News Item: : Cohabitation - The Domestication of Evil
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Tuesday 07 March 2017 - 22:06:50

We're still catching up on some of the news that happened whilst we were away dealing with Mum's recent health scare. Although what follows may seem like old news to some people, we still think it important to comment, because one of the key reasons this apostolate was established was to defend and promote the true teachings of the Church on Holy Matrimony.

Diabolical Promotion of Cohabitation - A Danger to Souls

On 26th February, Fr. Antonio Spadaro S.J. tweeted a link to his Cyberteologia site with the disturbing tag-line, The welcoming of those young people who prefer to live together without getting married.

The photograph which Spadaro chose to illustrate this tweet - featuring a young couple approaching to greet Pope Francis - made that tweet even more inappropriate for three key reasons: the woman was wearing very tight jeans (have we reached a point where it is deemed acceptable to personally meet the Supreme Pontiff dressed in jeans?); the angle of the photo highlighted this fact in a less than chaste manner; and the couple themselves were actually not being photographed as a contingent of ''young people who prefer to live together without getting married''.

In fact, as Oakes Spalding pointed out the very next day at Mahound's Paradise, that couple were actually from among the 20,000 engaged couples who had travelled for an audience with the Pope as part of Familia Cristiana.it on St. Valentine's Day! So, in spite of the impression given by Spadaro's tweet and headline, there was not an actual event set aside to ''welcome those young people who prefer to cohabit instead of getting married''. Sure looks like a nasty trick, hey? Having seen that headline and photograph, I was misled myself for a few days until I read deeper.

If they are not living together outside of holy matrimony, I think Spadaro owes that couple and his readers an apology.

Spadaro's disingenuous use of that headline and photograph, make it apparent that he is trying to downplay, and even to promote, cohabitation as nothing more than a harmless ''lifestyle choice''.

That is very disturbing when one considers that Spadaro has often been described as Pope Francis' ''mouthpiece''. Indeed, Francis himself recently highlighted Spadaro to La Civilta Cattolica as the one who had ''given a faithful reading of his papacy''.

In an age of instant messaging through social media, many will imbibe the faux message that the Church now somehow accepts cohabitation, without taking the time to study the actual content of Spadaro's Cyberteologia article itself; much less Pope Francis' address to priests, upon which it is based. And because Spadaro is so widely understood as the communicator of Francis' message, that could do untold damage to countless souls... 

What is the Meaning of This?

The content of Spadaro's article itself is, perhaps, a little more nuanced than either his tweet or the Cyberteologia article's own headline. I say this in light of the fact that he does speak of ''welcome'' as a constructive opportunity to ''journey towards the fullness of marriage and family in the light of the Gospel''.

At the same time, it is hard not to miss the Marxization of the Gospel which seems to lurk in his assertion that ''simply cohabiting'' is often chosen because couples are awaiting work and a fixed salary. I say Marxization, because this approach tends to situate all sin beyond the self and in things like social structures, the economy and perceptions of class struggle. But, of course, all sin finds its origin in the depths of the human heart. Whatever external pressures bear upon us, we are nevertheless responsible for our own choices, responses and sins. It is worth noting here, the parallels in Spadaro's argument to the content of paragraphs 293-294 of Amoris Laetitia... 

As we have alluded, Spadaro's tweet and article were fundamentally based on an address given just one day earlier by Francis to priests in Rome on what is termed the ''new matrimonial process''.

Although the experiences of Synods '14 and '15, combined with the whole saga of Amoris Laetitia, might cause us to prefer to think otherwise, it is actually possible to read Francis' original address to the priests in a more orthodox way than Spadaro implies in the misleading tweet we mentioned at the outset.

For instance, the context of that phrase ''those young people who prefer to cohabit without getting married'' does not come across in the original as the straightforward promotion of fornication that Spadaro's tweet insinuates. On the contrary, Francis describes such couples as spiritually and morally among the poorest and the least. Even the most orthodox priests could read Francis' words in the original as a call to go out pastorally to bring in the lost sheep back to the sheepfold.

I suppose what nags in our minds at this point, is that Francis' own depiction of Spadaro as his faithful interpreter, especially when viewed in light of his many ''interviews'' with the atheistic Scalfari et al, points to something much less benign. In addition to this, the scandal still lingers from the time in September 2014 when mainstream media outlets were told that Francis was to marry cohabiting couples, without any reference being made to the sinfulness of cohabitation, nor to whether the couples concerned had repented of their public sins. Then, too, there was that scandalous suggestion that Francis made on 16th June 2016 that he had seen ''much fidelity'' in cohabiting couples. Indeed, he even claimed that such couples had ''the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity''! Can anyone explain to me how that is not at least material heresy? And what of the rumours of his unorthodox approach to cohabiting couples back in Buenos Aires? Therefore, we are forced to ask: is Spadaro's tweet the real meaning behind the papal address?

Everbody's Welcome - Except for Orthodox Catholics...

Whatever the case may be, it seems apposite to look into this whole concept of the ''welcome'' given to cohabiting couples.

Of course, it is essential to show welcome to all people who come to the Church seeking the sacraments. And it is natural that one would befriend and get to know such people before placing any hard truths before them. St. Francis of Assisi himself taught these very facts when it came to dealing with sinners. However, the impression is being given that it is somehow unwelcoming, nay even uncharitable, to explain to cohabiting couples that what they are doing is gravely sinful.

It has to be said that the advent of Amoris Laetitia, and its ongoing application throughout the world, has made this situation much worse.

Would anyone honestly say that there is really anywhere in the Church these days where cohabiting couples are being made to feel unwelcome when they attend for marriage preparation courses?

