Nosotros no hemos recibido el espíritu del mundo, sino el Espíritu que procede de Dios (1 Cor 2, 12), el Espíritu de su Hijo, que Dios envió a nuestros corazones (Gal 4,6). Y por eso predicamos a Cristo crucificado, escándalo para los judíos y locura para los gentiles, pero para los llamados, tanto judíos como griegos, es Cristo fuerza de Dios y sabiduría de Dios (1 Cor 1,23-24). De modo que si alguien os anuncia un evangelio distinto del que recibisteis, ¡sea anatema! (Gal 1,9).
Après Janis Pujats, cardinal de Lettonie,Luigi Negri, archevêque émérite de Ferrare, et l’éminent archevêque Carlo Maria Viganò, secrétaire général et ancien nonce apostolique aux États-Unis, Andreas Laun, évêque auxiliaire de Salzbourg, récemment nommé évêque auxiliaire émérite, a lui aussi adhéré à la« Profession des vérités immuables sur le mariage sacramentel » émise par les évêques du Kazakhstan.
Andreas Laun n’est pas un inconnu. Cet ancien professeur de théologie morale à la Haute école de philosophie et de théologie de Heiligenkreuz près de Vienne a entretenu des liens étroits avec les pontificats de Jean-Paul II et de Benoît XVI.
Considéré comme le « lion de Salzbourg », il est renommé bien au-delà des régions germanophones pour son engagement courageux en faveur de la doctrine catholique sur le mariage et la sexualité.
Bien loin d’être un théoricien pur et dur, il s’est toujours profilé en pasteur dévoué sur un plan personnel. Sa douceur et sa compréhension envers les personnes en « situation irrégulière » donnent tort aux représentants des « sages » de la morale catholique qui le qualifient de pharisien rigide.
La Commission pour le mariage et la famille de l’archidiocèse de Salzbourg, qu’il a constituée et dirigée, a toujours été un modèle à suivre en matière de mise en pratique de la doctrine catholique sur la sainteté du mariage et de la vie.
Christian Spaemann, après des études de médecine, d’histoire et de philosophie aux universités d’Innsbruck et Vienne, est psychiatre. Il est le fils du grand penseur catholique allemand, ami de Benoît XVI, Robert Spaemann.
Ndlr : Mgr Andreas Laun est le fils du célèbre converti autrichien Hellmut Laun, lui-même ami du très grand moraliste Dietrich von Hildebrand que le pape Pie XII considéré comme « le docteur de l’Église du XXe siècle » et qui est l’auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur la question de l’amour et du mariage, dont Pureté et virginité (DDB), Le mariage (Le Cerf, traduction Benoit Lavaud), L’Église face aux problèmes de l’amour, sans oublier ses ouvrages sur la crise de l’Église : Le cheval de Troie dans la cité de Dieu (Beauchesne) et La Vigne ravagée (DMM). Dietrich von Hildebrand avait également préfacé le premier tome du recueil des éditoriaux de Marcel Clément, Combat pour l’espérance, tome 1 (éditions de l’Escalade).
Le récit de la conversion de Hellmut Laun a été publié en France aux éditions DMM sous le titre Je sais en qui j’ai cru, accompagné d’une longue postface de Mgr Andreas Laun.
Francis Is Not Above the Gospel: As anticipated, Bergoglian journalists started attacking the Kazakhstan correction of Amoris Laetitia. The journalist with the closest ties to Francis, is Andrea Tornielli, a turncoat who a few years ago opposed the liberal ideology which he now promotes. He claims that Francis may allow unrepentant adulterers to receive Communion. Tornielli’s statement implies that the Pope is not bound to the Gospel, but the Gospel to the Pope.
Personal Attacks: Tornielli also attacks the bishops who signed the Kazakhstan correction, using an interview with another turncoat, the Italian philosopher Massimo Borghesi who used to be a Wojtyla and Ratzinger partisan. Borghesi blames the confusion in the Church produced by Pope Francis on those bishops who try to sort things out. He even calls the defenders of the Catholic faith “dissenters”.
