Outside The Asylum

St. John Paul The Great, in Veritas Splendor wrote: It is possible that the evil done as the result of invincible ignorance or a non-culpable error of judgment may not be imputable to the agent; but even in this case it does not cease to be an evil, a disorder in relation to the truth about the good. Furthermore, a good act which is not recognized as such does not contribute to the moral growth of the person who performs it; it does not perfect him and it does not help to dispose him for the supreme good. Thus, before feeling easily justified in the name of our conscience, we should reflect on the words of the Psalm: “Who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults” (Ps 19:12) (#63). This to me is what is missing in the omission of repentance from Amoris Laetitia.  It does not matter if there was less culpability.  It does not matter if those divorced and remarried did not know that divorce and remarriage is always harmful.  Even the Forgiveness of Christ, d...

Fr. Don Calloway is on fire for the Rosary and for our Lady, and told us some neat stories.  His book Champions of the Rosary  sounds like it's worth getting to get Christopher fired up to using God's Lightsaber. Need to look up this theory that Q, the missing source of the Synoptic Gospels, may have been interviews with St. Mary. Satan is scared of a booming voice- a man should always pray loudly and without fear. Truth and Repentance are necessary parts of Mercy.  Without them, Mercy becomes merely pardon, and forgiveness will only affect the life of the person doing the forgiving.  So says the Pope's own Ambassador of Mercy, and so I'm right in my interpretation of Amoris Laetitia. To avoid online pornography, try praying bfore logging in, every time. Smoking pot shrinks your brain.    Or maybe a shrunken brain causes you to be stupid enough to smoke pot.   Prayer can help you grow your brain and avoid dementia. St. Joseph was asleep eve...

In a post trying to explain the pastoral nature of Pope Francis, we find : Imagine a businessman who owns a chain of department stores that specialises in affordable clothing. He is a practicing Catholic, and he wants to grow in his faith, but he is in clear breach of the Church’s moral law in one respect. All of his garment manufacture is done in a sweatshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is the only client, and the conditions there are egregiously bad. The workers put in six and a half days a week and are paid a pittance; they effectively live in the factory, eating, washing and even sleeping there, hardly ever getting back to their families and villages; the building is structurally unsound and poorly wired, making it a health hazard of the very worst kind; and there are lots of ten- and eleven-year-old children working there – the same long hours as the adult folk and without any education, playtime, healthcare or family life. It is a hell. It offends against every notion of huma...

Monsignor Charles Pope comes down squarely between Group 2 and Group 3. Too bad, in the words of Crux Magazine, he's too late. Catholic Teaching on Marriage and Communion is Unambiguous | ncregister.com : 'via Blog this'

This was originally a response on Public Catholic to the question, what changed to make you feel unworthy of the Mercy of God? This is long. Because it is very complex and over a year of thinking that has led me to this point. It started, really, when I noticed that in his fight against Clericalism, Pope Francis was throwing out the baby with the bathwater- that many fine clerics were being censored, while clerics accused of clerical abuse were being promoted. That, in and of itself, was not enough,but it is what started me thinking this way. At first, I even looked on it as a big positive- Pope Francis's concentration on mercy for the marginalized, has been an awesome thing to watch, pulling people into that church. And certainly, promoting the accused clerics and demoting the faithful clerics, fit within that narrative. But then came Cardinal Kasper and his ilk. Promoting divorce and remarriage as something holier, something more deserving of mercy, than any other sin. ...

Next week I get to go to the Holy Name Society Men's Conference in Salem.  In preparation for my confession, and in an attempt to bring some organization to my despair, here is my problem with the Year of Mercy- that never got resolved, but may have a very simple solution indeed. The problem, as I see it, is I'm educated enough to know that there are four competing definitions of mercy in this world, that they are mutually exclusive, and that they can be described as four mutually incompatible religions. Unitarian Secular Humanism- Mercy is reduction of human suffering.  By any means.  In the atheist extreme, this leads to euthanasia and abortion- killing the suffering person to reduce human suffering overall. Hindu Karma- Human suffering is caused by needing to learn a lesson, so the most merciful action is to allow the lesson to continue and do nothing.  Eventually, the soul will start to learn (in this life or 10,000 lives down the road) how to avoid sufferin...

