October 27, 2020 (The Catholic Thing) — I expect that various cardinals and bishops will make public statements for and against this new teaching. Cardinal Burke has already issued a powerful reply that may be read by clicking here. Divisions, already in existence over other hotly-contested questions, will grow wider.
No “bridge-building” will result from this latest misstep. Those who accept the Church’s perennial teaching on homosexuality will be accused of being anti-Catholic enemies of the pope. But can that be true?
To remind the pope of what the Church has always taught makes those who do so not his opponents, but rather his true friends who have the courage to rebuke a pope who has attempted to do what lies beyond his powers, that is, change Catholic moral doctrine.
The Catholic Church throughout the world has strongly opposed proposals to pass civil-union laws, having been instructed to do so by the Holy See in 2003. That all changed on October 21, 2020. Encouraging governments to legally formalize unnatural, sinful relationships in which people engage in sodomy is a shameful thing for any Christian to do, but most especially so for the pope.
Pope Francis’ comments are a flagrant betrayal of the mission of the successor of St. Peter “to confirm the brethren” in sound doctrine.
This is a volcanic eruption. Catholicism is now widely but incorrectly seen to consist of the latest remarks by Pope Francis to journalists and filmmakers. Pope Francis has used the power and influence of his sacred office to promote something that is sinful. That is not the mission entrusted by Christ to St. Peter and his successors. Catholic doctrine on the immorality of homosexual acts cannot be changed by Pope Francis or any other pope.
We must pray that he comes to realize the grave offense he has given to God by this wrongful endorsement of homosexual pseudo-marriage. He is encouraging what he is bound by his office to condemn. His acceptance of his election as pope by the College of Cardinals included a solemn commitment to uphold the Faith handed down from the Apostles.
He has no right to promote the erroneous teaching that homosexual people have a right to live together in sin or have a just claim upon civil society, acting through its governments, to publicly recognize such unions as legal institutions that are equivalent in some way to sacramental marriage.
The faithful must call upon Pope Francis to repent of this disastrous declaration, which inflicts grave harm upon the Church.
Published with permission from The Catholic Thing.