And when they shall bring you into the synagogues, and to magistrates and powers, be not solicitous how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say; for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what you must say (Lk 12:11-12).
The battle rages at the intersection of the spiritual, the moral, the theological, the physical, and the practical. Below are more posts by both erudite and reporting others in relation to the Guidelines released by the Maltese bishops last week in relation to the provision of the sacrament of Communion for the divorced-and-remarried. Read the posts, draw your own conclusions.
For the People of God who are also part of the Catholic Church, read the posts bearing in mind Canon 212:3 of the Code of Canon Law, namely that:
According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.
That said, two questions at this point need to be asked as follows:
- Will the priests of Malta and Gozo invoke the Nuremberg defense in order not to be stripped of their faculties?
- Who comes first – God or men, albeit men in ecclasiastical garb?
Here are the posts:
- Malta Bishop Threatens Priests Who Refuse Holy Communion to Civilly Remarried
- Contradictions Between Maltese Directive and CDF’s 1994 Letter on Divorced-Remarried
- A Pledged Troth (by +Steven Lopes, First Bishop of the Personal (Anglican) Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter)
- +CJ Scicluna’s Amoris Laetitia Usurps Papal Authority, Rejecting Dialog, Discernment, Accompaniment
- +CJ Scicluna’s Amoris Laetitia Expects Sinful Obedience. But Priests Are Free to “Disobey”
- The Maltese Straw That Breaks the Church’s Back
