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| (26 April 2013 Remarks by the President at the Planned Parenthood Conference) |
Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you. God bless America. Thank you.
We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and
the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not
spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when
we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context.
The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of
the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the
time.
The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.
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| (August 2013 Francis interview conducted by Antonio Spadaro, S.J.) |
The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.
"disjointed multitude of doctrines..."
ReplyDeleteOur Blessed Lord obviously lacked coherence and cohesion in proclaiming the necessity for obeying His Father's commandments as a necessary prerequisite for true love of Him.
Where is your problem, Pope Francis, with being clear about respect for life and marriage? You characteristically muddy the waters, as one would expect from a liberal modernist.