Posted on 08/25/2016 4:24:03 PM PDT by ebb tide
When it comes to the Christian life, too many seminaries teach students a rigid list of rules that make it difficult or impossible for them as priests to respond to the real-life situation of those who come to them seeking guidance, Pope Francis said.
"Some priestly formation programs run the risk of educating in the light of overly clear and distinct ideas, and therefore to act within limits and criteria that are rigidly defined a priori, and that set aside concrete situations," the pope said during a meeting with 28 Polish Jesuits in Krakow during World Youth Day.
(Excerpt) Read more at thebostonpilot.com ...
We must keep the sheeple in a cloud of confusion in francischurch!
Oh, boy.
I’m LOL at the headline. These diocesan priests wouldn’t be priests if they didn’t practice discernment in the early days of their vocation.
My first thought after reading this was “fox watching the henhouse”.
We can at least still belive that bears .... in the woods.
What Francis is saying is that Catholic doctrine is inadequate for judging and evaluating "concrete" pastoral situations. Instead we must learn to "discern". Yet, if we set aside our "overly clear and distinct ideas", what are our criteria for "discernment"? A gut feeling? Doesn't "discernment" simply mean that Fr. Bob calls something a serious sin while Fr. Bill says it's no big deal? It's a recipe for chaos. In one diocese "discernment" says one thing, while in another diocese it says something different.
This is moral relativism, pure and simple. Adultery is a sin.......sometimes. Sin is whatever we "discern" it to be.
This principle, put into practice, means the destruction of Catholicism.
Guess all those gay pedophile priests were taught by the Jesuits that SOMETIMES IT’S OKAY TO RAPE LITTLE BOYS...
He’s proposing further seminarian exposure to Ignatian rules of discernment and you object to this?
Here is Rule Number One in Ignatian discernment (or close to rule number one): “What appears to me white I will believe black, and what appears to me black I will believe white, if the hierarchical Church so defines.” That’s part of “rules for thinking with the church.”
That sounds like exactly what Bergoglio is complaining about.
The New England Jesuits could teach the diocesan priests about flying a stable of male prostitutes from city to city in New England in an ongoing circuit. Or lots of other methods for cultivating moral flexibility.
Ignatian discernment is to be used when choosing among alternative goods, NEVER to decide whether or not to continue committing a sin.
As always, Bergoglio sows chaos and intellectual dishonesty.
I suspect the man is seriously flawed. I can’t think otherwise. I pray for our Church. He is not the intellectual thinker our two previous Popes were. He speaks his mind frequently and he can be ambiguous. The ladies at my parish absolutely swoon over him, while I cringe internally. They even bought a book about him for all of us in my prayer group.......the lady did that at her own expense. I wonder at their discernment regarding Pope Francis.
I hope it will not be seen as uncharitable if I express my hope that the next Pope will take the name Clement.
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