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Amoris Laetitia opens a new door that goes beyond Familiaris Consortio and does away with unnecessarily harsh requirements from the Catholic Church with regard to chastity, according to a recent presentation on the Apostolic Exhortation by Bishop Marcello Semeraro in Spain. Semeraro spoke at the Jesuit University of Comillas in Madrid at the presentation of a new edition of Amoris Laetitia in Spanish with an introduction he wrote. The university rector, Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, who is the Archbishop Emeritus of Barcelona, as well as Jesuits Pablo Guerrero and Carmen Magallón, both professors at the university, were also present. Semeraro...

The Sunday bulletin of San Diego’s Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Oct. 16 wasn’t very different from all the others. Seven pages. A welcome to newcomers. A Mass schedule. But there, between the prayers of healing for the ill and the deployed and a reminder about a parent-child chastity luncheon for ages 11 and up, was an extra flier. On it was printed a memo, written in Spanish and English, and titled, in part, “How to vote like a Catholic.” “It is a mortal sin to vote Democrat … immediately after death the souls of those who die in a...

"The Eucharist is not a sacrament for the sinner but the sacrament of reconciled sinners. Just as it is the source and principle of mercy. I hope I have been clear! Nicola Bux, August 13, 2016 at a youth meeting in Schio. The theologian spoke on the theme "The sacraments are not a joke." The Eucharist is not a sacrament for the divorced and remarried, but for reconciled sinners. The liturgist Nicola Bux is one of the most reputable practitioners of the liturgical science and is one of the leading supporters of Benedict XVI's intended liturgical renewal. He is a...

By now we have been accustomed to the shocking results of Francis’ insistence on blathering to reporters during flights to or from the destinations of the useless papal trips that have become a primary activity of the post-Vatican II papacy. In the midst of all the blathering, however, there are also inadvertently revealing remarks that indicate the scope of the crisis-within-a-crisis that is the Bergoglian pontificate. The most recent example is the inflight press conference on the return to Rome from the papal trip to Armenia. A most revealing remark came in the context of a reporter’s question about key...

Pope Francis says that the Church should apologize to homosexuals. But how should we go about it? The Holy Father made it clear, in that remarkable statement, that he thought individual Christians, not the universal Church, had mistreated homosexuals. Certainly I should apologize to anyone that I have offended. But I can’t apologize on behalf of others, especially if I am not aware of how they have given offense. What it is, exactly, for which apologies are due? Are we taking it for granted that on balance, Christians have done more harm than good for people with homosexual inclinations? Are...

The Catholic church and other Christian communities must apologize to gay people and to many groups they have let down or offended throughout history, Pope Francis has said. In a press conference Sunday on the flight back to Rome after his weekend trip to Armenia, the pontiff said bluntly: "The church must say it's sorry for not having comported itself well many times, many times." "I believe that the church not only must say it's sorry ... to this person that is gay that it has offended," said the pope. "But it must say it's sorry to the poor, also,...

The stunning introduction to today’s official Vatican Radio report on Pope Francis’ morning homily reads: “Pope Francis warned on Thursday against an excessive rigidity, saying those within the Church who tell us ‘it’s this or nothing’ are heretics and not Catholics. His remarks came during the morning Mass on Thursday celebrated at the Santa Marta residence.” The specific section of the homily referred to in the opening is as follows: This (is the) healthy realism of the Catholic Church: the Church never teaches us ‘or this or that.’ That is not Catholic. The Church says to us: ‘this and that.’...

Pope Francis has suggested it is acceptable to use artificial contraception methods in countries affected by the Zika virus. "Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil," he told reporters en route to Rome following his five-day trip to Mexico. He cited Pope Paul VI's decree in the 1960s that allowed nuns serving in Africa to use contraception due to the threat of rape. He said, "In certain cases, as in this one, such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear." But he maintained the church's stance against abortion calling it "an absolute evil". CDC's advice...

The Instrumentum laboris of last June 21st, 2015, offers all the elements to [help us] understand what is at stake at the upcoming Synod. The first consideration is about method. Paragraph 52 of the Relatio Synodi of 2014 did not receive (as did paragraphs 53 and 55) the two thirds qualifying majority necessary in the regulation norms for approval, but was inserted into the final document nonetheless. It was an obvious forcing, which confirms the plan to open the doors to the divorced and remarried, despite the opposition from a consistent body of the Synod Fathers, and above all, despite...

