Warn sinners:

PROLUSION THE END OF THE SYNOD

POPE FRANCIS

With all due respect to some “traditionalists” us old people remember well about the climate history and the confessional before the Second Vatican Council in the field of the sins of sex and without being modernists do not regret at all …

Author
John Cavalcoli OP

Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 2014

Ithe recent Synod of Bishops, as is known, has developed proposals regarding pastoral values ​​and problems of the family to be in the future with the decisions of the Pope. These proposals are contained in the final document of the 18 last October. They contain undoubtedly confirm the Catholic conception of the family, praise and encouragement to families who live honestly, a holy and sometimes heroically their vocation, among risk, labors, sufferings and dangers, overcoming obstacles and overcoming, with God's help, trials of various kinds.

A pair of “spouses” homosexuals with their “baby toy”

There is also talk of other forms of relationship or man-woman civil Union or extraconiugali and even same-sex unions, with the intent to track or recover even here the values, of the possibility of ransom, elevation and improvement, to understand or excuse insuperable difficulties, to prepare for them a way of life suited to their, enabling them to contribute to the good of society and the Church, assicurando also for the possibility of salvation, since, as is known, God wants everyone to be saved and gives everyone the chance, even to those who can not or do not want no fault of their own but bona fide access to the sacraments.

The Primate of Poland, Cardinale Stanislaw Gądecki

The examination of these proposals however, to an eye, reveals that there is a serious gap, which was highlighted the day 14 October in relation to the "relationship Erdo" by Cardinal Stanislaw Gądecki, Primate of Poland, which was to observe: "During today's debate has raised the fact that the teaching of the document has completely omitted the topic of sin. As if he had won the worldly view and everything was imperfection to perfection ".

The Holy Father Francis

Dad, in his speech made at the Synod the 18 following, He collected this wise observation and remembered:

"The tentazion gooders destructive, that in the name of mercy ingannatrithis, Band wounds and treat them without first medicate him; that is the symptoms and not the causes and roots. It is tempting of the “gooders”, fearful of and also the so-called “liberals and libertarians”, the temptation to turn the stone into bread to break a long fast, heavy and painful [cf. LC 4,1-4]».

Perhaps the Pope could say the exact phrase: “modernists”.

What do these words mean the Pope? A principle that should be obvious to all the good shepherds, namely that it is necessary first to understand some sinner in his weaknesses and encourage him to develop his good qualities, in accordance with the comforting words of the Divine Master: “Do not break the barrel cracked or turn off a smoldering wick” [Mt 12,20]. But this is not an end in itself, but then need to take away the sin of the chest and face and correct the defect. Likewise, a good doctor, when faced with a patient, undoubtedly consider what are its resources healthy, but in order to see how to use them to defeat the evil.

Monica Bellucci plays Mary Magdalene in the film The Passion Mel Gibson

Ithe remediesor to this irresponsible laxity or perhaps even intellectual rigidity and backward rigor are not guilty of those who yield, as expressed by the Pope, the temptation of '”stiffening hostile”, and that called “traditionalists”, where it is not difficult to recognize the nostalgia of the educational methods of the pre-council, as if the past fifty years the ministry of sexuality inspired by the Council had not made any progress. No attack, evidently, tradition as such, but a way of conceiving, that opposes the conciliar reform.

These “traditionalists” narrow-minded and cold-hearted, under the pretext of defense of the dogma of the absolute values ​​and, they neglect, in terms of concrete guide of souls, attention to the good that is without sin, but the sinner and the need to keep his pace as his mother walking slowly to accompany the little steps of her baby. Real teachers know what they are gradual paths of perfection and freedom from vice and sin.

We elders remember how was good training weather and the confessional before the Second Vatican Council in the field of sex and sins without being modernists do not miss at all. There was such a habit that the confessor accused of mortal sin easily a penitent for a small act involuntary and unconscious, made without malice and at the urging of a sudden impulse. Young people today they take with the Council might not know how things were before. With this, of course I'm a thousand miles away from approving the excesses and debauchery opposite today, that you would like to submit under the auspices of “emotional maturity”, the progressive, freedom and mercy.

