[DISPATCH] Pope Francis said Friday that Catholics should look to their own consciences more than Vatican rules to negotiate the complexities of sex, marriage and family life, demanding the church shift its emphasis from doctrine to mercy in confronting some of the thorniest issues facing the faithful.Didn't somebody else say that? Who was it? Martin Luther? John Wycliffe? John Calvin? John Huss? John Knox? Something about man talking directly to God without going through a priestly intermediary?
In a major church document entitled "The Joy of Love," Francis made no explicit change in church doctrine and upheld church teaching on the lifelong bond of marriage between a man and a woman.
"What God has joined together let no man cast asunder."
But in selectively citing his predecessors and emphasizing his own teachings in strategically placed footnotes, Francis made innovative openings in pastoral practice for Catholics who civilly remarry and signaled that he wants nothing short of a revolution in the way priests guide Catholics. He said the church must no longer sit in judgment and "throw stones" at those who fail to live up to the Gospel's ideals of marriage and family life.
It's a thorny kind of a problem. Those of us who've cast or been cast asunder maybe didn't take it seriously when we were kids, look back on it with more understanding and guiltier consciences now. Divorce is a sin, like it or not, not something to be done casually. It hurts the principals, like it or not, and it hurts the kids. Yet there are lots of reasons people want divorce: abuse, infidelity, and desertion at the top of the list. But I think we've reached the point where "I'm tired of looking at your face" has become grounds.
"I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion," he wrote.
I always thought the Pope's job was to define sin and to campaign against it. Silly me. Now I have to think about it myself.
"But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness."
I'm sure he does. But I want my granddaughters to grow up to be ladies and the boys to be gentlemen. I want them to be able to tell good from bad from evil from Evil. It seems like a church would be a good idea to offer guidance in those areas, but I guess they'll have to read philosophers. Maybe they'll understand what the hell Bishop Berkeley was talking about, even if I did miss his point.
On thorny issues such as contraception, Francis stressed that a couple's individual conscience -- not dogmatic rules imposed on them across the board -- must guide their decisions and the church's pastoral practice. "We have been called to form consciences, not replace to them," he said.
Our first United Methodist Pope.