And in the 1960s, we saw a lot of this going on: discussion groups aka "Encounter groups" where we were encouraged to bare our soul to others in the group in order to promote group solidarity.
So when I see the so called Pope pull the same shennanigans, I am a bit suspicious.
Yes, I sometimes quote him, (and believe his is pope, unlike many who suspect he became Pope illegally. On the other hand, but the more I see, the more I am wondering if they are right)...
the dirty little secret is that he says both A and Anti A, and often while he is saying good stuff he is sneaking around arranging the exact opposite to be done by his minions who are doing the dirty work.
The plans are now out in the open, and Roman journalist Sandro Magister, has the details of the not-so-secret plan.
the first step is letting divorced folks who have remarried outside the church receive communion. Ah, but the bishops opposed this when he held a meeting, so no more meetings with his bishops.
then he held a synod on the family which also had a prewritten document ready to release that was supposed to relate what was agreed upon.
someone noticed the scam and so the document was rewritten but someone didn't notice the two small footnotes, and voila, the modernist minions were happy to ask Francis if they should allow people living in sin or not members of the church to receive the sacrament, and in a private letter he said sure, why not...
We see the same type of shennanigans in the present meeting on Family in Rome, but the main danger is his Synodality plans, where the plans of synods is not written in theological language but in the language of sociology which implies if you don't make your life into serving the church you don't count.... Nope, no Jesus here, folks, just move along.
FatherZ has a link to the actual document in pdf form. and fisks one very greeny paragraph: Pray for reptiles.
I promise you I am not making this up. A reader clued me in. On page document page 29 (PDF page 31). Discernment, then, is also an opening of the heart in love and mercy to all things. As St Isaac of Nineveh (St Isaac the Syrian) expresses it: What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. ... And in like manner, such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.
yup. Pray for everyone. I do, actually... But notice it is about you and your merciful heart, not about Jesus.
Similarly, the trendy tree is missing something:
the tree of life is a symbol of the church, but it is also the symbol of sin in the garden of eden. So traditionally, the tree of life becomes the tree of the cross, where sin was destroyed.
But notice something about this tree? nothing about Jesus who is the center of being a Christian.
There are oodles of prophecies out there that the Pope and bishops will destroy the church, but in the end the layfolk and a few honest bishops will save it, but maybe only after a major persecution. Similar to how St Athanasius rescued the church against the more popular idea that hey, Jesus was just a superman, not God.
Although Pope Francis and his minions and the helpful MSM is pushing this, and if you just read the MSM you would think they had it all in control, that might not be true:
Vatican expert and reporter Sandro Magister a couple months ago reported that someone was passing a memo around to the bishops that objected to this.
after pointing out the silence of Pope Francis in stopping heretical bishops, they get to the real problem of his attempt to remake the church into a secular institution:
2. The Christo-centricity of teaching is being weakened; Christ is being moved from the centre. Sometimes Rome even seems to be confused about the importance of a strict monotheism, hinting at some wider concept of divinity; not quite pantheism, but like a Hindu panentheism variant.
(A) Pachamama is idolatrous; perhaps it was not intended as such initially.
(C) The Christo-centric legacy of St. John Paul II in faith and morals is under systematic attack. Many of the staff of the Roman Institute for the Family have been dismissed; most students have left. The Academy for Life is gravely damaged, e.g., some members recently supported assisted suicide. The Pontifical Academies have members and visiting speakers who support abortion.
which explains the lack of enthusiasm of the Pope and alas too many bishops when the Supreme court rolled back a decision on RoeVWade that even Ruth Bader Ginsburg criticized for it's power grab, i.e. using the court to pass a law instead of normal folks.
By the way: the MSM is not reporting what was done correctly, (essentially saying the people, through their elected officials, should make the law) nor is the MSM putting it into the context of other court rulings.
In the USA, the Supreme court has decided several cases where the court stopped the imperialistic law making of unelected bureaucrats and courts, i.e. who make laws by fiat without imput from citizens.
the memo goes into a lot more, about mispending/laundering/stealing money in the Vatican, but this has been a problem in the church (and in all churches and religions) since Judas started skimming the purse 2000 years ago.
But you get the idea: until Pope Francis stops his deceptions and intrigues and lies, the church will continue to hemorrhage members, because we prefer to hear sermons on Jesus and holiness and how to serve God in the duties of our daily life, not a sermon on how we need to protect the environment like I had to listen to last Sunday:
and this was at the 5:30 am mass, full of tricycle drivers and palenke workers who attend early so they can go to work. Many people here have problems on how to make ends meet after a two year shut down of the economy, and they came to church to worship God and to meet him to get spiritual strength to make it through another week of hard work,