Passwords

 Pope Francis took a loaded term from the Catechism to talk about sin in a way that many will hopefully attend to with grace:

“Temptation does not necessarily suggest bad things, but often disordered things, presented with excessive importance,” the pope said.

“They can be, for example, degrees, careers, relationships, all things that are in themselves praiseworthy, but towards which, if we are not free, we risk having unrealistic expectations, such as the confirmation of our worth. … From this misunderstanding often comes the greatest suffering, because none of those things can be the guarantee of our dignity,” he said.

Pope Francis recommended the practice of an “examination of conscience” to learn and note “what we give most importance to” in daily choices. 

Above all, he said that it is crucial to understand what truly “satiates the heart.”

We are all disordered by sin. Many people, even Cardinals, have a misunderstanding of what the Catechism means when it uses that word in the context of describing those who struggle with same-sex attraction. Disordered attractions and disordered attachments abound, yet so does mercy and virtue.