Lifesite News claims: "Bishop apologizes to unrepentant adulterers, invites them back to the sacraments "

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I don’t have the answer to that question. But on the other hand we do not want to provide them confusing and ambiguous information that would lead them to receive the Eucharist to their own damnation while in a state of mortal sin.
 
Not a credible source, even if it is true, better sources needed.
 
If the bishop is inviting them to a meeting, I doubt he is going to give them “confusing and ambigous information” when they get there. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that he knows better than that.
 
Genesis315 said:
Again, only those who were unrepentant and unwilling to amend their lives have heretofore been denied the sacraments.
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Maybe the problem isn’t that they were denied the sacraments, but rather that they shut themselves out. Remember, for example, that the US account for 60% of annulments worldwide. In Europe, relatively few people are aware that annulments exist, or have any idea whether their specific situation could actually justify one. Instead, they just feel hurt and turn to other Christian denominations, or even abandon the faith. Some would like to come back and amend their lives, but they are afraid of being turned away or have a bad image of the Catholic church because somebody was judgemental and uncharitable with them.

I recall a prayer vigil a few months ago where Father said : “If you are in a marital situation which the Church cannot bless, I beg you not to stay away, please come and talk with us, please help us help you back”. I hear the same thing in the bishop’s letter : not judgement on their repentance or lack thereof, but a desire to show that the door is wide open for those who have felt shut out.
 
Maximus1 said:
That place of UNWORTHINESS and despair is way to deep a hole for many to climb out of.
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I agree completely. I often think the Church works hard to keep people away from God rather than drawing them nearer to Him and to the Sacraments. The bishop’s job is not to condemn them, but to help them figure out a path to God and the Sacraments. He needs to put a “Welcome” mat at the church’s door.

The same goes for the LGBQT. We are all sinners and undeserving of God’s forgiveness. But God gave it freely anyway on the Cross.

I suspect that those who used harsh language to scare away the divorced and remarried, the LGBQT, and all others who do not fit their world view, will have much to answer for on Judgement Day.
 
Unfortunately, the all too familiar story holds true… Lifesite ‘News’ again demonstrates that they aren’t really interested in doing anything constructive. They have chosen to paint this situation with this bishop’s merciful, pastoral gesture in the most negative light possible… Using a headline that is misleading and divisive at best.

I don’t know how lifesite draws Catholic or Christian readers given their propensity towards creating division and harsh judgement.

My advice… Stay Away…take it or leave it.
 
It’s ironic that we get threads on this forum asking “What can we do to increase Mass attendance” and then get threads with people who seem horrified that divorced/ remarried people and LGBTQ people are being invited back to church.
 
OddBird said:
n Europe, relatively few people are aware that annulments exist, or have any idea whether their specific situation could actually justify one. Instead, they just feel hurt and turn to other Christian denominations
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And this might well be because their local clergy didn’t do enough to get the word out that a process might be available to help them, or that the clergy and their fellow Catholics were disdainful towards them when they went looking for help with their situation. This is the sort of thing I see the Bishop seeking to address.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
As usual, a distortion that makes it difficult to take Lifesite and its tiresome perpetual outrage seriously.
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This post relates to the Bishop’s comments not to the credibility of Lifesite…you should start a new thread on that issue, and leave this one play out.
 
DIERM said:
Again, please keep the thread on track…its not about Lifesite, its about the Bishop’s thoughts.
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The fact that it is from LifeSite, makes it about LifeSite. They are notorious for exaggerating facts, impugning falsehoods, taking things out of context. The very fact the OP’s article comes from LifeSite makes the credibility of the article questionable. You thus cannot divorce the article from its source.
 
OraLabora said:
The fact that it is from LifeSite, makes it about LifeSite. They are notorious for exaggerating facts, impugning falsehoods, taking things out of context.
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Then, again, please start a new thread on Lifesite, and let this thread be about the Bishop’s statement, regardless of who published it.
 
This is difficult, precisely because LifeSite’s comment induces a particular perspective on the Bishop’s letter. Their title, which serves as the thread header, is already biased.
 
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DIERM said:
This post relates to the Bishop’s comments not to the credibility of Lifesite…you should start a new thread on that issue, and leave this one play out.
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My comment didn’t exactly stop the thread from “playing out”, and there are quite a few other people who have expressed themselves on this thread about the credibility of Lifesite, which is quite relevant to this story as Lifesite repeatedly takes positions biased against things they have decided they don’t like, including Amoris Laetitia. When, as others have noted, they already have a misleading headline, it harms the credibility of their article and indeed all of their coverage on this issue.

Additionally, as a Catholic, when I see someone posting a supposedly Catholic source that I think is biased or unkind, I feel it is important to express that such outlets don’t speak for all Catholics.
 
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Genesis315 said:
The fact is, this bishop apologizes for rigidly denying divorced and “remarried” people–that is, those in a state of adultery–the sacraments. Those who are repentant (including the firm resolution to go and sin no more) have never been denied the sacraments. So the only people he could possible be talking about is those that are lacking this firm resolution.
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Alphard said:
“In this we have become rigid in a very formal vision of the family situations you are in,”
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He is apologizing for being “rigid in a very formal vision.” You cannot explain that apology by repeating that sin, but that is what you do when you rigidly judge them to be adulterers.

He is reaching out not just to unrepentant sinners, but to those who do not need to repent. This includes those who were scared away from the annulment process, those who were improperly denied annulments, etc. The presumption of adultery is wrong if the Church has unjustly kept them from marrying.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
My comment didn’t exactly stop the thread from “playing out”, and there are quite a few other people who have expressed themselves on this thread about the credibility of Lifesite, which is quite relevant to this story as Lifesite repeatedly takes positions biased against things they have decided they don’t like, including Amoris Laetitia. When, as others have noted, they already have a misleading headline, it harms the credibility of their article and indeed all of their coverage on this issue.
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Exactly. I question the accuracy of the source, so you sort of have to talk about the source itself.
 
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