"SYNOD OF BISHOPS 2015 " HAS NO SUCH POWER TO DEAL OR NO SUCH POWER TO INTERPRET THE SCRIPTURE OR NO SUCH POWER TO REDEFINE THAT THE DIVORCED, REMARRIED AND LIVING-TOGETHER/CO-HABITATION PARTNERS AND CIVIL UNION /GAY MARRIAGE PERSONS ARE TO BE PERMITTED TO RECEIVE THE HOLY COMMUNION IS CONTRARY TO THE SCRIPTURE, TRADITION AND WILL OF GOD.

April 27, 2015

From

        G.ALEX BENZIGER

        Advocate

          No.123, Addl. Law Chambers,

          High Court Buildings,

          Chennai-600 104

          South India

          alexbenziger@aol.com

          alexbenziger@gmail.com

To                                                                        

1.   HIS EMINENCE GERHARD LUDWIG CARDINAL MÜLLER
Prefect for The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11
00193 Rome ,  Italy.
email: cdf@cfaith.va

2.   HIS EMINENCE LORENZO CARDINAL BALDISSERI
Secretary General, Synod of Bishops
Palazzo del Bramante
Via della Conciliazione, 34
00193 Roma, Italy.

      THROUGH

3.   HIS GRACE SALVATORE PENNACCHIO,

     Apostolic Nunciature in India

          No.50-C, Niti Marg,

          Chanakyapuri,

          New Delhi-110 021.

          E-mail: nuntius@apostolicnunciatureindia.com

May it please Your Eminence,

      Sub : Request/Proposal on the “Synod of Bishops 2015”-Reg.

1. I am a practicing advocate in the High Court of Judicature at Madras, South India, with 30 years of bar experience. I am a Roman Catholic Christian by birth and living according to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Tradition of the Catholic Church. Our forefathers were converted into Christianity 300 years before. I am hailing from Kanyakumari District, which is situated at the Southern tip of India. I am belonging to the suppressed community in the Travancore Kingdom. The Travancore Kingdom was established in 1729 and ruled till 1949. The Travancore Kingdom was merged with India after two years of its independence from the British Government. Our family has the genealogy from 1754 onwards till date. (www.maravankudieruppu.com/genealogy.html).     

2. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child requested that the Holy See has to change the teaching of the Catholic Church in respect of abortion, contraception, homosexuality and gay marriage. Wherein, I as a Catholic layman wrote a letter dated Feb 20, 2014 to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that the subject matter is teaching according to the Holy Scripture. It is the WILL of God, and therefore, no one even the Catholic Church has the right to change or alter or modify anything against the teaching of the Holy Scripture.

3. I have also written another letter dated May 31, 2014 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in respect to the ‘Concluding Observations’ made by the ‘Committee Against Torture’ at its meetings held on 21^st and 22^nd May 2014.

4. The III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, held in 2014 to treat the topic, ‘The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the context of Evangelization’. His Holiness Pope Francis decided to make public the “Relatio Synodi” the document which concluded the Synod’s work. At the same time, the Holy Father indicated that this document would be the “Lineamenta for the “XIV Ordinary General Assembly” to take place from October 4^th to 25^th, 2015. To treat the Topic, “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World” herein after referred to as “Synod of Bishops 2015”.

The discussions are found in the following three parts :

A)       Listening - so as to look at the reality of the family today in all its complexities, both lights and shadows.

B)        Looking -our gaze is fixed on Christ to ponder,with renewed freshness and enthusiasm, what revelation, transmitted in the Church’s faith, tells us about the beauty, the role of the dignity of the family; and

C)          Confronting - the situation with an eye on the Lord Jesus, to discern the ways in which the Church and society can renew their commitment to the family founded upon the marriage between a man and a woman.

     5. The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi states that anyone who has “any request or proposal on the Synod can naturally submit it”.

Therefore, I am submitting this proposal to the

 “Synod of Bishops 2015”

A.  REALITY OF THE FAMILY:

                                       (Paragraph 6 to 9)

6. Today in the materialistic world morality and natural orders are collapsing. Therefore family set up is also collapsing. It originated from Western Countries. In the Western Countries, marriages takes place between country to country, language to language, religion to religion, so no one is responsible for any one or anybody and any one can marry anybody no tradition, no love and no morality. Therefore, the family set up is lost its credentials in some places, now it is spreading other parts of the world. In pursuant of this thousands of children in the world do not have legal parents. Presently children are growing up without morality. They are rising under whose guidance, who is going to teach moral law? Majority of the people do not to take the responsibility to lead a family. That is why in the United States, “Single Americans make up more than half of the adult population” (Chicago Tribune, Sept.10, 2014). It is pathetic. Where the world is going? Are we civilized? Some crooked persons are trying to demoralize the whole system and it leads to the destruction of moral and natural order systematically in a planed manner.

