Recent Key Appointments Unsettle John Paul II Institute on Marriage and Family

The National Catholic Register ^ | 9/12/16 | Edward Pentin

[marshmallow]

Last month, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, until now president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, as the new grand chancellor of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.

The Institute, established in 1981, is devoted to the study of the truth about the human person in all its dimensions with the aim of generating a “culture of life”. Headquartered in Rome, it has centers in Washington D.C. and around the world.

Archbishop Paglia has often spoken out in defense of the Church’s teaching on family, marriage and human sexuality, but he has also made it clear through his statements and actions that he is no standard-bearer of the Church’s traditional approach to these issues, ones the Institute has tried to uphold.

He has controversially supported the “Kasper proposal”, a “penitential path” that would allow remarried divorcees living in a state of adultery to receive Holy Communion, and shown himself to be in favor of recognizing extra-marital unions. He has been accepting of homosexual relationships on several occasions, most notably at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia last year. In 2015, he appeared to praise the pro-homosexual television show Modern Family as initiating dialogue about “the family”.

In July, he allowed the Pontifical Council for the Family to commend a high school-level sex education program that has been widely criticized. The Cardinal Newman Society said the program makes “frequent use of sexually explicit and morally objectionable images” and “fails to clearly identify and explain Catholic doctrine.” The program, published on the pontifical council’s website, “represents a significant break from the traditional approach to Catholic instruction and learning about human sexuality,” the Society said.

Dr. Thomas Ward, founder and president of the UK’s National Association of Catholic Families, said he found.........

[Montana_Sam]

Church teaching seems to be pretty clear on matters of marriage and family. Where do these guys get the idea they can tinker with such things?

[Albion Wilde]

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