A Good Article and A Great Interview on The Synod

JOHN SMEATON, SPUC DIRECTOR

FRIDAY, 14 AUGUST 2015

We must oppose the Vatican's Instrumentum Laboris for the Family Synod to defend life and our families

As a parent and as a pro-life leader, I thank His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., for his merciful support for our families currently under merciless social pressure from the homosexual "rights" agenda and its supporters, including within Catholic Church structures.

Bishop Schneider, in an interview with Catholic Voicepublished yesterday, described some Irish clergy - including one bishop - as "false prophets who pervert the Word of God".

The Catholic Voice interview asked Bishop Schneider about some Irish clergy who "used the media to [also] encourage voters to redefine marriage" and one Irish Bishop who "stated that Catholics could in good conscience vote for this proposal and admonished them not to vote against it out of hate".

Bishop Schneider replied:

Those clerics who encouraged the faithful to vote for same sex marriage revealed themselves by this same fact as false prophets, as those who pervert the Word of God. They revealed themselves as public liars, to whom are fully applicable these words of Holy Scripture: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Is 5:20) ... To such priests and bishops the Apostle Paul without any doubt would say today these words: “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor 11:13). In order to remedy this situation it is firstly necessary that faithful Bishops teach clearly and unambiguously the truth of Christ and correct explicitly the teaching of these false prophets.

Let me explain just one way in which families, including Catholic families, are under merciless pressure from the homosexual "rights" agenda and its supporters.

As I said when I addressed the Rome Life Forum in May:

... a major way in which the so-called “homosexual rights” lobby is actively undermining the family and the culture of life, is through targeting its message at little children in their schools including, in the UK, in Catholic primary schools. I have little doubt that the same pattern is repeated in other countries too.

I am sorry to have to share with you that homosexual militants are being invited into schools in our country, including into Catholic schools with the blessing of the local bishop, to train teachers how to educate little boys as young as four years old that they might grow up to marry a man rather than a woman – and the same with little girls.

Catholic schools in Britain, and around the world, have long been complicit in the culture of death, providing access to abortion and contraception for the under 16s without parental knowledge. This is happening with the co-operation of the Catholic authorities.

The betrayal of families by leading clerics continues apace not least in the form of the truly scandalous Instrumentum Laboris, the working document produced by Vatican authorities for the forthcoming Family Synod. For the extent of the betrayal of our families at the highest levels in the Church see the analysis by Matthew McCusker, my personal assistant, recommended by Professor Roberto de Mattei on Rorate Caeli as "the excellent analysis by Mathew McCusker, on the site Voice of the Family."

Matthew's analysis concludes:

We urge Catholics not to be complacent or give in to a false sense of obedience, in the face of attacks on the fundamental principles of the natural law. Catholics are morally obliged to oppose the course being taken with the Synod.

Click on the link to the interview and here is a snippet.

Excellency, in the ongoing debate over same sex “marriage” some Catholic groups have become open to the notion of recognizing that same sex pairs can have long term loving relationships thus they conclude that it is possible to recognize same sex civil partnerships. It is evident that even a few bishops support this idea but could this ever be an authentic Catholic position?

This can never be an authentic Catholic position because it contradicts directly the words of God, which says that homosexual acts and the homosexual lifestyle are a grievous offense of the will of God (cf. Gen 18:20; Lev 18:22; 20:13; Is 3:9; Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10; Jud 7). Committing evil in a long-term and even loving relationship cannot transform the same evil into good. Only true repentance that includes contrition and the firm intention to avoid the evil cancels with the grace of God the evil. It would be absurd to affirm that alcoholism will gain a positive recognition because of the long-term and loving relationship of two persons who established this relationship on the base of their propensity to alcohol. The same absurdity contains the above-mentioned affirmation about same sex unions.  

The Generals of Satan

Father Dan shared in one talk that an exorcist told him about the Five Generals of Satan. These are major demons who work for the Evil One as generals over troops. According to this exorcist, these are called The Council or the Table. Interesting that the exorcist had this information and passed it on to Father Dan,...who shared this with us.

The SCOTUS decision gave three of these generals of Satan control over American lands.

(I referred to some of these in my Synod series last October and later--you may want to go back and look at those posts.)

The first evil demon "general" now in power is Asmodeus, homosexuality in men. The second and third, out of the five, are Lilith, the passive demon of homosexuality in women and Leviathan, the agressive one.

Two other generals are still not in control. One is Baal, the old God of the Canaanites, of whom I have written on this blog in the past.

The point Father Dan wanted to make was that these demons now have a foothold in our country and more and more demons, (there are millions), will gather in the States like flies. Father used the metaphor of flies to explain that once a general is in an area, the troops follow.

We are now living in a besieged land spiritually.

This is another reason why I want to set up a house of prayer, like a little area of troops behind enemy lines. And, why this country needs contemplative, intercessory prayer.

Father Dan said that we have to prepare ourselves for the coming onslaught of evil. (One reason for this blog).

Knowing one is living in a land under the rule and troops of evil spirits sobers one's thoughts and hopefully focuses one on becoming holy, and, may I add again, moving into some sort of community.

I add here the famous section from Daniel concerning the angels fighting.  From the book of Daniel:

8 And I being left alone saw this great vision: and there remained no strength in me, and the appearance of my countenance was changed in me, and I fainted away, and retained no strength.

