This
is why it seems to us necessary to reaffirm the truth received from Christ (1) about
the role of the pope and the bishops and (2) about marriage and the family. We
are doing this in the same spirit that prompted us to send to Pope Francis a
petition before the second session of this Synod.
1. The Role of the Pope and the Bishops
As
sons of the Catholic Church, we believe that the Bishop of Rome, the Successor
of St. Peter, is the Vicar of Christ, and at the same time that he is the head
of the whole Church. His power is a jurisdiction in the proper sense. With
regard to this power, the pastors, as well as the faithful of the particular
Churches, separately or all together, even in a Council, in a Synod, or in
episcopal conferences, are obliged by a duty of hierarchical subordination and
genuine obedience.
God
has arranged things in such a way that, by maintaining unity of communion with
the Bishop of Rome and by professing the same faith, the Church of Christ might
be one flock under one Shepherd. God’s Holy Church is divinely constituted as a
hierarchical society, in which the authority that governs the faithful comes
from God, through the pope and the bishops who are subject to him.[1]
When
the supreme papal Magisterium has issued the authentic expression of revealed
truth, in dogmatic matters as well as in disciplinary matters, it is not within
the province of ecclesiastical organs vested with a lesser degree of
authority—such as bishops’ conferences—to introduce modifications to it.
The
meaning of the sacred dogmas that must be preserved perpetually is the one that
the Magisterium of the pope and the bishops has taught once and for all, and it
is never lawful to deviate from it. Hence the Church’s pastoral ministry, when
it practices mercy, must begin by remedying the poverty of ignorance, by giving
souls the expression of the truth that will save them.[2]
In
the hierarchy thus instituted by God, in matters of faith and magisterial
teaching, revealed truths were entrusted as a Sacred Deposit to the apostles
and to their successors, the pope and the bishops, so that they might guard it
faithfully and teach it authoritatively. The sources that contain this Deposit
are the books of Sacred Scripture and the non-written traditions which, after
being received by the apostles from Christ Himself or handed on by the apostles
under the dictation of the Holy Ghost, have come down to us.
When
the teaching Church declares the meaning of these truths contained in Scripture
and Tradition, she imposes it with authority on the faithful, so that they
might believe it as being revealed by God. It is false to say that the job of
the pope and the bishops is to ratify what the sensus fidei or the common experience of the ‘People of God’
suggests to them.
As
we already wrote in our Petition to the Holy Father: “Our uneasiness is caused
by something that Saint Pius X condemned in his Encyclical Pascendi: an alignment of
dogma with supposed contemporary demands. Pius X and you, Holy Father, received
the fullness of the authority to teach, sanctify and govern in obedience to
Christ, who is the Head and the Shepherd of the flock in every age and in every
place, whose faithful vicar the pope should be on this earth. The object of a
dogmatic condemnation could not possibly become, with the passage of time, an
authorized pastoral practice.”
This
is what prompted Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to write in his Declaration dated
November 21, 1974: “No authority, not even the highest in the hierarchy, can
force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic Faith, so clearly expressed and
professed by the Church’s Magisterium for nineteen centuries. ‘But though
we,’ says St. Paul, ‘or an angel
from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you,
let him be anathema.’”[3]
2. Marriage and the Catholic Family
As
for marriage, God provided for the increase of the human race by instituting
marriage, which is the stable and perpetual union of a man and a woman.[4]
The marriage of baptized persons is a sacrament, since Christ elevated it to
that dignity; marriage and the family are therefore institutions that are both
divine and natural.
The
primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children, which no
human intention should prevent by performing acts contrary to it. The secondary
end of marriage is the mutual assistance that the spouses offer to each other
as well as the remedy to concupiscence.
Christ
established that the unity of marriage would be definitive, both for Christians
and for all mankind. This unity possesses an indissoluble character, such that
the conjugal bond can never be broken, neither by the will of the two parties
nor by any human authority: “What God hath joined together, let no man put
asunder.”[5]
In the case of the sacramental marriage of baptized persons, this unity and
indissolubility are further explained by the fact that it is the sign of
Christ’s union with His Bride.
