I'd like to know what you think about this article, posted elsewhere on FR, (and the commentary after it): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3069378/posts
What Pope Francis is saying here, is that it's not enough to just repeat law, and more law, and yet again law; the Church must first, and always, evangelize, which means to draw people into the love of Christ our God.
The moral law doesn't mean much to people who see it as just an irrelevant restriction on their freedom, imposed on them by busybodies who are irritating interlopers in their lives; but once they are attracted to Christ and begin to acquire the mind of Christ, gradually it makes sense to them: they grasp the horror of what they're doing, AND they have the grace from Him which strengthens them to do good and avoid evil.
What the Pope said to the gynecologists is beautiful: that the unborn child has the face of Jesus Christ, the face of the Lord! That is not "shying away from condemning sinful behavior"; it is, rather, showing exactly why these things are to be condemned.
Bedtime for me. Good night and God bless you!
Thank you as we’ll. We will agree to disagree. but must say, there is a gulf between those who are my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, and good people like you. There are those who have submitted to Christ, and I know them. I do not know you. Do you understand?
In many ways I think some of this debate I see in reading this thread and the "objections" many are putting forth about what they think the Pope said are the result of the Church's many years of acting like the very 'edifice' Pope Francis is talking about. If a church or congregation acts like an unmerciful moral edifice the church will crumble. If a church has open doors through which the sinner can enter and seek God, the church grows.
There are many times I read posts in the religion forum and ponder the unmerciful words I read coming from Christians & Catholics alike. I left many congregations because of the unmerciful ones within the so-called body of Christ. To be rebuked for sin is one thing, to find no mercy, no support, and no help is completely another. The media spin on what the Pope actually said has head's exploding, but reading his full words leads one to understand that he is calling for the Catholic Church to return to the demonstration of the full mercy of God for the sinner.
And wasn't this the message of Christ time and again, from the adulteress to be stoned to the forgiveness of the thief on the cross? To the Pharisees and the unmerciful ones, Christ told us who had the Right to cast the first stone. And to those who found the Grace of God...Jesus told them to go and sin no more. The sinner can't find God if we're constantly throwing stones at them.