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**Ecclesial Schizophrenia **
**From the Pill, to Catholic “Divorce” to the Apocalypse **
by Padre Alfonso Gálvez
GUEST COLUMNIST, Spain
Chaos in the Church
(Posted 01/13/10 www.RemnantNewspaper.com ) Nobody who wants to see can ignore that the Church is going through moments of great confusion. The Spirit of Darkness has worked so adroitly and efficiently that he has succeeded in spreading a dark cloak over the minds of multitudes of the Faithful.
Consequently, many Christians feel themselves confused about what they must do. It can be said straightforwardly that they are divided. On the one hand, we have the clear, categorical, and still in force norm. On the other, there is the daily, absolutely contrary practice: Shepherds tolerating ways of behavior – sometimes, even advising them – which are foreign and even totally opposite to the norm. It is not surprising that many sheep of the Flock of Christ feel themselves disoriented; worse yet, they have ended up abandoning the norm and consigning it to oblivion.
These statements, which undoubtedly must seem exaggerated to many, are unfortunately totally true. To prove it, a few rapid and widely accessible examples will do:
In the field of economics, the principle known as Gresham’s Law dictates that bad money will drive out good money. When two different currencies are available, one inflated and the other holding its value, people will always choose to pay their bills with the less valuable currency, until the better money gradually disappears from circulation. Since the late 1960s the same general principle has been at work in the Catholic Church: lax pastoral practice has driven out sound spiritual formation. Yes, the Church still bans the use of contraceptives. But for the past forty years, at least, a married Catholic has rarely had difficulty finding a priest who would tell him that in ‘his’ particular case, the use of contraceptives could be morally justified. Similarly, a Catholic who was troubled by the Church’s teaching on divorce or on regular Mass attendance has generally been able to find a sympathetic cleric who would salve his conscience. In practice Catholics have found that it is possible to flout Catholic teachings, with the tacit blessing of someone who represents the Church.**
Philip Lawler, a well-known, accredited American journalist and author – and very knowledgeable of his country’s Church – is referring here to the Church in North America; but what he says can be perfectly applied to the Churches in Spain and in many other places.
Let us consider first the issue of the contraceptive pill. Almost everyone uses it, and countless are the priests who advise this practice in confession.
Nevertheless, the clear and condemning teaching in the Encyclical Humanae Vitae about this subject is still in force. And practically all Christians, more or less consciously, know it. Or at least they suspect it. It is difficult to admit that there is here a case of held-in-good-faith erroneous conscience because, if it really exists, it has likely been caused by trickery, in an illegal way (that is, by giving and receiving counseling known to be contrary to the teachings of the Magisterium). But let us admit, at least, to a doubtful conscience; but even then one cannot licitly act upon it, for, according to the Apostle, all that is not faith is sin (Rom 14:23), according to a traditional interpretation about moral conscience which nobody has ever denied.
Be that as it may, it is difficult to dispel the idea that a schizophrenic conscience is being generated among Christian people: one thing is believed, and its opposite is practiced; in other words: an attitude of trying to forget the norm in order to ignore it totally. Therefore, only God knows when our consciences are justified.
Unfortunately, one must acknowledge that it was Pope Paul VI himself who, with his good will but also with his hesitations, contributed to creating this problem. Several years went by before his Encyclical was published; it was said that throughout the duration, the issue of the contraceptive pill was being studied, similar to being subjected to a moratorium ad experimentum. Human nature, though, has its own ways, and when the Encyclical came out, it was too late and nobody was willing to abandon the contraceptive pill.
I remember that year when my Bishop (Most Reverend Roca Cabanellas, a good Bishop about whom I keep pleasant memories) ordered us priests to attend a three-day workshop in order that we could become aware of the new moral doctrine whose publication seemed imminent. At least that was what Bishop Cabanellas thought in good faith, and many other people with him. I was a young priest at the time, but I had already studied Natural Law in depth; the very first day I left the workshop totally scandalized. I thought that something that breaks the natural laws of the human organism, and therefore goes against Natural Law, could never be approved by the Magisterium of the Church. Shortly afterwards, the Encyclical saw the light in clear continuity with the traditional doctrine of all times, as could not have been otherwise.
The most delicate issue here – which gave rise to another much more serious problem – is that the controversy surrounding the contraceptive pill and the papal Encyclical seems to have triggered the appearance of a flood of ideas questioning the Magisterium of the Church. It was a whole arsenal of disintegrating ideas which has reached its zenith in modern times and which has provoked a veritable attack against the Church, who cannot subsist without a Magisterium assisted by the Holy Spirit.
