By FR. ROBERT ALTIER
(Editor’s Note: This commentary is reprinted with permission from the March 4 bulletin of the Church of St. Raphael, Crystal, Minn.)
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Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen statements by at least two cardinals of the Church regarding what they called a “paradigm shift” in the Church’s teaching. Some of these shifts are about sacramental and moral issues. For instance, there is the use of language which is vague, at best, and allows for interpretations of the basic teachings of the Church which are contrary to anything the Church actually teaches.
We are seeing this in the presentation that what Jesus and the Church teach about marriage is merely an ideal. However, since we live in the real world, ideals are just lofty goals which we do not expect anyone to reach, so we will forget the ideal and operate from a far lower “norm” which is what most people live. Once this “ideal” language is used, then we can claim that marriage is not permanent, we can allow for remarriage without an annulment, we can say people in a state which is objectively contrary to what the Church teaches can go to Holy Communion.
This has opened the door to yet another paradigm shift in the minds of these people saying that since marriage is only an ideal, then the concept of marriage being the union of a male and a female is only an ideal. For this reason, the bishops in Germany have suggested that some homosexual unions can be blessed by the Church. The same German Bishops Conference also noted that if it is permissible to give Communion to people in an invalid marriage, then it could be permissible to give Communion to a non-Catholic spouse.
After all, the necessity to be in union with the Church and to be in the state of grace are only ideals that we can never expect to be fulfilled by the average person. Maybe a saint could achieve these ideals, but they are out of the reach of most people.
This kind of reasoning is now being used to suggest that contraception is acceptable. In fact, one priest who teaches moral theology in Rome said in a recent talk that in some cases contraception is not only acceptable, but obligatory. In other words, it would be a sin not to contracept! I find it interesting that virtue is an apparently unattainable ideal, but vice is perfectly acceptable.
This “paradigm shift” is nothing other than turning the unchangeable teaching of the Church upside down, not only allowing deviations from the truth, but presenting the polar opposite of the truth. There is no paradigm shift in the Church nor can there be now or ever. All the Church’s teachings are interwoven in such a way that if you remove one piece of truth, the entire structure collapses.
It all began with the vague suggestion that in some cases people who are divorced and remarried outside the Church can receive Communion. Once the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage was found questionable, the door has opened to all the ancillary areas to be questioned. Since other doctrines are based on these ancillary teaches, each of those will be called into question as well.
Since it all topples, albeit slowly, while one doctrine at a time is removed, we should just cut to the chase. Rather than arguing about this or that doctrine and whether or not we can find a way to get around the “ideal,” let’s just look at the foundation of it all because if the foundation is cracked, the structure will fall, but if the foundation is solid, the structure remains firm. While it may take a while before the unfolding process gets to the foundation, it is the inevitable end point.
So, I will just go there and save the time and agony of getting there one doctrine at a time. Since it all began with the vagueness of language regarding marriage, we will begin there. If marriage is not a permanent union between a man and a woman, then what Jesus teaches in Scripture is wrong.
One could say He was only presenting an ideal, but that is certainly not the way Matthew and Mark present things in their Gospels.
So, if we do not believe what Jesus teaches about marriage, then we are saying Jesus was wrong. If He was wrong, then He is not God. If what the Scriptures say is wrong, then they are clearly not divinely inspired. If what the Church teaches about marriage, mortal sin, and the Eucharist is wrong, then why should we believe anything else the Church teaches? Jesus founded one Church as we read in Matthew 16. But if Jesus is not God, the Scriptures are not divinely inspired, and the Church is not the pillar and bulwark of truth, as St. Paul tells Timothy, then why would we believe any of her teachings?
This leaves us in a state where each person can have his or her own doctrine and morality. The Church’s teachings, after all, are just ideals, so you can decide for yourself which ideals you agree with and what you think is true. This means that what Satan tempted our first parents with was actually true: You will be like God. There would be no objective truths. Each person has his or her own truth. Everything is relative and each person’s opinion is equally valid. Another word for this is anarchy.
No, the truth has not changed, there is not and never will be a paradigm shift in the Church because the Church is Jesus Christ and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, according to St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews. Sacred Scripture is the divinely inspired Word of God, so it cannot change either. Thankfully there are objective standards that help us to know what is true so that we can conform our lives to the truth.
Of course, in our humanness we sin, but that is different from not attaining an ideal. The truth is within the reach of every reasonable person. Rather than trying to change what the Church teaches so we can justify our sins, perhaps it is time we stand for the truth and change our lives to conform to that truth.
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