The Church of England had taken the very same action only within the last couple of weeks prior to Pope Francis’ dastardly actions. This may be the end of the Roman Catholic Church as we understand it. If there is not schism, more people will simply leave the church. This will be in addition to many who had already left because of the sexual abuse scandals and because of Covid-19.
The College of Cardinals that surprisingly selected someone like Francis years ago is now even further skewed to the left because he subsequently stacked it with bishops who are much like himself. He is rumored to be in poor health; and there is speculation he might not hold the papacy much longer. But it seems the College of Cardinals is unlikely to change course if he must ultimately be replaced.
As the world even further slides toward evil prevailing, the Conservative Baptist Network issued the following statement:
In light of the Vatican granting formal approval for Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, the Conservative Baptist Network reiterates its commitment to marriage and all sexual intimacy as confined by God’s design and order to one man and one woman for life.
While the Catholic Church said in yesterday’s announcement that it wants to avoid creating confusion, saying that the blessings for same-sex couples should not be given in conjunction with ceremonies of holy matrimony, confusion is exactly what the Pope has infused into the discussion of God’s prescription for marriage.
God’s plan for marriage and sexual relations is not confusing or unclear in Scripture, and saying otherwise reveals a preference for one’s own ideas and desires above God’s. Adding nuance and making distinction between marriage and the acts of marriage is unhelpful at best and diabolic at worst.
The Conservative Baptist Network calls upon Christians not to capitulate to culture’s skewing of marriage and sexuality.
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” – Hebrews 13:4
TC: This may be overblown a bit but it signals the end of this pope’s reign to some extent. As Mary Matalin once said when asked if she thought Clinton would be impeached over Monicagate, “If the people like you, you can get away with anything!” Clinton was re-elected despite his woes and moral failings. The people liked him. The people do not like Biden. They do not like Pope Francis. Thus, just about anything they do – fall off their bicycle, mumble incoherently, or propose blessing homosexual unions – is enough to get you tossed out by the people, including those who may have supported you in the past.
I have been told that in the Catholic church, blessings are common for just about everything.
In short, if the church allows the blessing of cats and dogs and cars and chainsaws, what’s the big deal about blessing a couple of homosexuals? As far as I can see, the blessing itself may be OK but the larger problem is the symbolic affront to the concept of marriage and the union of one man and one woman. If there are freaks among us who for honest biological reasons do not feel attracted to someone of the opposite sex, let’s bless them as freaks and pray a blessing that asks God to make them straight. That would be akin to blessing the sick, another Catholic practice. By conferring a blessing without a message on homosexual “couples,” the church is denigrating the sanctity of marriage and what God intended for it to mean.
I don’t think this will be the “end of the Roman Catholic Church as we understand it.” The papacy has incredible resiliency to survive assassinations, mutinies, wars, plagues, schisms, etc. No, this is just a minor bump in the road, the long road. Francis is quickly running out of people who like him and that, finally, may prove his downfall. Popes don’t get fired or deposed but they do become irrelevant and that is about to happen again. As I said, the blessing thing is meaningless in the larger sense but it has deep symbolic meaning for many Christians and that can cause further ruptures in the church and its congregations.
Fred, my concern is that Francis has “stacked the deck” in the College of Cardinals. The cultural Marxists– and Francis is one of them– don’t care if institutions are shattered and reduced to rubble. I am not sure how much resistance is left in the Catholic Church at this point.