I don’t know about you people, but I am about fed up with the word PASTORAL…. As in “We must have a PASTORAL response to the heretics, apostates and dissenters in our ranks.” Why can’t you call a spade a shovel without getting everyone’s panties in a bunch?
This goes beyond loving correction. It seems everywhere you turn there’s some statement by some priest or bishop or Church committee about how we must have a pastoral response to those calling for gay marriage or women in the priesthood. I don’t have a problem with the idea that we need to bring these people into alignment with Church teaching without losing them entirely. Our actions will be judged accordingly in such situations.
However, aren’t our actions going to be judged accordingly when we allow pro-abortion Catholics to receive Communion? Or when Sister Mary-Why-Can’t-I-Be-A-Priest is allowed to give the darned HOMILY every couple of Sundays? What about when we have priests tell the pew-sitters that it’s OK to disregard Church teaching if we pray over it first? When does something become so reprehensible that the hierarchy of the Church will exercise its authority?
Sorry to rant, but this has been gnawing at me for a while…