Confession Times
Information about confession times and days and how to make a good confession.
From the Friars: The Smoke of Satan
A heresy, which is not new but wears new disguises, has been making significant gains since the election of Pope Francis. Many are referring to this deception as “a new paradigm.” It is oversimplifying but helpful to summarize the error as a rejection of objective truth. In moral matters, right and wrong are supposedly determined only by motives, feelings and changing historical circumstances, and not by any immutable standard.
As the Second Vatican Council stated: “The Church also maintains that beneath all changes there are many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, Who is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (GS 10) Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, one of many prominent bishops and Cardinals who promote the new paradigm, was clear in a recent interview that the goal is to change Church teaching. This is impossible because Our Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. But much harm is done when people are led astray by appealing but false arguments.
It is also wrongly asserted that the moral law revealed by God is an ideal to strive for but is not able to be lived by many. It is true that at times a person cannot fulfill a positive precept, such as the obligation to attend Sunday Mass, due to illness or other circumstances. This would not be a sin. But, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, there are no exceptions for things that are prohibited as evil in themselves. Murder, rape, racism, adultery and other intrinsic evils can never be justified. Finally, the Church’s teaching on conscience is severely twisted to propose that the individual can determine right and wrong.
Moses and the tables of the Law, by Guido Reni – Public Domain, Link
A common example presented is a person in an irregular marriage situation. It is claimed that it is “impossible” for them to abstain from relations with the person they live with. Therefore, they could decide that their adultery is not really a sin, and they should be allowed to receive Holy Communion. This reasoning contradicts Scripture (1Jn 5:3; Dt 30:11ff; Sir 15:15ff) and was explicitly condemned by the Council of Trent and St. John Paul II.
Let us pray for the Church!
“He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” (Jn14:21)
–Fr. Peter