By
Maike Hickson
Cardinal Kasper |
The developments in Europe are
accelerating. One statement after another shows how high-ranking bishops and
prelates are now publicly opposing the traditional moral teaching of the
Catholic Church, which is based upon the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself!
First, on August 1, the Archbishop
of Hamburg, Stefan Heße, came out and defended publicly a liberal attitude
toward homosexual couples and “remarried” divorcees. As the official website of
the German Bishops' Conference, katholisch.de, reports:
Francis 1 |
“Even though he [Archbishop Heße]
is still somewhat hesitant concerning the “homo-marriage,” Heße also says: “But
when these people seek to be close to us, then we as Church are there for them.
What else?” The Church has to cherish it when in homosexual relationships there
are to be found values such as fidelity and reliability. “In my eyes, this does
not minimize the love and fidelity between two people,” according to Heße. He
also wishes for the remarried divorcees “liveable forms for the Church's
recognition and accompaniment,” without thereby giving up the ideal of
marriage.”
Then, on August 7, the President
of the Swiss Bishops' Conference, Bishop Markus Büchel, came out in a public letter to
all co-workers in the pastoral field, defending homosexual couples. After
another Swiss bishop, Bishop Vitus Huonder, had publicly spoken about how the
Old Testament condemns homosexual practices, Bishop Büchel made a statement
distancing himself from such views. In this statement, the Swiss Bishop says:
“For the promotion of the good of
the person, it is less decisive whether someone has a hetero- or homosexual
inclination; rather, the responsible approach to sexuality and all the other
dimensions of a relationship (such as attentiveness, carefulness, respect, or
fidelity) is decisive. Here we are permitted, as Catholic faithful, to trust
the conscience of each individual. Let us rejoice about every relationship in
which the partners accept one another as equal, valuable, beloved children of
God and respect the dignity of the other and promote the well-being of the
persons!
Bishop Büchel continues to stress
that to respect the dignity of the human person “also means not to reduce a
person and his relationships to the mere sexual question.” He also referred,
once more, to “Jesus”' teaching according to which love and affection are
predominant. The bishop also stressed that at Biblical times, people did not
know that homosexuality is a biological inclination and “not a freely chosen
sexual orientation.” These statements are in full accord with the themes and
statements of the recent May 25 “Shadow
Council” which was organized, among others, by the President of
the Swiss Bishops' Conference himself. The German pro-life activist and author,
Mathias von Gersdorff, comments upon
this statement:
“Herewith, he [Büchel] contradicts
in a straightforward way the moral teaching on sexuality of the Catholic Church
and most probably also the Christian anthropology.”
Last but not least, a Spanish
bishop has today caused a great stir by announcing that he will allow a
transsexual to become the godparent at an upcoming baptism. As the Swiss
website kath.ch reported, the bishop of Cádiz, Spain, Rafael Zornoza, has given
“permission” to the 21-year-old Alex Salinas to become the godparent of her
nephew.
This decision came after a
national petition was launched in defence of Salinas who first had been denied
to become a godparent because she does not live according to the Church's moral
teaching. More than 35,000 people signed the petition in favour of Salinas! Now
the diocese declared that “being transsexual does not constitute a reason for
being excluded from the office of a godfather,” as kath.ch reports. Salinas
himself comments on the new decision, according to the Spanish newspaper El
País:
“I don’t know if the pope saw my
petition – I have no knowledge about that – but of course the entire Church is
changing. In fact, they just said that divorced Catholics cannot be
excommunicated and I think it is wonderful that the Church is taking a new
route.”
All these reports come out at a
time where Pope Francis himself repeatedly speaks about the importance of
welcoming “remarried” divorcees in the parishes and not to have any negative
attitude toward them and their children without once mentioning – as a pastor
for all – that they live, objectively speaking, in the state of sin!
Source: LifeSiteNews
No comments:
Post a Comment