One of the more remarkable things about this Pope is how few ideas are rolling around in his head, and to which he constantly recurs. Markets bad, mass Islamic immigration good, wars are started by arms merchants and orthodox young priests are the worst:
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis Thursday urged a group of Italian seminarians to avoid rigidity, which, he said, lacks humanity, and encouraged them to ask God for the gift of docility.
“Clericalism is a perversion of the priesthood: it is a perversion. And rigidity is one of the manifestations,” the pope said June 10.
“When I find a rigid seminarian or young priest, I say ‘something bad is happening to this one on the inside.’ Behind every rigidity, there is a serious problem, because rigidity lacks humanity.”
Go here to read the rest. Translation: stop following Christ and follow me.
In the “Pope’s” mind rigidity is feeling the need to be obedient to God’s Commandments and the insistence that all Catholics do the same.
I’ve experienced much “clericalism“ in promoting NFP, but never by priests who believed in what the Church Teaches -always by those who did not.
“I’m the Father here, no NFP!”
Was always “their” stance.
I wish he would define rigidity.
His comments on rigidity, imho, is a projection of his mindset onto others.
David WS, I cannot believe there are priests who are against Natural Family Planning! Althugh our one day pre-Cana in the Archdiocese of Washington was pretty useless. Not a mention of it. That was quite a while ago.
The opposite of Rigidity is Flexibility not Docility > Docile definition, “ready to accept control or instruction; submissive.” Is something lost in translation?
Dave G., That’s easy, traditional. Fr. Martin is rigid in his support of sodomy but the pope loves him.
One of the major roles of the Biblical prophets was the correction of deficient faith practices. Many of them could be called “rigorists”, or “rigid.” Being morally upright and righteous requires a strong backbone. Cain took great exception to Abel, and the mob took the same exception to St. Stephen. We all know what happened to Christ. In Christ’s woes about the killing of the prophets in Matthew 23 He specifically mentions crucifying and stoning. That would cover His and St. Stephen’s deaths. There are things that we want to hear and there are things that we need to hear. The things that we need to hear are not always pleasant.
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For a person who rebukes judging people, Pope Francis appears to be engaging in judging the seminarians. He has a long history of this kind of conduct. Remember the papal put-downs on the website “The Pope Francis Little Book of Insults?”
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http://popefrancisbookofinsults.blogspot.com
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The quotes are clickable links to the articles where those quotes came from. It is quite the papal rock pile for him to verbally stone those he disagrees with. The more things change the more they stay the same.
GregB, I’ve said for some time that for a pope most famous for his ‘who am I to judge’ quote, he’s about the most judgmental pope of known of in my lifetime.
Cam: up until fairly recently, NFP was, um, not a thing, in the mid-Michigan diocese in which I reside. Even after the passing on of a fairly “liberal” bishop (Untener) in 2004 and the naming of fairly “conservative” bishops (Carlson/Cistone/Gruss), NFP remains relatively unknown. Two Creighton model teachers and one STM teacher quit nearly two decades ago. I’ve heard that marriage prep mentions it, but instruction is strickly an online/ self-taugh endevour as near as I can tell. On the other hand, there seems to be no mention of it whatsoever in our Eparchy’s website.
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(Perhaps you were being sarcastic??)
DJH, Sarcastic about lost in translation? A bit although it is possible it was a bad translation, but given the pope’s past comments……….
Not sarcastic about Pre-Cana class in that diocese many years ago. It was worthless and we had to travel about a hundred miles one way for the class. It’s not that we were rural. At that time we resided in the capital of MD. Pre-Cana must have been on the back burner for the dioceses. Seems to me that nowadays it’s a married couple practicing NFP who instructs engaged couples. I’ll have to check the pamphlets in the back of the church.
Of course I’ve read that some believe that couples shouldn’t even pratice NFP. Maybe that’s why the priest was against it. Then there’s the thought on the other end of child bearing years that if the wife is post menopausal that couples should no longer have relations. There’s even been a book written about that though a friend couldn’t remember the title.
Word of the Day Eparchy – a province of the Byzantine Church
Christs Apostles who set out to preach and spread Christianity to the world were anything but docile and many of them paid with their lives spreading Gods word. The defenders of the Faith over the centuries were strong, brave and unyielding, including the Saints. Christ built His Church on the rock which was St Peter. Not a soft lump of dough.
“Rigid” is a term used in Sodomite Catholic seminaries to refer to straight candidates. See “Goodbye Good Men” by Michael Rose.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7zgcjv
Used for all Eastern rites, I believe. IIRC, there are six Byzantine eparchies in the US, three or four West Syrian, one Alexandrian, one Armenian, and two East Syrian. I think some churches are under the authority of local Latin-rite bishops as well.
Very early on in his reign, Bergoglio was filmed exiting the Papal Grotto after a Mass celebrated there. He passed in front of a young Altar Boy whose hands were held in the traditional position – thumbs crossed, fingers extended and joined at the tips.
Bergoglio stopped and made some snarky comment and pried the Altar Boy’s hands apart.
That brief vid was all that one was required to view to understand this man is a piety-phobic progressive politician and not a Prelate worthy of this lofty and important office.
ABS,
Found it. You are correct. And it’s very strange to see…. .
The situation was better when 99% of Catholics would never hear a single word from the pope, except perhaps through an occasional bull.
I am not being snarky. This was legitimately a better situation than the one we live in now. The only reason we think otherwise is that Pope Benedict XVI is a great scholar and Pope John Paul II was a great rhetorician, meaning that their words outside of official contexts were worth hearing for reasons other than them being the pope. But when it comes to the pope so far as he is the pope, there is no real need for us to hear what he says.
I am not being snarky. This was legitimately a better situation than the one we live in now.
What a traditionalist priest told me 17 years ago: “the Pope’s not supposed to say too much” given the pitfall of generating confusion over teachings. We had quondam diplomats and scholars for a century, so words were carefully chosen, masking the problem.
A postmenopausal woman and her husband should not have relations? Tell it to Sarah and Elizabeth!
A postmenopausal woman and her husband should not have relations?
Yeah, theory has a figleaf, but no brain.
If a couple is really dedicated to it, cool, they can do that…but o heck no for encouraging others to follow.