Quote from: 2Vermont

How do we know whether these couples have not gone to confession first?

If these couples have been to confession first they would abandon their "cohabiting" sin, doing public penance since their scandal has become so public.

Just because somebody "goes to confession" nowadays, doesn't imply a firm purpose of amendment nor a determination to avoid the occasions of sin. Without those two attitudes  their "confession" is a sacrilege.

Agreed.  We don't know the whole story though, do we?

This sums it up:

The Church has always married people who had previously been living in sin; she has no custom of marrying people who are currently living in sin. And some of these couples are currently living in unrepentant sin, as the press release says they are "already cohabiting"; i.e., they are living together right now. Obviously, nobody has a problem with the Church offering sacraments to single mothers living chastely or people who were once notorious sinners but have repented; to offer them the sacrament while they are persisting in unrepentant sin is another matter entirely.

How do you know they are unrepentant? You don't know their hearts.

In the Catholic Faith, what we do is extremely important. When the people came to St. John the Baptist asking how they could be saved, he told them "Bear fruits that befit repentance" (Luke 3:8). We demonstrate our repentance by our actions. A true conversion, a metanoia, means actively turning away from a sinful lifestyle and embracing holiness. Hence St. John Vianney withheld absolution from a man who had refused to stop dancing in the local saloon and St. Cyprian withheld distribution of alms from certain people unless they gave up attending the Roman spectacles. Can you imagine the scandal today if a priest refused to absolve somebody unless they stopped going to the bar on Fridays or if he refused to feed the poor if they didn't stop going to see R-rated movies? How Pharisaic! Yet these saints knew that a sincere change of heart would invariably be coupled with a change of lifestyle, and if they did not see the "fruits that befit repentance", they presumed there was no repentance and withheld their ministrations. A person who persists in their sin is not repentant; rather, they are like a fool, according to Proverbs: "A dog that returns to its vomit is like a fool who reverts to his folly" (Prov. 26:11).

I know a thief is unrepentant if he keeps stealing; I know a cohabiting couple is unrepentant if they keep cohabiting. Simple as that.

....

Let me say this as plainly as possible; in fact, let me be so blunt that I am actually going to resort to using all caps, which I seldom do: COHABITING ITSELF IS SINFUL, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER sɛҳuąƖ ACTIVITY GOES ON.

http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2014/09/cohabitation-maintaining-sanity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FPdjXT+%28Unam+Sanctam+Catholicam%29

So, the real question here is:

"How long, according to the Law of the Church, is a couple required to live separately, after confessing the sin of cohabitation, before they may be licitly married?"

I confess that I do not know the answer to this and cannot find it among my materials.  It would help my understanding of what is going on with this Pope if someone could answer this question.

How do we know whether these couples have not gone to confession first?

That is part of the preparation for marriage.

Quote from: 2Vermont

Quote from: Luker

From what I read of the article, this doesn't seem to me like major news, in light of all the other novus ordo shenanigans.  The Church has always wanted to regularize couple that were living in sinful arrangements.  I think if there is anything novel or unseemly here, it would be the fact that the conciliar church is making a big 'show' of this.  As I understand it, the Church always conducted these kinds of ceremonies privately, to safeguard the beauty of the Sacrament of marriage and to avoid causing scandal.  Which is apparently the farthest thing from Bergoglio's mind. :/

Again, I'm not seeing this as some approval of sinful living arrangements.  However, in considering your bolded point, I do think this may be their way of "proving" that they are only for opposite sex marriages.

This week, perhaps next week Bergoglio will 'marry' 20 sodomite couples...

Tha tis not what the Pope is all about.

Quote from: Cera

Since Francis failed to mention confession, this appears to be a warm up for the synod.

It's like amnesty. You're all forgiven for transgressing the law, even though you aren't sorry and do not seek forgiveness.

The warm up for the synod is that people who are living in sin need to stop living in sin and the Church will help you to stop living in sin. The sacrament of matrimony is for one man and one woman.

This sums it up:

Quote

The Church has always married people who had previously been living in sin; she has no custom of marrying people who are currently living in sin. And some of these couples are currently living in unrepentant sin, as the press release says they are "already cohabiting"; i.e., they are living together right now. Obviously, nobody has a problem with the Church offering sacraments to single mothers living chastely or people who were once notorious sinners but have repented; to offer them the sacrament while they are persisting in unrepentant sin is another matter entirely.

How do you know they are unrepentant? You don't know their hearts.

Quote

In the Catholic Faith, what we do is extremely important. When the people came to St. John the Baptist asking how they could be saved, he told them "Bear fruits that befit repentance" (Luke 3:8). We demonstrate our repentance by our actions. A true conversion, a metanoia, means actively turning away from a sinful lifestyle and embracing holiness. Hence St. John Vianney withheld absolution from a man who had refused to stop dancing in the local saloon and St. Cyprian withheld distribution of alms from certain people unless they gave up attending the Roman spectacles. Can you imagine the scandal today if a priest refused to absolve somebody unless they stopped going to the bar on Fridays or if he refused to feed the poor if they didn't stop going to see R-rated movies? How Pharisaic! Yet these saints knew that a sincere change of heart would invariably be coupled with a change of lifestyle, and if they did not see the "fruits that befit repentance", they presumed there was no repentance and withheld their ministrations. A person who persists in their sin is not repentant; rather, they are like a fool, according to Proverbs: "A dog that returns to its vomit is like a fool who reverts to his folly" (Prov. 26:11).

I know a thief is unrepentant if he keeps stealing; I know a cohabiting couple is unrepentant if they keep cohabiting. Simple as that.

....

Let me say this as plainly as possible; in fact, let me be so blunt that I am actually going to resort to using all caps, which I seldom do: COHABITING ITSELF IS SINFUL, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER sɛҳuąƖ ACTIVITY GOES ON.

http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2014/09/cohabitation-maintaining-sanity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FPdjXT+%28Unam+Sanctam+Catholicam%29

I tend to agree. But then why do we complain about them getting married?

What did Frank the fraud say?  TRIVIAL social issues?  Of course we can't have people thinking that the Church is all about TRIVIAL social issues.

gαy sex is vile, disgusting, and contrary to natural and divine Law, but most important, gαy sex is a mortal sin, one which will (and does) send immortal souls to eternal Hell forever, and ever, and ever.

Such is not trivial.