9 And I heard the voice of his words: and when I heard, I lay in a consternation, upon my face, and my face was close to the ground.

10 And behold a hand touched me, and lifted me up upon my knees, and upon the joints of my hands.

11 And he said to me: Daniel, thou man of desires, understand the words that I speak to thee, and stand upright: for I am sent now to thee. And when he had said this word to me, I stood trembling.

12 And he said to me: Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, to afflict thyself in the sight of thy God, thy words have been heard: and I am come for thy words.

13 But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me one and twenty days: and behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there by the king of the Persians.

14 But I am come to teach thee what things shall befall thy people in the latter days, for as yet the vision is for days.

Our Angels fight with demons. This is not news.

I shall continue this later....

A Reminder of A Superb Article on The Synod

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2015/06/gradualism-instrumentum-laboris-and.html

A Meditation for Today, Part One-Those Who Mock God Morally Abandon Him

On the Abuse of Divine Mercy
Sermon by St. Alphonsus Liguori 

In this day’s gospel we read, that a certain man fell into the hands of robbers, who, after having taken his money, wounded him, and left him half dead. A Samaritan who passed by, saw him, and taking pity on him, bound up his wounds, brought him to an inn, and left him to the care of the host, saying: "Take care of him." These words I this day address to those, if there be any such among you, who, though their souls are wounded by sin, instead of attending to the care of them, continually aggravate the wounds by new sins, and thus abuse the mercy of God, who preserves their lives, that they may repent, and not be lost forever. I say to you: Brethren, take care of your souls, which are in a very bad state; have compassion on them. "Have pity on thy own soul (Eccl. xxx. 24)." Your souls are sick, and what is worse they are near the eternal death of hell; for he who abuses to excess the divine mercy, is on the point of being abandoned by the mercy of God. This shall be the subject of the present discourse.

St. Augustine says that the devil deludes Christians in two ways "by despair and hope." After a person has committed sin, the enemy, by placing before his eyes the rigour of divine justice, tempts him to despair of the mercy of God. But, before he sins, the devil by representing to him the divine mercy, labours to make him fearless of the chastisement due to sin. Hence the saint gives the following advice: "After sin, hope for mercy; before sin, fear justice." If, after sin, you despair of God’s pardon, you offend him by a new and more grievous sin. Have recourse to His mercy, and He will pardon you. But, before sin, fear God’s justice, and trust not to His mercy; for, they who abuse the mercy of God to offend him, do not deserve to be treated with mercy. Abulensis says, that the man who offends justice may have recourse to mercy; but to whom can they have recourse, who offend and provoke mercy against themselves? 
When you intend to commit sin, who, I ask, promises you mercy from God? Certainly God does not promise it. It is the devil that promises it, that you may lose God and be damned. "Beware," says St. John Chrysostom, "never to attend to that dog that promises thee mercy from God (Hom. 50, ad Pop)."

If, beloved sinners, you have hitherto offended God, hope and tremble: if you desire to give up sin, and if you detest it, hope; because God promises pardon to all who repent of the evil they have done. But if you intend to continue in your sinful course, tremble lest God should wait no longer for you, but cast you into hell.

Why does God wait for sinners? Is it that they may continue to insult Him? No; He waits for them that they may renounce sin, and that thus He may have pity on them, and forgive them. "Therefore the Lord waiteth, that he may have mercy on you." (Isa. xxx. 1, 8.) But when He sees that the time which he gave them to weep over their past iniquities is spent in multiplying their sins, He begins to inflict chastisement, and He cuts them off in the state of sin, that, by dying, they may cease to offend Him. Then He calls against them the very time He had given them for repentance. "He hath called against me the time (Lam. i. 15)." "The very time," says St. Gregory, "comes to judge."

O common illusion of so many damned Christians! We seldom find a sinner so abandoned to despair as to say: I will damn myself. Christians sin, and endeavour to save their souls. They say: "God is merciful: I will commit this sin, and will afterwards confess it." Behold the illusion, or rather the snare, by which Satan draws so many souls to hell. "Commit sin," he says, "and confess it afterwards." But listen to what the Lord says: "And say not, the mercy of the Lord is great; He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins (Eccl. v. 6.)." Why does He tell you not to say, that the mercy of God is great? Attend to the words contained in the following verse: "For mercy and wrath come quickly from Him, and His wrath looketh upon sinners (Ibid., ver. 7)." The mercy of God is different from the acts of His mercy; the former is infinite, the latter are finite. God is merciful, but He is also just. St. Basil says, that sinners only consider God as merciful and ready to pardon, but not as just and prepared to inflict punishment. Of this the Lord complained one day to St. Bridget: "I am just and merciful: sinners regard Me only as merciful." St. Basil’s words are: "Bonus est Dominus sed etiam Justus, nolimus Deum ex dimidia parte cogitare." God is just, and, being just, he must punish the ungrateful. Father John Avila used to say, that to bear with those who avail themselves of the mercy of God to offend Him, would not be mercy, but a want of justice.

Mercy, as the divine mother said, is promised to those who fear, and not to those who insult the Lord. "And His mercy to them that fear Him (Luke i 50)."

