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Pope Francis faces church divided over doctrine, global poll of Catholics finds
The Washington Post ^ | 2/9/14 | Michelle Boorstein and Peyton M. Craighill

Posted on 02/09/2014 12:55:18 PM PST by BlatherNaut

Most Catholics worldwide disagree with church teachings on divorce, abortion and contraception and are split on whether women and married men should become priests, according to a large new poll released Sunday and commissioned by the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision. On the topic of gay marriage, two-thirds of Catholics polled agree with church leaders.

Overall, however, the poll of more than 12,000 Catholics in 12 countries reveals a church dramatically divided: Between the developing world in Africa and Asia, which hews closely to doctrine on these issues, and Western countries in Europe, North America and parts of Latin America, which strongly support practices that the church teaches are immoral.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events
KEYWORDS: popefrancis; romancatholic
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"After his election to the papacy 11 months ago, Francis seemed to immediately grasp the significance of the divisions among the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. He has chosen inclusive language, has played down the importance of following the hierarchy and has warned against the church locking itself up “in small-minded rules.” The poll reflects previous ones in finding that the vast majority of Catholics appreciate his approach."
1 posted on 02/09/2014 12:55:18 PM PST by BlatherNaut
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To: BlatherNaut

A certain gentleness in leadership style should not be mistaken for a lack of commitment to lead the click in the right direction.


2 posted on 02/09/2014 1:05:51 PM PST by faithhopecharity
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To: BlatherNaut

If you don’t like following the rules don’t read the Bible. Most Americans don’t obey any of the rules they disagree with, so why are they supposed to obey the Bible?


3 posted on 02/09/2014 1:07:31 PM PST by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: faithhopecharity; BlatherNaut

I think Pope Francis is quite orthodox, but one of the problems of being made pope from a rather obscure diocese in a lesser known part of the world is that he really wasn’t ready for the attention. Unfortunately, I think he’s a little more self-satisfied than many people, including himself, realize and he did believe he was up to it - without any training period - but after a few PR disasters, I think he has reexamined this.

His statements have become a little more cautious and well thought out lately, because I think he suddenly realized that he was being used to attack the Church. And I don’t think he wants to do that.


4 posted on 02/09/2014 1:17:19 PM PST by livius
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To: BlatherNaut

This only is because the Catholic Church watered down the curricula and no longer teach Catholic Theology to the children—and Catholics grow up and can’t even contemplate the basics of Good and Evil.

Really shows that the Catholic Church has GOT to get back to teaching Truth again-—like the Archbishop Fulton Sheen years AND BEFORE.

Classical Education-—they threw out their curricula and adopted public school textbooks and then hired “lay” people to “teach” children about nothing valuable because there was no “Classical education”. No Foundation.....AND they inserted SEX ED in the 70s which destroys Virtue and normal sexual identity formation in children. Sex is never a group thing.

Prior to Vatican II ALL popes strongly condemned this duty of parents/loved ones, which HAD to be done by individuals to be moral. The sexualization of children destroys character and worldview of the body and others and desensitizes children by destroying the Awe and Mystery which makes the act have dignity-—and morality and elevates “the Other”.


5 posted on 02/09/2014 1:19:27 PM PST by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
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To: faithhopecharity

Lead the FLOCK in right directions, that is. (Automatic spell checkers are a prime candidate for perdition! )


6 posted on 02/09/2014 1:23:26 PM PST by faithhopecharity
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To: BlatherNaut

Just as children in a home don’t get to outvote their parents , parishioners do t get to outvote the magesterium ( pope/ bishops/ central teaching authority) of the church The use of polling methodology in the pews , while interesting, is misplaced. What we can draw from these data is that the priests must preach , work harder to teach the core moral and spiritual messages of the church.


7 posted on 02/09/2014 1:34:39 PM PST by faithhopecharity
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To: faithhopecharity

I would like to know if all these “Catholics” polled actually attend mass weekly. If they are practicing Catholics, or just call themselves that.


