I heard a very interesting take on the whole gender dysphoria plague sweeping across the globe. It appears that since the devil has no gender and is incapable of procreating life, his goal is to destroy the ability in humans to be able to procreate life. So the devil is trying to make humanity sterile/baron like the devil itself. We have been well warned not to be victims of our own emotions. Emotions and personal feelings are hugely vulnerable to the evil one, therefore using prayer and reading the Word revealed in the Gospels and passed down to our own day must be put ahead of our own personal/perceived emotions and feelings. Of course we will be influenced by our own emotions and feelings, but we must be prepared to discern before we plough ahead and make sure we are indeed within the boundaries set out in the Bible/Scripture, so as to avoid being deceived and led astray. IMHO
I will add that when a man uses contraception with a woman -which almost always involves promiscuity and frequently switching women- that is a gay (homosexual) act, because promiscuity is intrinsically homosexual and monogamy is intrinsically heterosexual. Basically the biggest lie of hollywood culture, fitness vanity culture\etc is that a man with many women is manlier, but in fact he is debasing himself to the level of a gay
Sister Lucia of Fatima said that the Final Battle between God and Satan would be over the family. A lot of this stuff has has its final aim the destruction of the family. It was lovely at the Easter Vigil to hear the sound of little children scurrying about. It cheered me up. There was one tiny little altar boy with red hair who rang the bells with great vigour and made me smile. With all the problems in the world, we might be on the brink of destruction, concentrating on an issue like Transgender which only concerns a tiny fraction of one per cent of us, seems insane. I used to listen to BBC Radio 4 all the time because I enjoyed their intelligent conversations. But now more and more I turn it off. I find myself more and more turning to God in prayer and switching of all these endless distractions. Where do people find the energy? Life is so short. God does not put my Blood Pressure up he brings it down, bless Him. So many of these beliefs like Human Climate Warming. it is like a religion. I am not going to convince them and they are never ever going to convince me. So I tend to think silence and prayer is best. I will pray for them, but I don't have any great hopes of convincing anyone. More and more with people like the Holy Father I just pray for him and leave him to it. This was good and enlightening, I think I will watch it again.
I think that, strictly speaking what Pope Francis said is correct. People excommunicate themselves. The Pope declaring them to be excommunicated is merely confirming the Church's official recognition of the fact. Declaration of excommunication is meant to be an act of mercy for the excommunicated, warning them and anyone who would follow them that they have chosen the road to perdition and they need to repent and get back on the narrow road. Sadly, nowadays, it's portrayed as heartless judgmentalism.
Everything you say 9s spot on. I have arrived at the same conclusion. Talk--at this point is useless. We are dealing with brainwashed people who in many ways belong to a "cult" whether it's abortion advocacy or trans advocacy or eco advocacy or same sex attraction advocacy. Or animal rights advocacy.. What i have noticed is how fiercely they insist that you must agree with them. There is no room for live and let live. They feel threatened by anyone who doesn't absolutely come on board with their particular obsession. I pray for the grace to see them as God sees them. To pray for their happiness in this world and the next and to forgive them for the chaos and hatred they seem to generate. There but for the grace go I.
I love the Fatima prayer, 'Lord save all souls , especially those most in need of your mercy.' I love to pray for the souls most indanger of hell. When Jesus was dying He prayed, 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'. Clearly He meant that. He wasn't just being nice. He meant it. They really, really, really did not know what they were doing. The same today with things like abortion. They really don't know. They have come to believe that what is evil is good and good evil. The same with so many of our own Bishops and Cardinals. I hope the good God will make allowances. But as Our Blessed Lady has indicated we are fast running out of rope. They have tried God's Patience to it's very limits, I am afraid to say.
It makes sense to me. Images of baal and baohomet are both male and female. I thought Mel Gibson got it exactly right when he portrayed the devil as androgynous.
Our Bishops know. If they find the teaching hard to accept, they have the same obligation as any Catholic to submit to Church teaching. If they don't accept that, then those who continue in their posts are hypocrites. And we know what Jesus said about hypocrites. The Romans who actually crucified Jesus knew not what they did. The Chief Priest and elders who handed him over to Pilate? Who knows what was in their hearts. Jesus told Pilate that theirs was the greater guilt. There's no indication that Caiphas repented. We can pray that they all did but if we were to assume that Jesus meant that nobody knew what they were doing and that all were forgiven, shouldn't we be asking for the intercession of Caiphas and all those who declared themselves to have no King but Caessr? I don't know the answer but it is something I wonder about and have never come across anything from an apologist explaining it.
I heard or read somewhere--maybe Frances Hogan--that the Roman soldiers were so impressed by Jesus as He endured the terrible ordeal of the crucifixion that several of them converted and took their experiences back to Rome. St Peter and St Paul found staunch groups of gentile Christians when they got to Rome because of these soldiers. "Surely this man was the Son of God"said one of the soldiers at the foot of the Cross. There is a hagiography of Longinus who pierced the heart of Jesus with the spear. He became an early martyr of the Church. Louis de Wohl wrote a novel about it called The Spear.
John Wayne died Catholic. I edited this. Gremlins ensured it still retained a trace of another partially composed post that I thought better of. I'll just keep the bit about the big man.
The Romans were manipulated by the High Priests and a vulnerable Pilate, and his family, was subtly threatened. Judas betrayed Our Lord voluntarily for money; then he despaired and hanged himself. There are plausible stories that Pilate and his wife became Christians. The example of abortion has been brought up in these posts, but the issue is one of high contrast. The Romans carried out the Crucifixion, but the bulk of the guilt lies with the High Priests who instigated it. In abortion, the instigator, the pregnant woman, is often in a highly emotional, desperate situation; but the one who does the deed, something done knowingly, coldly and routinely as on an assembly-line for a regular thirty pieces of silver, has little to offer by way of ameliorating circumstance.
Pilate is a saint in coptic church up to this very day ! https://aleteia.org/2018/02/25/why-do-some-christians-consider-pontius-pilate-a-saint/
Not sure if Pilate would qualify as a saint but his wife Claudia Procula certainly was a good saintly woman. While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.” Matthew 27:15-19 Tradition holds that after Jesus died she was greatly upset, rebuked her husband, went back to Rome and later converted to Christianity.