Some rash sinners will say: God has hitherto shown me so many mercies; why should He not here after treat me with the same mercy? I answer: He will show you mercy, if you wish to change your life; but if you intend to continue to offend Him, He tells you that He will take vengeance on your sins by casting you into hell. "Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide (Deut. xxxii. 35)." David says, that "except you be converted," He will "brandish His sword (Ps. vii. 13)." The Lord has bent His bow, and waits for your conversion; but if you resolve not to return to Him, He will in the end cast the arrow against you, and you shall be damned. O God! there are some who will not believe that there is a hell until they fall into it. Can you, beloved Christians, complain of the mercies of God, after He has shown you so many mercies by waiting for you so long? You ought to remain always prostrate on the earth to thank Him for His mercies, saying: "The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed (Lamen. iii. 32)." Were the injuries which you offered to God committed against a brother, he would not have borne with you. God has had so much patience with you; and He now calls you again. If, after all this, He shall send you to hell, will He do you any wrong? "What is there," He will say, "that I ought to do more for my vineyard, that I have not done to it (Isa. v. 4)?" Impious wretch! what more ought I to do for you that I have not done?

St. Bernard says, that the confidence which sinners have in God's goodness when they commit sin, procures for them, not a blessing, but a malediction from the Lord. "Est infidelis fiducia solius ubique maledictionis capax, cum videlicet in spe peccamus (Serm, iii., de Annunc)." O deceitful hope, which sends so many Christians to hell! St. Augustine says: "Sperant, ut peccent! Vae perversa spe (In Ps. cxliv)."

They do not hope for the pardon of the sins of which they repent; but they hope that, though they continue to commit sin, God will have mercy upon them; and thus they make the mercy of God serve as a motive for continuing to offend Him.

Accursed hope! hope which is an abomination to the Lord! "And their hope the abomination (Job xi. 20)." This hope will make God hasten the execution of His vengeance; for surely a master will not defer the punishment of servants who offend him because he is good. Sinners, as St. Augustine observes, trusting in God's goodness, insult Him, and say: "God is good; I will do what I please (Tract, xxxiii. in Joan)." But, alas! how many, exclaims the same St. Augustine, has this vain hope deluded! "They who have been deceived by this shadow of vain hope cannot be numbered." St. Bernard writes, that Lucifer’s chastisement was accelerated, because, in rebellion against God, he hoped that he should not be punished for his rebellion. Ammon, the son of king Manasses, seeing that God had pardoned the sins of his father, gave himself up to a wicked life with the hope of pardon; but, for Ammon there was no mercy. St. John Chrysostom says, that Judas was lost because, trusting in the goodness of Jesus Christ, he betrayed Him. "Fidit in lenitate Magistri."

He that sins with, the hope of pardon, saying: "I will afterwards repent, and God will pardon me:" is, according to St. Augustine, "not a penitent, but a scoffer." The Apostle tells us that "God is not mocked (Gal. vi. 7)."

It would be a mockery of God to offend Him as often and as long as you please, and always to receive the pardon of your offences. 

"For what things a man shall sow," says St. Paul, "those also shall he reap (Ibid., ver. 8)." They who sow sins, can hope for nothing but the hatred of God and hell. "Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering (Rom. ii. 4)." Do you, O sinner, despise the riches of the goodness, of the patience, and long-suffering of God towards you? He uses the word riches, because the mercies which God shows us, in not punishing our sins, are riches more valuable to us than all treasures. "Knowest thou not," continues the Apostle, "that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance (Ibid)?"

Do you not know that the Lord waits for you, and treats you with so much benignity, not that you may continue to sin, but that you may weep over the offences you have offered to Him?

For, says St. Paul, if you persevere in sin and do not repent, your obstinacy and impenitence shall accumulate a treasure of wrath against the day of wrath, that is, the day on which God shall judge you. "According to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God (Ibid., verse 5)." 

To the hardness of the sinner shall succeed his abandonment by God, Who shall say of the soul that is obstinate in sin, what he said of Babylon: "We would have cured Babylon; but she is not healed; let us forsake her (Jer. li. 9)." 


Look at this part, readers. for this is serious.

And how does God abandon the sinner? He either sends him a sudden death, and cuts him off in sin, or He deprives him of the graces which would be necessary to bring him to true repentance; He leaves him with the sufficient graces with which he can, but will not, save his soul. The darkness of his understanding, the hardness of his heart, and the bad habits which he has contracted, will render his conversion morally impossible. Thus, he shall not be absolutely but morally abandoned.

"I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted (Isa. v. 5)." When the master of the vineyard destroys its hedges, does he not show that he abandons it? It is thus that God acts when He abandons a soul. He takes away the hedge of holy fear and remorse of conscience, and leaves the soul in darkness, and then vices crowd into the heart. "Thou hast appointed darkness, and it is night: in it shall all the beasts of the wood go about (Ps. ciii. 20)." 

And the sinner, abandoned in an abyss of sins, will despise admonitions, excommunications, divine grace, chastisement, and hell: he will make a jest of his own damnation. "The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sin, contemneth (Prov. xviii. 3)."

That sinners prosper is a scary thing. This is what is happening now in America.

"Why," asks the Prophet Jeremias, "doth the way of the wicked prosper (Jer. xii. 1)?" He answers: "Gather them together as sheep for a sacrifice (v. 3)." Miserable the sinner who is prosperous in this life!

The prosperity of sinners is a sign that God wishes to give them a temporal reward for some works which are morally good, but that He reserves them as victims of His justice for hell, where, like the accursed cockle, they shall be cast to burn for all eternity.

"In the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: Gather up the first cockle, and bind it in bundles to burn (Matt. xiii. 30)."

