Pope Francis’ Latest Absurdity: Priests Should Absolve The Unrepentant in Confession – DUH…
The situation of the Catholic Church at present is one of grave disorder, due in large part to the willingness of Pope Francis to say, do, and tolerate things that no pope in history has ever said, done, or tolerated.
His recent off-the-cuff remarks instructing priests not to deny absolution to anyone who comes to Confession, for instance. This is in direct contradiction to the teaching of the Church concerning the requisite dispositions required for the valid reception of God’s pardon in the sacrament of penance.
Penitents who, for whatever reason, refuse to repent of the sins they may accuse themselves of in confession cannot be absolved. It would have seemed unthinkable that Pope Francis would say they should be absolved anyway. But he did.
He returned to this theme on his recent trip to Africa. He told the bishops of Congo: “Always. Always forgive in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.” In a similar vein, in 2021, he said that he has never denied Holy Communion to anyone.
Pope Francis wants priests in the confessional to follow his example when they are faced with an unrepentant sinner. In such a scenario, Confession is turned into a meaningless charade. An obstinate sinner should never be given absolution for an offense for which he is not repentant. His refusal to abjure his sins renders him incapable of receiving God’s sacramental pardon.
What is the logic of absolving someone who clings to his sins? The unholy farce of attempting to absolve an unrepentant sinner who intends to keep sinning is a grave violation of the priest’s duty to guide the faithful in Christ’s path of virtue and grace, not the destructive path of sin and spiritual death. Yet that is what Pope Francis told priests they should do…
Pope Francis’ manifest neglect of his duty to defend the Church’s teaching in the face of grave errors urgently calls for a “tough love,” i.e., intervention in which courageous Cardinals and bishops, setting aside customary politeness and deference, frankly tell the pope that this madness must be stopped. Now. Read entire article here…
Editor writes…
Given his reputation for being somewhat unabashed when it comes to sins of impurity himself, could it be that Francis is among those whom he ridiculously seeks to absolve, repentant or not? One has to wonder. What else could prompt such a nonsensical statement? I mean, who would even think of going to Confession unless they were repentant? Your thoughts…
Signed, Puzzled, Glasgow
Comments (26)
Just one more anti-Catholic statement from Francis the Destroyer that priests and bishops should ignore. Of course, if some squeaky wheel “penitent” complains to the bishop that absolution was not granted, and the bishop is a Francis flunky, God help that poor priest for trying to be Catholic.
In Communist countries, children are trained to report their parents, other relatives and friends for statements and/or activities deemed dangerous to the Party and the Party line. The Catholic Church has been doing likewise with her laity for many years – not by training but by precedent – regarding priests who dare to uphold the Faith.
I wonder why Our Lady didn’t tell Sister Lucy that Communism would not only overtake all nations, but the Church as well.
RCA Victor,
I think Our Lady’s apparitions in Quito, under the title of Our Lady of Good Success, might be the answer to your question about Communism in the Church, because Our Lady did speak of the infiltration of the Church (I think it’s been interpreted as Freemasonry but in the end they’re all the same thing) and when she said that the Church would be attacked but “the one who should speak out will fall silent”, that seems to mean that there would be a takeover by evil forces of the Church and the Pope would fail to do his duty and speak out.
Or maybe Our Lady thought it would be obvious to us that if Communism was to overtake every country in the world, that would mean, inevitably, that it would enter the Church.
Josephine,
Good thought….but Francis “failing to do his duty and speaking out” might be better phrased as “those whose duty it is to speak out against the evil confusion being sown by Francis are silent.”
Josephine
Maybe the Vatican as a country rather than the actual Church.
One question about this “unholy farce”: if a priest absolves a penitent whom he knows is unrepentant, has the priest committed a mortal sin?
RCAVictor
I think any priest who absolved an unrepentant person would be guilty the even greater crime of sacrilege. It is completely the inverse of Our Lord’s teaching and institution of this great Sacrament for His priests to absolve those who wish to remain in their sins. What these people need is a psychiatrist, not a confessor!
Aren’t we are the point when it is most Catholic to tune out any of the ridiculous statements of Francis? For most of Catholicism’s history ordinary Catholics wouldn’t know anything about the day to day ramblings of whoever was the man in Rome. A far healthier situation.
Andrew Q,
There are nine ways to share in the sin and guilt of another, and one of them is to fail to correct someone who is sinning. “For most of Catholicism’s history”, your words, we didn’t have the internet, we didn’t know – as you say – “the day to day ramblings” of any pope, although, personally I would not think of an address to seminarians as “ramblings”. I don’t see it as “a far healthier situation” to leave such a grave error and his other grave errors, uncorrected. It might make life easier of us in the short term but we shouldn’t be looking for that sort of easy life, IMHO.
Josephine
I don’t think Francis or any of his lackies cares one jot whether you or I correct him. His election was engineered to destroy all that had gone before. He seems to be making a fair stab at the task he was given.