7. Homo-sexuality is a sexual perversion and it is in no way natural. The Western World has been pushing for the approval of abnormal deviant sexual practices as alternative life style. Homosexuality is a private affair; legalizing gay marriage would leave society destroyed because the family is the basic cell of human society. Further, Article 16 (i) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, state that men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality, or religion, have the right to marry and found a family”. Further the Article 16(iii) states that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and State”.

8. St. Monica, the Patron of Mothers, was match-made at the age of twenty-one to a man twice her age Patricius. They were opposites. Her husband was a pagan, a violent, immoral, unscrupulous brute. He was unfaithful from the night of their wedding. Monica on the other hand was sweet, unselfish, faithful, and pure. Although she endured insurmountable trials from her husband, she stuck with him seeing beyond his abusive exterior to a good heart that she hoped to conquer by her faith, patience, and prayers. Their turbulent marriage lasted twenty years in which they begot three children, all canonized saints but not without a battle. One of their sons was Saint Augustine. Monica did not give up, and in the end her ocean of tears brought the mercy of God to the family.

9. The Lord God also wants the same sacrifice in the family of daily affairs. Jesus saith to him “I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times (Mt.18:22)”. The pardoning is limitless or countless.

Therefore the family life is sacrificial in nature. This must be the reality of the family.

B.  REVELATION TRANSMITTED IN THE CHURCH’S FAITH:

                                                                                                 (Paragraph 10 to 15)

10. The world is facing some sexual perversions, sexual lustfulness of some of the persons joined together and they are trying to inject their idea to others, which are as follows:

i)             Adultery/polyamory

ii)           Polyandry /polygamy /bigamy

iii)          Homo sex /gay marriage /civil union

iv)          Living together /co-habitation

These types of sexual perversions are not only in the present world but also seen in the Old Testaments and New Testaments.

11. I am quoting these types of sexual perversions from the Old Testament, that is:

i). Adultery (Leviticus. 20:10):

Further “If any man commit adultery with the wife of another, and defile his neighbour’s wife, let them be put to death, both the adulterer and the adulteress”.

ii). a. Polyandry (Ecclesiasticus.9: 9 -10):

“For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled as a fire. Every woman that is a harlot, shall be trodden upon as dung in the way”

     b. (Ecclesiasticus. 23: 32-33):

“So every woman also that leaveth her husband and bringeth in an heir by another. For first she hath been unfaithful to the law of the Most High and secondly, she hath offended against her husband; thirdly, she hath fornicated in adultery, and hath gotten her children of another man”.

iii. Polyamory (Wisdom. 14:26):

“Forgetfulness of God, defiling of souls, changing of nature, disorder in marriage and the irregularity of adultery and uncleanness”.

iv. Homo-sex /Civil Union (Leviticus. 20:13):

If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination, let them be put to death; their blood be upon them”.

12. Again these sexual perversions are also having seen in the New Testament, that is:

a). Adultery: (Mt. 5: 27-28):

“You have learnt how it was said; You must not commit adultery (Ex.20:14). But I say this is to you: if a man looks at a woman lust fully, he was already committed adultery with her in his heart”

b). (Mt.5:31-32; Lk.16,18):

“It has also been said: Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal (Dt.24:1). But I say this to you everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, makes her adulteress and anyone who marries divorced women commit adultery”.

c). Polyandry: (Jn.4:16-19):

          Jesus said to her: “Thou hast said well, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands: and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly”.

d). Co-habitation/living-together: (2 Peter 2:10):

“And especially them who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, audacious, self willed they fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming”.

e). Homo-sex/lesbianism (Rom.1: 26-27):

“And for this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their woman have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in the like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the woman, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error”.

13. Sin is an offence and it is against God. What is sin? The Oxford Dictionary defines that breaking of God’s laws: behavior that is against the principles of morality. Further it explains seven deadly sins, that is, pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. Therefore whatever committed the above said sins are against God. Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. The first sin that is the original sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God, by the first parents of the Humanity.

14. St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, has explained that we are saved by grace, not by observing the law, Christ died for us. This does not give us permission to sin rather we should serve God by being slaves to righteousness. St. Paul clarifies the relationship between law and sin in Rom. Chapter 7.

15. St.Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274AD) who was the greatest medieval Catholic Theologian distinguished from types of law, that is (i) Eternal Law: (the justice of God, which is almost identical with His reason), (ii) Divine Law: (God’s overt revelations of His Will), (iii) Natural Law: (the eternal law implanted by God in nature and in the human mind) and (iv) Human Law: (derived from Natural Law). 2000 years ago the Roman writer and politician Cicero in his book “Laws” (I,10) : defined as follows: “There is in fact a true law, namely, right reason which is in accordance with nature, applies to all men, and is unchangeable and eternal…….. It will not lay down one rule at Rome and another at Athens, or it will be one rule today and another tomorrow. But there will be one law, eternal and unchangeable, binding at all times upon all peoples ; and there will be, as it were, one common master and ruler of men, namely God, who is the author of this law, its interpreter  and its sponsor”. Lord God gave the Ten Commandments to the people through Moses (Exodus.20:1-17). These Commandments of Law is eternal, it applies to every country, every religion, so no one cannot corner this law. It applies for ever and ever.

