By REY FLORES
“LGBT Catholics would be delighted if the synod accepted same-sex marriages, but they are realistic enough to believe this will not happen” — Sr. Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry.
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The Synod of Bishops that is opening this week has many people talking, both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Rumors abound about what new changes the bishops will incorporate in regard to what marriage and family mean in the 21st century.
According to some sources, the Vatican sent a 39-point questionnaire to Catholic bishops around the world asking for parishioner input on family and contemporary social issues. This was to help prepare the document known as Instrumentum Laboris, which is what the bishops will be working with during the synod.
Three nasty little items reared their ugly heads once more and I will break the situation down here for you.
Before anyone gets too excited, I will point to the above quote from Sr. Gramick, who herself remains “realistic enough” to know that there is no way the bishops are going to change the timeless truths of the Roman Catholic Church when it comes to marriage. First of all, they can’t, and secondly, if they could and then did such a thing, that would signal the end of the Church as we know it.
Will the bishops allow same-sex marriage? Absolutely not. Next.
Next up we have the relaxing of the ban on letting divorced and remarried Catholics receive Holy Communion. This one is not as cut and dried as the “gay marriage” thing. Here we have a messier situation that is representative of many Catholics who have basically decided to make up their own rules and somehow still see themselves as in communion with the Church.
It does not help that you have bishops like Walter Cardinal Kasper who is fueling the fires of modernist reformation. It didn’t take long before Raymond Cardinal Burke put Kasper in his place.
Apparently Kasper has taken to calling any criticisms of his own proposals as attacks on Pope Francis himself, insisting that the Pontiff is supportive of his ideas. During a teleconference, Cardinal Burke rebuked such ludicrous assumptions and shared a few of his thoughts.
Burke stated that Pope Francis and all bishops “are held to obedience to the truth” about marriage, and that cannot change.
Additionally, in his no-nonsense way, Burke added this: “I find it amazing that the cardinal claims to speak for the Pope; the Pope doesn’t have laryngitis. The Pope is not mute. He can speak for himself. If this is what he wants, he will say so.”
Well, that’s two down and one more to go.
Contraception, birth control, call it whatever you will, but at the end of the day, it is yet one more manmade instrument to put a wedge between God’s will and His plan and our own selfish ideas of what we think is best for us.
It is a sad fact that the modern Church has done such a lousy job of addressing and insisting on the teaching on contraception that many Catholic couples are popping birth control pills like candies out of a dispenser.
Being open to life means being open to life. If you don’t want to be open to life, then you are not ready for marriage, let alone the sexual intimacy that only comes with the Sacrament of Marriage. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
While it may be disconcerting to hear the Archdiocese of Boston’s Sean Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap., say things like, “I think the Holy Father’s notion of mercy and inclusion is going to make a big difference in the way that the Church responds to people of homosexual orientation,” still, I think that this synod and the 2015 synod will be anticlimactic.
Many things will be discussed at these synods and many hopes may be lifted in certain camps that wish to see the Church be watered down for the sake of ecumenism, secularism, political correctness, and humanism.
The Prince of this World may be licking his chops and sharpening his pitchfork, but the Prince of Peace will reign supreme and the Church will remain as Jesus Christ built it upon the Rock of St. Peter.
Pray for the many shepherds at this gathering. May the Holy Ghost shine the light of truth into all of their hearts, souls, and minds and may God’s will be done to protect life, marriage, and family.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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