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.’ ‘Strive for perfectionism: reconcile with your brother. Do not insult him. Love him. And if there is a problem, at the very least settle your differences so that war doesn’t break out.’ This (is) the healthy realism of Catholicism. It is not Catholic (to say) ‘or this or nothing:’ This is not Catholic, this is heretical.
Jesus always knows how to accompany us, he gives us the ideal, he accompanies us towards the ideal, He frees us from the chains of the laws' rigidity and tells us: ‘But do that up to the point that you are capable.’ And he understands us very well. He is our Lord and this is what he teaches us.Read the rest here.
5 comments:
Christ teaches us to follow the straight and narrow, not "anything goes" permissiveness.
Note, however, that "rigid" ultramontism is still the quintessence of Catholic.
These sort of statements end up being self-refuting , like the relativist who boldly asserts: "there is no absolute truth" ... to which one may fairly respond "Do you mean your assertion to be taken absolutely ? That is , should I take your assertion to be true ?" But WHY should I ?" (if it is true that there "is no absolute truth" ... then it's all just opinion , so who is to say your opinion is better than mine ? ) Relativism: both feet planted firmly in mid-air.
Pope Francis is making a judgement here:
"those within the Church who tell us ‘it’s this or nothing’ are heretics and not Catholics. "
Which seems to me that he is condemning those who disagree with him as "heretics and not Catholics" , but then he is applying the same sort of "this or nothing" mentality he claims to reject. He can't escape the logical contradiction (except to ignore logic).
Had Benedict XVI made statements against rigidity, I would have taken it as a salutary attempt to remind the Latins about the notion of economia. Given everything else Francis has done and said, I take this as confirmation of the judgement I made when briefly considered Rome before embracing Holy Orthodoxy: that the Latin train is on the same track as the Anglican, just running on a schedule about 30 years later.
Benedict slowed the decay, Francis is accelerating it.
I guess the new Creed will start out, "I believe in one God, but if you don't that's OK"
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