Progressivism, Marriage and Babies

Morals

Marriage, Babies and Progressivism

Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.

"I want someone, walking with me through a sea of grass, who would point out a little mimosa flower in the distance which I was going to point out to him" (1).

So speaketh maidens everywhere, echoed by their male counterparts everywhere, who hope for a someone that will fulfill a marriage made in heaven. Looking at the overall divorce rate (delusively termed annulments in the Church), the evidence is overwhelming that most marriages aren't made in heaven. Or, if they were, heaven's matchmaking was rejected. The path to this little flower can only be reached through the narrow gate of grace, "and few there are who find it" (Matt. 7: 14).

Most people don't possess the heroism to lead a celibate life. Christian marriage, however, carries in it a power similar to that behind virginity, which is renunciation made possible by faith. The trials of Christian marriage and Christian virginity can only be tempered by prayer and the Sacraments. Only through dedication to Our Lord and Our Lady can the daily rejuvenation of vows happen.

Many marriages wrongly begin with high dreams of romance and fulfillment

Mutatis mutandis, once the matrimonial drink has been imbibed, and the wine of God's sacramental favor gives joy, there is a taste of "eternity in the garments of time"(2). Heaven waits for new lovers to taste of God's banquet, and experience what Shakespeare called "the very ecstasy of love" (3). But love is for giving, first to God and His will to be fruitful in marriage, secondly, giving of self, not fifty-fifty, but 100% each to the other. Alas, today the opposite takes place, where even those with sizable assets reject increases in offspring.

King Lear, shocked at his daughter Goneril’s ingratitude, invokes nature as a force to make her childless.

"Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear!
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend
To make this creature fruitful!
Into her womb convey sterility!
Dry up in her the organs of increase;
And from her derogate body never spring
A babe to honor her" (4).

How many Catholics disgrace their sacred marriage vows today, by embracing the above prayer to nature! But today it isn't necessary to invoke nature to violate the purpose of her Author. If one does not want children, he prevents them by artificial means or kills them in the womb. The disgusting Manicheans were known to spit at the feet of a pregnant woman, but they were amateurs. Thanks to black technology and the killing machine of abortion, many of today's American women have become trans-feminized beasts. They have killed eighty million of their offspring since the black-robed decision of 1973.

"Increase and multiply." (Gen. 1: 28) That and the following Old Testament rebuke should be bellowed by priests from the pulpit, "Do you want to know over whom the Devil has power? It is over those who go at marriage like the horse and the mule" (Tob. 6: 16-17).

Unfortunately, the message of Humanae vitae stops short of this injunction. Instead of actively promoting fruitfulness, the encyclical delivers a politically correct passive message about marital responsibility (5). The papal advisory commission even found birth to be a problem, and this in its very title, "'Papal Commission for the Study of Problems of the Family, Population and Birth Rate;' they are no longer bona, that is, “good things” (6).

As John Galvin writes in an article “Humanae vitae: Heroic, Deficient – or Both?”:

"Humanae vitae step by step builds a case for birth control. First it discusses the ‘serious difficulties’ of population, conceding the argument to the population control advocates. Then it speaks of ‘responsible parenthood,’ commending a decision to ‘avoid new births’ (7).

In any discussion about Humanae vitae, he correctly notes that a singular fact is never doubted.

Paul VI's Humanae vitae commends 'responsible parenthood' that 'avoids new births'

“The encyclical has absolutely failed in its mission to teach and to persuade Catholics. Statistics show that contraceptive usage is ubiquitous. Widely available data indicate only five percent of women of childbearing years are refraining entirely from the use of artificial contraceptives” (8).

The reason for this is the deficiency of solid Catholic teaching in Humanae vitae (unlike all previous documents on the subject). They are five in number.

Missing references to Scripture,
Missing references to Tradition,
Missing references to the Magisterium,
Reliance on consequentialist Philosophy,
Reliance on personalist Phenomenology (9).

One can wonder that a parish priest of today can "expect that about 97% to 99% of his newlyweds will be using unnatural methods of birth control" (10). Progressivist Bishops insure this marital mortal sin remains entrenched. By following the Vatican guidelines of dialogue, this takes no effort. In the official history of a California Diocese that I know, the Bishop "urged" the laity to accept Humanae vitae. Nevertheless, he allowed a counter-comment that while the Catholic conscience "cannot ignore" the encyclical, in the final analysis "the individual conscience is the last word" (11).

Qui tacet, consentire videtur, He who remains silent consents. Behold the heresy of Progressivism and the channels through which it operates. If you want to keep the people living in the state of mortal sin for using artificial birth control, be silent. This is passive Progressivism, notoriously present in legions of parish Sunday homilies. If you want them to remain in mortal sin, tell them to make their own decision, which presupposes subjective Morals. This is active Progressivism.

Emperor Leopold II, his wife Maria Ludovica, and 8 of their 16 children

In Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor spoke of something that should be broadcast to today's Catholic Hierarchy, top to the bottom. The Antichrist will invert the Sermon on the Mount. Instead of seeking first God's Kingdom, it behooves modern mankind to reorder priorities. First comes the wherewithal for modern economic security, next comes Our Lord's command. Here, then, is a mark of the progressivist spirit.

When it comes to marriage and babies, look first to what it is going to cost you. If you "increase and multiply," won't your worries likewise increase, while pari passu your saving's account decreases? The progressivist clergy has created mindsets such as, "My confessor told me that: ‘The individual decision is the last word,' and mine calls for family `responsibility.' Vatican II finally brought us out of the an era of moral oppression into the age of progress."

At the Cana Conference of Chicago in 1957, when Catholics were taught the truth clearly and simply about God's plan for marriage. It was stated,

"Happiness and success in marriage can result only from the fulfillment of God's plan in establishing marriage. We want to know, therefore, what God intended when He created man `male and female,' and blessed marriage as the union of `two in one flesh,' saying, `increase and multiply (12).

Clarity existed then, just as silence, deliberate ambiguities, and shameless lies exist today. May Our Lady recruit more warriors to fight the "dirty war" (13) of progressivism and end this sewage that pollutes souls, steaming from the worst heresy in History.

1. Tad Tuleja, Quirky Quotations, NY: Galahad Books, 1992, p. 17.
2. Fulton J. Sheen, Three to Get Married, NY: Apleton-Century-Crofts, 1951, p. 307.
3. Ibid, p. 33.
4. Shakespeare, King Lear, Act One.
5. John Galvin "Humanae Vitae: Heroic, Deficient – or Both?", Latin Mass magazine, Winter 2002, p. 10.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid, p. 7.
9. Ibid, pp. 11-14.
10. Catholic Family News, January 2006, p. 11.
11. Jeffrey M. Burns & Mary Carmen Batiza, We Are the Church: A History of the Diocese of Oakland, France: Editions du Signe, 2001, 67.
12. "Beginning Your Marriage." apud John Galvin, op. cit., p. 16.
13. See "Has the Pope Forgotten What Communism Is?" posted on TIA site 7-19-07.

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Posted August 24, 2007

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