Anything
that human beings may decree or do against the unity or indissolubility of
marriage is not in keeping with the requirements of nature or with the good of
human society. Moreover, faithful Catholics have the serious duty not to join
together solely by the bond of a civil marriage, without taking into account
the religious marriage prescribed by the Church.
The
reception of the Eucharist (or sacramental Communion) requires the state of
sanctifying grace and union with Christ through charity; it increases this
charity and at the same time signifies Christ’s love for the Church, which is
united with Him as His only Spouse. Consequently, those who deliberately
cohabit or even live together in an adulterous union, contrary to the laws God
and of the Church, cannot be admitted to Eucharistic Communion because they are
giving the bad example of a serious lack of justice and charity, and they are considered
public sinners: “He that shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery.”[6]
In
order to receive absolution for one’s sins within the framework of the
Sacrament of Penance, it is necessary to have the firm resolution to sin no
more, and consequently those who refuse to put an end to their irregular
situation cannot receive valid absolution.[7]
In
keeping with the natural law, man has a right to exercise his sexuality only
within lawful marriage, while respecting the limits set by morality. This is
why homosexuality contradicts natural and divine law. Unions entered into apart
from marriage (cohabitation, adulterous, or even homosexual unions) are a
disorder contrary to the requirements of the natural divine law and are
therefore a sin; it is impossible to acknowledge therein any moral good
whatsoever, even diminished.
Given
current errors and civil legislation against the sanctity of marriage and the
purity of morals, the natural law allows no exceptions, because God in His
infinite wisdom, when He gave His law, foresaw all cases and all circumstances,
unlike human legislators. Therefore so-called situation ethics, whereby some
propose to adapt the rules of conduct dictated by the natural law to the
variable circumstances of different cultures, is inadmissible. The solution to
problems of a moral order must not be decided solely by the consciences of the
spouses of or their pastors, and the natural law is imposed on conscience as a
rule of action.
The
Good Samaritan’s care for the sinner is manifested by a kind of mercy that does
not compromise with his sin, just as the physician who wants to help a sick
person recover his health effectively does not compromise with his sickness but
helps him to get rid of it. One cannot emancipate oneself from Gospel teaching
in the name of a subjectivist pastoral approach which, while recalling it in
general, would abolish in on a case-by-case basis. One cannot grant to the
bishops the faculty of suspending the law of the indissolubility of marriage ad casum, without running the risk of
weakening the teaching of the Gospel and of fragmenting the authority of the
Church. For, in this erroneous view, what is affirmed doctrinally could be
denied pastorally, and what is forbidden de
jure could be authorized de facto.
In
this utter confusion it is now up to the pope—in keeping with his
responsibility, and within the limits set on him by Christ—to restate clearly
and firmly the Catholic truth quod
semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus,[8]
and to keep this universal truth from being contradicted in practice
locally.
Following
Christ’s counsel: vigilate et orate,
we pray for the pope: oremus pro
pontifice nostro Francisco, and we remain vigilant: non tradat eum in manus inimicorum ejus, so that God may not
deliver him over to the power of his enemies. We implore Mary, Mother of the
Church, to obtain for him the graces that will enable him to be the faithful
steward of the treasures of her Divine Son.
Menzingen, October 27, 2015
+ Bernard FELLAY
Superior General of the Society of
Saint Pius X
[Source]
[1] Mt. 16:18-19; Jn.
21:15-17; Vatican I, Constitution Pastor
Aeternus.
[2] Council of Trent,
Session 4; Vatican Council I, Constitution Dei
Filius; Decree Lamentabili,
6.
[3] Gal. 1:8.
[4] Gen. 2:18-25.
[5] Mt. 19:6.
[6] Mt. 19:9.
[7] Leo XIII, Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae; Pius XI, Casti Connubii.
[8] “Which [has been
proclaimed] always, everywhere and by all”; Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium.
