derived from divine law and transcends the domain of positive ecclesiastical laws…."
reference to Synod 2015’s final report, the Church’s perennial ban on the reception of Holy Communion by public adulterers in purported "second marriages" is no mere changeable discipline. Rather, as the Pontifical Council for Interpretation of Legislative Texts observed in 2000, rejecting the very effort Francis has been spearheading for the past three years, that discipline, while enshrined in Canon 915, "is
The issue is not the subjective culpability in particular cases of the divorced and "remarried," as implausible as the claim that they are unaware of their sinful condition may be. Rather, the real issue as framed by the Pontifical Council is this: [T]he reception of the Body of Christ when one is
publicly
unworthy constitutes an
objective
harm to the ecclesial communion: it is a behavior that affects the rights of the Church and of all the faithful to live in accord with the exigencies of that communion. In the concrete case of the admission to Holy Communion of faithful who are divorced and remarried, the scandal, understood as an action that prompts others towards wrongdoing, affects at the same time both the sacrament of the Eucharist and the indissolubility of marriage.
That scandal exists even if such behavior, unfortunately, no longer arouses surprise: in fact, it is precisely with respect to the deformation of the conscience that it becomes more necessary for Pastors to act, with as much patience as firmness, as a protection to the sanctity of the Sacraments and a defense of Christian morality, and for the correct formation of the faithful.
Thus, Amoris Laetitia purports to abolish a discipline that cannot be abolished without violating divine law. It does so by the two-step of a general "integration" according to "pastoral discernment" conducted by parish priests, followed ultimately by admission to the sacraments in "certain cases" according to the same "discernment."
First, "integration." Here Francis gets down to the business of "playing fast and loose" with his arguments and sources, to recall Carl Olsen’s comment. Just as Synod 2015 did, Francis misleadingly cites John Paul II for a supposed "law of gradualness" in obeying "the objective demands of the law." (295) But in Familiaris consortio John Paul II was actually speaking of
spiritual
progress while rejecting any notion of "gradual" acceptance of moral precepts that bind all men: And so what is known as "the law of gradualness" or step-by-step advance cannot be identified with "gradualness of the law," as if there were different degrees or forms of precept in God’s law for different individuals and situations. ( Familiaris consortio, 34).
As we shall see, Francis is proposing precisely that there be "different degrees or forms of precept in God’s law for different individuals and situations."
He contrives to avoid the accusation by asserting that while the moral law is the same for all, the duty of obedience to the law can vary according to "concrete circumstances," which is just "gradualness of the law" in disguise or situation ethics by another name.
Next, "Discernment of ‘Irregular Situations.’" Here Francis—quoting the Synod he stacked with progressives to insure generation of the verbiage on which he now relies—begins to hurl revolutionary thunderbolts: The way of the Church is not to condemn anyone for ever… there is a need ‘to avoid judgements which do not take into account the complexity of various situations’ and ‘to be attentive, by necessity, to how people experience distress because of their condition….
(296) It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community and thus to experience being touched by an "unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous" mercy. No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves. (297) In other words, people living in an objective condition of mortal sin need not repent and amend their lives because "no one can be condemned for ever."
Apparently, Francis envisions a kind of statute of limitations on mortal sin, upon the expiration of which it no longer constitutes any real impediment to ecclesial life. No, the "weakness" of everyone must be "integrated" sooner or later! Above all, that of the divorced and "remarried."
Francis next provides some suggested criteria for a new procedure of ranking the quality of relations constituting public adultery: The divorced who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment.
One thing is a second union consolidated over time, with new children, proven fidelity, generous self giving, Christian commitment, a consciousness of its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins. (298) Incredibly enough, we have a Pope who seriously proposes that some public adulterers should be given First Class treatment, while others perhaps should remain in Coach, at least for part of their "journey" toward "integration." That a Roman Pontiff could declare in a papal document that public adulterers of any kind exhibit "fidelity" and "Christian commitment" makes one wonder if Francis thinks that, after fifty years of "ecumenical dialogue," it is time for the Catholic Church to emulate the Anglican Church in recognition of Henry VIII’s groundbreaking foray into "Catholic divorce." All of this, by the way, is straight from the "thought" of Cardinal Kasper.
Performing his next sleight of hand with sources, Francis again quotes John Paul II’s Familiaris consortio (84), this time for the proposition that "The Church acknowledges situations ‘where, for serious reasons, such as the children’s upbringing, a man and woman cannot satisfy the obligation separate.’" (298) There are no ellipses to indicate the missing words before and after, which Francis clearly wishes to conceal. The complete sentence reads: "This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they " take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples."
