Thanks to Miles Dei who called my attention to that fact that the unsettling interview of the Holy Father to Civiltà Cattolica is really worse than first thought.
Recall that part which many of us found quite disturbing (This English translation is copied from the Rorate Caeli blog): ““We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”
It turns out that according to the original Italian text Pope Francis did not say “The teaching of the church”. Looking up the complete original Italian text at Avvenire, one reads: «Non possiamo insistere solo sulle questioni legate ad aborto, matrimonio omosessuale e uso dei metodi contraccettivi. Questo non è possibile. Io non ho parlato molto di queste cose, e questo mi è stato rimproverato. Ma quando se ne parla, bisogna parlarne in un contesto. Il parere della Chiesa, del resto, lo si conosce, e io sono figlio della Chiesa, ma non è necessario parlarne in continuazione».
That phrase, “Il parere della Chiesa” translates into “The opinion of the Church”. What the Pope said, was that “we already know the opinion of the Church”! It is more than disturbing that the Pope expresses himself by referring to the Church’s moral doctrine as mere opinion.
This word, “opinion” did not go unnoticed by the secular media as for example, when CNN reported on September 19, that “Pope Francis said the church has the right to express its opinions but not to “interfere spiritually” in the lives of gays and lesbians, expanding on explosive comments he made in July about not judging homosexuals.”
So, how bad is the situation in which the Church finds herself at the moment under this papacy?
