Papa Francis is no longer a straight talker (it is not for me to judge, if he ever has been), which will displease many of his hitherto ardent underlings. "Fiducia Supplicans" - On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings - means that Christmas had, indeed, apparently come early for many non-heterosexual members of the human race, who owe their God-given biological existence to Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
As far as I am concerned, anyone who claims to be the Triune God on earth (the Holy Father, the Head of the Church, the vicar of Christ), is utterly deranged, even demonically deluded, cf. "you will be like God", in Gen. 3:5! At any rate, to echo Martin Luther, the pope has no authority at all to create new articles of faith; thus, he cannot ‘bless’ (whatever that may mean, I have no idea) what is contrary to God’s design. One wonders what kind of blessings the pope might be able to bestow?!
But as any Jesuit will tell you, “to be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it” (Rule 13, ironically, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, in loc.). I guess this also applies to the greatest of all non-miraculous miracles, the pernicious doctrine of transubstantiation!
Is it no far more honest to maintain that “the Bible believes that non-hereosexual sex outside marriage is wrong, and I disagree”, than to bend over backwards (no pun or slur intended, notwithstanding historical evidence to the contrary) to please the world that so desperately needs God’s redemption, if Romans 1:18ff. is anything to go by?
My humble contribution is n o t an attack on non-heterosexual relationships. One can only echoe, not re-write, what Scripture teaches. Contrary to rumour , I am not sinless myself, thus I am no longer into casting stones. Unlike the pope, I am not ‘anti-Christ’, i.e. ‘in the place of / opposed to Christ’, the final judge before whom every knee will bow one day.
Behind this latest development lies the fear of displeasing men rather than offending God! It will always have to be either / or, not both / and.
Let my reader also be reminded that I have not managed to surpass M. Luther in his critique of the papacy, per se, and neither has Richard Dawkins.
