I hope it’s OK with you Magnum, but I’ve chosen to quote from the link/version which includes Fr. Zhulsdorf’s commentary (w/commentary in red highlights) because I found it a little easier (thks FCEGM) to read :
“…But the newly empowered laity would speak up, Not a problem if their shepherds would and lead them and formed them. But they DIDN’T.] unleashing a host of hot-button issues that today remain subjects of fierce debate: Ordination of women, marriage for priests, gay sexual intercourse and the use of contraception—all, to various degrees, not approved by the church hierarchy. [This phrase makes it sound as if the “hierarchy” can simply approve things, as if there is no role for the Church’s tradition, or of reflection on natural law or Scripture.]…”
I would even hesitate to say horribly biased on the liberal side. These are better described IMO as people who have practically stepped outside of the Church. For example, there is no such thing as gay sexual intercourse. This is an attempt to impose one’s own agenda (what a coincidence!.. the very same thing they claim to be pooh poohing) on others. Sexual intercourse is defined as copulation between members of the opposite sex. What they’re referring to already has been defined adequately using less nebulous terms.
One sentence of a particular sermon I heard from a priest up here at St. Joseph’s Oratory and which has always stayed with me:
" We humans are created in God’s image, but we have this tendency to try and re-create God in our own image." [Fr. Real Frechette C.S.C.]
I believe we’re seeing here on a parallel, traces of the fanatical present in their attempts to re-create the Church in their own image. It can happen easily when we refuse to submit to authority. I find I have less of a tendency to do this personally if I avail myself of the sacrament of Confession as needed, and if I do what I can to ***" pray [esp the holy rosary] ,fast, and obey."… ***
