No one wants disunity or a Balkanization of the Church, but bishops have a duty to the truth and the truth is FS is deeply flawed, as the author is well positioned to assert. Looking at the immediate consequences alone, it has clearly opened a dangerous precedent that cannot be allowed to stand, no matter if the intentions of the Holy Father and his DDF are for an inch, not a mile. Miles have been already taken.
The author cites James Martin’s immediate and media-boosted blessing of a same sex couple - certainly not only as a couple but as a couple defiantly standing against Catholic moral teaching, which itself finds its basis in the Word of God. The people at the NYT and Good Morning America have already proclaimed this as Francis guiding the stodgy old church into the light - a “good first step.”
But add to that the very public pronouncements by public figures like presidential candidate and Catholic Chris Christie that he has decided to do a 180 and now support “gay marriage” based on his perception that “the Church is changing” vis a vis FS.
2,000 word “clarifications” won’t suffice. If FS is not rescinded soon, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Francis’ successor may try, but it will likely be too late. Schism will be upon us. Just it has been with other Christian churches that have opened this same path of embracing that which cannot be embraced in truth.
No one wants disunity or a Balkanization of the Church, but bishops have a duty to the truth and the truth is FS is deeply flawed, as the author is well positioned to assert. Looking at the immediate consequences alone, it has clearly opened a dangerous precedent that cannot be allowed to stand, no matter if the intentions of the Holy Father and his DDF are for an inch, not a mile. Miles have been already taken.
The author cites James Martin’s immediate and media-boosted blessing of a same sex couple - certainly not only as a couple but as a couple defiantly standing against Catholic moral teaching, which itself finds its basis in the Word of God. The people at the NYT and Good Morning America have already proclaimed this as Francis guiding the stodgy old church into the light - a “good first step.”
But add to that the very public pronouncements by public figures like presidential candidate and Catholic Chris Christie that he has decided to do a 180 and now support “gay marriage” based on his perception that “the Church is changing” vis a vis FS.
2,000 word “clarifications” won’t suffice. If FS is not rescinded soon, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Francis’ successor may try, but it will likely be too late. Schism will be upon us. Just it has been with other Christian churches that have opened this same path of embracing that which cannot be embraced in truth.