Disclosing the Secret: The author of the blog “Eccles is saved” who calls himself Bruvver Bosco wrote on January 6 that Bergoglian Father Antonio Spadaro, recently unblocked him on Twitter– quote – “along with a whole swathe of other saved persons.” Bosco comments: “My own cynical theory is that he suspects that one of us is the great Marcantonio Colonna, author of ‘The Dictator Pope’, and he is watching us carefully to see who it is. I admit nothing.”Bosco adds: “Anyway, everyone knows that Marcantonio Colonna is really Father Zuhlsdorf...”
Child Abuse: Desmond Napoles, a 10-year-old boy from Brooklyn, New York, has founded a drag club for children. He goes under the drag name “Desmond is Amazing” he performed at the 2015 Gay Pride in New York. Desmond hopes to have a fashion and cosmetics line in the future. Last year the child came out as a homosexual. His parents hastened to declare that their son – quote – “is not yet sexually active”.
Hoy, en la Fiesta de la Epifanía, otro valiente obispo se une a los otros seis prelados que ya han firmado la declaración de los tres obispos de Kazajistán que profesan las verdades inmutables sobre el matrimonio sacramental y se opone a la alteración o ablandamiento de la Iglesia. enseñanza sobre la posible admisión de los divorciados "casados de nuevo" a los sacramentos.
El obispo emérito Andreas Laun, ex Obispo Auxiliar de Salzburgo, Austria, ha dado su apoyo público a esta declaración de lealtad hacia la enseñanza de Cristo sobre el matrimonio. El obispo Athanasius Schneider, uno de los signatarios originales, confirmó la adición del nombre de Laun en apoyo del documento.
El obispo Laun también firmó la Campaña filial publicada en 2016, que incluía las firmas de "miles de obispos, sacerdotes y fieles católicos preocupados que declaran su fidelidad a las inmutables enseñanzas de la Iglesia sobre el matrimonio y su disciplina ininterrumpida".
En diciembre de 2016, el obispo Laun concedió a Onepeterfive una entrevista en la que defendió a los cuatro cardenales dubia por haber escrito y publicado sus preguntas sobre el documento del Papa Francisco sobre el matrimonio, Amoris Laetitia .
De ese esfuerzo, Laun dijo:
¡He leído las preocupaciones de los Cuatro Cardenales y estoy de acuerdo con ellos! Además, conozco personalmente a los Cardenales Meisner y Caffarra y sé lo competentes que son. ¡Con ellos, estoy en la mejor compañía!
[...]
¡La conducta de los cardenales [dubia] es un servicio a la enseñanza de la Iglesia! En la historia, hay muchos ejemplos de críticas, también de un Papa. Sin embargo, tienen que seguir la "moralidad de la crítica": es decir, decirlo educadamente, objetivamente, con justicia, nacer en el amor y con mucha comprensión para el que debe ser criticado porque cada crítica también duele más o menos.
La adición del Obispo Laun trae el número de sucesores apostólicos en apoyo de la Declaración de la Verdad sobre el Matrimonio a siete - seis obispos y un cardenal.
De todos los pronunciamientos del Papa Francisco en estos años de pontificado, el que más me ha atraído, de lejos, es su deseo de hacer “una Iglesia pobre para los pobres”, igual que su insistencia en atender a lo que llama “las periferias”, es decir, prestar atención a la Iglesia más allá del eurocentrismo que ha dominado la práctica eclesial durante siglos.
Después de todo, la opción preferencial por los pobres no es exactamente un invento de la Teología de la Liberación; está en la raíz misma de nuestra fe, en las palabras y en la vida del propio Cristo. La Iglesia ha hecho de la atención al pobre, al que sufre, al olvidado en cada momento por la sociedad de que se trate, un rasgo característico por el podía reconocerse su acción en cualquier rincón del planeta. Allí donde la Iglesia tiene alguna implantación surgen albergues, hospitales, comedores para indigentes, lazaretos, desde mucho antes de que se denominase a estas expresiones de la caridad “acción social”.