What does Francis have to say about John Paul II’s teaching, also the constant teaching of the Church, that divorced and civilly remarried couples who cannot separate because of children must live in complete continence and abstain from all further adulterous sexual relations?
It defies belief, but here it is, buried in a footnote to the misleadingly cropped quotation: In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility [!] of living "as brothers and sisters" which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, "it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers" ( Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
Gaudium et Spes, 51).
What besides horror mingled with fear should the faithful experience when they see a Roman Pontiff suggesting that people living in adultery need "intimacy" in order to remain "faithful" to their partners in adultery and for the good of the children. To that end, the footnote further misrepresents the teaching of John Paul II by reducing his affirmation of a positive moral duty in such cases to a mere "possibility" that the Church "offers."
Worse, the same strategic footnote contains still another misrepresentation of source material. The quotation from paragraph 51 of Gadium et spes actually refers to validly married couples who avoid marital relations so as not to have children, thus harming their relationship.
Moreover, the quotation is wholly inaccurate. As the English text at the Vatican website reads: "But where the intimacy of married life is broken off, its faithfulness can sometimes be imperiled and its quality of fruitfulness ruined, for then the upbringing of the children and the courage to accept new ones are both endangered." Oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, the phrase "courage to accept new ones" is missing from Francis’s quotation. Turning to his primary aim in "integrating weakness"—Holy Communion for the divorced and "remarried"—Francis next "agrees" with what his manipulated Synod declared: [T]he baptized who are divorced and civilly remarried need to be more fully integrated into Christian communities in the variety of ways possible, while avoiding any occasion of scandal…. Their participation can be expressed in different ecclesial services, which necessarily requires discerning which of the various forms of exclusion currently practised
in the liturgical, pastoral, educational and institutional framework, can be surmounted.
(299) Thus, all restrictions on the performance of ecclesial functions by public adulterers,
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The New Synodal Church at Work: Cardinals Dolan (L), Kasper and Wuerl
Amoris Laetitia:
Anatomy of a Pontifical Debacle
C. Ferrara/ Continued from Page 15
from being godparents and "Eucharistic ministers" to teaching religion classes, are now to be reviewed as unjust "forms of exclusion." The outcome Francis desires is that all such restrictions are eventually abolished, as he demanded more than a year ago: They are not excommunicated, that is true. But they cannot be godparents at baptism, they cannot read the readings in the mass, they cannot give communion, they cannot teach catechism, they cannot do some seven things. I have the list here.
Stop! If I take account of this it seems they are excommunicated de-facto… Why can’t they be godparents?
This "integration" of adulterers (and cohabiters), which would rather conveniently benefit Francis’s divorced and "remarried" sister and cohabiting nephew, is to be accomplished through "[c]onversation with the priest, in the internal forum," where "discernment" will assess the public sinner’s "humility, discretion and love for the Church" before granting "exceptions." The exceptions will not be granted "quickly," but will ultimately be granted. (299) In sum, Francis declares a new kind of "pastoral discernment" that ignores objective conduct in favor of the programmatically indulgent presumption that people living in a state of public adultery are somehow subjectively blameless. According to this approach, as Fr. Schall observes, it would be impossible to say that anyone is "subjectively" in a state of mortal sin that would impede his participation in any aspect of ecclesial life no matter what his "objective" state of behavior. This idea will eventuate in an explicit opening to Confession and Holy Communion, discussed below.
(3) The moral law reduced to "general rules"; Saint Thomas abused (301-302).
In the already infamous paragraph 301, Francis next delivers an even broader revolutionary proclamation: "Hence it can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are depriv(ed of sanctifying grace." This ipse dixit covers cohabiters, "remarried" divorcees and presumably even "partners" in the "samesex unions" that Francis has already cited (53) as an example of the "great variety of family situations that can offer a certain stability" even if they may not "simply be equated" with marriage.
Note the key phrase "no longer"—that is, now that Francis is Pope, but not before him. Amazingly, Francis does not even care whether those who are living in sin know that the Church teaches they are living in sin, which teaching he demotes to a "rule": "More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have great difficulty in understanding ‘its inherent values,’ or be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin." (301) It is rhetorically essential to call the moral law a "rule" because the phrase "he may know well the moral law yet have great difficulty in understanding its inherent values" connotes a sociopath, not a poor "abandoned" sinner whose "love" is "wounded."
