Tuesday 19th March 2024

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Currently Reading:

The Clergy’s Silence, Ambiguity, And Dissent Are Destroying The Family

October 19, 2016 Our Catholic Faith No Comments

By FR. SHENAN BOQUET

(Editor’s Note: Fr. Shenan Boquet is the president of Human Life International, and he travels around the world spreading the Gospel of Life in that role. He is a priest of the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese in Louisiana where he served before joining HLI in August 2011.
(Fr. Boquet’s commentary below on the silence of the shepherds first appeared at HLI.org and is reprinted with permission. It also appeared at LifeSiteNews.com. All rights reserved.)

+ + +

I have traveled to over 60 countries in the nearly six years since I joined the Human Life International family.
Based on feedback I’ve received from several dozen conferences and hundreds of parish talks I’ve given, I estimate that around 90 percent have never heard a homily on the evil of contraception — much less a word about its abortifacient effects — and nothing about the violent crime of abortion.
My recent mission trip to Ireland only reinforced this reality. Nearly every person I spoke with during our conferences told me that they never hear about these subjects from their bishops and priests. We receive little to no guidance, and they wonder why families are breaking apart and children are losing the faith.
I believe the primary threat affecting the sacred institution of holy matrimony and eroding respect for human life is the evil of contraception and the mentality that follows from its acceptance. Contraception is a direct attack on God’s plan for marital life. It is a cancer!
Contraception rejects the dignity of human sexuality and its proper role within marital life. The silence or ambiguity from those entrusted with teaching the faithful — accompanying them along the narrow path — is an act of scandalous neglect and indifference towards the people of God.
Worse are those who through dissent purposefully mislead the faithful into believing contraception is a viable option.
Our Lord tells us to judge things by their fruit. What do we see? An honest assessment of any population that has embraced contraception cannot ignore the undeniable consequence — low birthrates and unhealthy family life. We have abortion, divorce, legal same-sex unions, cohabitation, family breakdown, and perverse sex-education programs for children, child abuse, sex trafficking, pornography, immodesty, and promiscuity.
Fr. Paul Marx called this the great “sex mess.” Of course, these are all symptoms of a core problem — dissent from the truth about the human person and the gift of sexuality. This cancer destroying our families will continue its destruction until we eradicate it.
One of HLI’s key strategies is working with seminarians, priests, and bishops to promote the whole pro-life message and assist them in integrating it into every aspect of pastoral care. Sadly, I have witnessed far too often the disconnection between pastoral care and the Gospel of Life. Any attempt to form our spiritual leaders that does not completely integrate Catholic teaching on sexual morality and holy matrimony is an exercise in futility.
Our founder, Fr. Paul Marx, states it quite poignantly:
“While we need a variety of pro-life groups hacking away at the anti-life monster, it is enormously futile and indeed grossly shortsighted to overlook the chief source of baby killing, which is contraception.”
It was not so long ago that Christians worldwide held common ground on the issue of contraception and the primary role of sexual intimacy between husband and wife.
“We utter an emphatic warning against the use of unnatural means for the avoidance of conception, together with the grave dangers — physical, moral, and religious — thereby incurred, and against the evils with which the extension of such use threatens the race.
“In opposition to the teaching, which under the name of science and religion encourages married people in the deliberate cultivation of sexual union as an end in itself, we steadfastly uphold what must always be regarded as the governing considerations of Christian marriage. One is the primary purpose for which marriage exists — namely the continuation of the race through the gift and heritage of children; the other is the paramount importance in married life of deliberate and thoughtful self-control. We desire solemnly to commend what we have said to Christian people and to all who will hear” (Anglican Communion, Lambeth Conference, 1920).
Yet, even as truth about matrimony and its openness to life was being proclaimed, we were already beginning to see the rise in threats. In 1916, four years after the first London Eugenics Conference, Margaret Sanger founded the Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood.
In 1921, Marie Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in Great Britain.
Both women were the primary influences behind the wedding of eugenics and the development of contraceptive technology, which inevitably evolved into the population control movement — a movement which, contrary to what many have said, continues its assault on the weak and marginalized to this day.
By the time of the Anglican Communion’s 1930 Lambeth Conference, the culture had been seeded with dissent and disregard for the purpose of marriage and human sexuality. The conference rejected its own biblical theology on marriage and formulated a “new” teaching permitting the use of contraception for married couples.
Though resolution 15 attempted to uphold the teaching of 1920 by stating that the primary and obvious method of limiting or avoiding parenthood was abstinence from the marital act, it would give permission for contraception to be used by married couples.
We know how that turned out.
Pope Pius XI on December 31, 1930 made the Catholic Church’s response to this flagrant threat and radical rejection of centuries of Christian teaching perfectly clear:
“But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed, which is shameful and intrinsically vicious” (Casti Connubii, n. 54).
“Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: Any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offence against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin” (n. 56).
Becoming “one flesh” implies self-giving, without reservation or exception, just as Christ withheld nothing of Himself from His Bride, the Church, by dying for her on the cross. Any intentional interruption with the procreative nature of conjugal intercourse involves spouses selfishly withholding themselves from each other and from God, who is their partner in sacramental love.
As Blessed Pope Paul VI explained, “The Church…teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life” (Humanae Vitae, n. 12).
Ultimately, the teaching authority is vested in the college of bishops under the headship of the Roman Pontiff, the “center of unity and head of the whole episcopate,” the Successor of the Apostle Peter entrusted with the care of souls (Lumen Gentium, n. 22). When the bishops teach on matters of faith and morals in their apostolic role, they speak in the name of the Christ, and the faithful, on their part, are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with religious assent.
In his role as Bishop of Rome, the Supreme Pontiff, Blessed Paul VI, in defiance to popular opinion — secular and ecclesial — reaffirmed Church teaching in his landmark encyclical, Humanae Vitae and warned us of what would arise if Church teaching on the regulation of births were ignored (see n. 17).
Pope St. John Paul II gave us Familiaris Consortio and Evangelium Vitae, which reiterated Church teaching on matters of matrimony, family, and life. He was undaunted in his role as Peter, teacher, and guardian of sacred doctrine. He stated that contraception and abortion are fruits of the same tree.
“The pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church’s teaching on contraception is rejected” (Evangelium Vitae, n. 13).

Get The Family Right

The teaching authority is an incredible gift and responsibility. When exercised with courage and clarity, it can liberate and unite people in truth. When exercised weakly and ambiguously, confusion is created, causing tremendous and potentially irreparable damage to the faithful. The longer this happens, the more the Faith appears to be a matter of opinion; and the concept of absolute truth is abandoned.
The current presidential race provides yet another example. Candidates claiming to be Catholic expound dissent on the subject of contraception, abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality yet no one in leadership calls them to task or publicly corrects their statements or positions, thus, giving the impression what they expound is acceptable and permissible.
If we want to repair the damage and heal the infection affecting our families and societies, then we must get the family right. Get the family right and we can make real progress against the related scourges of contraception and abortion, divorce, euthanasia, and homosexuality. Get the family right and we will see our societies flourish and our Church prosper.
We cannot afford to continue to ignore the cancer of contraception and the fruit its bears. Our families, children, and our future are on the line!

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

Irreverent funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for trans activist sparks outcry

A raucous funeral liturgy for a high-profile trans activist and sex-worker advocate was held Thursday in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, sparking an outcry on social media that the iconic church was misused to advance an ideological agenda at odds with Catholic teaching. The Manhattan cathedral hosted the Feb. 15 funeral service for Cecilia Gentili, an activist who helped to decriminalize sex work in New York, lobbied for “gender identity” to be added as…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)