Way back last April, on my 2nd reading of Amoris Laetitia, I had the idea to try to find out what the simple message of the document was, by using  word frequency tables  and generating a Word Cloud: Church Family Can Love Life. That simple phrase, I believe, sums up what Pope Francis was really trying to say with Amoris Laetitia. But as in any family, the devil lies in trying to communicate, communicate a Truth much larger than just our human love- the Truth of Christ. The Truth of Christ doesn't always feel good. It is not the easy way out. Mercy can't be allowed to destroy justice. And yet, today on Crisis Magazine, we have a  Bishop from Kazakstan claiming that four Cardinals, four Prophets, are being ignored. Four Prophets who claim that due to errornous interpretations of Amoris Laetitia, confusion has been created. Four Prophets who say that with Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, in certain diocese and certain countries in the world, Mercy has been allowed ...

I've noticed this for years , that American intellectualism has a major blind spot.  Those ivory towers have become fortresses; people who don't know where their food comes from try to dictate to everybody else how to live.

Trump is President, but the real story is that rural and blue collar voters came out in record numbers.  May he live to be inaugurated.  Perhaps the Secret Service should contact the surviving police in Mexico to see how to protect him against MS-13. Locally, anybody vote for Kate Brown AND Dennis Richardson?  Somebody must have.  This is a hole in my mercy I need to fill.

Pick your poison.   Vote for Hillary, Vote for ISIS.   Or Vote For Trump, Vote For Russia.   Or you could just do what I did, and do a vote for a third party like the American Solidarity Party

AIDS virus linked to New York City Promiscuous Culture , not just homosexual but also heterosexual.  Made the jump to San Francisco in 1976. The same report traces it back further to Haiti and Africa in the 1960s, and the jump from apes to humans in Africa in the early 20th century.  But illicit sex and drug use has *always* been the primary transmission method, aberosexuality of any type is evil.

And now Harvard pol-sci students reveal that the media set Donald Trump up as a strawman candidate just to take him down.

New jobs always mean less blog postings from me. But the Podestra e-mail dump from wikileaks proves two things: 1.  The Democratic party has become irredeemably anti-Catholic. 2.  The Republican party has been attacked by a mole, a Democrat, whose name is Donald Trump, specifically to destroy the moral base of the Republican Party, and Donald Trump was backed in the primary by the Clinton Campaign. I cannot stay silent about either of these turns, which has produced what I now call the Satanic States of America.

I have never seen anything like this before.  A rather conservative Catholic Priest, Fr. Dwight Longenecker  , and a person I consider to be a functional atheist, Scott Adams , both well schooled in human behavior from two extremely opposed philosophical viewpoints on the dignity of the human person (Fr. Longenecker, of course, is coming from the Catholic philosophical viewpoint of free will; where Scott Adams claims that, among other experiences he has had, this election proves his Moist Robot theory that no human being is truly rational and we're all just a collection of predetermined genetic actions) but come to the same conclusion on last night's debate: While Hillary was winning the debate, Trump was losing on purpose to win the election.  Or at least so goes the theory.  Two totally different rationale for this behavior- from the Catholic standpoint, Trump was virtue signaling those men and women who do not buy into Clinton's radical feminism.  From the ...

A curious article in The Guardian suggests that we are entering a new geologic age and that our own species (long known to archaeologists to be veritable litterbugs- in earlier ages leaving shards of pottery and glass everywhere, now leaving shards of plastic, and always, chicken bones) has now affected the environment so much with nuclear and carbon pollution, that we are causing a "sixth extinction" point. Not so fast, says conservationist Stewart Brand- we are being arrogant and pessimistic to assume that this is an extinction level event.  What mankind messes up, mankind can clean up, and local efforts can make a huge difference for species such as the Giant Panda, who are limited in their range and were recently taken OFF the endangered species list.

I often shock people who call me an angel or a saint, by saying that I only hope that I can achieve Purgatory.  Here's why. 10 Surprising Facts About Purgatory That You Probably Didn't Know – EpicPew : 'via Blog this'

"MOST LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMS, political slogans, and radical catchwords of our times are concerned with the satisfaction of material wants. The Communist catchword is “jobs” “jobs” “jobs”; the politician’s slogan is “work” “work” “work”; the legislator’s promise is “[more] material security.” Add to this the sad fact that millions of citizens, whose bodies and souls have been ravaged by a materialist civilization, have reached a point where they are willing to sacrifice the las t crumb of liberty for a piece of the cake of security. Reformers [and community organizers] have not understood their cry. Because man make demands for security, our reformers have neglected to inquire what they really want. A starving man asks for bread, when he really wants life. “The body is more than the raiment, and life is more than the food.” The unemployed, the socially disinherited, the poor broken earthenware of humanity ask for “work,” but what they really want is independence. The normal man doe...