That’s on him and his evil henchmen, not on us. It’s unhealthy IMHO (!) to clutch pearls every time this most unholy father misleads. It’s practically a daily occurrence.
I choose to spend time reading pre-V II books and the Church Fathers. Far more edifying than all the anti-Catholic bilge spouted by Francis and a better use of time. He will soon be gone.
Andrew Q,
I don’t think Francis or any of his lackies cares one jot whether you or I correct him. Spot on.
But God does. He cares a great deal.
Your attitude is very much of the “just pray” mentality which contradicts your Confirmation duty as a Soldier of Christ to fight on all fronts.
Now, blogging is one such front but if, as appears to be the case, it is not for you, I suggest you refrain from coming here in such a manner as to belittle the efforts of those who DO see the use of the internet, and blogging in particular, as a modern means of fulfilling our Confirmation duty.
By all means do your spiritual reading – some of us, probably all of us, do that as well. We don’t know when Francis “will be gone” (some of us hoped that it would be soon, back in 2013, but the intervening 10 years proved us wrong). Frankly, though, there’s not much merit in being a “devout Catholic” (as so many outside the Church describe us all – wrongly, of course) when all is well and we have a good, if not saintly pontiff. The real soldiers stand out in the thick of the battle.
But, as I say, nobody is obliged to blog – that’s a given. However, nobody should belittle the efforts of those who do, so please don’t let us keep you from the Church Fathers – I must say, I’ve never read any Church Father but who spurred me on to greater things. If I were to spend an entire month doing nothing else but correcting Francis’s errors, I’d still feel like a lazy so & so… 😀
Editor
Your assumption that I’m of the “just pray” school is way off the mark. I believe in sharing what is Catholic and the rot from the Bergoglians simply isn’t.
All the “look what he’s said now” stuff is just extra publicity for the modernists. It is what the secular world wants. They love that the more traditionally-minded express disapproval.
I understand that you’ve announced the blog is on its way out soon. It’s been an entertaining diversion. Thank you.
Andrew Q
I do wonder about your pre-Vatican II reading because when I read the writings of the saints, including Pope Saint Pius X, I find that they reproach Catholics for not doing enough. One of my own favourite rebukes is from Pius X, quoting: “All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easy-going weakness of Catholics.” – Pope St. Pius X”
I think your final swipe at the editor and this blog is very nasty, and a disgrace.
I meant to say that your reference to the secular world gives the clue about really is upsetting you – you’d sooner keep the wrong-going in the Church hidden. Pretend that Pope Francis is kosher by not commenting on his evil-doing. That’s again not what is the Catholic thing to do. The Gospel teaches us to bring everything out into the light. Not hide scandals away out of human respect.
Josephine,
You are right about the importance of not hiding the truth. Indeed, Pope St Gregory the Great said: It is better that scandals should arise, than the truth be suppressed.”
Sincere people are not stupid. They see the difference between a bad pope – once his errors and their modernist roots are explained to them – and the promise of Christ that His Church would never err.
Unfortunately, we still see Catholics with traces of papolatry in their blood and/or a misguided desire to suppress the reality, the truth of the dire state of the Church, and would prefer to leave people confused and floundering rather than expose the truth. It’s very sad but the fact that there are so many such Catholics, 24 years on, proves the correctness of our decision to stop casting pearls and shake the dust.
More on that at the Conference!
I happened to come across an audiobook of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s The Devastated Vineyard this evening, split into 10 parts. Having just listened to the introduction, it seems clear that the present Pope was placed on the Chair of Peter by a fifth column within the hierarchy. The introduction also points out that there are two different motives within this fifth column regarding the destruction of the Church: one, those who seek to eliminate her outright, and two, those who seek to transform her into some sort of humanitarian society under the allegedly alluring banner of “reform,” updating, aggiornamento, etc., having nothing to do with her established mission.
While all this will be nothing new to the readers of this blog, I am guessing that Francis is a member of the second cabal: transforming the Church into something unrecognizable. Luckily for us, his cunning lies and dissembling are so outrageous and clumsy that they have become nails in his own coffin.
I predict that this fifth column, which I am sure is still alive and well (despite our hopes that the aging hippies will soon die off), will soon replace him with someone they deem to be more effective and convincing. But who among the flunkies-in-waiting is believable?
Here’s the first part of the audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgOvucF4YjI&list=PLwM_QK6QQKXa0QR8eWQ0ymFP6wue1yO71
Victor regards to your point on Francis I feel and am sure nearly all on Here do also that Pope Benedict was Given an Offer He Couldn’t Refuse . Francis is a Rude Crude Bully of a Man who has never left His first profession as a Night Club Bouncer. We all also on here know that this useless Sinnod if as regards Catholicism is all about changing The Ten Commandments. One thing that Even Francis didn’t think though is that the T.L.Mass would be brought up by Senators grilling an Atorny General of the United States . Francis to me is not nor probably ever has been a Catholic He clearly doesn’t believe in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and is trying to do away with it all together. He is of course succeeding on a Human Plane but never will on a Godly one.
