There are still some sane and sound voices speaking up. Thank God for this Latvian bishop https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...ell_them_that_s_all_right&utm_term=2023-10-19
I’m not too into tge who the next pope guessing game but this caught my attention. Mainly b/c I thought Parolin was more on the liberal side? Is this a ruse? I must confess it’s surprising and confusion. But I think surprise and confusion is the new norm. https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/co...ell_them_that_s_all_right&utm_term=2023-10-19
If they pass the 'blessing' of sodomy, there will be queues of pairs of homosexuals, very few remotely interested in Catholicism except to hate it, seeking them from priests and bishops, in the full glare of publicity.
Latest from Manuela. Manuela – The Tempter Will Appear in the Synod The King of Mercy toManuela Strack on September 25, 2023: Dear friends! Today, I have come to you to purify your hearts in My Precious Blood. I want to wash your hearts in My Blood. Accept this grace from Me. Live in sanctifying grace! Live in the Holy Sacraments! They are holy because I am holy and because I gave them to My Holy Church! Guard your hearts in this time of tribulation. Call on My Name, dear friends! Rejoice in everything that happens, because I come to you and am with you! I will not leave you. See what grace I am showing the world. You, dear friends, are pure of heart! Purity of heart will carry you through the time of tribulation. “Dear successors, [1] if your hearts are open to Me, then I will protect you from all tribulations and will guide you through this time. Have no fear! My friends, have no fear! I am the Lord! Pray especially for the Synod! The tempter will appear in it. I am allowing this. People of God, are you worthy of Me? Pray and sacrifice! Pray for reparation before the Eternal Father, in whom I am in My entirety. Little flock, bear witness! With everything that will come now, which I must allow, have no fear! For I have already taken care of you… Even though thieves have broken into My sanctuary, I am with you! They will not be able to destroy My Holy Church. Amen. Adieu!”
It looked good until I read the part that said if two people come and say we want to live in chastity and say we are tempted then you can bless them to help them live in chastity. Shouldn't the Bishop be asking why two people who are tempted are coming as a couple to seek a blessing? Have we abandoned Church teaching about our obligation to avoid the near occasion of sin? What is it about sodomy that makes our Bishops feel the need to dance on the head of a pin to avoid their "yes" being yes and "no" being no? People are living with all sorts of temptations that they can't bring along to the Church saying "bless me and my near occasion of sin". I try to read as little as possible about this Synod because the more I see the hype about sex, equality and so-called "inclusion", the more convinced I am that it's all a diversion from the real goal of decentralising the Church. Many Bishops will welcome getting out from under the thumb of what they consider the overbearing Vatican bureaucracy, but it will lead ultimately to Church teaching being dependant on the personal opinion of individual Bishops. Dogma in Portugal will always be preserved is what Our Lady of Fatima said. What about dogma everywhere else in a decentralised Church? Nobody will be interested when the convoluted language of the post Synodal documents can be read to mean that the Church won't have women priests and won't be having nuptial Masses for same sex couples. Michael Lofton can make a whole series of "I told you so" videos. Others will do the usual hand wringing of "it could have been better but we dodged a bullet". The Church in Western countries will continue on its merry way along the road to the great apostasy. What happens in countries yet to be fully evangelised probably depends on the outcome of current conflicts. I have a feeling that God will prevent the episcopal weeds from choking the good seeds in those countries until the people there have had as much opportunity as we had to accept or reject the Gospel unsullied as it was handed down to us. Fretting over it won't change anything. It's either God's Church or it isn't, and God knows how to ensure that His incorrupt message is preached to the ends of the earth despite some of our Bishop's best efforts to thwart Him.
You express we ll what I am feeling and have felt. I was in adoration yesterday before the Monstrance and after adoration prayer intentions and quiet meditation i was expressing to Him my anxieties about this issue and other family issues. All of a sudden an old hymn from my days in the charismatic renewal flooded my mind. I didn't sing because another adorer was sitting down front but I sang in my mind and when I reached the refrain "I exalt Thee I exalt Thee I exalt Thee O God" I actually raised my hands in the air as if it was done for me. It was very powerful. I was so comforted about the situation in the Church and in the world and even my own family. As I was leaving I asked Him if He could give me a scripture to take with me. All of a sudden my mind was flooded again with music and the words "How lovely on the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news proclaiming peace and tidings of great happiness....Our God reigns Our God reigns Our God reigns...: My hands shot up in the air like a prayer meeting worship in the old days. I was so filled with gratitude. I knew what He was telling me. In the first hymn the verse it says "O Lord Thou art great above all the earth Thou art exalted above all gods..." and then the wonderful Isaiah 52 as I was leaving. God reigns. God is in charge. God is with us. We must praise and thank Him in the midst of our troubles. I share this to encourage you. I was SO encouraged myself.
