Pope’s Anti-TLM Theologian Shows His Pro-Contraception Cards

Pope Francis is fond of saying “everything is connected.” Traditionalists have been saying the same thing for the past six decades. We have long emphasized that those who transformed the Catholic liturgy on paper and in practice were also entertaining doctrinal novelties, oddities, and, at times, even heresies. Conversely, a radically changed liturgy has led to the weakening, and occasioned the loss of faith in, any number of central doctrines of Catholicism, or that the loss of reverence for God is bound up with moral drift in every sphere of life. It is not hard, after all, to see that the lex orandi, the lex credendi, and the lex vivendi stand and fall together.

What’s Wrong with Personalism and ‘Theology of the Body’? An Interview with Don Pietro Leone by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M

I would like to thank New Catholic for publishing the following analysis of Personalism and Theology of the Body.  My thanks also to Brother André Marie for his permission for it, as well as providing the occasion the interview gave to offer readers a more structured synthesis of the two systems. I send my priestly blessing to all readers, wishing them every Grace and happiness in the Lord.

Don Pietro Leone

What’s Wrong with Personalism and ‘Theology of the Body’?

An Interview with Don Pietro Leone

 by Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M

Bro André Marie

Catholicism Org

May 13, 2020

It was my great pleasure to interview the esteemed priest-theologian, Don Pietro Leone, on the subject of Personalism and the “Theology of the Body” (TOB). The interview was carried out via email and was kindly made possible by his English-language publisher, Loreto Publications.

I became interested in interviewing Don Pietro while reading his wonderful book, The Family Under Attack, which he mentions in this interview.

That both the Personalism of Pope John Paul II and his TOB are fully open to criticism and refutation as non-infallible philosophical and theological constructions is beyond dispute. Still, the fact is that some people may take scandal at these criticisms, which, as Don Pietro points out, are carried out “solely in the light of Faith and Reason: in the light of Truth, supernatural and natural.” The personal theology and even the “authentic Magisterium” of any pope are indeed subject to such a critique; inasmuch as the critique is carried out according to tradition and the analogy of Faith, these per se non-infallible works are just as open to criticism as are the excogitations of any other theologians or philosophers. Those confused on this point are invited to read Amoris Laetitia and the ‘Authentic Magisterium’. *

Aside from his book, which I’ve already linked to, my Reverend interlocutor also mentions in his replies a five-part essay that was published by Rorate Caeli. See below for the links to the following parts:

1. SEXUALITY IN THE EYES OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD

2. RECENT CHURCH MARITAL DOCTRINE UNTIL POPE FRANCIS: 1. ‘LOVE

3. RECENT CHURCH MARITAL DOCTRINE UNTIL POPE FRANCIS: 2. MORTAL SIN AND        HOLY COMMUNION 

4. AMORIS LAETITIA 

5. CONCLUSION

Here is the interview. 

Saint John Fisher, pray for us - "I die for the Faith of the Holy Catholic Church"

After the lieutenant of the Tower had received the writ for his execution, because it was then very late, and the prisoner asleep, he was loath to dis-ease him from his rest. But in the morning, before five of the clock, he came to him in his chamber, in the Bell-tower, finding him yet asleep in his bed, and waking him, told him, he was come to him on a message from the king, to signify unto him, that his pleasure was he should suffer death that forenoon. "Well," quoth the bishop, "if this be your errand, you bring me no great news; for I have looked a long time for this message, and I must humbly thank his Majesty, that it pleaseth him to rid me from all this worldly business. Yet let me by your patience sleep an hour or two; for I have slept very ill this night, not for any fear of death, I thank God, but by reason of my great infirmity and weakness."

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it": A note on 'submission'

The topic of a wife's submission to her husband is an issue that we hear about often, and one that is too long, and too in-depth, for this blogger to go into today. However, quickly, I want to point out to husbands, as Father's Day is approaching, that a wife's submission is impossible without the husband's love for her: The same love that Christ has for His Church. And that a husband's love cannot be divorced from his actions. 

