You are free to call me whatever it is for people who march in lockstep, you may remind me of your educated pieties of the niceties of papal infallibility, as to where it does, and does not extend. I would most likely agree, in the abstract.
But here in the concrete, I don't care.
The reason I don't care is because the Church is the new Ark, the water is rising, and people you and I love need the grace of the sacraments, the grace of salvation. And the human man holding the very keys to the Kingdom is Pope Francis. If you want to be reasonably confident of salvation, that is, of not going to Hell, you need to submit to him, and to the Church to which he has been given charge. How inspired are your friends and family to become Catholic by the way you discuss the pope? We American Catholics treat him worse than we do Barack Obama, and then we cover ourselves with chatter like, "Well, it's not ex cathedra, and he's not infallible." True, and utterly irrelevant.
I obviously don't hear the pope's confessions. Maybe he confesses being a people-pleaser 5 times a week. Maybe he deeply regrets appointing so-and-so, or being unclear about such-and-such. But you are not the Holy Spirit, nor am I.
Please do not say, "I respect the pope, but..." Human respect is worthless, anyway. I am obligated--for the sake of the gospel and its proclamation--to give the Holy Father beyond the benefit of the doubt, because when I do not, the people outside the Church don't contemplate their need of the Church, they just wonder when this one's term is up. This isn't Barack Obama; there isn't a "better one" coming, or one who just left. There is only the sheepfold of Christ, and the successor of Peter.
St. Peter, pray for us!
But here in the concrete, I don't care.
The reason I don't care is because the Church is the new Ark, the water is rising, and people you and I love need the grace of the sacraments, the grace of salvation. And the human man holding the very keys to the Kingdom is Pope Francis. If you want to be reasonably confident of salvation, that is, of not going to Hell, you need to submit to him, and to the Church to which he has been given charge. How inspired are your friends and family to become Catholic by the way you discuss the pope? We American Catholics treat him worse than we do Barack Obama, and then we cover ourselves with chatter like, "Well, it's not ex cathedra, and he's not infallible." True, and utterly irrelevant.
I obviously don't hear the pope's confessions. Maybe he confesses being a people-pleaser 5 times a week. Maybe he deeply regrets appointing so-and-so, or being unclear about such-and-such. But you are not the Holy Spirit, nor am I.
Please do not say, "I respect the pope, but..." Human respect is worthless, anyway. I am obligated--for the sake of the gospel and its proclamation--to give the Holy Father beyond the benefit of the doubt, because when I do not, the people outside the Church don't contemplate their need of the Church, they just wonder when this one's term is up. This isn't Barack Obama; there isn't a "better one" coming, or one who just left. There is only the sheepfold of Christ, and the successor of Peter.
St. Peter, pray for us!
Comments
Miss you dear brother and love you very much,
Carol