E
edwest2
Guest
I have never said that we do not need Confession. We do need to confess our sins, recognizing that we are guilty. I believe that shame can actually take us farther away from God, as it can cause despair. I know from personal experience that when I was going through a rough patch and felt awful about it I shied away from the Church out of shame. It was being reminded of God’s willingness to forgive that brought me back. Consider the prodigal son. Yes, he repented. As soon as he did so, his father welcomed him back with open arms and slaughtered the fattened calf. I believe this is a wise pastoral approach. I believe that we are in a habit of focusing intensely on a handful of sins and assuming that those individuals are not repentant. People have pointed out that we don’t know if this woman had sex outside of wedlock once or one thousand times. Imagine if she made a horrible one-time mistake and feels guilty and ashamed. She is contrite and repents but is still fired. Some might say it is an employment agreement, but I find the fact that we want to consider our teachers as lay ministers telling. Ministers have more than a mere job, and the Church’s public activities are different than other employers’ activities. The Church’s role is to proclaim Christ in all her activities. When we as the Church pay no attention to her contrition, we send the message that because her sin falls into a certain category her repentance is not enough. I can only speak based on the scripture, but my impression of Jesus is decidedly different. We, as the corporate Church, have an opportunity to treat her as Jesus treated the sinful women he encountered, encouraging them to move forward and go and sin no more! If I would have observed the living of this message during my childhood in Catholic schools, perhaps I would not have stayed away from the Church when I most desperately needed her. Considering that more than 90% of people falter sexually before marriage, some of the children of today will falter. They need to be taught to repent, but once they have repented, we must show them God’s unfailing mercy. What better way to do so than by having something positive come out of a sinful situation.
I understand what you’re saying but it will not go the way you described. Good role models were common when I was growing up, including some people in show business. But today? Very few. Christ won’t abandon those who make a mistake, the Church won’t abandon someone who makes a mistake, but our children are our future and Catholic School Teachers should be held accountable. The media is constantly promoting unmarried sex as a good, normal, average, “Hey. What’s the big deal?” thing. Kids need to see those who are in temporary authority over them in a Catholic school take the responsibility to model good behavior with the proper seriousness. It needs to be black and white. No more vagueness. No more sex (and pregnancy) without marriage comes with zero consequences.
I watched the radicals say, “WE only want this” but when they got it, they always wanted more. We owe it to the next generation to get the best of the best. He or she will not be drummed out of the Church - no priest will come to wherever you live and start pounding on the door because you missed Mass on Sunday, but lines need to be drawn. A lot of lines. If we’re going to raise good Catholics, they need to know that even their teachers have rules they can’t break.
The “progressives” want their version of progress, which mostly consists of convincing people that sexual sin - which represents the bulk of our current social ills - is perfectly fine. Abort, contracept, have sex with whoever, divorce (not because you or the kids were abused) because It’s No-Fault now, and the grass is greener elsewhere. Marriage? Who cares? We’ll just live together. Get a vasectomy.
I’m meeting way too many people with two divorces under their belt. I know one person who is on marriage number three. I saw a little kid cussing out mom in a parking lot. It’s gone too far. Waaaaaay too far. Rules? What rules?
I know a lot of people were gradually led away from the faith by those who hate the Church. Their trust was abused. But instead of realizing that there are people, especially the media, continuing to lead them astray, there are some who come to realize that whatever they’re doing might actually be wrong. They might even get to the point where they realize that those “alternative lifestyles” were really bad choices. Some may look back on that abortion, series of sexual encounters and others things and feel like the Church/God can’t forgive them. They feel afraid. Don’t be afraid. They feel ashamed. That’s OK. That’s why the Church started Catholics Come Home. They are waiting for their prodigal sons and daughters:
catholicscomehome.org/
We need to end the vagueness. In the past, I heard it all: “The nuns are too strict! Your parents are too strict! All you do is listen to the Pope!” From personal experience, even though I did my share of bad/wrong things, all of that strictness shaped me and molded me into an adult who looked back and appreciated the fact that I got what I needed. That the so-called strictness was for my benefit, and made me a better person who got what the Church was telling me. And though it was painful to me each time a new wrong freedom was granted in our country, I knew it was wrong. And the more people who openly, publicly deviated from all that — well, here we are. And it’s not better. No, the past was not perfect but it was a lot better than what we have now.
It’s time to draw this line.
Peace,
Ed
I understand what you’re saying but it will not go the way you described. Good role models were common when I was growing up, including some people in show business. But today? Very few. Christ won’t abandon those who make a mistake, the Church won’t abandon someone who makes a mistake, but our children are our future and Catholic School Teachers should be held accountable. The media is constantly promoting unmarried sex as a good, normal, average, “Hey. What’s the big deal?” thing. Kids need to see those who are in temporary authority over them in a Catholic school take the responsibility to model good behavior with the proper seriousness. It needs to be black and white. No more vagueness. No more sex (and pregnancy) without marriage comes with zero consequences.
I watched the radicals say, “WE only want this” but when they got it, they always wanted more. We owe it to the next generation to get the best of the best. He or she will not be drummed out of the Church - no priest will come to wherever you live and start pounding on the door because you missed Mass on Sunday, but lines need to be drawn. A lot of lines. If we’re going to raise good Catholics, they need to know that even their teachers have rules they can’t break.
The “progressives” want their version of progress, which mostly consists of convincing people that sexual sin - which represents the bulk of our current social ills - is perfectly fine. Abort, contracept, have sex with whoever, divorce (not because you or the kids were abused) because It’s No-Fault now, and the grass is greener elsewhere. Marriage? Who cares? We’ll just live together. Get a vasectomy.
I’m meeting way too many people with two divorces under their belt. I know one person who is on marriage number three. I saw a little kid cussing out mom in a parking lot. It’s gone too far. Waaaaaay too far. Rules? What rules?
I know a lot of people were gradually led away from the faith by those who hate the Church. Their trust was abused. But instead of realizing that there are people, especially the media, continuing to lead them astray, there are some who come to realize that whatever they’re doing might actually be wrong. They might even get to the point where they realize that those “alternative lifestyles” were really bad choices. Some may look back on that abortion, series of sexual encounters and others things and feel like the Church/God can’t forgive them. They feel afraid. Don’t be afraid. They feel ashamed. That’s OK. That’s why the Church started Catholics Come Home. They are waiting for their prodigal sons and daughters:
catholicscomehome.org/
We need to end the vagueness. In the past, I heard it all: “The nuns are too strict! Your parents are too strict! All you do is listen to the Pope!” From personal experience, even though I did my share of bad/wrong things, all of that strictness shaped me and molded me into an adult who looked back and appreciated the fact that I got what I needed. That the so-called strictness was for my benefit, and made me a better person who got what the Church was telling me. And though it was painful to me each time a new wrong freedom was granted in our country, I knew it was wrong. And the more people who openly, publicly deviated from all that — well, here we are. And it’s not better. No, the past was not perfect but it was a lot better than what we have now.
It’s time to draw this line.
Peace,
Ed