Image of Fr. Chiodi courtesy of Diane Montagna/LifeSiteNews
Editor’s Note: The following text is a statement written by Professor Josef Seifert, a famous Austrian philosopher and co-founder of the International Academy of Philosophy (IAP). He kindly sent it to us for publication.
Professor Father Maurizio Chiodi delivered last Dec. 14, 2017, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, a speech entitled “Re-reading Humanae Vitae (1968) in light of Amoris Laetitia (2016)”. He is a new member of PAV, the Pontifical Academy for Life, founded by Pope John Paul II in order to explain and defend the truths the Church teaches about human life in Humanae Vitae and other documents. Nonetheless, Chiodi does not only rejects openly a central moral teaching of the Church on contraception, admirably stated in Humanae Vitae, namely that a wonderful and deep link exists between the conjugal loving union and procreation, such that any single contraceptive act that separates the unitive from the procreative meaning of the conjugal act is intrinsically wrong in any situation. Above and beyond his denial of this teaching, Chiodi asserts that contraception is even morally mandatory under certain circumstances. According to him, responsible parenthood can oblige a married couple to use artificial birth control.
This suggests an answer Fr. Chiodi gives to two of the famous five dubia of the four Cardinals. Chiodi’s implicit answer may be formulated thus: “Indeed, there are no human actions that are intrinsically wrong under all circumstances”.
Chiodi invokes Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, as a new model and paradigm for moral theology that eliminates the notion (solemnly and magisterially laid down in Humanae Vitae, Familiaris Consortio, and Veritatis Splendor) that contraception is an intrinsically evil human act that is wrong anywhere and at any time. Chiodi adds, in radical and direct contradiction to the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church in Humanae Vitae, that there are “circumstances — I refer to Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8 — that precisely for the sake of responsibility, require contraception.” When “natural methods are impossible or unfeasible, other forms of responsibility need to be found,” Fr. Chiodi argued.
Chiodi’s position constitutes an unequivocal defense of the consequentialist and proportionalist ethics that attacked Humanae Vitae from the first day of its publication on, and not only took issue with its teaching that contraception is intrinsically wrong, but claimed that there are no intrinsically evil acts at all; and that any human action is determined in its moral character solely by the proportion between its good and bad effects. This opinion was clearly and unambiguously
refuted and rejected by Veritatis Splendor.
Chiodi likewise proposes more general philosophical and ethical positions that are profoundly erroneous and totally destructive not only of the moral teaching of the Catholic Church, but also of the essence of morality, and in fact, of any truth and any Church Teaching: namely 1) a historical relativism, 2) a consensus theory of truth, and 3) situation ethics.
- Saying that the norms of natural law “conserve the good and instruct in the way of good, but they are historical, “ Chiodi denies the perennial truth and validity of the norms that tell us that contraception and many other acts are intrinsically wrong, in a way that is not relative to, and dependent on, historically changing opinions, as if Humanae Vitae could have been true in 1968 but would no longer be so in 2018.
- Besides this, Chiodi, while not directly claiming it, still strongly suggests that the fact that a large percentage of Catholic spouses practice contraception and do not accept the norms justifies silence about them, or even proves that these norms are no longer valid, as if majority consensus determined the truth.[1] With the same right, he could claim that we are justified no longer to speak of the first commandment to love God above everything else, or even that this norm is no longer valid because a majority of Catholics do not fulfill it, or that the commandment that forbids to give false witness against one’s neighbor is not valid any longer because most people lie and calumniate others.
- Claiming that some “circumstances — I refer to Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8 —precisely for the sake of responsibility, require contraception” (Chiodi, ibid.), Chiodi denies in fact directly the intrinsic wrongness of contraception magisterially taught by Paul VI and his predecessors and successors, and makes what is morally good or bad in the transmission of human life entirely dependent on concrete situations. Drawing out the lines of such a purely teleological or consequentialist proportionalist ethics of contraception, Chiodi suggests that quite in general no intrinsically wrong acts exist and that the moral quality of a human action can never be determined universally “by a general rule,” but depends on a proportion between good and bad consequences of human actions in concrete situations. Understood in this general way, the situation ethics Fr. Chiodi defends would also deny the intrinsic wrongness of abortion and euthanasia, and of many other acts listed in Veritatis Splendor as acts that are morally wrong under all circumstances and in all situations. It is worth noting that this opinion has nothing to do with blindness of conscience, lack of ethical knowledge, or personal imputability invoked so often by Rocco Buttiglione in the present debate. No, Chiodi implies an entirely objective “duty to contracept” in certain situations.
