...

Authentic Catholics haven't done as much parsing and diagramming of sentences since their days in parochial school with the nuns. The exercises with the nuns were valuable. Attempting to parse Pope Francis' interview statements to find perennial teaching is a fool's errand. I've come to the grim conclusion that the Pope is consciously making statements that are of indeterminate meaning and thereby move the Church in a "progressive" and world accommodating direction. He cannot change the Magisterium, but he can move Catholic praxis so that the Magisterium becomes a dead letter.

StevenD-Jasper said...

Maggoty Eagan is at it again. Using the Pope's irresponsible words. The woman is plain evil.

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/margery_eagan/2014/03/eagan_parade_marching_orders_don_t_come_from_top

Anonymous said...

breathnach said...

"Authentic Catholics haven't done as much parsing and diagramming of sentences since their days in parochial school with the nuns. The exercises with the nuns were valuable. Attempting to parse Pope Francis' interview statements to find perennial teaching is a fool's errand. I've come to the grim conclusion that the Pope is consciously making statements that are of indeterminate meaning and thereby move the Church in a "progressive" and world accommodating direction. He cannot change the Magisterium, but he can move Catholic praxis so that the Magisterium becomes a dead letter."

Could not agree more !!!

TTC said...

Breathnach, that really hit home for me.



breathnach said...

Carol,

I hope I'm dead wrong and Pope Francis turns out to be following Matthew 10:16-- "Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves."

I'll gladly do the penance and wear the sackcloth.

However, it's impossible to ignore your eyes and ears. Besides the interviews, the Pope simultaneously praises Cardinal Kaspar's woeful theology and apparently approves Cardinal Mullers restatement of Catholic teaching. Are we being played with "good cop, bad cop"? Is this setting the stage for a "let's have it both ways" synod ."We re-affirm the Magisterium, but it is a "living" Magisterium (hmm...like "living Constitution"?)
and it must adapt with the revolutionary changes that have taken place in the structure of the family and sexuality brought on by triumphant secularism. It remains the same Magisterium inspired by Christ and preserved in Tradition". I'm finding it harder and harder to see any other endgame here.

Restore-DC-Catholicism said...

Breathnach and Carol, I strongly suspect the same thing. These gaffes are intentional, with the aim of throwing us off balance so we don't readily perceive the undermining of the Magisterium. There are just too many of these so-called "slips of the tongue" to allow me to believe that these are innocent mistakes.

susan said...

Read the book "The Jesuits"

Everything about this man will fall into crystal-clear focus.

breathnach said...

Susan,

Good call on Malachi Martin's "The Jesuits". Lost my copy during a house move 5 years ago. I've been meaning to get another from Abebooks.

Anonymous said...

To quote another blogger:

"Please. It is time to come to grips. We have a LIBERAL (!!!) pope now. How long are we going to keep pretending the words spoken by the current pope (each and every day…) aren’t really the words he meant to say? Again and again."

TTC said...

I'll download "The Jesuits" on the kindle. I couldn't get through Windswept House. We were living it here in Boston and the story was so similar, each time I picked it up to read and confirmed what we were living, I would get sick to my stomach. I'd put the book down and wouldn't pick it up again until another priest would pull a creepy stunt.

We have an apostate priest here who actually threw garbage into the Sanctuary and another time shot off a gun. The things we have put up with here are surreal.

I don't know that he is a 'liberal'. He seems to be a faithful man who knows and tries to live the fiat of preserving his soul in a state of sanctifying grace. IMO, he reminds me of the many prelates who are withholding it from the flock as they see the road to redemption is flocking unto them.


You can't cure what ails these folks without sanctifying grace.


Imagine getting up in the morning knowing you said something yesterday that made people think the Catholic Church is going to accept civil unions. Wouldn't you take immediate steps to correct that misunderstanding?

I keep refreshing my browser. The silence is speaking volumes.

Anonymous said...

"The question is not whether to change the doctrine, but to go deeper and make sure that pastoral care takes account of situations and of what each person is able to do."

I have no use for Pope Francis. Nevertheless, Carol, perhaps you are overreacting? One can engage in legitimate pastoral care without granting access to the Eucharist. Indeed, good pastoral care would mandate limiting access in some cases. Granted, American Catholics have gone decades without such pastoral care. Perhaps therein lies the rub.

Besides, the pope cannot (technically speaking) change doctrine. That's why it wouldn't be a question.

Your thoughts?

TTC said...

I couldn't agree more.

Though I would say that the people receiving Pope Francis' messages at face value are drawing perfectly sound conclusions.

There is a way of speaking and teaching that is a combination ambiguity and omissions - the nudge and the wink - to instruct people to dissent.

The Holy Father has been using it for over a year, whilst putting energy into insulting and dismantling orthodoxy and TLM.

At this point, it's a hard sell - but I sure hope you are right!

Anonymous said...

Carol, I'm speaking theoretically. I have no idea what Francis intends. I don't know if Francis does, either, frankly. I can't remember either John Paul II or Benedict XVI being so uniformly incoherent. Regardless of whether you agreed with either of them, you knew where they stood.

Anonymous said...

I'm awake disturbed again. But I recall the Houndurian Cardinal explaining that Pope Francis is indeed one of US (a 10th crusader and not a Gumby type). So I looked at his words not being reported for maybe some hope so I could sleep. What I found was wonderful.
Here is one from Fr Z:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/04/hey-dissenters-pope-francis-says-negotiating-away-parts-of-the-faith-is-the-path-of-apostasy-of-disloyalty-to-the-lord/

The Pope seems to be on a roll with his Masses at a chapel of St Marta. He described the compromising to worldliness etc as worse than outright apostasy because it is subtle (He is obviously describing the state of Margery Egan as worse than outright apostasy because she does not even know she serves Satan in overcoming Gods Church) with what he called popular soap opera worldly values instead of the demands of True faith in God.

breathnach said...

A very interesting article at Sandro Magister's blog. He argues that the Pope believes passivity and talking in vagaries about being "Christ-like" is the sum total of the Pope's strategy vis a vis rampaging secularism. Where is the Cross and the "suffering servant" in this passivity? Does the hierarchy believe (naively) that rabid secularism will destroy itself and the World will then look to (hidden and passive) Christians as the ones who asserted their witness? It looks more like a strategy of cowardice and double dealing and worst of all, overweening pride that you, the passive-hidden Christian are so very "Christ-like"!
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350737?eng=y