Holy Father,
In view of the Synod on the family to be held in October 2015, we filially address Your Holiness to express our fears and hopes regarding the future of the family.
Our fears arise from witnessing a decades-long sexual revolution promoted by an alliance of powerful organizations, political forces and the mass media that consistently work against the very existence of the family as the basic unit of society. Ever since the so-called May 1968 Sorbonne Revolution, a morality opposed to both Divine and natural law has been gradually and systematically imposed on us so implacably as to make it possible, for example, to teach the abhorrent “gender theory” to young children in many countries.
Catholic teaching on the Sixth Commandment of the Law of God shines like a beacon in face of this ominous ideological objective. This beacon attracts many people—overwhelmed by this hedonistic propaganda—to the chaste and fecund family model taught by the Gospel and in accordance with natural law.
Your Holiness, in light of information published on the last Synod, we note with anguish that, for millions of faithful Catholics, the beacon seems to have dimmed in face of the onslaught of lifestyles spread by anti-Christian lobbies. In fact we see widespread confusion arising from the possibility that a breach has been opened within the Church that would accept adultery—by permitting divorced and then civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion—and would virtually accept even homosexual unions when such practices are categorically condemned as being contrary to Divine and natural law.
Paradoxically, our hope stems from this confusion.
Truly, in these circumstances, a word from Your Holiness is the only way to clarify the growing confusion amongst the faithful. It would prevent the very teaching of Jesus Christ from being watered-down and would dispel the darkness looming over our children’s future should that beacon no longer light their way.
Holy Father, we implore You to say this word. We do so with a heart devoted to all that You are and represent. We do so with the certainty that Your word will never disassociate pastoral practice from the teaching bequeathed by Jesus Christ and his vicars—as this would only add to the confusion. Indeed Jesus taught us very clearly that there must be coherence between life and truth (cf. John 14:6-7); and He also warned us that the only way not to fall is to practice His doctrine. (cf. Matt. 7:24-27)
Asking for Your apostolic blessing, we assure You of our prayers to the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary and Joseph—to enlighten Your Holiness in these crucially important circumstances.
Cardinal Burke’s Appeal to All Catholics
In an age filled with confusion — as can be seen with gender theory - we need the teaching of the Church on marriage. But we are being
pushed in the opposite direction to admit divorced and remarried Catholics to the Eucharist. And this is without even mentioning the obsession to make easier the procedures to annul the marital bond….
I am therefore very worried. And I call upon all Catholics whether laymen,
priests or bishops to get involved — from now until the upcoming Synodal
(Excerpt from an interview granted in Rome to Jean-Marie Guénois - Le Figaro Magazine, 19 December 2014 issue, p. 46)
Even more people sign the petition requesting the Pope to make a solemn declaration to end the impasse
Rome, 22nd October 2015 – After delivering 790,150 signatures to the Vatican Secretariat of State on the 29th September, the Filial Appeal Association has just handed in a further 68,052 signatures requesting Pope Francis for a “clarifying word” as the “the only way to resolve the growing confusion amongst the faithful”—in regards to allowing divorced and civilly remarried couples to receive Holy Communion, as well as in regards to homosexual unions—in the certainty that these words would “never separate pastoral practice from the teaching of Jesus Christ”.
The timeliness of the request has been made evident during the course of this Synod now approaching its end. According to a recent editorial column of an American magazine well-known to be “innovating”: “Midway through the general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the family, confusion, if not chaos, reigns, to paraphrase a synod father. And in that confusion is fear, fear of uncertainty and the unknown.”
This is not surprising. Under the guise of employing very inclusive pastoral language, leading figures of the Synod strike at the root of fundamental concepts of Catholic morality such as “indissolubility” of marriage, the “intrinsically disordered nature of homosexual relations”, the classification of “adultery” for civil marriages after a divorce and even the aphorism that “one must love the sinner, but hate the sin”. Even greater confusion comes from the proposal that pastoral practice towards the divorced and civilly remarried, as well towards homosexual unions, be decentralised—something that will inevitably lead to divergence and divisions.
The coordinators of the Filial Appeal deem it to be of the utmost importance that, as has happened many times in the past, Pope Francis himself—as supreme judge of the Faith and utilising his power as successor of St. Peter—definitively decide all these matters of Faith and Morals that have come up during the Synod; and that he do so in a clear, solemn and irrevocable manner: Roma locuta, causa finita.
Personalities who have signed