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2 GUEST EDITORIAL
Catholic Voice
29th January 2021
Some Troubles In Dublin Fr. Gerald E. Murray
Archbishop Farrell’s treatment of Church teaching and practice regarding homosexuality, for example, is dismissive: “It’s a technical description. People misconstrue that then because it is technical theological language.” He considers amending this technical language, because “I think Pope Francis has discussed that (removal). It came up at the last Synod.” Fr Gerald Murray The Archbishop-Elect of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, gave an interview to the Irish Times soon after his appointment had been announced by the Holy See. The new archbishop declares himself in favour of women deacons and married priests. He does not find in the Scriptures an argument against the ordination of women to the priesthood. He calls the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality merely technical. He also says he has no problem with the private blessing of rings for divorced and remarrying couples and for homosexual couples (though he finds public blessings problematic because people often misconstrue them as actual marriages). Amid so many other troubles, the Church in Ireland appears to be headed for more rocky days.
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Really? Farrell is referring to this teaching of the Catechism: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” (CCC 2357) In common parlance, calling language in a document “technical” can mean that it is unintelligible or is commonly misunderstood by the uninitiated, and is there to serve some arcane or legalistic purpose. Its removal is desirable but may be difficult to do if sticklers, purists, or legalists object. Better just to ignore it and treat it as a dead letter, as in “Technically speaking that is true, but. . .” To describe the clear, unchanging, and unchangeable teaching of the Church on the inherent immorality of homosexual acts as technical language that could, and even should, be dispensed with is plainly a rejection of that teaching.
The rejection of homosexual activity, and the homosexual lifestyle, by faithful Catholics, however, is not a misconstruing of “technical” language found in the Catechism. Those who want the Church to embrace and bless the homosexual lifestyle object to the language of the Catechism not because it is misconstrued by clueless people who think it means that no one should engage in homosexual acts because, being intrinsically disordered, they are immoral. Rather, they object because the language is easily and correctly understood to mean just that. The problem for them is not the allegedly confusing words used, but rather the clear meaning of those words. Archbishop Farrell, in response to a question about blessing rings for divorced and remarried couples and for same-sex couples, says: The difficulty with blessings is that they are very often misconstrued as marriage. Priests have given these blessings in the past. I remember one colleague of mine. I had said to him – he used to have this ceremony of the blessing of rings – I said to him I don’t have a difficulty with blessing rings if you’re doing that here in the house but if you go out into the public domain, in a church,
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29th January 2021 Catholic Voice and bless rings as you see it. . .they turned up with 200 people and they saw it as a marriage. Sometimes people use that phraseology. . .you’re into confusion there. It can be misconstrued as “yes, the priest married us.” Blessings are always going to be misconstrued and that’s where the difficulty arises because once you start blessing things like that people are going to construe that as a marriage. We can’t have that sort of situation in the Church because it creates all sorts of problems in terms of our own teaching and these teachings of the church have been constant.” Leaving aside the question of blessing the rings of divorced and remarried couples, what exactly are we to understand is the meaning of blessing the wedding rings of same-sex couples, whether in private or in public? Is it a misconstrual to consider that the priest who does such a blessing approves of the relationship that the homosexual couple has entered into and asks God’s favour and approval upon that relationship as symbolised by the rings?
GUEST EDITORIAL 3
ARTICLE 7 THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY 1601 “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptised persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”
The Modern Catholic Dictionary defines a blessing thus: “In liturgical language a blessing is a ritual ceremony by which an authorised cleric in major orders sanctifies persons or things to divine service, or invokes divine favour on what he blesses.” The dictionary’s entry on rings states: “Conferring the ring is an integral part of the marriage ceremony to signify the mutual love of husband and wife, and wearing the ring symbolises their pledge of marital fidelity.” The main problem with blessing wedding rings of a same-sex couple is not that people will become confused and think that the priest was actually marrying them. No, the main problem is that a priest who does such an unholy act is giving the impression that God will favour what He has condemned. Same-sex “marriages” are not marriages in any way, shape, or form. No blessing should ever be invoked by a priest upon this unnatural relationship nor upon the pirated symbols of the holy estate of marriage. Archbishop Farrell says: “I don’t have a difficulty with blessing rings.” If that’s true, what he does have is a more fundamental difficulty: God has warned shepherds who mislead their flocks into paths of sin and error that they will be held accountable. Let us pray that the new Archbishop of Dublin will forswear his comments and reaffirm the Church’s actual teaching and practice. This article first appeared in the Catholic Thing and is published here with permission.