Este principio, por lo demás, ha tenido en la historia su comprobación empírica: cada vez que la Iglesia ha descuidado este principio, cuando se ha acomodado y enriquecido y ha dejado a los pobres en un segundo plano -porque olvidarlos, no los ha olvidado jamás-, ha surgido una crisis y, con ella, su cura en forma de un movimiento de vuelta a la simplicidad evangélica, como el de franciscanos y dominicos en el S. XIII.
En cuanto a las periferias, no solo conviene poner el foco en ellas porque son donde están los pobres entre los pobres, porque son tierra de misión, sino porque poner excesivo acento en el centro, en esta Europa nuestra, parece retraer un tanto a la nota de universalidad -católico- que caracteriza a nuestra Iglesia.
Hay un solo problema en este programa renovador e ilusionante: que no se está cumpliendo en absoluto. Examinada con frialdad, la tendencia parece ser exactamente la contraria, la de hacer una pastoral a la medida del rico, y del rico occidental.
¿Cuáles han sido, por ejemplo, las disputas eclesiales que han copado la atención los últimos años?
La comunión de los divorciados vueltos a casar y un caminar en la cuerda floja en cuanto al tratamiento de las relaciones homosexuales.
¿Son esas las preocupaciones de los católicos de África, de China, de los países islámicos, del Sudeste Asiático?
No, en absoluto: son las demandas de las iglesias nacionales más ricas, especialmente de la alemana, cuyo alto nivel de vida y sistema de financiación hace singularmente tentador ‘abrir la mano’ en cuestiones sexuales para no perder ‘clientes’. De hecho, los cardenales con más poder en Santa Marta, los más cercanos, son gente como Reinhard Marx o Walter Kasper, que no proceden exactamente de Bangladés o Burundi.
Quizá esta nueva obsesión por ‘las periferias’ -el Tercer Mundo, para entendernos- debería haber significado el encumbramiento de prelados como el Cardenal Prefecto para el Culto Divino, Robert Sarah. Nacido en una aldea de una minoría étnica en la República de Guinea, hijo de conversos del animismo, ha sufrido persecución y ha vivido la pobreza de su nación, que cuenta con una renta per cápita de 1.394 dólares (la de Alemania es 47.535). Y, sin embargo, sería ingenuo pretender que no ha sido y sigue siendo ninguneado y ‘puenteado’, como en el caso del motu proprio ‘Magnum principium’, que apareció con la firma de su ‘número dos’ y cuya interpretación se vio obligado a rectificar en medios públicos.
Incluso en asuntos que, superficialmente, podrían interpretarse como favorables a esas periferias, como el entusiasmo inmigratorio de Su Santidad, la impresión es del todo engañosa. Despoblar las periferias de sus elementos más dinámicos, jóvenes y emprendedores es una extraña manera de favorecerlas.
En la práctica, las reformas no sólo no duelen en absoluto a ‘los ricos’, sino que éstos las aplauden hasta pelarse las manos.
Los grandes elogios a los nuevos aires llegan deTIME -que ha hecho al Papa Persona del Año-, del New York Times, del Wall Street Journal.
¿Por qué no? ¿Quién apoya a nivel mundial la ‘acogida’ masiva de inmigrantes, a quién beneficia especialmente? A las grandes empresas y, en lo que tiene de debilitamiento de las identidades nacionales y la fronteras, a bancos y gobernantes.
De hecho, hace unos días nos hacíamos eco de la alerta lanzada por prelados africanos contra esta inmigración masiva que pone en peligro la vida de sus compatriotas y vacía sus diócesis.
