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.
No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the "new religion" as though it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind.
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.
“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.”
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 there is one thing we have learnt over the past 3 years it is that there is nothing so nonsensical or injurious to the faith that Bergoglio will not utter it.
Today's act of stupidity - actually uttered a few days ago - has him proclaiming Judas to be the victim of the "doctors of the law", as he likes to refer to them. Anyone claiming the man has been misquoted will do well to read the whole thing.
We are told that the banking industry tried its very best to get Pope Benedict XVI to resign. We are told it had much to do with homosexualism, in a well-researched piece by Louie Verrechio.
Distinctions Matter
Distinctions Matter Forward
Missale Romanum
Pre-1951 Calendar