For the Pope, A Virgin is in the Eye of the Beholder! By Peter West

     The sun rises on another day; the news is there waiting for us, of yet another move down the path of anti-tradition by the Pope, this time on the almost two thousand year old doctrine of the consecrated virgin:
  https://amp.smh.com.au/world/europe/consecrated-virgins-need-not-be-virgins-vatican-20180717-p4zry2.html

“Consecrated virgins say they are “disappointed” by the Vatican’s new guidance that literal virginity is not necessary. A document released this month says that a woman does not need to have “kept her body in perfect continence” to become a consecrated virgin. The Vatican document, titled Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago, says that the “call to give witness to the Church’s virginal, spousal and fruitful love for Christ is not reducible to the symbol of physical integrity”. It continues: “Thus to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practised the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which admittance to consecration is not possible.” Women who wish to be consecrated as virgins take part in a ceremony in which they dress in white and pledge themselves to Christ. There are thought to be around 5000 worldwide. Once they have joined the vocation, they wear wedding rings and cannot marry or engage in sexual relationships. The US Association of Consecrated Virgins issued a statement calling the document “deeply disappointing” and said the advice was “shocking.”

     Who knows; one day, even a crusty old salt like myself could become eligible to become a consecrate virgin, or there about, if I lifted my politically correct game. We former Catholics should not be surprised because step by step the old faith is being dismantled and reassembled into a shape suitable for the new politically correct world citizen.