Pope Francis appears to be doubling down on his insistence that divorced and remarried are somehow living members of the Church.
This morning’s Tweet from Pope Francis is as follows:
Francis sets up a false dichotomy which gives the impression that a Catholic is either in the state of grace, or he is excommunicated.
Once again, Francis fails to make a distinction that can be made by any seven-year-old training for First Communion:
A Catholic living the life of sanctifying grace is a living member of the Church.
A Catholic living in mortal sin is a dead member of the Church.
A Catholic who is excommunicated is cut off from membership of the Church.
Catholics living in mortal sin are not “living members of the Church” but dead members. All catechisms prior to Vatican II teach this truth. And being a dead member (living in mortal sin) is not necessarily the same as being cut off (as in excommunication).
Francis does not makes this fundamental distinction. He speaks only of living members and the excommunicated. It is this false thinking that Francis will use to open the door for those living in sin to take on public offices in the Church such as that of god-parent, Sunday school teacher, lay “eucharistic minister” and lay lector – explained here in detail.
“Zombies” is the term used to describe what horror movies call the “living dead.” Francis, by giving the impression that dead members of the Church are somehow living members who should take a more active public role, has established his own Zombie Apocalypse.
In effect, Francis is making a promise to fallen souls that cannot be realized. This is not the mark of a ‘pastoral’ pastor.
As for those Catholics living in sin (as we have mentioned in the past), they should gently be reminded they are still obliged to attend Sunday Mass, though not free to receive the Eucharist. These fallen souls should be treated with kindness, helped by our prayers, counseled to Marian devotion, and lovingly encouraged to rectify their lives in accord with Christ’s teaching. This is the Church’s long-recognizes manner of reminding them they are still part of the Church.
In this morning’s sermon at St. Marta’s, Francis continued his assault, denouncing those who allegedly hold to the “law” and “judge with closed hearts.”
All signs indicate Francis intends to ram his new subjectivist, situation ethics program forward, and he does it by means of deliberate imprecise language, and by ‘Tweeting’ this imprecision to hundreds-of-thousands of those who will take his word as Gospel.
This is a colossal abuse of papal authority.
Where are the prelates who will protect the faithful and publicly challenge Francis’ subversion of Catholic morals?
In the meantime, we continue to publicly resist Francis’ subversion of moral teaching, as well as the entire Conciliar revolution.
• Video: CFN Media 14 – Francis’ Rich Church and “Exhortation” Fraud
• Socci: The Apostolic Exhortation is a turning-point in Catholic Doctrine
• Francis Post-Synodal Exhortation released