Thus, not to be punished in this life is the greatest of God’s chastisements on the wicked, and has been threatened against the obstinate sinner by the Prophet Isaias. "Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice (Isa. xxvi. 10)." On this passage St. Bernard says: This mercy I do not wish for: it is above all wrath. "Misericordiam hanc nolo; super oimiem iram misericordia ista (Serm, xlii., in Cant)."

And what greater chastisement than to be abandoned into the Lands of sin, so that, being permitted by God to fall from sin to sin, the sinner must in the end go to suffer as many hells as he has committed sins?"

Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity. . . . let them be "blotted out of the book of the living (Ps. lxviii. 28, 29)." On these words Bellarmine writes: "There is no punishment greater than when sin is the punishment of sin." It would be better for such a sinner to die after the first sin; because by dying under the load of so many additional iniquities, he shall suffer as many hells as he has committed sins. This is what happened to a certain comedian in Palermo, whose name was Caesar. He one day told a friend that Father La Nusa, a missionary, foretold him that God should give him twelve years to live, and that if within that time he did not change his life, he should die a bad death. Now, said he to his friend, I have travelled through so many parts of the world: I have had many attacks of sickness, one of which nearly brought me to the grave; but in this month the twelve years shall be completed, and I feel myself in better health than in any of the past years. He then invited his friend to listen to a new comedy which he had composed. But, what happened? On the 24th November, 1688, the day fixed for the comedy, as he was going on the stage, he was seized with apoplexy, and died suddenly. He expired in the arms of a female comedian. Thus the scene of this world ended miserably for him.

Let us make the application to ourselves, and conclude the discourse. Brethren, I entreat you to give a glance at all the bygone years of your life: look at the grievous offences you have committed against God, and at the great mercies which He has shown to you, the many lights He has bestowed upon you, and the many times He has called you to a change of life.



to be continued...

Excellent Post on Gradualism

http://guildofblessedtitus.blogspot.com/2015/06/gradualism-instrumentum-laboris-and.html

better than my posts earlier this year and last year...although I covered the points on grace.

And previous post leading up to this one...from same author:

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

What's at Stake at the Synod? Everything!

By PAUL PRIEST.

We are not equal - God isn't a democrat - in just the same way as there is a hierarchy of ranks among the 

angels there is a hierarchy of human souls and their perfectibility - it's known as Predilection. God loves us 

all infinitely and calls us to fulfill our created perfectibility - but some are created to be more - to do more

 [remember the parable of the sower? 30, 60, a hundredfold?]

God loves them more because they are created to be more lovable because they have a vocation to be more

... I know it doesn't sound fair but He's God: We're not - we have our place in His divine plan as either tiny cogs or

 hard-working pistons or massive power-wheels - whatever that position we were made for it - and can achieve 

perfection within it and be fulfilled with absolute joy and happiness in being everything we were called to be. 

God made us so we ultimately wouldn't ever wish to be anything but ourselves in our perfection in our part of 

His Divine plan [this is why envy - wanting to be another - is the greatest sin against oneself]

Finally on this point it must be noted that in regard to Predilection how we repent from and amend for our sins 

will also be variant - for some it will be easy and lengthy - for others it will be more grueling and intermittent.

Now, secondly we have to understand what the Holy Spirit is about - for most of us the Holy Spirit keeps us in 

existence, He inspires our intellects with truth, beauty and the notion of the good - which motivates our will to 

carry out this inspiration freely towards the good - this is what Love is. The Holy Spirit provides us with Sufficient 

Grace to never sin - He provides our intellects and consciences to be aware of the Good, the True and Beautiful - 

and we can conform to this and be truly free. Remember the only thing we are ever free to do is to do good - 

sin is always a denial of our freedom and actually traps us and makes us less free.

Alternatively, we can hoodwink ourselves into thinking happiness may be achieved through another route - 

a short-cut - an easy way - and hence we lie to ourselves and our God and our created reality and the rest of 

creation and we commit sin - and in the process we as temples of the Holy Spirit in whom we live, move and 

have our being - abuse and defy the Lord, the Giver of Life with our lies and sin. These are the only two things 

we can say we possess - every other thing comes from God, is worked by God and returns to God - every other 

thing is Grace of which we are unworthy but in which we we happy receivers can and should boast.

Normatively, the Holy Spirit works through Sufficient Grace, but there are times where through an extraordinary 

act of predelictive Love, the Holy Spirit acts upon us with what's known as efficient Grace - unstoppable, 

unpreventable grace which compels us towards an act.

There's an old Fulton Sheen story of a wayward alcoholic actress who accepts his invite to see the Church on the 

proviso he would not ask her to go to Confession - he kept the promise in his own way for as they were touring 

the 

Church he opened the confessional door and threw her inside.

Divine Providence decrees that God does this to some of us in extraordinary circumstances. God does not work 

against our wills - but instead He takes over with Efficient grace to ensure something happens. Think the Conversion 

of St Paul and other profound conversion stories. Think Miracles. Think the imposition of the knowledge of God 

upon the Prophets or all who lived and believed during the Incarnation or the appearance of the Sacred Heart or 

Our Lady. Think of the Promises of Christ regarding Papal Infallibility and the inability of the Gates of the 

Underworld to prevail against the Church. All this is Efficient Grace - unpreventable, unthwartable - 

it has nothing to do with the arbitrary, discretionary choices within human free will. God just does it!

