ROME, October 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews)
-- While some say a majority of Synod Fathers support allowing
different national regions to establish their own ways of dealing with
contentious issues such as homosexuality and divorce, Cardinal Francis
Arinze of Nigeria has stated that the proposal is impossible for the
Catholic Church to adopt.
-- While some say a majority of Synod Fathers support allowing
different national regions to establish their own ways of dealing with
contentious issues such as homosexuality and divorce, Cardinal Francis
Arinze of Nigeria has stated that the proposal is impossible for the
Catholic Church to adopt.
“The Ten Commandments are not subject to national frontiers. A bishops’
conference in a country cannot agree that stealing from a bank is not
sinful in that country, or that divorced persons who are remarried can
receive Holy Communion in that country, but when you cross the boundary
and go to another country it now becomes a sin,” he told LifeSiteNews in
an exclusive interview in Rome on Saturday.
conference in a country cannot agree that stealing from a bank is not
sinful in that country, or that divorced persons who are remarried can
receive Holy Communion in that country, but when you cross the boundary
and go to another country it now becomes a sin,” he told LifeSiteNews in
an exclusive interview in Rome on Saturday.
“You can see you then, if we did that, we have made the Ten Commandments a
matter of decision according to sensitivities in each country. It cannot
be so,” he added.
matter of decision according to sensitivities in each country. It cannot
be so,” he added.
Arinze,
prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments, said that the Catholic Church is “one” in
her faith and morals.
“In
matters of faith and morals, the Catholic Church is known for her
unity, a unity which is not invented by the Vatican, is not invented by
the theologians. It is Christ himself who said, ‘Teach them to observe
whatever I have said to you.’”
“So,
we don't have power to modify [what Scripture teaches us]. For example,
St. Paul says that those who receive Holy Communion should look into
themselves because the person who receives unworthily receives judgment
against himself. This is Holy Scripture. This cannot be subject to
voting at the level of bishops’ conferences or even voting across
continental frontiers.”
“You
can see, the Church is not actually a national Church, it is one body
in Christ. The Son of God came down from heaven and gave us this way of
salvation and prayed that all his followers may be one, as he and his
Father are one,” he said.
Arinze
said that while bishops conferences “are important” for examining
particular “national situations” facing the local church, such as
respecting local culture in liturgy or providing solutions for the poor
and the sick, they do not have the power to change “faith and morals,
what we are to believe and what we are to do or not to do.”
“When
it comes to practical details that don't affect faith and morals,
bishops’ conferences can look into that and should,” he said.
Last week during a Synod press briefing,
German Abbot Jeremias Schroder mentioned both “the social acceptance of
homosexuality” and dealing with “divorced and remarried persons” as
examples “where bishops conferences should be allowed to formulate
pastoral responses that are in tune with what can be preached and
announced and lived in a different context.”
The announcement drew strong criticism from Church heavyweights such as Cardinal Burke who called the proposal “simply contrary to Catholic Faith and life.”
“What
it actually means is that the Church is no longer Catholic [universal].
It means that it’s no longer one in its teaching throughout the whole
world. We have one faith. We have one [collection of] sacraments. We
have one governance throughout the whole world. That’s what it means to
be ‘Catholic,’” he said in an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.
