Anathema

...there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. (Galatians i, 7-9)

The Archbishop of Malta and the Bishop of Gozo have issued a scandalous document which pretends to authorise vile deviations from the moral law. They even dare to assert that living in actual adultery may be acceptable, even somehow necessary (!), and compatible with receiving Holy Communion, to be judged by such adulterers themselves according to the imagined criterion of feeling at peace with God (how blasphemous). 

To thus lead astray their flocks, by having their priests teach such sinful lies from the pulpit (one hopes they were disobeyed), is to put their own souls at grave risk of damnation. Such men are unworthy of the episcopate. I am outraged by their actions!

As the Apostle sadly wrote to the Church at Corinth: “there are schisms among you; and in part I believe it. For there must be also heresies”, that those who are faithful may be distinguished from the unfaithful (1 Cor. xi, 18f). A simple consideration of the Scriptures, the unbroken teachings of the Church, the Catechism, the Code of Canon Law, all indicate quite clearly where the distinctions lie.

St Paul had earlier reminded those Corinthians, and, through them, all Christians in all ages (for the deposit of faith cannot change): “Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers… shall possess the kingdom of God. … Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. Or know you not, that he who is joined to a harlot, is made one body? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.” (I Cor. vi, 9. 10. 15-16) 

Adultery, fornication and all other such sins are devilish distortions of the true good of marriage, whereby two become one in truth. In sacramental marriage, two are united in one indissoluble bond in Christ; in adulterous unions, this is mocked. But God is not mocked.

God forbid that the members of Christ be united to the members of a harlot! Yet that is what the reception, unworthily and damnably, of Holy Communion by an unrepentant adulterer signifies. No wonder that the Apostle to the Gentiles had solemnly to warn that “whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord… he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself” (I Cor. xi, 27 & 29).

If those bishops cared for sinners, really cared about their souls, they would advise them to “Fly fornication”, that they might repent, and live, and receive the Blessed Sacrament worthily, to their endless comfort.

St Paul was bitten by a snake in Malta, after being shipwrecked there; the Scriptures thus prophesy concerning the abysmal state of the Church in that unhappy island.

The Council of Trent infallibly taught that “If anyone says that the commandments of God are, even for one that is justified and constituted in grace, impossible to observe, let him be anathema.” Yet the Maltese bishops have dared to assert the opposite!

To quote Cardinal Brandmüller: “Whoever thinks that persistent adultery and the reception of Holy Communion are compatible is a heretic and promotes schism.”

Anathema!