Posted on 02/06/2024 2:26:15 PM PST by ebb tide
The declaration Fiducia Supplicans and the reactions it has engendered allow us to observe a division of continental dimensions pulsating through the Church: In Europe, approval; in Africa and Asia, repudiation. This is therefore not something marginal, or which has to do with “ideological groups,” as the Pontiff asserts.
This is the ecclesial reality: In old Europe, Christian faith and culture are languishing. Families have no children, only pets (dogs and cats). Seminaries are empty, and depopulated religious institutes barely subsist with very few members or close down. Deeply secularized society and civil governments sweep away the values of the natural order, as if alien to any influence of Christianity.
If things continue in this way, our beautiful cathedrals, relics of the Christian West, will be converted into mosques in a few decades’ time. The papal see is an island that tries to keep governing the Catholic universe. The vital reality of the Church is moving toward the East, flourishing in Africa and in Asia. I say this with regret: I am the grandson of Europeans, and the culture I have assumed is European. But the spirit of revolution has swept away Christian culture; the crisis is expressed in ecclesiastical progressivism, an accomplice of a revolution that liquidates the natural order of creation.
I read in La Prensa that “the Italian Church defends the blessing of gay couples.” Indeed, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), managed to align the bishops in support of Fiducia Supplicans – issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is led by the Argentinean Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, “Tucho” (or as many already call him, “Trucho”), and behind him the Pope himself.
Zuppi exhibits the hackneyed arguments of the “horizon of mercy,” of the “loving gaze of the Church on all the children of God, without undermining the teachings of the Magisterium.” Again, a contradiction: Even in Fernández’s example of a “blessing,” he extends it to “the mutual help that the members of the couple give each other,” which is to say that the homosexual union is approved.
Zuppi continues: “God wants everyone to be saved; it is therefore the task of the Church to be interested in each and every one. We cannot forget that all the baptized enjoy the full dignity of children of God and, as such, they are our brothers and sisters.” It is said that “the meaning of the sacrament of marriage is not questioned; the traditional doctrine of the Church on marriage is maintained, not admitting any liturgical type of blessings, similar to a liturgical rite that could create confusion.”
Another contribution is that of Cardinal Giuseppe Betori in an article for Avvenire: “It’s not about an expansion of the concept of marriage, but rather a concrete application of the conviction of faith that God’s love has no boundaries, and that His work seeks to overcome the difficult situations in which man finds himself.” These prelates believe that we faithful Catholics are fools. Undoubtedly God wants all men to be saved, and for that reason they must abandon sin. Is the practice of homosexual acts, which are intrinsically disordered, a sin or not? The Father’s love has no boundaries, and for that reason He can bless a homosexual person, calling him to live chastely, but He cannot take pleasure in the person’s permanent union with another of the same kind, which is the continuity of sin.
“The close connection between the salvific will of God and the historical condition of man” is mentioned – but it is precisely this connection that calls for conversion to God and the abandonment of sin. God loves virtue and invites man to live virtuously. Zuppi insists “it is the pastoral value of Christian truth which always tends toward salvation.” He’s got it all backwards.
At the same time, the African bishops stressed their disagreement with Fiducia Supplicans: “In Africa, homosexual couples will not be blessed.” This persistence in truth and common sense explains the flourishing of the Church there: Christian families with many children, abundant priestly and religious vocations, full seminaries, and a prominent presence of the Church in society. The confused dalliance of Pope Bergoglio is repudiated in these facts; the providence of the Lord of history has opened a new path for the mission of the Church. In this reality consists the mystery of the divine will which rejuvenates and beautifies the face of the Church.
In Asia, the attachment to ecclesial Tradition also leads to a repudiation of the Bergoglio-Fernández project to confuse Catholics with their (sadly) celebrated declaration. Here also the Church flourishes. This is the fulfillment of the efficacy of Truth, of God’s love, and of men oriented to salvation. The Church has moved from Europe to the East, which is where the future lies.
In the last few weeks a book by “Dr. Tuchensis” has been rediscovered, though he now pretends to suppress it. It is called Mystical Passion, where the mystical theology illustrated by the Doctors of the Church and the written experiences of the saints who have lived in mystical union with the Triune God are disregarded. All of this is distorted in the reductive sexology practiced by Fernández, which shows evidence of ignorance and confusion. This backdrop is concealed in Fiducia Supplicans.
But now it is understood!
+ Héctor Aguer
Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata
Buenos Aires, Friday, February 2, 2024
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
World Day for Consecrated Life
Ping
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