Sometimes God uses efficient Grace upon us to actuate His will. Otherwise, it is sufficient grace where we are at 

the helm of our wills - the Holy Spirit inspires our intellects and carries out our wills - but we choose - we decide. 

The Holy Spirit does not treat us like puppets or cosmic chess pieces - He limits himself to inspiration of the 

intellect to motivate the will - we choose whether to conform to that will or not. Hence in matters of the Church 

the Holy Spirit may inspire - but the Pope and his Brother Bishops and clerics and religious act according to their 

own either conformed or refusenik wills. The Holy Spirit does not choose a Pope - Cardinals choose a Pope. 

The Holy Spirit does not appoint 

Bishops - The Pope does. The Holy Spirit does not gerrymander or rig Synod or Oecumenical council votes - 

The Pope and Bishops vote.

Now, there is only one real argument against the existence of God - all the others fall apart when rationally 

confronted with reality but one remains - one so confrontational that it compelled Ivan Karamazov to refuse to 

participate and return his invitation to belong to God's creation: The problem of Evil and there is only one rational 

response:

"How else can evil be allowed to exist, save for a greater good?"

God permits evil - He permits sin. Yes - nothing happens but what God wills - but there is a profound difference 

between what God wished [His Antecedent will] and what God permits [through which He will actuate a greater 

good] - i.e. His Consequent Will. God's antecedent will was for none to fall, for all to share Heaven in their created 

perfection with Him for eternity - for all to be saved. God's consequent will - because angels fell, because we fell, 

because we continue to sin and because ultimately some of us will not wish eternity with Him if the price means 

dying to our selfish vices - is axiomatically very different from God's original antecedent will.

Therefore when anything happens - we are absolutely forbidden from the presumption that what God's 

consequent will has permitted remotely conforms to that which His antecedent will desired.
Just because something happens - be it some remarkably fortuitous or ostensibly miraculous event or a revolution 

or a restoration or discovery or victory over an evil aggressor in war, or alternatively the horror of war and famine 

and personal tragedies or holocausts upon Jews, Chinese, Russians, the Unborn, our euthanised sick and unwanted,

 or the ravages of Spanish flu or AIDS or ebola we cannot attribute to God's antecedent will. In fact, we are 

absolutely prohibited from ever presuming it is part of God's antecedent will [eg Divine vindication/reward or

Divine retribution]. It is merely the case that what happens is what God permits. Nor can we surmise His will from 

the ostensible benefits or the blatantly obvious ravages of what God permits. We are guaranteed that God's 

resolution of it all is assuredly a greater Good.

Now comes the big crunch question: What in the name of all sanity has any of this to do with the impending 

Synod on Marriage and the Family? It's about the proposed reception of Holy Communion for civilly divorced 

and remarried Catholics and active homosexuals, isn't it? That the ongoing mortal sin of adultery and fornication 

should not be a barrier from being one in communion with one's neighbours? By appealing to mercy and tolerance 

and the notion of integration and unity and even [ironically] appealing to the notion of solidarity that no-one is i

isolated or alienated 

or ostracised? That we all be one?

What has any of this to do with God's sufficient grace or the Holy Spirit not treating us like puppets or God's 

antecedent and consequent will? Well the answer is quite simple: It has EVERYTHING to do with it! Primarily 

you have to understand how the world has been contaminated in two ways over the past two centuries - 

and how this ideological contamination has infected the mind-frame of those within the modern Church.

The first is easily recognised and understood contamination is Evolutionism. This is not meant in the limited 

biological sense regarding certain developments within certain species, but universal development of everything - 

absolute ever-fulfilling progressivism summed up by "things can only get better" or rather the promise that 

"things only do get better"  This is a serious error. For further reading look at the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, 

Emile Mersch and Karl Rahner and a host of moderns to understand this notion of everything evolving to some i

neffable ethereal omega point where we all become so like God we collectively usurp His role in some Buddhist 

nirvana of everything and nothing.

Secondly we have to get a bit philosophical - and although I'll skip the background of the whole metaphysical

 potency/act problem in presocratics through stoical pantheism and enlightenment naturalism and pantheism - 

[which Aristotle and Aquinas perfectly refuted and dealt with], we end up with the nightmare philosophy of 

Hegel which like a virus has infected every socio-cultural and political ideology of any wing and flavour - 

be it nazism or Stalinism, capitalism or revolutionary Marxism, libertarianism or totalitarianism.

Now I suppose yet again you're asking - what has Hegel to do with the Synod? Please bear with me for a few 

more minutes before I tell you. Hegel's philosophy is grounded in two main principles:

The Dialectic - This rests upon the premise that there is no actual truth or understanding of reality, that there 

cannot be as there is division and dissension and alienation. Therefore all is merely a movement towards a more 

truthful understanding through a position of compromise and unity between the extremes and tensions of all 

aspects of reality. In this paradigm, one takes two seemingly opposing positions and seeks the underlying truth 

within both to synthesise this thesis and antithesis into a higher thesis - which in turn is still imperfect and has 

opposition through an antithesis and must again be synthesised into a higher thesis into infinity as the process 

continues.

Now how can we be certain this process works and we won't be misguided or misdirected throughout this? 

