The Twin Threats We Face
In this editorial we can do no better than quote from the intervention of His Eminence Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Guinea-born prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, to the Synod of Bishops in Rome on October 14 last year. He told the bishops they should respond to the twin threats of Western and Islamic radicals by helping the world realize the beauty of the Christian family.
"To use a slogan, we find ourselves between 'gender ideology and ISIS.' Islamic massacres and libertarian demands regularly contend for the front page of the newspapers, from these two radicalizations arise the two major threats to the family."
He compared the twin challenges of "the idolatry of Western freedom and Islamic fundamentalism to two apocalyptic beasts. We need to be inclusive and welcoming to all that is human; but what comes from the Enemy cannot and must not be assimilated," the Cardinal advised. "You cannot join Christ and Belial! What fascism and communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism are today."
Cardinal Sarah says the Christian family counters both
Islamic and Western extremism. He hoped the synod would
help Pope Francis "enunciate clearly truths and real guidance
on a global level." He especially advocated that the
Church promote the "epiphany of the family. We must proclaim
the truth without fear, stressing God's plan for the
family as monogamous, conjugal love that is open to life.
Together with a strong and clear word of the Supreme
Magisterium, pastors have the mission of helping our contemporaries
to discover the beauty of the Christian family."
In Cardinal Sarah's judgment, the family in the West faces "subjectivist disintegration" through easy divorce, abortion, homosexual unions, and euthanasia. He specified the threats of the gender theory, the LGBT lobby, International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the radical feminist group Femen.
The day before Cardinal Sarah's intervention a violent mob of topless pro-abort feminists assaulted a group of young men who stood praying outside the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Cecilia in Mar de Plata, Argentina, and also tried to burn down the Cathedral.
Cardinal Sarah also criticized "the pseudo-family of radical Islam" which he said legitimizes polygamy, female subservience, sexual slavery, and child marriage. He named as threats Boko Haram, the Islamic State, and Al-Qaeda.
For Cardinal Sarah, the Spirit of Truth promotes "communion in distinction" (perichoresis). By contrast, these negative global trends encourage confusion about marriage. Furthermore, they demand a universal and totalitarian rule, are violently intolerant, destroyers of families, society and the Church, and are openly Christianophobic". The Cardinal warned against "giving up hope in the transforming power of faith and the Gospel. The Gospel that once transformed cultures is now in danger of being transformed by them." His warning is such that no one who will have read or heard it will be able to claim that they did not realize what was happening and how they must respond.