Funny, my friend Daniel Salomon and I were just talking about this.   How dependency does NOT help adults with autism, but instead, holds them back.     First Place Transition Academy, located in Phoenix, Arizona, is trying to change that. These are mainly lower functioning, what used to be called Kanner's Autism kids.  But they're being taught the skills they need to learn to work and have a good life.

Woman Blames Birth Control for Debasing Love - henrymakow.com : 'via Blog this' This is a very interesting story.  Not sure how true it is, but this shows that not all women agree that the pill is a liberator.

Just $1000 to somebody who can otherwise pay for housing but is facing a non-recurring sudden expense, can and does save society $20,000 in welfare and shelters.

Because my poem it TL:DR for some folks, front-facing the links. For young women facing a crisis pregnancy,  click here to search for help in your area. For young families facing the cost of an unexpected pregnancy unable to find their way out,  click here for a pro-life charity that will show you how to balance your budget and help with immediate needs. For women and their men who have been tricked into abortion in the past,  click here to find forgiveness and healing. For those facing divorce or abandonment,  click here to find a better way to think about family. For those who feel they have no choice,  click here to find a REAL choice. For those who have been raped,  click here to save the one. Updated again- on the announcement of the Supreme Court returning the definition of person to the individual states in Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health (someday I need to find out what the original case was about), I will copy and repost this 6 year old poem. ...

The data is in.  The United States is now far below replacement rate on having children.   With a mere  59.6 births per  1,000 women for 2015, we are now seriously in decline. This is a public health crisis, brought on by contraception, abortion, and materialism, and nobody cares.

23 Reasons Why Scholars Know Jesus Is Not A Copy Of Pagan Religions. | James Bishop's Theology & Apologetics. : 'via Blog this' Mainly saving this link.  Next time I hear this myth, I'll point to this page.

I don't often call myself a liberal these days; it seems I get more conservative as time goes on.  But my conservatism is born out of my earlier days as a liberal. It is out of PTSD from being bullied as a child, that I recognize the bullying inherent in the pro-choice choice of who will live and who will die. It is out of respect for nature and sustainability that I'm a conservation style environmentalist- and a sane one who recognizes the human need for agriculture and the role agriculture plays in preserving species. I am not comfortable with libertines or libertarians.  But my conservatism comes from an understanding of systems, and how systems work.

6 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die | TIME : " Final verdict: If Mars needs to check his privilege, then so does Venus. Why do these reckless claims have so much appeal and staying power? For one thing, there is a lot of statistical illiteracy among journalists, feminist academics and political leaders. There is also an admirable human tendency to be protective of women—stories of female exploitation are readily believed, and vocal skeptics risk appearing indifferent to women’s suffering. Finally, armies of advocates depend on “killer stats” to galvanize their cause. But killer stats obliterate distinctions between more and less serious problems and send scarce resources in the wrong directions. They also promote bigotry. The idea that American men are annually enslaving more than 100,000 girls, sending millions of women to emergency rooms, sustaining a rape culture and cheating women out of their rightful salary creates rancor in true believers and disdain in those who would ot...

Next Big Future: Solar Cells converts Co2 into hydrocarbon fuel : 'via Blog this' Now there's a game changer for global climate change.  Instead of millions of years for plants to turn atmospheric carbon into diesel, this artificial leaf can do it in hours.

I suppose it had to happen in the internet age:   A rebuttal to Amoris Laetitia has been leaked , a document from academic theologians to Cardinals.  I'm sure such letters have been written before, but I've never heard of one leaked publicly.  I notice none of the complaints are about what Pope Francis actually wrote, but rather, about how what he wrote might be interpreted, and how further instruction is necessary in 19 separate areas where there may be confusion among the faithful. I think this may be a place where a Jesuit would use the Charitable Interpretation to lie and cover up the problem, where a more useful approach would be a full discussion of the issues raised.

