The Church has always taught that our first responsibility is to our own conscience. Our Conscience is our grace aided reason, we often think of it as the tiny little voice within that tells us right from wrong. Sometimes this is shown in art as a little angel perched on our shoulders, whispering in our ears (which is a good way of putting it). But what happens when our conscience tells us to one thing when our priest, or Bishop , or Cardinal, or even (God forbid) our Pope tells us one thing and our conscience another? We must always obey our conscience, though our conscience must be well informed. In other words we must take time to study up on issues of concern. A good recent example of when Catholics must disobey comes from Germany. The Head of the German Bishop's Conference has announced guidelines forcing priests to accept homosexuality and transgenderism. Clearly it is the moral duty of all Catholics to resist such an abomination and we will have to answer at the Judgement Seat of God if we do not: https://www.complicitclergy.com/202...iests-to-accept-homosexuality-transgenderism/ German Bishop Announces New Guidelines Forcing Priests To Accept Homosexuality, Transgenderism January 19, 2023 from LifeSite News by Andreas Wailzer The head of the German bishops’ Conference (DBK) introduced binding guidelines on sexual education for all parishes in his diocese that force them to accept and promote homosexuality and transgenderism. According to these 10 guidelines, “there is diversity in sexual identity and orientation.” The guidelines furthermore state the following: The appreciative handling of these differences and diversity should be actively promoted in the parishes and institutions. The choice of lifestyle is to be respected as the result of an individual and personal decision. It is to be recognized when partners take responsibility for each other in mutual fidelity and care. Furthermore, we welcome it when couples wish to place their partnership under the blessing of God. The guidelines were authorized by Bishop Georg Bätzing, who heads the heterodox Synodal Way as well as the DBK, on May 17, 2022, but they were only made public Tuesday night during an online event from the diocese of Limburg, according to katholische Nachrichtenagentur (KNA).
Pope Benedict says in his latest book that Catholicism is on the verge of collapse. A boat about to sink. Meanwhile the world is on the road to perdition.
Once in prayer when I l was lamenting about this Pope and worrying, the Lord told me that no matter what, I never had to personally sin. I understood it to mean that no one could personally force me to sin, no matter what the Church or society allowed. That is so true. The Lord always gives us an escape even if it is through Martyerdom. There is also the sin of being placed in a situation and not standing up for rightousness. We have a small army right here on this forum, maybe we should consider as a collective unit contacting the Pope and reprimanding him for all this nonsense. According to Jesus promise, he will never be able to change Church Doctrine regarding sin, so his misplaced compassion is only causing confusion and scandal.
About disobedience, I saw this photo the other day with the caption "A group of farmers "arrested" the town's sheriff while he was attempting to evict a widow from her farm at the behest of a local insurance company, 1952". Isn't this wonderful? Compare that to what we have today where a certain techie nerd is buying up all farmlands everywhere and paying everyone off and no one is standing in his way. He took from farmers in other nations like India for years before he came to do the same thing in his homeland... Didn't the same thing happen in the Church? And the actions to take against growing evil are spiritual weapons, not the arguments and letters and interviews etc - the Bishop v Bishop stuff of prophecy which is the outward sign of lack of love among brothers in the hierarchy. The problem of disobedience is very challenging when it comes very late in the game for the great majority of people who never really stood up for anything in the Church or in life... Let's pray and stay close to Our Lady to implore Her guidance.
Here is another story of Obedience to one's conscience and disobedience to authority. Enoch Burke, a teacher at a Protestant Church of Ireland school was being forced to accept the pronouns of a pupil in his class. Enoch could not do this as his conscience informed by his Christian Faith would not allow him to. Male and Female are the only 2 sexes Enoch recognises, as revealed in Genesis. The school discplined Enoch by suspending him from teaching duties. Enoch continued to turn up for teaching duty. [An unjust law is no law at all according to St. Thomas Aquinas.] The school obtained a court injunction against Enoch, restraining him from attending his school and place of work. Again Enoch could not comply and continued attending the school. The police (Gardai) arrested him and he was jailed by the court. Enoch refused to purge his contempt of court on the grounds that he was unable to infringe his conscience formed by his Christian beliefs. Enoch spent 108 days in jail. He was released after the Chief Justice of the court said he was abusing the Justice system for his own ends. When the school opened in Enoch began attending again but was resisted by the school Principle and its officials. Enoch had sought a court injunction to prevent the school having a second disciplinary hearing to dismiss him from his employment at the school. The court declined to grant the blocking injunction, because he himself was in breach of a sitting court order, which apparently tipped the scales of Justice against him. The school held the disciplinary hearing and dismissed Enoch from his position as teacher at the school. Enoch failed to recognise the unjust outcome of the hearing. He continued to turn up at the school which locked the gates to prevent entry. He persisted and gained entry. He was arrested by Gardai but subsequently released. Enoch again returned to the school not recognising his dismissal. The school went to court again. Enoch has been subjected today to an ongoing series of fines: 700 euro for every day that he turns up at the school. The court says it will increase the daily fines if he continues to fail to comply with the court order. So it has been a real martyrdom for Enoch. God help us all. What should we do?