Thus the lecture of Father Chiodi contains, besides his open rejection of Church Teaching on contraception in Humanae Vitae, disastrous general philosophical errors that have been magisterially and forcefully rejected by Pope John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor. One can only hope that Pope Francis, Archbishop Paglia, and the large majority of members of PAV will ask Father Chiodi to revoke these grave errors, or to resign immediately his membership in this illustrious Academy, whose founder and spiritual Father Pope John Paul II unambiguously and consistently fought against precisely these same errors that Father Chiodi
now proposes, and condemned them in a definitive way.
Moreover, Saint John Paul II founded the PAV precisely in order that it explain and defend these truths Chiodi denies. (As, prior to its reform through Pope Francis in 2016, an ordinary, life-long member of PAV, who had to take an oath never to deny these truths, I could only feel profound sadness over this betrayal of the PAV, especially dear to the heart of John Paul II, if such views as Chiodi’s are not retracted by himself, by the PAV, or by Pope Francis).
Ethical truth and the untruth of this proportionalism are not only subject of Catholic faith, however, but can be recognized by human reason as well.[2] They have been forcefully defended by the great pagan philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Cicero and are being defended by members of other religions, some of whom are members of the new John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family that continues, without any ambiguities, its service to the great founding truths and goals of PAV.
Prof. DDr. habil. Dr. h.c. Josef Seifert, President
John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family
(See here for more information on the newly founded John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the family)
NOTES:
[1] I rely here on the summary of the talk in LifeSite: “While in the 50s and 60s was an urgent for believers, now the great majority of even believing married couples live as though the norm doesn’t exist,” he said.
“Officially and objectively the norm has remained,” but “even many pastors” don’t talk about it, he said. “In public, in catechesis, and in preaching, they prefer not to talk about it” while “in personal encounters they maintain a very indulgent attitude when the issue is raised.” “And therefore,” he argued, “it’s significant that Amoris Laetitia speaks so little about it.”
[2] See Josef Seifert, “The Splendor of Truth and Intrinsically Immoral Acts I: A Philosophical Defense of the Rejection of Proportionalism and Consequentialism in Veritatis Splendor”. Studia Philosophiae Christianae UKSW 51 (2015) 2, pp. 27-67; “The Splendor of Truth and Intrinsically Immoral Acts II: A Philosophical Defense of the Rejection of Proportionalism and Consequentialism in Veritatis Splendor”. Studia Philosophiae Christianae UKSW 51 (2015) 3, pp. 7-37.
Clear like living water! Thank you Prof. Seifert. Es ist beruhigend zu sehen, daß Sie wachsam bleiben! The shadow of AL is working!
Cdl. Tobin of Newark New Jersey has confirmed what fulton Sheen’s convert said about Communists. bella Dodd said the Church would be infiltrated. Commies would enter the seminaries. now Saul Alinsky and George Soros are in charge.
Let’s play this game. Why don’t we “re-read” the submission to the supreme pontiff “in the light of Amoris Laetitia”? This is a recipe for self-destruction.
Time to declare a SCHISM in the faith by Pope Benedict and the majority of Red hat Cardinals . Luther statues and stamps at the Vatican . Homosexual apostates agenda clergy like Paglia , Roisica, Fagoli ,Farrell ,sparando, Radcliff and Martin’s of Amer . Mgz . Being promoted , and now this. Enough already . Time to openly repudiate Bergoglio Francis and amoris latita etc …
https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_image_750_x_503_/public/main_image/20170109T0832-7154-CNS-NEWARK-TOBIN-INSTALLATION.jpg.png?itok=Jb62QPFo
“I think that one important thing is not simply exposure to women in healthy relationships but relationships that at times make a cleric responsible to a woman. Now I found that very interesting in Indianapolis because there are women in the Catholic Center who supervise clerics, priests and even monsignors. I think the ability to relate in that manner to a woman is also important. In my own formation, before ordination and when newly ordained, I had women supervisors, as a catechist and then as a community organizer, and it was a good thing.” says Cdl . Joseph Tobin who is all for Women Cardinals.
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/08/cardinal-tobin-i-hope-women-will-continue-speak-truth
I read the entire interview. What a facile man. He speaks like a corporate slave parroting all the femspeak that is popular among the superficial thinkers and other slaves. I am repulsed.
The Church is dying and when you read the words of his ilk you can see why. Who would want any part of his “faith”? Perhaps a pseudo academic or some follower looking to fit in with the spirit of the age.
We shouldn’t give America the clicks.
Good point
“Chiodo” in Italian means “nail”.
This priest is a further nail driven in Jesus’ hands on the Cross.
Very reluctantly — I have to agree with you.
