Divorce and Same Sex Synod: Week 2 Preview - Pope Francis Wants to Institute a Gray Area of Church Teaching

The title of this post was inspired by this daily beast post: The Vatican's Same Sex Synod

The story line goes like this - In the hope of producing talking points on how bishops and priests can feng shui adultery, Pope Francis lined up people who have sex to talk about how Church teaching prevents them from feeling good about it - but are the bishops listening?

Hundreds of celibate men from the Roman Catholic Church have spent the last week hearing people who actually have sex actually talk about it...

Underscoring the CDF’s final word on homosexual unions in 2003, he said, “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law.” He then quoted the Catholic Catechism teaching that, “Homosexual acts close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

Eleven years later, the Church under Pope Francis is about to produce another document on sex, this time a relatio derived from whatever consensus the extraordinary synod of Bishops can come to at their meeting on the family.

I never knew synods could be used to take a majority vote to embrace adultery, did you?

This should be a doozy of a document.

John Thavis has a story that I think is the most disturbing revelation about Pope Francis yet.

According to Rorate, the Pope's see elected a group of faithful Cardinals to produce a summary of Church teaching on the Pope Francis show, including Cardinal Burke.

So, what was the Pope's response to these surprising votes?

He personally appointed ad hoc, and without prior announcement on this before the synod, six other prelates for the composition of the final report (the "Relatio Synodi"), all known as strong liberals


I am not a fan of the term liberal in the context of faithfulness to Church teaching.

What this really means is, the Pope pulled the rug out from under the initiative to faithfully apply Church teaching by handpicking a group of Cardinal's with a history of misleading the flock into temptation and sin.

The Pope circumvented faithful practice by appointing a group of Cardinals with a history of robbing the flock of their salvation to write an action plan.

The sneaky slickness of this dishonorable action really hit me between the eyes.

Pope Francis wants to institute a gray area of Church teaching.

Dublin's Archbishop - who has helped lead my people into a destructive abyss, claims this twisted initiative is 'developing doctrine'.Mentioning an interview Francis gave last year to the Italian Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica, in which the pontiff referred to two poles in the church of rigorist and lax adherence to church teaching, Martin said most people do not live at either extreme.

"Most people live their lives in the gray area between those two and we have to exercise our pastoral responsibilities in the gray area, not falling into either extreme," he said.

Sure, we fight temptation and sometimes fall to sin. But rolling out of somebody's bed isn't a gray area. It's temptation we have fallen to - we've given in to the devil and we are living in a place that is distant from Christ.

Pope Francis is looking for a gray area where we can take out lovers to Church, leave them in the pew in front of the Congregation and be lectors or sing in the choir, then return to our seat to hold hands with our lovers.

There won't be an empty seat at the Basilica in Washington, DC. Some of the political characters would have to reserve an entire section.

But, in order for that to be productive, Pope Francis has to circumvent and obstruct priests from the practice of teaching what the Church teaches and practicing what they vowed to practice when they were ordained. He has to prevent the actions that set the soul on the path to absolution. We are all supposed to enlighten ourselves from the gestures of equating adultery, multiple marriages, same sex civil marriage, playing house with our lovers - with the Sacrament of Marriage.

There will be no instruction, direction, spiritual formation in right and wrong. Gradually, people watch what is permitted through witness. Through osmosis, children are supposed to crack the code that Church teaching is relevant to making judgments about how to use the gift of human sexuality.

It's no longer a question of whether the Pope wants to roll out this agenda, he is doing it - and he is right on top of every action that tries to stop him from doing it.

Pat Archibold has written a noteworthy piece about the rising of what I have always called the counterfeit church.

We endlessly speculate and debate over who is with Cardinal Kasper and who is not, who will stand up and who will be quiet, and where does doctrine end and pastoral praxis begin. Meanwhile, a “dark and false Church,” as foreseen by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, which has grown within the Church for a century, continues its unhindered progress.

We have many Cardinals and Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church who publicly put God’s law in opposition to God’s mercy! We have Cardinals and Bishops who say that the very words of Jesus, the same second person of the Trinity who suffered and died so that we might live, insufficiently express love!...

This work of destruction is a century in the making...

This cancer that has been metastasizing in the Church for a century and those who cooperate with it hide in plain sight to the best of their ability. There is no Holy Canon, no dogma, and no principle at all, no matter how holy, authentic, ancient, and certain it might be, that remains free of censure, criticism, false interpretation, modification, and delimitation by those in this insidious “dark and false church.” All is clouded by senseless questions and elaborate arguments, even the very words of Our Savior. (See Holzhauser).

All that is necessary for those who work for its destruction to remain in the Church is to state that they accept the teaching of the Church while practically opposing it in every way...

If the Church were merely an institution of man it would be a foregone conclusion that the gates of hell will soon prevail. Of course, it is not. We have that promise. God will save His Church. But there will be a terrible price to pay. Our Lady will not be able to restrain the flaming sword of our destruction.
It is time that those who see the truth of what is happening to the Church speak out about the evil that would be done to Her. We must call evil, evil. We must get on our knees and relentlessly beg our good God to rescue us from this “dark and false Church. “

I couldn't agree more. But I would add one thing to this thesis. We have been living in the counterfeit church for decades on the parish, school and ministry level. We made great strides overcoming it but I would expect things to go back to outrageous dissent and misleading souls, overtly. They know Rome has fallen. There are no consequences to them. If anything, fighting dissent under this Pope puts faithful priests in danger of being retaliated against, removed. They know all this.

There are a lot of priests who are faithful to doctrine and dogma. We are a majority and we can and should 'push' back. But nobody really knows if the consequences of the Pope Francis show could make Novus Ordo community too dangerous for raising a family in it. It could go south very quickly and we may all end up in a parish with priests practicing TLM under Motu Proprio.

Faithful Cardinals could overcome. I suspect even if the Pope's team of unfaithful men make some headway, there will be a long ugly protracted division from the products delivered unto us from Pope Francis.

With the majority of us devoted to teaching the tools to make right judgments for salvation, this could all fizzle out, especially if we shove the push for the counterfeit church back to hell where it belongs.

We just don't know how this is going to play out, but we have been managing this for a long time internally and are not unaccustomed to what we do in response.

Cardinal Burke will be a key leader to watch.


Much prayer is required over the course of the next few days while the battle for the soul of the Church rages in hand-to-hand combat.

Irrespective of who is victorious, there is one outcome that has already been decided. Many private conversations have taken place, but I have not read the public disclosure anywhere.

Pope Francis has delivered a blow to his papacy from which he will never recover. There is no time or place in the future, nothing he can say or do that will resurrect his efficacy, trust or unity, IMO.