The Holy Father, for its part, in the same discourse, has shown the right way to be a wise contemperanza of justice and mercy, promotion and correction, firmness and flexibility, compliance with the principles and attention to individual cases, all in a great love for people and the Church, with dedication, theological and spirit of service.

“waste sorting”

Returning, however, to the synod, it seems instead that these good bishops with their speeches gooders and peace, have no experience of the confessional. If a penitent to tell me that he has committed adultery, or who is in love with another woman, or going to prostitutes, or has an affair, or living with another woman, or who is a divorced and remarried, or who is a homosexual, I listen sympathetically and try to understand their situation and their difficulties, I try to make him aware of how these relationships can be positive and encourage them in this direction, but it is clear that my duty as a physician of souls will then be to make the penitent clearly conscious of his or illegally, or the state of sin in which there is, or at least that what he does is not good and it is a too bad, mortal or venial it, from which it must free itself. Well I'll have to warn him of the consequences of the tragic and divine punishment, which meets, failure to correct, as well as the physician feels a patient heart that if you do not care, the'll infarction. Otherwise, which are medical? Now, where in the document the bishops of these warnings and these considerations? They seem to say to all: “Keep calm, have respect for one of the choices of others, keep it up and you'll see that everything will be fine”.

Sugar aids digestion

If a document of this kind, if you want to be really serious, pastoral and educational, such as to make the good of souls, and not only distribute sugar and give the appearance of being acquiescent to evil, will have to fine, to praise and promote positive, add and clarify with seriousness and care what pastors need to do to correct the sinners what sinners must do to solve their problems, free from difficulty, exit from irregular situations from their sin and heal.

About this again, Also in the final document of the 18 last October, there is no word or at least the subject is too small, generic and therefore insufficient. You may ask why our bishops is not thought to add the above directions, always given by all the good shepherds. Is it possible that the modernist gooders have them so mesmerized? It seems that we are all in the Edenic state and that there are no consequences of original sin.

Those depths of the human conscience that God alone can penetrate and read

From here the right and serious observations not only of the Pope and Cardinal Gądecki, or other cardinals and theologians, but of all those, even ordinary Christians and the same families, that they have joined, which are concerned for the good of all and of the whole Church. Of course many of these people deviant, who see the truth and are not stubborn and hardened in sin, but feel uneasy conscience and a desire to be at peace with God and with the Church, are available in a variety of ways to hear a word of paternal correction, showing them the way of redemption and liberation. Some will need to be shocked with a certain energy to awake out of sleep and be made aware of their responsibilities and of the serious risks they face. Since other people have to look as dangerous. For other will not be nothing to do but pray that they convert.

The open doors of the Church

It is true that the Church does not exclude anyone; but the fact is that these are the unhappyRO to not wanting to belong to the Church or to belong or if they say they have a false concept of the Church or are essI stthey fakes and hypocrites, they do not really want to serve the Church, but use it for their own interests. And if the averagewe do not speak, do not intervene, are just watching, are not diagnostic, and especially do not care, What will become of the sick? Or if you flatter minimizing their ills, how can they heal? Or if you do not show them their evil, these patients can not possibly come to think that it is not a bad thing but a good?

… marriages as soluble coffee

This approach of Bishops could help someone in the idea that then in the end, dissoluble or indissoluble marriage, conjugal chastity or contraception, premarital or marital relationships, marital or extra-marital affair, Sacramento convivenza, monogamous or poligamia, heterosexuality or homosexuality are not much alternatives respectively between fair dealing and good-evil-sin, but are simply different choices, remittances to the discretion of each. It also comes the disturbing suspicion that the bishops, facile to such blandishments, are intimidated by the pressures or threats veiled or open to the powers that be, we can imagine what might be and who want to give up the Church by his loyalty to his moral principles, why accept the highest in the world.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina spent hours and hours listening to the confessions

