Posted on 03/17/2015 6:38:50 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Reflects on the Sacrament of Penance During General Audience
Continuing his catechetical series on the Sacraments, Pope Francis reflected on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which along with the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick form what he described the “Sacraments of Healing”.
“The Sacraments of Penance and Reconciliation [...] flow directly from the Paschal mystery,” he told pilgrims attending his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.
"In fact, the same evening of Easter the Lord appeared to the disciples, closed in the Cenacle, and, after addressing to them the greeting ‘Peace be with you’, he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven.’”
This indication by Jesus, the Pope stressed, shows that the forgiveness of our sins is not gained through any strength of our own, rather it is a gift that springs from the heart of Christ Crucified and Risen.
Departing from his prepared statement, the Holy Father spoke on the reservations one might have to confessing their sins to a priest. “Someone may say: ‘I confess only to God.’ Yes, you can tell God: ‘Forgive me’, and say your sins,” he said. “But our sins are also against the brothers, against the Church, and for this it is necessary to ask forgiveness to the Church and to the brothers, in the person of the priest.”
The Holy Father also said that some may feel ashamed of confessing their sins. However, he noted, feeling shame for one’s sins is good because it humbles us.
"Do not be afraid of Confession!” he exclaimed. One who is in line to confess himself feels all these things - even shame - but then, when he finishes confessing, he leaves free, great, beautiful, forgiven, [...] happy. And this is the beauty of Confession.”
Concluding his catechesis, Pope Francis encouraged those who have not confessed, whether it be for two weeks or 40 years, to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation as soon as possible. “Jesus is there, and Jesus is much better than the priests, and Jesus receives you. He receives you with so much love. Be courageous, and go forward to Confession,” he said.
“To celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation means to be wrapped in a warm embrace.”
I’d put my money on artful ambiguity.
So you’re admitting that, through ambiguity at least, the Pope plans to readmit the divorced and remarried to the Eucharist?
adultery?
I often think of that.
But unless the priest is keeping people under bedroom surveillance -- drones at the window, maybe? --- he has no idea whether they are living in sexual continence, as brother and sister, as they ought to do if they are not validly married.
He can tell them but -- like I said --- if they intend to keep on sinning, that's on them.
And of course, that goes for all of us.
The power to forgive sins was not only explicitly given to Peter and His successors, but it was the emphatic understanding of the early Church Fathers, the Saints and Martyrs. The books in the Bible did it fall from the skies and self-assemble themselves,. They were the result of serious study by the early Church fathers (theologians) who under infallible Petrine authority declared the Bible to be the true written word of God. Under John 21: 25 there were so many things that Christ said and did that were not written down.
Thus ONLY the Catholic Church has within her the written and unwritten word of God. This infallible authority did not simply evaporate into thin air some eleven centuries later with the evil of the Reformation that in the words of the brilliant essayist, Hillaire Belloc, that unlike other heresies, Protestantism “spawned a cluster of heresies.”
They will --- I fear --- be like the most neuralgic statements that came out of Vat 2: open to either an orthodox or a heretical interpretation. As usual: good doctrine, bad discipline.
Surely you've been a Religion Forum participant long enough to see how bizarrely people can misinterpret even very innocent, straightforward statements. It's a many-times-a-day occurrence.
The Catholics here sure like to stir up trouble!
The answer's no.
Unless your private surveillance drone caught him in flagrante delicto with --- oh, I don't know --- Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at Casa Sancta Martae?
Unlikely, to say the least.
"I had another vision of the great tribulation. It seems to me that a concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. It was as if people were splitting into two camps.
- prophecy attributed to Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich, 1820
That's half the problem.
"Bah! Mercy! We don't need to steenkin' Mercy!"
The other half is a certain small and non-representative cadre of Protestants stirring up trouble.
Catholics, Protestants: very similar, somehow --- and not always in a good way.
This still somewhat stuns me, since I know a lot of Protestants AND Catholics in "real life," --- a LOT ---and NONE of them are like this. We seem to have a statistically anomalous concentration here at Freakin' Squeekin' Shriekin' Republic.
"All times are dangerous times."
St. Teresa of Avila
But ... exactly how many times in the last 500 years have we had "two popes"?
Interesting how this priest downplays the role of God and reduces the role of the Trinity...
Departing from his prepared statement, the Holy Father spoke on the reservations one might have to confessing their sins to a priest. “Someone may say: ‘I confess only to God.’ Yes, you can tell God: ‘Forgive me’, and say your sins,” he said. “But our sins are also against the brothers, against the Church, and for this it is necessary to ask forgiveness to the Church and to the brothers, in the person of the priest.”
Instead pray to the priest who not only is in effect Christ, but the priest is the Church, contrary again, to scripture... This priest apparently flunked Bible 101...
Could there be anything more uncharitable than Kasper's caricature of "mercy", which encourages those in sinful lifestyles to believe that Christ's teachings are optional?
"How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!"
The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved by St. Leonard of Port Maurice
Yeah, like all protestants...never mind what Jesus said...do it your own way...and the Eucharist is just a little cracker too I guess??
“this Pope does occasionally say some very good things”
For every one thing he says that makes sense, he says 10 things that make absolutely no sense with none of it sounding like something that would come out of the mouth of a Catholic pope. Joel Osteen yes.
On election day 2012 my doctor sent me to the hospital with pneumonia and sepsis. I was in ICU for a week and on a oxygen machine for 3 months. Apparently I would have died had I gone to vote instead of gone to the doctor. I know how you feel.
I think they gave me the last rites, I don’t mean “the sacrament of the sick”, I mean THE LAST RITES. It was a wild and crazy few months that I’d still like back.
I happen to remember this but maybe it wasn’t here.
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