When faced with the Ass and the Manchurian Ass, I cannot vote Democrat or Republican this year (again).  But I'm now switching my minor party affiliation as well:

Police accidentally shot man in North Miami, union says - CNN.com : "The police shooting of an African-American caregiver, who was lying in the street trying to help an autism patient, was accidental, according to the local police union representing the North Miami officer. The officer had intended to shoot the patient, whom he thought posed a danger, but accidentally shot the caregiver instead, said John Rivera, the President of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association." Another case of police bigotry against autism.  The poor man had a toy truck, not a gun.  And the police were ready to kill him for it. Kinsey told WSVN that his patient was holding a toy truck, not a firearm. He said he tried to explain the situation to officers. Cell ph one footage showed Kinsey  lying in the street with his hands in the air. "All he has is a toy truck," he shouted. "I am a behavior therapist at a group home." When are we going to start training police...

Miracles are just God patching the Universal Source Code. The difference between the Catholic God and the Islamic Allah is that God prefers Waterfall and Allah prefers Agile CI.

Original, click here ONE WINTER a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. The snake said to the Farmer: "If you pick me up and hold me to your stomach, your body will make me warm." The Farmer said: "If I do that you will bite me." The Snake answered: "Why would I do that if you save me?" The Farmer had compassion on the Snake, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. "Oh," cried the Farmer, "Why did you bite me after I saved you?" "You knew I was a snake when you picked me up," answered the Snake. ------------------------------------------------ My reasons for distrusting Donald Trump: 1.  His voter registration record. 2.  His business ethics record. 3.  His wife and chief speechwriter are Democrats. ------------------------------------------------ The coup was su...

Hate to put them together, but they do have one wonderful thing in common when defending the truth of history. Both German Nazis and Catholic Inquisitors were excellent record keepers.  Most genocide numbers are estimates, because most genocidal maniacs do not care to keep such excellent records. I wonder if one day the files of Planned Parenthood will serve a similar historical value, to get an accurate count of the dead. In some cases, the number is damning.  In other cases, such as the Spanish Inquisition's rather progressive and liberal 98% acquittal rate, the numbers are liberating.  But in both cases, accuracy leads to a view of history not normally available even a few decades later.

Redefining Deviance: The Gay Assault on Franciscan University - Crisis Magazine : 'via Blog this' This article is old.  Really old.  4 years ago old. But it makes an excellent point about the difference between diversity, which Catholicism supports, and deviancy- which Catholicism can NEVER support. To me, the line between diversity and deviancy is the line between sin and virtue, between abuse and use.  Deviant behaviors are inherently abusive- the actor cares more for the behavior as an end unto itself, than the good of the people or things around him.  Diverse behaviors, while they can and often are upsetting in the short term, are ordered towards the common good; towards the good of self and others, and are thus use, rather than abuse.

These police deaths, as horrifying as they are to see, are well within the statistical normal.  2 Ambushes don 't make a major trend and ambushing cops is not entirely new. Being a police is a mildy dangerous job. It does not rank in the top  10 most dangerous jobs  in America because MOST criminals don't actually shoot back at all. Only  42 officers died last  year being shot. I suspect suicide actually killed more than criminals. This is because as the Dallas Chief suggesting, we are 'Asking our cops to do too much'. We are asking them to go out into the public under the false pretense than their job is WAY more dangerous and construction work, when it's just not. It's not more dangerous than being a Cabi or deliver truck driver. Being on the road all the time is more dangerous than being a police officer. That's not by accident, police do have a lot of protection and ppl are scared of them, but police death stats go back a long time and I suspect...

How Persuaders See the World | Scott Adams' Blog : 'via Blog this' Scott Adams has been doing a series on the use of hypnotism for presidential campaigns. He claims the world is separated into rational thinkers, word thinkers, and persuaders.  I call these by different names: Saints Fools Sinners. Or maybe in a more capitalistic society: Creators Targets Criminals. I also disagree with his percentages.  I'd call it 10%, 85%,  5%. Persuaders exist.  They are always bad.  And that includes our top two current ones.

