None of that compares to the sacrilege, the public scandal and the leading others astray caused by letting them continue to receive communion. Sorry, no one will convince me otherwise.
Of course I can’t change it, but I can pray for the Pope to have the courage to do so.
From what I’ve read, he’s already shown he has the courage to do so as a Cardinal. I’m sure prudence and other factors will determine what he does as Pope, but I doubt that the man who readily breaks with human traditions/conventions, and by this I mean only in the best of senses, will have any trouble over this issue. We’ll just have to wait and see.
But do not mistake what I am saying. The kinds of traditions I am talking about are not “the tradition” of the Church, but the customs and conventions we fall into over the years that may cause the public to misinterpret our real meaning. For example, there is nothing at all wrong with dressing in the finest of clothing as head of the largest organization on earth and as representative of Christ Himself on earth. We honor Christ when we so honor the Pope. But his desire for simpler clothing shows another facet of Christ, one who is humble, not desirous of honors, but a man of the people who chose simple fishermen to be His Apostles. And his taking of the bus, and not a limousine. We all want to put our Holy Father in the highest place of honor, to drive in a limousine, to be protected by bodyguards from those who would do him harm, to be set apart, our priceless Supreme Pontiff, our dear Father, but He, like Christ, and like His namesake, Francis, would rather enter Jerusalem on a donkey, instead of a chariot, to be counted among the lesser folk, than those of high position and power. His departure from stereotypes, from what the public has been accustomed to seeing in a Pontiff, is refreshing and forces everyone to take a new look at Catholicism, and challenges the conventional wisdom as to what the Catholic hierarchy is all about. Without the pomp and circumstance, we see the virtue of the man, the unpretentiousness of Christ, the man who will shoulder the cross for our generation. That is what I mean by the man who readily breaks with tradition, not sacred tradition, but human tradition. He makes himself accessible to us, and in some measure I think he makes Christ more accessible to us, makes Him more human to us.
This is not a man who will be afraid to tell Catholic politicians where the line is and what the consequences are for crossing it, if he decides that that indeed is the right course of action. But not being in his shoes, and seeing things from his perspective, I do not know what the right answer is. More than courage is required-- prudence, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, charity, zeal for the Church, compassion, discernment, and carefully weighing the consequences of whatever he may choose to do. I will not judge him or any past Pontiff. It’s too easy to sit on the sideline and judge, I can see that he is a holy man, I will accept whatever he decides. Not knowing all the facts, I think I owe him that much.