A few book suggestions will follow at the end of this post, so please click the "read more" at the bottom. But first, a nice passage from "Father-hood and Family" Volume 3, this section written by Ed Willock in 1952:

"My anti-feminist leanings should not be construed as a lack of respect for the personal dignity of the wife and mother. Quite the contrary. When men once again become heads of their home, the dignity of wifeliness and motherhood will equal if not surpass the current secular adulation of the career woman. In the evening after the children are bedded is the most likely time for the man and wife to sit together and talk about their mutual partnership. A few words may be all that is needed to renew common enthusiam for the daily grind. When God divided the species into two and assigned the woman to be the helpmate of the man, He didn't merely give the man an extra pair of hands but another mind and loving heart. It is more than likely that a man and wife can get better advice on intimate problems of conduct from one another than from any other source. Grace and love combine to quicken the perceptions of each partner so they can be of inestimable help to one another. It should be borne in mind that all the graces of Matrimony build upon the mutual consent of each partner. Each had to say, 'I will!' before the Sacrament was fulfilled, and this 'I will!' must be repeated continuously if the graces are to become actual in their works. In order for the man to be a proper head of the family, his wife must continuously consent to it. He cannot effectively force her to consent. On the other hand, the man must consent to her being his helper or else she cannot truly be helpful. If he seeks advice for living from some other sources, looking down upon her suggestions, then he is cutting himself off from the most likely source of wisdom."

Too often, some traditionalist husbands get a warped, even dangerous view of submission. Submission is many things. It is, however, never an excuse to verbally, psychologically or, especially, physically abuse a wife. Never! And any traditional man who is committing these grave sins, certainly not loving their wives as Christ so loved His Church, should stop immediately. Your souls, and possibly even your freedom, are in peril.

The Church and Asmodeus - Part 5, conclusion

By Don Pietro Leone

A spiritu fornicationis

libera nos, Domine

(invocation from the Litany of the Saints)

V

CONCLUSION

The intention in writing this essay was to investigate how the concupiscence of the flesh, or, more particularly, the spirit of fornication, or impurity, has been able to penetrate the mind of the contemporary Church. We have been at pains to trace it back, through various canons of the New Church Law and various doctrines of recent Magisterium, to the Second Vatican Council, where the spirit of Fallen Nature made its official entry into the Catholic Church.

This spirit of impurity corresponds to the World’s vision of sexuality. Quoting our earlier analysis of this vision, and alluding briefly to the period extending from the last Vatican Council to the present pontificate, we shall proceed to examine how and to what extent this spirit informs the encyclical Amoris Laetitia.

A. ‘Sexuality does not have a particular finality. Its use is pleasurable and a means for expressing love between two persons, not necessarily married to each other’

Step by step: Vatican issues Marriage Pastoral Guidelines for SSPX (UPDATED)

UPDATE: SSPX statement, and "deep gratitude" 
------------------------------------

From Vatican Radio:

In a letter approved by Pope Francis, Cardinal Gerhard Müller says, “The Holy Father . . . has decided to authorize Local Ordinaries the possibility to grant faculties for the celebration of marriages of faithful who follow the pastoral activity of the Society.” The Pope's decision adopts a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, both of which are headed by Cardinal Müller.

The new provisions are part of a number of ongoing meetings and initiatives aimed at bringing the Society into full communion; Cardinal Müller’s letter mentions specifically the recent decision of Pope Francis to grant all priests of the Society the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful in order “to ensure the validity and liceity of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful.”

The grant of faculties for the celebration of marriage is subject to several provisions: “Insofar as possible, the Local Ordinary [that is, normally the local Diocesan Bishop] is to grant the delegation to assist at the marriage to a priest of the Diocese (or in any event, to a fully regular priest), such that the priest may receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus ordo, by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society.” That is, a priest in good standing is to preside at the celebration of the marriage itself, which in the extraordinary form takes place before the nuptial Mass. The Mass itself may then be celebrated by a priest of the SSPX.

The letter also foresees that circumstances may exist where those provisions are not possible, or where no Diocesan priest is able to receive the consent of the parties. In such cases, the Pope allows the Ordinary to grant faculties to the priest who will celebrate the nuptial Mass.

Cardinal Müller closes his letter expressing his conviction that “in this way any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to the Society of St. Pius X as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated, and at the same time that the process towards full institutional regularization may be facilitated”; and that, to that end, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei “relies” on the cooperation of the prelates of the Episcopal Conferences concerned in this matter.

Below, please find the full text of Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s letter:

Your Eminence,

Your Excellency,

As you are aware, for some time various meetings and other initiatives have been ongoing in order to bring the Society of St. Pius X into full communion. Recently, the Holy Father decided, for example, to grant all priests of said Society the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful (Letter Misericordia et misera, n.12), such as to ensure the validity and liceity of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful.

