by Susan Fox
(This was ably exposed by The Church Militant's Michael Voris, who has done an excellent job of investigative journalism on this matter. Document Gate: Misinformation from the Vatican Press Office)
"If spiritual communion is possible, why not allow them to partake in the sacrament?" the interim Relatio Document of the Synod stated, basically opening the door to Holy Communion for Divorced Catholics who have remarried without the Church's blessing.
The document went on to say that our Catholic communities need to accept and value the "sexual orientation" of "homosexuals." The gentle and loving Bishop Edward J. Slattery, Diocese of Tulsa, felt impelled to correct the Relatio misperceptions on co-habitation and homosexuality in a You Tube statement. Bishop Slattery's Statement on the Relatio
"Activity must never be confused with identity. The human person always remains greater than what he or she does or experiences. A person who is in a cohabiting relationship ought not to be identified by the irregularity of that union. A man or woman who experiences same sex attraction ought not to be identified by the experiences of these attractions," Bishop Slattery said. He is giving you authentic Catholic teaching. It is not an opinion.
The Church has always been open to each individual's giftedness, he said, but no individual should be identified by behaviors that are contrary to the Gospel. And all are called to chastity.
Unfortunately, the Synod cardinals later admitted that they had not seen, nor had they approved the Relatio document before it was released to the world: "Just like you, I was surprised that it was published," Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, O.F.M., South Africa, told reporters. "You people got the document before we got it, so we couldn't have possibly agreed on it."
Many cardinals said it did not even represent what had been said in the Synod since it convened on Oct. 5. So that means devout Catholics can breathe easy. The Church has not changed its doctrine.
However, the world rejoiced because it perceived the Church was allowing divorced/remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion, ennobling same sex unions to a footing slightly less than marriage and encouraging people co-habitating outside marriage to feel their relationship has value just as it is. The whole document created the perception in the secular mind that the Church will eventually also approve the use of artificial contraception.
This is nonsense. But Cardinal Napier recognized that the damage is irreparable. "We are now working from a position that is irredeemable. The message has gone out: this is what the Catholic Church is saying. No matter how much we try correcting that, once it's up there in the public light, there is no way of retrieving it."
Even the conservative and cautious National Catholic Register, owned by Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network, agrees with conservative commentator Michael Voris: Evidence Emerges of an Engineered Synod
My opinion is that this is indeed a catastrophe for the world because the prince of this world is leading many astray. But yet we should have great hope. God always brings good out of evil.
The false sentiments in the heterodox document released Monday have been smoking around the Church for several decades. I have met many in authority in the Catholic Church who held these heterodox views. Their ideas have been hidden, but spreading like an un-diagnosed cancer or a secret underground schism. These attitudes were even present in the Church during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, who will be beatified this Sunday Oct. 19!
Holding firm to the Deposit of Faith, Pope Paul VI was forced to reject the opinion of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control established by his predecessor, Pope Saint John XXIII. The Commission composed of theologians and laity recommended the Catholic Church allow married couples to use artificial contraception. Pope Paul VI heroically said no to that in 1968 in his beautiful teaching Humanae Vitae. He upheld the precious deposit of faith -- the unchanging Truth both oral and written which has been faithfully handed down to us from Christ's apostles.
Lawrence and I practiced Humanae Vitae-approved Natural Family Planning in our 31-year marriage to both postpone and attempt conception. When we were young, we used to call its teachings "Human Vitamins." When we thought of doing something regarding intimacy in our marriage, we always said to one another, "What would Human Vitamins have us do?" Human Vitamins never failed us, and in fact I bet it is largely responsible for our happy marriage. Human Vitamins protected the chastity in our marriage.
We all want to be liked by other people, but sometimes it's necessary to remain a witness to the Truth. Pope Paul VI is a great saint, who suffered enormous persecution for his upholding the Church's stance against the use of artificial contraception. On the day he died, Aug. 6, 1978, I was permitted to hear resounding joy and rejoicing in heaven when he arrived home.
