It's The Truth, Not Nuanced Language, That Will Set Us Free

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What a treasure St. Catherine of Siena is! One does not become a Doctor of the Church by being fearful to express, teach and live God's Truth in its entirety. 

How ill-advised we are to discount, ignore or try to nuance the wisdom God has shared over the centuries through such faithful servants as she.  Less likely would we be to commit this error if our primary concern was the salvation of souls. No wonder those who wish to only tickle our ears and destroy our consciences ignore these great spiritual writers, abandoning God's Truth for a less demanding and counterfeit one.

The following words  Jesus shared with St. Catherine in the 13th century are clear and unambiguous directions to his shepherds - not only those living then but for those among us today. May we and they be given the grace, humility and wisdom to hear and follow His Inerrant Voice: 

"No rank, whether of civil or divine law, can be held in grace without holy justice.  For those who are not corrected and those who do not correct are like members beginning to rot, and if the doctor were only to apply ointment without cauterizing the wound, the whole, body would become fetid and corrupt.

So it is with prelates or with anyone else in authority. 

Monday Musings - So When Can We Expect to Hear Humane Vitae Preached at Sunday Masses?

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If God used Balaam’s donkey to get that prophet’s attention, I guess he can use me to get yours. May these periodic postings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month (God willing) generate fruitful discussion and faithful change.

 

I recently read a short but interesting article written by Father Michael Orsi. It is entitled How Same-Sex Marriage Won. You can read his article here at Catholic Exchange. 

As I am wont to do, I simply passed it along to several social media sites with the same question I posed in today's post. That's all I did. What a stir it created.  

I did not have time to join the on-going and often troublesome discussion but did forward another relevant piece I discovered on Homiletic & Pastoral Review (HP&R), entitled Celebrating "Humanae Vitae" 45 Years Later. You can find this excellent article by the well respected editor of HP&R and Jesuit, David Vincent Melconi, S.J., by clicking here.  

Maybe I am naïve but I was caught off-guard by the nature of the discussion these two articles sparked. Reading some of the comments became excruciatingly painful - a hard but valuable lesson learned by this wannabe evangelizer.   

Even though you have not read the discussion to which I have been referring, I think you will understand the thrust of it by reading what follows:

 

Since I initiated this discussion, let me offer my final comments as we bring this discussion to a merciful conclusion.   

There have been so many twists and turns from the initial orientation of this discussion, I could not possibly respond to all that has been raised – save for expressing sadness and disappointment for the pain that denial of God’s Truth causes His Most Precious and Sacred Heart and for the times we have failed to be as charitable as we should have been in responding to the multiple issues raised herein.   

The sinfulness of contraception did not begin with the issuance of Humanae Vitae. No matter how many bishops, priests, theologians or lay people challenge the authenticity of Pope Paul VI’s courageous encyclical, contraception is and always has been an “intrinsic evil” and “grave sin” - not just for Catholics but for all human beings.  This fundamental and vital Truth and its eternal implications must be preached from all our pulpits. I suspect that will not happen unless and until we return to the primary mission of our Church – not alleviating the physical, material, emotional and addictive behaviors of the poor, oppressed and marginalized (all worthy efforts for sure) but the salvation of souls.