Living in a state of mortal sin and considering yourself in a "personal relationship with Jesus"

An outstanding piece on the problem of living in a state of mortal sin whilst considering yourself in a blissful personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Several years ago, Cardinal O'Malley cherry-picked a group of priests to develop a blueprint for the 'new evangelism' he wanted to see promoted in the Archdiocese.

I always smell a rat when I heard the words 'new evangelism'. It seems to always turn out to be the trajectory away from teaching the Catechism, giving people the tools they need to live in a state of sanctifying Grace to enable Christ's Properties in the Eucharist to flourish in your soul and intellect and bring you to the mystical place where Christ resides and reigns.

Being somewhat familiar with those he cherry picked to put the plan together, I had a feeling future Boston Catholics were going to be robbed. And, sure enough, when the plan was unveiled, it was a cheap welcome wagon contest wherein the archdiocese would arrange to have secret shoppers visit each parish and score on how 'welcoming' each parish is, and they would keep a scoreboard somewhere in the Chancery.

A counterfeit church where dogma and doctrine is forbidden and replaced with a battalion of washed up women and sissified men constantly distracting you from your pursuit of entering into deep mystical communion with Christ. These people don't have any idea what the whole thing is about. While we are running into the building where we put everything else out of our minds to concentrate on going to the mystical world where we are met and greated by angels and saints, Our Truine God, the Blessed Mother and we immerse ourselves - they're trying to find ways to plug into each other and grab something to help them overcome the sick feeling they have in their soul from sleeping with somebody they're not sacramentally married to. They've been coming to the parish for years and the priest has never told them what that feeling is all about and the only way to get rid of it.

Every time I hear or see people trying to turn the City of God into that, I think about Archbishop Fulton Sheen who would startle the welcome wagon types by asking them what sin they were holding onto.

Isn't this what the Pope is turning our religion into?

Attracting with a welcome wagon, withholding and undermining doctrine and the tools to get people into a state of Grace, ridiculing doctrine and dogma and turning it all into a welcome wagon so people can find a personal relationship with Jesus on Sunday morning after they roll off of their lovers?

There's nothing like a Sunday morning breakfast after having your adultery affirmed by your local Catholic priest. That kind of a 'personal relationship with Jesus' really gets your juices going for the week.

I found another interesting quote from a celebrity in this CRISIS piece written by Dr. William Oddie that captures the essence of the spirit generated from the messages of Pope Francis.

Jane Fonda, who tweeted last year “Gotta love new Pope. He cares about poor, hates dogma.

Actually a reasonable and accurate conclusion drawn from the shtick.

This is the fruit of the cheap grace of making doctrine an enemy of your people. It always has been and it always will be.

Everyone indignant about the articulation of what is now painfully obvious to all of us is hanging on by the thread that it all may be an unintentional outcome. We do not know whether the Pope intends or does not intend for listeners to receive the twisted messages.

This is true.

But somebody may be a bad driver, drive through the doors and CVS and kill people standing in line, unintentionally. Whether intentional or unintentional, the Registry of Motor Vehicles is going to take the keys away.

Truth be told, when somebody does something over and over again, it's never been a sign to me that signals the outcome is unintentional.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter to me whether the outcome of his messages are intentional or unintentional. I'll give him the benefit of my doubt. What I am focused on is the irrefutable outcome, how it affects the people I love and what do I need to do about it.

Dr. Oddie is yet another faithful Catholic who is expressing discouragement caused by the herald of the new edict from the Vicar of Christ that doctrine and the people who teach it are the enemies of the Church. He also mentions the reality that most responsible, lucid Catholics have already expressed about their blogs and other tools they've been using for years to talk about doctrine, evangelism and the challenges inside and outside of the Church - what do we do now?

I share their concern, but what I do with the blog is really not my main concern. My main concern is about how to get my own children/grandchildren/relatives/people/friends around the larceny.

I'm feeling kind of resentful 'bout 'dat.

For years, when Fr. SoandSo encouraged dissent and I flew the coop with them, I always had a Pope to point them towards to explain the mess on the ground and give them the ability to mentally process how to apply doctrine to the judgments they make every day when faced with temptations.

It has all been turned upside down for them.

That is what I am upset about and what I am focused on. The Pope has ripped my children from the intellect and sound judgment of Christ. Possibly for the rest of their lives. I couldn't be any more disgusted and upset about it.

When I think about writing on the blog right now, I'm thinking...

That I dug my key into the side
of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...
Maybe next time he'll think before he speaks.