The Catholic mind staggers before the spectacle of the Pope who, for rhetorical convenience, reduces the moral law to a set of "rules" from which one can be excused if he does not appreciate their "value" or his "concrete situation" supposedly makes compliance impossible—as if the precepts of the natural law were a set of traffic regulations. Saint Paul infallibly teaches that "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor. 10:13)." Francis, however, apparently doesn’t agree with the word of God on this particular point. Neither did Martin Luther, whose launching of the "Reformation" Francis will be celebrating next year in Sweden, including a joint liturgy with Lutheran ministers whose churches reject the indissolubility of marriage, condone contraception and abortion, ordain women and practicing homosexuals as "priests" and "bishops," and support the legalization of "same-sex unions" that Francis has consistently failed to oppose.
Surely, this is just a coincidence.
In support of this enormity, Francis argues that Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that "someone may possess grace and charity, yet not be able to exercise any one of the virtues well; in other words, although someone may possess infused moral virtues, he does not clearly manifest the existence of one of them, because the outward practice of that virtue is rendered difficult." Here Francis misleadingly quotes Saint Thomas’s observation, not his teaching, in the Summa Theologiae that "Certain saints are said not to possess certain virtues, in so far as they experience difficulty in the acts of those virtues, even though they have the habits of all the virtues."
But this citation to the Summa is utter nonsense. Infused virtues, unlike the corresponding acquired ones, are animated by supernatural charity, not merely the habit of acting virtuously.
Saint Thomas is not discussing sinners whose objective conduct—in this case, adultery, as Our Lord Himself calls it—contradicts the very existence of an infused virtue, or any virtue, of chastity. Rather, Thomas’s subject is saints who possess all the infused virtues, can exercise them, albeit with some difficulty, and do not act habitually in a manner that is even objectively sinful. What a despicable abuse of the Angelic Doctor!
Proceeding with his rules theory of the moral law, in paragraph 302 Francis cites two sections of the new Catechism (§§ 1735 and 2352) concerning factors that might diminish subjective culpability for particular sinful actions. But that principle of moral theology applies to individual sinful acts, such as masturbation (§2352), not a continuing state of public immorality and consequent scandal without repentance or any firm purpose of amendment.
As to public adultery in particular, the two sections of the Catechism that Francis studiously fails to mention even once in 256 pages demolish his theory: "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’… If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God’s law [and] and cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this situation persists….
Reconciliation through the sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete continence." (§ 1651) Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery… (§ 2384) Evidently hoping to forestall or mitigate what he knew was a coming disaster, the retired curial Cardinal Walter Brandmüller issued a statement only days prior to the publication of Amoris Laetitia (since repeated in substance) which, in keeping with the Catechism and the Church’s invariant teaching, declares that one "who, in spite of an existing marriage bond, enters after a divorce into a new civil union, is committing adultery" and "cannot receive either absolution in Confession nor the Eucharist (Holy Communion) [if he] is not willing to put an end this situation…" Obviously there can be no "exceptions" for certain individuals because "What is fundamentally impossible for reasons of Faith is also impossible in the individual case." The Cardinal concluded: "The post-synodal document, Amoris Laetitia, is therefore to be interpreted in light of the above-presented principles, especially since a contradiction between a papal document and the Catechism of the Catholic Church would not be imaginable."
For Francis, however, the contradiction is quite imaginable. He apparently thinks he can make it a reality simply by declaring it so without the least regard for the contrary teaching of his predecessors— indeed, without regard for truth itself, which he has already twisted repeatedly to get this far. Francis deems it sufficient that during his own minutely stagemanaged sham of a Synod "many Synod Fathers"—including those with whom he stacked the proceeding—were of the view that "[u]nder certain circumstances people find it icult to act differently," so that "while upholding a general rule, it is necessary to recognize that responsibility with respect to certain actions or decisions is not the same in all cases."
(302) According to Francis’s moral theory, every moral precept would be a "general rule" admitting of exceptions according to "difficult" circumstances. His theory is founded on nothing more than his own opinion, quotations from his own documents and ad-libbed homilies, misleading references to the teaching of Saint Thomas, and whatever appreciation for situation ethics he might have imbibed during his studies and ecclesiastical career.
(4) Supremacy of the individual conscience over morality as "rules" (303).
Next, in paragraph 303, Francis decrees a new supremacy of the individual conscience over the Church’s "rules" on marriage and family. The Drudge Report trumpeted this development under the headline "Age of the Individual Conscience." Quoth Francis: "Recognizing the influence of such concrete factors, we can add that individual conscience needs to be better
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Pope Francis and his 'favorite theologian', Walter Cardinal Kasper