De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The British Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, a group of over 500 priests in England and Wales,  has issued a statement concerning marriage and family life following the release of excerpts from the documentary 'Francesco.' The statement is a simple re-statement of Catholic teaching, including the necessity of sensitivity and compassion when dealing with sensitive and difficult issues, however it balances this compassionate approach with the need for the Church to teach the truth that the normalisation of same-sex relationships harms individuals, damages marriage and society at large. As I have long thought - this is important stuff that the Church has consistently held and taught and cannot be diminished in an off-hand comment. To do so is - at best - extremely irresponsible, not least because, as head of the Catholic Church, one would hope the Pope had some inkling that at least a few people know what the Church teaches and maybe even follow it? So what about all those peop...

  The highly regarded journalist Edward Pentin has posted comments on his personal blog from an expert canonist and priest, who prefers to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of this issue. The priest shares his views on Pope Francis’  support for same-sex civil unions. The priest comments as follows: "...it would be a grave error to protect such unions as such, i.e., as expressly immoral unions. For the harm they do to the entire society, to their own personal morality, to the education of children who grow up being presented with such unions as normal, to the progression of the species, to the notion of family and the fulfilment of one of its essential missions which is education etc., and first of all to the reverence due to God — all this is also applicable to societies as well as families." "However, wishing for a special legal frame for these sinful unions hides a sort of approval or condoning of such unions, or at least a moral indifference. Granting such le...

This is the most thorough examination of the gay unions debacle the pope has wrought upon us all, Steve has far more patience than I could ever muster and has done great work here laying out a detailed map of the situation:

 So in the last two weeks we've had Fratelli Tutti basically expounding Masonic doctrine. We've had the Vatican minting coins depicting a South American pagan goddess - and why they're are still running with this crap after all the push-back they've had on it I just have no idea! We've had the Vatican signing a secret deal with the Chinese which sold out the Church there allowing the Communist Party to appoint bishops: We've had the Vatican sending money to Australia to get Cardinal George Pell put in prison and away from auditing the books at the Vatican Bank And to cap it all off, the Pope issues a statement which stands in direct contradiction to Church teaching. Yesterday I had looked closely at the translation and was happy enough to accept that he had been misunderstood by the secular press. Notwithstanding that, and given the way the story took off like wild fire: the pope had changed Church teaching on gay marriage!! It wouldn't, surely, be outland...

I think the fact we are all so ready to believe this speaks volumes about where we are in terms of Church leadership at the moment, but the truth is he didn't say what he is being reported as saying. Here is a quote from someone on a forum, hardly authoritative, but having checked it out, I think it is accurate: “If you watch the original interview in Spanish (my mother tongue) you will see that he used the words “ Leyes de convivencia civil ” which in no means is linked to “union civil”. What Pope Francis talked about were “coexistence laws” to protect people with same sex attraction among other civilians in coexistence in society. He sees the suffering of the children of God and knows they are persecuted in many countries. But NEVER was he in contradiction with church teaching.” It also seems fairly clear (even from just watching the original footage) that he was not talking about same-sex-attracted people “having families” (i.e. children), but rather, he was saying they should n...