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<h1>Cardinal Burke on Pope’s homosexual civil union remarks: ‘contrary to the teaching of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition’</h1>
<a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/cardinal-burke-on-popes-homosexual-civil-union-remarks-contrary-to-the-teaching-of-sacred-scripture-and-sacred-tradition?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=standard" target="_blank">https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/cardinal-burke-on-popes-homosexual-civil-union-remarks-contrary-to-the-teaching-of-sacred-scripture-and-sacred-tradition?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=standard</a></div><div><br></div><div>
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<b><span>By Cardinal Raymond Burke</span></b></div></div>
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<p>The worldwide communications media have
reported with strong emphasis, as a change of course, the news that <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Pope
Francis <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">has declared </span></b><b><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">that </span>persons in the homosexual condition, as
children of God, “have a right to have a family” and that “no one should
be thrown out or be made unhappy because of it.”</b></span> Moreover, they write
that he has declared: “What we have to create is a civil union. In this
way they will be legally covered. I have defended this.” The
declarations were made in an interview with Evgeny Afineevsky, director
of a documentary, “Francesco,” premiered on October 21, 2020, on the
occasion of the Rome Film Festival (<i>Festa del Film di Roma</i>).</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Such declarations generate great bewilderment and cause confusion and
error among </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Catholic faithful</b></span>, i<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>nasmuch as they are contrary to </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the
teaching of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and of the recent
Magisterium by which the Church guards, protects and interprets the
whole deposit of faith </b></span>contained in Sacred Scripture and Sacred
Tradition. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>They cause </b></span>wonderment and <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>error regarding</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> the Church’s
teaching </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>among</b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> people of good will, who sincerely wish to know what the
Catholic Church teaches. </b></span></span>They impose upon pastors of souls the duty of
conscience to make fitting and necessary clarifications.</p>
<p>First of all,<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> the context and the occasion of such declarations make
them devoid of any <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">magisterial weight.</span></b></span> They are rightly interpreted as
simple private opinions of the person who made them. These declarations
do not bind, in any manner, the consciences of <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the faithful </b></span>who<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> are
rather obliged to adhere with religious submission to what Sacred
Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and the ordinary Magisterium of the
Church teach</b></span> on the matter in question. In particular, the following are
to be noted.</p><p>
</p><p>1. “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> homosexual acts
as acts of grave depravity,</b></span> Tradition has always declared that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>
“homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">(</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i>, no. 2357</b></span>; Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, <i>Persona humana</i>,
“Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, no.
VIII[1]), inasmuch as they are contrary to the natural law, closed to
the gift of life and void of a true affective and sexual
complementarity. Therefore, they cannot be approved.</p>
<p>2. The particular and sometimes deep-seated tendencies of persons,
men and women, in the homosexual condition, which are for them a trial,
although they may not in themselves constitute a sin, represent
nonetheless an objectively disordered inclination (<i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i>, no. 2358; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, <i>Homosexualitatis problema</i>,
“Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of
Homosexual Persons,” no. 3[2]). They are, therefore, to be received with
respect, compassion and sensitivity, avoiding any unjust
discrimination. The Catholic faith teaches the faithful to hate sin but
to love the sinner.</p>
<p>3. <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">The faithful, and, in particular, Catholic politicians are held to
oppose</span> </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the legal recognition of homosexual unions</b></span> (<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals To Give Legal
Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons, <i>Diverse questioni concernenti l’omosessualità</i>,
n. 10[3]</b></span>).<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> The right to form a family is not<span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"> a private right to
vindicate</span> but must correspond to the plan of the Creator Who has willed
the human being in sexual difference, “male and female He created them”
(Gen 1, 27), thus calling man, male and female, to the transmission of
life.</b></span> “Because married couples ensure the succession of generations and
are therefore eminently within the public interest, civil law grants
them institutional recognition. Homosexual unions, on the other hand, do
not need specific attention from the legal standpoint since they do not
exercise this function for the common good.” (<i>Ibidem,</i> no.
9[4]). <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>To speak of a homosexual union, in the same sense as t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">he conjugal
union of the married,</span> is, in fact, profoundly misleading, </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>because there
can be no <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">such union between </span>persons <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">of the same sex.</span> </b></span>In what regards
the administration of justice, persons in the homosexual condition, as
all citizens, can always make use of the provisions of law to safeguard
their private rights.</p>
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</div><span>I</span><span></span>t is a source of deepest sadness and pressing pastoral concern that
the private opinions reported with so much emphasis by the press and
attributed to Pope Francis do not correspond to the constant teaching of
the Church, as it is expressed in Sacred Scripture and Sacred
Tradition, and is guarded, protected and interpreted by the Magisterium.
Equally sad and concerning is the turmoil, confusion, and error they
cause among the Catholic faithful, as is <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the scandal they cause, in
general, by giving the totally false impression that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Catholic Church</span>
has had a change of course</b></span>, that is, has changed its perennial teaching
regarding such fundamental and critical questions.</form></div></div>
<p><i>Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke<br>
Rome, October 22, 2020</i></p>
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