Our Very Own Humanae Vitae Moment

Prof. Ralph McInerny wrote a book called What Went Wrong With Vatican II? His basic point was that nothing actually went wrong with the Council. The post-conciliar chaos is really more a function of the revolt that occurred after Humanae Vitae. This is something we should pay attention to because there are rumblings of just such another revolt on the horizon.

We've mentioned before about how various parties are attempting to overthrow the Church's moral teaching via a more "pastoral" approach to the situation of the divorced/remarried Catholic. Tancred has been doing a good job keeping track of the scorecard. Despite Cardinal Muller's claims that there are no divisions on this point, I'm afraid the reality of others' statements show that he is wrong.

I can see the upcoming Synod on the Family turning very ugly on this. It will be Humanae Vitae all over again, with whackjobs running around telling the press and the laity that the Church is going to be changing its teaching and all other kinds of insanities. We might even see a formal report coming out on the side of such a change. Like with Humanae Vitae. Then a minority report written by the non-delusional. I would fully expect Pope Francis to uphold the Church's teaching on this matter.

Then all hell will break loose.

I wonder especially about guys like Cardinal Maradiaga, who has no problems taking cheap shots at Cardinal Muller (and maybe even Pope Benedict). He recently made a comment about how one could legitimately criticize the Pope as long as it's done in love. That will be how the firestorm is couched if all this comes to pass. People will "lovingly" trash Pope Francis and explain that he's just confused or misinformed or whatever. He'll just be a nice old man who doesn't understand the times. And then they will revolt and it will be Winnipeg Statements all over the world.

But all the Pope-bashing will be out of love.

Pray for the Pope and for the bishops, especially those who will be attending the Synod.