So what did the pope actually say? Here is the warhead as it was launched midway through the interview: \u201cWe cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods,\u201d Pope Francis told Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor in chief of La Civilta Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal. \u201cThis is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the Church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the Church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\nThere are, as I see it, two points that need to be made here. One,
\nthe Church is not about to (or able to) repeal the moral law on the
\nmatter of abortion, contraception, or efforts to redefine marriage,
\nnever mind the impression His Holiness may have left in urging us, in
\nhis words, \u201cto talk about them in a context.\u201d In other words,
\ncontextualize them all you please, the point survives that both he and
\nthe Church remain perfectly plainspoken in their continuing and resolute
\ndisapproval and rejection of them. So, again, there is simply no room
\nfor maneuver as regards the iniquity of these practices. They are
\nabhorrent to both the Pope and the Church for whom he speaks.\n<\/p>\n
However, and this is the second point, what the Pope did most
\nemphatically say, and it is no surprise that the secular media missed
\nthe bus on this, is that while these are immoral and thus unacceptable
\npractices in every way, and the Church must never cease to condemn them,
\nthey are nevertheless not the center of the faith we profess. Jesus
\nChrist is. Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings to the world are the
\nroot and crown of the faith we profess. \u201cA beautiful homily,\u201d the pope
\nexplained, \u201ca genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, the
\nproclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid, deep and sure
\nthan this proclamation. Then you have to do catechesis. Then you can
\ndraw even a moral consequence. But the proclamation of the saving love
\nof God comes before moral and religious imperatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe moral law, from whose strictures none of us is exempt, is always
\nthe fruit, never the root, of the decision to become a follower of Jesus
\nChrist. …<\/p>\n
There's more if you hit the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is posted on the HLI (Human Life International) Truth and Charity forum. The interview, of course, came out a number of weeks ago and was published in Jesuit journals throughout the world. The full text of the Pope's interview can be found here A Big Heart Open to God and is very well worth reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}