We've now heard that the majority of the 80 lay groups, who were gathered in Rome last week to provide input for the 2015 Synod, spoke out in favour of retaining the traditional teaching of the Church on marriage. Although it would not have made any difference to the objective truth if only a minority had defended the Faith - the Church has received the truth from God and is not a democracy - this news nevertheless provides further colour to the responses of Cardinal Baldisseri, which we highlighted here on Monday. The Eponymous Flower has an interesting and thought-provoking caption entitled: ''Cardinals Kasper, Baldisseri and the agenda of Pope Francis: Listen to the laity, but silence them if they do not say what you want?'' How similar such a model would appear to the manipulations which emerged at the 2014 Synod.





It is splendid to hear about so many lay people standing up to affirm the true faith. Today we are also delighted to note the organized defence of the sacrament of marriage gradually emerging among the clergy.





Several days ago we read Msgr. Charles Pope's article, entitled 'A Lowly Pastor Comments on Troubling Developments in the Divorce Debate,' at the blog of the Archdiocese of Washington. Reflecting on the new theories being advanced by influential bishops and theologians, Msgr. Pope stated: ''Please remember to pray diligently for the Church in this hour. If any age is ill-equipped to teach on marriage, family and sexuality, it is ours. The Church cannot afford to take cues from a confused and darkened culture. Jesus must always be our light, He and none other, speaking through Scripture and Tradition. Pray!''

The good monsignor also drew attention to a necessity, which we would say is as urgent as it is practical: ''Frankly, I think it is going to be necessary to develop a mechanism through which ordinary priests like me can weigh in together with our strong belief that the Church's teaching and discipline in this matter must be upheld unchanged.''





Such a mechanism would certainly be a great encouragement to priests throughout the world who have been discouraged and disoriented by the strategy of the revolutionary Kasperites.





The urgent need to implement this idea is underscored by the fact that Cardinal Baldisseri has described this period between the two synods as ''the most important time.''





To speak plainly, it is clear to anyone not still slumbering into their cornflakes that we are being played by those manipulating the synod. These Modernists are highly organized and efficient. Having first seized the 'choke-points' of education, seminary formation, diocesan curia, and now even the highest seats of power in Rome, after many decades, they have finally arrived ''down the road,'' and are rapidly outflanking the remaining decent and honest Catholic cardinals, bishops, priests and laity with their doctrine-dissolving, end-game. The real problem is that the decent and honest ones are too frequently naive or afraid to rock the boat. More often, they have been bullied and broken into silence by those trying to subvert the Church's nature and mission from within. This has allowed evil to take over and thrive in many places over a prolonged period of time.





It is heartening therefore to read Fr. Tim Finigan's article yesterday.

Fr. Tim announced that the British Province of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy had published a statement called Marriage in the Teaching of the Catholic Church. Fr. Tim describes this statement as a good summary of Catholic doctrine concerning marriage. He adds: ''Ordinarily it might be considered simply a workmanlike pastoral document for sharing, to avoid different priests having to compose their own text. In the present circumstances, it has the character of a courageous statement of what we've always believed and continue to believe, despite the efforts of some to undermine Catholic teaching or compromise with the values of the world.''





Here is the actual text:

Marriage in the Teaching of the Catholic Church





Marriage was instituted by God, not invented by man (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.1603). The Creator has built it into human nature, even into the human body, in its two complementary forms, male and female. 'Male and female He created them' (Gen 1:27): man for woman, and woman for man, united in marriage as 'one flesh' for the procreation of new life: 'Be fruitful and multiply ' (Gen 1:28).





God has given marriage its essential characteristics and proper laws: unity (one man married to one woman); indissolubility (nothing but death can end a marriage); and openness to procreation (in every act of physical love). No president or religious leader, no senate or synod, nor any government has the authority to re-define marriage.





Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, raised marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament. The marriage of a Christian man and woman is a sacramental sign of His union with His Church (cf. Eph.5:32). Since the union of Christ with His bride, the Church, cannot be dissolved, no power on earth, not even the Pope himself, can dissolve the valid sacramental marriage, once consumated, of a Christian man and woman. 'Those whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder' (Matt 19:6).





The Church's discipline is built upon the doctrine of the Faith, and gives practical expression to it. To introduce a discipline at odds with a doctrine thus implicity undermines the doctrine. The discipline of not admitting to the Sacraments, divorcees who have entered into a subsequent civil 'marriage' follows directly from the doctrine of Marriage and the Eucharist as the Church has received it from Christ and His apostles. Unless an anulment has recognized the invalidity of the original marriage, then the state of life of divorced and 'remarried' Catholics objectively contradicts the union of love between Christ and the Church signified and effected by the Eucharist' (Pope St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, n.180). However sorrowful for their sins they may be, the divorced and 'remarried' remain 'one flesh' (cf. Gen.2:24; Matt.19:5) with their original and only spouses. Therefore, their second 'marriages' cannot participate in the one flesh union of Christ and His Church that is signified and effected by the Eucharist.





In the absence of a clear appreciation of marriage and the true meaning of human sexuality, a number of associated moral challenges have arisen. Amongst these is the growth of widespread homosexual activity and the promotion of such behaviour. The Church teaches, as She has always taught, that homosexual activity is gravely sinful, as it distorts one of the most sacred and fundamental dimensions of human life. Even the inclination towards homosexual activity is 'objectively disordered (CDF 1986) in the sense that such a sexual inclination, with its associated tendencies, feelings and expressions, is not properly directed to spousal union, marriage and procreation. The Church, of course, welcomes all human beings created in God's image, who by His grace have the power to renounce their sins, live a chaste life and become saints. But the Church cannot bless, or tolerate, sin in any form, nor structures and lifestyles that encourage or promote sin, disorder and temptation.





The Church in so many ways reaches out to those broken and hurt by the breakdown of marriage in our society and by the widespread confusion about what it means to be male and female. No-one is turned away. The first mercy and true compassion is offering to sinners the truth of Christ as the light by which to live. The greatest help for those who struggle is to point out with charity the way of Christ, the only way conducive to virtue and true joy.





The Church has nothing, can do nothing, is nothing, without Christ, Her Head and Bridegroom. She is the servant of the Word of God (cf. Dei Verbum, n.10). Her pastors therefore have no power whatever to change what He taught about the nature and goods of marriage and have the duty to promote and defend that truth for the good of every person and society.





With this kind of clarity - the type Catholics were accustomed to receiving from Rome prior to the present papacy - it makes you wish these priests were running the synod. Well, let's face it, some of them would likely have been bishops had a Modernist and anti-Catholic clique not seized power within the local Church in recent decades. We all know priests, seminarians and former seminarians who have been undermined, sidelined and even openly persecuted for upholding the teachings of the Magisterium in dioceses throughout England. Indeed, we have also met such men from America, Germany, Holland and Ireland. As Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen warned, this problem is supranational - it is legion!





The wolves are no longer circling the hen house, they have now taken over and are greedily licking their lips. Friends, it is the hour to stop clucking and get going on some organized and effective squarking! The time to 'keep your head down and try and do some good until things get better' - as well-meaning priests used to tell orthodox priests and seminarians - is long past. Better to stand now and prevent a diabolical schism happening later. May God bless the priests of the Confraternity in Britain - together with all faithful priests struggling through these times - and uphold them in the difficult days ahead.



