Thursday, April 07, 2011

Archbishop Sheehan of Santa Fe

The Archbishop has written a pastoral letter on cohabitation that pulls no punches. Two pages long (no one can complain it's too long to read), he fulfills his role as a teacher of the faith for his flock (as well as the rest of us).

The letter is available by clicking on this LINK, which takes you to the letter as it is available on the archdiocesan website.

The letter has been explained and commented upon by Father Z (who also shows us the rantings of a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter) by clicking on this LINK.

2 comments:

Loretta said...

Thanks Fr. Jay for giving us this LINK for Archbishop Sheehan of Santa Fe Pastoral Letter. Thanks so much. The sisters in our apostolate will be gald for this link. Thanks so much.

ProudCatholic said...

Bravo! That is straight shooting from the hip alright. There is way too much tiptoeing around these issues. It's sad too say there are too many Catholics (or ex-Catholics who still think they are Catholic) who freely go to Mass at protestant churches now and then or pretty much always because of the church's stance on such issues. To that they respond (and I quote them) "This is what I don't like about the Church--too old-fashioned, too strict, too behind the times." All of us have certainly heard it from many ad nauseum. Well, actually they are right. The Church hasn't changed, it's archaic--as a matter of fact it's millenniums behind the times...and that is because Jesus was our "founding Father" and he spoke the Truth, he was the Truth and there is only ONE truth (Pontius Pilate's viewpoint notwithstanding). Of course we do not change, and we should not change. What has changed is people's willingness to stand up for what they know in their hearts is right--to do the "hard" thing, to follow what can be very difficult yet so powerfully transforming. It seems in the country that has the greatest freedom to enjoy our faith, to live any way we want to, the greatest ability to excercise our free will, we can't seem to muster enough strength to do what's unpopular even when we know it's best for us. Nobody wants to lose anyone in our faith but if someone is choosing not to follow the Faith, then they already lost it to begin with.
Sin is one thing; we are all sinners and strive to do all we can to follow Jesus and our Mother the Church, and we all fall short to different degrees (the difference is, I know I'm the one whose wrong--not the church). But this is not about that, it's about the many who threaten the Catholic Church (or carry out the threat) to change or they will leave (or have left). I hate to see anyone leave the Faith but Faith is not a democracy where we can vote on which articles or bylaws and constitution to accept. I love my Faith and my Church and whenever I follow what the church says, no matter how difficult, in the end it makes me a stronger, better, holier person than I could have ever been without it. So for those who believe in their hearts the Church is so way out of date, so unrealistic, and even wickedly misled, there are tens of thousands of religions out there. I'm sure you'll find one that suits you just fine.