ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
In one of his series of reforms in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has endorsed or approved that priests who wish to, could extend non-lithurgical blessings to same sex couples and unmarried couples. This is obviously a clear departure from the Church’s original stance on these issues, which it had as recently as 2021 dismissed with the following words; “God cannot bless sin”.
From his time as a priest, up to his bishopric of Buenos Aires in Argentina, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God’s mercy and denunciation of some hardline doctrines and policies without attempts at rewriting the Church’s stance on key moral issues. Like Jesus Christ, Pope Francis believes that it is more important to open the doors of the church to sinners than sending them away, potentially, deeper into sin. Bishop Bergoglio was noted also as a staunch political activist, who did not shy away from political issues in his time as Bishop. He is the true definition of a humanist Pope.
When Christ was on earth, he was criticised for associating with sinners and dining with tax collectors, who were deemed at that time, as among the biggest sinners, but his response was that he came for sinners and not for the righteous, for like a physician his interest is in visiting and curing the sick and not the healthy.
Homosexuality is more prevalent than many of us are ready to openly admit, and it remains distasteful to me. In fact, I consider it a mental illness, but I also believe that persecution of those who indulge in it, has promoted that practice more than any other thing. I believe that homosexuality should be legalised, as long as it is done between adults, consensually. If the efforts invested in criminalising homosexuality had been invested in fighting against paedophilia, the world would have become a better place, because, it is senseless wasting your time and government’s resources trying to tell two adults that putting a peg in a hole is sweeter and more natural than jamming two poles together. You would achieve a lot more saving innocent children from sexual abuse by perverts. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Many of those who are expressing anger against the Pope’s new ruling opening the door to homosexuals, divorcees and unmarried sexual partners live in these sins everyday, but would prefer to present themselves as saints in public eye. They watch homosexual pornography, indulge in premarital or extramarital sex, and other sinful lifestyles, but are always among the most vocal in condemning these acts. That is the hypocrisy of our generation. We are more concerned about our reputation than our true characters.
God does not deny His blessings to anyone because they are in sin, rather he allows His blessings to go to everyone. Somewhere in the Bible, it was noted that God allows His sun to shine upon both the righteous and the unrighteous. For today’s hypocritical puritans, God should cease the air that people breathe, if they are not considered righteous. Unfortunately, they do not know that if God does that, they would all be dead, probably, before those they even consider sinful.
What the Pope has done is not to endorse these practices as moral or acceptable in the Church, but to stop acts of stigmatisation against those who are sincere enough to indulge in them, and make it open that they do. This new ruling also allows those who indulge in these immoral lifestyles, but still have the desire to seek Jesus, not to be alienated by the Church, but to afford them the opportunity to receive blessings from their priests if they desire them. This is in line with the preaching of Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis has refused to take up the place of God Almighty in the lives of people, by not condemning people to hell fire before God does. He prefers to leave these people, to the judgement of God, and no one can claim to be sure of those that God will welcome into His Paradise at the end of time, but we know that the Bible emphasizes on “Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and personal Savior and “worshipping God in spirit and truth” as bases for admittance to His kingdom, than righteousness, because no one is truly righteous. Please, study your Bible.
People, including some high ranking Cardinals, Bishops, Reverend Fathers and the laity, would rather that the Pope sticks to some conservative doctrines of the Church, on paper, while they dwell in the most reprehensible of unnatural practices and sins. Some of those, especially, among the clergy, who criticize the Pope for this doctrinal shift, are manipulators who use such doctrines to manipulate young and innocent people and even children and indoctrinate them into such practices. With the opening of the door for these people to be blessed, some of them might be liberated and could come out to expose those who have been keeping them hostage, by making them feel unaccepted in the Church.
Christ did not reject anyone throughout his earthly ministry, and it was wrong that the church closed its doors completely on certain people, because of their sexual orientation and other practices. In line with Christ’s teachings; “As many as they are that BELIEVE in Jesus Christ, should be welcomed”. Note, that the Bible didn’t say; “As many as are RIGHTEOUS” it is about believing, about the desire to accept that Jesus Christ is Lord.
May God bless the truth.