8 posted on 02/09/2014 1:38:13 PM PST by tioga (Every knee shall bend, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.)
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To: faithhopecharity

Agreed, that has been the history of the Church for most of it’s history, from what I recollect. Prior, I’m sure when Moses came down the mountain with the Ten Commandments, many members of the 12 tribes of Israel weren’t too keen on what he presented them. People have been in denial regarding their fallen nature and tendency to sin (and calling it for what it is, an offense to God and the members of society) since Adam and Eve. The battle continues.....


9 posted on 02/09/2014 1:41:45 PM PST by john drake (Lucius Accius-Roman,170 BC - "oderint dum metuant" translated "Let them hate so long as they fear")
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To: BlatherNaut

LOL! You are going to believe the Washington Compost?


10 posted on 02/09/2014 1:47:30 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: BlatherNaut

I’ll bet the Muslims aren’t teaching contraception.


11 posted on 02/09/2014 1:50:13 PM PST by informavoracious (Open your eyes, people!)
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To: john drake

Yes. But today many people are not denying their sins. Nor are they hiding them. Rather they are shoving them in the face of everyone else. And demanding sanction. Approval. Blessing of their sins. This, that they want approval indicates quite clearly that they still realize their behavior is wrong. So there is yet hope So long as the church and other persons of good faith maintain the core moral biblical teachings And extending love of the sinner, not approval of the sin.


12 posted on 02/09/2014 1:53:19 PM PST by faithhopecharity
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To: Salvation

I actually do believe it and the problem is getting worse. I am sure you are familiar with the Seattle eastside Catholic school where the majority of students ‘came out’ in support of the dismissed homo-’marrying’ administrator.


13 posted on 02/09/2014 1:55:51 PM PST by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: informavoracious
I’ll bet the Muslims aren’t teaching contraception.

I personally know a Muslim M.D. who was fired because he was dragging his feet on prescribing abortifacients (before they were OTC).

14 posted on 02/09/2014 1:58:33 PM PST by steve86 (Some things aren't really true but you wouldn't be half surprised if they were.)
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To: steve86

Their Archbishop is strongly supportive of Marriage between a man and a woman. I don’t think we have heard all of that story yet.


15 posted on 02/09/2014 2:11:33 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: faithhopecharity

“Yes. But today many people are not denying their sins. Nor are they hiding them. Rather they are shoving them in the face of everyone else. And demanding sanction. Approval. Blessing of their sins. This, that they want approval indicates quite clearly that they still realize their behavior is wrong. “

Exactly. If folks were truly happy in their behavior, they wouldn’t care if anyone else approved and agreed with them or not. Their demand for approval is clearly an effort to assuage their consciences.

“So there is yet hope So long as the church and other persons of good faith maintain the core moral biblical teachings And extending love of the sinner, not approval of the sin.”

Agreed.


16 posted on 02/09/2014 3:16:19 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: ReformationFan

agreed!
i have to add just one more (non-theological) thought...
I sure wish they’d just quiet down, go home, live as they wish (because I won’t, very few Americans will disturb them... we do have a social value about Free Will and the Right to Privacy and Home is your Castle and all those things......)...

It sure would make for a much saner public square (and perhaps more civil public discourse) for us all. All this “we demand you approve of our behaviors” business is getting tiring... if only because their behaviors are things I am simply not interested in hearing about. OK, I’ve heard pretty much (I think) about what they do. Fine, as long as they go home to do it... OK with me. Just don’t parade it in the public streets and I will be a fine neighbor for you, indeed there are a couple of guys like that right near us here and nobody hassles them and they don’t bother anybody either. Live and let live.

Why do these people think they need to shove their d***s in our faces, so to speak?

They really, really, REALLY must have a deep-seated NEED, craving? for approval....???


