Pope Francis: “The least serious sins are the sins of the flesh”

I'm not sure where exactly to post the following because there are several threads that seem appropriate at the moment but my husband told me about this story yesterday and since I don't follow football (really at all) my reaction was not football based and I said, "Ah, he must be a Catholic.". Sure enough when I looked him up on Wikipedia, he is. He was raised Catholic, he married his HS sweetheart who converted and they have nine children. I don't know much else about this guy but his story appears to be a good one, we just don't hear about stories like his very often. Unfiortunatley, the media is way too concerned with the Colin Kapernick types, imo. I would love to see him and his family do a commercial for a competing company to Nike. I think that there is a market for it, yeah, all of the Trump supporters. How cute would it be to see all eleven of them lined up and wearing the same sneakers and running suits, etc?

Imagine, putting family first...

Philip Rivers and family leave San Diego, move to Florida
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 19, 2020, 1:55 PM EST | https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...s-and-family-leave-san-diego-move-to-florida/

Getty Images

Soon-to-be free agent quarterback Philip Rivers often talks about the importance of spending time with his wife and nine children. When the Chargers moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, Rivers and his family stayed put, and he made the long commute to the team facility each day because he thought it was important for his kids to stay in place.

Which makes his recent move eye-opening.

Rivers told ESPN that he and his wife and kids have left San Diego and moved to Florida. Rivers and his wife grew up in Decatur, Alabama, and he says they wanted to live nearer where they grew up.

“What this means football wise is to be determined but it was time for us to move back closer to home,” Rivers said.

It seems rather unlikely that Rivers would make this move if he expected to remain with the Chargers. Whether Rivers is thinking of retiring, thinks the Chargers plan to move on or has an idea of another team that wants to sign him is unknown, but this move certainly makes it less likely that Rivers will be the Chargers’ starting quarterback in 2020.
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ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Rivers

 

Thank you Dolours, I truly appreciate your insight. I was really thrown off balance when I first read those reports about the ongoing abuse in our diocese. I was so disheartened thinking that things are not getting better, only worse. It just left me feeling as though I couldn't trust any longer. At this point I have no one in my life who I can share my concerns with about Church related issues, so the feedback here on MOG is very helpful. I know that there are good and holy priests out there, and I continue to pray for them.

 

Very good. Parish safety guidelines are meaningless because its not enforceable just a safety guideline nothing mandatory about them. Guidelines are for beginners and useful tool for parish in respect of insurance.

I pulled out of scout when i was a young kid as i didn't like it what i saw on first night when i entered. Know a friend of mine was abused in swimming pool by swimming coach next to our school. My ex supervisor was a scout leader. He was nice but something wasn't right with him as i couldnt put a finger on him re his camera etc. I was only a teen that time. 15 years later ex school pupil saw me on train as he said that my ex supervisor placed his small video camera in boys bed. He was sacked when they found his camera in bed. All of these things happen in 3 or 4 areas of accessing kids.

Three or four areas as to where to access kids -scouts, swimming, supervisor job in boarding schools,church (cos people dont question priest just deference.)

Just stick around close to your grandson and he be visible in your sights.

 

I don't have any special insights. I'm just telling you what I have observed in my own parish. Parents can't be too careful with children but at the same time you can't be with them every minute of the day unless you rule out all activities outside the home including school and all after school activities. I have read that most cases of abuse happen at the hands of relatives or family friends, yet parents still allow their children go on sleepovers where they have no control over who has access to their children. Despite all the stories about the entertainment industry, wannabe stars and their parents will still gravitate towards people who can make them famous. And that mindset applies all across society. It's only Catholic priests who are automatically suspect.

I find it hard to believe that US Intelligence services didn't know a lot more about McCarrick than the average Catholic in the pews yet he was something of an unofficial roving envoy for the US Government. No wonder he seemed invincible to his victims.

Sadly, children need to be taught at an early age that inappropriate speech, suggestions or touching are a red flag no matter who is the perpetrator. Most importantly, children need to grow up knowing that there is no secret too dreadful to share with either of their parents, particularly their mother. Parents are, rightly, wary about letting young people have mobile phones. Not being tech savvy, I don't know whether there are mobile phones available without internet access. If there are, I think that perhaps it would be good for the child to have such a phone for emergencies. I know parents whose child had a phone for emergencies due to school bullying the teachers refused to correct. Thanks to getting a phone call, the mother arrived in the classroom to see her child cowering under a desk to get away from the bullies.

