Feeling really upset about AL

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Kathleen18 said:
Pope Francis is being pastoral.
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There is nothing pastoral in allowing people in an adulterous relationship to receive Communion. There can be no mercy without repentance. St John Paul II was very clear about this in Familiaris Consortio.

Furthermore, the notion that doctrine can be separated from practice is false. Pastoral initiatives cannot be the means to undermine doctrine.
 
People may have repented. But circumstances may prevent them from undoing the damage done. There may be young children or financial concerns.
 
Kathleen18 said:
Ultimately it is for GOD to decide.
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God has already revealed his Will in this matter and it was reaffirmed definitively by St John Paul II. The teaching was constant and unbroken from the time of the Apostles until the advent of AL and it’s false mercy.
 
Harmony said:
The irregularity of my marriage was never a big issue for me: I accepted the Church’s understanding of my situation and lived with it. I only brought it up to show that it was not due to lack of understanding of being in that situation that causes me to be upset.

But for regular parishioners who have difficulties, there is very little access to priests. And it’s because priests don’t have time. oK, fine; I dealt with that and with trying to learn about Catholicism from the internet and from books.

My problem is now suddenly priests are being directed to make time or have time to help one small group of people with a situation which was previously very clear.
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Please don’t let this part of Amoris Laetitia hang you up. The parish priests are directed to help everyone in need not just this small group of people. Amoris Laetitia is basically stating to the parish priest: “don’t ignore these people in irregular marriage,” they’re part of your flock too. It’s not instructing the priests to ignore everyone else so they can have the time to shepherd those in irregular marriages.

I can understand how Amoris Laetitia has opened up old wounds of yours in regards how the Church has neglected your spiritual needs in the past. But the Church shouldn’t cease in trying to have its priests become better shepherds to all of their flocks.
 
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I cannot confirm that. GOD only knows. Perhaps it has done some good that we don’t know about.
 
Thank you so much, Petra. You post was so kind it made me feel overwhelmed.
 
It’s just that he seemed to be directing in just the one direction… Thanks for your understanding and reassurance.
 
How can we know we are doing the right thing? How can we know what to do when we have problems? How can we know how to grow in holiness in our own specific circumstances?

I struggled with all these things for many many years, but just accepted it and didn’t complain. And that got me nowhere.

You can’t imagine how frustrating it is not to be able to get help when you need it. It’s not that I minded who was getting the help, but that the Pope recognized only one group’s need for it, and directed the priests only to them, and totally ignored all the many other people who also need “accompaniment.”

It would be like if a lot of people’s houses were burning down and they all felt bad but accepted that their town didn’t have money for a fire department, and then suddenly it turned out that the town was funding help for people with sprained ankles. They did have the money all along! Why didn’t they help the people whose houses burned down!
 
Yes, but the problems I had being Catholic didn’t system from my irregular marriage but from just trying to be a good Catholic; that’s what I was saying. (The marriage situation did get sorted out.)
 
I seem to have totally failed in making it clear that my problems did not stem from.the situation of my marriage when I returned to the Church. I totally believe in God, in Jesus Christ. I want to be a good Catholic, and I wanted to raise my children Catholic. Unfortunately, I knew too little and could not find help with those goals. Leaving the Church would not have helped me accomplish those things and so was not an option.

I see the wisdom of the Church’s teachings and how following them would reduce the amount of problems in the world. Yes, before I returned, at a time when the Church was not a part of my life, I married someone who had been divorced. I contributed to those societal problems by that. But I can actually see the badness of the situation more clearly now than I could before I did all that, so from that aspect, to me the Church’s rules are really very wise.

I think that we have lost something along the way; maybe it’s due to the fragmentation of families and disintegration of communities which increased so much after the Second World War. Now we are all individuals coming to the parish church to worship God and we are not otherwise connected as we used to be. And the Church as a whole is just not set up to deal with that.
 
Do get help. It breaks my heart to feel the tears and years of loneliness behind what you write. I wish I could give you a hug and help you start to feel Our Good Shepherd hoisting you on His broad shoulders and helping you mend.
 
Pope Frances has stated that Church Secretaries were like “disciples of Satan” who scare people away from the Church. That made me and many other professional Church Secretaries actually cry. We work thankless jobs because we love Christ and His Church. Have to take his words with a grain of salt sometimes.
 
Thank you so much Petra. These and your words above really helped me have a better understanding: I was seeing it backwards and you turned it around!

And I am getting help now for some of the issues related to my reaction here. And thank you for the mental hug!
 
I totally disagree with the Pope on this! The church secretaries I have known have always been extremely helpful and very hard-working, sometimes under very difficult circumstances.
 
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