Abstinence is the way to control family size. We need to hear more about restraining the sexual impulse which is the main cause of impurity. Let’s get Pope Francis to promote abstinence as a method of sustainability!! This would make sense from both a religious and environmental point of view. Chances of this happening? Not at all in my opinion. Francis would say sex is beyond a person’s control. The devil couldn’t have said it better.
Perhaps another way to look at this is the complete lack of confidence in Divine Providence. We are committing suicide as peoples because we have bought the lie that there are too many people. Too many children because they cost too much. Too many children because they exhaust the mother. Too many children because we all eat too much, and use finite resources and on and on.
Does not The Father provide? Would God ask us to be fruitful and multiply if there were a danger of “over-population?” Many studies show that there is plenty of room on earth, plenty of resources, plenty of land for growing food, and for raising animals for food. The problem is that we sin gravely in these areas. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer – and the modern answer is to cut off the supply of people – the true answer is to live as if Christ was King, to love our neighbour, and to have children to fill Heaven for the glory of God. The answer to all this is not recycling plastic designer water bottles!
I’m a firm believer that we must cut the crap and go back to first principles. The FIRST principle in this discussion is to “do what He tells you” and to TRUST IN GOD.
I agree completely and my wife and I acted accordingly but with lots of hardship. We had 11 children and very little money for a family this size. No savings to speak of, the children had to wear hand me downs, few vacations, the kids all had to work, no saving for education, no saving for retirement for most of our marriage, etc. But every time a another child came along somehow how we managed, promotions and raises seemed to come with each new child. Now, most of the children are doing very well financially but not all go to Mass. But I have to ask myself. Is this way of life for everyone? Were my wife and I being presumptuous or selfish by such dependence on God. Frankly, I don’t know the answer to this. I don’t think God expects everyone to do what my wife and I did.
Of course every couple is different but all are called to live according to the Faith. Your comment seems to say for some couples contraception may be permissible. An endorsement of situation ethics?
Not at all. My comment means that if a couple wishes not to have or delay children they should practice abstinence and not use any other form of birth control.
You and your wife were open to life. It was God who put that baby inside your wife’s tummy.
God bless you and your family.
Thank you.
Michael, you and your wife sound like models of faith we can all look up to, even if you are a V2 scold!
We bore the brunt of Vatican II in Detroit fighting the heretical Catholic education that ensued following the Council. We pulled the kids out of the so called Catholic school, started our own school for a while and then put the kids in public school which was better having them exposed to bad Catholic education. We had to drive 20 miles to find a decent Mass, the pastor of our parish was not helpful, etc. So you can see why I am so upset about Vatican II.
Just to get a sense, Michael, how many still attend mass? Is there anything in particular you did with some and not the others that you can identify?
I would say about half of them attend Mass. The Vatican II thing was terribly destructive for them by us having to telling them the new teaching of the Catholic Church were heretical and the Masses were illicit. I can understand why they want nothing to do with the Church. It was something of a horror story for them.
What a tragedy Michael! You did so much that was-spot on correct, and then to have this result! On reading this I am so grateful that we cancelled our subscription to the Wanderer and that we did not get caught up in the “inside baseball” of the Church. What ever made you imagine that you had the authority to pronounce the teachings of the Church heretical? Maybe you expected a blessing.
We have a solemn duty to criticize the Church when it is required. To not do so is to be complicit in the heresy being promulgated. We must do our duty as Catholic by living by the truth and pointing out where is being neglected or contradicted. It is a sin to be silent about the doctrinal corruption in the Church.
“Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend
truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men,
when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.”
—-Pope St. Felix III
As the 8th child in a family of 12, I can attest that I am grateful that my parents didn’t stop at 2.15. Stories of hand-me-downs, work (in high school I was washing dishes in exchange for lunch) and other such are considered exercises in “Character Building”.
Agree. It did our kids a world of good having to work and pay the first year of their college tuition.
My previous post is quite similar to yours. Did you ever notice though that when hand-me-downs came into the house the kids were just as elated as if they were new? Even more than neighbor kids who got new clothes and griped because it wasn’t what they wanted. When grandma drove in it was a mad rush because our kids knew it was rummage sale day.
I don’t recall the elation about hand-me-downs but I don’t recall many complaints either. I gave my seven sons hair cuts for a long time. They didn’t much care for that but when they could pay for their own hair cut they did. We lived in a wealthy area where kids had new BMW’s, the latest fashion, etc. Since my kids couldn’t compete with that they competed academically and did very well. Two are medical doctors, another a TV political commentator, another a V-P of a large corporation, another is the CEO of his own business, another a VP of sales at his company, etc. All of them know how to cook, how to be handymen including the girls. The school of hard knocks made the rest of life much easier.