Once you separate the act of intimacy in marriage from procreation, the selfless act of marriage is despoiled in many different ways. Pope Saint John Paul II built on the foundation of Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, when he gave a series of talks stating in 1980, which became, "Theology of the Body." With laser sharp vision, he taught us not to turn our spouse into an object for our own pleasure, but to remain open to life and life-long faithful love.
I hear Protestant men, who still require their wives to use artificial contraception, crying on the blogs that their wife is no longer interested in sexual intimacy. No, of course not. Chemical contraception tricks a woman's body into thinking it is pregnant and therefore lowers her libido. Monkey Study May Help Explain Why Synthetic Hormones Affect Women's Libido Thanks to Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, that doesn't happen in a marriage free of the slavery of chemical contraception.
Human Vitamins warned that governments would force families to limit their family size if artificial contraception was allowed free reign.
Look what happened in China with its one-child policy! All the little girls are murdered in the womb or abandoned after birth because the Chinese have a preference for boys, and now these boys have grown up and have no wives. No wives, no grandchildren. No grandchildren, no more Chinese!
No only that, but we have had to read the horror stories of babies taken from their weeping mothers' arms and drowned in rice paddies by arrogant officials, not to mention grieving Chinese women forced to have late term abortions. The suicide rate of Chinese women is 500 a day, and they kill themselves in rural areas by drinking pesticides, a method of death, they know is extremely painful. All this suffering could have been avoided if only the world had listened to our recent popes.
Now regarding contraception, the chickens have come home to roost. On the morning of Oct 6, 2014, many Americans woke up and discovered the U. S. Supreme Court has shoved legal same-sex "marriage" down our collective throats against the express will of the people in many states, including my own, Colorado. I sat down and voted tonight, and I voted most of the judges in Colorado off the bench.
But the legality of same-sex unions and the misdirected way the Relatio spoke of these unions is a direct consequence of the world's ready acceptance of artificial contraception. Once you separate the joys of marriage from the responsibilities, then marriage itself ceases to exist and any relationship that brings pleasure is considered good. This is an amoral position, and part of the tyranny of relativism.
There are no short-cuts in this life. Those of us who have diabetes know. Every sugar substitute ever offered to us has horrible health consequences. The pink one, the blue one, the yellow one -- all deadly. We've yet to see what Stevia, the green one, will do.
Devout Catholics received the interim report with horror. The world received it with glee. But I look at this moment in time, and I think, well the heterodox viewpoints that have simmered underground in the Catholic Church for decades have been exposed to the Light! This usually happens in the Sacrament of Confession: we expose the weaknesses of our soul to the Light of Christ. And Christ protects our privacy. What we say to Him in His Tribunal of Mercy never leaves the confessional.
But here look! Confusion is manifest in the interim document of the Synod on the Family. "Someone" hasn't converted. "Someone" hasn't repented. "Someone" hasn't been to
confession. The same thing happened in the priest sex abuse scandal. If we will not seek the private intimacy of the confessional, God is quite willing to allow our sins to flap in the wind like sheets on a clothesline.
Now here is an opportunity for all of us to pray. The serpent is exposed. He lies wiggling and helpless, naked on the sidewalk for all to see in horror or glee. Let us pray to Our Lady, the Woman of Gen. 3:15, and ask her to crush the head of the serpent. Such is an official exorcism prayer of the Catholic Church.
Let Our Lady be the surgeon. Once and for all, let the humble Virgin Mother of Christ come, remove this ugly cancer that has been smoking in the Catholic Church under the noses of all the recent pope saints -- John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II.
Then let us all be at peace.
Life Site News had a good piece on the Reaction of Pro-Family Catholics to the original Relatio of the Synod.
