Here's the addendum or 2nd post that Big Blue Wave has regarding the Francis' Italian interview. I've boldfaced some important points:
"Addendum to last
night's blogpost about Pope Francis' latest interview and the commotion
around it.
Remember that the devil will use ANYTHING to turn us against
the Church or Jesus Christ. Including our own orthodoxy. Strange as that sounds, the devil will use our own orthodoxy
against us to separate us from the Church, and ultimately Jesus.
It is
possible to make orthodoxy into an idol replacing Jesus. We become so
busy in pursuing orthodoxy, that we forget the ultimate goal.
The goal is
not to give popes and other clergy litmus tests. Don't get me wrong, orthodoxy
is very important. But our goal is not to make the Church orthodox. Our
goal is to save souls. Orthodoxy is necessary but it's not the only way
to save souls. By that I mean some people come into the Church from an
intellectual point of view, and so orthodoxy is really important.
But
other people come to the Church from a mystical standpoint, because we have the
Eucharist. Or from a psychological standpoint, because Christ healed them of a
wound.
These are all valid means to save souls.
We are rightly
disgusted with the dissent in our Church. But that disgust shouldn't turn into
a monomania where it`s the be-all and end-all of being Catholic. 'Cuz
it`s not.
There are people in the world who don't think a lot about
doctrine who are legitimate Catholics.
The purpose of doctrine is to
bring people to Christ, but for some people, it's not what leads. It's the
Eucharist, or some spiritual or psychological aspect that brings them to
Christ. We shouldn't be so pharasaical that we have to evaluate everyone
by their orthodoxy.
Everyone is at a different place in their spiritual
life, and some people aren't not into doctrine right now. What is
unacceptable is when people have an agenda to spread serious errors. This we
rightly oppose.
Our faith isn't reduced to doctrines. I guess this is
what I'm trying to get at. Our faith is an encounter with Jesus Christ to bring
us closer to him. Doctrines help us with that, but doctrines are not the only
thing. Our faith is not a theology test. Our faith is to love Christ and
through him our neighbour. If someone doesn`t really know the Marian doctrines,
that`s not so good, but if he tries hard to love God and his neighbour,
that's the main thing. It`s not the only thing, but it's the main
one.
Some people might discard that path because it's ignorant and not
theological. That person is a not-good-enough Catholic because they don't even
bother to learn their faith. [The author is saying here what a radical or "orthodox" Catholic would think to disregard his/her more "ignorant" brother or sister in Christ] While of course we should all learn our faith, but
this is what St. Paul said when we shouldn't argue with those weak in the faith.
We have to begin where people are at.
If we expect people to be doctrinal
experts before they can be acceptable Catholics, then we're acting like
Pharisees. We look down on people who were poorly catechized, or those who try
to accompany them.
And in this way, the devil makes use of our commitment
to orthodoxy and faithfulness to separate from Christ. We become full of pride
and we say to ourselves: well those Catholics are no good, they haven't
learned their catechism yet.
Instead of looking down on Catholics who
aren't well-versed, we should try to care about them, and see what we can do to
bring them one step forward to Christ. For some people it's difficult because it
involves actual caring and empathy, and instead of putting forward information
or an argument.
It's still something we need to learn."
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