Ah, but that's impossible because there is a 'universal spirit' within reality that seeks this unfolding, flourishing, 

unifying. coalescing synthesis of the dialectic. The principle at work here is that a spirit is leading ever onward and 

upward in all spheres of reality towards a universal holism - this spirit is known as The Geist. The Geist ensures the 

validity and integrity of the ideological system itself and its ultimate destiny in perfection. This, resting not on 

objective truth but something very tenuous can easily morph into something similar to all our 'utopianisms' of 

reichs, or a communist world-state, or universal randian liberty, or the integrationist wonderland of the 

multiculturalist or the feminist or the eco-warrior? We are enslaved to the machinations and functions of the 

Geist - we are part of a system which 

is inseparable from this unstoppable force leading humanity towards its inevitable destiny.

Now are you beginning to see where I'm coming from? The development of Doctrine? It being the will of the 

Holy Spirit ? In this world view, we are mere pawns and puppets of this Divine Will - this movement of this 

religious geist - the Holy Spirit - towards this evolving ever-re-flourishing progressive end.

In such a spiral,  or vortex, we are to seek an end to division and synthesise into uniformity and unity via a 

compromise dialectic which will placate and satisfy - where tolerance and 'mercy and charity' dwell - via 

acceptance of all and the elimination of alienation and ostracism. For we are all equal in the sight of God and 

none are loved more or less - and equality indicates sameness and uniformity and homogeneity where 

dissociating divisive factors like difference or independence or non-conformity are anathematised.


The Synod's proposed 'theology of mercy', the Kasperite position, is going to be grounded upon what I call 

"three great heresies and a lie". The first two heresies are going to be promoted at every opportunity in order

 to introduce a third with which the Church has been contaminated for centuries and which has manifested itself 

in three forms of a heresy against God's sufficient grace {Neo-Pelagianism/Molinism- then Jansenism- then 

Gradualism}. Rebel Bishops sought to impose at the Synod on the Family 35 years ago, but were halted in their 

tracks by Pope St John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio.

The first heresy is quite obvious:

That everything that happens within the Church conforms to the antecedent will of God - that God wished this 

for the Church from before creation - and that all movements of the Holy Spirit are manifestations of this Church 

progression - forward ever forward - we cannot go back - all is development and what God planned.

Of course, we have absolutely no idea whether it does or not. By such time, we will have dispensed with the holy 

doctrines and the integrity of the Church's discipline, which has been guided by the Holy Spirit. In truth, we are not 

open to the innermost mysteries of the Divine plan - but it would be the gravest presumption to not believe that 

the mass exodus out of the Church - that its secularisation and desacralisation - and its loss of the apologetic, 

its cultural identity and the falling away of so many are not merely what God permits in His consequent will - 

and were never part of His antecedent. But this naive ludicrous Hegelian optimism that it's all happened 

because it's what God always wished is a heresy.

The second heresy is simple. It is the idea that we are but pawns and puppets of the Holy Spirit in our wills - 

our Bishops and clerics and bodies of our reformist laity by their very existence and every thought, word and 

deed is all subsumed into the system by which the Holy Spirit moves them all towards the desired end. Of course 

this is a heresy - the Holy Spirit inspires our intellect - and we accept or reject and act accordingly - free will - 

defy and choose to sin.

Thus these two heresies will be promoted at every opportunity to lay the groundwork for the third. This is the 

heresy that you can guarantee through the major soundbites and buzzwords from the lips of all those who seek 

to change Catholic teaching via a perversion of its pastoral implementation by simply desiring it. This will be one of 

Lebensraum:

"We must allow the Holy Spirit space to reform the Church"

The third heresy is quite confusing, which is probably why during the last Extraordinary Synod there was almost 

universal ignorance of what the heresy entailed among Catholic journalists, commentators and media 

representatives who all spoke at great length while claiming great understanding about it, but every last one of 

them got it wrong.

In Familiaris Consortio Pope St John Paul II refers to the law of gradualism - an easily recognisable phenomenon - 

our gradual progression through the consequences of our sin after our repentance and absolution we are still weak ,

 weary and scarred and that it will take us a while to gradually heal.

BUT Pope St John Paul II rejects absolutely the heresy known as the Principle of Gradualism.
 I could go into this heresy at great length and explain its intricacies and consequences and the way it destroys 

the very fabric of the notion of grace and God's love for us and the integrity of the human person, but all you 

really need to know about it is that quite simply it denies God's sufficient grace to immediately repent of all sin or 

sinfulness - and the sufficient grace to not sin again.



In other words, using this 'principle' God does not provide sinners with the grace which will prevent them from 

being able to stop sinning or to not start sinning again. The underlying great lie in it all is 'God doesn't love us 

enough to get us out of our mess" Therefore, in this heretical viewpoint, all sinners cannot be expected to stop 

sinning immediately - they must be treated with compassion and understanding to be weaned off from their 

sinfulness - go on a sin-controlled diet - enter into a sin-reduction spiritual fitness plan, like methadone as 

replacement for heroin. It cannot be expected for severe or long-term sinners to immediately stop their sins - 

it is simply 'not possible' for them.

In other words the underlying message of this heresy is that when it comes to repentance and turning away from 

sin - GOD COMMANDS THE IMPOSSIBLE. This is a diabolical lie. The lie is that God has not provided the sufficient 

grace - therefore they cannot do it.

Now you see this is where the heresy comes undone and, incidentally, many Church fathers, St Augustine & the 

Council of Trent absolutely repudiate and refute Gradualism.

