It’s easy to see why we might not have heard of this one. Like “human respect” the sin of presumption probably doesn’t get much play in the Church these days, and this is mostly because we now more or less consider it a virtue. Surprised? Well, how often have you heard “God loves me just the way I am.” Or, more pertinently to our ongoing discussions, something like, “God’s mercy is unconditional.

I’ve got to go home now, so I don’t want any moaning in the commboxes. Man up, people. I’m about to go home for the day, so here’s a little advice and some viewing recommendations to get the blood moving. 1 – Don’t kill yourselves over this in the first day. Or the first week. There’s a big danger of exhausting ourselves and wringing out our brains while the enemy remains fresh.

Then there are the bits that are unintentionally hilarious… It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community and thus to experience being touched by an “unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous” mercy. No one can be condemned for ever, 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.

From the mouths of their own propaganda machine Here’s the actual citation, in case you were wondering: The Second Vatican Council spoke of the need for “a positive and prudent sex education” to be imparted to children and adolescents “as they grow older”, with “due weight being given to the advances in the psychological, pedogogical and didactic sciences”. We may well ask ourselves if our educational institutions have taken up this challenge.

First, click this. It’ll cheer up your brain. Our friend Jeanne Smits in Belgium (in crappy autotranslate from French, sorry): It’s not what’s in it. It’s what’s not in it. Which reminds me of a conversation I had with a Synod bishop shortly after the end of Synod1. He asked how I was doing in Norcia (he meant financially) and I said it was great because it was the lowest rent I’d paid in about 25 years.

Ok, here’s how the game works. Take a belt of whatever you’re drinking today for every statement in AL that you predicted. (I recommend beer, perhaps lite beer, rather than something like tequila. Pace yourselves, people.) Here’s one for me: the nitty-gritty of what to do to bishops and priests who refuse to toe the line will be kicked down to the National Conferences: “Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it.

POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION AMORIS LAETITIA OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND DEACONS CONSECRATED PERSONS CHRISTIAN MARRIED COUPLES AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON LOVE IN THE FAMILY ~

We’ve done everything possible to prepare. You know your jobs and we’re the meanest baddasses in the galaxy. If everybody stays calm and does their job, we’re all going to be OK. The embargo is up at noon our time, which means y’all are going to be waking up to some very unpleasant news. Sorry, but the initial responses I’ve had from the unfortunate victims who spent the night actually reading the wretched thing range from “appalling” to “direct and immediate danger to souls.

…Oh, and in case you’re wondering what to do, concretely, it’s this: “It was the sensus fidelium, expressed verbally, out loud, by the faithful in the 4th century that enabled the pope and [St] Athanasius to save the Church.” Parachute Club: Rise Up from Gloo Studios on Vimeo.

I’m about to go home for the evening. But I’ll leave you with this thought: Time’s up. The Church has had 50 years of utter confusion. This is the time of the Great Clarification. The ones who want to abandon Christ will take this thing as their excuse, as it was intended. The ones who love Christ and want to obey him will keep doing that. Matthew 25: 31