EXCLUSIVE: Francis bans marriages for 50 days

An explosive story is out today, from a new publication out of Rome. We bring you the English language exclusive. So much to unpack in future posts and analysis. For now, we simply reprint the two articles. What a way to kick off April. (Note: Our agreement with the author was that we post this not before Midnight. Since we're on Coordinated Universal Time, our readers in the United States get an early look, technically before April begins at 12a.m.):

All may repost, but you must site Rorate Caeli as the source:

The Church and Asmodeus - Part 3 (and the fallacy of Theology of the Body)

By Don Pietro Leone

A spiritu fornicationis

libera nos, Domine

(invocation from the Litany of the Saints)

III

RECENT CHURCH MARITAL DOCTRINE UNTIL POPE FRANCIS

       2.  MORTAL SIN AND HOLY COMMUNION

The Traditional Doctrine

The Church has always warned faithful against receiving Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin. In the Maundy Thursday liturgy and in the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Church in Her Old Rite liturgy presents for our meditation the passage from chapter 11 of the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians 11 warning against the reception of Holy Communion to one’s damnation. On the latter feast, St. Thomas Aquinas himself, its author, pointedly repeats the phrase in the Communio prayer; and in the sequence Lauda Sion he unambiguously declares:

Sumunt boni sumunt mali, sorte tamen

İnaequalis, vitae vel interitus.

Mors est malis, vita bonis: vide paris

Sumptionis quam sit dispar exitus.

The good receive, the evil receive, but their destiny is different: life or death. Death is for the evil, life is for the good: see how unequal is the end of an equal reception.

The Church and Asmodeus - Part 2

By Don Pietro Leone

A spiritu fornicationis

libera nos, Domine

(invocation from the Litany of the Saints)

II

       RECENT CHURCH MARITAL DOCTRINE UNTIL POPE FRANCIS

From the beginning of Her history, the Church had taught and practiced the ascetic life. In fact this is one of the features which distinguished Her from the World, and which indeed corroborates the very authenticity of Her Faith[1]. For how could She live, and convert such multitudes to, a mortified and chaste life so at variance with Fallen Nature, if the Faith which She preached were untrue?

Until the XXth century, this spirit of asceticism had prevailed in the Church: until it began to be sapped by an opposing spirit: that of the World, namely of Fallen Nature. The latter spirit had, over the course of the centuries, grown in extent and power, and was now in the course of penetrating the minds and souls of the Churchmen themselves. Vacillating Faith, poor doctrinal formation, moral weakness, lack of courage, superficiality, and sentimentality[2] on the part of the Hierarchy certainly all played a role in their subsequent endeavours to accommodate this spirit to the Catholic Faith. The moment for its official entry into the Church was marked by the Second Vatican Council.

As far as sexuality is concerned, this spirit is manifest in a new emphasis on an undefined ‘love’ at the very heart of marital ethics.

This emphasis is first manifest in recent Magisterium in the Council document Gaudium et Spes (§ 48), and was later codified by Canon Law (CIC 1983) in terms of a reversal of the order of the ends of marriage. The teaching of the Magisterium on sexuality was later notably affected and developed by official dispositions on the reception of Holy Communion, and by ‘Theology of the Body’.

Consequently we shall now proceed to examine:

1) The new conception of love in Gaudium et Spes, and then in Canon Law;

2) The relation between mortal sin and the reception of Holy Communion;

3) Relevant elements of ‘Theology of the Body’.

The Church and Asmodeus - Part 1

Note: We will bring this great work to you over the coming days, in five parts. A special thank-you to contributor Francesca Romana, whose translations are second to none, for the extensive work involved with this series:

                                                                                                          

By Don Pietro Leone

                                                                              A spiritu fornicationis

                                                                                 libera nos, Domine 

                                                                (invocation from the Litany of the Saints)

A detail from the Ysenheimer Altar by Matthaeus Gruenewald represented an androgyne demon storming a church 

Sister Lucia of Fatima wrote to Cardinal Caffara that the final clash between the Devil and the Church would be in the area of the family and marriage. A dispassionate survey of recent Church history serves to assure us that the clash has already begun, that is to say with the entry into the Church of the Demon Asmodeus: the spirit of fornication.

