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Dr. Gerard M. Nadal: Science in Service of the Pro-Life Movement

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An Open Letter to Pope Francis’ Detractors

October 4, 2015 by Gerard M. Nadal

pope-francis

As God says to us in Isaiah, “Come, let us reason together.”

At the start of the Synod on the Family it seems as good a time as any to address those who are less than pleased with Pope Francis and his style, a style that has left me exasperated at times as I have had to repeatedly tell people, “No, that’s NOT what Francis was really saying.” It begs the question, “What is Francis really saying?”

To any reasonable observer of the current pope, Francis has not said anything that is contrary to the faith. He has spoken forcefully against women’s ordination. He has spoken forcefully and repeatedly about our obligation to the poor and the least (Big mistake in some self-righteous, pro-life circles). He has spoken forcefully against the dissolution of marriage, stating that it is impossible to dissolve a marriage that exists. So how can a pope say such a thing, yet streamline the annulment process? Easy. Consider for a moment this example set by a pastoral pontiff.

Annulment is not merely a church-sanctioned divorce. It isn’t a divorce at all. It is a process of investigating the condition of the couple at the time that vows were exchanged and coming to a determination of whether or not there were impediments that prevented the couple from being able to freely enter into holy matrimony, to confer the sacrament on one another. The deacon or priest is there to witness on behalf of the Church and to invoke God’s blessings. Sometimes the tribunal finds that there were factors that nullified the exchange of vows, and sometimes they don’t.

A streamlined process does not change the historical facts of each case. Either the exchange of vows was valid, or it wasn’t. Getting to that resolution sooner rather than later is pastorally wise and most merciful. I have walked that road with friends going through the process, and it is searing. It’s never easy to look back over what so very many divorced people identify as the greatest failure of their lives, to relive the worst of it before a tribunal, and to accept that perhaps the problem was on that person’s part.

It’s heartbreaking.

Worse than that are the modern day Pharisees, who point to their own interpretations of the law, who throw stones at the divorced, and at the bishops who preside over an ever-rising tide of annulments. But is this rising tide such a mystery? As the world disintegrates around our ears, as more and more pathology besets the family, is it really all that shocking, or a stretch to suggest that more and more people are unprepared to enter into holy matrimony? And to the greatest critics, the question must be asked, “What would you have the Church do about it?”

What is an acceptable solution to screening for marriage, beyond the Premarital Investigation the Church already performs? Many of the factors that nullify the exchange of vows are not so visible at the outset. Yet, Francis has been pilloried in many quarters for overseeing the streamlining of the process that finds the facts and renders a yes or no decision. That doesn’t make it easier for a marriage to fail. It makes the process less crushing for those who suffer through it.

So, as we say in Brooklyn, “What’s the problem here?”

For many, Francis is no John Paul II or Benedict, and this blog addressed those concerns here. This blog has also addressed the ultimate reality regarding this pope:

He. Is. Peter.

One simply cannot claim to have been properly formed by John Paul II or Benedict XVI and treat this pope with the sort of disdain that has cropped up on the political right in the Church in alarming proportions. At least wait for him to actually do something heretical before lighting that stake he’s been tied to. And that brings the focus back to the current synod on the family. Francis inherited a Church filled with bishops chosen by John Paul and Benedict who are in open rebellion, whose proposals at this synod are dangerous and destructive. He must deal with them, but make no mistake, they are John Paul and Benedict’s legacy to him, along with all of the good and holy bishops, along with all that these two giant popes have written and taught.

The synod will no doubt be filled with men who propose all manner of codification of modern error in sexuality and family life. Rather than see this as an occasion of the Church’s demise, it ought to be used as a opportunity to teach the world what our Catechism holds on marriage. It also points to a laziness on the part of some who identify as orthodox (small O), or conservative, of being disciples of John Paul and Benedict.

It’s easy to be against abortion if one would never have an abortion, to be against birth control, if one would never use it, to be against gay ‘marriage’ when one is heterosexual. Those can be easy virtues because they do not challenge us. They can be easy to personally oppose, and that goes for this heterosexual, married, pro-life blogger who has never used birth control. They can be difficult to proclaim and suffer the slings and arrows from family, friends and colleagues, and that goes for this heterosexual, married, pro-life blogger who has never used birth control. But even proclaiming the truth in these matters is not enough. Jesus says very clearly in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who calls, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven.”

Francis sees this clearly, and challenges us to focus on the poor and the least. But we don’t want that focus, the one God repeats over, and over, and over from Leviticus to Revelation. Many pro-life Catholics believe that the fetus takes precedence. God and Francis disagree. They identify with all of the oppressed, including the militant gays and lesbians inside and outside of the Church.

