29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Right now and continuing into next week, the Pope and the Bishops are having a conference—called a Synod which is simply a formal discussion by some bishops and some cardinals with their recommendations for implementation. If I understand correctly, the Pope then writes some sort of document that explains what needs to be explained. A Synod really has no binding power. It is not like an ecumenical council where all the bishops from around the world gather to teach. The teaching authority of a Synod is really not much more than what an individual bishop might possess. And as we well know, no Bishop can declare or define dogma. He is strictly bound—as we individual Catholics are—to the traditional teachings and practice of the Catholic faith. Therefore a Synod—as urgent as its topics for discussion might be—is—in itself—not infallible. It does not define or declare dogma or propose for our belief anything more than what Catholics have always believed. We give it the respect that it deserves, but nothing more.
I highlight this in this way because the media is talking as if this Synod is as important as the Council of Trent. Of course, they are doing that because the topic for this year’s Synod is the Family in the Modern World. The media and the liberals would like nothing so much as to have it seem as if the Church is changing her teaching on life and love and marriage and children. And there are not a few cardinals and bishops willing to go along. But who can forget the story of Judas in times like these. In all cases—if the Bishops and the Pope are aware of anything in the world and in the Church, then they are aware that the whole notion of family is under terrible assault these days. Many of our Catholic people have fallen victim to the new understandings of what faithful and loving family means.
The State Seizes Authority
I just read the other day that ten years ago in the Archdiocese of Chicago there were 16,000 catholic weddings performed. Last year, that number was down to only 6,000 weddings. That’s not news. We all know many, many people who are not married but living together. And that is just one indication of the changing notion of what family and marriage means to people today. But the fact remains that just because people do not believe Our Lord’s words about life or love or marriage— just because they do not believe or practice the teaching of Our Lord’s Church—that does not mean we can change those teachings—or even should change them—even if we could. If we had half a brain we would know that.
But that is nothing new. At least since the French Revolution, the state has been trying to destroy the family. And the state always begins by arrogating to itself the authority to witness marriages. This is why we have to obtain a license from the government to get married. The government thinks it is giving us permission to get married. “We shall do that now, father. Thank You very much.” You might wonder why the government has such a compelling interest in who gets married or not. Well one reason is that after the state seizes the authority to issue permissions to marry, it gets to define marriage. The state now gets to define the nature of the relationship of the husband and wife. In this way the state teaches that marriage is not permanent—that it need not include children or it need not even be a faithful relationship.
And now, of course, the state tells us that marriage need not even be between a man and a woman. So th e state in as much as it redefines marriage redefines life and love and it does so in order to assert its own authority over all and everything—including the God-given independence of family. It stands to reason: if the government wants to control every aspect of our live, it needs to weaken and destroy family. The state does not want strong fathers and strong mothers and united children, because a strong family has no problem standing up to the regime—and saying “No”. A strong family resists. A father and mother and children all in sweet accord, what could be more difficult for the state to manipulate than that? The state does not need strong families. But the world needs strong families. You and I need strong families. Only where fathers and mothers are faithful and fruitful and loyal to the end can children grow in an atmosphere that will help them learn what they must learn in order to achieve salvation.
We Need Family
Gods will is that we be saved—first of all by means of family. Family is the first Church. Family is the womb of faith and the teacher of faithfulness. Family is where we learn of the fruitfulness of love and responsibility. Family is where we understand that there are others whom we must care for—and sacrifice for—and die for. We need family. And anything that hurts families or makes them weak must be condemned. Anything that makes it more difficult for husbands and wives to take care of each other and raise their children—is going against the will of God and must be condemned. This certainly includes things like divorce, contraception, free love—abortion, childless marriages and pornography—anything that scars our understanding of life and love. But that condemnation also includes any program or policy or social structure that weakens a father and mother’s ability to provide food and shelter and education and safety for their children That may be unemployment or low wages or high taxes or interest rates that crush our families in debt and sometimes puts them out on the street.
When most of the Catholic children in this neighborhood cannot afford to go to their own Catholic school—is that not a problem? Look at all those acres and acres and mile after mile of abandoned factories and warehouses and parking lots in Cicero. Grim testimony to a better time for families—when Pa worked outside the home and Ma worked inside the home; and everyone had enough to eat and wear and everyone went to Catholic school and they could even build beautiful churches with the extra money they had. If it was possible, it still is possible to re-create a life more favorable to families. It is not hard to draw a straight line from low wages and high taxes and unemployment to an unstable society where children talk about daddy’s girlfriend or Mommy’s boyfriend.
Good Shepherds
The Bishops and the Pope at their synod need to see that the problem for modern families is not that divorced and remarried people cannot receive Holy Communion—we all know that—this is not an issue. When did they begin to think that that was not settled two thousand years ago and is still under question? The problem with families in the modern world is not that the Church teaches that marriage is indissoluble or that it is between a man and a woman—or that every act of love must be open to the transmission of human life and that human life is sacred and inviolable. This is not the problem. It is the solution! Some of the bishops and the Pope need to start thinking a little more clearly. They need to realize that if we have hurting and wounded families it is not because the Church has taught faithfulness and fruitfulness and permanence in marriage, it is because our atheist leaders have created an economic, social and moral culture that does not support families—and in fact makes it next to impossible for families to thrive. If the Pope and Bishops think that family decline will be reversed by changing the rules on the reception of Holy Communion—then they are truly lost and we with them.
But smart shepherds—true shepherds—shepherds who don’t play to the crowd—who are happy when the wolves of the world despise them—will see that the modern family can only be helped by a return to pure Catholic beliefs and healthy Catholic practices which create and re-create healthy, strong Catholic homes. Good shepherds who know their flock—and not just smell like them—see that the real solution is Christ—and Christ as King—sovereign over nations and states. What families need is Bishops who will tell the state to establish social conditions whereby fathers have good jobs—and lower taxes so that our mothers can stay home—and raise a family under the headship of a husband and wife who have pledged to each other for life.
Bishops need to tell the state to provide the moral environment where the joy of love is renewed in large families; and children will learn to live their lives in family and not out in the streets or in a self-induced electronic autism. And when modern Synod Bishops begin to preach again the old faith—the true faith—well—it might seem like the end of the world has finally come—“My gosh, the bishops are actually teaching Catholicism!”—but really it will be the beginning of a new world.