There Is a New Teaching Circulating in the Catholic Church Causing Great Confusion Among
There is a new teaching circulating in the Catholic Church causing great confusion among cardinals, bishops, priests and lay people. Today, I will do what I can to show how this is a false teaching is not based upon the authority of Jesus, nor His Catholic Church.
In the first reading God promises He will raise up for the people a prophet like Moses. And God commands them to listen to that Prophet because he will speak what God tells him. For centuries the people of Israel waited for the Prophet who had been promised. When the people were sent to St. John the Baptist, they asked him if he might be the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet. They wanted to know if he was the prophet promised from God as recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy.
Jesus demonstrates He is the prophet foretold because He expels the demon by His own authority. Our Lord says to the demon, “Quiet, come out of him.” And immediately the man was convulsed and the demon departed. No one had ever invoked his own authority to command a demon to leave one who is possessed.
Later, even those who are not Our Lord’s immediate followers realized the power and authority of Jesus. In Luke, St. John told Jesus, “Master, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he that is not against you is for you.”
It is clear Jesus is the prophet foretold by Moses who said, “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin, to him you shall listen.” Jesus is the prophet the people are to listen to and live accord to His words. Even though Jesus demonstrated to be that Prophet foretold by Moses, the people will refuse to listen to Him and they refuse to listen to Him today, through the voice of His Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that Jesus Himself is the revelation expected. "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the Most High God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline." CCC #75
The Catechism also explains how the apostles and their successors received the authority to proclaim the saving truth and moral disciple: "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority." Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time.” CCC #76 and #77
There are many things Jesus made clear the people were to live by. For example, He said, “He who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.” Some things Jesus wanted His apostles and their successors to help Christians live out their faith. For example, St. Paul, as a successor of the apostles, warned the Christians in Corinth not partake in the Eucharist in an unworthy manner. He said, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats without discerning the body eats and drinks condemnation upon himself.” 1 Corin. 11
The Catechism speaks about the need to receive Communion worthily: “Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.” (CCC 1385) The teaching of the Church is that in order to receive Communion worthily, we must be “in a state of grace, which is an absolute requirement which can never be dispensed. To receive the Eucharist without sanctifying grace in your soul profanes the Eucharist in the most grievous manner.” Catholic Answers Some people will say, “But that’s not in the bible. The bible is the sole authority of truth.” But, nowhere in the bible, does it say the bible is the sole authority of truth. Rather, St. Paul in his letter to Timothy (3:15) says “the Church of the living God is the pillar and foundation of truth”. The Church has as its source two fonts of truth called divine revelation: Scripture and Tradition. The Church’s magisterium is the guardian, the servant and the interpreter of the truth (divine revelation).
Fr. William Most explains how the magisterium of the Church is the authentic interpreter of Divine Revelation. He said, “By the Magisterium we mean the teaching office of the Church. It consists of the Pope and Bishops. Christ promised to protect the teaching of the Church: "He who hears you, hears me; he who rejects you rejects me, he who rejects me, rejects Him who sent me" (Luke 10. 16). Now of course the promise of Christ cannot fail: hence when the Church presents some doctrine as definitive or final, it comes under this protection, it cannot be in error; in other words, it is infallible. This is true even if the Church does not use the solemn ceremony of definition. The day to day teaching of the Church throughout the world, when the Bishops are in union with each other and with the Pope, and present something as definitive, this is infallible. (Vatican II, Lumen gentium # 25). It was precisely by the use of that authority that Vatican I was able to define that the Pope alone, when speaking as such and making things definitive, is also infallible. Of course this infallibility covers also teaching on what morality requires, for that is needed for salvation.”
Some seem to believe the document by Pope Francis Amoris Laetitia permits couples who are divorced and re-married to receive Communion. But the document does not say that. Some misinterpret the document to say it is permissible to receive Communion even while continuing to have relations. But never in the history of the Church. Never has a Church Council, nor any saint ever said so. This is a false teaching.
The bishops of the world are not in union with each other nor with the pope on this false teaching, nor has the pope made a definitive statement on the false teaching binding all the faithful to believe it, and therefore the new teaching is not infallible.
The new teaching allows Catholics to receive Holy Communion while in the state of mortal sin because they are unrepentant and continue to live having relations without full repentance. It also goes against the long held tradition based upon the words of Jesus in scripture, that marriage is indissoluble.
Today some Catholics don’t believe in confession. Others believe they can receive Holy Communion after committing a mortal sin, even if they don’t first go to confession. For example, if one has missed Mass on Sunday without a serious reason, or if one willfully viewed pornography or if one is living in an invalid marriage and are not abstaining from relations. By whose authority or they living? Their own. They are departing from the authority of the Church. They are departing from Jesus Christ, the prophet foretold by Moses. And in doing so, risk losing their salvation and going to hell for all eternity. We are not our own savior. Jesus is our only savior. Jesus established His Church, as our mother and teacher to help save us.
