Dell’ottimo
Mons. Athanasius Schneider avevamo pubblicato nel luglio scorso una traduzione
italiana di una sua intervista “a tutto tondo” nella quale egli ravvisava, nel
sinodo svoltosi in ottobre, alcuni semi che avrebbero portato ad un possibile
scisma.
Ora,
Mons. Schneider torna sul tema, intervistato dalla rivista Polonia Christiana.
Questa,
comparsa in lingua polacca, è stata tradotta in inglese e rilanciata dall’immancabile
Rorate Caeli. In lingua italiana è stata solo tradotta dal blog
Chiesa e Postconcilio.
Against Pharisees
The Church and the world do urgently need intrepid and
candid witnesses of the whole truth of the commandment and of the will of God,
of the whole truth of Christ’s words on marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and
Scribes, those bishops and cardinals who throw grains of incense to the
neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and concubinage, will not convince anyone to
either believe in Christ or to be ready to offer their lives for Christ -
said + Athanasius Schneider Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of
Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan in interview with Izabella Parowicz.
Your Excellency, what is Your Excellency’s opinion
about the Synod? What is its message to families?
During the Synod there had been moments of obvious
manipulation on the part of some clerics who held key positions in the
editorial and governing structure of the Synod. The interim report (Relatio
post disceptationem) was clearly a prefabricated text with no reference to the
actual statements of the Synod fathers. In the sections on homosexuality,
sexuality and “divorced and remarried” with their admittance to the sacraments
the text represents a radical neo-pagan ideology. This is the first time in
Church history that such a heterodox text was actually published as a document
of an official meeting of Catholic bishops under the guidance of a pope, even
though the text only had a preliminary character. Thanks be to God and to the
prayers of the faithful all over the world that a consistent number of Synod
fathers resolutely rejected such an agenda; this agenda reflects the corrupt
and pagan main stream morality of our time, which is being imposed globally by
means of political pressure and through the almost all-powerful official mass
media, which are loyal to the principles of the world gender ideology party.
Such a synod document, even if only preliminary, is a real shame and an
indication to the extent the spirit of the anti-Christian world has already penetrated
such important levels of the life of the Church. This document will remain for
the future generations and for the historians a black mark which has stained
the honour of the Apostolic See. Fortunately the Message of the Synod Fathers
is a real Catholic document which outlines the Divine truth on family without
being silent about the deeper roots of the problems, i.e. about the reality of
sin. It gives real courage and consolation to Catholic families. Some
quotations: “We think of the burden imposed by life in the
suffering that can arise with a child with special needs, with grave illness,
in deterioration of old age, or in the death of a loved one. We admire the
fidelity of so many families who endure these trials with courage, faith, and
love. They see them not as a burden inflicted on them, but as something in
which they themselves give, seeing the suffering Christ in the weakness of the
flesh. … Conjugal love, which is unique and indissoluble, endures despite many
difficulties. It is one of the most beautiful of all miracles and the most
common. This love spreads through fertility and generativity, which involves
not only the procreation of children but also the gift of divine life in
baptism, their catechesis, and their education. … The presence of
the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you”.
Those groups of people who had been expecting a change
in the Church’s teaching with regard to the moral issues (e.g. allowing
divorced and remarried people to receive Holy Communion or granting any form of
approval for homosexual unions) were probably disappointed by the content of
the final Relatio. Isn’t there, however, a danger that questioning
and discussing issues that are fundamental for the Church’s teaching may itself
open doors for serious abuses and for similar attempts to revise this teaching
in the future?
In fact a Divine commandment, in our case the sixth
commandment, the absolute indissolubility of the sacramental marriage, a
Divinely established rule, means those in a state of grave sin cannot be
admitted to Holy Communion. This is taught by Saint Paul in his letter inspired
by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 11, 27-30, this cannot be put to the vote,
just as the Divinity of Christ would never be put to a vote. A person who still
has the indissoluble sacramental marriage bond and who in spite of this lives
in a stable marital cohabitation with another person, by Divine law cannot be
admitted to Holy Communion. To do so would be a public statement by the Church
nefariously legitimizing a denial of the indissolubility of the Christian
marriage and at the same time repealing the sixth commandment of God: “Thou
shalt not commit adultery”. No human institution not even the Pope or an
Ecumenical Council has the authority and the competency to invalidate even in
the slightest or indirect manner one of the ten Divine commandments or the
Divine words of Christ: “What therefore God has joined together,
let man not separate (Math 19:6)”. Regardless of this lucid truth
which was taught constantly and unchangingly - because unchangeable - through
all the ages by the Magisterium of the Church up to our days as for instance in
“Familiaris consortio” of Saint John Paul II, in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church and by Pope Benedict XVI, the issue of the admissibility to
Holy Communion of the so called “divorced and remarried” has been put to the
vote in the Synod. This fact is in itself grievous and represents an attitude
of clerical arrogance towards the Divine truth of the Word of God. The attempt
to put the Divine truth and the Divine Word to a vote is unworthy of those who
as representatives of the Magisterium have to hand over zealously as good and
faithful rules (cf. Math 24, 45) the Divine deposit. By admitting the “divorced
and remarried” to Holy Communion those bishops establish a new tradition on
their own volition and transgressing thereby the commandment of God, as Christ
once rebuked the Pharisees and Scribes (cf. Math 15: 3). And what is still
aggravating, is the fact that such bishops try to legitimize their infidelity
to Christ’s word by means of arguments such as “pastoral need”, “mercy”,
“openness to the Holy Spirit”. Moreover they have no fear and no scruples to
pervert in a Gnostic manner the real meaning of these words labeling at the
same time those who oppose them and defend the immutable Divine commandment and
the true non-human tradition as rigid, scrupulous or traditionalist. During the
great Arian crisis in the IV century the defenders of the Divinity of the Son
of God were labeled “intransigent” and “traditionalist” as well. Saint
Athanasius was even excommunicated by Pope Liberius and the Pope justified this
with the argument that Athanasius was not in communion with the Oriental
bishops who were mostly heretics or semi-heretics. Saint Basil the Great stated
in that situation the following: “Only one sin is nowadays severely
punished: the attentive observance of the traditions of our Fathers. For that
reason the good ones are thrown out of their places and brought to the desert”
(Ep. 243).
