Some ‘Amoris laetitia’ news

I have had notes from priests and from personnel in tribunals saying that people are saying, in effect, “Forget about our annulment case.  Pope Francis says what we are doing is okay.”   Some report as well that even in confession they are getting this sort of thing (without revealing anything specific about any confession, of course, quod Deus avertat).

As I wrote before, Amoris laetitia, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation that has such a troubling 8th chapter, will be misapplied by those who were already inclined to heterodoxy and antinomianism.   I’m afraid that, in many cases, it may be accelerating and helpful to proliferate problems.   Without strong leadership, we will have some real problems which I doubt we will solve in the lifetimes of those who could be putting their souls in peril.

That said…

From the SSPX news and events email:

Fr. Alain Lorans, Editor of DICI comments on a “celebration” inspired by Amoris Laetitia happening in Chicoutimi, Canada.

In a bulletin from St. Anne Chicoutimi parish in Canada this past April we can see the real effects of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The Celebration of Fidelity, which up to now celebrated the silver and gold anniversaries of couples in this formerly Catholic parish in Quebec, was replaced by a “Celebration of Love” announced as follows:

We now wish to welcome all couples who want to celebrate their love and renew their commitment to each other, regardless of the type of their commitment (Catholic marriage, civil marriage, common-law or same-sex partners) and regardless of how many years (1 year, 8 years, 25 years, 57 years, 62 years). We consider any couple’s commitment important.”

Let’s be clear: this is not a celebration of love, but rather the egalitarian celebration of sacramental marriage, legal cohabitation, free unions and homosexual relationships. All couples are put on the same level, all presumably having the same exemplary value.

This is not a celebration of love, it is the love of celebration in itself and for its own sake, devoid of all objective content. All that matters is personal commitment, subjective feeling, and sincerity liberated from the Gospel truth of marriage.

This is how the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is put into practice in real life. No longer “The Joy of Love”, but the love of joy, emancipated from the Gospel truth of marriage. A sad joy.

Source: DICI no. 336, 27/05/16

Next, the SSPX raised enough money to be able to buy the former convent in Winona, MN, which they have been using as a seminary for many years… without a mortgage.

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13 Comments

  1. JARay says:

    What can anyone say about the disasterous effects of AL? Now we have an increase in sacrileges on top of all the other things buffeting Holy Mother Church right now. How long, O Lord, how long?!

  2. Mike says:

    Misapplied? Hmm. Yes, we should read AL in light of previous teaching, but these instances, sadly, seem to be just what AL was intended to bring about.

  3. rtjl says:

    Sadly, I think schism is coming. Sooner now, rather than later. And the choice faced by ordinary Catholics who want to remain truly faithful to the Church will become extremely painful and difficult as the poles between which they must choose become more extreme and father apart. I realize that I am speaking only from the perspective of my own region and that some of what I am about to say borders on caricature but the choice on the ground here in this region will be very difficult.

    On the one hand there are the “progressives” who have near utter contempt for tradition and history and any kind of ecclesial law or regulation (especially liturgical), for whom anything goes, who are perfectly accepting of cohabitation, pre-marital sex, contraception, divorce and remarriage, gay marriage. Fortunately, they still resist acceptance of abortion and euthanasia here. On the other hand there are the traditionalists who all too frequently live up to their reputation for being mean spirited and nasty, who get bogged down in all kinds of truly petty legalisms, who completely reject Vatican II and any development in church life since 1965, who frequently attack good men and women doing good things in public over trivial matters and who are far better at making enemies (even among their supporters) than making friends. In the middle are the vast majority of Catholics for whom their faith is a very peripheral part of their lives, just one more aspect of their lives among many and not a particularly important one.

    I expect these divisions to soon become even more extreme than they are now.

    Yes indeed, as the Church continues to disintegrate things are going to get very difficult for those Catholics who want a vital and dynamic faith life that is faithful to tradition AND open to the legitimate developments of, and since, Vatican II. These Catholics will not find a home among either the traditionalists or progressives; and they will have little interest in keeping company with the indifferent and apathetic. They will find themselves increasingly alone, abandoned and isolated. The temptation will be to retreat into their own private faith lives but that too will be a dead end.

    Let us pray fervently that the Lord will open a way forward for without Him doing so, all paths presently before us will only lead further into the growing darkness.

