The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”.

ROME, October 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea, Doctor at the Center for Diagnosis and Treatment-Victor Babes and President of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Bucharest (Romania) made the following presentation to Pope Francis and the Synod bishops on Friday:

Your Holiness, Synod Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, I represent the Association of Catholic Doctors from Bucharest.

I am from the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.

My father was a Christian political leader, who was imprisoned by the communists for 17 years. My parents were engaged to marry, but their wedding took place 17 years later.

My mother waited all those years for my father, although she didn’t even know if he was still alive. They have been heroically faithful to God and to their engagement.

Their example shows that God’s grace can overcame terrible social circuмstances and material poverty.

We, as Catholic doctors, defending life and family, can see this is, first of all, a spiritual battle.

Material poverty and consumerism are not the primary cause of the family crisis.

The primary cause of the sɛҳuąƖ and cultural revolution is ideological.

Our Lady of Fatima has said that Russia’s errors would spread all over the world.

It was first done under a violent form, classical Marxism, by killing tens of millions.

Now it’s being done mostly by cultural Marxism. There is continuity from Lenin’s sex revolution, through Gramsci and the Frankfurt school, to the current-day gαy-rights and gender ideology.

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Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property.

Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sex identity and human nature.

This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world.

It’s an error of religious nature, it’s Gnosticism.

It’s the task of the shepherds to recognize it, and warn the flock against this danger.

“Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”.

The solution is: Evangelization. Conversion.

Not an ever increasing government control. Not a world government. These are nowadays the main agents imposing cultural Marxism to our nations, under the form of population control, reproductive health, gαy rights, gender education, and so on.

What the world needs nowadays is not limitation of freedom, but real freedom, liberation from sin. Salvation.

Our Church was suppressed by the soviet occupation. But none of our 12 bishops betrayed their communion with the Holy Father. Our Church survived thanks to our bishops’ determination and example in resisting prisons and terror.

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Our bishops asked the community not to follow the world. Not to cooperate with the communists.

Now we need Rome to tell the world: “Repent of your sins and turn to God for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”.


“Beware of inextinguishably inflaming the fury of God against you, lest by your prayers you more sharply provoke Him whom you patently offend by your evil acts,”

He notes that “whoever has soiled himself with the contamination of sodomitic disgrace ... unless he is cleansed by the fulfillment of fruitful penance, can never have the grace of God, will never be worthy of the body and blood of Christ, and will never cross the threshold of the celestial homeland.”

Damian expresses profound sorrow for those who have fallen into sɛҳuąƖ perversion, promising them that they can be liberated from their enslavement to sin by God, and restored spiritually if they repent and do penance.

Hoffman’s edition also includes a letter by Pope St. Leo IX praising the Book of Gomorrah in the highest terms. “Everything that this little book contains has been pleasing to our judgment, being as opposed to diabolical fire as is water,” writes Leo.

Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez writes that the book “brings us to the realization that a thousand years ago sɛҳuąƖ vices were being practiced by various sons of the Church that lamentably are present today and have been the occasion of scandal, discredit, and apostasy.”

Oxford professor Joseph Shaw writes that “Hoffman has produced a highly readable translation of St Peter Damian’s most famous work, with a scholarly and helpful commentary placing it into its historical context. ... Hoffman has done a great service to his readers in preparing this edition.”

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The publisher, together with LifeSiteNews, is offering The Book of Gomorrah and St. Peter Damian’s Struggle Against Ecclesiastical Corruption to LifeSite readers at a 15% discount. Click here
 
 

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Nancy Peℓσѕι said she is "proud" of the president of Planned Parenthood during an extended interview on Saturday.

House Minority Leader Peℓσѕι held up Cecile Richards as a role model during a question-and-answer session with the Texas Tribune, a "progressive" publication in the conservative state.

Peℓσѕι said Texas had not yet contributed in a positive way to the nation's commonweal by - for instance - electing more Democrats to Congress. However, she said some figures from the state deserved praise.

"We all want to be Ann Richards," she said, referring to the one-term Democratic governor (1991-5). Ann Richards delivered a scathing keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention, excoriating fellow Texan and future president George H.W. Bush.

Ann Richards, the last Democratic governor of Texas, got her start aiding the political career of Sarah Weddington, the lead attorney supporting abortion in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case.

"Speaking of Ann Richards, aren't we all proud of Cecile Richards?" Peℓσѕι asked those present.

Cecile Richards, the embattled president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is Ann Richards' daughter.

Peℓσѕι made her comment as Planned Parenthood remains under multiple Congressional investigations for allegedly altering their abortion technique to maximize the number of organs harvested for biomedical researchers, a service for which some Planned Parenthood affiliates receive $60 per body part.

It also came just two days before Texas decided to remove Planned Parenthood from the state Medicaid program - a move Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says the rest of the country should follow.

