393. Catholics: Divorce and Re-Marriage
“In a lengthy statement published in L’Osservatore Romano, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has strongly affirmed the Church’s teaching that Catholics who are divorced and remarried may not receive Communion.” (From Catholic Culture org- see link below)
This
statement in itself takes the Catholic
Church back to the Pre-Vatican days, to the Pre-Pope Francis days- it takes us
back to the days of the white sepulchre Catholics- In other words, it take us
to those Catholics who as are like those Leaders in Jesus’ days whom He
addressed as thus:
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones,
and of all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27)
Such rigid attitude reminds us of those Leaders whom Jesus described in
the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who went into the temple to
pray. The Pharisee stood proud at the front and thanked God he was not like the
rest of men, in particular that awful Tax-Collector at the back. Fortunately
Jesus tells us He much prefers the guy who stood at the back and said to God, forgive
me for I am a sinner… This Tax-Payer, in our days, represents those living
together, the divorced, the re-married, and not only of course, but since this
article is about the family, I will not digress into other fields. And those
Church leaders that prevent the above category of people from participating in
the full life of the Church by denying these people the sacraments truly
deserve to be called white-sepulchre Catholics, for they have understood
nothing about what it is to have a loving relationship on one hand and what it
is to have a “legitimate” relationship on the other. By shutting the door on
these people such Church leaders also display little sensitivity to what Jesus
meant when he said there will be great rejoicing in heaven for the one sheep
that was lost and returned than the other 99 who fall into the category of “legitimate”
Catholics and remained, and frankly I am not able to understand why such leaders
can’t see how a sheep can return if you keep the door bang shut against it.
Diluting the faith? Nonsense! It’s a question of mercy and of giving
everyone the same chance to be in communion with God. I’m raising my voice
against that part of the Church who, shielding behind big, impressive titles
and words such as “The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith” (CDF) become oppressive to those who do not follow the rules by the
book, ignoring that human lives cannot be ruled by the book and that it escapes
them Jesus never would dream of using such words to give such rules and to “impose”
faith upon others.
Those “illegitimate” Catholics, because that is what they are since they can’t
partake in the sacraments, which is not just Holy Communion but also Confession, in effect the core of Catholicism, are left with little choice but to abandon a Church so
narrow minded that it closes doors on them, “reaffirms with force” outdated “legislation”
will not communicate because the insolubility of marriage is not negotiable.
But it doesn't end there- people living together who have never married, people
who use contraception, people who have sex before marriage which is practically
everyone- I wonder if the Prefect knows this… all these people as far as the
Prefect goes are people all “living in sin” and only those who are able to hide
that fact can participate in the sacraments- “legitimately”.
One of the fundamental reason we are given why the insolubility of
marriage is not negotiable is taken from Christ’s words when he told Peter
whatever he bound on earth would also be bound in heaven, so when a priest binds
two people in matrimony that’s it. Nothing is mentioned about the second half
of Jesus’ statement which is, whatever you loosen on earth will be loosened in
heaven. So marriage can be dissolved if the priest says so. Well at least
according to Jesus that is so. In effect this loosening of bonds is applied
without question to a consecrated person who no longer wants to be a priest or
a nun… in spite of such words in Hebrews 7:21
But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’
So if a consecrated person can be released from their vows, which are perhaps
much more binding than a promise to love someone until death do you part, the
same criteria may be, must be applied to the marriage vows. This is what I mean
when I say everyone should be given an equal chance to remain in communion with
the Church. If a de-consecrated person is not excluded from participating in
the sacraments there is no reason, neither in heaven nor on earth why divorced
and re-married people cannot participate in the sacraments of the Church, also
because the children will wonder what kind of crazy Church is this that have
deemed their parents “illegitimate” Catholics.
There are reasons why marriages break-up, one of them is because a
woman doesn’t want to be killed by her husband as is continuously happening
nowadays- this is only one instance where marriage literally means “Till death
do us part…” And this, may I be so bold to say, is nothing leaders of the
Church should boast about when they talk in defence of the insolubility of a
Catholic marriage.
More on the
matter next time…
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