Pro-Family Catholics Reject Synod Mid-Way Report, calling it A Betrayal
“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." (Luke 12: 1-5)
It appears "Someone" in the Vatican single-handedly called into question the Church's entire doctrine on homosexuality and whether Divorced/Remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion, when they released the interim report on on the Synod on the Family on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014.(This was ably exposed by The Church Militant's Michael Voris, who has done an excellent job of investigative journalism on this matter. Document Gate: Misinformation from the Vatican Press Office)
"If spiritual communion is possible, why not allow them to partake in the sacrament?" the interim Relatio Document of the Synod stated, basically opening the door to Holy Communion for Divorced Catholics who have remarried without the Church's blessing.
The document went on to say that our Catholic communities need to accept and value the "sexual orientation" of "homosexuals." The gentle and loving Bishop Edward J. Slattery, Diocese of Tulsa, felt impelled to correct the Relatio misperceptions on co-habitation and homosexuality in a You Tube statement. Bishop Slattery's Statement on the Relatio
 |
| Bishop Edward J Slattery |
The Church has always been open to each individual's giftedness, he said, but no individual should be identified by behaviors that are contrary to the Gospel. And all are called to chastity.
 |
| Cardinal Napier |
Many cardinals said it did not even represent what had been said in the Synod since it convened on Oct. 5. So that means devout Catholics can breathe easy. The Church has not changed its doctrine.
However, the world rejoiced because it perceived the Church was allowing divorced/remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion, ennobling same sex unions to a footing slightly less than marriage and encouraging people co-habitating outside marriage to feel their relationship has value just as it is. The whole document created the perception in the secular mind that the Church will eventually also approve the use of artificial contraception.
This is nonsense. But Cardinal Napier recognized that the damage is irreparable. "We are now working from a position that is irredeemable. The message has gone out: this is what the Catholic Church is saying. No matter how much we try correcting that, once it's up there in the public light, there is no way of retrieving it."
Even the conservative and cautious National Catholic Register, owned by Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network, agrees with conservative commentator Michael Voris: Evidence Emerges of an Engineered Synod
 |
| Father of Lies |
The false sentiments in the heterodox document released Monday have been smoking around the Church for several decades. I have met many in authority in the Catholic Church who held these heterodox views. Their ideas have been hidden, but spreading like an un-diagnosed cancer or a secret underground schism. These attitudes were even present in the Church during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, who will be beatified this Sunday Oct. 19!
 |
| Pope Paul VI to be beautified Sunday Oct. 19, 2014 |
Lawrence and I practiced Humanae Vitae-approved Natural Family Planning in our 31-year marriage to both postpone and attempt conception. When we were young, we used to call its teachings "Human Vitamins." When we thought of doing something regarding intimacy in our marriage, we always said to one another, "What would Human Vitamins have us do?" Human Vitamins never failed us, and in fact I bet it is largely responsible for our happy marriage. Human Vitamins protected the chastity in our marriage.
We all want to be liked by other people, but sometimes it's necessary to remain a witness to the Truth. Pope Paul VI is a great saint, who suffered enormous persecution for his upholding the Church's stance against the use of artificial contraception. On the day he died, Aug. 6, 1978, I was permitted to hear resounding joy and rejoicing in heaven when he arrived home.
Once you separate the act of intimacy in marriage from procreation, the selfless act of marriage is despoiled in many different ways. Pope Saint John Paul II built on the foundation of Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, when he gave a series of talks stating in 1980, which became, "Theology of the Body." With laser sharp vision, he taught us not to turn our spouse into an object for our own pleasure, but to remain open to life and life-long faithful love.
Human Vitamins warned that governments would force families to limit their family size if artificial contraception was allowed free reign.
Look what happened in China with its one-child policy! All the little girls are murdered in the womb or abandoned after birth because the Chinese have a preference for boys, and now these boys have grown up and have no wives. No wives, no grandchildren. No grandchildren, no more Chinese!
