CAN THE CHURCH SURVIVE POPE FRANCIS?

According to La Civilta Catolica, on Sept. 5 in Mozambique, Pope Francis informed a group of Jesuits:

·       "Once a Jesuit, a great Jesuit, told me to be careful in giving absolution, because the most serious sins are those that are more angelical: pride, arrogance, dominion...And the least serious are those that are less angelical, such as greed and lust."

·       "We focus on sex and then we do not give weight to social injustice, slander, gossip and lies. The Church today needs a profound conversion in this area.”

Does the Church require a “profound conversion in this area?” I don’t think so. For one thing, the Bible has consistently denounced sexual sin above many others. It finds a permanent place among the Ten Commandments – “Do not commit adultery” (6^th Commandment) and “Do not covet your neighbors wife” (10^th Commandment). Many sexual sins are even called an “abomination” and had deserved death:

·       “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Leviticus 20:10-16 ESV)

The New Testament also teaches the seriousness of sexual sin:

·       For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:26-28)

·       Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality… (1 Corinthians 6:9)

·       Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!  Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:15-18)

All sin is a sin against God Himself, but it seems that sexual sin carries an extra cost: “the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

Francis claims that the Church is preoccupied with sexual sin to the exclusion of other sins. Is the Church preoccupied with teaching against sexual sin? Hardly! This is the very set of sins that many now refuse to teach against.

If teaching against sexual sin causes the Church to ignore other sins, then the Church has a problem. However, the Church is fully able to teach against all sins. Nevertheless, there is an argument to be made to teach more strenuously against those sins that have become popular and are capturing the Church, like the sin of pornography.

Francis also pits the sins of arrogance and pride against sexual sins, claiming that the former are more serious. However, unrepented sins cannot be so easier teased apart. Here’s how – to refuse to repent of sexual sin is also arrogance and pride. It is to tell God, “I know what is best for me. I do not need to submit to Your every command. Consequently, we find that arrogance and pride have metastasized to embrace various sins. In God’s mind, they are all closely and inseparably associated:

·       “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” (Isaiah 13:11)

·       For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… (Timothy 3:2-4)

Pride and arrogance are associated with the entire list of unrepented sins. Therefore, when the Church teaches against pride and arrogance, it is also preaching against all the sins that are associated with them. And when we teach against sexual sin, we are also teaching against the pride and arrogance that enables the proud to rise up against both the teachings of the conscience and those of God.