The heresy is not going to be very palatable to the collective faithful when it comes to the conclusion that God 

commands the impossible from sinners. This heresy has its ultimate conclusion that:

We sin and can't stop: and it's God's fault.

Hence the Gradualists - of which Kasper and his cronies are mere successors - have to now insert a lie into the 

equation. It's irrational - yes it's mendacious - yes it is the actions of anti-intellectual scoundrels, but this is what 

the Gradualists do if a heresy gives you the principle you want but not the conclusion you desire. You simply 

change the conclusion.


In order to retain this "Principle of Gradualism" they have to twist the argument on its head. It is not that God 

commands the impossible. How could He? He's a merciful, tolerant, forgiving, ever-loving and always charitable 

and inclusive God? 

It's not God that's demanding the impossible from these poor sinners trapped in their sinful ways needing slow, 

pastoral assistance and reassurance to slowly reduce their sinfulness. It's not God who is lacking in Love and Mercy.

NO - IT'S THE CHURCH!

It is the Church which is cruel and uncharitable and merciless and intolerant with its hyper-proscriptive 

alienating legalism and Donatism - its judgmentalism upon the sinner [actually it's judging the sin but they're

 on a roll here]. It is the Church's heartless, calcified, rigorist legalism which is to blame and this is NOT WHAT 

GOD WANTS!

We are therefore not walking in God's ways. We are not living according to His Gospel and the values of His 

kingdom. We are standing in the way of His message of welcoming love which calls all sinners to Himself. 

Remember the ludicrous tag-line to the 

film "Love Story"? "Love means never having to say you're sorry". Well gradualism considers God's love means 

'we have nothing to ever say sorry about'

In other words when Our Lord said, "If you love Me you will keep My commands" He never really meant we had to 

do it! That's Donatism - that's heartless legalism. Haven't both Donatism and legalism been recently condemned 

by our Bishops Conference and Pope Francis?

Do you see what's at stake now? Have a little think about the ramifications of a single gradualist principle 

being inserted in any moral adjudication on pastoral practice and praxis within Holy Mother Church - even 

to something as seemingly remote as using it to justify the slow reception of people still in mortal sin to 

reception of the sacraments. A single gradualist principle sets a moral precedent which may subsequently be 

applied to any and every aspect of Catholic moral teaching and its pastoral applications.

In other words the entirety of moral and pastoral theology - contaminated with the lethal virus that sin is 

something with which we have to deal with, to negotiate with, compromise with, excuse and slowly wean people 

off from and lead people away from, becomes a hellish nightmare of counter-productive self-contradicting

heterodoxy, lie, fallacy and heresy-in-itself.

Catholic morality in one fell swoop would collapse and fall dead in the water - not merely ineffectual but directly 

counterproductive - but lethally destructive and toxic! Now, if you wish any further clarifications or explanations 

please ask in the combox - but I've already spent way too long writing and taken up far too much of your time.
Gradualism underfoot. For if the Gradualists were to succeed? The price would be too high for us all....

Confusion Concerning The Sacrament of Marriage

A few bullets on the Catholic teaching concerning marriage seem appropriate today.

• The Catholic Church recognizes marriage between two Catholics married in the Catholic Church. 
• The Church recognizes Christian marriages witnessed by a Protestant pastor, between two Protestants.
• The Church does not recognize civil marriage between anyone as valid. Only sacramental marriages, or Christian marriages are recognized. 
• The Church can convalidate an irregular marriage if both persons involve repent and want to be married in the Catholic Church and live as Catholics. However, if one or the other was married before, no convalidation can occur until the party who was married is given an annulment.
• If no annulment is given, and until that time, the two must live as brother and sister. 
• Convalidations are more and more common as people return to the Church later in life.
• To go to an irregular or civil marriage is to be a witness to something which is not real. So do not do this.
• Homosexuals and lesbians cannot get married sacramentally, and all those marriages are also invalid, not real.
• If a Catholic leaves the Church and marries outside the Church in a Protestant ceremony, that marriage is also irregular and invalid. 
• If a Catholic marries someone who is known to be not baptized, that marriage is not sacramental either.
• Catholics must be confirmed before getting married.

Can.  1071 §1. Except in a case of necessity, a person is not to assist without the permission of the local ordinary at:

1/ a marriage of transients;

2/ a marriage which cannot be recognized or celebrated according to the norm of civil law;

3/ a marriage of a person who is bound by natural obligations toward another party or children arising from a previous union;

4/ a marriage of a person who has notoriously rejected the Catholic faith;

5/ a marriage of a person who is under a censure;

6/ a marriage of a minor child when the parents are unaware or reasonably opposed;

7/ a marriage to be entered into through a proxy as mentioned in ⇒ can. 1105.

§2. The local ordinary is not to grant permission to assist at the marriage of a person who has notoriously rejected the Catholic faith unless the norms mentioned in ⇒ can. 1125 have been observed with necessary adaptation.

SPECIFIC DIRIMENT IMPEDIMENTS

Can.  1083 §1. A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age and a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age cannot enter into a valid marriage.

§2. The conference of bishops is free to establish a higher age for the licit celebration of marriage.

Can.  1084 §1. Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have intercourse, whether on the part of the man or the woman, whether absolute or relative, nullifies marriage by its very nature.

§2. If the impediment of impotence is doubtful, whether by a doubt about the law or a doubt about a fact, a marriage must not be impeded nor, while the doubt remains, declared null.

