'When the people read it, they were delighted with the exhortation.'

"It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage."

People have been complaining lately about the lectionary, whose fabricators seem, calculatedly, to have omitted "hard sayings."

Well, what about the Canon of the Bible itself having omitted the next couple verses in Acts, huh? What about that?

But that "abstain from unlawful marriage" thingy? Don't worry, Silas and Judas will look to the reality of the family today in all its complexity.
Some of our members, (those judgy ones who went out to you without any mandate,) find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We are called to form consciences, not to replace them.
Marital problems often give rise to new relationships, new couples, new civil unions, and new marriages, creating family situations which are complex and problematic for the Christian life Therefore, while clearly stating the Church’s teaching, the prebyters are to avoid judgements that do not take into account the complexity of various situations. Some of the brethern lack the training needed to deal with the complex problems currently facing families, and issues involving  marriages with pagans require particular attention which contain numerous elements that could well be made good use of and developed, both for their intrinsic alue and for the contribution that they can make to the ecumenical movement.
For those in unlawful marraiges, consider - because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – such persons can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end. In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. 

Someone leave out those words to the Antiocheans, (Antiochites? Antiochers?) deliberately?
Maybe St Luke decided Olden Days People didn't need them.
Our problems, of course, are very different from Olden Days People.
Because... complexity.

Oh, that silly St. John Fisher......

Bishop, you simply don't understand "the need to avoid judgments which do not take into account the complexity of various situations."

Heroism, the Average Man and the Subtle Condescension of Lowered Expectations

(Yes, "man," I consider myself included in the term, I am part of mankind.)
I have to confess, (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea minima [?] culpa,) since the organ in which it appeared its not one from which I find I receive much information nor food for thought, I had not actually read the entire interview in which a German prelate had opined that "heroism is not for the average Christian."

It is a ludicrous statement, a theologian might as well say that sanctity or sainthood is not for the average Christian, the grandeur of Heaven is not for the average Christian, the doing more than the minimum to get by is not, or the Beatific Vision, or the effort to live without sin...
Not called to holiness, not called to grapple with the prince of this world and his rules for  going along to get along...
One might as well say that the Glory of having been created in the image and likeness of God is "not for" you.
You.
There.
You commonplace persons, you member of the hoi polloi, you sad little average person.
Not everyone agrees.
There was a link to a FOCUS article about heroism in my inbox, and some pretty solid advice, (though the trendy jargon of "being present in the moment," I could have wished had been worded differently.) An excerpt:

1.     Pray.
Build and solidify your relationship daily with Jesus Christ, the most heroic among us.
2.     Practice saying no to yourself.
Build a habit of saying no to the things you want. This will make you the master of your own will.
3.     Be present in the moment.
Become interested in the people you’re with.  Don’t wish your life away.
4.     Lead someone else.
As you try to grow in virtue, teach someone else those same virtues which you are building — and then show them how to teach someone else.

Also, instead of merely reading the money quotes as reported elsewhere, I did read the rest of the Cardinal Kasper interview. His "hero" line in context:

To live together as brother and sister? Of course I have high respect for those who are [living together as brother and sister]. But it’s a heroic act, and heroism is not for the average Christian. That could also create new tensions. Adultery is not only wrong sexual behavior. It’s to leave a familiaris consortio, a communion, and to establish a new one. But normally it’s also the sexual relations in such a communion, so I can’t say whether it’s ongoing adultery. Therefore I would say, yes, absolution is possible. Mercy means God gives to everybody who converts and repents a new chance.
I have high respect for such people [those who say that absolution requires penance, and that entails a firm purpose of amendment]. But whether I can impose it is another question.

'Zat really any better? As a confessor or spiritual director he "can't say whether it’s ongoing adultery"? Of course you can't impose any penance or absolution fort that matter FOR SOMETHING YOU CAN'T SAY IS A SIN.
Oh, one last section, which I will not criticize, but which leaves me flummoxed:

CWL: When you talk about a divorced and remarried Catholic not being able to fulfil the rigorist’s requirements without incurring a new guilt, what would he or she be guilty of?
Kasper: The breakup of the second family. If there are children you cannot do it. If you’re engaged to a new partner, you’ve given your word, and so it’s not possible.