La última defensa de la doctrina católica inmutable sobre el matrimonio tampoco ha partido del Primer Mundo, sino de Kazajistán, un enorme país de Asia Central con un 70% de musulmanes y sólo 55.000 católicos. Más ‘periferia’, imposible.
"Los reyes de occidente y de las islas le pagarán tributo. Los reyes de Arabia y de Etiopía le ofrecerán regalos. Ante él se postrarán todos los reyes y le servirán todas las naciones" (Salmo 72, 10-11).
De las tres Epifanías del Señor que celebra la Iglesia, la que más importancia tiene en Occidente es la que se produjo ante los Reyes Magos de Oriente.
"Epifanía" significa "manifestación", en este caso del Señor, que se dio a conocer a los paganos (Epifanía ante los Magos de Oriente), a los judíos (Epifanía del Bautismo del Señor por medio de San Juan Bautista), y a sus discípulos (Epifanía de las Bodas de Caná, que dio lugar al comienzo de su vida pública por intercesión de su Madre, la Santísima Virgen María).
Aunque las Sagradas Escrituras no proporcionan los nombres de los Reyes Magos, la Tradición sí lo ha hecho:
Melchor, al que tradicionalmente se representa como un anciano de barba blanca, ofreció oro al Niño Jesús, en señal de la realeza de Cristo.
Gaspar, el rey de barba castaña o rojiza, le trajo incienso, como reconocimiento de la divinidad de Cristo.
Y Baltasar, el rey negro, le regaló mirra como símbolo de su humanidad, del sufrimiento que padecería y de su muerte (la mirra se usaba entonces para embalsamar los cadáveres).
ROMA, 5 de enero de 2018 ( LifeSiteNews ) - El cardenal Janis Pujats, arzobispo Metropolitano de Riga, Letonia, se ha unido a tres obispos de Kazajstán y dos arzobispos italianos para firmar la "Profesión de verdades inmutables sobre el matrimonio sacramental", confirmó LifeSite. La adición de la firma del cardenal Janis Pujats eleva el número de signatarios a seis. A principios de esta semana, el obispo Athanasius Schneider, auxiliar de Astaná, Kazajistán, el arzobispo Tomash Peta, metropolitano de Astaná, y el arzobispo Jan Pawel Lenga de Karaganda, Kazajstán, emitieron una "profesión pública e inequívoca de la verdad" sobre las enseñanzas de la Iglesia sobre la indisolubilidad de el matrimonio como un "servicio de caridad en verdad" para la Iglesia de hoy y para el Papa. LEER MÁS: 'Tres obispos llaman 'EXTRAÑA'a la fe católica la lectura que hace el Papa sobre Amoris Laetitia La declaración de los Ordinarios Kazajos viene en respuesta a la interpretación del Papa Francisco y ciertos obispos de Amoris Laetitia para permitir a algunos divorciados "casados" (sin anulación y sin vivir en continencia sexual) el acceso a los Sacramentos de Penitencia y Sagrada Comunión. Los obispos afirman que tal lectura está causando "confusión desenfrenada", extenderá "una plaga de divorcio" en la Iglesia, y es "ajena" a toda la fe y Tradición de la Iglesia. La adhesión del Cardenal Letón a la Profesión viene después de la del ex nuncio de los Estados Unidos, el Arzobispo Carlo Maria Viganò, y el Arzobispo emérito Luigi Negri de Ferrara-Comacchio en el norte de Italia. Pujats asistió al Seminario Teológico en Riga, Letonia hasta que fue cerrada por la Unión Soviética en 1951. Dos meses más tarde fue ordenado en una ceremonia secreta por el Arzobispo Antonijs Springovičs . Fue nombrado arzobispo de Riga en 1991. El 21 de febrero de 1998 fue nombrado Cardenal por el Papa Juan Pablo II. Su cardenalato se hizo público en el consistorio el 21 de febrero de 2001. El cardenal Pujats fue uno de los cardenales electores que participaron en el cónclave de 2005 que eligió al Papa Benedicto XVI. Habla ruso, polaco, lituano, alemán y latín además de su letón natal.
