We already know he lies without blinking an eyelash whenever he wants to because it is convenient for his narrative as 'I alone am right' Bergoglio, but he has now developed a new stratagem for seeming to be orthodox on some issue one day and almost immediately reverting to his usual apostate stance...
Latest papal hijinks at 30,000 feet:
Pope's intercommunion 'hokey-pokey'
June 22, 2018
First he is in, then he is out, then he is in again, now he shakes it all about.
Many of us dread the papal plane comments now. Yesterday, June 21st, during an in-flight news conference, the pope was asked about his recent decision requesting the Catholic bishops’ conference of Germany not publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Communion for such couples.
Carol Glatz at CNS reports that in response
he said the guidelines went beyond what is foreseen by the Code of Canon law “and there is the problem.” The code does not provide for nationwide policies, he said, but “provides for the bishop of the diocese (to make a decision on each case), not the bishops’ conference... This was the difficulty of the debate. Not the content,” he said saying it will have to be studied more. He said he believed what could be done is an “illustrative” type of document “so that each diocesan bishop could oversee what the Code of Canon Law permits. There was no stepping on the brakes,” he said. I suppose by "illustrative document" he means something like Amoris Laetitia?
The bishops’ conference can study the issue and offer guidelines that help each bishop handle each individual case, he said. Some people think this indicates a change of mind over this issue, which was on, then off, then on again, the off again. Now it seems to be back on! Certainly Cardinal Marx public surprise at the pope's request not to publish the guidelines would seem to indicate the pontiff had given Marx no reason to think this would not go through.
An alternative scenario is that he did not change his mind, but he did know that he had no alternative but to go along with the CDF or essentially be declaring himself to be a heretic. So this is, as with so many things before, his way of saying "do it anyway... under the covers -- I can’t ‘declare it’ but you can be "pastoral". Now everybody at Mass can be considered an exception.
The argument is that there is a “grave necessity” that arises from the threat to marital unions and the faith of the Catholic part in mixed unions that stems from the prohibition on non-Catholics from Holy Communion, which means that such couples cannot licitly receive Communion together. Secondly, the fact that many non-Catholic spouses in such unions already do receive Communion in Catholic churches with their Catholic spouses (policing such matters is often nigh on impossible), hence the need for a pastoral framework to guide it. Supporters believe there is just enough room in the law (Canon 844.4, for those interested) to make that happen.
This is what Bishop Schneider had to say on what is going on recently:
"We can discover in this context also the problematic and contradictory principle of canon 844 of the Code of the Canon Law (about the administration of certain sacraments such as the Holy Eucharist to non-Catholic Christians in situations of emergency or danger of death).
This principle contradicts the Apostolic Tradition and the constant practice of the Catholic Church throughout two thousand years. Already in the sub-apostolic time of the second century, the Roman Church observed this rule as Saint Justin witnessed it: “This food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true” (Apol. I, 66).
The problem created recently by the German Bishops’ Conference is – to be honest – only the logical consequence of the problematic concessions formulated by canon 844 of the Code of the Canon Law."
Seven German bishops, led by Cardinal Rainer Woelki, have asked the Vatican to rule on the proposals which state that Protestant spouses may receive Communion after making a “serious examination of conscience”, and must also “affirm the faith of the Catholic Church”, and wish to end “serious spiritual distress” and a “longing to satisfy hunger for the Eucharist” (why they can't become Catholics if these criteria are all met is not discussed in the document).
Cardinal Woelki's request demonstrates that, despite assurances from Marx who is the German Conference president, that there is no attempt to alter Church doctrine, the proposal has deeply divided the German hierarchy. In the March 22 letter, authored by Woelki and six other German bishops and published in English in full here, the seven bishops say
they “do not consider” the German bishops’ decision on Feb. 20 to allow Protestant spouses to receive Holy Communion in some cases to be “right” because they do not believe the issue to be a pastoral one but rather a “question of the faith and unity of the Church which is not subject to a vote.”
In their letter, the seven bishops lay out four points calling for clarification: They question
- whether such a proposal is pastoral matter or one concerning the faith and Church unity;
- why a person who shares the Catholic faith on the Eucharist should not become Catholic;
- whether “spiritual distress” is really exceptional or simply part of striving for unity; and
- if a bishops’ conference should be making such a decision without reference to the universal Church.
They add that they have “many other fundamental questions and reservations” about the proposal and so prefer to seek a solution within the field of ecumenical dialogue which is “viable for the universal Church.” Cardinals Francis Arinze, Walter Brandmüller, and Paul Cordes all decried the German bishops' conference document.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, denounced it as a “rhetorical trick” and said the conditions mentioned in the draft document could never be met while staying faithful to Church teaching. He noted that most of the bishops who support the proposals are not theologians and stressed that interdenominational marriage is “not an emergency situation.”
For the good of the Church, he added, a “clear expression of the Catholic faith” is needed, for the Pope to “affirm the faith,” especially the “pillar of our faith, the Eucharist.” The Pope and the CDF, he went on, are supposed to “give a very clear orientation” not through “personal opinion but according to the revealed faith.”
A source close to two bishops opposed to the bishops' conference consensus told the Register May 4 that
the “official answer is that there is no answer.” The Holy Father, he said, had “failed to fulfil his obligation as pope regarding a question of dogma which his office must decide.”
