One needn’t be a great scholar to conclude that the Catholic Church is losing the culture wars. It seems as though we are addicted to losing. What we are presently facing in the arena of politics, with the Obama administration forcing religious institutions to fund employees’ illicit sexual practices, is the terminus of a long chain of battles lost — and battles not even fought.
We are losing those battles with the world because we do not even fight them in the Church. Case-in-point: A priest is thrown under the bus because he enforced Church Law by denying Holy Communion to a notorious public sinner (an unrepentant lesbian). Reading the comments made by clergy and quoted in that linked article, one gets the impression that it was bad form or boorish manners on the part of the celebrant of a funeral Mass to deny the Blessed Sacrament to the woman.
The Body of Our Lord is not comparable a snack, or a cup of tea, the refusal of which would be impolite in respectable society. When we present ourselves at the altar rail (or wherever) for Holy Communion, if we are notorious public sinners, the priest has a duty to refuse us. This is Church Law. And this law is based on good theology, solid pastoral practice, and even good psychology. Again, Mensa membership is not required to see that a priest’s giving Holy Communion to a known practicing lesbian is, besides a sacrilege, tantamount to a sanctioning of the immoral lifestyle. When we are enabled in our vices by those willing to sanction them, we tend to keep them up. A good, charitable rebuke, on the other hand, can lead to the salvation of a soul.
What a relative of the woman told the Post reporter says a lot:
“You have serious questions about how American Catholics in particular practice their faith. How many divorced people live in a technical state of sin? How many people practice some form of artificial birth control in a state of sin?” he said. “If the church will now have these ‘state of grace’ police, you know, how can that be? That’s the most personal thing in the world — between a person and God.”
“‘State of grace’ police?” The clergy who agree with this man, who have taught innumerable Catholics to think this way, are why fifty-four percent of Catholics voted for the present occupant of the Oval Office, possibly the most proactively pro-abortion president yet.
Pray for Father Marcel Guarnizo. He looks like a zealous young priest. You can see him here:
httpv://youtu.be/hrnNK64epEM