Continue reading here: remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/2009-1231-ecclesial_schizophrenia.htm
**From the Pill, to Catholic “Divorce” to the Apocalypse **
by Padre Alfonso Gálvez
GUEST COLUMNIST, Spain
Chaos in the Church
(Posted 01/13/10 www.RemnantNewspaper.com ) Nobody who wants to see can ignore that the Church is going through moments of great confusion. The Spirit of Darkness has worked so adroitly and efficiently that he has succeeded in spreading a dark cloak over the minds of multitudes of the Faithful.
Consequently, many Christians feel themselves confused about what they must do. It can be said straightforwardly that they are divided. On the one hand, we have the clear, categorical, and still in force norm. On the other, there is the daily, absolutely contrary practice: Shepherds tolerating ways of behavior – sometimes, even advising them – which are foreign and even totally opposite to the norm. It is not surprising that many sheep of the Flock of Christ feel themselves disoriented; worse yet, they have ended up abandoning the norm and consigning it to oblivion.
These statements, which undoubtedly must seem exaggerated to many, are unfortunately totally true. To prove it, a few rapid and widely accessible examples will do:
In the field of economics, the principle known as Gresham’s Law dictates that bad money will drive out good money. When two different currencies are available, one inflated and the other holding its value, people will always choose to pay their bills with the less valuable currency, until the better money gradually disappears from circulation. Since the late 1960s the same general principle has been at work in the Catholic Church: lax pastoral practice has driven out sound spiritual formation. Yes, the Church still bans the use of contraceptives. But for the past forty years, at least, a married Catholic has rarely had difficulty finding a priest who would tell him that in ‘his’ particular case, the use of contraceptives could be morally justified. Similarly, a Catholic who was troubled by the Church’s teaching on divorce or on regular Mass attendance has generally been able to find a sympathetic cleric who would salve his conscience. In practice Catholics have found that it is possible to flout Catholic teachings, with the tacit blessing of someone who represents the Church.**
Philip Lawler, a well-known, accredited American journalist and author – and very knowledgeable of his country’s Church – is referring here to the Church in North America; but what he says can be perfectly applied to the Churches in Spain and in many other places.
Let us consider first the issue of the contraceptive pill. Almost everyone uses it, and countless are the priests who advise this practice in confession.
Nevertheless, the clear and condemning teaching in the Encyclical Humanae Vitae about this subject is still in force. And practically all Christians, more or less consciously, know it. Or at least they suspect it. It is difficult to admit that there is here a case of held-in-good-faith erroneous conscience because, if it really exists, it has likely been caused by trickery, in an illegal way (that is, by giving and receiving counseling known to be contrary to the teachings of the Magisterium). But let us admit, at least, to a doubtful conscience; but even then one cannot licitly act upon it, for, according to the Apostle, all that is not faith is sin (Rom 14:23), according to a traditional interpretation about moral conscience which nobody has ever denied.
Be that as it may, it is difficult to dispel the idea that a schizophrenic conscience is being generated among Christian people: one thing is believed, and its opposite is practiced; in other words: an attitude of trying to forget the norm in order to ignore it totally. Therefore, only God knows when our consciences are justified.
Unfortunately, one must acknowledge that it was Pope Paul VI himself who, with his good will but also with his hesitations, contributed to creating this problem. Several years went by before his Encyclical was published; it was said that throughout the duration, the issue of the contraceptive pill was being studied, similar to being subjected to a moratorium ad experimentum. Human nature, though, has its own ways, and when the Encyclical came out, it was too late and nobody was willing to abandon the contraceptive pill.
I remember that year when my Bishop (Most Reverend Roca Cabanellas, a good Bishop about whom I keep pleasant memories) ordered us priests to attend a three-day workshop in order that we could become aware of the new moral doctrine whose publication seemed imminent. At least that was what Bishop Cabanellas thought in good faith, and many other people with him. I was a young priest at the time, but I had already studied Natural Law in depth; the very first day I left the workshop totally scandalized. I thought that something that breaks the natural laws of the human organism, and therefore goes against Natural Law, could never be approved by the Magisterium of the Church. Shortly afterwards, the Encyclical saw the light in clear continuity with the traditional doctrine of all times, as could not have been otherwise.
The most delicate issue here – which gave rise to another much more serious problem – is that the controversy surrounding the contraceptive pill and the papal Encyclical seems to have triggered the appearance of a flood of ideas questioning the Magisterium of the Church. It was a whole arsenal of disintegrating ideas which has reached its zenith in modern times and which has provoked a veritable attack against the Church, who cannot subsist without a Magisterium assisted by the Holy Spirit.
Continue reading here: remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/2009-1231-ecclesial_schizophrenia.htm
