Pope Francis' Response to "Ideological Colonizations"
Devaluation of marriage/family and the accompanying threat to religious liberty are the result of what Pope Francis would call "ideological colonizations." We have become all too accustommed to
treating marriage as though it were NOT indissoluble,
"Today’s catechesis is dedicated to a central aspect of the subject of
the family: that of the great gift that God made to humanity with the
creation of man and woman and with the Sacrament of Marriage. This
catechesis and the next are concerned with the difference and
complementarity between man and woman, who are at the summit of the
divine creation....I wonder...if the so-called gender theory is
not also an expression of a frustration and of a resignation, which aims
to cancel the sexual difference....The removal of the difference, in
fact, is the problem, not the solution...The matrimonial and family bond
is something serious, and it is for everyone, not only for believers" (Pope Francis, 4/15/15 General Audience)
"The social devaluation of the stable and generative
alliance of man and woman is certainly a loss for all.... the Bible says a beautiful thing: man finds
woman, they find one another, and man must leave something to find her
fully. And for this, man will leave his father and his mother to go with
her. It is beautiful! This means to begin a journey. Man is all for
woman and woman is all for man. The care of this alliance of man and woman -- also if they are
sinners and are wounded, confused or humiliated, mistrustful and
uncertain -- is therefore for us believers a demanding and exciting
vocation, in the present condition" (Pope Francis, 4/22/15 General Audience)
"The most persuasive testimony of the blessing of Christian marriage
is the good life of Christian spouses and of the family. There is no
better way to describe the beauty of the Sacrament! Marriage consecrated
by God to safeguard that bond between man and woman that God has
blessed since the creation of the world; and it is source of peace and
of goodness for the whole of conjugal and family life" (Pope Francis, 4/29/15 General Audience)
"Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul affirms that
the love between spouses is an image of the love between Christ and the
Church – an unthinkable dignity!....we must ask ourselves seriously: do we ourselves, as
believers and as pastors, fully accept this indissoluble bond of the
history of Christ and of the Church with the history of marriage and of
the human family?" (Pope Francis, 5/6/15 General Audience)
"today, in many countries, Mother's Day is
celebrated....An applause for the mommies in the square. And this
applause embraces all the mothers, all our dear mothers, those that live
with us physically, but also those that live with us spiritually ...
May the Lord bless them all, and may the Mother of God, to whom this
month is dedicated, watch over them all" (Pope Francis, Regina Coeli, 5/10/15)
"Today’s catechesis is like an entrance door to a series of
reflections on the life of the family, its real life, with its times and
its circumstances. Written above this entrance door are three words,
which I have already used several times....these words open the way to live well in the
family. They are simple words, but not so simple to put into practice....And now I invite
all to repeat these three words together: 'permission, thank you,
pardon'....Now repeat all together the advice I have given:
never end the day without making peace" (Pope Francis, 5/13/15 General Audience)
"'Critical' intellectuals of all kinds have
silenced parents in a thousand ways, to defend the young generations
from harm -- real or imagined -- of family education.....It is time that fathers and mothers
return from their exile – because they have exiled themselves from the
education of their children --, and reassume fully their educational
role" (Pope Francis, 5/20/15 General Audience).
"The time of engagement can truly become a time of initiation, to what?
To surprise! -- to the surprise of spiritual gifts with which the Lord,
through the Church, enriches the horizon of the new family that prepares
to live in His blessing" (Pope Francis, 5/27/15 General Audience)
"Marriage and the family are going through a serious cultural crisis....Marriage 'seen as a mere form of affective gratification,'
ceases to be an 'indispensable contribution' to society (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 66)....'ample catechesis on the Christian ideal of conjugal
communion and of family life is urgent, which includes a spirituality of
paternity and of maternity. It is necessary to give greater pastoral
attention to the role of men as husbands and fathers, as well as to the
responsibility they share with their wives in relation to marriage, the
family and the education of the children' (Ecclesia in America, 42)" (Pope Francis to the Bishops of the Dominican, 5/28/15)
"The lack or loss of work, or its strong
precariousness, has serious implications on family life, severely
testing relationships. The living conditions in disadvantaged
neighbourhoods, with housing and transportation problems, as well as the
reduction of social, health and educational services, causes further
difficulty" (Pope Francis, 6/3/15 General Audience)
"The complementarity of man and woman,
summit of divine creation, is being questioned by the so-called gender
ideology, in the name of a more free and just society. The differences
between man and woman are not for opposition or subordination, but for
communion and generation, always in the 'image and likeness' of God....The Sacrament of Marriage
is a sign of the love of God for humanity and of Christ’s giving Himself
for His Bride, the Church. Look after this treasure, one of the 'most
important of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples' (Aparecida, 433)" (Pope Francis to the Bishops of Puerto Rico, 6/8/15)
"The Christian community knows well that, in the trial of
sickness, the family is not left alone. And we must say thank you to the
Lord for those beautiful experiences of ecclesial fraternity that help
families to go through the difficult moments of pain and suffering. This
Christian closeness, of family to family, is a real treasure for the
parish -- a treasure of wisdom that helps families in difficult moments
and makes the Kingdom of God understood better than many discourses!
