MGB:_Paradigm shifts are possible because, while our morality is said to be God-given, it is given within our understanding, not God’s. The lack of humility of those who think that they are sure of God’s will is striking. That they think that they are defend God, that God needs defend and that they are capable of the task is the stuff of comic opera. Gilbert and Sullivan, call your office.
AL was not a paradigm shift. More than one couple that I know had similiar difficulties, all of which were resolved by their parish priest or a priest who was a family friend, long before Amoris was ever published or the Synod on the Family convened. The Pope and our Archbishop are simply doing what has been done pastorally for decades. They are merely calling notice to it, taking it out of the shadows and celebrating it as an example for us all, for it is not just a set of reactionary clergy, but also reacationary people in the pews who must be educated.
The age old dogma on worthiness to receive from Corinthinians should be clarified, because it is the result of anachronistic proof texting. Unworthy reception of Communion did not mean out of a state of grace, because that term of art did not exist in the early Church. It had to do with non-belief in the Eucharist. Sadly, receiving under those cirumstances is all too common among those badly catechized, including some curial bishops who no longer believe but say Mass anyway. While Augustine assures us that the sacrament is valid, it is still horrible for them to live a lie.
I am glad for this teaching, as well as the modernization of the annulment process, as I sadly have need of it. We shall see how the ex-wife reacts, as the process, more than a divorce, imporesses upon the divorcing spouse that the marriage has ended. While we do not call it Catholic divorce, the term still seems appropriate. Indeed, when a marriage ends, the defect may not be original. No marriage survives without unselfishness, which is a grace of the sacrament that must be maintained. No one enters a marriage with that grace fully developed. Some marriages, especially those with addiction, abuse or adultery need to be ended and the person who was victimized in the marriage has an absolute right to marry again, regardless of EWTN’s opinion. The victimizers do not, but without admitting that cause for divorce exists, the Church cannot stop them.
Has the Church gone far enough, including with gay and lesbian marrieds. Absolutely not. They often have children who are being pastorally ignored bacause of hatred of their parents. It is not on their parents to change, but those with indignation in their hearts. They imagine that God shares this scorn. They are sadly mistaken.
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