In fact the bishops who support Holy Communion for
“divorced remarried” are the new Pharisees and Scribes because they neglect the
commandment of God, contributing to the fact that out of the body and of the
heart of the “divorced remarried” continue to “proceed adulteries” (Math 15:
19), because they want an exteriorly “clean” solution and to appear “clean” as
well in the eyes of those who have power (the social media, public opinion).
However when they eventually appear at the tribunal of Christ, they will surely
hear to their dismay these words of Christ: “Why are you declaring
my statutes and taking my covenant in your mouth? Seeing you hate instruction,
and cast my words behind you, … when you have been partaker with adulterers”
(Ps 50 (49): 16-18).
The final Relatio of the Synod also
unfortunately contains the paragraph with the vote on the issue of Holy
Communion for “divorced remarried”. Even though it has not achieved the
required two third of the votes, there remains nevertheless the worrying and
astonishing fact that the absolute majority of the present bishops voted in
favor of Holy Communion for the “divorced and remarried”, a sad
reflection on the spiritual quality of the catholic episcopacy in our days. It
is moreover sad, that this paragraph which hasn’t got the required approval of
the qualitative majority, remains nevertheless in the final text of the Relatio
and will be sent to all dioceses for further discussion. It will surely only
increase the doctrinal confusion among the priests and the faithful, being in
the air, that Divine commandments and Divine words of Christ and those of the
apostle Paul are put at the disposal of human decision making groups. One
Cardinal who openly and strongly supported the issue of Holy Communion for
“divorced and remarried” and even the shameful statements on homosexual
“couples” in the preliminary Relatio, was dissatisfied with the final
Relatio, and declared impudently: “The glass is half-full”, and analogously he
said that one has to work that next year at the Synod it will be full. We must
believe firmly that God will dissipate the plans of dishonesty, infidelity and
betrayal. Christ holds infallibly the rudder of the boat of His Church in midst
of such a big storm. We believe and trust in the very ruler of the Church, in
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth.
We are currently experiencing a culmination of
aggression against the family; this aggression is accompanied by a tremendous
confusion in the area of science about human and human identity. Unfortunately,
there are certain members of Church hierarchy who, while discussing these
matters, express opinions that contradict the teaching of Our Lord. How should
we talk with those people who become victims of this confusion in order to
strengthen their faith and to help them towards salvation?
In this extraordinarily difficult time Christ is
purifying our Catholic faith so that through this trial the Church will shine
brighter and be really light and salt for the insipid neo-pagan world thanks to
the fidelity and the pure and simple faith firstly of the faithful, of the
little ones in the Church, of the “ecclesia docta” (the learning
church), which in our days will strengthen the “ecclesia docens” (the
teaching Church, i.e. the Magisterium), in a similar way as it was in
the great crisis of the faith in the IV century as Blessed John Henry Cardinal
Newman stated: “This is a very remarkable fact: but there is a
moral in it. Perhaps it was permitted, in order to impress upon the Church at
that very time passing out of her state of persecution the great evangelical
lesson, that, not the wise and powerful, but the obscure, the unlearned, and
the weak constitute her real strength. It was mainly by the faithful people
that Paganism was overthrown; it was by the faithful people, under the lead of
Athanasius and the Egyptian bishops, and in some places supported by their
Bishops or priests, that the worst of heresies was withstood and stamped out of
the sacred territory. … In that time of immense confusion the divine dogma of
our Lord's divinity was proclaimed, enforced, maintained, and (humanly
speaking) preserved, far more by the "Ecclesia docta" than by
the "Ecclesia docens;" that the body of the Episcopate was
unfaithful to its commission, while the body of the laity was faithful to its
baptism; that at one time the pope, at other times a patriarchal, metropolitan,
or other great see, at other times general councils, said what they should not
have said, or did what obscured and compromised revealed truth; while, on the
other hand, it was the Christian people, who, under Providence, were the
ecclesiastical strength of Athanasius, Hilary, Eusebius of Vercellæ, and other
great solitary confessors, who would have failed without them” (Arians
of the Fourth Century, pp. 446, 466).
