Section of Bishop Mark Davies (Diocese of Shrewsbury, England) in A Pastoral Letter on Overcoming the Crisis of Marriage and
the Family which was to be read in all Parishes in his Diocese last Sunday 9th November. Full text of letter linked below:
The Church offers the truth she has received from Christ her
Lord, not with hostility towards those who have taken a wrong path, but with
the greatest love and concern for every person. The Church on earth is made up
of sinners called to become saints; our practice of frequent Confession is,
indeed, a constant reminder that every one of us is called along this path! It
would be the ultimate failure in pastoral care or charity, to mislead people by
encouraging them to remain in sin, or fail to call them to repentance and
renewal (cf Lumen Gentium 8). Pope Francis describes such an approach as
“deceptive mercy,” a false mercy which bandages wounds but fails to heal them.
Today I want to dispel any misleading impression that the
Church will abandon her witness to the truth and change her teaching in the
face of hostile trends in public opinion or the destructive ideologies of our
time. Pope Francis spoke of this as: “the temptation to come down off the
Cross, to please the people, and not stay there, in order to fulfil the will of
the Father; to bow down to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending
it to the Spirit of God.”
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