The Rhine/Tiber Sewage Pipe

Following the Second Vatican Council, a book entitled The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber appeared, which was a history of that Council.

The author demonstrated how the German/Austrian/French/Dutch Bishops influenced the Council's work product.  It's fair to say that that "work product" remains controversial to this day, in no small measure due to the articulate and continuing resistance of orthodox prelates and theologians both inside and outside the Curia.  (See, e.g., the "Ottaviani Intervention.")

The Catholic Church, under the current shepherd, Pp. Francis, continues to take its cues from the Rhinelanders--specifically Cdls. Kasper and Marx.

Thus the "Sewage Pipe" moniker.  It's that bad, folks, and it will get worse.

The topic was explored here (and no, I didn't steal the idea; I found this post after doing Google).

...It seems that post war Germany asserted a lot of influence on the Catholic Church over the last several decades, including many Germans holding high ranking positions at the Vatican, and one who even served as pope for eight years. However, the influence of German bishops has been a mixed bag. German clergy apparently only come in two flavours: uber-orthodox and uber-liberal. For example, Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, fits into the uber-orthodox category, as does Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. There are others too, both inside and outside the Vatican. Meanwhile, examples of the uber-liberal faction include Cardinal Walter Kasper and the current head of the German Bishops Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx. Both have a significant following in the Catholic Church in Germany....

Umnnhhhnnnn, yah.  Those names are familiar, eh?

The proposal, Jesuitically circumlocuted by Pp. Francis, is this:  there must be some way for divorced/civilly re-married and/or homosexual couples to be allowed to receive the Eucharist, regardless of their worthiness to do so.   In preparation for this revolution in praxis, the Pope declared a "Year of Mercy" which is in force as we write.

That "mercy" has been carefully and deliberately overlaid with smoke, such as the 'acceptance of refugees' and some tactically-smart babble creating (and then destroying) straw-men such as 'confessors who turn the confessional into a torture chamber' and 'legalistic [jerks] who are actually Pharisees,'or  'the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak”'.

And all along you thought that "mercy" was a good idea and the Christian thing to do, eh?  Suckers.

At a very granular level, the Pope did not change doctrine, nor dogma.  He cannot, and knows it; that's why he did not derogate nor abrogate Canon 915 which governs the question.  But it would be a mistake in judgment to accept that non-change as the Final Word, for that Final Word will be spoken by various Bishops around the world when they instruct their priests on 'penitential practice,' which is "what to do and say in the confessional."

There's a reason for locating that "Final Word" with the various and sundry Bishops, of course.  Just as the US Bishops (and, dutifully, their priests) have managed to completely shut up about artificial birth control, the other 'regional' Bishops (particularly in the majority of Germany) will shut up about "living in sin with NO intention of ceasing extra-marital intercourse."  This variegated moral picture will be defended as 'the fruits of Vatican II's "synods" approach' as though there were no actual truth (or Truth, when you get right down to it.)

Hogwash.  It's sewage, no matter the perfume and lipstick.

Be careful which water you choose to drink.  Find the stuff from the right side of the Temple and stay with it.  Alleluia.