Amazon. Three More Cardinals Rebuff the Base Document of the Synod

It's good to know that Francis hasn't been able to purge all of the Catholics from the College of Cardinals, and some are brave enough to defend the Faith.

From Settimo Cielo

By Sandro Magister

One after another, over three days, three more cardinals - like the Germans Walter Brandmüller and Gerhard Müller before them - have aimed severe criticisms at the “Instrumentum Laboris,” the base document of the upcoming synod on the Amazon, as well as at the general state of confusion into which they see the Church plunging.

The first is Cardinal Robert Sarah, Guinean, prefect of the congregation for divine worship, in an interview with Edward Pentin for the “National Catholic Register” of September 23:

> Cardinal Sarah’s Cri de Coeur: The Catholic Church Has Lost Its Sense of the Sacred

The second is Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, American, former president of the supreme tribunal of the apostolic signatura, in a statement signed together with Kazakh bishop Athanasius Schneider, made public September 24:

> “Obedience to the Pope requires us to say the truth about faith”

The third is Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Venezuelan, archbishop emeritus of Caracas, in an interview with Inés San Martin for “Crux” of September 25:
> Venezuelan cardinal: Synod document strong on ecology, weak on ecclesiology

Of the three, Sarah is the only one who will take part in the synod, and his words in this regard are reproduced in their entirety further below.

As for Burke, this is how his statement begins:

“No honest person can anymore deny the almost general doctrinal confusion which is reigning in the life of the Church in our days. This is particularly due to ambiguities regarding the indissolubility of marriage, which is being relativized through the practice of the admittance of persons cohabiting in irregular unions to Holy Communion, due to the increasing approval of homosexual acts, which are intrinsically contrary to nature and contrary to the revealed will of God, due to errors regarding the uniqueness of the Our Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work, which is being relativized through erroneous affirmations on the diversity of religions, and especially due to the recognition of diverse forms of paganism and their ritual practices through the 'Instrumentum Laboris' for the coming Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon.”

Burke continues by claiming - with examples taken from Church history - not only the right but also the duty to speak openly in defense of true doctrine, even by calling the pope back to his task of  “confirming the faith,” as requested by Francis himself, who is remembered for these words he spoke at a previous synod, in 2014:

“One general and basic condition is this: speaking honestly. Let no one say: ‘I cannot say this, they will think this or this of me...’. It is necessary to say with parrhesia all that one feels… A Cardinal wrote to me, saying: what a shame that several Cardinals did not have the courage to say certain things out of respect for the Pope, perhaps believing that the Pope might think something else. This is not good, this is not synodality, because it is necessary to say all that, in the Lord, one feels the need to say: without polite deference, without hesitation.”

Finally, as for Urosa Savino, he says that the Church does well to promote an “integral ecology” for the Amazon, but the preparatory document for the synod says too little about “the main work of the Church [which] is evangelization, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, to all populations,” including the urban populations of the Amazon, not only the indigenous dispersed in the forests.

“These people require a direct, explicit, open evangelization of Jesus Christ.” Urosa Savino continues. But this is “little touched” in the document, which “presents an almost idyllic Amazonian population, the perfect man, the noble savage of Jean-Jacques Rousseau,” when instead these are “normal people with the same problems, virtues and defects as all people in the whole world,” and “to them too we have to bring the Gospel.”

“The text ,” the cardinal goes on to say, “talks a lot about accompanying, following, understanding and dialoguing with, but little about the need to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that, in some ways, explains the reality of the growth of the Pentecostal and Evangelical churches in the region, while the Catholic faith in the Amazon is not growing with the same force.”

And for this lack of growth - Urosa Savino continues, alluding to the request to ordain married men - “the cause is not in the shortage of priests.” He recalls that between the 1800’s and 1900’s much of Venezuela suffered a grave scarcity of priests, and yet “the faith was lived and maintained. It is not just a matter of receiving or not receiving the sacraments, but of the experience of the faith that was had, that arrived through the catechists to the families, that communicated them to their children.”

But let’s get back to the first of the three cardinals, the African Sarah. Here is how he judges the upcoming synod on the Amazon.

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Q. – Why is the Pan-Amazon Synod so preoccupying to many people, including some respected cardinals? What are your own concerns about the Oct. 6-27 meeting?

A. – I have heard that some people wanted to make this synod a laboratory for the universal Church, that others said that, after this synod, nothing would be the same as before. If that is true, this approach is dishonest and misleading. This synod has a specific and local goal: the evangelization of the Amazon.

I am afraid that some Westerners will confiscate this assembly to move their projects forward. I am thinking in particular of the ordination of married men, the creation of women’s ministries or giving jurisdiction to laypeople. These points concern the structure of the universal Church. They cannot be discussed in a particular and local synod. The importance of its subjects requires the serious and conscious participation of all the bishops of the world. Yet very few are invited to this synod. To take advantage of a particular synod to introduce these ideological projects would be an unworthy manipulation, a dishonest deception, an insult to God, who leads his Church and entrusts him with his plan of salvation.

In addition, I am shocked and outraged that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon is being used as a pretext to support projects that are typical of bourgeois and worldly Christianity.

I come from a young Church. I knew the missionaries going from village to village to support the catechists. I have lived evangelization in my flesh. I know a young Church doesn’t need married priests. On the contrary. She needs priests who will give her the witness of the lived cross. A priest’s place is on the cross. When he celebrates Mass, he is at the source of his whole life, that is, at the cross.

Celibacy is one of the concrete ways in which we can live this mystery of the cross in our lives. Celibacy inscribes the cross into our flesh. That is why celibacy is unbearable for the modern world. Priestly celibacy is a scandal for the modern, because the cross “is foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Some Westerners can no longer tolerate this scandal of the cross. I think it has become an unbearable reproach to them. They come to hate the priesthood and celibacy.

I believe that bishops, priests and the faithful everywhere in the world must rise up to express their love for the cross, the priesthood and celibacy. These attacks against the priesthood come from the richest. Some people think they are all-powerful because they finance poorer churches. But we must not be intimidated by their power and money.

A man on his knees is more powerful than the world. It is an impregnable bulwark against atheism and the madness of men. A man on his knees makes Satan’s pride tremble. All of you who, in the eyes of men, are without power and influence, but who know how to remain on your knees before God, do not be afraid of those who want to intimidate you.

We must build a bulwark of prayers and sacrifices so that no breach will hurt the beauty of the Catholic priesthood. I am convinced that Pope Francis will never allow such a destruction of the priesthood. On his return from World Youth Day in Panama on Jan. 27, he told journalists, quoting Pope Paul VI: “I would rather give my life than change the law of celibacy.” He added: “It is a courageous phrase, in a more difficult moment than this, 1968/1970. ... Personally, I think that celibacy is a gift for the Church. Second, I don’t agree with allowing optional celibacy, No.”