While the secular press is gleefully reporting on the German bishops “synodal journey” into schism, the bishops of Spain have just said “no.”
The Spanish bishops conference has just published a masterful guide for those performing “pastoral work on the person, family and society.” The document’s title, “The Faithful God Keeps His Covenant” (Deuteronomy 7:9), reminds us that we must do our part to fulfill God’s promise by teaching the truth, “in or out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).
The German bishops seems to have forgotten this. They seem intent, in their “synodal journey”, in redefining marriage, life and family to conform to the spirit of the age—which means away from the understanding of historical Christianity. They seem to be telling us that what was once “wrong” (until maybe the day before yesterday) is now somehow “right”. Some of the bishops are—incredibly—even demanding that the Church change her moral teachings.
Not the bishops of Spain. They have made it clear that they do not intend to deny the Truth, or defy the teachings of Saint John Paul II on the Culture of Life, however much “the times” demand it.
The problem of dissent extends far beyond Germany, of course, and is found not just in United States, but in the entire world. An international host of “experts” routinely challenges the notion that objective evil even exists, especially when dealing with sexual morality. They demean marriage, destroy unborn life, and treat the traditional family like a museum piece.
Even the best bishops seem sometimes hesitant to confront this confusion. Of course, correcting such fundamental errors is nothing more than simple Catholic Charity. But while the Church teaches us to “condemn the sin but love the sinner,” many prelates can’t seem to tell the difference. The result? They remain silent in the face of a challenge which their consecrated mission calls them to confront with authority.
Those failing to defend the truth might insist that it’s “charitable” to do so, but that sort of silence always winds up in a train wreck. A pastor who will not correct the sinner is being disloyal both to the sinner and to his duty.
Here at PRI, we work with good shepherds throughout Europe to strengthen the Culture of Life and encourage those who forcefully address the current challenge to Catholic moral teaching. That’s why we are so happy to report that the bishops of Spain, with whom we work closely, are taking the lead in defending Life and Family. “The Faithful God Keeps His Covenant” is a treasured gift to the entire Spanish-speaking world.
The document is both realistic and hopeful, reaffirming the fundamentals of the Faith while addressing the difficulty that Catholics face in confronting the culture. The bishops acknowledge that we live in a “society dominated at times by ‘sad passions’ – anger, indignation, resentment,” but insist that this sad truth makes it all the more important that the Church “witness to and encourage a renewed passion for God and for the person.”
Do not surrender to the confusion and relativism of the secular culture, the Spanish bishops insist. Rather, turn to the Gospel which empowers us to “witness to and encourage a renewed passion for God and for the person”?
At the heart of that Gospel is the family, the bishops also remind us, with the Holy Family as our model. The family is indispensable, both for the person and for society. And by “family” they mean a family born of marriage based on an exclusive and definitive love between a man and a woman.
To say this is not to look backwards, but forwards, the bishops teach: “We are a family society and this is not only compatible with being modern, but it makes it possible for us to be so. Without families there would be no modernity.”
The family was created by God in Eden and represented God’s plan for mankind. The modern-day Leftist ideologue, like Satan himself, empties this beautiful gift of its divine purpose and replaces it with the dross of deception and destruction. The Left’s definition of a family—which includes everything up to and including a man and his pet rabbit—is a manipulative mockery designed to attack and destroy the fabric of a free society by destroying the fundamental social unit—the family.
The bishops recognize how destructive this false “family” can be: the growing mental health problems infecting the young flow from the isolation and loneliness of a false reality—a world in which real fathers and mothers are replaced by illusions of “freedom” that , in the end, lead only to desperation and the death of hope. The growing wave of suicides among young people has not happened by accident, the bishops note.
The Spanish bishops also recall the “dictatorship of relativism” decried by Benedict XVI. Men consumed by passions and appetites make of these false gods. They even create false “theologies” to justify them. Gender Ideology (a concept brilliantly addressed in English by a brother bishop in America here) is one such example.
The bishops resolutely defend Life. “The abortion movement is still based on an already obsolete ideology, based on the absolute power of the individual,” they write. “One day we will mourn the millions of victims who could never even see the light or give us their light. Abortion is not the right to choose, but the power to dominate.”
Finally, the bishops point to the demographic crisis, stating that without families there is no future. They blame the crisis on secular laws that poison the minds of the young. And the young, the bishops observe, are increasingly scarce as the demographics dive even lower.
The bishops of Spain call on parents to rise to the challenge, not only being generous in having children, but in raising them with a generous spirit that will plant the seed of desire to marry and have faithful families of their own. Instead of blurring the image of marriage by posing strange “blessings to couples who are not couples,” the bishops encourage us to look for new ways to educate young people for courtship and marriage and children.
If only the bishops of Germany had such faith!
The Spanish bishops’ document is not only brilliant, but brave. In Spain, the gloves have been off since the 1930s. Thousands of priests, nuns, and Catholic laity were slaughtered by the Left in the Spanish Civil War.
Catholics won the civil war, but the battles continue in the culture. Courageous bishops like Bishop Reig Pla, former bishop of Alcalá de Henares, are constantly attacked for defending Life and Family, not only by the media, but also by the country’s leftist government.
Spaniards are proud of their bishops for this courageous new document, and they should be: for what would Spain be without Spaniards?
Bishops in the United States should be encouraged to use this document in their much-touted “Hispanic Outreach.” Right now, this is often nothing more than Saul Alinsky-style “community organizing”, which is ultimately destructive of faith and family.
In fact, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) should translate the entire document into English and preach it nationwide. The usual suspects will undoubtedly resist – those few but powerful members who prefer silence on abortion and Humanae Vitae – but the majority should prevail.
Ultimately America’s bishops face the same question as their brothers in Spain: what would America be without Americans?
If we don’t defend Life and Family we are going to find out.
