By David Martin ——Bio and Archives--February 1, 2020
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What we have suspected all along is now confirmed. Leaked documents reveal that Pope Francis' forthcoming Apostolic Exhortation of the Amazonian Synod is an attempt to open the door to married priests in the Catholic Church.
According to a late-breaking story from LifeSiteNews, "Pope Francis' post-synodal exhortation of the Amazon Synod will abolish celibacy, according to several bishops who have leaked the document." (LifeSiteNews, January 31, 2020)
The article states: "According to documents obtained by Corrispondenza Romana, the apostolic exhortation, due for release in February, reproduces verbatim a paragraph dedicated to priestly celibacy in the synod's final document."
In a clear break from Church teaching, the exhortation says:
"We know that this discipline [of priestly celibacy] 'is not demanded by the very nature of the priesthood.'" Going on it says: "We propose that criteria and dispositions be established by the competent authority, within the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain as priests suitable and respected men of the community with a legitimately constituted and stable family."
Professor Roberto de Mattei, who received the leaked documents from "several bishops," says, "There is no reason to prohibit in other regions of the world what will be permitted in some parts of the Amazon."
This in fact has been the plan from the beginning, i.e. to use the Amazon as a trial balloon. The ploy was to first sanction married priests in the Amazon region so that other areas of the Church 'deprived' of this dispensation could then cry "discrimination" and clamor for married priests, whereupon the Vatican would concede to their wishes with the justification that the plan thus far had been "successful" in the Amazon.
In a concerted attempt to rebut this insidious effort to open the door to married priests, Cardinal Robert Sarah and Benedict XVI recently co-authored a new book, titled From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, in which the two staunchly defend the Church's 2000-year prohibition of married priests.
Therein, Benedict XVI says:
"The ability to renounce marriage in order to place oneself totally at the Lord's disposal is a criterion for the priestly ministry. As for the concrete form of celibacy in the ancient Church, it should also be pointed out that married men could only receive the sacrament of Holy Orders if they had committed themselves to sexual abstinence."
This echoes what Benedict said in his 2007 post-apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis:
"In union with the great ecclesial Tradition ... and my Predecessors in the Petrine Ministry, I affirm the beauty and the importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as an expressive sign of total and exclusive dedication to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and consequently confirm its obligatory character for the Latin tradition" (n. 24)."
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In a recent interview on the new book, Cardinal Robert Sarah says:
"Priestly celibacy is not a simple canonical discipline. If the law of celibacy is weakened, even for a single region, it will open a breach, a wound in the mystery of the Church. There is an ontological-sacramental link between the priesthood and celibacy. This link reminds us that the Church is a mystery, a gift from God that does not belong to us. We cannot create a priesthood for married men without damaging the priesthood of Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church."
Celibacy indeed is an integral part of the priesthood, for which reason it has always been mandatory. Being a priest requires that one be able to serve Christ with unretained freedom, which isn't possible if he is bound by carnal affections.
In the new book, Benedict XVI reminds us that the renunciation of all things is a criterion for entering the priesthood, which is in keeping with Christ's teaching: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)
Unfortunately, a pagan infested Vatican has been having misfits over the new book, alleging that it opposes Pope Francis by raising the "specter of a parallel magisterium," when in fact the book upholds the true Magisterium against Francis' counter-magisterium. According to Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Cardinal Sarah's intervention in getting this book published "has provoked, so to speak, the anger of hell."
Obviously, Sarah and Benedict are doing something right so we pray that they continue with ever more constancy to uphold their new book for the greater liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother the Church.
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David Martin is the former moderator for St. Michaels Radio which is the one radio program of our time specializing in Catholic prophecy. He has also authored numerous articles on the Church and the Papacy which have appeared on various blogs and websites.
David presently resides in Los Angeles, California where for thirty years he has coordinated a Catholic ministry. He is a daily communicant in his parish church and strongly supports Benedict XVI’s aspiration to see the Traditional Latin Mass returned to every Catholic parish of the world.