by Christopher A. Ferrara
July 13, 2017
Elevated to the status of Archbishop of Malta by Pope Bergoglio in October of 2014, Charles Scicluna has done nothing effective to oppose the collapse of public morality in that once staunchly Catholic nation but rather has facilitated it, while pretending — yes, pretending — to offer opposition.
According to the resolutely “normalist” Catholic News Agency, in late 2013, when he was still an auxiliary bishop in Malta, Scicluna was reputedly “encouraged” by Pope Bergoglio to “speak out” against proposed laws by which the newly elected socialist government would legalize “same-sex unions” and adoptions by “gay” couples.
That’s a joke. Both laws passed after Scicluna and the Archdiocese offered a feeble, mealy-mouthed opposition that can be summed up in Scicluna’s own self-defeating comment to the press at the time, that Malta’s bishops have expressed their concern about the bill, “referring to Catholic doctrine that itself is clear, while insisting at the same time [on] pastoral closeness to everyone, including homosexual people.”
Even more laughable is Scicluna’s claim at the time that, as reported by Edward Pentin, during a mere “private conversation” with Scicluna, Pope Bergoglio “reiterated his view that same-sex ‘marriage’ is an ‘anthropological regression’” and that he was “saddened” by news of the proposed laws.
A private conversation about how the Pope was “saddened” by an “anthropological regression” hardly constitutes serious Church opposition to an utter abomination that cries out for divine retribution because it grants legal dignity to relations based on sodomy, including the “right” of those engaging in that abominable vice to adopt and corrupt innocent children.
Having done next to nothing to rally serious opposition to “same-sex” civil unions and “gay” adoption, Scicluna was next confronted with a move in the Maltese parliament to grant full legal status to “homosexual unions,” officially designating them as “marriages” rather than civil unions. In response, Scicluna gave a homily in which he did the Modernist two-step, appearing to oppose that which he was tacitly accepting. Quoth Scicluna:
“We can do what we like in our laws. I can decide that a carob and an orange should no longer be called by their name. We call them trees. But a carob remains a carob and an orange remains an orange, whatever the law says. And marriage, whatever the law says, remains an eternal union exclusive to a man and a woman.”
We can do what we like with our laws? Whatever the law says? Just who did Scicluna think he was kidding with this homily? No, we cannot “do what we like with our laws.” No human law can transgress God’s law, and such laws are no laws at all, as Saint Augustine famously observed. Every Catholic worthy of the name has a duty of vigorous and unequivocal opposition when confronted with attempts by legislators to defy the law of God, and also the duty of conscientious civil disobedience to all attempts to implement such laws. This has always been the teaching of the Church, and during the pontificate of John Paul II it was affirmed as Church teaching particularly in respect to any attempt to legalize or enforce “homosexual unions” or “gay marriage.”
That teaching is what the faithful Catholics of Malta were defending when they ran a full- page ad on May 21, 2017 which declared to the legislators of Malta:
“Same-sex marriage is unnatural. It runs against natural law as designed by God and handed down to us through every generation in our Maltese history….“This is why we take a stand for marriage as a union between husband and wife. If we don’t take a public stand about what marriage is, our political parties will corrupt its meaning and enforce what it shouldn’t be. The main electoral programs are glorifying sin, and no sin should be placed in the spotlight and glorified….“Don’t vote for gay marriage… Don’t compromise your faith at the altar of a diabolical political system. Call the Devil for what he truly is and embrace God instead.”
And what was Archbishop Scicluna’s response to this courageous Catholic call to action? Incredibly, he denounced it on his Archdiocesan website:
“The Archdiocese of Malta categorically states that, while respecting the right of freedom of expression of every person or any other entity, it is not in any way involved with the propaganda by the Maltese Catholics United for the Faith.”
The same notice refers Catholics to the Maltese bishops’ useless “Pastoral Letter for the General Elections 2017.” What does that letter say about the positive duty of Catholics to oppose “gay marriage” by voting against candidates for Parliament who support it? Not one word. There is only a generic call for “vot[ing] according to our conscience, which means that in front of God we recognize what is right and true, and therefore choose what is truly beneficial for the common good and for a just society.” And what is right and true regarding “gay marriage”? Scicluna’s “pastoral letter” offers not a clue.
Worse, there is also an appeal to the “spirit of dialogue, with deep respect for truth and for each other, including those persons who hold different opinions from our own.” Thus not only is there no application of Church teaching to the issue at hand — “gay marriage” — nor any instruction on how to vote in light of that teaching, but the Church’s infallible doctrine on the natural law, rooted in the will of God as expressed in the Sixth Commandment that is binding on all men, is presented as a mere opinion different from the opinion of others with whom the Church “dialogues.”
And so, on July 12, 2017, “gay marriage” became the law of Malta. Archbishop Scicluna may fool the people with his phony opposition to this abomination, but he has not fooled God. The prelate who has also imposed — literally imposed — the administration of Holy Communion to any public adulterer in Malta who persuades himself he is “at peace with God” in his adultery, will have his day of reckoning before the Judgment Seat of Christ, as every one of us will. What will he say to Our Lord when asked to give an accounting of his stewardship of the souls entrusted to his charge?
This indeed is the final battle over marriage and family of which Sister Lucia warned Cardinal Caffarra in light of the Third Secret of Fatima. And, as terrible as it is to contemplate the reality of our situation, the human element of the Church has largely either surrendered or given aid and comfort to the enemy. May God deliver His Holy Church from the grips of mere hired hands who have abandoned the flock (John 10:12) and, worse, the ravening “wolves” seen and feared by Pope Benedict XVI as he ascended to the Chair of Peter.