The question that we wish to address in this essay is how Holy Mother Church, Who has for 2,000 years resisted, been able to overcome, and indeed been purged and exalted by, all the cruel and inhuman violence of her persecutors and all the abstruse subtleties of the heretics, is now succumbing to something as base and as primitive as the concupiscence of the flesh.

To attempt to answer this question, we shall briefly present:

    1)  The Church’s traditional attitude to sexuality, in contrast to that of the World;

   2) The attitude to sexuality of the modern Church (or rather of the modern Churchmen) from the time of the Second Vatican Council to the accession of Pope Francis; and finally

   3)  The attitude manifest in the encyclical Amoris Laetitia.

  

    I 

           SEXUALITY IN THE EYES OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD

a)      The Nature of Sexuality

Francis' falsified footnotes: He mangles the Church Fathers, too

By this stage of Francis' pontificate, faithful Catholics have become all too familiar with the Pope's tendency to misquote and wrest the words of the Holy Gospel and of previous Magisterial documents not only in his "off the cuff" allocutions, homilies, and interviews, but even in his formal, prepared documents. It only makes sense that, as we shall see below, the Pope shows the same disrespect for the Church Fathers.

To cite one of the most egregious manglings of the Church's previous Magisterium:  While all the faithful are rightly outraged or troubled by his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia's infamous Footnote 351 granting permission for unrepentant adulterers to commit sacrilege at Mass, we cannot forget that the Pope in Amoris laetitia conveniently failed to quote St. John Paul's Familiaris consortio no. 84 which explicitly upholds Christ's commandment forbidding Communion for purportedly remarried adulterers, while Amoris laetitia's Footnote 329 rips the Second Vatican Council's Gaudium et spes no. 51 (concerning temporary abstinence from marital relations) completely out of context in order to argue that "doing it for the children" might mitigate the mortal sin of adultery. (We reported and commented on these things the lamentable day Amoris laetitia was issued.)

Sin is Virtue

The freaking creeps running the Church today:

Why bother getting married, right? Then, why bother being Catholic at all?...

Fr. Spadaro, SJ, runs the once-great Civiltà Cattolica founded by none other than the magnificent Pio Nono (Bl. Pius IX). He is one of the two or three closest advisors of Pope Francis...

De Mattei: When public correction of a pope is urgent and necessary

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

February 22, 2017

May a Pope be publicly corrected for his reprehensible behaviour? Or should the attitude of the faithful be that of unconditional obedience, until the point of justifying anything the Pope’s says and does, even if  openly scandalous? According to some, like the Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, it is possible to express “tète a tète” one’s dissent to the Pope, without, however, manifesting it publicly. This thesis nonetheless, contains an important admission. The Pope is not infallible, unless he speaks ex cathedra. Otherwise it would not be licit to dissent even privately and the path to follow would only be that of religious silence.  On the other hand, the Pope, who is not Christ, but only his representative on earth, can sin and make mistakes. Yet, is it true that he may only be corrected privately and never publicly?

URGENT - Bergoglian Persecution Begins: Priest is Suspended a divinis in Colombia for criticizing the new papal doctrine on Marriage and the Eucharist

The document is provided by Rorate's Spanish-language partners "Adelante la Fe" -- and the news is explosive. A priest in the Diocese of Pereira, Colombia, was admonished and suspended by his Bishop because he criticized in public the new doctrine invented by Pope Francis on Marriage and the reception of the Blessed Sacrament.*

Father Luis Alberto Uribe Medina is the victim of this startling act by his bishop, Rigoberto Corredor.

Full document in our own translation below:

DECREE no.1977

Of January 16, 2017

By which a priest is suspended

THE BISHOP OF PEREIRA

Considering

Malta sinks

Cathedral of the Assumption, Gozo, Malta

In World War II, Malta was described as the 'unsinkable aircraft carrier'. Well, it has sunk now. The Bishops of Malta (both of them) have stated that anyone in an irregular union who feels 'at peace with God' should not be excluded from Holy Communion or from Sacramental Absolution: at least, that's what they seem to say. Readers can judge for themselves.

If, as a result of the process of discernment, undertaken with “humility, discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere search for God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it” (AL 300), a separated or divorced person who is living in a new relationship manages, with an informed and enlightened conscience, to acknowledge and believe that he or she are at peace with God, he or she cannot be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist (see AL, notes 336 and 351).

