Footnote 351 to paragraph 305 clarifies that "the Church's help" includes "the help of the sacraments," arguing that "the Eucharist ‘is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.’" In other words, Catholics living in mortal sin can now receive Holy Communion.
Francis unfortunately places his foot in his mouth with his 'exhortational' footnote to paragraph 305, because the Holy Eucharist most certainly is a reward and prize for those dedicated of God—the greatest prize of all—while it is never "medicine" for adulterers, but condemnation. His feigned love for the weak only heightens their offense and incurs their damnation, as St. Paul so forbiddingly warns in 1 Corinthians:
"Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord... For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 11:27, 28)
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches in his Summa Theologiae: "If anyone, while in mortal sin, receives this sacrament [Eucharist], he purchases damnation, by sinning mortally... therefore it is manifest that whoever receives this sacrament while in mortal sin, is guilty of lying to this sacrament, and consequently of sacrilege, because he profanes the sacrament: and therefore he sins mortally." So much for Amoris Laetitia being "Thomistic."
The ambiguity of Amoris Laetitia so often cited by critics is evident right from the top, because it appears that Amoris Laetitia—The Joy of Love—is really about The Joy of Adultery. It calls to mind the atrocious 1972 bestseller, The Joy of Sex, that polluted so many minds. One has to wonder if Amoris Laetitia didn't derive its name from it.
Such a conjecture is not unreasonable when we consider that a significant part of AL was written by Francis' ghost writer Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, a radical dissenter who is best known for his 1995 book: Heal Me With Your Mouth. The Art of Kissing. This book, filled with erotic poetry and images, provides disturbing insights into the perverted mind of one who serves as the chief intellectual architect of Francis’ theological novelties and as the alleged ghostwriter for his primary magisterial documents, including Laudato Si and Amoris Laetitia. It appears that the crux of the papal "exhortation" was born of the erotic fantasies racing through Fernandez' mind. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-popes-ghostwriter-controversial-archbishop-penned-key-passages-of-exhor
Concerning those living in adultery, Amoris Laetitia says: "Conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal." (Amoris Laetitia 303)
Note how the commandments of God are reduced to an "ideal." It's now the "Ten Suggestions." According to Amoris Laetitia, conscience can recognize that "the most generous response" we can give to God is to break his commandments. How can this be when Christ said, "If you love me keep my commandments?" (John 14:15) Sin crucifies the Savior, so how can it be a "generous response" to him?
In an adulterous situation with a fornicator, the only thing that conscience recognizes is that he is offending God. The finger of conscience is pointing at him and telling him he must leave his shameful vice if he wishes to be saved, but pride comes along and closes his heart to the voice of conscience. Like a Pharisee, he resists the Holy Spirit and seeks continued escape in his sin, yet Amoris Laetitia says this "is what God himself is asking" of him.
Has Francis considered the warning of St. Paul?
"Know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief." (Ephesians 5:5,6)
According to the renown Catholic philosopher, Dr. Josef Seifert, Amoris Laetitia's assertion that God actively wills people to commit acts that have always been held as evil by the Catholic Church renders the document a ticking "theological atomic bomb" that has the capacity to entirely destroy all Catholic moral teaching. According to AL, if one steals through poverty, he can continue stealing, if he is gay, he can continue to be so. If he bows to an idol (including the idol of fornication), he may continue, if this is what his "concrete complexity" compels him to do, because this "is what God himself is asking."
To inspire false confidence in this new teaching, Amoris Laetitia then tells the faithful: "No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves." (297)
With one stroke of a pen, the Church's power to expel offenders is cancelled so as to deceive the faithful with the fallacy that unrepentant adulterers, thieves, or "everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves" now have the "moral security" that they can "follow their conscience" and continue in sin without the danger of being expelled from the Church or "condemned forever."
It calls to mind the serpent when he told Eve in the garden that she could eat the forbidden fruit, assuring her that she would "not die the death." (Genesis 3:4) This is what we are looking at in Amoris Laetitia—a diabolical deception. Under the guise of mercy, souls are being misled and swept into the fires of eternal damnation.
