The Archdiocese of Chicago is spending $1 million on a Catholics Come Home ad campaign. Nice, right?
But you’ve got to see how the Chicago Tribune reported it:
In order to return to the pews, Cindy Colman first must grapple with the Roman Catholic Church’s failure to forgive, alienating her and her mother from the institution that generations of their family have called home.
“I think I’m still in the process,” said Colman, 35 of Naperville. “I’m at that point where I’m coming back to learn more and understand the whole faith … It’s true. At my core, I know that.”After fleeing an abusive husband more than 30 years ago, Colman’s mother chose to raise her daughter Lutheran. Though she agreed to annul her previous marriage, the Catholic Church insisted on denying her the sacraments when her new husband declined to annul his marriage.
Colman has since agonized about the way her mother has been treated. Still, she yearns to reconcile with the church where she was baptized. She also longs to give her children the foundation she missed.
So people have to forgive the Church for its failure to forgive? Really? That’s the lede in a news story?
Divorces and annulments are heartbreaking. But the Church has rules. And let’s remember that standards and rules are what makes some people hate Catholicism.
But the story continues from there:
But others say the commercials fail to heal all the wounds inflicted by the church. They wish the church would proclaim a more modern message instead of stressing nostalgia. They say the ads missed an opportunity to reach out to those disillusioned by the sex-abuse scandal. Instead of acknowledging its own mistakes, critics say, the church suggests those who have fallen away should return to make peace with the past.
Sal Boccia, 39, of Alsip doesn’t want the mistakes of his past to take away from his children’s future. Married for less than a year before he divorced and met his current wife, Marissa, he took umbrage when the church refused to marry them until he sought an annulment.
“It just became a big hassle,” Sal Boccia said. “It really turned me off — and that’s when we started moving away from the church.”
But like Colman, the Boccias are contemplating a return for the sake of their three children. Their two oldest — ages 7 and 8 — have begun to ask questions about God and the afterlife.
It actually continues from there but it’s just so silly. I mean, it’s laughably poor reporting.
So the Chicago Tribune is essentially telling the Church that it should stop having rules and standards. Well, it looks like the Trib already has. And I’ll bet that the Catholic Church continues to exist long after the Tribune is gone.
February 15, 2010 at 8:21 pm
This is the very same M.O. for what is going on in the United States, everyday, as we watch our culture be "deconstructed" and "twisted" into an unrecognizable shadow of it former self.
Those who cannot see this are blind. The author of these insidious attacks on marriage and on our culture is the same, Satan. He is calling the shots here in this rebellion and the Catholic Church has pretty much yieled to him its authority.
It is, literally, becoming HELL on earth.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church is destroying the Church from the inside out and the laity does not seem to care, as evidenced by the viciousness of the attacks on those like myself who are living what we vowed in public and we are castigated for taking our cases public, because we HAVE TO. The hierarchy has already refused to act to address every other issue in this totally corrupted tribunal/pastoral system/. I am told, I won my case in the Rota, so go away and shut up!
I am trying to wake the Catholic Church up to what it is doing. I am not trying to harm it. The disease is so pervasive that to work to cure it seems to be harmful because the organism has been so usurped that it fights its friends and defends its enemies, to which it has become addicted.
The faithful abandoned spouse is an endangered species. We are being exterminated by the civil government, by the Catholic Church and by our spouses working in unison.
That faithful spouse is a living, though imperfect, witness to Christ or almost a saint!
It is then, no wonder, that "good catholics" despise and attack us. I have become used to it.
Sebastion, read Cormac Burke's latest regarding his "debate" on "Married Personalism". You will see, echoes of the latest address by the Holy Father to the Rota with respect to the "misapproriation" of mercy and justice in the "justification' of the theories of Burke's adversary. It is so starkly frightening when you understand how thoroughly this clear heresy has penetrated the Church so systematically.
Burke is on the money, but he is too gentle.
If only the Pope knew who his friends over here are/were.
February 15, 2010 at 9:37 pm
"The sacredness of marriage is cheapened scandalously, when the Catholic Church, as it has done since 1977, accepts those into the Church who are living in open and public permanent adultery."
… which is very hard to prove unless the "Publication of the Acts" is routinely available to the general public (and if you have to ask what that is …).
February 16, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Adultery, except as a motive for seeking nullity, when instead forgiveness and repentance should be the order of the day, is of no consequence, generally, to the determination of nullity, in the "publishing of the acts" or elsewhere, except when it is related to and intent or inability to be faithful.
In our case the two children of my wife's adultery with her long time lover are "prima facie" evidence. I know of many others as well.
The last names of our five children being different than their sisters' names and their mother's current name are also, real close to "proof", but there are people who see smoke, smell smoke, can taste the flavor of the smoke and can feel the heat of the intense flames but who still deny there is a fire!
That itself is scandalous, but when Christ calls us to be witnesses to truth and priests and bishop who "know the story" remain silent or actually violate confessions or administer confession, communion, and confirmation to a man who is actively sleeping with another man's wife, through RCIA, that is disgusting.
I am sure you can split hairs more David. Go ahead, rather than understanding that while some relationships where null, others have been sucked into this hell hole, wrongly and there is no way to get the people involved to realize what they are doing. But what is worse is that in the face of the facts priests and bishops do not care to undo the damage they have done. They will not even attempt it, in the cases I have heard and experienced.
This is exactly against what the Pope just spoke to the Rota.
It cannot be clearer.
February 16, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Still another opinion:
http://mrterryc.blogspot.com/2010/02/conundrum-of-catholic-annulments.html
February 17, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Anonymous,
I think your ire is misplaced. I don't think the problem is the Tribunals, I think it is the pre-Canas. Having gone through pre-Cana, I am quite certain that the findings of nullity of the Tribunals are quite accurate. There were so many people there just going through the motions. So many people who never intended to enter into what is a Catholic marriage .. and therefore so many people who never did.
Catechesis before marriage is the problem, the Trimunals are just a symptom. I mean, you have to ask yourself: who, knowing what Catholic marriage is and intending to enter into it and properly knowing themselves, then lets things get to the point of divorce, or then goes on to commit adultery. The very fact of these situations is a pretty clear – though not absolute – indicator that there never was a Catholic marriage to start with. It only takes one person to nullify the Sacrament for both.
February 19, 2010 at 5:45 pm
My ire is exactly where it should be. I was there and the Church does not have the guts to face what happened.
I know that some cases are pretty clear, as I know of some personally.
I know our case intimately. After all these years I am, almost certain that nothing will ever be done to address what happened, therefore I will die, formally, outside the Catholic Church. My ONLY HOPE will be in God.
At this point I am still willing to take that bet.
Unless I am granted the beatific vision and am able to speak with God Himself the wounds are simply too deep and have been mocked for so long that I will wager my salvation that the Catholic Church is wrong in this case.
I am certain that our vows are valid. I will not accept what the Church position is/are.
Neither I, nor my wife, were "going through the motions" but that reality is not something I would argue "never" happens. Just not in this case.