Posted on 10/20/2014 6:49:12 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
About midway through the first week of debates and deliberations, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, addressed a mixed crowd of prelates, diplomats and journalists at the Pontifical North American College in Rome and cited a sports analogy that’s become quite popular among Francis’s American fans. Francis’s strategy is a little like taking someone to a baseball game when they don’t really know the rules—and maybe didn’t care much about them.
Under Francis, the Church wants to bring people back into the stadium, as it were. “They see the crowds, they smell the hot dogs,” said Dolan, playing out the metaphor. “They get a cold beer. They’re watching the batting practice, the national anthem. They watch the ballgames and the teams, and they’re gradually enchanted and they gradually get into it,” Dolan said, implying that the Catholic Church with its pomp, ceremony, incense and Gregorian chants could be equally appealing. Once they’re inside, he says, “then they begin to ask some questions about the why’s and the rules and why this and why not that.”
That, he says, is how Pope Francis hopes not just to bring people to the Catholic Church, but to bring the Church to the people. Rather than ministering only to the officially worthy, minister to everyone—gay, divorced, disenchanted—and then worry about making them worthy. “Don’t lead with the chin, don’t lead with controversy,” Dolan said. “Don’t even lead with the mouth. Lead with the heart and you’re going to win a lot of people.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Sounds like Joel Osteen, he wont say sin is sin either.
There’s sure some fierce competition to get these homosexuals into churches.
Ah...he wants Catholics to become a “seeker church”. From what I’ve seen, it seems to result in the Christians becoming more worldly rather than the non-Christians to repent. After all, if you tell them they are OK already, what do they need to repent from?
Might as well start hanging out with the prostitutes and the lepers(ebola?).
Well, sure - we are all sinners. Christ came to save sinners, and sinners are welcome to the Church. Now if they are open, unrepentant sinners - of course they can’t be members - but they are still welcome to hear the Gospel and hopefully (by the Grace of God and work of the Holy Spirit) they will change (be born again).
Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, and - did I forget? - gay. Damn, I get sick of it.
The Catholic Church will split into (at least) two branches as long prophesied (bishop against bishop, etc.). The two branches will be the Traditionalist Catholic Church (Identified with the Latin Mass and for which the gates of hell will not prevail), and the worldly church, known for its admittance of active, unrepentant homosexuals. Only the former will actually be Catholic and enduring until the end of time. The latter will be quite popular with worldly interests but for a relatively short period of time. Those who intend to stay with the real Catholic Church could have saved decades of indecision by siding with the traditionalists immediately following Vatican II.
The Church is here to reconcile man to God, not God to man.
Why not make every sin acceptable in the eyes of God? Then why did Christ die on the cross?
When we see openly gay people receive communion, we’ll be pretty sure they have not been absolved of their sins via confession. That could have an influence on sinners of other varieties. If fewer people go to confession, will the nature of the clergy change? I sure hope the Pope knows how he is being perceived by his flock through the media narrative. Did you ever here Pope Francis tell the story about how he stole a rosary from a dead priest’s coffin? I’ve been thinking about that again recently.
Cardinal Dolan..I wrote him off as a sellout years ago. By all appearances, he’s more interested in being popular than saving souls.
As a fellow MNer, I join you in wondering why they are pandering to about 2% of the population.
Is it (God forbid) that they are just after the $, as in days of yore (indulgences)?
I’m pretty sure the libs got their butts whooped in fact. Pontiff gets the final say of course, but he is unlikely to override the bishops who just stripped the heretical language from the document.
They should all be in church but they need to follow the rules if they want to stay.
All about capturing market share?
We’re screwed.
Under Francis, the Church wants to bring people back into the stadium, as it were. “They see the crowds, they smell the hot dogs,” said Dolan, playing out the metaphor.
Ummm, really? Couldn’t use some other way to convey the metaphor? The gays are going to come back to the church for the hot dogs? Ugh.
They are welcome to hear the Gospel. They are welcome to be open to the Holy Spirit, repent and be saved, and go and SIN NO MORE. As same with the evangelical denominations, the sacrament of Holy Communion is for those who have gotten right with the Lord, having repented, confessed, and continuing to let the Holy Spirit deal with the sin nature (not by my strength but by His Strength).
But expecting to be entertained, allowed to disrupt and fly the freak flag, no. Absolutely not!
You’ve been reading that book against, haven’t you.
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