WHAT'S
RIGHT WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH #35
In this offering, I refer to a number of
articles
available at www.zenit.org/article-*****?l=english.
The specific reference ***** will be given in
each
case.
This statement explores no new ground, re-emphasizing the “unitive and procreative” demand on a married couple for which I find no jurisdiction, as outlined elsewhere in these offerings. It also indicts contraception while giving “Natural Family Planning” an undeserved pass. It unnecessarily faults In Vitro Fertilization, again within the marriage bond, while offering no solution to the valid problem of excess fertilized ova – human beings – like adoption or Christian burial. And in the process, the Church remains irrelevant to a large number of good Catholic married couples in some of the most formative years of their lives. Not good. Not necessary.
Some good material and ideas here, after a while.
This has value, but once again goes too far without basis, setting up straw men where convenient.
More moral gymnastics. For example: a) if a married couple initially practices contraception, even for valid reasons, the marriage is “not consummated”; b) “It follows that should they conceive a child contrary to their intentions, they do so by means of a non-marital act”. Nonsense.
An excellent
exposition of the challenges to the Catholic Church in the
world
today…and to the Laity as well as to the Hierarchy…if the Hierarchy
would only
recognize that fact, rather than marginalizing the Body of the Church.
A useful article which acknowledges the right and responsibility of a married couple to act judiciously in the planning and sizing of their family. Of course, once again it gives a pass to Natural Family Planning, where…as with the use of contraceptives by such a committed couple…both the intent (“Mens Rea”) and the action (“Actus Reus”) are there to thwart procreation at that time. A distinction without a difference, in my opinion as a good Catholic with a well-formed conscience.
Another useful article regarding the most serious societal cancer in our midst. And this includes the situation with regard to “incest and rape”. “Can you hear me now?”
This is one of several articles regarding Ulipristal, an abortifacient like “Plan B” posing as a contraceptive. Perhaps the Church this time will not cave in, as the Connecticut Hierarchy did scandalously a few years ago in allowing Plan B to be required in Catholic hospitals.
And well they should. For the work of the Council was obstructed by Pope Paul VI in the late 1960’s; and its actions have been under attack since then. How does that square with the Catholic Church being “One, Holy, Catholic and Universal”?
The offerings in Zenit are well worth reviewing
regularly, despite their frequent ponderous prose and sometimes
conclusory
pronouncements.
And why do I bother to monitor the activities
of the
Church closely? Precisely because I am a
good Roman Catholic of formed right conscience.
I am merely trying to correct a modus operandi, which has become
altogether too standard in recent decades, wherein the Hierarchy
pretends to
talk with the Laity…and the Laity pretends to listen.
That is a prescription for decline and
failure, as is occurring rapidly in Europe, where the Church should be
strongest. We are not talking about
Faith here. We are talking about a
Hierarchy that has become arrogant, isolated and insulated from its
Body of the
Church. As long as that continues, I
will not go quietly into the sunset.
George A. Sprecace, M.D., J.D.
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