I don't know where Irishguy lives but I can assure you that deference is the last thing shown to priests here. They are verbally abused in the street and the butt of jokes from comedians and self-styled super-smart commentators. Any accusation against anyone too overtly Catholic is automatically taken as gospel truth. The regular media is very biased. I no longer pay any attention to the news here because if a person or organisation is out of favour he/she/it can do no right and if they are in favour all their wrongs are glossed over. From time to time I hear bits and pieces from others who do pay attention. A recent example is the reporting about that American sex abuser (his name escapes me) who was found dead in his prison cell. I'm told that the reporting here plays up his association with Trump but barely mentions his friendship with the Clintons and nobody who spoke about to to me recalls them reporting on his association with George Mitchell who is treated as something of a hero here due to his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Where safeguarding children is concerned, vigilance is the order of the day. Well and good if you can watch them every second of the day but if you can't, you need to prep them on danger signals and how to respond. And where they are left under the care of adults, make it a point of calling in unannounced to check on your child.

 

Epstein. Ironically, I've heard that Trump ran him, whereas Clinton often accompanied him on his plane. However, the media have a narrative and will lie and dispense half-truths to support it at all costs. This narrative exists for the purpose of directing society in a very particular direction...the road to Hell.

As for children. Trust nobody.

 

Agreed. A while back my daughter became friends with a girl on her rowing team. She is a nice girl and a mother at 15 which is never an easy thing. The friends father was a little too friendly with my wife and I had a bit of a premonition that something was not right about the guy for some reason and warned my wife there was something odd about him.
A few months later toward the end of the girls first season he approached my wife at work and asked her about taking our daughter to Vegas for a week to be an assistant at a beauty pageant circuit he and his wife are involved in with their grand daughter. He wanted to drive our daughter alone to Vegas and I don't know why he would think that would be OK but he certainly had the gall to ask as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. My wife works for the school district and he did as well. She politely declined his offer. He was fired a few weeks later for inappropriate relations at the school. So not only trust nobody but be prepared because people like this have grown bold.

 

Trouble is that if you can't be with your child all the time you have no choice but to trust some people. The next viable option is to prep the child and make no secret about checking on the trustworthiness of the adult(s). I imagine that predators would be less likely to single out the children of suspicious parents. There must be other youngsters in the parish serving as altar boys so I would have a chat with their parents as well as checking with the parish about their safeguarding arrangements. In the case of Jo M's grandchild, I see nothing wrong with raising concerns about the most recent news. Better to be upfront about it and priests shouldn't be surprised - in fact should welcome - that parents are protective of their children. If all that was satisfactory, I would make a point of calling in unannounced at different times on different days. The best arrangement would be for the parent to volunteer as an assistant to whomever trains the altar boys.

Yes, it was Epstein. I think that Trump banned him from his resort after Epstein propositioned one of the staff. Guilt by association is unfair whether the associate is famous or a nobody. Nevertheless, objective journalists wouldn't highlight Epstein's links to some famous people while failing to highlight apparently closer and more long-term links to other famous people. Surprising, too, that all the journalists who follow said famous people never heard a whiff of scandal about Epstein or, if they did, never bothered to take a closer look.

Similarly with Harvey Weinstein, all of Hollywood seems to have known about him yet neither the glitterati nor the journalists who follow them ever mentioned anything untoward about the man Meryl Streep called God. The mind boggles thinking about the household names who failed to pull the plug on him yet are ever ready to fuel campaigns against people they perceive to be less enlightened than them.

 

That seems to be the case Padraig;
I read somewhere that now paedophiles are trying to have their 'condition' normalised and have it validated in the LGBTQ alphabet sewer, as a sexual orientation, which is beyond sick!

 

Evil never rests. Particularly sins of impurity. They grow and grow like some awful cancer.

 

That's the modus operandi-all these perversions are successively being attributed with 'respectability'. I don't think the perpetrators of this programme have any time for overt homosexuals and transexuals per se. I think they are only using them as a smoke-screen to get at the children. Our Lord said that the Gates of Hell would not prevail, but that doesn't seem to exclude the possibility that they won't open out and spill their contents.

 

There was a move to get paedophilia legalised in England decades ago but it didn't succeed. Weren't the leaders affiliated to the gay rights campaign and Harriet Harmon their legal adviser? That's not to say that being same sex attracted automatically makes someone a sexual predator. I'm inclined to agree with you that the genuinely confused homosexuals are being used as a cover to add respectability to the worst kind of perversion. And I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there were other agendas being pursued inside the Church. All the indications are that the Church was afflicted with very cunning people who set about changing the teaching on chastity and possibly social justice. They weren't all homosexuals although the homosexual group seems to have been more organised and influential as well as harming more children.