They are caresses of God"(Pope Francis, 6/10/15 General Audience)
"Globalization itself...also
bears in itself aspects of possible confusion and disorientation, as
when it becomes a vehicle to introduce uses, concessions, even norms
that are foreign to a social fabric with the consequent deterioration of the cultural roots of reality that instead are respected; and this by the effect of tendencies belonging to other cultures, economically developed but ethically weakened(cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 62). I have spoken so many times of ideological colonizations when I refer to this problem....it
is important that public authorities, and among these also the
jurisdictional, use the space given to them to give stability and render
more solid the bases of human coexistence through the recovery of
fundamental values. Christianity has offered these values the true and most
adequate foundation: love of God, which is inseparable from love of
neighbor (cf. Matthew 22:34-40)" (Pope Francis, 6/13/15 Address to the Italian Superior Council of the Judiciary)
"we have been reflecting on and asking
ourselves how to transmit the faith to the new generations....this commitment is all the more important when we speak of
the education of kids and young people, who begin to hear these strange
ideas, these ideological colonizations that poison the soul and the
family: one must act against this. Two weeks ago a person, a very
Catholic, good, young man said to me that his kids were in first and
second grade and that in the evening he and his wife so often had to
're-catechize' the children....With your conjugal relationship, exercising paternity and maternity, you
give your life and are proof that it is possible to live the Gospel: it
is possible to live the Gospel and it renders one happy....Conjugal love is a good, which not even the greatest difficulties of
life are able to darken....Children look. They look so much and when they see that father and
mother love each other, the children grow in that atmosphere of love, of
happiness and also of security, because they are not afraid....It is very painful when a family lives a tension that can’t be
resolved, a break that they don’t succeed in healing. It is painful.
When there are the first signs of this, a father and a mother have the
duty to themselves and to their children to ask for help, to be
supported. Ask help first of all from God... The Lord will give you the strength to
understand that evil can be surmounted, that unity is greater than
conflict, that the wounds we have inflicted in one another can be
healed, in the name of a greater love, of that Love that He has called
you to live with the Sacrament of Marriage....when separation -- we must also speak of this -- seems
inevitable, know that the Church carries you in her heart....Never, never speak badly of the
other to the children! Never!....there is also the way of forgiveness. Forgive one another
and take up mutually your limitations, which will also help you to
understand and accept the fragilities and weaknesses of your children....grandparents...have
saved the faith in so many countries where it was prohibited to
practice religion and took children secretly to have them baptized, and
grandparents who taught prayers....They give us wisdom, prudence, they help us
so much. And when they get sick they ask us for so many sacrifices, it’s
true. Sometimes there isn’t another solution than to take them to a
rest home. But may it be the last, the last thing that is done.
