Pope holds fast to conservative requirements

Divorced Catholics can't receive Communion; politicians admonished

10:59 PM CDT on Tuesday, March 13, 2007
From Wire Reports

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI rebuffed calls to let divorced Catholics who remarry receive Communion in a new document Tuesday and told Catholic politicians they are expected to wage the church's fight against abortion and gay marriage.

Putting his conservative stamp on his nearly 2-year-old papacy, Benedict also reaffirmed that Priests must be celibate and included a nostalgic call for Latin use by rank-and-file faithful. A worldwide meeting of bishops, held at the Vatican in 2005, endorsed the celibacy requirement, and Benedict embraced their call, despite shortages of priests in some places.

The 131-page "exhortation" is part of the pope's vigorous campaign to ensure bishops, priests and the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics strictly follow church teaching.

The rest of the article just quotes from the document and refrains from using scare words. But honestly, can any person read the above and not think that the author, whom is not named but I am assuming it is a DNM staffer, has a bias against the Catholic Church?

Why do they put "exhortation" in scare quotes and not explain what an Apostolic Exhortation is?

At a press conference introducing the document, the Pope said that his main goal for the document was to "help in liturgical celebrations, in personal reflection, in preparing homilies and in the celebration of the Eucharist." He also said he hoped it would "serve to guide, enlighten and revitalize popular piety," especially eucharistic adoration.

Is any of this reflected in the above article from the Dallas Morning News? No, what is reflected is the media's desire to undercut the Church and to portray it in the worst light possible. As a result they use scare words, ignore the deeper meaning of the document and focus on the things that are not as important.

For a Catholic analysis, which is really the only one that Catholics should be paying attention to, click here, here and here. These are links to Catholic bloggers who are interested in finding the meaning behind what the document actually says.

Mike Aquilina has a great analysis of the document from the viewpoint of the Fathers of the Church.

Zenit interviews Cardinal Angelo Scola who was the Relator General of the 11th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops held in Rome from Oct. 2 to 23, 2005. Sacramentum Caritatis reflects the conclusion of the Assembly and Cardinal Scola provides an important perspective.

Don't look to the Dallas Morning News as a source for what's going on in the Catholic Church.