Diane Montagna
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Nota: El cardenal Pujats es conocido por ser el único miembro del sínodo de obispos que habla exclusivamente latín cuando está al micrófono, tanto en los encuentros de 2001 como en 2005.
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La noticia ha salido en los medios más importantes:
Por supuesto que esta noticia[¡ya comienzan a hablar también los cardenales!] que considero de especial importancia, ha salido en muchos más medios de los que yo indico aquí. Sirvan éstos a modo de ejemplo. Es evidente (a mí me lo parece) que estamos en la Iglesia en una situación muy cercana al llamado cisma "formal" (como sabemos tal cisma ya existe, de hecho, en la Iglesia ... pero no está legalmente reconocido). Si tal ocurriera y, por lo tanto, Dios lo permitiera, sería sin duda un bien para la Iglesia. El cristiano, el católico, no puede permitirse vivir en una situación de ambigüedad. Ante Dios, manifestado en Jesucristo, fuera del cual no hay salvación(cfr. Hech 4, 12) hay que definirse con claridad: "El que no está conmigo está contra Mí"(Mt 12, 30). No cabe el nadar entre dos aguas. Y es que, como decía san Pablo - y la realidad viene a corroborar una vez más- "nada podemos contra la verdad sino en favor de la verdad" (2 Cor 13, 8)
When it gets down to the nitty gritty details of the Faith, you can bet on the Church of Nice crowd to fall absolutely silent. Their pathetic "reasonable hope all men are saved" argument falls totally flat when compared with authentic Catholicism.
That spiritual insanity fails to properly comprehend the truths of God, Hell, sin, and free will, as well as some other Catholic truths. They simply do not want to admit the supernatural realities, the stakes that are being played for in the spiritual warfare that all the saints spoke so eloquently and magnificently about.
When God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers," just who exactly does the Church of Nice think God was referring to when He spoke of the offspring of Satan? They don't even consider this question. That's what happens when you dismiss Hell as just "a real possibility."
The problem is that for them, the possibility of someone going to Hell is so miniscule, so "can’t happen in a million years," that it can be easily dismissed in their catechesis and evangelization efforts. For the record, Our Blessed Lord did not dismiss it so easily. So let's look at an authentic understanding and consider the reality that Church of Nicers don't want to.
Every soul who is damned was, while on earth, someone's husband, mother, wife, son, uncle or grandson — someone. They had relationships with all kinds of people, people for whom they had an earthly love and affection and who loved and cared for them in return. That's part of human nature, even fallen human nature.
But what happens to those bonds when a person is damned? Let's take the adult son who dies in mortal sin owing to his sins of the flesh, whatever variety they might be — adultery, fornication, cohabitation, homosexuality, promiscuity, masturbation, lust and so forth. Those ties with whom he loved and cared for here on earth are immediately and eternally broken and turn into everlasting hatred for those people.
He is now confirmed forever as a "son of Satan," so to speak, a slave to the diabolical. He now is incapable of anything but authentic hate, a hate so deep that there is actually a different word for it: enmity. Enmity carries with it the understanding of not just hatred, but bearing ill will toward others, wishing for their demise, odium, loathing. This becomes for the damned the sentiment toward everything and everyone. They have willfully cut themselves off from everlasting life by their rejection of Christ in this life.
So in the next, they become completely the offspring of Satan, not biologically, of course, but even more powerfully, in spirit. God said He would put enmity between Satan and the Woman and between their two families of offspring. The damned hate God, they hate the Blessed Virgin Mary, and they hate their own earthly family and friends, most especially those who are in Heaven.
So if our sample sexually perverse son is damned and his mother is saved, he will hate her, and there will never be any going back from it because his reality is sealed forever at the point of death. He will have an everlasting loathing for her, no matter what his feelings may have been for her in this life. Our Blessed Lord made quick work of any appeal to earthly family when it stood in the way of salvation.