Grandparents at home are a richness" (Pope Francis’ 6/14/15 Address to Rome Conference on Parents as Witnesses of the Beauty of Life)
"155. Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the
relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in
our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified
environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an 'ecology of man', based on
the fact that 'man too has a nature that he must respect and that he
cannot manipulate at will'. [120] It is enough to recognize that our
body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment
and with other living beings. The acceptance of our bodies as God’s
gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift
from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy
absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking
that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body,
to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential
element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in
its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to
recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this
way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman,
the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a
healthy attitude which would seek 'to cancel out sexual difference
because it no longer knows how to confront it'.[121]" "157. Underlying the principle of the common good is respect for the
human person....It has also to do with the overall
welfare of society and the development of a variety of intermediate
groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity. Outstanding among those
groups is the family, as the basic cell of society...." "213....In the face of the so-called culture of death,
the family is the heart of the culture of life'.[149]
In the family we first learn how to show love and respect for life; we
are taught the proper use of things, order and cleanliness, respect for
the local ecosystem and care for all creatures. In the family we receive
an integral education, which enables us to grow harmoniously in
personal maturity. In the family we learn to ask without demanding, to
say 'thank you' as an expression of genuine gratitude for what we have
been given, to control our aggressivity and greed, and to ask
forgiveness when we have caused harm. These simple gestures of heartfelt
courtesy help to create a culture of shared life and respect for our
surroundings" (Pope Francis' 6/18/15 Laudato Si)
"to you
young people in this world, in this hedonistic world, in this world
where only pleasure gets publicity, having a good time, having a
beautiful life, I tell you: be chaste, be chaste. All of us in
life have gone through moments in which this virtue was very difficult,
but it is in fact the way of genuine love, of a love that is able to
give life, which does not seek to use the other for one’s own pleasure.
It is a love that considers the life of the other person
sacred....at
the end of the 19th century there were bad conditions for the growth
of youth: there was full Masonry, even the Church couldn’t do anything,
there were priest haters, there were also Satanists ... It was one of
the worst moments and one of the worst places of the history of Italy.
However, if you would like to do a good task at home, go to see how
many men and women Saints were born at that time. Why? Because they
realized that they had to go against the current in relation to the
culture, to that way of living. Reality, live the reality. And if this
reality is glass and not diamonds, I look for the reality against the
current and I make my reality, but something that is of service to
others. Think of your Saints of this land, what they did!" (Pope Francis' 6/21/15 "off the cuff" talk to youth in Turin)
"Turin’s men and women Saints teach us that all
renewal, also that of the Church, passes through our personal
conversion, through that openness of heart that receives and recognizes
God’s surprises, driven by the greatest love (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14),
which renders us friends also of persons who are alone, suffering and
marginalized" (Pope Francis' 6/21/15 prepared talk to youth in Turin)
"We are well aware that no moments are lacking in any family
history in which the intimacy of dearest affections is offended by the
behavior of its members....Do we feel the weight of the mountain that crushes the
soul of a child, in families in which there is bad treatment and harm is
done, to the point of breaking the bond of conjugal fidelity?....If we think of the harshness with
which Jesus admonishes adults not to scandalize the little ones -- we
heard the passage of the Gospel -- (cf. Matthew 18:6), we can
also understand better his word on the grave responsibility to protect
the conjugal bond that begins the human family (cf. Matthew 19:6-9).
When man and woman have become one flesh, all the wounds and all the
abandonments of the father and the mother affect the living flesh of the
children....Let us ask the Lord for great faith, to look at reality
with God’s gaze; and a great charity, to approach persons with his
merciful heart" (Pope Francis, 6/24/15 General Audience)
"all those who believe in the sanctity of life, regardless of whether they support or oppose the theoretical validity of brain-death criteria, [should] oppose the use of brain-death criteria to obtain organs for transplantation in clinical practice. We can then, as a single voice, support medical research seeking innovative, morally uncontentious ways to replace failing organs" (National Catholic Register, 10/25/21)
"It is everyone’s hope that rape victims, whether pregnant or not, receive the most compassionate and effective care available. Unfortunately, using Plan B and continuing to cite the faulty Peoria Protocol, based upon what we now know, is simply an immoral compromise—with the unintended consequence of the loss of human life and the abandonment of truly loving and courageous Christian health care" (Dr. Chris Kahlenborn, 4/8/19)
pharmacies
Certain other "contraceptives" can act as abortifacients! For example, it has long been known that other hormonal "contraceptives" can cause early abortions and are deadly dangerous (e.g., 1, 2) and just about every pharmacy (including those in supermarkets and department stores!) provides such. No parish should be allowing advertisements from providers of abortifacients! Please speak with your pastor, to ensure that your parish - be it in a bulletin or a directory - does not have such ads.
Especially with Central Jersey and the Philly suburbs so much being a worldwide capitol for the pharmaceutical industry,
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