Cardinal Sarah Says . . . Allowing Communion For Divorced And Remarried “Insults Christ”

By MARY JONES

ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Robert Cardinal Sarah, the highly respected prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments at the Vatican, appointed in 2014 by Pope Francis, has made it abundantly clear since last October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family that any attempt to detach Catholic teaching from “pastoral practice” is a form of “heresy and a dangerous schizophrenic pathology.”
Speaking on May 20 at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome, at the presentation of the Cantagalli book series Family, Work in Progress, the cardinal sent a clear message to Walter Cardinal Kasper and followers.
Kasper has been the main protagonist since the 2014 consistory in “suggesting” Communion for the divorced and remarried and is continuing in this vein with much support from the German bishops.
“If some countries are doing this already [giving the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried] they are insulting Christ, it is a desecration of His Body and they are guilty because they are doing it knowingly.”
Cardinal Sarah is having none of it, stating that “the African Church will strongly oppose any rebellion against the teaching of Jesus and the Magisterium.”
“Regarding mercy? The fact is that we are not precise in using the Christian word ‘mercy.’ And without explaining [what this word means] we deceive people. . . . The Lord is ready to forgive, but if we come back, and if we are sorry for our sins,” he said. “Christ was merciful but He affirmed that to breach marriage is adultery. We cannot interpret these words differently — it is a sin [to do so] and the sinner without repentance cannot receive the Body of Christ.”
“If some countries are doing this already [giving the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried] they are insulting Christ, it is a desecration of His Body and they are guilty because they are doing it knowingly,” the cardinal said.
“To permit in a particular diocese that which is not authorized by the synod signifies to ‘desecrate Christ’,” he continued. “We deceive the people by talking about mercy without knowing what that word means. The Lord forgives our sins, but if we repent. . . . I think that it is more courageous to stay with Christ on the cross, and be faithful to His words. It is not easy to live the Gospel.”
And on a high note of encouragement to other prelates and the faithful, the cardinal made it clear that “the challenge for the Church is to fight against the current, with courage and hope without being afraid to raise her voice to denounce the deception, manipulation, and false prophets. Over 2,000 years the Church has confronted many headwinds but with the help of the Holy Spirit, her voice was always heard.”
“It is clear that it is wrong for the Church to use words that are used at the UN. We have our vocabulary to explain what we believe.”
Referring to the use of certain words that are not appropriate for the Church and need clarification, he said, “It is clear that it is wrong for the Church to use words that are used at the UN. We have our vocabulary to explain what we believe. If the Eucharist is only bread we can also give it to divorced people who breach the alliance.”
“I think we have to weigh up the words we use, because people have heard the bishops [and] the Pope and hope that there will be a total change,” he said. “And even if today we are hearing a new direction in the words of the Holy Father — the people don’t believe us — because they believe that there will be a change, there will be a revolution, but it is not true because the doctrine does not belong to anyone but to Christ, to the Church.”
Talking about going out to help those in need, he weighed in on the testimony Christians are giving today in different parts of the world. “It is easy to go to the outskirts. . . . But who are we going with? If we don’t bring Christ, we bring nothing! I think that the most courageous thing to do is to remain as a Christian, as many Christians are doing right now — they are dying in Pakistan, the Middle East, and Africa.”
Comparing offering help for those in need to the secular goliaths attacking Christian families at every level, he said, “I am not saying that we shouldn’t go out to bring the Gospel, but the courage we need to bring is that of going against the current because the world no longer tolerates the Gospel.”
“The ongoing debate is drugged because oftentimes even the journalists place the Pope against the Curia, which is not true,” he said. “But people think we are against each other and think that the Pope said he is in favor of giving Communion to the divorced [people] and even this is only an interpretation of his words.”
“As Ratzinger said, a right that is not based on morality becomes injustice. For this reason it is necessary to keep in mind the context of secularization in which we live. . . . The distancing of whole parts of modern society away from Christianity goes hand in hand with ignorance and the rejection of doctrine and cultural identity.”

Gender Ideology

Regarding the Synod’s General Assembly in October 2014, the cardinal said, “It was clear that the real focus was not and is not only the question of the remarried-divorced persons, but, whether the doctrine of the Church is to be considered as an unattainable ideal, unachievable and therefore in need of a downward adjustment to be proposed to today’s modern world.
“If things are like this then it necessarily requires a clarification if the Gospel is Good News for man or an unnecessary burden which is no longer possible.”
In answer to which ideologies to fight against today, the cardinal unmasked the deceit and lack of true love behind them.
“Today one of the most dangerous ideologies is that of gender, according to which there are no ontological differences between man and woman, and the male and female identity would not be written in nature. . . . To say that human sexuality does not depend on the identity of man and woman, but a sexual orientation, such as homosexuality, is a dreamlike totalitarianism, and is a real ideology which negates the reality of things. . . . I don’t see a future in such deceit.”
“One thing,” he said, “is to respect the homosexual person, who has a right to genuine respect, another thing is to promote homosexuality. Also the divorced-remarried people have a right to genuine respect but the Church cannot promote a new concept of the family.
“The homosexual people are the first victims of this drift. . . . The Church’s job is to announce the Christian doctrine and the truth of conjugal love bringing man to full realization.”