No only that, but we have had to read the horror stories of babies taken from their weeping mothers' arms and drowned in rice paddies by arrogant officials, not to mention grieving Chinese women forced to have late term abortions. The suicide rate of Chinese women is 500 a day, and they kill themselves in rural areas by drinking pesticides, a method of death, they know is extremely painful. All this suffering could have been avoided if only the world had listened to our recent popes.
But the legality of same-sex unions and the misdirected way the Relatio spoke of these unions is a direct consequence of the world's ready acceptance of artificial contraception. Once you separate the joys of marriage from the responsibilities, then marriage itself ceases to exist and any relationship that brings pleasure is considered good. This is an amoral position, and part of the tyranny of relativism.
There are no short-cuts in this life. Those of us who have diabetes know. Every sugar substitute ever offered to us has horrible health consequences. The pink one, the blue one, the yellow one -- all deadly. We've yet to see what Stevia, the green one, will do.
So almost on the eve of the beatification of the great prophet Pope Paul VI and a week before the official feast day of Pope Saint John Paul II, (Oct. 22) we have this earthquake regarding the Church's position on marriage, contraception, and homosexuality. Many Catholics are respectfully asking Pope Francis to clarify the matter as soon as possible. But Pope Francis already has.
 |
| Pope Francis |
He is beatifying Pope Paul VI on Sunday. In doing that he is affirming the Catholic Church's long held prohibition against the use of artificial contraception, and upholding the dignity of the human person. He recently canonized Pope John Paul II, which means he is upholding the Catholic view of the human person, whose identity can never be reduced to mere sinful activity. Not only that, but he has said directly that the Church's position on Holy Communion for Divorced and Remarried Catholics cannot be changed. Anything else you think about Pope Francis is pure speculation -- smoke and mirrors.
But here look! Confusion is manifest in the interim document of the Synod on the Family. "Someone" hasn't converted. "Someone" hasn't repented. "Someone" hasn't been to
Now here is an opportunity for all of us to pray. The serpent is exposed. He lies wiggling and helpless, naked on the sidewalk for all to see in horror or glee. Let us pray to Our Lady, the Woman of Gen. 3:15, and ask her to crush the head of the serpent. Such is an official exorcism prayer of the Catholic Church.
Let Our Lady be the surgeon. Once and for all, let the humble Virgin Mother of Christ come, remove this ugly cancer that has been smoking in the Catholic Church under the noses of all the recent pope saints -- John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II.
Then let us all be at peace.
Life Site News had a good piece on the Reaction of Pro-Family Catholics to the original Relatio of the Synod.
Pro-Family Catholics Reject Synod Mid-Way Report, calling it A Betrayal
Excellent post, but the questions remain why did Francis appoint whom he did to the synod secretariat? WHy did he allow it to descend into chaos.... etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteAh Barona. I think like the Cardinals, he did not anticipate that document saying what it did. That's why I called it treachery. By the time I wrote this post, the only way I could find what originally came out of the Vatican on Monday Oct. 13 was by looking at the National Catholic Reporter. (They are good for something). The Vatican has changed the interim document. See: Vatican has heavily revised the Relatio: http://www.news4jax.com/news/us-world-news/catholic-bishops-no-accord-on-gays-lesbians/29214528
ReplyDeleteI almost didn't post thinking I was mistaken in what it had said. Then I found the Life Site News article. And I realized it had said what the National Catholic Reporter piece said it had said. But it said it no longer. I posted.
We really don't know why he appointed the synod secretariat that he did. But remember I feel this incredible connection to this particular pope. And if it were me, I would appoint someone who was not with me on this issue for the sake of their conversion. Based on Monday's spurious document there is real division among the cardinals. I know that Cardinal Kasper likes to say it's a regional difference, conservative Africa vs liberal Germany. That's relativism in and of itself. Right and wrong doesn't change across borders. This is clearly right vs. wrong. God bless you. Susan Fox