Good entry at One Peter Five on the disastrous approach the Synods on the Family seem to be taking towards the topic of divorce and remarriage. I very much agree with the author below that many modernist Synod fathers and their advisers seem to believe that divorce is just something that happens to people, like getting the flu, and that the Church owes it to those people to not ostracize them for such an unfortunate accident. There is almost no recognition of the evil of divorce in and of itself and the moral culpability of souls who fall into it...

On 30 July 2015, the journal Vatican Insider (of the Italian newspaper La Stampa) reported on the recent interview made by the current editor of Civiltà Cattolica, Father Antonio Spadaro, S.J., with the Swiss Dominican, Cardinal Georges Cottier. In it, Cardinal Cottier criticizes the expression “remarried divorcees” as being “too generic” and as too often inadequately “applied in fundamentally different situations.” He also says: “In rigorism there is an innate brutality that goes against the gentle way God has of guiding each person.” In the interview – which will appear in the next issue of the Jesuit periodical – Cardinal...

The most common Bible verse used against the very Catholic and very biblical doctrines concerning mortal and venial sin is James 2:10-11: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.” The argument is made from this text that all sins are the same before God. Is this true? Two Points in Response: First, the context of James 2 reveals St. James to have been talking about showing partiality for the first nine verses leading up to verses...

Many supposed "theological differences" between Catholics and Evangelicals are, I think, founded in semantics rather than in substantial disagreement. For example, when I was an Evangelical one of the periodic arguments I ran across against Catholic moral theology was that the concept of mortal and venial sin is unbiblical. Sin is sin, say Evangelicals, and there's no good in trying to make out some sins as "minor." To us Evangelicals such nice distinctions smelled a great deal like rationalization and looked like an escape clause from the commandment "Be holy, for I, the Lord, am Holy." After all, James wrote,...

The Sins That Come From Being a Busybody – A Meditation on a Teaching of St. Gregory By: Msgr. Charles PopeFaults in others I can see, but praise the Lord there’re none in me!The term “busybody” usually refers to one who is intent on the matters of others but looks little to his own issues. Busybodies also tend to focus especially on the faults, foibles, and troubles of other folks. Seldom are they chattering away about good news related to other people; more often it is the scurrilous and scandalous that occupy their minds.Merriam-Webster online defines a busybody as  “a person who...

Why aren’t we more concerned about how even many of our fellow Catholics are engaging in behaviors (“lifestyles”), or accepting, or even approving them, in others, that scripture says will exclude them from the kingdom?A soul being rescued from purgatory.Right after Vatican II, there was an explosion of interest in moral theology. The “fundamental option” theory gained wide notice in both scholarly journals and in popular Catholic culture. Many people got the impression—and many still have it—that if one’s overall life is pointed in a good direction, particular sinful acts may not exclude us from the kingdom. This interpretation was...

In my previous post, I noted how Jimmy Akin believes that "quite a number" of those Americans who are, "committing abortion and contraception...sleeping together outside of marriage, using porn, and doing a host of other things that can endanger their souls," will not end up in hell. He writes, "It can be tempting to conclude that most Catholics in America today are going to go to hell. Is the situation that bleak?...Although Catholics sometimes say things like “contraception is a mortal sin” or “sleeping together outside of marriage is a mortal sin,” this is a form of shorthand. For a...

Father Joseph Pelletier, A.A., was a native of Winchendon, Massachusetts. And he served the Church at a time when most priests were still reminding the souls entrusted to their care about the reality of hell and that mortal sins, unrepented of, render a soul incapable of eternal life. Back then, most Catholics knew and accepted God's Holy Word: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the...

From a reader: Fr. Z I’m struggling to wrap my head around what the point of going to Mass if we’re not in the state of sanctifying grace.My understanding is when we fall from grace, any good works we do merit us nothing. Also, it only takes one mortal sin to sever our relationship with God, so committing another one by not fulfilling my Sunday obligation wouldn’t really make a difference in regards of the state of my soul. And finally, I can’t receive communion, so I don’t receive any graces from that.So in summation, I wouldn’t sever my relationship...

WASHINGTON — Fifty years after the birth control pill went on the US market, millions of women around the world are still under orders from the Roman Catholic hierarchy to eschew its use. But all indications are that women stopped listening long ago. "Catholics use the pill the same way everyone else does... Priests don't even preach against it any more," said Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice. "There is no evidence that the teachings of the church influence Catholics in their decisions about the kind of contraception they actually use," said Frances Kissling. The lead author of a...

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: 1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent." What if a sin has been committed that has grave matter but lacks the knowledge and consent needed to make it mortal? How might one refer to such a sin? Since it has grave matter, one might refer to it--logically--as a grave sin. That would seem pretty straightforward: Sin with grave matter is grave sin. Add the needed knowledge and...