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10 LETTERS
Catholic Voice
Letters
29th January 2021 Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie
Prevention And Treatment Of Coronavirus Dear Editor, The sudden emergence of a number of vaccines now developed and on the market, seems to be welcomed, albeit with caution because of potential side-effects. Especially the Moderna vaccine, funded by Bill Gates, which is supposed to be a multi-purpose ID/ surveillance jab. It is interesting to note that Professor Dieder Raoult of the Marsielle special university hospital unit, a world-famous specialist of infectious diseases, has said in an interview, that since it is al-ready difficult to vaccinate against the flu, the chance of a proper vaccine without side-effects, for this present virus, is close to zero. He has been ridiculed for his advocacy of HCQ, i.e. hydroxychloroquine, an inexpensive, demonstrably effective drug to treat coronavirus. It was very effective against SARS and was recommended for use for decades until recently by the WHO. Los Angeles emergency room specialist, Dr. Anthony Cardillo, has stated: “What we are finding clinically with our patients is that hydroxychloroquine works in conjunction with zinc. It opens a zinc channel, zinc goes in to the cell, it then blocks the replication of the cellular mechanism ..... Every patient I’ve prescribed it to has been very ill, within 8 to 12 hours they were basically symptom free”. In actual fact, 20,000 doctors worldwide have stated that HCQ
with zinc is very effective against the Chinese virus. Professor Dolores Cahill, who is highly qualified to critique the efficacy of Covid policies. She has a degree in molecular genetics, a PhD in immunology, vast experience in Germany, including patented breakthrough research in the specificity of antibodies used in research and in diagnostic assays. In particular, she has been working on protocols for prevention, also on treatment, such as hydroxychloroquine, For which she has also been ridiculed. Professor Cahill has pointed out that it is well known in immunology that we can take preventative measures to boost our immune system. “ What we should have done is quarantine people who have underlying conditions and those over 75, telling them to build up their immune systems, by taking vitamin C, vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) and Zinc, with the other 80 – 90 percent
doing likewise, the immune system clears the virus and people develop immunity and no-one would have died at all”. Also those who had symptoms because they didn’t have their immune systems boosted, could have been treated with HCQ! Why has the HSE not been using our radio and TV stations through information slots, made society, especially the elderly, aware of the necessity of boosting their immune systems, and a great many lives could have been saved. Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi co-owners of a hospital chain in Bakersville, in California, at a press conference earlier this year, stated; “There’s normal bacteria and normal flora that we have to be exposed to. Natural bacteria and viruses that are not virulent are our friends. We’re always transmitting these things to each other. They protect us against bad bacteria and bad viruses.
29th January 2021
LETTERS 11
Catholic Voice
Letters
Send your letters to: Letters Page, Catholic Voice, St Michael’s House, Castlemitchell South, Athy, Co Kildare or email to letters@catholicvoice.ie
Nature has this thing called herd immunity. When we are isolating for too long, we lose that flora, our immunity is weak, after lock-down, there is a huge surge in cases”. Doctors have also pointed out that the consumption of processed food, which is harmful to the good bacteria in our gut, weakens our immune system. Why has HCQ, which has been very effective against SARS and the most efficient treatment for the corona virus been so restricted? A paper seeking to discredit HCQ treatment has been discredited and withdrawn. The paper based on two studies regarding HCQ appeared in late May 2019 in the Lancet, warning of cardiac side-effects. Questions arose about the data and an earlier study by Dr. Mandeep Mehra, medical director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Her paper had seen the use of HCQ severely restricted, even halted worldwide, while investigators began safety reviews. In a statement to The New York Times on June 4th, Mehra said: “It is now clear to me, that in my hope to contribute to this research in a time of great need, I did not do enough to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this use. For that and for all the disruptions both directly and indirectly, I am truly sorry” Was there an apology issued to those who lost their dear ones, even an apology issued to all those who were denounced, disparaged, smeared and ignored, because they advocated the use of HCQ?. James B.O’ Brien, Donegal.
The Sometime Silent Shepherds Dear Editor, In the 2018 Referendum to remove the protection of babies in the womb from the Constitution, the Bishops of Ireland were silent. Many forbade their priests from speaking of the danger of removing this protection, knowing that the removal of such protection, would legalise the killing of babies. They have been silent on the butchery of thousands of babies since.
They are now telling us that we should accept the COVID–19 vaccines, as not doing so might cause the deaths of vulnerable people. Not only is this hypocrisy, but it is also irresponsible, as they have no competence in such matters, especially as these vaccines have been rushed through without proper procedure. The Bishops of Ireland were given the authority by Christ to teach their flock, and to lead them to Heaven, and the Grace to do so. They have exchanged what they got from Christ for a megaphone for a Godless State. Let us pray to Our Lady, to ask Her Son, to send us at least one Bishop who is not afraid to speak the Truth, and to lead the people of Ireland on the road to Heaven. David Kelly Dublin.
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