Heading for the bigs, Christian faith and all.

Defining religion down.

The group has taken issue with section 88 of the new document, which states: “Thus to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practiced the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which admittance to consecration is not possible.”

The USACV said it was “shocking to hear from Mother Church that physical virginity may no longer be considered an essential prerequisite for consecration to a life of virginity.”

“The entire tradition of the Church has firmly upheld that a woman must have received the gift of virginity – that is, both material and formal (physical and spiritual) – in order to receive the consecration of virgins,” the association added.

Part of an ongoing project in the age of Francis whereby “discernment” is the thing, get it?

In this case, when is a virgin not a virgin? When “discernment” makes it so. Put another way, when Francis’ reformed curia says so.

Age of Aquarius has come and gone. A new one is here, in which It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing discernment.

more more here via CatholicHerald.co.uk

Who’d a thunk it?

The Times review doesn’t acknowledge it, but people were and are stressed, even “acutely” stressed, under Communism and socialism, too.

Maybe the issue isn’t “neoliberal ideology” – which goes undefined in the review and can mean a lot of different things — or “capitalism,” but human nature.

Trouble is, stress is always with us.

via The Future of Capitalism

Geez, she some kind of outlaw or something?

She “ignored his advice by opting for a soft Brexit strategy,” says Sun.

Another speak softly-carry-no stick-performer taken to school.

Special interest here for this blogger. We had such a woman join us for dinner some weeks back, I mean one who if she returned to her native Iran, would face the same situation. Bad stuff.

via Geller Report . . . 

. . . which Google Adsense has banned, the owner says, apparently because of reporting such as this. Also bad.

The last straw? Not by a long shot.

Just days after announcing it would drop plastic straws to save the oceans, Starbucks today introduced the option to have your hot beverage dispensed without a cup.

The new Earth-friendly ‘Direct Pour’ service is expected to increase sales by winning over people who have avoided Starbucks as a way to protect the planet from human refuse.

Little things mean a lot.

via ScrappleFace

Which I intend to do, but first, consider this about the video from a Michael Sean Winters column of last November:

As Jesuit Fr. Jim Martin pointed out in responding to the [Rev. Thomas] Weinandy’s strange account of how he came to the conclusion that Jesus wanted him to write to the pope [a highly critical letter last October]: “If one’s idea of discernment is seeking signs like this, then why would one trust, say, a divorced and remarried Catholic to consult his or her conscience about whether it is permissible to receive Communion? It is no wonder that discernment seems so arbitrary to some people. And so frightening.”

To which I am constrained to ask why Fr. Martin and others, including Winters, would be concerned with what a pope says in the first place.

If discernment opens the way for them to do what they wish, why were they bothered by previous popes who narrowed their options?

via National Catholic Reporter

Year-old news, for which I apologize, but Fr. Z. did so well rebutting this absurd complaint which I ran across while looking for something else, that had to “share” it, as they say — vs. the old, quite useful “tell you about it.”

Within his rebuttal, rambling at times but so what? was this neat capsule:

A couple days back, at the Fishwrap (aka National Sodomitic Reporter [ouch]), the Wile E. Coyote of the catholic Left, Michael Sean Winters, attacked converts.

“At Al Jazeera, Austen Ivereigh debates Matthew Schmitz from First Things. I am so tired of converts telling us that the pope is not Catholic.”

Then the neat wisdom slice:

What a snotty thing to say. Typical Fishwrap.  Liberals have a streak of moral superiority which leads them to all sorts of  humorless, condescending lapses.

more more more via Fr. Z’s Blog

. . . Wyoming loved its women.

via Instapundit » Blog Archive »