The marriage of Joseph and Mary

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By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, remembering Zion;
on the poplars that grew there we hung up our harps. . . Ps 136

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Church Teaching on Divorce, Contraception and Human Sexuality

I. Discourse of Pope John Paul on Divorce

This is the text of the Pope's discourse on divorce to the Roman Rota, the Church's highest legal tribunal, on 28th January 2002. more

II. Press Release of President of St Thomas More Society, Sydney

Press release of John McCarthy QC commenting on the Pope's Discourse. more

III. Commentary on John McCarthy's Press Release

The Pope gave specific moral direction obliging lawyers to make a particular judgement of conscience about every matter involving divorce. His authority is universal. The St Thomas More Society through its President, John McCarthy, interfered with that authority. Indeed, its action was a gross and peremptory interference in the personal spiritual life of every legal professional. more

IV. Humanae Vitae Forty Years On

There is so much the Pope could say over the failure of the world to heed Paul VI's teaching in this cardinal encyclical. more

V. The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality

In November 1995, with the blessing of Pope John Paul, the Pontifical Council for the Family published this document to assist Catholic families with the critical issue of the formation of children in human sexuality.  It has been almost universally ignored, especially by our bishops and priests who think nothing of endorsing the promulgation of secular humanist 'sex education' in our so-called 'Catholic' schools.  We recommend Catholic parents to download the document, to study it closely and to implement its directions in their own families.  more (pdf version only)

VI. Mercy & the Death of John the Baptist

The beheading of John the Baptist brings a timely reminder of the immutability of Catholic doctrine.  Here, we address an aberration in papal teaching which has led to the current dalliance with heresy over divorce.  more

VII. The Misguided Fr Emmet Costello

A recent biography of the eminent Australian barrister T E F Hughes QC reveals an erroneous assessment of the Church’s moral teaching by the late Fr Emmet Costello SJ.  Lest that assessment should mislead members of Christ’s Church, we have hastened to expose its errors.  more

VIII. Devastation of the Church's Teaching on Marriage & Sexuality

Commentator Don Pietro Leone has performed a singular service for Christ’s Church in publishing, on rorate-caeli, an analysis of the degradation that has befallen the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality at the hands of popes and bishops over the last 60 years.  There are five sections : the references are as follows :

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-1.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-2.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-3-and.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-evils-of-amoris-laetitia-church-and.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-5.html#more

There are one or two inaccuracies which do not disturb the trust.  The Master General of the Dominican Order referred to at the time of the debating of the issues was not Fr Michael Browne (who was not, in any event, created  a Cardinal until 1971), but Fr Aniceto Fernandez.  Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae did not precede, but followed, Gaudium et Spes, whose alteration of the Church’s constant teaching on the end of marriage to accommodate the Protestant view he adopted.  The reader should note carefully Don Leone’s reference in the text to the critical issue of finality, and the systematic failure of the Council’s bishops, as of the popes and heads of Vatican dicasteries thereafter, to advert to it.  This failure, which as Don Leone rightly says, demonstrates aversion to scholastic  thinking (read “thinking grounded in the philosophy of St Thomas”) justifies the contention that the Second Vatican Council was not an ecumenical, or general, council of the Catholic Church.  Don Leone puts the issue in a nutshell : “The end, or finality, of a thing determines its nature”.

We recommend the paper in all its parts for our readers’ close attention.  For those who wish to read it at one sitting, we have reproduced it here.

IX. The Stupidity of Voting on 'Gay Marriage'

What marriage is, its essence, is of nature, not of human will.  It follows that no matter what men may think, they can’t alter it.  more

X. The Betrayal of Marriage by Australia's Catholic Bishops & Mr Turnbull's Plebiscite

The ideological circus surrounding attempts to modify the reality of marriage by altering Australian law to “redefine” it to include the “marriage of homosexuals” is in full swing.  We are to vote on the issue, for heaven’s sake !   An understanding of what is at stake has been comprehensively obscured by the neglect and irresponsibility of Australia’s Catholic bishops.  more

XI. The Bishops & Marriage

We reproduce here a copy of an extract from Don Pietro Leone’s The Family Under Attack which lists the causes that have left us with such ineffectual bishops.  more

XI. Moving Feedback from a “Gay” Reader
Posted 22nd September, 2017 by Fr John Zuhlsdorf
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2017/09/moving-feedback-from-a-gay-reader/ ]

We reproduce for the edification of our readers the content of a post on Fr Z’s Blog in America—http://wdtprs.com/blog/2017/09/moving-feedback-from-a-gay-reader/—posted 22nd September 2017.

This is the kind of note that makes all the flak worthwhile:

“A thousand times, thank you for your blog.  I’m a Catholic in no small part because of this blog.  When I first entered the Church ten years ago, I fell under the influence of liberals who taught me it was OK to live in sin as a gay man.  I fell away from the faith eventually.  Through the years, my own conscience told me this was not the life I wanted to live.   Your faithful words have supported my decision to leave the homosexualist life, that was death.  I could tell I was on the slippery slope again you spoke of last Sunday.  Today I went to Confession and the FSSP priest (which I also learned about from your blog) reminded me that though this cross is “big and bloody and difficult,” the Lord will help me bear it.  Thank you for standing up for the truth on which I have staked my life and eternal salvation.  Please pray for me, as I do for you.”

I am sure that God will bless this fellow a hundred fold for the suffering that he has had to endure in trying to live a good and holy life.  It is hard for me to imagine the trials people with such attractions feel.  However, I am convinced that if they bear their crosses and persevere, their place in heaven will be very high indeed.

Here’s another point.

When we fall and commit a sin, we can get back up again, go confession and move forward.    I say the same thing to straight couples who may be living together in an irregular situation which, for some reason, they can’t change, as I might say to a same sex couple: live continently and be ready to suffer, don’t put yourselves in occasions of sin if you can help it, again be ready to suffer, use the sacraments well, use sacramentals to help to keep off the attacks of the Enemy of the soul.

If you fall… get back up and keep trying.

Our Church is for sinners.  The only Church I want to belong to is the Church Christ gave to sinners.  This is not the Church of the pure, only.  We are all in this together.
If we ponder the gift Christ gave us as a Church, the effects of absolution are quite simply breathtaking.

With absolution, provided that you are sincere, that you’ve done your best to confess your mortal sins without intentionally hiding anything, that you want sincerely to amend your life, then…

Your sins are taken away, obliterated, gone from your soul never to be held against you. They are not merely covered over.  They are eradicated forever.  They are washed clean out of your soul by the Blood of the Lamb.  You might remember them (with sorrow), but they are no longer yours.  Penance must be done in reparation for them, but they have been irrevocably forgiven.
There is nothing that we little mortals can do that is so bad that that absolution given by the priest – who is Christ in that moment – can’t perfectly forgive.  Therefore, never hold back.

With absolution also come graces not to sin in the future.  God doesn’t just forgive us and forget us.  His care is ongoing through graces.  You can also call upon the baptismal and confirmed character that you have in time of temptation and trial…

XII. What We have Waited to Hear, in Vain, from a Catholic Bishop in Australia

A suggested diocesan, or archdiocesan, letter from a Catholic bishop, one whose sole focus is on Christ and His Church and is not distracted by the zeitgeist of the age.  more