"Engaged"? "Given your word"?
Perhaps by "engaged" he means something other than the immediate association most anglophones have.
But is there guilt in breaking your words when the very giving of it breaks and earlier one?
And yes, children, if there are any, should be the first consideration.
This, of course, includes children from the previous union.
But is it good for a child to live in an environment where at least one of his parents has come to the realization that, whether fully culpable or not, his participation in conjugal relations is sinful, and is not willing to forgo them?
In fact, if one parent would like to live chastely and the other insists on them, isn't that the very definition of an abusive relationship?
Which almost anyone would say, one should extricate oneself from, no?

Checking to See If There Are Enough Lifeboats...

.... after the ship has sailed?
Because that ship has sailed, (why do I find myself using that expression so often in the past weeks having never used it before in my life, so far as i can recall? Hmmmm...)

Catholic World Report has a piece on how unprepared for true marriage young Catholics are, not just when they present themselves for whatever marriage prep their parish provides, but when they are deemed "ready" to go though with the sacrament.
True, for the other sacrament of "service", ordination, we don't think a half a decade is long enough, and for marriage a couple evening? a couple weeks?

But the solution, on-going formation after the wedding is unrealistic and beyond that, TOO LATE.

We need to to  member that if young people are going to choose one or the other of those two sacraments, (and odds are getting worse that they will opt for either,) the overwhelming majority will marry.

That means, EVERY Catholic child should be getting training for that vocation if he gets any religious education at all.

If formal catechesis doesn't begin with small children learning about the identity of "Domestic Church", of their family, and what marriage means, and what someday, hopefully, most of them will enter into, the Church is doomed to be playing catch up the rest of those children's lives.

There is too much tearing at the fabric of the family for Her to wait.

We put so much effort into assuring that we do not criticize or marginalize the sad exceptions among us, that normalcy is relativized, and the basic building block of society, of the Church is given short shrift.

We need to stop that.

When I was in school, a very kind bachelor teacher, or the principle whose kids were grown would offer to join one of the girls or boys in my large family when there was some kind of event with a name like "Father/Son Game Night," or "The Father-Daughter Spring Dance" being held, (never "Mother/blank," since it was a given, even as working-outside-the-home mothers were on the rise, it was still a given that mothers did most of the work, and volunteering, and dealing with school issues.)
There were other kids, who, for whatever reason, were in the same situation, and teachers, uncles, family friends were always in evidence.

Did we lobby to have the names of the event changed to something that wouldn't remind us our Father was dead? Did my Mother scream, How dare you stigmatize the families of single/divorced/widowed mothers like me!
No, she, we, they were just grateful.

Now schools try to organize things in a way that suggests fathers and mothers are the same thing, well, they'd have to be, wouldnt' they, since men and women are the same?

So yes, if we, as a Church ever want to see the turn-around that is needed, we can't wait until Emily and Joshua are ready to make it legal.

We have to start as soon as they can learn to bless themselves.

Just think of your marriage as a Toyota...

A sadly apt analogy, if prelates can so casually claim that like as not, the marriages the Church sanctioned aren't really marriages after all.

wouldn’t a pastor who lends out the sanctuary of his church for such a union be an unwitting party to that fraud? It is his solemn duty to the souls whom he is called to evangelize to do all he can to prevent such sacrilegious marriages. Some priests and some bishops are taking such steps....
Imagine if Toyota learned that half of its cars exploded when drivers exceeded 55 mph. So its CEO decided not to stop the assembly lines until the error was rooted out and corrected. Instead, he told consumers that they could trade in their defective Toyotas, no questions asked — for new cars with the same design flaw. You wouldn’t think that executive was serious about safety or the future of Toyota.