Listen to the words of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In Familiaris Consortio, Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage. Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they "take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples. ” (#84).
In Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, The Synod of Bishops confirmed the Church’s practice, based on Sacred Scripture (cf Mk 10:2-12), of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments. … Yet the divorced and remarried continue to belong to the Church, which accompanies them with special concern and encourages them to live as fully as possible the Christian life through regular participation at Mass, albeit without receiving communion. … When legitimate doubts exist about the validity of the prior sacramental marriage, the necessary investigation must be carried out to establish if these are well-founded. Consequently, there is a need to ensure, in full respect for canon law, the presence of local ecclesiastical tribunals” (#29).
The Catechism says, “Today, there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have recourse to civil divorce and contract new civil unions. In fidelity to the words of Jesus Christ, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery,” the Church maintains that a new union cannot be recognized as valid if the first marriage was. If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic Communion as long as this situation persists… Reconciliation through the sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete continence (#1650).
Because the false teaching coming from the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia contradicts the teachings and tradition of the Church and is circulating throughout the Church, one diocese next to another diocese now permits some to receive Communion, while the other dioceses prohibits Communion. One country such as Poland does not permit Communion, while another country, Germany permits Communion. The Church is being torn asunder (schism) by this false teaching.
The pastoral norms regarding the indissolubility of marriage cannot be contradicted between one diocese and another, between one country and another. Since the time of the Apostles, the Church has observed this principle as St. Irenaeus of Lyons testifies: “The Church, though spread throughout the world to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the Apostles and their disciples, preserves this preaching and this faith with care and, as if she inhabits a single house, believes in the same identical way, as if she had only one soul and only one heart, and preaches the truth of the faith, teaches it and transmits it in a unanimous voice, as if she had only one mouth”. Saint Thomas Aquinas said, “There is one and the same faith of the ancients and the moderns, otherwise there would not be one and the same Church.”
Pope Pius IX said, “For the Church of Christ, watchful guardian that she is, and defender of the dogmas deposited with her, never changes anything, never diminishes anything, never adds anything to them; but with all diligence she treats the ancient doctrines faithfully and wisely, which the faith of the Fathers has transmitted. She strives to investigate and explain them in such a way that the ancient dogmas of heavenly doctrine will be made evident and clear, but will retain their full, integral, and proper nature, and will grow only within their own genus — that is, within the same dogma, in the same sense and the same meaning” (Dogmatic Bull Ineffabilis Deus).
Some seem to think that morality is different among classes of people. However, Pope St. John Paull II, said “When it is a matter of the moral norms prohibiting intrinsic evil, there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone. It makes no difference whether one is the master of the world or the “poorest of the poor” on the face of the earth. Before the demands of morality we are all absolutely equal” Veritatis Splendor, 96.
The truth is: “It is not licit to justify, approve, or legitimize either directly or indirectly divorce and a non-conjugal stable sexual relationship, through the sacramental discipline of the admission of so-called “divorced and remarried” to Holy Communion, in this case a discipline alien to the entire Tradition of the Catholic and Apostolic faith”. (Profession of Immutable Truths about Marriage).
Because the new teaching does not fulfill the requirements of infallibility, because this new teaching is not in accord with the apostolic tradition of the Church, because it contradicts scripture, because it contradicts statements by Church councils, popes and saints, it is therefore a false teaching.
The truth is: this confusion in the Church is coming from the devil, who wants to divide the Church and cause people to lose their faith so they end up in hell with him. The devil is using cardinals to oppose cardinals and bishops against bishops as foretold by Our Lady in Akita, Japan. St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians said, “…there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Gal. (1:8)
A few days before St. Fidelis was martyred for his preaching he gave a sermon inspiring Christians to be loyal to their Catholic faith. He said, “O Catholic faith, how solid, how strong you are! How deeply rooted, how firmly founded on a solid rock! Heaven and earth will pass away, but you can never pass away. From the beginning the whole world opposed you, but you mightily triumphed over everything. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. It has subjected powerful kings to the rule of Christ; it has bound nations to his service. “What made the holy apostles and martyrs endure fierce agony and bitter torments, except faith, and especially faith in the resurrection? “What is it that today makes true followers of Christ cast luxuries aside, leave pleasures behind, and endure difficulties and pain? It is living faith that expresses itself through love. It is this that makes us put aside the goods of the present in the hope of future goods. It is because of faith that we exchange the present for the future.”
Speaking about His Second Coming, at the Last Judgement, Our Lord said, “When I come, will there be faith on earth?”, and if we are true to our Catholic faith, we will respond saying, “Yes, Lord, by the grace of God, we have kept the faith.”
Today, let us entrust Holy Mother Church to the Mother of the Church, the Virgin most faithful. May our Blessed Mother help each of us to be loyal to our Catholic faith unto death and may the authority of Jesus Christ and His Church be respected as the source of unity for all Christians.