We raised ours at the end of a 4×4 road in the Montana woods. It was the only place we could afford to buy and I couldn’t see paying all my VA (partial disability) check to someone for rent. We built our own house and lived there for over 20 years. Even with the VA and work it wasn’t easy but we survived and in general the kids are doing well. Took lots of Rosaries but we made it.
Very good. There is no better investment than faith in God. It is like living a miracle day to day.
????????Your post is going into my favorite 1P5 posts file.
Thanks Margaret. Yes, living a miracle is a state of mind which gets interrupted with the vicissitudes of life. We must ask and thank God daily for the gift of his presence. It can easily disappear.
My mom got hand-me-downs. I get hand-me-ups (my younger sister gave me clothes ????).
You weren’t being presumptuous or selfish. My mom is the 7th of 9 children and my late father was the last of 5 children. St. Catherine of Siena was the 24th of 25 children (her twin sister died shortly after birth). If my grandparents had stopped having children, I and my siblings wouldn’t be here today. If the parents of St. Catherine had stopped having children, we’d have one less Saint and world history would be radically different because the popes might still be in Avignon. Your children should thank God, you and your wife for the gift of life.
Thanks Margaret. I am, of course, talking about having more children in the face of not knowing how you will feed or educate them. Acting in such a way is entirely imprudent in the eyes of the world and the eyes of the Vatican II Catholic Church, and those who do, such as my wife and I, will be accused of being irresponsible and presumptuous on the grace of God. So I sometimes wonder whether we did the right thing. But I will tell you what it was like living this way. It was like living a miracle. Everything worked out for us but at the time we didn’t know it. Living with total dependence on God is a great grace I think, a true gift from God. But it is far from easy; it is a test of faith., especially when the Catholic Church is not supportive. But the results speak for themselves. Deo Gratias.
Beautiful Barbara!!
I think many of the clergy in the Church do think that sex is beyond a person’s control and I think this stems from the homosexual mindset. Not only is the object of desire for the homosexual perverted, but the compulsion to act on that desire seems to be greatly amplified in the homosexual. This is why they say people in adultery, in some circumstances, have no choice but to continue with sexual relations. This is why they go easy on cohabitation. This is the reason for the push for married priests, and now why they say contraception is legitimate in some circumstances. It all boils down to the fact that they think people have to have sex.
I agree. But these priests are giving evil advice and those who engage in homosexual activity are acting evil. Sex should always be between a man and woman who are open to new life. God will decide how many children have. To live like this is difficult but we can depend of God to help us.
https://i0.wp.com/josephsciambra.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/martinpaprocki1.jpg
Fr. Martin is losing his battle for gay rights in the Catholic Church. Bishop Paprocki has said his tweedy bird tweets are wrong.
Even Bishop Bambera has condemned transgenders and sex change. Bambera just invited Fr. Martin to give a commencement speech at Misericordia University in Pennsylvania. Martin is now in hiding or on retreat at some Jesuit house on the Hudson River. He’s listening to the birds and finding himself , according to his Instagram , my face. you tube, facebook
Martin is thinking about bowing out of the ME TOO GAY
movement
Thanks. It’s ’bout time on Martin’s antics ran out.. Glad to hear that’s happening.
St. John Paul was so convicted that this is not an ideal but with God’s grace can be lived with great joy. AL is a defeatist document that states that those ideals are just too difficult. It reflects the apostasy of so many prelates from Francis on down who no longer seem to believe that the Holy Spirit is always there to give us the grace that we need even when it is difficult.
Which is absolutely incredible (and I mean that in the strict definition) coming from celibates! Are priests the only people who can exercise self-discipline? Or are these priests trying to tell us something….
And back to the question of priestly celibacy. One very good reason is to act as examples in solidarity with their unmarried parishioners. If priests can’t be celibate how can their flock be expected to? In which case the whole thing is a waste of time and let’s have a free for all….oh wait
Oh, what an excellent point!! What irony — and, considering the numbers of hypocritical clergy maybe an implied judgement upon many of them in high places.
That’s what I’m wondering – are these priests trying to tell us something? I’m thinking there might be a substantial number of priests who not only want the homosexual desire normalized, but want the act itself normalized, even among themselves. It seems they are projecting this inordinate desire for sex (which seems amplified among homosexuals) on to society at large. In other words, if they “have to have” sex, than heterosexuals must also “have to have” sex – which explains all of the attempts lately to try and liberalize Church teaching.
I believe it was St Francis of Assisi who once spoke with someone recently married who had previously sinned much against the 6th commandment. He told St. Francis something to the effect that now that we was married, impurity would not be a problem. St Francis responded that “a man can get drunk with his own cup.”
