By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
These are times in which we must never tire of the ordinary courage of repeating what is simply true.
An auxiliary bishop of Hong Kong told a priest who had planned a so-called “LGBT” Mass for Christmas that he must not do so because the homosexual act “is a sin.” The priest canceled the Mass.
Now, that’s a bishop who knows how to bishop. His simple and effective way of stating the truth of the Gospel and of the Commandments is an example for us all. He brings to mind the example of the saints and in particular Maria Goretti who, when asked to indulge the lust of Alessandro, stated simply, “No, it is a sin!” We must pray that we will have her courage when challenged in a moment of temptation to deny our Lord by consenting to evil.
Our bishops are challenged these days by an increasingly hostile work environment as the world turns away from God in ever more creative ways. The Catholic Church stands nearly alone in a sea of false so-called churches which vote on what is right and wrong in order to keep in step with the fashions of the day. Also within the Church within the past few years, we also now find “creative” responses to Catholic doctrine.
The list of bishops who have spoken out to question some aspects of the pastoral wisdom of Amoris Laetitia is still small, but despite the repeated opposing statements of many in high Church positions, the list grows. This issue will not die a quiet death.
Just like the bishop in Hong Kong with the courage to simply state the truth in a time of challenge from within his own Church, so all of the bishops of the world will always find among their number a new Athanasius of our own day. Truth will even find a witness in the one who stands against the many.
We will always have the cowards among us who go along to get along. These are the false shepherds who run away and abandon the sheep for fear of the wolf. As the Lord taught, these are the ones who work for pay and not for the care of the flock.
Just as homosexual acts are sinful because they are not only unnatural but take place outside of the Sacrament of Matrimony, which must be always and only between one man and one woman, so natural relations between one man and one woman that take place outside of sacramental marriage are also sinful.
The permission in Amoris Laetitia for some couples in civil marriages to receive Holy Communion inevitably blesses fornication, just like an “LGBT” Mass blesses unnatural fornication. Some bishops are facing up to this fact and teaching their flocks likewise. Despite some predictions to the contrary, the AL controversy is not dying a quiet death. Other bishops continue to come forward and join the naysayers in regard to some aspects of the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis.
The latest development in this vein is a new document out from two bishops we’ve heard from before, as well as the ordinary of Astana, Kazakhstan. (See p. 4B of this week’s issue for the full text.) Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana had already made their views known as not supporting what they see as permission in AL for Catholics who have divorced and who live with a new spouse in a civil marriage to receive Communion.
What they have done now is to develop their thoughts on the topic at length in a new document dated December 31 “on the indissolubility of marriage and its implications,” according to a story by Catholic News Agency. In this fresh effort these two bishops are joined by a third, the ordinary of Astana, Archbishop Tomash Peta.
As the January 2 CNA article says about the statement:
“It comes nearly a year after the same bishops issued an appeal to prayer that Pope Francis would affirm the Church’s constant practice regarding the indissolubility of marriage.”
The problem with Amoris Laetitia is that the well-intentioned effort to bring divorced and civilly remarried Catholics back into full sacramental practice with the reception of Communion is that what is done in their regard doesn’t affect only them. It affects all who are married, what marriage is, and the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Confession as well as of marriage.
Just like so many other aspects of our Catholic faith based on reason as well as Revelation, they are interrelated and so stand or fall together. If some couples under some circumstances who aren’t really married can be treated like they are in fact married, what happens to marriage itself? AL does not uphold indissolubility in the final analysis, despite its words to that effect.
CNA goes on to add:
“The three bishops noted that some bishops around the world — such as those of Malta and Sicily — have issued norms allowing for the divorced-and-remarried who have a living spouse yet who are in ‘stable cohabitation more uxorio’ with a third person to ‘receive the Sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion, while continuing to live habitually and intentionally more uxorio with a person who is not their legitimate spouse.’ Those norms have qualified that such permissions are limited to individual cases, at the discretion of a confessor, pastor, or bishop.
‘More uxorio,’ which means ‘in the mode of marriage,’ refers in this context to cohabitation and a sexual relationship between those who are not validly married.”
The Pope’s approval of these pastoral norms, as well as that of other bishops, “has caused a considerable and ever increasing confusion among the faithful and the clergy, a confusion that touches the central manifestations of the life of the Church, such as . . . sacramental marriage…and the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist,” the bishops stated. They went on to say that admitting the divorced and remarried to Communion “means in practice a way of approving or legitimizing divorce, and in this meaning a kind of introduction of divorce in the life of the Church.”
“We are not allowed to be silent,” the bishops aver. They teach that “it is not licit (non licet) to justify, approve, or legitimize either directly or indirectly divorce and a non-conjugal stable sexual relationship through the sacramental discipline of the admission of so-called ‘divorced and remarried’ to Holy Communion . . . a discipline alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith.”
In a sign that this issue is not settled, other bishops continue to come forward and join the AL naysayers. Notable among them Carlo Viganò, former nuncio to U.S. and a major player in Vatican life also as former administrator of Vatican City State. Although on the “outs” for a while when he was released from the City State position without a new job because he reportedly balked at being sent to the United States, he eventually agreed to take the appointment and showed up for work. The other Italian joining the new “gang of five” is Luigi Negri, an archbishop emeritus.
The AL debate isn’t going away; it’s increasing in scope.
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