Just last week we had a visiting Priest say our T.L.Mass. He said He was sick of saying Mass for whole Schools where everyone would come up and receive the Eucharist where probably only 1 or 2 went to Mass on Sunday’s .
Good Priests as you say will soon be a thing of the past if we have a next Pope who may even be worse than Francis ( If thats Possible). We are fast becoming another Episcopalian Sect and we on Here know it .
FOOF,
You remind me of a conversation I had recently with a parent who wonders why his child’s First Confession is such a long way before her First Communion. I think the Confessions are in March, Communion Day in May. He seemed very surprised when I told him that the idea behind that delay is to separate in the child’s mind, any connection between sin and receiving Holy Communion. That’s why at those school Masses (which I mentioned to him, in fact) the entire congregation of pupils goes forward to receive the Eucharist. They’ve never been taught the bit about not receiving “unworthily”.
That way the (arch)diocese can give the impression that the Church is healthy in these parts, all these children attending Catholic school and (presumably) practising… For only practising Catholics, i.e. those who receive the sacraments regularly, having confessed and repented, are in a position to receive Holy Communion in a state of grace.
It’s clever. Diabolically so.
ED if you remember my post around Christmas when the Whole Diocese of Motherwell was told by Bishop Toal that General Absolution would be the norm in the Diocese. I can now see this replacing Confessions in all Catholic Churches with Francis Priests. As I also said though our own Priest said from The Alter and in the Bulletin that General Absolution was only admissible in Emergency. Like maybe only one Priest on the Titanic.
Of course the way that Francis is running our Catholic Church into the ground sometimes it seems like we’re all on a Spiritual Titanic with this Pope.
FOOF,
I take it Bishop Toal meant General Absolution (GA) would be the norm for Christmas (assuming he was expecting a rush!) but not the norm permanently? Bad enough if he meant a one-off – that is NOT a correct use of GA, but please clarify whether GA is now the norm in the Diocese of Motherwell, all year round. Or limited to Christmas. Please and thank you!
ED to be Honest I couldn’t answer that question as I now don’t go to any other N.O. Masses in Motherwell Diocese . I only know that in my own Diocese that G. A. was never implemented . Also to be Honest I wouldn’t be all that keen in going to Confessions in any other Parish . But once something like G. A. is started I cannot see them going back the way. I will though ask Our Own Priest ( God Spare ) when I go to our T.L.Mass on Thursday night and let you know.
Put it this way I have never heard of it being ABROGATED.
Dear Madame Editor,
“Pope St Gregory the Great said: It is better that scandals should arise, than the truth be suppressed.”
IIRC Pope St. Felix said that.
Your unofficial proofreader at your service!
Margaret USA 🇺🇸
Dear friends
Another example under this Pontificate of the Church meandering from the sublime to the ridiculous.
What’s next we can absolve a priest as part of the lay universal priesthood? Anything is possible under this insanity.
Every blessing
Michael 🙏
Michael,
“Anything is possible under this insanity”
Exactly right. And this is why we need to be alert to catch the errors, not simply to warn those around us who may be misled, not least given the fact that there are now two or three generations who have not been properly taught the Faith, nor heard it preached even in some so-called traditional pulpits, but because if we don’t correct the culprit, we will be held accountable for him as well. Check out Ezekiel 3:18 which, loosely translated teaches that if we correct our brother, pointing out his sin and he yet continues in his sin, then he will be punished but we will not. However, if we do NOT correct him, then we will be held doubly responsible.
So, let’s hope we don’t live to see your prophesy about lay absolution come true (!) but if we do, we need to be alert to the error and correct it. Unless, of course, we’re really fond of the heat 😀
Editor,
One way to describe the insanity, esp. the source of it, is to refer back to that VII theme, “this is the age of the laity.” A corollary of which goes like this, “modern man has outgrown the teachings, warnings and punishments of the medieval Church.”
Too many laity, aka egotistical and ignorant suckers, saps and dupes, have fallen right in with the idea that “active participation” is their right. I heard numerous complaints during the reign of Benedict XVI that he was trying to eliminate the role of the laity at Mass (by correcting some of the ICEL translations). Active participation, apparently, is not restricted to Mass. It will be extended to every level of the Church, esp. active participation by pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-female ordination/feminist, pro-religious indifferentism types.
So thanks to the “age of the laity,” we’ve gone from revealed Truth to exposed heresy. Surely this is the most alarming chastisement of all…
RCA Victor,
Correct! Like everything else, this past almost 60 years, the role of the laity has been turned upside down. As I’ve often said in our newsletter, modern priests act like lay people while the lay people play at being priests. Disorientation. Diabolical they call it!
This is interesting from CWR
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/03/07/on-cardinal-mcelroys-misguided-clarifications-on-sin-sex-and-conscience/