  4. tominrichmond says:

    …and the SSPX is building a huge, beautiful new North American seminary in Virginia, diocese of Richmond, about 30 min south of Charlottesville and an hour west of Richmond: http://www.newseminaryproject.org/

    It will be a destination for many, especially when, Deo volente, the imminent regularization occurs.

  5. Lepidus says:

    Interesting that some priests are hearing the in confession. If I do something that I don’t think is a sin or is no longer a sin, I wouldn’t bring it up in confession. It’s almost like deep down they know nothing has changed, but are hoping the priest tells them otherwise.

  6. Mike says:

    Every tick of this pontificate’s clock strengthens my resolve against Modernism and softens my heart toward the SSPX.

  7. Mommy6 says:

    FYI, the little newsfeed regarding the SSPX seminary being purchased in Winona was a flashback piece from 1988! Probably posted for memory’s sake since their new seminary will be completed soon, and 2016 will be the last year Winona has ordinations.

  8. Ave Crux says:

    To be clear, logical, coherent and consistent, the debacles now taking place in the Church have not changed my feelings toward SSPX one iota.

    Everything we are now seeing has been predicted by SSPX for decades as the logical consequence of the modernist errors introduced as a consequence of the ambiguities in the documents of Vatican II, and the stronghold which Modernists have had on the Church, Her Seminaries and Catechetics for the better part of a century.

    I have always respected SSPX because they have always been 1,000% right and they made it possible for Traditionalism to maintain deep roots in a Church which is now at war with it, spreading and showing fruitfulness while the modernist Church shows it is only sterile.

    I believe Archbishop Lefebvre will one day be vindicated and even canonized for having taken a very courageous step when modernists attempted to bury Tradition for good, hoping he would die leaving SSPX without a Bishop so they could crush it after his death, just as they have the FFI.

    Nonetheless, I understand the moral dilemmas associated with subjective recourse to Extraordinary Jurisdiction.

    It is for this reason that I would like to see their situation regularized beyond all possible doubt so that SSPX may expand their apostolate in the desert which is now the modernist Church.

  9. chantgirl says:

    It occurred to me today that, while the protestant revolt deprived countless souls, suddenly outside the church, of the grace of various sacraments, the current crisis in the church is also depriving people (probably a good number of people) who are inside the church the grace of various sacraments. By allowing people to live in situations of objectively grace sin, and by not calling them to conversion, how many souls are being deprived of the graces of marriage, of confession, and communion? These souls inside the church are not only being deprived graces, but they are being encouraged to commit sacrilege, with the complicity of priests. With the reformation and the Kasper proposal springing from Germany, I’m wondering if the whole country doesn’t need some sort of an exorcism.

  10. Ave Crux says:

    P.S. Further to my comments above, which of course includes of paramount importance the horrendous damage done by the New Mass.

    This afternoon I visited a “conservative” local parish for the Vigil Mass of Corpus Christi, since I could not attend the Traditional Mass today.

    While the Gospel spoke of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, and the Feast and Mystery being observed was the Real Presence, the Pastor gave a lengthy sermon on his childhood, when all the neighbors would gather in their backyards on hot summer evenings on a city block to cook out and share everything they had, and that we should do the same.

    Could the juxtaposition of his account with the Feast of Corpus Christi be anymore horrific and destructive? Here he had an opportunity to drive home the teaching on Our Lord’s Real Presence, and instead he talked about sharing at barbecues.

    And this is a priest who has given evidence in the past of believing in the Real Presence, asking the youth to go to Adoration.

    With “Catechesis” like this, why should he wonder if NO ONE attends Adoration? This is tragic not only for the souls in his care, but for him personally — since he will have to answer to God for the manner in which he has used his priesthood to further bury the beautiful Mysteries entrusted to him.

  11. S.Armaticus says:

    W/r/t the SSPX seminary purchase in Winona, the post is an archive post of the purchase of the property which took place in 1988.

    On another note, a new institute named The Scholasticum has been formed in Italy. It is situated in the old Convent of St. Francis at Bagnoregio, VT, Italy, the home town of the immortal and universal Doctor of the Church, St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. The link is here: https://fromrome.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/scholasticism-is-reborn/

    It appears to be a good initiative and one worthy of support.

  12. robtbrown says:

    It seems that in lieu of the Multiplication of Loaves, we now have the multiplication of marriages.

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