Is it not the opposite that is true?

If you have been reading this blog for long enough, you will recall that the Torch of The Faith apostolate was developed in light of the dreadful experiences which we had to endure on the compulsory marriage preparation course in the Archdiocese of Liverpool in 2002.

On that occasion, it was the couples who were trying to live by the Church's orthodox teachings who were made to feel unwelcome!

As a young engaged couple in 2002, Angie and I were made to feel extremely unwelcome, indeed bullied, on our Archdiocese's marriage preparation course, because we were standing up for the Church's true teachings on cohabitation!

As we have described here several times over the years, that course consisted of: relativistic group discussions; a video of a stand-up comedian talking about sexuality; and the catechists claiming that the Church had changed the teachings on sex outside of marriage, contraception, divorce and homosexuality...

When we challenged this by asking them to prove this from official Magisterial documents, they suggested we ''had an old-fashioned model of church'' as ''decisions were now made by the laity''. When Angeline said it was disappointing that Jesus had not been mentioned during the whole day, the lead catechist chillingly replied: ''You might be comfortable with that name dear, but others here may prefer to speak of a transcendental reality.''

At that point, I added that the entire course had been an example of the kind of moral relativism refuted by teaching documents like Fides et Ratio and Veritatis Splendor. Suddenly, the catechist's husband jumped up, wrote the word ''Challenging'' on the flip-chart, pointed to us and then apologized to the rest of the group for the fact that Angie and I had ''spoiled what was meant to have been a bit of fun!''

Out of around 18 engaged couples on our course, there were only us and one other couple that were not already living together. In fact, there was even one couple who loudly and laughingly made clear that they were sexually active. At the end, one of the catechists made a bee-line for that couple and scoffed about Angie and I to them.

We were not only distressed at the way we were treated on that course; we were also deeply concerned for all the couples who had not been evangelized or catechized, but had instead been mislead into thinking that they could just carry on with their destructive fornicating; and then get happily married in Church without any compunction whatsoever.

It all made us realise that this had been going on for many years with the same Archdiocesan catechists in place.

We complained to Archbishop Patrick Kelly and received a swift and polite reply from him. However, no concrete action was ever taken and those catechists remained in place for several more years. At one point, one of them even co-hosted a day promoting homosexual ideology. 

When we launched Torch of The Faith at a day of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Pantasaph Franciscan Friary in 2008, a big part of the mission was to get the true teachings of the Church on Holy Matrimony out to as many people and places as we possibly could. Between 2008 and 2012, we travelled the country to give catechesis to dozens of engaged couples, married couples, RCIA catechumens and students of college and high school on the Church's true teachings relating to Holy Matrimony and chastity.

Admonishing Sinners is a Spiritual Work of Mercy

Throughout those times, we always gave the full teachings in a charitable manner. Indeed, in an age when so few have had any kind of orthodox catechetical formation whatsoever, it is a work of charity to tell people that it is a sin to have sex outside of marriage. Readers will recall that instructing the ignorant and admonishing sinners are two of the spiritual works of mercy.

It is necessary to receive the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony in the state of grace in order for it to be both pleasing to God and a blessing to you and your spouse. This requires chaste courtship and cooperation with God's grace through Confession, Communion, prayer as a couple and the avoidance of the occasions of sin. (In case this causes concern: if someone were not in the state of grace when they got married, but still intended to be married, their marriage is still valid. As with the Sacrament of Confirmation, sincere repentance with a good confession would remedy the sin and unblock the hindrance to divine grace which the state of mortal sin had caused).

Sometimes our presentations did meet with resistance, even hostility, from some of those attending. On one memorable occasion, a couple of aging women - one of whom was a ''catechist'' - were grumbling against us for imparting Catholic Truth, whilst a pair of young married couples who had come through big conversions to Catholicism were very supportive of us!

We generally found that a sincere opening prayer, a generous presentation style and an invitation to all participants to ask the Holy Spirit to guide them in discerning the things we taught, all helped to get the message across as an act of love.

Sometimes we were actually thanked for our honesty.

I remember one occasion when there was a heavily pregnant woman in the group. I admit that I felt a bit hot under the collar when I got to the bit where I had to explain about sex outside of marriage being objectively sinful, and explain to the group about making a good confession and living the remainder of the engagement period as a chaste preparation for the commitment of marriage.

At the end, the pregnant lady approached me and, to be honest, I was expecting to get a thump! In fact, this lady very humbly thanked me for explaining the Church's teaching to her.

For some people, this is the first time they have heard any of this.

Many priests are afraid to mention these ''hard sayings'' today. However, we owe it to the souls that come our way to help them to know the truth, which will set them free.

In paragraph 44 of his classical encyclical on marriage, Arcanum Divinae, Pope Leo XIII wrote: ''Lastly, since We well know that none should be excluded from Our charity, We commend, venerable brothers, to your fidelity and piety those unhappy persons who, carried away by the heat of passion, and being utterly indifferent to their salvation, live wickedly together without the bond of lawful marriage. Let your utmost care be exercised in bringing such persons back to their duty; and, both by your own efforts and by those of good men who will consent to help you, strive by every means that they may see how wrongly they have acted; that they may do penance; and that they may be induced to enter into a lawful marriage according to the Catholic rite.''

At the end of the day, ''welcome'' is an important aspect of all pastoral activity worthy of the name. However, pastoral outreach cannot end there; for that is merely a part of natural virtue and even general social interaction.

Something more is needed. That something more is the urgent call of the Gospel to conversion to the new life in Jesus Christ. As Pope Leo XIII reminds us, that makes for a welcome that is truly inclusive.

May the Holy Family - Pray for us!       

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1572 )