He said He came to bring the sword, that families would war with each other over him, that no one is saved based on his DNA or familial relationships, despite the Jewish leaders appealing to Abraham as their father. Our Lord rightfully pointed out that their father was the devil. Notice the use of the word "father."
Earthly relationships are not heavenly relationships. Even marriage, no matter how life-giving and spiritually beneficial it may have been in this life, comes to an end at the point of death. Our family in Heaven will be those with whom we are brothers and sisters in Christ, not those whom we might have shared biological DNA with on earth. Spiritual DNA will be the tie that binds.
And what of the relationship between the mother in Heaven and her son in Hell? It is almost impossible for us to wrap our heads around this, but she will not be mourning him or feel the slightest degree of sadness or longing for him. His father will be the devil, and her father will be God — and it will be as such for life everlasting.
In fact, various Doctors of the Church pointed out that the punishment meted out to her former son will be seen by her and rejoiced over by her as a manifestation of the justice of God. When the great thunderous cheer of final victory goes up on the Last Day from the elect as they are ascending to Heaven and the damned are falling into Hell, of course there will be many, many people on opposite sides who knew each other in this life and were even related. The cheer will resound from the saved, and one dynamic of that cheer will be that the damned are manifesting the justice of Almighty God.
This kind of stuff must be talked about because this is the final, ultimate reality. There will be a Last Day, a final accounting, and the reward and punishment of everlasting life or death. It is terrifying to think that someone we may have loved here on earth we will view entirely differently in the blinding light of the illumination of God. We will no longer see them as son or mother or daughter. We will see them as God sees them — as a human who has the devil as their father — and the saved will be perfectly conformed to Almighty God and will see them in the same light. The damned will be forgotten forever by the saved. Except for being a manifestation of God’s justice, they will have no regard for them.
This is how evangelization and catechesis needs to be done — the whole blinding, terrifying, glorious truth — so that we can be correctly motivated by the truth, not by our emotions. The goal is to save souls, not feel good about ourselves and experience an emotional high.
El obispo Athanasius Schneider, auxiliar de Astana, Kazajstán, y uno de los tres redactores originales de la Profesión de las Verdades Inmutables de esta semana en respuesta a Amoris Laetitia y la aprobación oficial del Papa Francisco concediendo la Sagrada Comunión a algunos católicos "divorciados y casados", participó una entrevista con Rorate Caeli después del lanzamiento del documento.
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ORIGINAL EN INGLÉS
RORATE CAELI (RC): Your Excellency has personally been out in front in terms of restoration of the traditional liturgy for many years. Now Your Excellency, Archbishop Peta and Archbishop Lenga have come out publicly, and forcibly, in defense of marriage in the aftermath of Amoris Laetitia. Why did the three of you decide now was the time to respond?
BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER(BAS): After the publication of Amoris Laetitia, several bishops and Bishops’ Conferences started to issue “pastoral” norms regarding the so-called “divorced and remarried”. One has to say that, for a Catholic, there is no divorce because a valid sacramental bond of a ratified and consumed marriage is absolutely indissoluble and even the bond of a natural marriage is per se indissoluble as well. Furthermore, for a Catholic, there is only one valid marriage being his legitimate spouse still alive. Therefore, one cannot speak of a “re-marriage” in this case.
The expression “divorced and remarried” is consequently deceptive and misleading. Since this expression is commonly known, we use it only in quotation marks and with the previous remark “so-called”. The mentioned pastoral norms regarding the so- called “divorced and remarried” -- norms masked with a rhetoric bordering on sophism -- foresee ultimately the admittance of the “divorced and remarried” to Holy Communion without the requirement of the indispensable and Divinely established condition that they may not violate their sacred marriage bond through their habitual sexual relationship with a person who is not their legitimate spouse. A certain peak has reached in this process of implicit recognition of divorce in the life of the Church, when Pope Francis ordered to publish in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, his letter of approval of similar norms which issued the bishops of the Pastoral Region of Buenos Aires.