Francis understands that Jesus died for them as well, that we have an obligation to them in love. So Francis adopts an inviting posture. He receives them, and their gay and lesbian ‘spouses’ and their families. He doesn’t require conversion and adherence to our catechism and code of canon law as a precondition for being welcomed. But that roils a great many of John Paul and Benedicts’ disciples, whose opprobrium is exactly that of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. If we marvel at how the Pharisees had Jesus in their midst for 33 years and missed the boat, it’s really no different with many disciples of John Paul and Benedict who had them for 35 years. A heart of stone that doesn’t want the challenge of personally living out the will of God by getting their hands dirty with sinners should check again under their fingernails. Whose dirt is that?

Those who speak openly and repeatedly of an impending schism are themselves its author if it ever comes about. Such talk, when coupled with the fact that this pope’s greatest sin is lack of talking point discipline in a 24-hour news cycle and instant communication, is sinful and dangerous. It is scandalous and caustic, and tears at the Body of Christ. Talk of schism before a synod convenes is thuggish Chicago politics of intimidation. It won’t work in the City of Rome or the Kingdom of God. If schism be our lot, then good riddance. John Paul and Benedict wouldn’t have recognized them anyway.

For the rest of us, the same Jesus who promised His Apostles to send them the Holy Spirit who would lead them to all truth, keeps His promises, Chicken Littles notwithstanding.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

11 Responses

  1. on October 4, 2015 at 4:41 PM Thomas R Clark

    An outstanding summary of the “State of the Question.”


  2. on October 4, 2015 at 9:55 PM johnfrancis1disciple

    Reblogged this on Siple Simply Says.


  3. on October 4, 2015 at 10:21 PM johnfrancis1disciple

    I believe and experience my Catholic childhood training in catechism unto today. I’m no saint but I’m still fighting the Good fight unto everlasting peasure, NO,. but unto glorying in, with and through HIM, world without end.

    I say as simply as I am able just why any wobbling in our pews comes from a lack in faith–The Faith you profess with all loopholes closed.
    I ask you with all of my soul to actually read this article with an open sensibility.


  4. on October 5, 2015 at 9:08 AM Suzy

    It looks as if the left (at least in the case of Huffington Post) is able to see what some on the right have not seen, since they are screaming bloody murder that Francis isn’t changing things. On the other hand, while Francis did indeed inherit Danneels, Marx, Kasper, et. al from John Paul (my sense is that most of the Cardinals he inherited from Benedict may be somewhat better than that), he didn’t have to put them in charge in the manner he has. The fact that he appointed Cardinal Danneels with all of his baggage, as well as all of the things he’s saying very, very loudly, to an important position in the Synod is confusing at best. That he retained the people who did such a poor job running the first phase of the Synod is also troubling. I honestly do not know what to think. When I listen to Francis’s words I hear Catholic doctrine, a little differently expressed, but nothing that isn’t in the Catechism. When I see Francis’s actions (after all there were much better Cardinals and bishops he could have put in positions of authority, or at least the scales could have been more evenly balanced), I become heartsick and confused. I am trying very, very hard to trust, not so much in Francis, but in God. When Cardinals of the Church, including the head of CDF are concerned about the process, how can those of us in the pews remain nonchalant about it? The appearance of Chicago thugishness seems to come from those who clearly attempted to hijack the first half of the Synod and now have been given more power to hijack the second part.


  5. on October 5, 2015 at 6:20 PM Dr. Adderley

    Pope Francis has been, and remains, a teacher. And all good teachers know that if you want your class to come freely to the truth, you have to give the ones with the wrong ideas the opportunity to sound off. The ones with the right ideas will correct them; and failing that, you, the teacher, can correct them. But everyone will know just where they stand, and why. It’s nerve-wracking to have the light out so that the vermin will come out of their holes, but if you leave the lights on you’ll never flush them out. Pope Francis has great courage here; the personal holiness that he exudes combined with his rock-solid doctrine makes me very confident that he is indeed flushing out rats. Be not afraid; God’s got this, and He has a jolly good instrument in the Holy Father.


  6. on October 5, 2015 at 7:14 PM glmcreations

    “I will be with you always, til the end of time.” God bless all who post here.


  7. on October 6, 2015 at 1:00 AM dvora072096

    Reblogged this on Karmalight.


  8. on October 6, 2015 at 7:15 AM Suzy

    Want to feel really discouraged about the Synod? Go listen To the podcast of Cardinal Nichols describing the first day. They are suggesting we do away with the phrase the indissolubility of marriage and replace it with the faithfulness of husband and wife. He saw this as a positive step, which clearly means he doesn’t understand that the two things are not equivalent at all. We are being none too gently nudged in the direction of change in fundamental doctrine. The manipulators of language are in top form.


  9. on October 6, 2015 at 8:23 AM donal mc Laughlin

    Better to keep 10 commandments and the Word of God for the rest of life


  10. on November 1, 2015 at 8:49 AM Jackie Parkes

    Thanks for this1


  11. on November 14, 2015 at 10:04 AM Jim King

    Thank you for your insightful post. Some of us are having a hard time understanding this pope. We should focus on our own sinfulness rather than the pope’s shortcomings.



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