St Francis was so very right. Thanks for sending.
WOW. That’s a whopper.
Gee, Michael, do you meaning put God instead of our own desires at the center of our lives? Do you mean dying to ourselves in order that we might live? What Christian has ever heard such outrageous ideas!
Few it seems now-a-days.
The Devil urged the saying of it. Pray for PF
Let’s not hold our collective breaths while waiting for Fr. Chiodi to be asked to revoke his statements. He was a known commodity when given the position he holds, no?
Chiodi is a moral relativist. Period. End.
This is mere damage control. Putting out brush fires which are springing up everywhere faster than they can be extinguished, which is part of the enemy’s tactic. The principal issue here is Chiodi’s presence on the PAV. His appointment was deliberate and malicious and everything which follows that appointment, such as his speech last December, is entirely predictable. We’re running around with buckets of water, like headless chickens, trying to put out the fires but it’s too late. When the Pontifical Academy for Life was gutted and faithless rogues like Chiodi were appointed, it was game, set and match. Seifert’s words are, of course, sensible and orthodox but it’s too little, too late.
Francis has been mouthing lots of empty, pro-life platitudes recently so this tells us that he’s laying down cover for the assault which is coming and currently in progress on Humanae Vitae and the rest of the Church’s moral teaching. Everything is in their sights. All areas of the Church’s moral teaching are under assault; contraception, adultery and of course, the big one; sodomy which is the ultimate target of the lavender boys who’ve taken over the Church.
You are so perceptive. A year before the last synod, Cardinal Kasper was out promoting their agenda and grooming the public for what they knew was a forgone conclusion. Here we have a repeat of the very same tactics as we move toward the next synod in February. The gathering of the bishops was just window dressing and now the gathering of youth and families will be, sadly, no more than a photo op. They will say that all morality is now to be interpreted in the light of AL. Hold on to your Catechisms because they will be changing soon.
Yes, telegraphing the darkness coming with pretensions of Light is the modus operandi….
I don’t care if this disappoints liberals or not but, my wife, now deceased, and I gave life to 8 children, had very little money but always seemed to be able to make it. No contraceptives ever with us. Pontifical Commission for Life? This priest has no business even walking past the place, let alone being part of it.
May God, our Father, bless you and your family for bearing witness to his will!
You give witness to the faith with your life. What will some people do when they have to look at their lives with the Lord at judgement?
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, Germany, the deputy president of the German Bishops’ Conference, wants to introduce a “blessing“ for same-sex couples who engage in homosexual acts which are mortal sins and entail God’s eternal condemnation.
Talking to the Osnabrücker Zeitung (January 10), Bode said that he wants to meet the needs of practicing and unrepentant homosexuals and to “accompany them pastorally and liturgically”. He justified this by calling gay pseudo-marriages a “political reality”. National Socialism was also a “political reality”.
Bode asked for a “differentiated” assessment of gravely sinful gay liaisons, insinuating that, until Bode, the Church and Holy Scripture were “undifferentiated” in this regard. His gay proposals will eventually be accepted by the German bishops, further eroding the church and making it irrelevant to the world.
The Germans and the “German church” just need to go away.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fr.+pizzarelli&&view=detail&mid=3B8D4634F04417A5A0EF3B8D4634F04417A5A0EF&FORM=VRDGAR
New version of the Our Father or lord’s prayer
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=fr.+pizzarelli&&view=detail&mid=C8837A2B106F09F22AB8C8837A2B106F09F22AB8&FORM=VRDGAR
no kneelers, no more kneeling in church
this is Rev.
Pizzareli, a Montfort father
Holy. Sacrifice. Of. Mass. NOT
????
and their Church tax immorality….
In my comment I had originally typed a word about the tax but then deleted it. Ultimately, yes the Church in Germany would collapse without the tax. I don’t know if I should be hoping for the collapse of the Church anywhere if even one soul can be saved but based on the number lies and heretical stances put forth by the German speaking world…..I won’t hope their churches collapse but if they do….
This is from The Journal.ie sept 24th 2012
GERMANY’S ROMAN CATHOLICS who refuse to pay a church tax will be barred from receiving the sacraments or becoming a godparent, under controversial new restrictions entering into force today.
In a move decried by a progressive Catholic group, the German bishops’ conference last week issued a decree, saying it was “worried” about the Catholic Church’s dwindling numbers and wanted to stem the decline.
Confession, Holy Communion, confirmation in the Church or anointing of the sick – unless the patient’s life is in danger – are now out of bounds for anyone who leaves the Church, the decree which took effect today stated.
Becoming a godparent is also off-limits, it said.
Germany has had a system in place since the 19th century of asking residents to either officially declare their religion and pay a church tax, or to be classed as “non-religious”.
A change in status from being a member of a religion requires a formal procedure to “leave the Church”, as an increasing number of Germans have done, mostly from the Catholic Church but also from the Protestant faith.
The levy amounts to between eight and 10 per cent of income tax, depending on where the person lives.
National Catholic Register: JAN. 2, 2018
German Church Revenue Reached a Record $7.1 billion Last Year
An investigation by the ‘Handelsblatt’ newspaper shows that despite sharp falls in attendance, the Church is sitting on a multi-billion dollar fortune. It also lacks financial transparency, and is not properly resourcing Catholic hospitals.
An investigation by the German Handelsblatt newspaper has revealed the German Catholic Church collected a record €6 billion ($7.1 billion) last year, and that the country’s 27 dioceses are sitting on a fortune of at least €26 billion ($31.2 billion).
Although Church attendance is rapidly falling in the country — 2.2 million have de-registered since 2000 — the newspaper says revenues have been boosted by a “robust domestic economy.”
The report says the Church’s billions are tied up in fixed assets ($24 billion) and financial investments ($18.1 billion). The former are mostly made up of “equities or real estate, particularly in western Germany, donated by former nobility,” according to Handelsblatt.
The newspaper also says the German Church offers “a generous fund for pensions, reserved for higher-ranking ecclesiastical dignitaries, to the tune of €5 billion ($6 billion), but that number could also be higher as several of the bishoprics’ business reports didn’t provide exact information.”
Much of the Church’s wealth derives from the nation’s Church tax. Every baptized German working adult (roughly one third of the country’s Catholics) has to pay a levy of 8 to 9 percent, depending on the state, an arrangement dating back to the 1919 Weimar Constitution, which was transferred verbatim into the current constitution after World War II.
German citizens who formally wish to stop paying the tax cannot receive Holy Communion or other religious services, according to the German Bishops’ Conference. The Church has even been known to look into expats’ home records to determine if they’ve been honest on tax declarations about being baptized or not, Handelsblatt reports.
The Church also benefits from state subsidies.
Too many homosexuals in the clergy. Much too many.
Yes, sick to death hearing about this all the time…
It is demonic
Some healthy news…
Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, former Archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, rejects the possibility of giving Holy Communion to people who commit the sins of homosexuality, contraception, and adultery.
Talking to LifeSiteNews (January 9) Sandoval called homosexuality a “psychological illness” that leads to the self-destruction of those who practice it, “Let them seek a cure, because homosexuality is never permitted.”
Sandoval recalled Sodom and Gomorrah, “They gave vent to their desires and were destroyed.”
Homosexuals can never receive Communion, “They can’t be in good conscience. Chastity is a universal precept.”
I read that piece and I liked it. These older bishops should come by with their crosiers and slap these effeminate bishops and priests for there heresy and decadence.
God bless Mexico and Cardinal Sandoval.
http://cdn.patch.com/users/35151/2011/07/T800x600/4f47d40ac54e95b59f0b93dae68ddaff.jpg
fr. frank from st. Gerard majella is on the left
Whats this….Santa Claus meets Clark Kent? And what IS THAT THING on the wall
behind Superman?
something from reiki or yoga
Is it alive? LOL!
his knickname is the Dutch boy or Bu tch
you should see his dog.
Uh, appalled but not surprised.
Thanks be to GOD…….
On New Year’s Eve, Father Gregorio Hidalgo, 44, an assistant-priest in Simi Valley, Los Angeles Archdiocese, USA, who was on a Communion call in a hospital, was directed into a wrong room.
He ended up with a dying female patient. Hidalgo asked her if she wanted to confess and she affirmed.
After having left the room Hidalgo realised that he had visited the wrong patient. The woman, visited by mistake, passed away two hours later. Hidalgo calls this on Twitter his “best mistake” ever.
I can relate a similar experience, though I am not sure of the validity. I had a question, I don’t even remember what, relating to my dying,non-practicing Anglican brother-in-law in a foreign hospital because communication with him was difficult. The brother in law had a difficult life, serious mental disorders, and suffered horrendous bed sores in the end exposing bone and seemed to despairingly give up on life. Being Catholic I left a message asking for a callback to the Catholic priest chaplain at the hospital rather than to the Anglican chaplain. Later that day I spoke to a nurse who informed me the priest had visited and had performed the last rites. That was not my intention or request, yet I believe it was a grace.
