Church Hierarchy's Lack of Willingness to Discipline Said "Biggest Reason" for Loss of Marriage Battle

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I disagree. The love of God is to be chosen freely. The gift of salvation of Jesus Christ is to be chosen freely.

The deception that involved all of American society over the last 30 years has simply borne fruit.Now that the corrupt elements are exposed, perhaps more Catholics will see how far a pervasive and unGodly media has led them away from God.

Like a slow poison, the cost of allowing a little, then a little more and a little more of what is unGodly into our lives has led to this point. What would have been considered dirty magazines in the 1950s are now sold in grocery stores. Hardcore pornography is accessible through many outlets. The one day in Church and the message given there, has been overwhelmed by a culture consumed with sins of the flesh, profanity and a lack of commitment to anyone or anything seven days a week. Now, attempts are being made to legalize sin.

The corruption in high places Jesus spoke about has occurred.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I encourage you, return to the Church, though you’ve experienced divorce, abortion, adultery and addiction to your flesh. Ask for forgiveness and healing.

God bless,
Ed
 
Lawler suggests that the solution to the problem is a back-to-basics approach. “Put it this way: If Church leaders are guided solely by the desire to spread and strengthen the faith, they’ll find that a strong spiritual life creates solidarity among the faithful as a side-effect, and that solidarity brings some nice benefits, such as political clout,” he said.
“In other words, if you put first things first, the secondary things will take care of themselves. If you make the secondary things your priority, however, you lose both the primary and the secondary things.”
Makes sense. They say that vocations to the priesthood are not lacking in areas with orthodox (note the lower case “o”) Catholic leadership.

As for my family, we will follow thw Church’s teachings without the Church leadership holding our feet to the fire.
 
Lawler, a member of two presidential inaugural committees, added, “For a long time the Church had enormous political clout in Boston, because there was great solidarity among Catholics. That solidarity was based on shared beliefs, shared practices, shared principles. But as Catholics grew more comfortable, and Church leaders made fewer demands on the faithful, the basis for that solidarity began to erode.”

Lawler is talking about a shifting of opinions and a growing divide. Part of this comes from the sex abuse cases and the other part is this is a post-JFK world. The hierarchy lost a huge amount of worldly creditability with the former across all issues (I notice it mostly in social justice circles). This comes from moving and hiding the abusers who were the minority of the group. Building trust goes both ways.

On anything related to the anti-same-gender is seen as it is, a red herring, needless, inconsistent with other goals, and type of distraction away from another needed house cleaning (with transparency, not orthodoxy).

Since the hierarchy is becoming more opaque on a daily basis, it will take a generation or two for this trust to be rebuilt. A “stern father” approach will not work, it will only serve to drive more people away from the Church.
 
Lawler, a member of two presidential inaugural committees, added, “For a long time the Church had enormous political clout in Boston, because there was great solidarity among Catholics. That solidarity was based on shared beliefs, shared practices, shared principles. But as Catholics grew more comfortable, and Church leaders made fewer demands on the faithful, the basis for that solidarity began to erode.”
You had in Boston a large Irish immigrant population that stuck together out of a cultural sensibility and identity more than anything. They got Americanized and went their own way, as they became upwardly mobile. It’s basically the same story for every immigrant wave,
 
“Phil Lawler, the editor and founder of Catholic World News, the first online Catholic news service, has placed the chief blame for the loss of the battle to protect traditional marriage in Massachusetts, and beyond, on the Catholic hierarchy’s failure to discipline Catholic politicians.”

I agree completely. The faithful see “Catholic” politicians openly advocating abortion, gay marriage, etc. and they see the Church do nothing about it so they naturally draw the conclusion that they are also free to dissent on these issues. When one child in a family disobeys and gets away with it then it only encourages the other children to do the same for obviously if it really mattered the parents would do something about it.

To give another example: there are obscure laws on the books which say things like my car must have a red flag tied to it. I see the police not enforcing this law and correctly conclude they have decided they don’t care. It’s hard to blame lay people from drawing the same conclusion when bishops do nothing when politicians in their dioceses advocate abortion.

In my opinion, bishops of decades ago would not have been too afraid to discipline a pro-abortion Catholic politician.
 
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