The Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), who was praised by Pope John Paul II for establishing “a fruitful relationship between philosophy and the word of God” and who, in his epic work Russia and the Universal Church displayed an unequivocal profession of faith in the Catholic doctrine of the Roman primacy, said:
Christianity, if we really accept it as an absolute truth, must be put into practice in all affairs and relationships of life. There cannot be two supreme principles of life. This is the religious and moral axiom: one cannot serve two masters.
Indeed, the serving of “two masters” stems in part from the fact that we as human beings cannot come to terms on the “supreme [or first] principle”: God as the ultimate source of all existence and truth, who, by His divine revelation, shows us how to know and live according to His moral precepts.
It is one thing for ambiguity to exist in our secularized society, which is indifferent at best, and where relativism, proportionality, and consequentialism have become the norm, or in ecclesiastical communities like the Lutherans or Christian fundamentalists who may be publicly against abortion but support in vitro fertilization. It is, however, something else when such opaqueness happens within our own Catholic Church where the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ have been clear and constant for two thousand years. We see this, for example, with the German Catholic hierarchy, which remains divided over same-sex blessing guidelines as called for by Pope Francis’ proclamation Fiducia Supplicans.
Much has already been said on media platforms about the audience the dissident and pro-LGBTQ+ priest Fr. James Martin, S.J., had with Pope Leo XIV this past Monday. Less was said when, a few days prior, the pope quietly received Sr. Lucía Caram, the Argentine Dominican nun best known for her public approval of homosexual “marriage.”
“I would be in favour of homosexuals getting married in the Church because God always blesses love,” said Sr. Lucía. Asked if she would recommend homosexual couples act on their vice, she shrugged: “If they love each other… What do you want me to tell you!”
What is disheartening about all this is that such meetings communicate, as Fr. Martin posted on after his audience, “the same message…from Pope Francis on LGBTQ people, which is one of openness and welcome,” without underlining the gravity of the sin and, subsequently, denying such individuals the fullness of participating in God’s covenant.
The justification to all this, as the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference Matteo Maria Zuppi recently said in citing Pope Francis, is the same old politically correct narrative:
“[W]e no longer oppose the world, and the world enters into us,” Zuppi stated.
The rules exist and must be respected. But by integrating, that is, by making people feel at home, not tolerated or condemned. Those who seem foreign enter because they are actually. His children and our brothers. And how do we learn what have been called non-negotiable principles? By being inside, living with others. We must be God’s house, not a hotel, as our parents would have said, at least mine. We must all learn to live at home, to think in relation to the Lord and to others.
Of course, no one is going to deny that the Church is for everyone and is open to everybody, just like we cannot limit how God grants His forgiveness, which is everlasting. And we should make people feel at home, just as our Lord did with sinners. However, that does not mean that the Church has an open door policy where, for example, the sacraments, which are necessary for our salvation, become optional or not even necessary. That would be presuming God’s mercy, as Protestants erroneously do. They claim all they have to do is accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and they are saved— that is, that they will go immediately to Heaven after death.
In fact, because as Catholics we have entered into a covenant with God when we received the sacrament of Baptism and reasserted it with the sacrament of Confirmation, we are bound to make frequent use of the sacraments if we want any hope of being saved. And, when we need to be corrected, we then need to be corrected!
Heaven forbid I judge the pontiff on his meetings with Fr. Martin and Sr. Lucía, especially since what was discussed has not been made public. Yet, what conclusion are we as Catholics supposed to draw when the head of our Church meets with religious who publicly deny Church tenets and the Vatican Press Office says nothing thereafter? Based on what Cardinal Zuppi stated, one can conclude that in lieu of the Gospel message, the Masonic principle of human fraternity prevails as the supreme principle.
There may be those who say that this “supreme or first principle” is limited to religion and thus cannot be expected from someone who is not Catholic, for we all, as human beings, have our own opinions. Yet, Church teaching is not subjective, and thus one cannot claim to be ignorant of the universal concept of truth since it is dictated by the natural law, which, as stipulated by Cicero in his oration “For Titus Annius Milo”:
… [is] a law…not written, but born with us, which we have not learnt, or received by tradition, or read, but which we have taken and sucked in and imbibed from nature herself; a law which we were not taught, but to which we were made, which we were not trained in, but which is ingrained in us…
This is an innate part of our own humanity since we were created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). A salient example of this is seen when Cain killed his brother Abel. While God had not yet given the Decalogue to man, in this case the Commandment “Thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13), Cain instantly knew after he murdered his brother that he committed a grave sin. God admonished him, but He also did not abandon him (cf. Genesis 4).
If the Vatican Press Office were to release a statement like, “The pope met with…and confirmed Church teaching on the matter,” then I guess we could breathe a sigh of relief. For then we could, more or less, be assured that the “first principle” had been confirmed.
This article was originally published on Crisis Magazine.
