December 18, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – A petition has been launched allowing people around the world to join pro-life leaders in pledging fidelity to the Catholic faith and promising not to follow “erring pastors.”
Last week, over 30 pro-life and pro-family leaders signed a Pledge of Fidelity to the Catholic faith.
“If there is any conflict between the words and acts of any member of the hierarchy, even the pope, and the doctrine that the Church has always taught we will remain faithful to the perennial teaching of the Church,” they promised.
Now, lay Catholics can sign a petition joining the pro-life leaders in promising to “never, for any reason, depart” from Catholic teaching on sexual morality, contraception, marriage, and other life and family issues.
“I too am deeply disturbed by the ambiguous and sometimes directly contrary teachings of Pope Francis that undermine the Church’s moral teachings,” the petition says. “I support and will obey the hierarchy of the Church in the legitimate exercise of its authority, but will not be compelled to abandon any article of the faith by that hierarchy.”
The Pledge of Fidelity lists “fundamental moral principles” to which signers promised their “unchanging adherence.” The petition also affirmed these principles, which are:
- there exist certain acts which are intrinsically evil and which it is always forbidden to commit;
- the direct killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral; consequently, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are intrinsically evil acts;
- marriage is the exclusive and indissoluble union of one man and one woman; all sexual acts outside of marriage, including in all forms of non-marital union, are intrinsically evil and gravely injurious to individuals and to society;
- adultery is a grave sin, and those who live in adultery cannot be admitted to the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion, until such time as they repent and amend their lives;
- parents are the primary educators of their children, and the provision of sex education must be undertaken by parents or, in certain circumstances, “in educational centres chosen and controlled by them”;
- the separation of the procreative and unitive ends of the sexual act by contraceptive methods is intrinsically evil and has devastating consequences for the family, for society and for the Church;
- methods of artificial reproduction are gravely immoral as they separate procreation from the sexual act and, in the great majority of cases, lead directly to the destruction of human life in its earliest stages;
- there are only two sexes, male and female, each of which possesses the complementary characteristics and differences that are proper to them;
- homosexual acts are intrinsically evil, and no form of union between persons of the same sex can be approved in any way.
“I support the pledge of fidelity and will never depart from Jesus Christ, to whom I wish to be united with for all eternity,” the petition concludes.
Sign a petition supporting the Pledge of Fidelity here.