A Gentle Reminder

Christian Order has - for those masochists wishing to relive the Synod on the Family - a pretty comprehensive review of where we are now, eight months before the Synod on the Family reconvenes in October.

All in all, its a pretty devastating critique of the Synod and much that came from it. I'm yet to be convinced, however, that the Synod is really about the family. It doesn't seem to be about proclaiming the Catholic Faith or about defending the family in these times when the family is under great and sustained attack. Among others, this terrifying reality has been noted by a Polish Archbishop. 

I will tell you brutally. The Church has betrayed John Paul II. Not the Church as the Bride of Christ, not the Church of our Creed, because John Paul II was an expression, an authentic voice of the Church; but it is the pastoral practice that has betrayed John Paul II.

It is a thesis [theory] to which I subscribe because 40 years of my priesthood has been devoted to marriage and the family, during which time I promoted the theme of "the evangelization of marital intimacy". In Poland it is and was better in this respect.

In many other countries, due to the contestation to the teachings of the Church, as expressed by Blessed Paul VI, the pastoral care of families was stopped.

All indications seem that the Pope's extraordinary Exhortation, "Familiaris Consortio" was not implemented. The Pope formulated four tasks for the family. He asked his brothers to share [exchange] them. The pastors did not share, because they did not not read it, or they did not remember.

It cannot be emphasised enough how while those words do not explicitly criticise the Synod, they can certainly be interpreted as a direct response. I expect the voices 'crying out in the wilderness' are only going to grow louder and louder in the run up to October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary. Much like the experience of the lay group received by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, however, one really seriously doubts whether these are voices that Rome, under the new regime, will be apt to take on board during their conjuring routine that sees the 'God of surprises' appear from a hat with new and strange doctrines amid a hoard of false prophets dedicated to ear-scratching for those who cannot abide sound teaching. Let's not pretend St Paul did not warn us that this time would not come.

It is lamentable and shocking that the slick propaganda arm of ISIS can post their human torch in a cage snuff movie on Twitter and that Fox News actually ran all 22 minutes of it like a Hollywood trailer for them on their website. Haven't the social media gurus thought to cancel ISIS's YouTube subscription yet?

It is, of course, lamentable and shocking that anyone would do that to another human being, even in reprisal for bombing raids from a fighter jet. Just remember though, that an ISIS terrorist can put you in a cage and set fire to you and watch without mercy while you drop to your knees in agony. However, liberal bishops and cardinals, with a Pope who through ambiguous messages unambiguously fails to uphold the teaching of the Christ and His Church, all those who confirm you in your sin and tell you there are no consequences can put you in that cage for all eternity, body and soul.

The 'first half' of the Synod on the Family last year was about everything but the family. Neither was it about Jesus Christ and His saving love. In October, I do not expect the 'second half' to be very much different except that the clamour of dissenting voices to the 'new orthodoxy' will be louder and clearer.

In Church history and indeed in all major crises since Christ shed His Precious Blood for His Bride, one thing is abundantly clear. Our Lord Jesus Christ is worth speaking up for when His words are twisted and then re-presented to mean something else.  The family is worth defending to the uttermost. Marriage is worthy of our defence. When ecclesiastical fraudsters and con-men invent their own doctrines and then blasphemously pass them off as the work of the Holy Spirit then the Lord, the giver of life is worthy of our vocal and active defence. The Holy Eucharist is worth, beyond all imagining, our defence, even unto the shedding of our blood. In the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, the Lord, has entrusted Himself, in a position of utmost vulnerability, to hands that could be the hands of friends, but can become the hands of enemies.

He will demand an answer from us all one day. The time will come when the King will return in power and majesty and ask us what we did when rebellious and seditious men rose against Him and profaned Him, desecrated Him and treated Him with scorn and contempt, when they arrogantly attempted to dethrone He who will sit in judgement of all mankind and with righteous judgement. Let every Bishop and Cardinal present at the Synod on 'Everything But the Family' know: the Lord, the King of Kings will return one day and demand an answer from us all but even more so from you with all the authority and trust He has invested in you.

"What did you do during the Great War?"

In the great Eucharistic Battle of 2015, when you were subtly asked to decide whether that which you hold in your hands is bread, or the Eternal Word, the Son of God, will you side with the King according to the words He has spoken to you or will you side with those who made it apparent that they were His shrewd and cruel enemies? Think about it, think about it long and hard, because although we cannot discern God's judgement of individuals, I thoroughly expect there is an eternal cage of unquenchable fire for each Bishop who makes the wrong decision.

Does that sound too dramatic? If you think so, you had better re-read the Gospels, because no matter who sits upon the throne, Jesus Christ is King, today, forever, in every age and for all time. Certain things are beyond the control of even the most effective of ecclesiastical arch-manipulators. Along with sudden invasion, the weather, be it on earth or from space, volcanos and earthquakes, death, judgment and the day and hour of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, nobody - not even the Bishop of Rome himself, can control your conscience.

For speaking out, for raising your voices and for defending Jesus Christ and His teaching, for defending the sanctity of marriage and the family, for defending the Holy Eucharist, it might very well be that you fall out of flavour for a time and a season, thereby forfeiting certain privileges in the Church in response, but at least you won't have forfeited the eternal Salvation of many, as well as yourself, and then, when you are commended for your loyalty to the King, by the King, you can say, "We were only doing our duty. Viva Christo Rey!"