It was not the first time Peℓσѕι - who describes herself as "an ardent, practicing Catholic" - had


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CATHOLIC CHURCH, FAMILY, SPECIALTY PAGES, VATICAN SYNOD ON THE FAMILY
Tue Oct 20, 2015 - 2:36 pm EST
A quick primer on the natural law as it comes under attack at the Synod

Voice of the Family
 
 Catholic , Natural Law , Synod On The Family

October 20, 2015 (VoiceoftheFamily) -- The Instrumentum Laboris of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, which was published in June 2014 and served as the agenda for last year’s synod, contained many problematic texts on the subject of the natural law. Paragraph 20 stated:

“In fact, what underlies the relationship between the Gospel of the Family and the natural law is not so much the defence of an abstract philosophical concept as the necessary relation which the Gospel establishes with the human person in the variety of circuмstances created by history and culture.”
and paragraph no. 30 stated:

“The language traditionally used in explaining the term ‘natural law’ should be improved so that the values of the Gospel can be communicated to people today in a more intelligible manner. In particular, the vast majority of responses and an even greater part of the observations request that more emphasis be placed on the role of the Word of God as a privileged instrument in the conception of married life and the family, and recommend greater reference to the Bible, its language and narratives. In this regard, respondents propose bringing the issue to public discussion and developing the idea of biblical inspiration and the ‘order in creation,’ which could permit a rereading of the concept of the natural law in a more meaningful manner in today’s world.” (No.30)
These paragraphs, and others like them, indicate an extraordinary confusion about the reality of the natural law and the relationship between the natural and supernatural orders.

None of the more recent synodal docuмents make any reference to the natural law. The Relatio Synodi of the Extraordinary Synod and the Instrumentum Laboris of the Ordinary Synod make no reference to this fundamental underpinning of the Church’s understanding of human morality.

In his book The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? experienced Vatican journalist Edward Pentin revealed that Cardinal Baldisseri told Cardinal Burke that “Natural law doesn’t mean anything anymore”.

Is Cardinal Baldisseri correct?

It is our conviction that the Church’s traditional understanding is accessible to all people in all ages. In this post we will present a short overview of the natural law according to the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas, the common doctor of the Church. We will begin by examining the nature of law itself; we will then be able to proceed to discuss the natural law in particular.

PART I: LAW

What is law? [1]

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“It belongs to law” says St Thomas Aquinas “to command and to forbid”. He continues: “Law is a rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act, or is restrained from acting.”

For example, a law may restrain a man from stealing by forbidding theft, or it may induce a man to pay his taxes by commanding him to do so.

Does law have to be in accord with reason?[2]

St Thomas tells us that “the rule and measure of human acts is reason”. This means that in order for an act to be truly human, it must accord with right reason. Man is distinguished from an animal, a plant, or an inanimate object because he alone “is master of his actions”. The plant instinctively grows towards the light, the animal instinctively flees from a predator or pursues its prey, but man is able to reason and make free choices.

Law, as we saw above, is the “rule and measure of acts” in those situations where “man is induced to act or is restrained from acting.” If all human acts must accord with reason then it follows that all the laws that govern human acts must also accord with reason.

It is on these grounds that St Thomas can assert that a command only has “the nature of law” if it is “in accord with some rule of reason.” Indeed he teaches that “a law is nothing else but a dictate of practical reason emanating from the ruler.”

It follows from this that all “laws” that are contrary to reason, such as those which permit abortion, are not true laws.

Is law always ordered to the common good? [3]

Law is always ordered to the common good. We have seen above that law must always accord with reason. St Thomas teaches that reason is principally ordered towards man’s final end, which is happiness. Therefore laws must be ordained principally to human happiness.

Every individual man forms part of a social whole; he is an imperfect part of a perfect society (the Church and the State are both perfect societies because they possess all the means to achieve their ends and are not subject to any higher authority in their sphere). Therefore law must be principally ordained to the good of the social whole, that is, to the common good.

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Is anyone able to make laws?[4]

No. The law is ordained to the common good, therefore only the whole people, or those who have care for the whole people, can make laws.

These laws must be promulgated by the lawgiver before they come into force.

PART II: THE NATURAL LAW

Is there an eternal law? [5]

God has created all things by His divine wisdom and, by His divine providence, He directs everything that He has created to its proper end. This divine reason, “the very idea of the government of things in God”, has, says St Thomas, “the nature of law.”

This law, which directs all things in the universe to their proper end, is the eternal law. The lawgiver is God and His eternal law has been promulgated by His Divine Word for all eternity.

What is the natural law?[6]

The eternal law, which directs all things to their proper end, also directs man to his proper end. Yet man, because he possesses intellect and will, is able to freely choose to act or to refrain from acting. How then does the eternal law direct man to his end?

As stated above, all things in the universe are ruled and measured by the eternal law. It follows from this that all things “partake somewhat of the eternal law”, that is, “from its being imprinted on them” so that from this “they derive their respective inclinations to their proper acts and ends.” We can see this in the way that plants respond to external stimuli, or animals to their instincts, or any object to the laws of physics.

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Man’s rational nature must also be imprinted by the eternal law if man is to have “natural inclination to [his] proper act and end.” This imprinting of the eternal law on man’s rational nature is nothing other than a share of the “eternal reason” of God.

This participation in the “eternal law” is called the natural law.

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Are the precepts of the natural law self-evident?[7]

The first precepts of the natural law are self-evident. All men and women have the natural moral law “written in their hearts” to which their “conscience utters its own testimony” (Rm 2:15). “There is in every