This act was followed by a declaration that this papal approval would belong to the authentic Magisterium of the Church. In view of such pastoral norms which contradict Divine Revelation with its absolute disapproval of divorce and contradict also the teaching and sacramental practice of the infallible Ordinary and Universal Magisterium of the Church, we were forced by our conscience, as successors of the Apostles, to raise our voice and to reiterate the immutable doctrine and practice of the Church regarding the indissolubility of the sacramental marriage.
RC: Has the Kazakh conference officially released an interpretation of Amoris Laetitia? Do they plan to do so, or does this letter mean that the conference believes Amoris Laetitia cannot be understood in an orthodox way or is in any way compatible with the Catechism and with Scripture and Tradition?
BAS:The text of the “Profession of truths” is not a document of the Bishop’s Conference of Kazakhstan, but a document only of those bishops who signed it. Our Bishop’s Conference considered it not necessary to issue pastoral norms as an interpretation of AL. Even though in our society the plague of divorce is widespread, a consequence of 70 years of Communist materialism, and we have also in our parishes cases of so-called “divorced and remarried”, yet the same “divorced and remarried” would not dare to ask to be admitted to Holy Communion, since the awareness and conscience of sin is, thanks be to God, very deep routed in the souls, and even in the civil society.
In our country people commit sin as elsewhere, but our people still acknowledge that sin is sin, and therefore for such sinners there is hope for conversion and Divine mercy. It would be for our people -- and even for the so-called “divorced and remarried” among them -- a kind of blasphemy to demand access to Holy Communion while continuing to cohabitate with a person who is not their legitimate spouse. Therefore, our Bishops’ Conference did not see the necessity to issue relevant norms.
RC:We’ve had the famous dubia sent to the Pope and a filial correction – mostly by laymen – sent as well. Neither have garnered a response. However, many feel Francis has already responded in a sense, when he officially endorsed the Buenos Aires bishops’ apparently heretical instruction to the divorced, remarried and still cohabitating. Should we still expect anything more from Francis on this matter?
BAS:The Buenos Aires bishops’ instructions do not express directly a heresy. Yet they allow, in individual cases, “divorced and remarried” people to receive Holy Communion in spite of the fact that they do not want to stop sexual relationships with their non-conjugal partner. In this case the mentioned pastoral instructions deny in practice, and hence indirectly, the Divinely revealed truth of the indissolubility of marriage. The sad circumstance is that the Pope approved such instructions. By this way the Pope gave, in my opinion, directly an answer to the first point and indirectly to the four other points of the dubia. We can only expect through our appeals, prayers and sacrifices, that Pope Francis may answer in a most unequivocal manner to the five points of the dubia according to the relevant teaching of the Ordinary and Universal infallible Magisterium.
RC:The threat to the Faithful has been clear, not only since Amoris Laetitia was promulgated, but just from the discussions alone at the synods. The confusion it has all caused cannot be questioned. However, much like the usefulness of Humanae Vitae was lessoned due to how long it took for it to be published, is all this now too late to stop the damage, especially when the Pope has now officially given permission for some divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion?
BAS:We have to bear in mind that the Church is not in our hands, and not even in the hands of the Pope, but in the almighty hands of Christ, and therefore we cannot say that all this is now too late to stop the damage. We can also apply the following affirmation of Saint Paul to our situation inside the Church: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). God had permitted this current extraordinary doctrinal and moral confusion in the Church for the aim that, after this crisis, the truth will shine brighter and the Church will become spiritually more beautiful, especially in the married couples, in the families and in the popes.
RC: We have heard now, for over a year, that a formal correction coming from the cardinals is imminent, yet nothing has happened. What do you believe is the hold up?