§3. Sterility neither prohibits nor nullifies marriage, without prejudice to the prescript of ⇒ can. 1098.

Can.  1085 §1. A person bound by the bond of a prior marriage, even if it was not consummated, invalidly attempts marriage.

§2. Even if the prior marriage is invalid or dissolved for any reason, it is not on that account permitted to contract another before the nullity or dissolution of the prior marriage is established legitimately and certainly.

Can.  1086 §1. A marriage between two persons, one of whom has been baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it and has not defected from it by a formal act and the other of whom is not baptized, is invalid.

§2. A person is not to be dispensed from this impediment unless the conditions mentioned in cann. ⇒ 1125 and ⇒ 1126 have been fulfilled.

§3. If at the time the marriage was contracted one party was commonly held to have been baptized or the baptism was doubtful, the validity of the marriage must be presumed according to the norm of ⇒ can. 1060 until it is proven with certainty that one party was baptized but the other was not.

Can.  1087 Those in sacred orders invalidly attempt marriage.

Can.  1088 Those bound by a public perpetual vow of chastity in a religious institute invalidly attempt marriage.

Can.  1089 No marriage can exist between a man and a woman who has been abducted or at least detained with a view of contracting marriage with her unless the woman chooses marriage of her own accord after she has been separated from the captor and established in a safe and free place.

Can.  1090 §1. Anyone who with a view to entering marriage with a certain person has brought about the death of that person’s spouse or of one’s own spouse invalidly attempts this marriage.

§2. Those who have brought about the death of a spouse by mutual physical or moral cooperation also invalidly attempt a marriage together.

Can.  1091 §1. In the direct line of consanguinity marriage is invalid between all ancestors and descendants, both legitimate and natural.

§2. In the collateral line marriage is invalid up to and including the fourth degree.

§3. The impediment of consanguinity is not multiplied.

§4. A marriage is never permitted if doubt exists whether the partners are related by consanguinity in any degree of the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line.

Can.  1092 Affinity in the direct line in any degree invalidates a marriage.

Can.  1093 The impediment of public propriety arises from an invalid marriage after the establishment of common life or from notorious or public concubinage. It nullifies marriage in the first degree of the direct line between the man and the blood relatives of the woman, and vice versa.

Can.  1094 Those who are related in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line by a legal relationship arising from adoption cannot contract marriage together validly.

MATRIMONIAL CONSENT

Can.  1095 The following are incapable of contracting marriage:

1/ those who lack the sufficient use of reason;

2/ those who suffer from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted;

3/ those who are not able to assume the essential obligations of marriage for causes of a psychic nature.

Can.  1096 §1. For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation.

§2. This ignorance is not presumed after puberty.

Can.  1097 §1. Error concerning the person renders a marriage invalid.

§2. Error concerning a quality of the person does not render a marriage invalid even if it is the cause for the contract, unless this quality is directly and principally intended.

Can.  1098 A person contracts invalidly who enters into a marriage deceived by malice, perpetrated to obtain consent, concerning some quality of the other partner which by its very nature can gravely disturb the partnership of conjugal life.

Can.  1099 Error concerning the unity or indissolubility or sacramental dignity of marriage does not vitiate matrimonial consent provided that it does not determine the will.

Can.  1100 The knowledge or opinion of the nullity of a marriage does not necessarily exclude matrimonial consent.

Can.  1101 §1. The internal consent of the mind is presumed to conform to the words and signs used in celebrating the marriage.

§2. If, however, either or both of the parties by a positive act of the will exclude marriage itself, some essential element of marriage, or some essential property of marriage, the party contracts invalidly.

Can.  1102 §1. A marriage subject to a condition about the future cannot be contracted validly.

§2. A marriage entered into subject to a condition about the past or the present is valid or not insofar as that which is subject to the condition exists or not.

§3. The condition mentioned in §2, however, cannot be placed licitly without the written permission of the local ordinary.

Can.  1103 A marriage is invalid if entered into because of force or grave fear from without, even if unintentionally inflicted, so that a person is compelled to choose marriage in order to be free from it.

Can.  1104 §1. To contract a marriage validly the contracting parties must be present together, either in person or by proxy.

§2. Those being married are to express matrimonial consent in words or, if they cannot speak, through equivalent signs.

Can.  1105 §1. To enter into a marriage validly by proxy it is required that:

1/ there is a special mandate to contract with a specific person;

2/ the proxy is designated by the one mandating and fulfills this function personally.

§2. To be valid the mandate must be signed by the one mandating and by the pastor or ordinary of the place where the mandate is given, or by a priest delegated by either of them, or at least by two witnesses, or it must be made by means of a document which is authentic according to the norm of civil law.

§3. If the one mandating cannot write, this is to be noted in the mandate itself and another witness is to be added who also signs the document; otherwise, the mandate is invalid.

§4. If the one mandating revokes the mandate or develops amentia before the proxy contracts in his or her name, the marriage is invalid even if the proxy or the other contracting party does not know this.

Can.  1106 A marriage can be contracted through an interpreter; the pastor is not to assist at it, however, unless he is certain of the trustworthiness of the interpreter.

Can.  1107 Even if a marriage was entered into invalidly by reason of an impediment or a defect of form, the consent given is presumed to persist until its revocation is established.

Obviously, bishops and canon lawyers deal with these issues, as well as parish priests at the initial level.