If this is the case, you may be wondering then, against the other, what is the meaning of the sacrament of confession. What you going to tell the priest? And in fact we confessors we are realizing that the climate is being created: often those who come into the confessional has no sins of which to accuse, but it makes a list of good deeds by ensuring the confessor to do everything we can to be a good Christian. Just at that sacred place, where more than ever the faithful should exercise “with fear and trembling” [Fil 2,12] humility, without vain self-justifications, accusing you of sin and take advantage of God's mercy, right there it's up to us with disgust confessors to hear the unholy and self-righteous arrogance of one who proclaims good and innocent maybe blaming others. And if we venture to remind them what it admits, get offended as if we had the audacity to accuse an innocent man and bring you to accuse us of malice. The tragic fact is that the concept of sin as sin to take off, that is, as an act of bad conscious and free, is becoming rare, because no longer measured on an objective standard, absolute, transcendent and dependent on God's will, Whom we have to do, but each one is built as a moral code for license, according to their own comfortable, influenced perhaps by some divine fashion, not reprimanded by the ecclesiastical. God becomes simply a notary kind of everything that comes to mind. Because of this, the so-called “penitent” - I should say “grade” O “braggart” - Has no sin to be reported, which to repent and ask God's forgiveness. It trades on the occasion of the confessional talk freely of the most diverse, from gossip to serious matters, but that has nothing to do with the needs and hence the validity of the sacrament. Often it is the penitent who has their own, well established by an obvious bad habit, wrong idea of ​​confession and try to correct it if the confessor, good penitent suffers as if it was the confessor to be an incompetent or cruel person, which creates problems that do not exist and “can not give a good word”. But then, in these conditions, the confessor to what should fulfill? That fixes, reprimands or reminders can? What warnings? What advice,? What exhortations? What commands? It seems that the so-called penitents do not expect to recover from an illness, but to be approved in its conduct and praised for his good health. E’ evident in the very high risk that they lack the conditions for a true penitent confession. Great but here is the responsibility of the confessor, you get used to hurt the faithful, and that violates a sacred duty to remember the penitent what is the real way to confess.

How then are still valid for us priests and our bishops to the words of his beloved Timothy: "Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, do warn, reproaches, exhorts with all magnanimity and doctrine. The day will come, indeed, when they will not endure sound doctrine;, ma, having itching ears they, will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, refusing to listen to the truth, to turn aside to myths " [II Tm 4, 2-4]. They are the present day.

the Good Shepherd

So the good pastor must not only stimulate a love of virtue, but hate the sin and vice. There are some pastors do-gooders who always speak of sdolcinatamente “love” in season and out, and it seems to them that the mention of “hate” both unreasonable and contrary to charity. It's a very serious misconception. Already St. Catherine of Siena, which the charity can not be doubted, end psychologist, woman of good sense and a witness of that which is the most basic conviction of the moral conscience natural, he said: “The more you love the good, the more you hate evil”. And note well: Evil, not the evil, which in itself is a creature, save for which Christ gave his blood. But for the sake of the sinner must hate the sin and the sinner must be encouraged and assisted to abandon, as it is for the sake of the patient that the doctor is fighting the disease.
Not enough then the pastor and educator praises of the good, if he does not create in the disciple strong and determined opposition to sin, showing all its ugliness and hideousness; and especially if you did not indicate what is the way to correct, on pain of eternal damnation; otherwise end up creating double personality, spineless, opportunists and schizophrenics, yes who appreciate the good moderately, for convenience, ma, always for convenience, do not reject even the bad, seeing it not as a thing prohibited, but just different, useful on occasion, so as to keep it so to speak “in reserve” and put it about the same as well and in the company of good. Here lies some false form of pluralism and respect for other people's choices, which results nell'astensionismo of those looking only to their own interests does not care about the evils and misfortunes of others under the guise of them free.