BAS: In the face of the current temporal and partial eclipse of the function of the Papal Magisterium concerning concretely the defense and practical enforcement of the indissolubility the marriage, the members of the episcopal and of the cardinalitial colleges have to assist the Pope in this Magisterial duty through public professions of the immutable truths which the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium -- that means what all the Popes and the entire episcopate during all times - have taught concerning the doctrine and the sacramental practice of the marriage.
RC: If a formal correction is made by a number of cardinals, and Francis continues to officially approve of bishops’ conferences giving Holy Communion to some divorced and remarried, then what?
BAS: There exists the following principle of the traditional Catholic doctrine since the first centuries: “Prima sedes a nemine iudicatur”, i.e., the first episcopal chair in the Church (the chair of the Pope) cannot be judged by anybody. When bishops remind the Pope respectfully of the immutable truth and discipline of the church, they don’t judge hereby the first chair of the Church, instead they behave themselves as colleagues and brothers of the Pope. The attitude of the bishops towards the Pope has to be collegial, fraternal, not servile and always supernaturally respectful, as it stressed the Second Vatican Council (especially in the documents Lumen gentium and Christus Dominus). One has to continue to profess the immutable faith and pray still more for the Pope and, then, only God can intervene and He will do this unquestionably.
RC: For the typical Catholic, who goes to Mass but maybe doesn’t follow the politics of the Church like Rorate readers do, the casual Catholics whom hear the Supreme Pontiff saying numerous confusing things over the past few years, things that appear contrary (hopefully) to what they’ve been taught their entire lives, what does Your Excellency say to them? And how do serious Catholics push back when, at every turn, they’re asked by modernists if they think they’re “more Catholic than the Pope”?
BAS:First, these faithful have to continue to read and study the immutable Catechism, and especially the great doctrinal documents of the Church. Such documents are theme here, e.g., the Decrees of the Councils of Trent about the sacraments; the encyclicals Pascendi from Pius X.; Casti connubii from Pius XI; Humani generis from Pius XII; Humanae vitae from Paul VI; the Credo of the People of God from Paul VI; the encyclical Veritatis splendor from John Paul II; and his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio. These documents do not reflect a personal and short-lived meaning of a Pope or of a pastoral synod. Instead, these documents reflect and reproduce the infallible Ordinary and Universal Magisterium of the Church.
Second, they have to bear in mind that the Pope is not the creator of the truth, of the faith and of the sacramental discipline of the Church. The Pope and the entire Magisterium “is not above the Word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on” (Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, 10). The First Vatican Council taught that the charism of the ministry of the successors of Peter “does not mean that they might make known some new doctrine, but that, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles” (Pastor aeternus, chap. 4).
Third, the Pope cannot be the focal point of the daily life of the faith of a Catholic faithful. The focal point must instead be Christ. Otherwise, we become victims of an insane pope-centrism or of a kind of popalatry, an attitude which is alien to the tradition of the Apostles, of the Church Fathers and of the greater tradition of the Church. The so called “ultramontanism” of the 19th and 20th centuries reached its peak in our days and created an insane pope-centrism and popolatry. To mention just an example: There had been in Rome in the end of the 19th century a famous Monsignor who led different pilgrim groups to the Papal audiences. Before he let them enter to see and hear the Pope, he said to them: “Listen carefully to the infallible words which will come out of the mouth of the Vicar of Christ”. Surely such an attitude is a pure caricature of the Petrine ministry and contrary to the doctrine of the Church. Nevertheless, even in our days, not so few Catholics, priests and bishops show substantially the same caricatural attitude towards the sacred ministry of the successor of Peter.
The true attitude towards the Pope according to the Catholic tradition has to be always with sane moderation, with intelligence, with logic, with common sense, with the spirit of faith and of course, also, with heartfelt devotion. Yet there has to be a balanced synthesis of all these characteristics. We hope that after the current crisis the Church will reach a more balanced and sane attitude towards the person of the Pope and toward his sacred and indispensable ministry in the Church.
