For many people today, practical atheism is the normal rule of life...If this attitude becomes a general existential position, then freedom no longer has any standards, then everyting is possible and permissible.
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.
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.
Homosexuality is incompatible with the priestly vocation. Otherwise, celibacy itself would lose its meaning as a renunciation.
Evil too, will always be part of the mystery of the Church. And when we see what men, what the clergy have done in the Church, then that is nothing short of proof that he [Christ] founded and upholds the Church. If she were dependent on men, she would long since have perished.
I certainly hate to agree with Cardinal Marx on anything but I can do no more than agree with him that Amoris Laetitia is very clear when it comes to the heretical position on Holy Communion for adulterers. Any lack of clarity has been cleared up with Bergoglio stating that "there are no other interpretations" when the question came to him from his native Argentina.
Let us remember that cynicism is a sin. When we see someone who seems virtuous we had better give them the benefit of the doubt until or unless we find out more about them, and we are not obliged to seek dirt on them without good cause.
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar