By Lisa Bourne and Maike Hickson
Cardinal Francis Arinze
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| Cardinal Robert Sarah |
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| Cardinal Dominik Duka |
Church leaders are striking back
against assaults on marriage and family in a slate of new books countering
proposals seeking to circumvent Church teaching at the upcoming Vatican Synod
in October.
Four titles coming out in Ignatius
Press’ fall releases all refute challenges to Catholic principles in the
hot-button areas of marriage and human sexuality, with special consideration
for the upcoming Ordinary Synod on the Family.
Authored by prominent Church
figures representing the Church’s orthodox leaders, they directly address the
contentious issues expected to be the focus of the Synod. Two of the books
gather roughly a half-dozen cardinals or bishops to write in defence of the
Church.
Ignatius Press Founder and Editor Father Joseph
Fessio, S.J. told journalists those at the publishing house
felt the topic was important, and they wanted to give a voice to those “who
have something substantial to say, and who are both deeply rooted in the
Church’s long tradition and aware of the challenges of contemporary culture.”
Last year’s Extraordinary Synod on
the Family was fraught with controversy,
with some liberal bishops attempting to thwart Church teaching in the areas of
marriage and sexuality, most notably German Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposal to
allow Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. Homosexual
advocates have also made a concerted continual push for their agenda to be
advanced at the Synod as well.
The attempts to sidestep Church
principles were masked as “a more pastoral approach” to the moral questions of
Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics and homosexuality.
“Nothing which conflicts with
authoritative teaching can be pastoral,” Father Fessio told journalists.
The four new books are not the
first literary effort to defend the Church’s teaching at the Synod.
Five cardinals collaborated to
write the book Remaining
in the "Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic
Church" to defend Church teaching on marriage and family ahead
of the 2014 gathering, and sent the book to the bishops taking part. Reports
surfaced later that the Synod lead organizer took steps to
block the book’s distribution to the bishops.
Three bishops penned another book
this past spring, "Preferential Option for the Family — 100 Questions and
Answers Relating to the Synod", to clear up the Synod
confusion on Church teaching.
One of the Synod’s most provocative
moments last year was when Cardinal Kasper was recorded
dismissing the voice of African Catholics in the area of Church teaching on
homosexuality.
African cardinals “should not tell
us too much what we have to do,” Cardinal Kasper stated in an interview
with ZENIT news agency, adding that he didn’t think the other Synod
participants were listening to the African bishops either.
Cardinal Kasper also said Africans
were “very different” about homosexuals, and that, “You can’t speak about this
with Africans and people of Muslim countries. It’s not possible. It’s a taboo.
For us, we say we ought not to discriminate, we don’t want to discriminate in
certain respects.”
While African bishops were not
being listened to at the Synod, he said, their views are “of course” listened
to in Africa, “where it’s taboo.”
Cardinal Kasper initially denied his
statements but was forced to walk back his
denial after the recording of the interview was released.
In the wake of the ideological and
cultural divide at the Synod highlighted by the incident, one of Ignatius’s
fall releases is "Christ’s New Homeland - Africa – A contribution to the
Synod on the Family", by 10 African cardinals and bishops.
The contributors include Cardinals
Robert Sarah, Francis Arinze, Christian Tumi,Théodore Sarr,
and Archbishop Samuel
Kleda.
Cardinal Sarah,
prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments at the Vatican, was appointed in 2014 by Francis I. He has stated
emphatically that any attempt to separate Catholic teaching from “pastoral
practice” is a form of “heresy
and a dangerous schizophrenic pathology.”
“The African Church will strongly
oppose any rebellion against the teaching of Jesus and the Magisterium,” the
Guinean cardinal has also said.
Cardinal Arinze provides the
preface for the African cardinals’ book.
“The African prelates make a
concise presentation of the attitude of Africans toward marriage and the
family,” Cardinal Arinze wrote. “Africans see the family as a community of love
between a man and a woman, with a loving opening to children. Marriage is the
entry. It comes from the creating hands of God, and so no human being has the
authority to try to re-invent it. A marriage in Africa establishes a link
between the families of the man and the woman, with each side ready to help to
make it a success. Appreciation of the complementarity of man and woman and of
the divine origin of marriage and the family cuts across cultural, linguistic,
and religious frontiers.”
“Marriage and the family are in
crisis,” states the preview from another of the new books, "Eleven
Cardinals Speak – On Marriage and the Family", an
international collection of essays from 11 princes of the Church.
"Eleven Cardinals Speak"
gives an introduction to the upcoming October Synod and discusses pertinent
issues such as divorced and civilly remarried Catholics and the demands of
authentic pastoral care.
Contributors are Cardinals Sarah,
Carlo Caffarra, Baselios Cleemis, Paul Josef Cordes, Dominik Duka, Joachim Meisner, Camillo Ruini, Antonio María
Rouco Varela, Willem Jacobus
Eijk, John Onaiyekan,
and Jorge L. Urosa Savino.
Source: LifeSiteNews
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