Page 5 - Michael 2024 May

Martyrdom, a form of total love for God that abortion and artificial birth control will always be
evil. As it was stated before, the power to decide what
“Love of God and love of neighbor cannot be
separated from the observance of the Command- is good and what is evil does not belong to man, but
to God alone.
ments of the Covenant, renewed in the blood of
Jesus Christ and in the gift of the Spirit. It is an honor Similarly, even if the majority of the faithful would
characteristic of Christians to obey God rather than put pressure on the Pope to have him decree that
men and accept even martyrdom as a consequence, abortion and “the pill” are no longer sins, it would
like the holy men and women of the Old and New be completely useless. It is not the Pope who is the
Testaments, who are con- author of the Ten Command-
sidered such because they ments; it is God. And nei-
gave their lives rather than ther the Pope, nor any other
perform this or that particu- man for that matter, has
lar act contrary to faith or the power to change them.
virtue. (…) Whether or not it is accepted
“The Church proposes by the faithful, the duty of
the Pope and of the Church
the example of numerous is to tell the Truth, even on
Saints who bore witness to the most difficult points. The
and defended moral truth, Pope explains it in his encyc-
even to the point of endur- lical in this way:
ing martyrdom, or who
preferred death to a single “The fact that some be-
mortal sin. In raising them lievers act without following
to the honor of the altars, the teachings of the Magis-
the Church has canonized terium, or erroneously con-
their witness and declared sider as morally correct a
the truth of their judgment, kind of behavior declared by
according to which the love their pastors as contrary to
of God entails the obligation the law of God, cannot be a
to respect His Command- valid argument for rejecting
ments, even in the most the truth of the moral norms
dire of circumstances, and taught by the Church... Dis-
the refusal to betray those sent, in the form of carefully
Commandments, even for orchestrated protests and
the sake of saving one’s Saint John Paul II polemics carried on in the
own life… media, is opposed to eccle-
sial communion and to a correct understanding of
“When it is a matter of the moral norms pro- the hierarchical constitution of the people of God.”
hibiting intrinsic evil, there are no privileges or ex-
ceptions for anyone. It makes no difference whether At the Sunday Angelus on October 3, 1993, Pope
one is the master of the world or the ‘poorest of the Saint John Paul II spoke to the faithful about his new
poor’ on the face of the earth. Before the demands Encyclical, Veritatis Splendor:
of morality, we are all absolutely equal... Civil au- “When the Church speaks, she does so because
thorities and particular individuals never have au- she feels she ‘owes’ it, on the one hand, to human
thority to violate the fundamental and inalienable beings who are often disoriented because of so
rights of the human person.” many discordant voices, and on the other hand, to
Even if one knows what is good, one does not the truth, first addressed to the Church herself, be-
always do it. Ever since the fall of our first parents, fore she comes to proclaim it. Placed at the service
Adam and Eve, we bear on our souls the stain of ori- of God’s Word, it would not be all right for her to
ginal sin, and because of this we are tempted to do keep it hidden or to manipulate it in order to com-
evil. That is why God offers to us the help of His grace ply with passing trends. A Church who indulges in
in order to overcome temptations. And should it hap- this logic would no longer be the ‘faithful bride’ of
pen that we fall into sin, God gives us the grace to get Christ!
up again through the Sacrament of Penance. “The Church speaks to consciences and appeals
to the responsible freedom of believers. I am con-
Not a democracy fident that this proper ecclesial service will be ac-

Even if the majority of Catholics should be in favor cepted by the faithful the world over, and that they
of abortion or artificial birth control (the pill, etc.), it will promptly and sincerely adhere to it...” v
would not change a thing, because the fact remains

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