The Pope “refused” to take a line, he stressed, “and the CDF was left to act as a postman, not to affirm the faith, but to announce this information.” The dicasteries, he said, “are useless” if all will be given over to bishops’ conferences to decide.
Well, now the pope has given a clear indication of his position, on a plane. [Not that he had not earlier given more than one indication of his own personal preference on the issue, including his initial weaselly and patently absurd instruction for the German bishops to go back and try to reach a unanimous stand. Since only 7 out of more than 200 bishops were opposed, did he really think a unanimous position would end up voting down the guidelines they had previously approved by a resounding majority? Obviously he fully expected the seen 'dissenters' to fold down and go with the majority!]
And his position is, as usual, deeply troubling and worrying for anyone like me who actually takes what the Church teaches seriously, because it appears to contradict what the Church has always taught without much thought or care. It seems to move towards an Protestant/Anglican position that "all are welcome at the Lord's table" which contradicts principles of evangelisation and mission and the CCC as well as Sacred Scripture (cf 1 Cor 11:27).
Where does that leave us? Where does it leave Catholics like me who teach the faith?
Pope changes tack on intercommunion,
now says local bishops should decide
by Steve Skojec
June 22, 2018
I tried to warn everyone.
When it comes to Pope Francis, you cannot trust what he says. There’s more and more evidence of that all the time.
And of course, we must never forget The Peron Rule.
On the matter of intercommunion, it’s true that he signed off on the CDF’s rejection of the German bishops’ handout.
Catholics who wanted to believe the best immediately got excited. “Hey look! He’s orthodox on this one!”
But now, we see what it for what it was: sleight of hand. A rhetorical head fake. Another papal shell game.
“Pope says local bishop should make the call on intercommunion” reads a new headline over at Crux. The pope has circled back to the intercommunion issue and spun it in a new direction. If you want to see what he did, you have to pay close attention to the way the cups move. Do you see which one the ball — which of course represents papal authority and approval in our little metaphor here — is under when he starts? Watch closely – the emphasis is mine:
After a day of touting ways in which Christians might share in greater unity, that commitment to coming together didn’t prevent Pope Francis from backing the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog in its decision to insist on caution regarding proposals for intercommunion with Protestants.
On a return flight to Rome on Thursday from a day-long ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva, Francis said he supported the Vatican’s Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria, in requiring a rethink of a draft proposal from the German bishops that would allow for non-Catholics to receive communion under certain conditions...
Last month, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) rejected the German proposal, which was approved by roughly three-quarters of the bishops during a meeting earlier in the spring. In a letter published this month, Ladaria said the proposal was “not mature enough to be published.”
Francis said that Ladaria did not act unilaterally, but with the pope’s permission…
Up until now, we’re all on the same page. Everybody is watching the cup labeled, “Francis forbids intercommunion via the CDF”. But while he’s talking about Ladaria having his permission, he’s distracting us. People are watching his words, and when he sees our eyes are not on his hands, he makes the switch. The ball goes under another cup so quickly that almost nobody even sees the transition. Slow it down and keep your eye on the ball:
…and that under the Code of Cannon [sic] Law it is up to the local bishop to decide under what conditions communion can be administered to non-Catholics, not local bishops’ conferences.
“The code says that the bishop of the particular church, and that’s an important word, ‘particular,’ meaning of a diocese, is responsible for this… it’s in his hands.”
Moreover, Francis said, the problem with having an entire bishops’ conference deal with such questions is that “something worked out in an episcopal conference quickly becomes universal.”
Did you see him make the switch?
The problem with the Bergoglian version of this illusion is that there’s no final reveal. The magician distracts the audience from what’s happening on the table and then thanks them for coming without ever lifting the cups to show them where the ball landed. He doesn’t actually want them to know he performed his magic, because his whole job was simply to distract them long enough that they forget he was pulling a trick at all.
The ones watching the stage show go home assuming the ball stayed right where it was.
But it’s not under the “Francis forbids intercommunion via the CDF” cup anymore. It’s now under the “Francis says individual bishops can decide the rules on intercommunion” cup.
Some people have seen him perform his version of this trick enough times that they’ve learned how to look for the switch. But most, unfortunately, have not. And since they’re confident that the ball is still under the cup it should be under, they will argue with anyone who tells them otherwise.
Meanwhile, the Catholic media is unlikely to report on the unscrupulous magician who isn’t really doing harmless party tricks, but playing a confidence game. So the game will continue.
Departing from my imperfect metaphor before it falls all the way apart, I’d like to return for a moment to what I wrote back in April. I said that I believed Francis wasn’t happy with the flaming bag of… um… intercommunion handouts that was left on his doorstep. The Germans overstepped. They got a little too cute. This isn’t how Francis works, and that’s “a good part of the reason why this document was rejected. Because
where Francis seems most comfortable working through insinuation, the Germans tried to create something more explicit. In writing.”
He more or less confirmed exactly this when he said, in the comments cited above, that “something worked out in an episcopal conference quickly becomes universal.”
We can’t have that. Remember what he told the Lutheran lady who asked him if she could receive Communion back in November 2015:
"I wouldn’t ever dare to allow this, because it’s not my competence. One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and then go forward. I don’t dare to say anything more."
No ruling from the top. No official decree. Much easier to kick it downstairs and create chaos. Atomize and deconstruct the universal faith, one bishop at a time.
Because
Hagan lío or something.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/06/2018 05:33]