Francis bases his argument on the heretical notion that God's mercy is "unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous." (297) This is not true. Whatever we receive from God, whether it’s the privilege of entering his Church, absolution, Holy Communion, or salvation itself, must be merited. And whereas God is most merciful and eager to bestow his blessing on every person he created, this mercy is only granted "to them who fear him." (Luke: 150) Man must always change to please God if he is to receive the blessing of God.
But the pope thinks that adulterous Catholics are entitled to "take part in the life of community, whether in social service, [or] prayer meetings" (297) and that "remarried" divorcees should be "integrated" into the life of the Church, "not only to realize that they belong to the Church as the body of Christ, but also to know that they can have a joyful and fruitful experience in it." (299)
What this is doing is blessing sin before the faithful, just as sin would be blessed if known rapists and thieves were allowed to participate in the life of the Church and receive sacraments. It's sending the false signal to the faithful that God accepts us into the Church as we are.
This obsession with "inclusion" is not grounded in love for sinners, but in an inordinate need to secularize the Church. If Francis were truly about inclusion he would teach the way of inclusion, which is to confess and give up sin and subject oneself to the rules and commandments of the Church.
Verily, there is no inclusion or joy of love outside the observance of the commandments. Love, first and foremost, is the unselfish giving of self where our life is joyfully presented as an acceptable sacrifice to God. This is the true Joy of Love.
Hatred, on the other hand, is when we bicker and rebel against God and his precepts, but this is done primarily by our actions, not by our words. It is done by our sins—our adulteries. Francis is proposing that the joy of love is to receive the Holy Eucharist—the very substance of God—while the soul is cursing and lashing out against God. Does Francis also think it is love that souls may be dragged to their eternal perdition on account of this?
It is for reason that preeminent Catholic scholars maintain that Amoris Laetitia is not magisterial. The 7 heresies identified by the 62 signatories of the "Filial Correction" are the crux of the document. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-62-scholars-correct-pope-francis-for-propagating-heresies The other 250 odd pages are just nicely fashioned text to serve as cover; ambiguous dirt to bury the land mines. It's a technique used by communists, by U.N. globalists, and one that was used at Vatican II, for instance, Nostra Aetate written by ex-priest and LGBTQ advocate Gregory Baum, and Sacrosanctum Concilium written by suspected Freemason Annibale Bugnini.
Gregory Baum's Nostra Aetate also had lots of nice sounding text, but its purpose was to destroy the Church's mission to convert non-Catholics and Jews. Similar problem with Sacrosanctum Concilium--its objective was to violate and profane the Mass. Likewise, AL blesses sin and assures offenders that their wayward path has the blessing of the Church, which is contrary to anything the Church has ever taught.
It was with true love for souls that the Church for 2000 years diligently upheld the teachings and commandments of Christ with the understanding that this constitutes the highest pastoral care for the flock. The perfidious line coming out of Rome today that we need to dismiss dogmas and commandments and be more "pastoral" is just a modernist ploy wherewith to tempt the spiritually infirm. The big temptation right now is to break vows and turn against traditional family values, and this unfortunately is what Amoris Laetitia is really about.
It shouldn't surprise us then that on September 19—the anniversary of the dubia—Pope Francis announced he is abolishing the prestigious John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family and replacing it with a new institute focused on implementing Amoris Laetitia.
Cardinal Carlo Caffara, the founding President of the John Paul II institute was told by Sr. Lucy of Fatima that "the final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family," so the recent Vatican announcement eerily punctuates the fulfillment of Lucy's prophecy occurring at this time.
Noncoicidentally, the motu proprio letter through which Francis made his September 19 announcement was signed on September 8, 2017, just two days after Cardinal Caffara 'mysteriously' passed away. Some see it as a providential and long-awaited answer to the questions addressed to the pope by the dubia cardinals concerning the errors in Amoris Laetitia. https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/did-pope-just-answer-dubia-one-year-later-by-co-opting-jp-ii-institute-to-t
Yes, some see it as the elimination of another bulwark that has been helping to hold back this insidious assault on the family. Caffara is now the second dubia cardinal to die since Francis was presented with these grave concerns in September 2016. With him gone, it will be much easier to convert the John Paul II Institute into an institute for Amoris Laetitia. God help us.