Love between Man and Woman is love of each other’s gift of bearing new life enmeshed with each other’s signature. Remove that and the act of human love becomes more a person’s pleasurable experience than love of the other. The avalanche of immorality that followed the pill is evidence. Paul VI foresaw that and twice refused the recommendation of a pontifical professional panel of Catholics to permit its use. The Gregorian U meeting was known for months as a purposeful effort to revise Humanae Vitae in accord with premises written into Amoris Laetitia favoring mitigating circumstances as the determinant of a moral act. As already seen the same premises as predicted much earlier by Prof Josef Seifert at the time of his dismissal as lecturer in Spain can be applied and are being applied to all moral teaching inclusive of Apostolic Tradition on intrinsic evil. What the Church has determined intrinsically evil is part of revelation inclusive of the Decalogue and specifically revealed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Fr Chiodi is small fry. The reform of Catholic doctrine is overseen by Pope Francis. He draws moral good away from the Father’s, Christ’s, and the Holy Spirit’s revelation to the Church and world. It favors an irreligious rationale of Man’s needs in disobedience of God. It is Antichrist and the work of Antichrist.
BERGOGLIO’S NEW OATH OF FIDELITY TO “HIS BOGUS MAGESTERIUM”
FR. KRAMER/FR CRISTOFORO
Like Hitler demanding an oath of fidelity to the Führer; Bergoglio is drawing up a compulsory oath of loyalty to HIMSELF and his magisterium.
A source said that a sort of “act of fidelity to the pope (obviously Omissis) and his magisterium is under study.
This kind of “act of fidelity” will be required of all clerics of the Catholic Church, deacons, priests, bishops and cardinals. And it must be formally pronounced. In the various dioceses a day will be chosen in which all, bishop, priests and deacons will have to pronounce solemnly this formal act. Which means to promise “blind loyalty” to the “magisterium” and the teaching of Bergoglio. Of course it will be mandatory. Those who do not make this “promise” will have to consider themselves “suspended a divinis”.
If this draft were to happen (I hope not), we will be at the turn. And I believe that nobody will save us from the schism. Also because how can we lend loyalty to a heretical magisterium?
Not sure what to make of this…..
Source is https://www.gloria.tv/article/4br3vupB6qZmAThuKbVKACLy4
Unfortunately Barry I will not be excessively surprised. This Pontiff dismissed important prelates who disagree and recently to the entire Curia called them dissenters and “traitors”.
Thank you PF. Another nail in the coffin of ultramonatism.
Is anyone really that surprised. In a short article I wrote about this on my own website I state:
In the original I link to the LifeSite articles pertaining to the “reforming” of the AfL. Did anyone think that pro-abortionists and pro-contraceptionists were suddenly going to become pro-life? I later add:
The Silent Apostasy that John Paul II made mention of has become the Out, Loud & Proud Apostasy.
We still have the family event in Dublin, Ireland this August and the Synod on the youth this October. Plenty more scandals on the plate this year. Since the Hierarchs are failing their mission, let the laity take up the mantle of faith and proudly carry the Cross with Our Lord. God shall be glorified in His Church: by the clergy or by the sheep they’ve abandoned!
There is no doubt that war has been declared on traditional Catholic teaching where sexual morality is concerned. Professor Siefert’s analysis of the Chiodi lecture lays bare the fault lines which still persist in Catholic moral theology despite the years of teaching by Saint John Paul II and Emeritus Pope Benedict. Not only, would it appear, that artificial contraceptive methods are to be approved, they are to be made compulsory for some Catholic couples! Chiodi seems to be unaware of natural family planning recourse to which is open to Catholic married couples who have good reasons for limiting the size of their family. Chiodi’s contribution is theologically dangerous and pastorally disastrous.
Add to this the plea for by elements of the German hierarchy for permission to be given to bless same-sex unions, again justified by reference to Amoris laetitiae, and we see the damage wrought in the Church by this extraordinary document. The German vice-chairman of their bishops conference maintains that we cannot always be sure that two people of the same sex living together are in a state of mortal sin. Well, if they are having a sexual relationship they are in a state of mortal sin, and sound instruction will make that clear to them. If they are in a sexual relationship and a priest were to bless that union it would certainly suggest the approval and blessing of the Catholic Church. No one suggests blessing heterosexual couples living together. And nor should they since the Church only has the authority to bless a marital union between a man and a woman.
The Pontifical Academy for Life has been destroyed and its once wonderful influence has been eviscerated. This is a tragedy as, too, are the suggestions now being promoted by heterodox elements which in recent years have felt enabled to come out of the darkness of the woodwork to shamelessly propose clearly heretical doctrine. Professor Siefert and his colleagues are to be congratulated and encouraged to keep up their thoughtful, critical, and powerful analyses of current trends, reasserting the real and infallible teaching of our Holy Mother, the Church.