Jesus said that a divided kingdom will not survive. This is where divine intervention comes in, in my opinion. Our Lord will punish the world so that the church can once again mirror his unity with the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit.
Our Church has been divided many times in the past but Jesus always keeps his promise to be with it until the end of time. Yes, divine intervention will ensure that we never splinter so much that His Church won't be visible to all who seek Him. He founded His Church on Peter to guarantee that. It's beyond our pay grade to presume to know what form divine intervention will take. God's ways are not our ways (my own track record is absolute proof of that). Whatever happens, we must be in Communion with Peter. I fear that decentralisation would be a terrible mistake. But I'm looking at the world through the lens of a person raised in a Catholic country in the declining years of what once was Christian Europe. For all I know, decentralisation could be God's means of protecting the Church and preparing it for great changes in the world, paving the way for the Gospel message to reach all those who haven't yet been evangelised. Best to let today's concerns be sufficient for today. Sometimes we have a tendency to treat Sacred Scripture as though it were a more reliable version of Old Moore's Almanac.
In fact, whoever is in charge of the church is treating the Scriptures worse than an "old Moore's almanac" that I don't know, but I know that I have certainly never treated the Holy Scriptures in a similar way to him. In fact, Francis and his supporters led to the Scriptures being treated as a book of science that needs to be reinterpreted according to the evolution of time and cultural context.
All I know, Luan, is that there is only one barque and I need to be in it, otherwise I may as well be on a rowboat in a tsunami. St. Paul apologised for insulting the High Priest. Some Bibles quote Paul as saying that we shouldn't speak evil of the ruler of the people, and some use the word "curse" rather than "speak evil". "Curse" is probably more accurate and nobody here is cursing the Pope, but there's no doubt that St. Paul would have been more measured in his response had he known he was speaking to the High Priest. Pope Francis is the leader of our people and he's only in the ha'penny place in comparison with the High Priest. That should be a warning to us. We'll have to wait and see whether the current happenings in the Vatican are down to the active or permissive will of God but we know for sure that God can and will bring good from it when He sees fit. Members of the hierarchy whom I admire are saying we should resist false teaching. I think we can do that by simply living our lives according to the Faith we have received. As far as I know, in times past the faithful would seek out good, holy priests and Bishops and steer clear of the heretics. I suppose that's how we will cope if weird stuff happens in our parish churches. The Pope and Bishops will answer to God for their wrongdoings. There won't be any Pope or Bishop standing beside me at my particular judgment, so I need to concentrate on the state of my own soul and leave the hierarchy to God.
I understand that we must fully recognize Francis as the pope and avoid derogatory terms about him, even when we criticize him. However, I think there needs to be space to question some of their actions so that the world (especially Protestants and Orthodox) knows that the Church as a whole has not given in to modernity. At a time when only a small part of the episcopate gains global visibility by resisting the ongoing apostasy, it is necessary that the laity, together with the episcopate, begin to constitute some type of resistance to change. I believe the parable of the lamp placed on top of the candlestick points to this. Finally, I must say that I will never abandon the Church, even in the midst of the current crisis, because all this only confirms what Our Lady warned in Fatima about apostasy in the Church, while Protestants fell into a terrible spiral of modernity that none of their leaders prophesied.
I think we have a way to go before we fall as far as the Orthodox and particularly the Protestants. I'm more concerned about the effect on fellow Catholics. I think that we also need to know our place. We can be a lampstand in our own circle and try to witness to one soul at a time. Purple Flower's posts on another thread about her prayers for her family being answered was very encouraging to me. They helped me see that I need to double down on prayer for my own loved ones and for my country. The negative reports about the Synod don't help. For example, I was at adoration tonight and, rather than talking to Jesus as AED described earlier in this thread, I was thinking about all this negative stuff and global conflicts. It's as well that God is all merciful as well as all powerful because I deserved to be booted out the door for my failure to be still and behave like I know that He is God. I want you to know, Luan, that I didn't think for a minute that you would ever abandon the Church, and I'm sorry if my attempts to convey my muddled thinking gave you that impression.
Honestly, I think that the Synod reports only show what the Lord's permissive will is allowing to happen in the Church (to a certain extent) so that what was prophesied in Fátima and which precedes the triumph of Mary's immaculate heart can be fulfilled. These events, as well as the war between Israel and Hamas, end up disturbing our spiritual peace; however, they constitute the fulfillment of the sacred scriptures.
I have no doubt that the church will emerge victorious in the end. Roman Catholicism is the full fulfillment of Christ's promise that he would be with us until the end of time.
will definitely be reading this book! But for now, I think the summary from end is spot on! “And his point, which I think was Newman’s point, is that you have to identify what an authentic development is and what a corruption is. Newman’s point was that the development of doctrine is the making explicit what was implicit, not contradicting what was implicit.” I also was encouraged that Cardinal Pell remained optimistic that the Church will continue e through this!
