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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023

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Everyone freaking out about same sex blessings is burying the lead. Look at what Pope Francis says about scripture in the dubium on divine revelation (emphasis mine):

”f) On the other hand, it is true that the magisterium is not superior to the word of God, but it is also true that both the texts of Scripture and the testimonies of tradition need an interpretation that allows us to distinguish their perennial substance from cultural conditioning. It is evident, for example, in biblical texts (such as Ex 21:20-21) and in some magisterial interventions that tolerated slavery (cf. Nicholas V, Bull Oum Diversas, 1452). This is not a minor issue given its intimate connection with the perennial truth of the inalienable dignity of the human person. These texts are in need of interpretation. The same is true for some New Testament considerations on women (1 Cor 11:3-10; 1 Tim 2:11-14) and for other texts of Scripture and testimonies of tradition that cannot be repeated literally today.

When people like Bishop Strickland accuse Francis of undermining the deposit of faith, this is what they mean. The pope just cited multiple New Testament passages which give specific instructions for how women should behave in church as something which “cannot be repeated literally today.”

If you want a real laugh, look at his response to the dubium on women priests. For context, in 1994 Pope John Paul II issued ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS, which declared:

”Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.”

Now let’s read Pope Francis’s interpretation:

”c) On the other hand, to be rigorous, let us recognize that a clear and authoritative doctrine has not yet been exhaustively developed about the exact nature of a “definitive statement.“ It is not a dogmatic definition, and yet it must be observed by all. No one can publicly contradict it and yet it can be the object of study, as is the case with the validity of ordinations in the Anglican Communion.”

”A clear and authoritative doctrine has not yet been exhaustively developed about the exact nature of a ‘definitive statement.’” This is an absolute disaster. I don’t see how the church comes back from this.

I don't understand this objection. Are you a textual literalist? Or even just for the new testament? Do you think all Catholics should be literalists about the new testament?

I don’t see how the church comes back from this.

The near future path is to fire cardinal Fernandez and claim he went rogue. But pope Francis won’t do that. So a future pope would have to issue a correction, claiming that Fernandez had gone rogue and that pope Francis was senile.

Look, the church came back from honorius I, from the Avignon situation, from the Byzantine captivity, the cadaver synod, Benedict XI, the pornocracy, the borgias, etc, etc. 2000 year old institutions where the fresh blood is conservative are not permanent subjects of the globohomo.

It's lede, not lead.

lede [lēd] NOUN US ENGLISH the opening sentence or paragraph of a news article, summarizing the most important aspects of the story:

As to the matter at hand: of course Francis is trying to turn the Catholic Church into another bastion of globohomo. The Church was not left alone by the Allies and Operation Gladio in the wake of WW2, and since then the influence of Langley has been pretty clear: always more liberal, always destroying traditions, always elevating women and gays as much as possible.

This kind of low-effort, low-evidence, low-value snarling is something you've been warned about before. In fact you've been warned and banned repeatedly and you seem to be one of those people who is only here to post edgy snarls at your outgroup. Banned for another week; next time will probably be two weeks to permanent.