17 posted on 02/09/2014 3:54:44 PM PST by faithhopecharity
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To: BlatherNaut

St. Leonard of Port Maurice’s

CATHOLICS BEWARE! FEW OF YOU ARE GETTING TO HEAVEN~~

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=MAURICE+HEAVEN+CATHOLICS+HELL&qpvt=MAURICE+HEAVEN+CATHOLICS+HELL&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=5B9CC88D0ED201AC1F895B9CC88D0ED201AC1F89


18 posted on 02/09/2014 4:00:07 PM PST by franky8 (For the souls of the faithful departed.)
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To: franky8

http://www.cathinfo.com/index.php/Fewness-Of-Catholics-Who-Are-Saved

THE LITTLE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO ARE SAVED
by St. Leonard of Port Maurice

Saint Leonard of Port Maurice was a most holy Franciscan friar who lived at the monastery of Saint Bonaventure in Rome. He was one of the greatest missioners in the history of the Church. He used to preach to thousands in the open square of every city and town where the churches could not hold his listeners. So brilliant and holy was his eloquence that once when he gave a two weeks’ mission in Rome, the Pope and College of Cardinals came to hear him. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were his crusades. He was in no small way responsible for the definition of the Immaculate Conception made a little more than a hundred years after his death. He also gave us the Divine Praises, which are said at the end of Benediction. But Saint Leonard’s most famous work was his devotion to the Stations of the Cross. He died a most holy death in his seventy-fifth year, after twenty-four years of uninterrupted preaching.

One of Saint Leonard of Port Maurice’s most famous sermons was “The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved.” It was the one he relied on for the conversion of great sinners. This sermon, like his other writings, was submitted to canonical examination during the process of canonization. In it he reviews the various states of life of Christians and concludes with the little number of those who are saved, in relation to the totality of men.

The reader who meditates on this remarkable text will grasp the soundness of its argumentation, which has earned it the approbation of the Church. Here is the great missionary’s vibrant and moving sermon.

hanks be to God, the number of the Redeemer’s disciples is not so small that the wickedness of the Scribes and Pharisees is able to triumph over them. Although they strove to calumniate innocence and to deceive the crowd with their treacherous sophistries by discrediting the doctrine and character of Our Lord, finding spots even in the sun, many still recognized Him as the true Messiah, and, unafraid of either chastisements or threats, openly joined His cause. Did all those who followed Christ follow Him even unto glory? Oh, this is where I revere the profound mystery and silently adore the abysses of the divine decrees, rather than rashly deciding on such a great point! The subject I will be treating today is a very grave one; it has caused even the pillars of the Church to tremble, filled the greatest Saints with terror and populated the deserts with anchorites. The point of this instruction is to decide whether the number of Christians who are saved is greater or less than the number of Christians who are damned; it will, I hope, produce in you a salutary fear of the judgments of God.

Brothers, because of the love I have for you, I wish I were able to reassure you with the prospect of eternal happiness by saying to each of you: You are certain to go to paradise; the greater number of Christians is saved, so you also will be saved. But how can I give you this sweet assurance if you revolt against God’s decrees as though you were your own worst enemies? I observe in God a sincere desire to save you, but I find in you a decided inclination to be damned. So what will I be doing today if I speak clearly? I will be displeasing to you. But if I do not speak, I will be displeasing to God.

Therefore, I will divide this subject into two points. In the first one, to fill you with dread, I will let the theologians and Fathers of the Church decide on the matter and declare that the greater number of Christian adults are damned; and, in silent adoration of that terrible mystery, I will keep my own sentiments to myself. In the second point I will attempt to defend the goodness of God versus the godless, by proving to you that those who are damned are damned by their own malice, because they wanted to be damned. So then, here are two very important truths. If the first truth frightens you, do not hold it against me, as though I wanted to make the road of heaven narrower for you, for I want to be neutral in this matter; rather, hold it against the theologians and Fathers of the Church who will engrave this truth in your heart by the force of reason. If you are disillusioned by the second truth, give thanks to God over it, for He wants only one thing: that you give your hearts totally to Him. Finally, if you oblige me to tell you clearly what I think, I will do so for your consolation.


19 posted on 02/09/2014 4:05:29 PM PST by franky8 (For the souls of the faithful departed.)
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To: Salvation; steve86

For someone who quotes the USCCB daily, I’m surprised you asked that.


20 posted on 02/09/2014 4:30:53 PM PST by ebb tide
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