Pope's (Typical) Anticlerical Final Words at the Synod (Supposedly) on the Family

Here is the very last section (footnote 8) of the document released as the Pope's final discourse of the Synod yesterday, wherein the Holy Father once again clearly denounces the scandalous sins of clergy (surprise, surprise! [I guess the world, which will not tolerate being told of the specifically anti-family sins of contraception, abortion, homosexuality, divorce, adultery, etc., does not tire of hearing of the sins of the clergy!, nor does the Pope, in his political correctness, tire of repeating them]) while neglecting to mention the new scandalous sins against the family such as homosexual unions and the consequent orphans by design. In his summary of the family mission it is very significant that the Holy Father does not mention nor allude to neither heterosexuality nor contraception nor abortion.

If within the context of the defense of the family by the Church you must mention the sexual abuse of clergy (which does not seem obvious), wouldn't it be logical and necessary to denounce at the same time the grave scandal of incest (which is much less rare than priest abuse) and call for a rectification, purification and repentance of that too, a reality at least as gravely damaging to the fabric of the Church and of society? or statutory rape, for that matter (which is very prevalent and even largely accepted in today's world). There are myriad men (and homosexual women) who are having sex with minors today, all over the world, and the vast majority of those men (and grossly perverse women) are not Catholic priests, you can be sure of it!!! This distorted (because it is vague) summary statement, therefore, is simply a politically correct presentation of "the family" which could have been written by the staff of The New York Times!, Hillary, or the devil himself.

The only acceptable anathema is the anathema against anathemas! "The Church's first duty is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God's mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the lord (cf. John 12:44-50)." This statement is a fine summary of the false dichotomies, confusion and apparent parsing of the faith involved in this new magisterium which presumes that sinners will repent without being instructed regarding sin. The new teaching is ignore the sin and love the sinner, and presume that sinners are saints, without any sure indication of repentance.

This is the "be nice to one another" secular humanist gospel best exemplified in the Holy Father's dreamy response to the oppressed and disoriented youth of Cuba, completely devoid of any reference to Christianity, Christ, the Church, the Sacraments, Christian asceticism, morality, catechesis, studying or teaching the faith. Nothing. A discourse typical of the over half-century dictatorship, pretending everything is OK if we just try to get along!

The last section of Pope Francis' official statement at Synod

[8] An acrostic look at the word “F.A.M.I.G.L.I.A.” [Italian: “famiglia”] can help us summarize the Church’s mission as the task of:

Forming new generations to experience love seriously, not as an individualistic search for a pleasure then to be discarded, and to believe once again in true, fruitful and lasting love as the sole way of emerging from ourselves and being open to others, leaving loneliness behind, living according to God’s will, finding fulfilment, realizing that marriage is “an experience which reveals God’s love, defending the sacredness of life, every life, defending the unity and indissolubility of the conjugal bond as a sign of God’s grace and of the human person’s ability to love seriously” (Homily for the Opening Mass of the Synod, 4 October 2015: L’Osservatore Romano, 5-6 October 2015, p. 7) and, furthermore, enhancing marriage preparation as a means of providing a deeper understanding of the Christian meaning of the sacrament of Matrimony;

Approaching others, since a Church closed in on herself is a dead Church, while a Church which does [not] leave her own precincts behind in order to seek, embrace and lead others to Christ is a Church which betrays her very mission and calling;

Manifesting and bringing God’s mercy to families in need; to the abandoned, to the neglected elderly, to children pained by the separation of their parents, to poor families struggling to survive, to sinners knocking on our doors and those who are far away, to the differently able, to all those hurting in soul and body, and to couples torn by grief, sickness, death or persecution;

Illuminating consciences often assailed by harmful and subtle dynamics which even attempt to replace God the Creator, dynamics which must be unmasked and resisted in full respect for the dignity of each person;

Gaining and humbly rebuilding trust in the Church, which has been gravely weakened as a result of the conduct and sins of her children – sadly, the counter-witness of scandals committed in the Church by some clerics have damaged her credibility and obscured the brightness of her saving message;

Labouring intensely to sustain and encourage those many strong and faithful families which, in the midst of their daily struggles, continue to give a great witness of fidelity to the Church’s teachings and the Lord’s commandments;

Inventing renewed programmes of pastoral care for the family based on the Gospel and respectful of cultural differences, pastoral care which is capable of communicating the Good News in an attractive and positive manner and helping banish from young hearts the fear of making definitive commitments, pastoral care which is particularly attentive to children, who are the real victims of broken families, pastoral care which is innovative and provides a suitable preparation for the sacrament of Matrimony, rather than so many programmes which seem more of a formality than training for a lifelong commitment;

Aiming to love unconditionally all families, particularly those experiencing difficulties, since no family should feel alone or excluded from the Church’s loving embrace, and the real scandal is a fear of love and of showing that love concretely.

This Synod was the Synod on Pope Francis, not a Synod on the Family. The true Synod on the Family happened in 1980, which today seems entirely forgotten by the Chief Visible Shepherd of the Church. This one was all about him! The Holy Father is absolutely right when he warns us that clerics are not perfect, not even the Chief Cleric!