Even the secular world's sentimental and improperly-formed idea of marriage, as practiced casually and serially by non-believers, is falling by the wayside as young and old alike seem to be eschewing its hypocrisy in favor of mere fornication and cohabitation, with one person after another so long as the feeling lasts.
One could weather these attacks, by the Grace of God, if it didn't seem like our bishops were actively trying to undermine us as well.
To wit, they often issue the correct, formal written statements about these matters (which counts for little) but never, never do anything about them, e.g. the bishops_never_preach about marriage, or any of these hard issues that undermine marriage, but gleefully run an annulment factory of easy "Catholic divorce"; they provide little to no opposition to legalized homosexual pseudo-marriages and, in many cases, even abet them; yes, they have sued Obama over his contraception mandate, but, in a lot of cases (including in our New York Archdiocese) the Church already provides contraception in its health care plans and hospitals, thus fatally undermining our position; they never, never discipline the politicians who defy the Faith, such as "Catholic in good standing" Andrew Cuomo, who not only supports abortion and homosexual marriage, but is a divorced man shacking up with a concubine. Frankly, most of our bishops are either actively working for the other side or are just too cowardly to wear a miter.
Now, the Fifth Column in the hierarchy are taking off the gloves and, for the first time, openly lobbying to overturn not just Catholic praxis but Catholic doctrine. A well-organized campaign is being hatched in the Church to repeal God's law on the indissolubility of marriage.
Led by the German bishops, who are already defying the Church and denying our Faith by giving Communion to people who have divorced their spouses and remarried, they have chosen as their spokesman the modernist and dissident Cardinal Walter Kasper, whose own career and continuing preeminence is a mystery and a festering scandal. For months now, these forces have been leaking hints to the media that the upcoming Synod on the Family will change Church teaching on marriage and permit the reception of Communion by the divorced and remarried. In the recent opening discussions for this October Synod, Cardinal Kasper stated his case with Luciferian persuasiveness...
He begins by pointing out the hard cases of those divorced and remarried people who genuinely desire to be reconciled with the Church. Striking a pose as a loyal son of the Church, he affirms Jesus' clear teaching on the indissolubility of marriage while denying it in the next breath by subtly describing the Church's teaching as a "tradition" and calling for these adulterous relationships to somehow be made valid in the eyes of the Church. (Funny how this bleeding heart has no tears to shed for the millions of children who have had to endure broken homes over the past 5 decades). He exhibits his reasonableness by arguing that this would only take place in very limited and individual circumstances, and only after a period of penitence.
Bull.
He, and everyone, knows that this is intended to be the camel's nose under the tent. As if it were possible to only defy God's law in a limited way, it is patently obvious that the modernists in the hierarchy are using this issue to "officially" overturn and nullify the Sacrament of Marriage and thus the infallible consistency of the Catholic Church, which is the ultimate goal, of course. For who could trust a Church or believe in a Faith that would contradict its own most basic dogmas? The Catholic Church will have finally slit its own throat if this change is allowed to pass.
What makes it even more disturbing is that Pope Francis has tolerated these proposals and even appeared to approve of them. We will recall one of his first interviews, when he favorably referenced the Eastern Orthodox approval of second marriages. And the Pope's very questionable advisor, the constantly-smirking leftist Cardinal Maradiaga, has been extremely vocal in his support of this new morality.
Sensing the rising zeitgeist, the then-Archbishop (now Cardinal) Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and not theretofore known as any sort of staunch conservative, issued a preemptive blow to this dangerous conspiracy. Entitled, Testimony to the Power of Grace, it is the most powerful and, indeed, beautiful apologia for and encomia to Marriage that I have ever read. It is intellectually substantial but eminently comprehensible. I encourage everyone to read and re-read it, until its message is internalized: 1. Marriage cannot be dissolved, because Jesus said so, clearly and definitively, 2. the Church has solemnly and dogmatically reaffirmed that teaching throughout the ages, and 3. therefore, the Church couldn't teach anything different even if it wanted to. God bless the Cardinal. To his credit, he is standing strong against his enemies' attacks, but their campaign continues.
I know this isn't a Staten Island issue (unless one considers the epidemic of divorced Catholics here) but this campaign to change doctrine is so exceedingly dangerous to our Faith that I feel we should be aware and be vocal. Read Jesus' words on marriage in the Bible; read Muller's essay; and reflect upon what a glorious gift God has given us in Marriage.
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