“If you believe what you like in the Gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world.
Assuredly, the word of truth can be painful and uncomfortable. But it is the way to holiness, to peace, and to inner freedom. A pastoral approach which truly wants to help the people concerned must always be grounded in the truth. In the end, only the truth can be pastoral.
To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth – that is not living, but existing.
That Christianity gives joy and breadth is also a thread that runs through my whole life. Ultimately someone who is always only in opposition could not endure life at all.
The Bear writes, on Bergoglian mercy and it's tendency to ignore the Gospel:
It isn't an emphasis. It is simple non-Christianity. We've been worrying that Pope Francis isn't Catholic. The Bear must wonder if he is even Christian.
It is difficult to take Pope Benedict XVI seriously if he really abdicated because he was too frail to attend World Youth Day....Talk about frivolous a reason!
The jewel of Steve Skojec's piece on Bergoglio's stubborn and foolhardly twisting of Islam to defend it - and equally stubborn assault on the faith he claims to hold - is surely this:
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar