It is sad that there are what you might call professional Catholics who make a living on their Catholicism, but in whom the spring of faith flows only faintly, in a few scattered drops. We must really make an effort to change this.
Celibacy is always, shall we say, an affront to what man normally thinks. It is something that can be done, and is only credible, if there is a God and if celibacy is my doorway into the kingdom of God.
One can readily admit that the Magisterium's manner of expression does not seem very easy to understand at times. It needs to be translated by preachers and catechists into a language which relates to people and to their respective cultural environments. The essential content of the Church's teaching, however, must be upheld in this process. It must not be watered down on allegedly pastoral grounds, because it communicates the revealed truth.
“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.”
The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."
I kind of feel the same way as Mundabor on Bergoglio's cringeworthiness:
This man is so toxic, we will soon need to be exorcised just for writing his name on a blog post.
There is no enemy of the Church that Bergoglio will not praise - at least I have not been able to come across one yet, and apparently, neither has he.
The story that Pope Benedict resigned because he could not travel by plane certainly has a lot of legs left in it. Without a doubt it will occupy theologians for a long time to come.
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!
So DeusExMachina thinks that the firing of some scandalous bloggers has more to do with the realisation by the National Catholic Register that earning a living from a dying gang - what he calls "ZombieChurch" - is a bad business modell.
Unlike VoxCantoris, I would argue Bergoglio is far from deluded when he says:
The Church is not falling to pieces. It has never been better. This is a wonderful moment for the Church, you just need to look at its history.
For the record, it is not the first time that Bergoglio has said that.
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar