By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
A joke sometimes recounted among clergy goes along these lines: Someone greets a wise old priest by asking, “What’s new?”, and he responds, sagely, “Christ is risen!” The humor here is less about what’s new than about the fact that everything, other than the only true revolution of Christ’s Incarnation and triumph over death, is old.
Unfortunately the agenda among some Church leaders seems to be, not to further the good news of life in Christ made possible by His Resurrection but, rather, to undermine it. Those who would seek to lower standards to some minimal calculus do not offer anything new. There is a reason why the most ancient story about man and woman recounts their choice to buy into the Devil’s deceitful sales pitch rather than to trust in the truth of God’s Word.
The constant drumbeat out of Rome and among those heterodox bishops who feel affirmed by its vibe these days is characterized by a call for Communion for the divorced and remarried “in some cases,” contraception “in some cases,” and the blessing of same-sex “marriages” “in some cases,” and so on. Are you detecting a pattern here?
Some of these bishops and priests such as, for example, Maurizio Chiodi, are telegraphing this subversive message with the influence and authority inferred by venues such as the hallowed halls of Roman academe and no less than the grand marbled hallways of the Vatican itself. Others, such as Reinhard Cardinal Marx, are taking the ball and running with it further afield in places like Germany, taking an entire conference of bishops with him.
One by one, all of the moral norms carefully enunciated and affirmed by John Paul II in his encyclicals, speeches, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the entire corpus of his work, are being deconstructed, denied, and destroyed.
The puppet synods of 2014 and 2015, which were staged to launch an assault on Church discipline on marriage, have by now been very carefully picked apart and analyzed by many. Many have already come to understand, because of these events, how the entire assault on Catholic faith and morals has been scripted. Announce a synod, invite input, encourage the bishops to inveigh at will, insert the preplanned Trojan horses into the final documents, no matter the number and weight of objections, and publish the unvetted document.
All the talk of dialogue, a constant theme of this pontificate, seems in the balance to be a smokescreen. The Pope’s message about valuing conversation and communication is undermined by the evidence. When no less than his fellow bishops at the previous synods are ignored and sidelined when they offer objections or corrections, what can those of a lesser rank hope for?
Now that Communion for the divorced and remarried “in some cases” is as set in stone as Pope Francis can manage to make it, with a little help from his mitred friends in Argentina, and by means of insertion of the relevant documents into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, it’s now time to move on to new conquests.
Next up we have the youth synod and its preparation process before us. Anyone with a memory is now wondering, not what teachings will be affirmed, but which ones, this time around, will be undermined. There seems to be a connection between the upcoming synod and Humanae Vitae, occurring as it does during the 50th anniversary year of the encyclical.
As reported in LifeSiteNews by Diana Montagna, one of Pope Francis’ appointees to the “new” and improved Academy for Life is not only promoting a moral evil by urging the use of contraception “in some cases,” he increases the outrage by saying it can even be considered “responsible.”
She wrote: “Italian moral theologian Fr. Maurizio Chiodi said at a December 14 public lecture at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome that there are ‘circumstances — I refer to Amoris Laetitia, chapter 8 — that precisely for the sake of responsibility, require contraception’….
“In such circumstances, he said, ‘an artificial method for the regulation of births could be recognized as an act of responsibility that is carried out, not in order to radically reject the gift of a child, but because in those situations responsibility calls the couple and the family to other forms of welcome and hospitality’” (see The Wanderer, January 18, 2018, p. 1A for the complete article.)
Contraception? Responsible? From which cave did this professor recently emerge? Not only is contraception never licit because it can never be used without a morally unacceptable anti-life will, but, what’s more, some methods of contraception function as abortifacients. Send this academic and his fellow travelers back to Moral Theology 101!
Shock can be the only proper response to this and to all the mesmerizing fork-tongued vipers, whether or not sporting mitres, who once again attempt to entice the Adams and Eves of today with illusory falsehoods. Indeed, “there is nothing new under the sun.”
After all that Pope John Paul II did to permanently exclude the use of any form of contraception, following upon the heroic and sacrificial work of Paul VI, we are incredibly faced with a redux, as if history never happened. How is this possible? There is nothing new under the sun. Any of us who have once received the truth are capable of rejecting it in the name of a false compassion which departs from the true love of God.
The Sacrament of Confession itself belies what these misguided bishops attempt in the name of false compassion. We do not need to change the truth for some because the Lord offers the same infinite forgiveness in Christ for all. God would not ensure that man would have the power of the keys to bind and loose in the priesthood if He envisioned an oxymoronic changeable “truth.”
The ancient Roman adage “caveat emptor” applies here. Buyer beware: If you have once accepted Christ and His Gospel, do not fall for a false proportionalism that pretends a married couple, in some cases, can use contraception and remain morally upright. An anti-life will is never upright and contraception can never be used with any other intention. Sin can never be promoted “in some cases” because it is always incompatible with the Church’s mission for the salvation of all souls, no exceptions. Christ rejected sin in all cases and, therefore, so must we.
Stay tuned, folks; this is going to be a wild ride for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, remember that all of this has happened before. We must cling to the Resurrection and new life of grace in Christ, while we reject those who would entice us with false promises of a nonexistent substitute. The Church will prevail, as the Lord promised, even over the gates of Hell.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
Twitter: @MCITLFrAphorism/Email: mcitl.blogspot.com@gmail.com
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