Your Excellencies,
A recent comment from one of your eminent bishops has not only caused concern among good Catholics, but caused confusion in those less catechized.
One of my friends noted that it seemed as if the bishops wanted a return to the Mosaic Law. This, of course, would indicate a lack of faith on the part of some of the hierarchy. It is also an oversight as to that holiness to which all the laity are called. All lay persons are called to be saints.
Since the Incarnation and the Redemption brought about by Christ on the Cross, we have all the grace we need in the New Covenant, graces from the sacraments. baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist, not to mention, confession, which those people in the Old Covenant did not have.
Christ died and rose again for these graces. There is no excuse to return to Mosaic Law, which would be, in effect, a denial of the Redemptive Act on the Cross.
God's Justice would not allow such a travesty of legal machinations.
Would the good bishops deny the efficacy of the sacraments? Is the new stand of some a cry to join the Protestant denominations which deny that the sacraments, indeed, give grace, and allow us to repent and change our lives, moving us out of darkness into light?
To consider changing what Our Lord and Savior deemed as possible for all Christians seems like hubris.
As on lay person who needed to procure an anullment and was obedient to the laws of the Church, not putting comfort, social status, or monetary concerns above the law of the Church, I beg you to reconsider your positions.
Many of us annulled Catholics have suffered terribly from separation, divorce, and annulment, even being shunned by family members and by some in parishes. But, we are in good standing with the Church and love the Church enough to be obedient sons and daughters. We have sacrificed in order to stay in the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, His Church.
Dear Your Excellencies, please reconsider your stand in this grave matter. Those divorced and re-married without annulment couples, who have chosen not to do the very hard thing, must be brought back into the Church through the normal means of repentance, abstinence, penance. You must help them become holy, not merely comfortable on earth.
Are you afraid to allow them to do the hard things in order for them to become saints? We only have a short time on this earth in which to work out our salvation, and come to perfection, before God calls us.
Thank you for considering this letter from one, obedient and lowly daughter of the Church.
Sincerely,
STM