We have to encourage ordinary Catholics to be faithful
to the Catechism they have learned, to be faithful to the clear words of Christ
in the Gospel, to be faithful to the faith their fathers and forefathers handed
over to them. We have to organize circles of studies and conferences about the
perennial teaching of the Church on the issue of marriage and chastity,
inviting especially young people and married couples. We have to show the very
beauty of a life in chastity, the very beauty of the Christian marriage and
family, the great value of the Cross and of the sacrifice in our lives. We have
to present ever more the examples of the Saints and of exemplary persons who
demonstrated that in spite of the fact that they suffered the same temptations
of the flesh, the same hostility and derision of the pagan world, they
nevertheless with the grace of Christ led a happy life in chastity, in a
Christian marriage and in family. The faith, the pure and integral Catholic and
Apostolic faith will overcome the world (cf. 1 John 5: 4).
We have to found and promote youth groups of pure
hearts, family groups, groups of Catholic spouses, who will be committed to the
fidelity of their marriage vows. We have to organize groups which will help
morally and materially broken families, single mothers, groups who will assist
with prayer and with good counsel separated couples, groups and persons who
will help “divorced and remarried” people to start a process of serious
conversion, i.e. recognizing with humility their sinful situation and
abandoning with the grace of God the sins which violate the commandment of God
and the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage. We have to create groups who
will carefully help persons with homosexual tendencies to enter the path of
Christian conversion, the happy and beautiful path of a chaste life and to
offer them eventually in a discrete manner a psychological cure. We have to
show and preach to our contemporaries in the neo-pagan world the liberating
Good News of the teaching of Christ: that the commandment of God, and even the
sixth commandment is wise, is beauty: “The law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise
the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps 19(18): 7-8).
During the Synod, Archbishop Gądecki from Poznań and
some other distinguished prelates were publicly expressing their disagreement
with the fact that the results of the discussions departed from the perennial
teaching of the Church. Is there a hope that, amid this confusion, there will
be an awakening of members of clergy and those faithful who were so far unaware
of the fact that, in the very Church’s bosom, there are people who undermine
the teaching of Our Lord?
It is certainly an honor for Polish Catholicism that
the President of the Catholic episcopate, His Excellency Archbishop Gądecki,
defended with clarity and courage the truth of Christ about marriage and human
sexuality, thus revealing himself to be a true spiritual son of Saint John Paul
II. Cardinal George Pell characterized the liberal sexual agenda and the
alleged merciful and pastoral support of Holy Communion for “divorced
remarried” during the Synod very aptly, saying that this is only the tip of the
iceberg and a kind of a Trojan horse in the Church.
That in the very bosom of the Church, there are people
who undermine the teaching of Our Lord became an obvious fact and one for the
whole world to see thanks to the internet and the work of some Catholic journalists
who were not indifferent to what was happening to the Catholic faith which they
consider to be the treasure of Christ. I was pleased to see that some Catholic
journalists and internet bloggers behaved as good soldiers of Christ and drew
attention to this clerical agenda of undermining the perennial teaching of Our
Lord. Cardinals, bishops, priests, Catholic families, Catholic young people
have to say to themselves: I refuse to conform to the neo-pagan spirit of this
world, even when this spirit is spread by some bishops and cardinals; I will
not accept their fallacious and perverse use of holy Divine mercy and of “new
Pentecost”; I refuse to throw grains of incense before the statue of the idol
of the gender ideology, before the idol of second marriages, of concubinage,
even if my bishop would do so, I will not do so; with the grace of God I will
choose to suffer rather than betray the whole truth of Christ on human
sexuality and on marriage.
The witnesses will convince the world, not the teachers,
said Blessed Paul VI in “Evangelii nuntiandi”. The Church and the world
do urgently need intrepid and candid witnesses of the whole truth of the
commandment and of the will of God, of the whole truth of Christ’s words on
marriage. Modern clerical Pharisees and Scribes, those bishops and cardinals
who throw grains of incense to the neo-pagan idols of gender ideology and
concubinage, will not convince anyone to either believe in Christ or to be
ready to offer their lives for Christ. Indeed “veritas Domini manet in
aeternum” (Ps 116: the truth of the Lord remains forever) and “Christ is
the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebr 13: 8) and “the truth will set you
free” (John 8: 32). This last phrase was one of the favorite biblical phrases
of Saint John Paul II, the pope of the family. We can add: the revealed
and unchangeably transmitted Divine truth about human sexuality and marriage
will bring true freedom to the souls inside and outside the Church. In midst of
the crisis of the Church and the bad moral and doctrinal example of some
bishops of his time Saint Augustine comforted the simple faithful with these
words: “Whatsoever we bishops may be, you are safe, who have God for
your Father and His Church for your mother“ (Contra litteras Petiliani III,
9, 10).
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