by Gerald E Murray, The Catholic Thing
The Catholic Church is accustomed to attacks upon her teaching. The history of heresy over the centuries reveals the never-ending efforts of those who seek to replace Catholic doctrine with various errors. What the Church has only recently become accustomed to is attacks upon her teaching coming from some of her shepherds, especially from the never-ending pronouncements emanating from the office of the Synod of Bishops.
The latest imposition of the Synod is the recently published full-fledged endorsement of the homosexual lifestyle in the Final Report of Study Group Number 9 “Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.”
This report attempts to dismiss Catholic teaching on the inherent immorality of homosexual acts – and the disordered nature of the homosexual inclination – by stigmatizing that teaching as the expression of an obsolete “paradigm” that no longer can be relied upon to communicate God’s will to His people.
Merriam-Webster defines paradigm as “a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated.” To describe Catholic teaching using the analogy of a framework upon which theories and experiments are arranged is to demote it from the realm of truth into just one possible approach to presenting God’s revelation. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6) Is that a paradigm needing improvement?
The report includes two appendices, which are testimonies in the form of an interview. Two Catholic men (the first Portuguese, the second American), each proudly describing himself as being married to a man, even though the Catholic Church teaches that such a thing is impossible. Why would the Synod of Bishops publish interviews with men who reject Catholic teaching on the nature of marriage, inspired as it is by the Holy Spirit, as part of its effort to discern the workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church today?
Read also: Cardinal Müller: Synod’s homosexuality report leads to ‘heretical relativization’ of marriage by Michael Haynes, Permariam.com