Wednesday 14 September 2016

Some views on Pope Francis' approval of the Argentine proposal

Robert Royal writes a very good piece here: A Bizarre Papal Move.
Jeff Mirus writes an interesting piece here: Not Heretical.
Ed Peters responds to Mirus here: May I Demur...
I would add this response to Mirus:

Mirus writes: "The key question is: Which is more important, the potential scandal which could weaken the commitment of others to the Church’s teaching on marriage, or the need for the (venial) sinner (caught in a no-win situation) to be spiritually nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ?"

This is a false dichotomy. One is not spiritually nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ only by receiving them sacramentally under the species of bread and wine. Spiritual reception of Christ does not require sacramental reception of Christ. These are very different things. Indeed sacramental reception can be the opposite of spiritually nourishing (obviously that's a central point in this whole discussion). So in fact one can be spiritually nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ precisely by one's conscientious actions to honor the Body and Blood by refraining from sacramental reception in order to avoid scandal (such as that caused when receiving sacramentally while one is in an objectively sinful state, even if there is some reason to believe it may be only venially sinful). So this action of refraining can in fact be a win-win (not 'no-win,' as Mirus alleges). What Mirus's analysis seems to ignore is the fact that sacramental reception of Christ is not an end in itself. Sacramental reception is supposed to be - it ought to be - a means to the end of spiritual reception. But again: sacramental reception is in fact largely independent of - indeed, sometimes, and perhaps often, positively opposed to - spiritual reception.

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