Again:

there are complex situations where the choice of living “as brothers and sisters” becomes humanly impossible and give rise to greater harm (see AL, note 329).

I wonder what would happen of a priest decided that an adulterer had not undertaken a process of discernment with the requisite humility? If he'd had humility, but not 'love for the Church'? Or maybe that his 'search for God's will' was not, as required, 'sincere'? Would Archbishop Scicluna congratulate such a priest for his pastoral sensitivity?

Majestic Lecture by Prof. Roberto de Mattei: "Resistance and Fidelity to the Church in times of crisis"

"Resistance and Fidelity to the Church in times of crisis"

Prof. Roberto de Mattei

From a conference given in Florence - October 2, 2016

            

            1.The infallibility and indefectibility of the Church

The Church has been through the gravest crises in the course of Her history: external persecutions like those which characterized the first three centuries of Her life and since then have always accompanied Her; internal crises, such as Arianism in the fourth century and the Great Western Schism. However, the process of the Church’s “self-demolition” “struck by those who belong to Her” which Paul VI spoke of as far back as 1968[1], appears to be a crisis without precedent because of the extent and depth of it.

We say this in a spirit of deep love for the Papacy, rejecting every form of anti-infallibility, Gallicanism and conciliarism; in a word, every error that would diminish the role and mission of the Papacy. We profess with the entire Church, that there is no higher authority on earth than that of the Pope, since there is no mission or office more elevated than his. Jesus Christ, in the person of Peter and his successors conferred to the Roman Pontiff, the mission to be the visible head of the Church and His Vicar[2]. The dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus of the First Vatican Council defined the dogmas of the Roman Primacy and papal infallibility[3]. The first asserts that the Pope has supreme power of jurisdiction, both ordinary and immediate, over individual Churches, individual pastors and all the faithful. The second dogma teaches that the Pope is infallible when he speaks “ex cathedra”, which is to say when in his function as Supreme Pastor, he defines that a doctrine in matters of faith or morals must be held by the entire Church.

The authority of the Pope has precise limits however, which cannot be ignored. Javier Hervada in his well-known manual on Constitutional Canon Law, writes: “The power of the pope is not unlimited: it is circumscribed within determined limits. The limits may regard the validity or lawfulness in his exercise of power. The limits regarding validity are given as: a) of the natural law: b) of the positive Divine law; c) of the nature and the ends of the Church”[4].

Op-Ed: "Adultery as a venial sin" -- and other absurdities of trying to defend the indefensible Francis Doctrine

Nathan rebukes King David for his Adultery (Eugène Siberdt)

Dr. Jeffrey Mirus on marriage and the Eucharist

by Dr. John Lamont

Dr. Jeffrey Mirus has recently published an article entitled ‘Not heretical: Pope Francis’ approval of the Argentine bishops’ policy on invalid marriages’*. The object of this article is to argue that Pope Francis has not asserted or endorsed heresy in approving of a recent document issued by some Argentinian bishops concerning the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. To justify this conclusion, Dr. Mirus makes a number of claims about moral behaviour and the discipline of the sacraments. 

These claims urgently need to be addressed.

This discussion of Mirus’s assertions will not consider the rights and wrongs of the Argentinian bishops’ document itself and the Pope’s endorsement of it. Nonetheless it should be noted that Dr. Mirus’s article is somewhat misleading on this subject, because it gives the impression that the only objectionable part of this document is the permission it gives for the divorced and remarried to receive the Eucharist. In fact the document in its paragraph 6 extends this permission to both absolution and reception of the Eucharist, and states that the divorced and remarried persons it refers to can grow in grace through these sacraments. This contents of this paragraph have been addressed by a group of Catholic scholars, who have drawn up theological censures of heretical and erroneous propositions that could be attributed to Amoris Laetitia and have asked the college of cardinals and the patriarchs of the Church to petition the Pope to condemn these propositions. These censures were sent privately, but were leaked to the media and are now publicly available. Paragraph 6 of the Argentinian bishops’ document endorses the propositions condemned in censures 6, 7, 11, 15, and 16 of the document sent to the cardinals, which are accessible here. The bishops’ statement thus has a broader scope than the issues addressed by Dr. Mirus, a scope whose extent can be grasped by considering their statement and the censures referred to above.