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Reverend Father Don,  Archbishop Sample told us last spring here at St. Clare's at Confirmation, that it will be much harder for our young Catholics to stay Catholic, than it was for the generation who memorized the Baltimore Catechism. Your Knights of Columbus council knows this well; we have many men who have raised our families, only to find that some children are no longer Catholic.  We are offering the Return Video Class to older members of our parish as a way to learn how to talk to family members who have left the faith; but we must do more. As Knights, we are Christian Soldiers, moving Onward and Upward Together, toward our God.   (hold up rosary)  My sword is prayer, the Rosary of Mary, the Rosary of Charity.  Through my prayer, I become more aware of the needs around me, I become more generous in charity.   (Guesture to the left, at the Crucifix)  My shield is the Cross of Christ, for which I am p...

Proof at Crisis Magazine that at least one formerly homosexual man converted to Catholicism, and to heteronormativity, due to natural law arguments. That's been the strange thing about this debate for me all along, the insinuation that homosexuality is such a mental illness that it actively blocks the ability to understand natural law reasoning. It is a mental illness, but it isn't quite that much of a pervasive developmental disorder.

Pope Francis wants the church to apologize to gay people. Here’s what that could look like. - Vox : "They've been the subject of degrading gossip in church, and when they've tried to receive spiritual guidance, they've been treated as if lust is their biggest and even only spiritual concern. They've been given guidance that focused solely on avoiding sin, never on expressing love: a catechism of "no."" Eve Tushnet's entire focus is on the LGBT community, so it's understandible that she thinks they are unique in this.  I'd point out though that this is exactly the same treatment that heterosexuals got from 1950-1992, and is the reason behind Theology of the Body and the destruction of heterosexual marriage we've seen in that time. The singleminded focus of the libertine left on sex- caused a reaction in the libertine right to be focused on sex (and not focused enough on their libertine sin of using fiscal matters to control everythin...

This is going to be a rather long post, inspired by a comment somebody made in a discussion on Voting and politicians on Disqus. It's too long for a comment, and will get rather deep into what I'm beginning to see as a very scary 8th generation American post-Christian religion that is emerging among Libertarian minded people in the United States of America. As this is a religious post, on this subject, I find it important to start with a prayer- The Novena for the Election from Priests for Life : O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments. We thank you for the privilege Of being able to organize ourselves politically And of knowing that political loyalty Does not have to mean disloyalty to you. We thank you for your law, Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged And recognized as higher than any human law. We thank you for the opportunity that this election year puts before us, To exercise our solemn duty not only ...

What happened in Orlando was horrific.  It was also, very sadly, predictable, in hindsight.  We have a young man, who, due to the confusion and lies of the sexual revolution, experiments with homosexuality and same sex attraction.  He's also Islamic by family, and in keeping with being Islamic, is heterosexually married.  In addition, over many visits to this gay bar, he keeps getting rejected by the gay men there, because, as we all know, homosexuality is based on abuse of beauty and youth, and he was no longer beautiful or young. Add to that ISIS, a radical mosque that should have been investigated, but wasn't due to White House intervention in the FBI, and you have a recipie for disaster. Multiculturalism is a mistake.  It cannot be accomplished.  The result will always be violence.

Hitler killed 6 million Jews- and likely another 6 million non-Jews. Stalin killed his 14 million people. These are the genocides of our grandfathers, that we still deride today. Right now, the conflict in Syria has killed approximately 400,000 people. Planned Parenthood, in one year, kills 300,000 all by itself. Pick 7 of your best friends. Now imagine that there was an 8th friend- one you never met because of abortion . Worldwide, we've killed 1.2 billion people by abortion in the last 30 years. That is 1/7th the world's population. That we never got to meet. Because of abortion.

The Church Militant may one day become the Church Suffering, and eventually, the Church Suffering does become the Church Triumphant. Fr. Paul Scalia has another group of Catholics, unique to America- the Church Billigerent.  The Church Billigerent has no hope at all of salvation, for they have put their faith in politics. We Cannot Convert This Culture to Christ With Politics |Blogs | NCRegister.com : 'via Blog this'

What are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance and sins against the Holy Spirit? | Catholic Answers : "Full Question What are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance and sins against the Holy Spirit? Answer Most Catholics are familiar with the term mortal sin. Mortal sins deprive the soul of grace. They are serious transgressions of God's law, done freely and deliberately with a clear understanding of what they are. Their result is to deny a soul entrance to heaven. There are particular mortal sins that are so evil that they are said to be sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: murder (Gn 4:10), sodomy (Gn 17:20-21), oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4). Sins against the Holy Spirit are mortal sins that harden a soul by its rejection of the Holy Spirit. Six sins are in this category. They are despair, presumption, envy, obstinacy in sin, final impenitence, and deliberate resistance to the known truth." 'via Bl...