BEHOLD! Amoris Laetitia is a TROJAN HORSE! Now that we have let it in our house, it will be accessed by the dark forces in command. Yes this is so tragic…but The Church will overcome this evil by the Providence of God. Pray my brothers and sisters, pray and stay pure, use the sacrements, and pray the Rosary DAILY!
The attack against Fr. Chiodi is vitiated by the fact that Dr. Seifert bases himself solely on what was to gather from the report on Lifesitenews which doesn’t give context. The actual text of what Fr. Chiodi said does not seem to be available. He should be given a chance to defend himself. Humanae Vitae condemns the perversion of the marriage act by contraception. But this is not necessarily always the case in every possible use of contraceptives for preventing pregnancies: for instance the case in which religious sisters in Africa were allowed to use contraceptives when threatened by rape. (Maybe that was a theoretical case. Maybe Paul VI didn’t make that comment. But it is still a good make-you-think example. What Amoris Laetitia says about the discernment of cases must be applied here too. Although I do not particularly like it because of its racist overtones. The woman does not have to be in Africa, and does not have to be a nun.
There could therefore be a case in which “the use of contraceptives” is justified. Notice the scare quotes! When Pope Francis mentioned this matter he was not approving contraception; just as when Pope Francis in speaking of specific imaginable cases in which the divorced and remarried can be admitted to communion he was not changing the practice which bars the divorced and remarried from communion. He was saying that there must be discernment of cases.
Pope Francis has mentioned the possible use of contraceptives in defense against disease (Zika). By saying that he was not approving the perversion of the marriage act by the introduction of contraception. He was not saying the end justifies the means. Or more precisely, he was not saying that one may do what is morally evil so that good may come from it. He was not speaking of the marriage act and its perversion. He was speaking of the prevention of disease and its means. Now you cannot do something which is intrinsically evil to prevent disease. But you have to think carefully about the meaning of the term “use of conraceptives ” this case and you have to think carefully about what the Church taught and meant to teach in Humanae Vitae.
The discernment of cases follows from solid Thomist principles. St. Thomas teaches that the moral species of an act is determined by its object. There are cases in which the object of an act does not turn out to be what someone at first blush might judge it to be. (A soldier fighting a just war resembles a soldier fighting an unjust war, and discernment must applied to understand the moral rightness of military actions; this does not mean that the fifth commandment does not prescribe actions which are wrong in themselves. It is not only the Sixth commandment that prescribes what is intrinsically wrong.
Those who accuse Pope Francis of defending adultery (and perhaps those who accuse Father Chiodi of defending contraception) should be asked about their own conceptions about moral norms. Do they believe in moral actions which are intrinsically wrong, or do they simply believe in positive law. Ask them if they can name other actions which are intrinsically disordered. Have they realized that lying is also intrinsically disordered? (I mention lying because there has been a lot of misrepresentation of what Pope Francis actually has said.in Amoris Laeititia. A lot of people go around saying “As everyone knows AL approves of adultery,” “as everyone knows AL is situationalist document,” “As everyone knows Francis is a theological ignoramus who is rehashing 1960s liberalism and that his claims to be following Thomistic moral theology are laughable.” I ask these so-called moralists and theologians to respect the objective moral and check their facts before engaging on what might just be slander.
Let’s re-read the Constitution of the United States in light of Das Kapital. That way we can do a 180 on EVERY historic document. Oh, my kids’ colleges are already doing just that? Who knew?
The content mentions Chiodi’s rejection of a central moral teaching of the Church on contraception and his assertion that contraception could be morally mandatory under certain circumstances.
you’ve provided an excerpt from an article discussing a speech delivered by Professor Father Maurizio Chiodi on the re-reading of Humanae Vitae in light of Amoris Laetitia.
Chiodi’s speech appears to challenge the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on contraception, particularly in relation to responsible parenthood.
The text you provided seems to be an excerpt from a statement by Professor Josef Seifert, discussing a speech delivered by Professor Father Maurizio Chiodi in 2017.
The content suggests that Chiodi rejects a central moral teaching of the Church on contraception, particularly the idea that there is a profound link between the conjugal loving union and procreation.
Your paragraph seems to be an extract from Professor Josef Seifert’s remark on Father Maurizio Chiodi’s 2017 address.
Great article, I loved it, I read the whole thing.
Oh, my kids’ colleges are already doing just that?
You have a great way of presenting complex information in an understandable way.
Many thanks for spreading the word to everyone you know who might be interested in this topic.You can also refer to my website for more information.