The Joy of sex

No, that is not the title of the Pope's letter, but it is one of the alternative translations of it, as many Latin scholars have noted.

PJ Media claims the newest letter by the Pope is merely saying yes to marriage, no to gay marriage and that priests should be nice to people who fail.

Father Z likes it but notes that a lot of people especially in the MSM will simply distort what was actually written to affirm what they want it to say.

The people who would twist Francis’ Letter in such as way as to bring their own practices into a full-monty Kasperite scenario, are not the sort of people who in the past have been firmly obedient to Popes, Canon Law and the Magisterium.  What make you think that they will be now suddenly be obedient to the full-picture in Francis’ Letter rather than pick and choose the bits they like?

PJM agrees that the way the MSM will spin the letter will be a major problem for believers:

As would be expected, CNN's David Wright reported the more liberal side. "In the letter, the pope urged more common sense and less unthinking following of rules -- what he calls 'discernment' -- and writes, 'by thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and growth.'"

Ah yes. Bishops should "discern" the dilemma of those who break the rules because black and white rules "close off grace and growth". Instead show "compassion".

Colour me cynical: Uh, guys: It was this "more compasionate" approach to "lapses of judgement" (what used to be called "sin") that pressured the bishops to accept "cured" pedophiles back in their ranks...


Only the old leftie Archbishop Cruz is a bit more cynical about letting compassion nullify those "black and white rules", because here we are Asian, and the Confucian idea of right behavior, and that bad bahavior causes disorder in the larger society,  is still strong here in Asia.

(concerning the ten commandments)...
They were in effect already written in the human mind as well as felt in the human heart.  They were then but merely verbalized and formalized so that ignorance or uncertainty there could be none. ..So it was that when duly observed, they made the individuals better, their families  happier, their communities safer, their world peaceful.  So it was that their violators were spurned and ...hurt, violated, degraded – and killed even...

The law protected the community, hence, punishing those who broke the laws, because their actions harmed others.
but Bishop! Compassion! Aren't we all good people?

Well, maybe not.

A good number of the people of today are still bent in grossly violating the Commandments. They continue living godless lives.  They consider God as but a figment of imagination.  They look at divinity as but a killjoy.
They look down at their elders as irrelevant individuals – with irreverent words and actions. They consider themselves as free from building or destroying their families.  What is pleasurable is what counts.  No killjoy, please.

So every time the Pope emphasizes "compassion",  he adds "go to confession" (i.e. repent and sin no more),

but the MSM, the average Catholic who can't dig through 200 pages of gobbly gook, and alasmany Bishops of "the church of what's happening now", will be under the impression that it says "no problemo dude, whatever" . As ALJ and Jiminy Criket say: Let your conscience be your guide, leaving a large hole for the sociopaths and the selfish to manipulate.

The result here in the Philippines will be that more pious people will join their local Evanglical church, where an emphasis on clean living (no drugs, no gamblin, no cheating on one's spouse, no taking bribes or given them) is rebuilding society in a way that gives protection to  the poor in a way that an emphasis on false "compassion" for unrepentant sinners doesn't do.