Obama to make historic visit to Hiroshima - CNNPolitics.com : 'via Blog this' Nagasaki would be almost more fitting, given the Obama Administration's current issues with Catholicism.  But I guess I'm glad he's not visiting the site of the Catholic Holocaust done by the US Military (The Archdiocese of Nagasaki used to have a beautiul Cathedral.  Three days after Hiroshima, it was ground zero for a nuclear weapon).

This is an excellent argument for why good pro-life Catholics in any contested state should fight their own conscience to vote for Trump in November: Restore-DC-Catholicism: Today's Political Developments Demand Rational Response, Not Knee-Jerk Rancor : 'via Blog this Here is why I can't, and is my response to this argument: In my case, quite literally, Cruz's exit from the race has stolen *all* meaning from my vote entirely, both now and in the general election. The reason why has nothing to do with emotion and everything to do with the demographics of Oregon, where liberal Democrats in four cities (Portland, Salem, Eugene, and Bend) run this state. They have a majority, nobody else has a voice at all. The ONE exception to that is our May 1-May 18 Republican Primary. Yes, we get three weeks to vote in Oregon. And what happens FOUR DAYS IN to those three weeks? The other two decide suddenly that Trump is unbeatable, and drop out. ...

Anyone Is More Qualified For President Than Trump Or Clinton : 'via Blog this' This argument in the federalist is right on. But I've got another suggestion:

When I was in college, I was introduced to a park architecture technique used to create sidewalks. What you do is first you plant a lawn, then let people walk on the lawn. After six months, dirt paths will appear, and that's where you put the sidewalks. I've been aware of these Maps Drawn from AT&T Cell Phones and Where's George Data for some time now, and have been pondering what they mean. Dirk Brockman , who created this map, has the full story of how he got into this research on his web page. I am often asked, by people skeptical of distributism, how we might get from one large market dominated by New York City Banks and Stockbrokers, to several small markets. While this does not approach my personal ideal of no market greater than 100,000 human beings, it does show that for our nearly 400 million human beings in the United States, there are some natural limits to the free market. I would sure like to see an alternative community currency experiment in which...

I am not an athlete. That is the data from my wristwatch yesterday. The Bagby Hike is roughly 12:00pm-4:30pm, give or take a few minutes. So, being currently unemployed, for my wife's birthday, we decided not to go to a hotel and take a cheap road trip instead. Was going to be really cheap by going to Austin Hot Springs, which for many years had been abandoned by a private owner and left to ruin. At the last minute, we heard that the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes had bought the place, so we chickened out and bought $5 wristbands for Bagby. Bagby was another hour down the road further than Austin, but is more maintained. What I didn't realize is what a horrid hike in it is- the actual hot springs is a good 750 feet higher than the parking lot, and 1.65 miles in. Nothing to a real hiker, but to a sedentary slob with tendencies not to get out of bed, it was a grueling hour and 35 minutes in. After a soak, on the way back down, I remembered my Rosary- and it was still 20 ...

While this is all true, I've got another better option:  to Avoid the Divorce Industrial Complex, Don't get divorced. The Divorce Gap - The Atlantic : 'via Blog this'

The Exhortation Amoris Laetitia has been out for a few weeks now. I've done several hours of reading and analysis on it, including a word cloud: Which gives us a phrase that I'd call the central message of this Exhortation: Family Can Love Life. But what nags me isn't what is in this most excellent description of the state of marriage in the world. Even the "problematic" Chapter 8 is at least talking about the real experience some people have with irregular, less than ideal marriage. No, what bugs me is one word that was left out: Repentance It occurs to me though that there are two possible explanations for this word being missing, one of which is mildly irritating, and the second of which is downright frightening: 1. Mildly irritating to those of us in North America and Europe who are serious about our marriages and faith is that our small-t traditional language of sin and repentance is a foreign concept to Pope Francis. Not that he doesn't have the...