I don't doubt that there are same-sex attracted priests who don't act on their inclinations and who have no wish to change Church teaching or discipline. And if some have sinned against chastity and have repented, they have the same right as the rest of us to God's mercy and forgiveness when we fall victim to our own particular sinful inclinations. I suppose the difference between, say, a priest with a weakness for alcohol and a priest with same sex attraction is that there is no lobby to call drunkenness something to be proud of and encouraged with penalties against anyone who considers it sinful and harmful to society.

I feel especially sorry for young homosexuals. It must be a heavy cross to bear and in the prevailing climate of celebrating all things rainbow, it must be as hard for them to resist temptation as it would be for an alcoholic living in a brewery. May the Blessed Mother intercede for them and may they be granted the grace to resist temptation and enjoy peace beyond all understanding in these crazy times.

 

St Paul is very specific on this and provides us with a list of people who will be going to hell;



11 Corinthians 6:9-10: The Original Greek Various English Translations New Revised Standard Bible (NRSV) [Closest to the Greek, as a rule]

9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. Revised Standard Version (RSV) [Earlier version of the NRSV] Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. Douay-Rheims (“Catholic” Bible translation of the Pre-Vatican II period) Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers: 10 Nor the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God.

Now close you eyes for a second and pretend you are in the Church listening to a Sunday Homily somewhere in the Western World. Imagine the priest said from the pulpit that all homosexuals are going to hell, as Scripture informs us in no uncertain terms that they are going to hell, what would happen to the poor man?

Well if his own congregation did not lynch him on the spot his Bishop would have him, the media would take a chunk, the LGBT Mafia would declare war, his fellow clergy (many of them homosexual themselves) would fall unto the ground in a foaming fit and the Government would come running.

Once you quote a Scripture that nails you to the Cross you know you're quoting a Scripture that needs to be quoted.

In every single incident homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible it is totally condemned.

In every single instance.

The kindest thing we can do for a soul is to try and save it. One of the best ways of doing so is to tell it the truth by informing it that it stands in danger of hell.

Even if this means a neck tie party.

 

Not to depress people further but I see the Holy Father has come out with yet another howler in a long, long, long list of howlers:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/...nd-catholics-are-very-close-in-how-we-worship

 

This so-called least serious of sins including -> unrepentant active homosexual activity
which existed/exists amongst (and beyond just the) members of the Church's Priesthood,
has been as a Huge Torpedo slamming into the Side of The Ship.

AND SINCE unrepentant active homosexuals will have a very hard time of it at Judgement,
AND SINCE0, Silence and Coverup from Higher-Ups - contributed to that Torpedo,
It seems very ill-timed for this pope to minimize? the very serious ramifications to any who give in to LUST..

AND ...

Do his Bishops and Priests sufficiently teach their flocks all Church Teachings re: ABORTION aka Murder of babes in the wombs?

 

I came across this from a blogger in China: https://claytestament.blogspot.com/2019/12/surprise-vatican-publishes-new-lavender.html

Say an extra prayer for young people confused about their sexuality. Not only is society telling them that homosexual practices are healthy and good, very influential people in our Church are doing the same by stealth.

I think I recently linked to that blog or to an article quoting it but didn't quote the full blogpost which was decrying Cardinal Sanchez Sorondo's participation in an organ donor conference in China. I'm going to post the full blog about China on the Vatican has Fallen thread because Catholics need to be reminded of the Vatican's betrayal of our Chinese Catholic brothers and sisters.

 

What Is Man? An Itinerary of Biblical Anthropology

At the request of Pope Francis, the Pontifical Biblical Commission
has published a new book on the Bible and its multifaceted portrayal of humanity.

.... this new effort at a biblical anthropology of course has to drag out the tired old rainbow argument
.... that the crime of Sodom was only in the Sodomites’ "lack of hospitality".
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Jude --

"Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.
They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire."
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2 Peter 2

"The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah God burned to ashes, and condemned them to total destruction,
making them an object-lesson for godless men in future days."
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Pope Francis could do well to read the following from St Teresa of Avila -

Least serious sins are still sins that offend God! Erroneous thinking from our Supreme Pontiff!

Saint Teresa of Avila declares: “Always be fearful if you do not feel sorry for the faults you commit, for even venial sin should fill you with sorrow to the very depths of your soul…For the love of God, take care not to commit any deliberate venial sin, even the smallest…And can anything be small if it offends God?”

 

"You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." (St. Matthew 5:27-28).

"And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell" (St. Matthew 5:29)

 

Jacinta at Fatima carried through the crowd after her vision of Hell

Could someone please show this to Pope Francis?