Pope Francis' catastrophic remarks of June 16, 2016 - Part I of Commentary.1. Pope Francis says that "great majority of sacramental marriages are null", but some cohabitations are real marriages.2. How Amoris Laetitia and Mitis Iudex paved the way for Francis' statement.3. Bergoglio welcomed his niece's defiance of Church teaching on marriage

In a short but already overheated papacy littered as no pontificate before with an avalanche of papal words, Francis' remarks during his Q & A on June 16, 2016 are surely among the worst that he has spoken. Our commentary is divided into two parts. This one is on his statements regarding sacramental marriages and cohabitation, and the antecedents for his statements in his previous teachings and actions. The second part will be about Francis' denunciation of the desire for precise doctrine and "rigidity" on divorce, remarriage and baptism.

[NC: One important editorial note. This morning, the Vatican released a transcript of the papal talk, scandalously tampering with what was really said by the Pope. What the Pope said, and was recorded, and is available on video here (starts at 1:14:20), was, "una grande maggioranza dei nostri matrimoni sacramentali sono nulli" ("a great majority of our Sacramental matrimonies are null"). The transcript released by the Vatican says, "una parte", "a part/portion", instead of "a great majority".]

I. What the Pope said on sacramental marriages and cohabitation.

For the record:

Pope Francis said Thursday that the great majority of sacramental marriages today are not valid, because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding of permanence and commitment.

“We live in a culture of the provisional,” the Pope said in impromptu remarks June 16. After addressing the Diocese of Rome’s pastoral congress, he held a question-and-answer session.

A layman asked about the “crisis of marriage” and how Catholics can help educate youth in love, help them learn about sacramental marriage, and help them overcome “their resistance, delusions and fears.”

The Pope answered from his own experience.

“I heard a bishop say some months ago that he met a boy that had finished his university studies, and said ‘I want to become a priest, but only for 10 years.’ It’s the culture of the provisional. And this happens everywhere, also in priestly life, in religious life,” he said.

“It’s provisional, and because of this the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null. Because they say “yes, for the rest of my life!” but they don’t know what they are saying. Because they have a different culture. They say it, they have good will, but they don’t know.”

And also this:

He added that a majority of couples attending marriage prep courses in Argentina typically cohabitated.

 “They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task. Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help fidelity to mature.”

He said that in Argentina’s northeast countryside, couples have a child and live together. They have a civil wedding when the child goes to school, and when they become grandparents they “get married religiously.”

“It’s a superstition, because marriage frightens the husband. It’s a superstition we have to overcome,” the Pope said. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity, but there are local superstitions, etc.”

'Amoris laetitia' in conflict with the Catholic Faith

Hagios o Theos.

Hagios Ischyros.

Hagios Athanatos, eleison hymas.

God have mercy on His Holy Church.

There's no other way to put it: The pope's Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia is a catastrophe.

Though released only this morning, Catholic observers and commentators have already begun to identify several objectionable passages in which the doctrine and discipline of the Church's Faith are elided, wrested, and contradicted. We at Rorate Caeli will have more to say on this subject, but we can affirm that the headline of Dr. Maike Hickson's commentary at OnePeterFive is correct: "Pope Francis Departs from Church Teaching in New Exhortation."  Also correct is Voice of the Family's observation, "There are many passages that faithfully reflect Catholic teaching but this cannot, and does not, lessen the gravity of those passages which undermine the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church." (Be sure to read all of Voice of the Family's excellent critique.)

On Family Day, the God of Surprises surprised Pope Bergoglio and Prime-Minister Renzi (by Antonio Socci)

RENZI AND POPE BERGOGLIO (along with others) TAKEN ABACK BY THE PEOPLE OF FAMILY DAY

“The Surprises From The Holy Spirit”

Antonio Socci

“Libero”

January 31, 2016

There are those who are green with envy at yesterday’s immense and momentous Family Day, which, for the first time in Italian history filled up Rome’s Circo Massimo with no union, political or industrial organizational backing and no paid travel expenses. These were people who went to the Circo Massimo at their own expense, with enormous sacrifices, for an ideal, for their children, faced with a political class that has thrown ideals under the bus, seeing as it is only motivated by power. A political class that is quite incapable of representing these people and in reality, was never given any power by the electorate.

There are “ envious individuals” in the “Palaces of Power” (political, ideological and journalistic), but even in the palaces of ecclesiastical power, who did all they possibly could to defuse Family Day.