Back to Selling Indulgences??

Here's a book-review of Douthat's new volume, To Change the Church.  It's about Pp. Francis and his band of (cough) merry gay men, and of course, Amoris Laetitia.

Go ahead and read it.  I stopped at this graf when I realized what the real stakes were:

...Liberals argue that rigid rules portray the Church as intolerant and have the effect of keeping people away from the sacraments. This in turn prevents their children (from the second marriage) from being raised in the faith. The orthodox response is that secularization is not necessarily caused by rigid rules since liberal Protestant churches have experienced a faster decline even as they accepted divorce and looser moral standards. And what of the children from the first marriage? Would not the Church show callous disregard for their suffering if it were to approve of the second marriage? What about a couple struggling to keep their marriage together? Would seeing a remarried couple receive the Eucharist cause them to wonder if the difficulties are worth enduring if giving up was now to be made less painful?...

I'll give you a far more cynical option.  It's not about "mercy" nor "raising the kids Catholic," nor blahblahblah.

It's about money.  Asses in the seats who toss the pieces of silver into the basket.  What Francis proposes--adulterers-with-Communion--is not different from the artificial-birth-control-with-Communion thing that's been going on in the Western Church since about 1960.

Look at your parish's P&L, and focus your eyeballs on the "Debt" numbers, both long- and short-term.  Do the math, folks. 

Now do the math if revenues are off by, say, 50%.

What would be left over for your Diocese, the USCC, and Rome?  Hmmmmm????

It's not indulgences any more.  It's just grace.