It should be, At that time, more root, remember what is sin. We confessors we experience in the practice of the confessional as often those who confess not know confess, because they misunderstand the sin or do not know what it is or denies having committed sins, so that often the first approach to the penitent require prior patient reflections on Confession, only at the end of which the penitent is able to say that sins made. It happens that at first the penitent be surprised, you irritate or do not understand, as if he heard strange things and never heard; but with patience and charity the confessor, perhaps after a long introductory interview, can lead to conditions to make a good confession. How are the catechesis premarital, so are useful introductory catechesis for the sacrament of confession, maybe even penitents of sixty or seventy years, “Catholics” fin noduvenu, abituati ma male.

Add to this the particular difficulties of sins in sex, where there is not only a passion to win often, explosion, insidious and very attractive, often orpellata of glittering colors, but higher up it should be borne in mind that sexual sin is not at first appearance of evil, but on the contrary seems to be a good and a matter of course: an act related to life, to youth, to pleasure, all’amore, to beauty, how can it be bad, a bad action? It is therefore necessary to show the reality beyond appearances, to reason and explain why it's a shame, Giacchè, as is known, sexual ethics is essentially dictated by natural law, before being precept of the Gospel and the Church. Because of this, only that the subject is influenced by ideas fenomeniste, emotionalists, existentialist, empiricist, Freudian, or hedonistic or falsely mystical irrationalism, widespread today, will make a huge effort to understand the motives and reasons of sexual ethics. So the bishops should correct these ideas. But what do they do?

The bishops then they should remember because all the sexual deviations and sins are sins against the family, and finally, as it is always used in the educational tradition or Catholic pastoral, Keep in mind at least the main means natural and supernatural, to avoid sin, not excluding the effective help, that can come from a healthy fear of God. However, it is too common a false conception of divine mercy, for which everyone could easily follow their own desires in the illusory safety to save, presumption of origin Lutheran rightly at the time condemned by the Council of Trent.

German Shepherd angry …

Apart from the shepherds do-gooders dealing harshly and scare the few good, but are shy, the shepherds of today refrain from too much reproach and correction. I fully agree with the famous saying of the great spiritual leader who was St. Francis de Sales: “to correct the sinner is better than a teaspoon of honey than a barrel of vinegar”; However, the great teacher, I think, will agree with me even if I tip her saying in this regard: “it is rather a teaspoon of bitter medicine, given with love, a thousand sweet words but flattering, Lascano that the patient in terms of patient, perhaps giving the illusion of feeling good and being just a “different”.

The bishops speak appropriately of “wounded families”. Ora but, where there is a wounded, there is usually also the assailant. E’ right, therefore, to have compassion and mercy for the wounded, but for the assailant or the assailant should be against justice and perhaps severity. There is talk of “challenges” the family; Accord to, but remember that in the moral challenger is a sinner who wants to lead us to sin.

There is talk of “suffering” e “injustices suffered”. All right, but remember the sin of those who make others suffer or commit injustice. If a poor wife suffers because her husband has betrayed her, this is because her husband has sinned against you. Mercy toward his wife, but justice to her husband. So no need to take into account of all these things?

“In Puritani” famous opera by Vincenzo Bellini

One gets the impression that the bishops, as they approach their Discorso to youbut of sin, they stop in a kind of puritan restraint. That's not good. It is here that there is a shortage, that borders on hypocrisy or fear to touch the powerful. What a mercy it is that which does not defend the weak against bullies, but considers these merely “different”, free to continue their lives? It would not be, this, a terrible insult to the poor oppressed and persecuted? Criminal penalties are still used in the Church. The problem is to use them with justice. If you do use the modernists and the do-gooders, every man for himself.

We hope that the bishops' document, rich with many ideas and encouraging positive, however, is supplemented by these notes and from these warnings. Otherwise it will be up to the Holy Father make the appropriate changes, in order to ensure in this synod the real achievement of its order to further increase cum Petro and Sub Petro family values, and to address and resolve issues related to it.

Fontanellato, 26 October 2014

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