Me neither. The thing about disobedience is knowing when to say no, when to oppose and defend others, and how far to go without insisting beyond the limits of the Divine Will about when to stop and let someone else continue with the actions of their free will which is sacred to God. The people who arrested the sheriff above may have referred to the Constitution to arrest the sheriff and prevent a crime against a widow. I don't know the details but in US law, citizen's arrest is legitimate. One thing struck me in mystical writings when ur Lord when pointed out that He did certain things out of obedience to the Father going so far as to instruct, confront and inform several times because those things would be written in His Book but the persistent willful opposition, disobedience and violence on the part of others is what would be written in their books. To each our own Book of Life. But how else can we know what God wants unless we seek His Will evey day in every prayer?
It takes 'unreasonable' people to change things. I believe he will win a case for unfair dismissal. The school dismissed him even though he had broken no law. They can't force you to mutilate the English language. The court orders denying him entry to his place of work despite he not having broke a law are separate issue. Fair play to him.
This is totally off point. But I heard the most beautiful story this morning and it has lived with me all day it touched me so much. An Atheist Professor was asked how he came to be converted to the Catholic Faith and he told a story about it. He happened to be talking to a fellow Professor, a devout Catholic, on Campus about work matters when a Campus Policemen called in to tell the Catholic Guy that his car had just been stolen and trashed. He said that the Catholic replied, 'Oh, God must intend me not to have a car just at the moment'. Then he went on talking, serenely and as though nothing had happened to the atheist. He said he was flabbergasted. He, the Catholic Professor just returned to their previous conversation as though nothing had happened and seemed perfectly accepting of it all. What a wonderful, wonderful Christian acceptance of God's Holy Will. It actually was the occasion of the Atheists conversion. I just think this was totally, totally wonderful. Really on thinking about it quite a lot I would guess that Catholic Professor was raised by grace to a very high degree of Sanctity.
None of us are poster material. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God to quote St. Paul. It seems to me that a lot of people who have stood strong against issues concerning our Faith have been weakened by criticism concerning other aspects of their personal lives or conduct; Fr. Sheehy, Frank Pavone. Fr. Corapi. Our rights to follow our consciences on this matter have already been eroded and legal precedent is being set up. Hopefully he will win a case of unfair dismissal. The court already conditionally admitted he had the basis of a case to obtain a block on the second hearing because the first hearing took place without him being present or represented. But of course that failed because he was in breach himself. Jordan Peterson warned against this and may have fallen foul of some of the laws in Canada himself. But we are all just watching this car-crash in slow motion, paralysed into inactivity. All the jobs advertised in Ireland now say they are subject to non-discrimination based on grounds of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age etc. In any jobs related to government, semi-state, social welfare etc., the contract states that you must abide by these non-discriminatory practices. But by signing the contract I presume one must adhere to the contract issuer's definition of non-discrimination, and their definition of gender, sexual orientation etc. I hope to sign one of these contracts soon myself. What am I to do? I have family with children to support. I need the money and the social insurance too. You see how we are forced to offer a pinch of incense to Caesar. I intend to not rock the boat, keep my head down; hope that I am not forced into a situation like Enoch. And if I am what then? Will I bow? Probably yes to my detriment and shame. Am I willing to stand up for my convictions when it prevents me from earning a livelihood? No. (I have already lost a job due to my stance on vaccination.) Will Enoch continue to incurr these fines for his convictions? Probably not. He too will be forced to burn that pinch of incense. If he does incurr these fines he will be bankrupt by the State and pursued relentlessly. But he will be made to eat his convictions by the State. Nevertheless, in my mind he is a hero. He can rest in his conscience. This is the sorry state we are reduced to. Our sovereignty has been sold out from under us, and our Faith and resolve has been bludgeoned. What is needed is our own Christian State. But as I said before that is quixotic, far-right, utopianism.
I would be very careful. Once you start down the road of giving a little , it is a slippery slope. We are dealing with a hungry dragon which will never be satisfied until it has gobbles everything and everyone up. Of course I am writing this and have no family or anything much to loose. So it is very,very easy for me to say. Still I will say it. Though it is very,very easy for me to say. There is no such thing as a small pinch of incense to a Pagan God..and a small snack will never satisfy a hungry dragon.
I am just off the phone to my sister. Apparently she is flying off to be present at a homosexual, 'Wedding', in Australia. She said they were friends and she did not want to offend. She got off the phone in a hurry when I started. What terrible, terrible times we are living in. One good thing about being older, I don't care too much anymore about , 'Offending' anyone. I can offend like crazy and they can think me a crank as much as they like. It's all around us. Happilly I am reaching the end of my life and will not have to put up with too much more of it.
Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples, and He told them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
It is a terrible dilemma when its family. Real anguish. I know parents who have left the Church to support their same sex attraction child. So sad. Tragic all around.
How can one not like the words of Jesus. This is why Jesus told Peter, James and John to pray that they might not be put to the test. This is why I pray not to be put to the test. Even when Peter denied Jesus 3 times, Jesus forgave him. But He made him declare his love for Him 3 times and prophesied his martyrdom.
