Love that article! Let me repost it!
WITH THEIR SHOCKING publication of new norms for permitting divorced and remarried Catholics to return to the reception of Holy Communion, the bishops of Malta have shown how great errors can grow from tiny seeds…
What an appallingly defeatist idea, and one that is without analog in Catholic morality. Where else do bishops teach that it’s impossible to do what’s right? In what other area does the Church offer people this kind of moral compromise? After all, sexual continence may be hard for other people, too:
. . . for a boyfriend and girlfriend watching a movie on the couch.
. . . for couples practicing NFP or abstaining for health reasons.
. . . for a married man or woman tempted to infidelity by a coworker.
. . . for lonely single people and the widowed.
. . . for priests, nuns, and everyone who has made a vow of celibacy.
catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-footnote-that-roared
I’m not sure if you’re being intentionally deceptive or if you are sincerely failing to understand. The Church is not offering any moral compromise.
This isn’t rocket science, people. We are all called to sexual continence in whatever our situation may be. Marriage is indissoluble. Adultery is always sinful. There is no indication that the Church is changing this teaching. What the Church IS doing is RESTATING and REINFORCING the 2,000 year old revolutionary TRUTH that God is infinitely patient and merciful. He demands our obedience to the laws He has gifted us with FOR OUR OWN BENEFIT, but when we fail to be obedient, He forgives us over and over and over again. He demands that we forgive our neighbor seven times seventy times, because that is how HE forgives us.
You want a God who excludes sinners from His banquet. This is idolatry—a god of your own imagination and invention. The God that actually exists, the God revealed by the Incarnation of Jesus, excludes no one. If you don’t believe me, read the gospels. Then read them again. And then again.
As long as we are alive, we have the invitation to repent of our sins and return to the banquet. Sometimes this a simple process, sometimes it can be a complicated mess. When it IS a complicated mess due to complicated circumstances, the Church is called to shepherd souls through that mess. At what point in that shepherding process should one be admitted to receive Communion? That is the Church’s business. NOT YOURS. It makes you “uncomfortable” when the Church does something you don’t understand? GOOD! It makes you confused? GOOD! You SHOULD be uncomfortable and confused, because God’s mercy is uncomfortable and confusing. If it wasn’t, Jesus would never have been nailed to the Cross.
Years ago when I worked in an elementary school, there was a certain phrase I used at least several times a day, especially with first- and second-graders. “Worry about yourself.” Young children in a group cannot go five minutes without getting all up in their classmates’ business, whether to “tattle” on them or worry that someone is getting some real or imagined benefit that they themselves are not getting. It is absolutely EXHAUSTING when adults go through life without ever growing out of this childish attribute. So in case you don’t have anyone else around you to say it, WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF.
If everyone who was so scandalized and “uncomfortable” with AL spent their free time praying instead of whining, the Church would be SO much better off. Speaking for myself, I don’t have enough time in an average day to sufficiently reflect and worry about my own sinfulness, much less worry about someone else’s marital situation or whether or not they are receiving Communion. That is the job of priests and bishops. Priests and bishops need our prayers, not our (name removed by moderator)ut.
If you really believe that you have conquered your own sinfulness and have extra time on your hands, then write a book about how you accomplished your sinlessness. Please. That would be infinitely more helpful and beneficial to the Church than a bunch of complaining about how you just don’t understand how someone in a sinful situation might need the Eucharist as a part of their journey back to a “regular” situation. Otherwise, I’ll say it again. WORRY. ABOUT. YOURSELF.