Therefore revelation transmitted in the Church is very clear that no one go against the Ten Commandments, the eternal law.

C.  THE DOCTRINAL POSITION OF THE CHURCH IN RESPECT OF MARRIAGE BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN:

                                                                                  (Paragraph 16 to 22)

16. Marriage and family have been inscribed by the Divine Architect in the order of creation. Marriage is ontologically between one man and one woman, ordered toward the union of the spouses, open to children and formation of family. Family is the first vital cell of the society; the first church, first school, first hospital, first economy, first government and first mediating institution of our social order. The future of a free and healthy society passes through marriage and the Family. St. Paul writes: “However, though woman cannot do without man, neither can man do without woman, in the Lord: woman may come from man but man is born of woman both come from God (1 Cor. 11: 11-12)”.

17. Some Pharisees approached Him (Jesus Christ) and to test him they asked: Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever? He answered, “Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide”. (Mathew 19: 1-9)

Now, let us examine some of the early Councils of the Roman Catholic Church:

18. The Council of Basel, convened by His Holiness Pope Eugene IV between July 25, 1431 AD and May 7, 1437 AD wherein, the Holy Council has declared and defined the marriage as follows:
“The seventh is the sacrament of matrimony, which is a sign of the union of Christ and the Church according to the words of the Apostle: This sacrament is a great one, but I speak in Christ and in the Church. The efficient cause of matrimony is usually mutual consent expressed in words about the present. A threefold good is attributed to matrimony. The first is the procreation and bringing up of children for the worship of God. The second is the mutual faithfulness of the spouses towards each other. The third is the indissolubility of marriage, since it signifies the indivisible union of Christ and the Church”. Further, the Lord God has said to Adam: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth”. (Gen:1: 28) Therefore the intention of the Lord God is clear, that is, increase and multiply and fill the earth.

19. The Council of Trent under the Pope Pius IV decreed on November 11, 1563 under the title “Doctrine of the Sacrament of Matrimony” defined as follows:  therefore matrimony, in the evangelical law, excels in grace, through Christ, the ancient marriages, with reason have our Holy Fathers, the councils and the tradition of the universal church, always taught that it is to re numbered amongst the sacraments of the new law; against which, impious men of this age raging have not only had false notions touching this venerable sacraments by decreeing against the said heretics and their errors the following anathemas:

Canon I: If any one saith, that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evangelic law, (a sacrament) instituted by Christ the Lord; but that it is has been invented by men in the Church and that it does not confer grace; let him be anathema.

Canon II: If any one saith, that it is lawful for Christians to have several wives at the same time, and that this is not prohibited by any divine law; let him be anathema.

Canon V: If any one saith, that on account of heresy, or irksome cohabitation, or the affected absence of one of the parties, the bond of matrimony may be dissolved; let him be anathema.

Canon VII: If any one saith, that the Church has erred, in that she hath taught  and doth teach, in accordance with the evangelical and apostolic doctrine, that the bond of matrimony cannot be dissolved on account of the adultery of one of the married parties, and that both, or even the innocent one who gave not occasion to the adultery, cannot contract another marriage , during the life-time of the other ; and, that he is guilty of adultery, who, having put away the adulteress, shall take another wife, as also she, who having put away the adulterer, shall take another husband; let him be anathema.

Canon VIII: If any one saith, that the Church  errs in that she declares that, for many causes, a separation may take place between husband and wife, in regard of bed, or in regard of cohabitation, for a determinate or for an indeterminate period; let him be anathema.

Canon X: If any one saith that the marriage state is to be placed above the state of virginity, or of celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity, or in celibacy, than to be united in matrimony; let him be anathema.

Canon XII: If any one saith, that matrimonial causes do not belong to ecclesiastical judges; let him be anathema.

20. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostles and Prophets already told the people the gravity of sin arising out of sexuality/marriage and the people must always live in holiness.

21. God doesn’t tell us that He wants us to be holy as he likes or that we can make ourselves holy, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written: “you shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1: 15-16) and God through Moses tells the children of Israel that they must “Be holy because, I the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev.19:2). Therefore the people must be holy in all respect.

22. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to be follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it (Mt. 16:24-25)”. We have seen that St. John the Baptist bears witness to his fidelity to the Commandments of God by shedding his blood for defending the marriage between one man and one woman. St. Thomas More also defended the marriage between one man and one woman and hence he was condemned by the King Henry VIII. Consequently King Henry VIII was excommunicated.

Therefore, the marriage between one man and one woman is answered as it is defined by Lord God Himself.

23. The Secretary General of the “Synod of Bishops 2015” His Eminence Cardinal Baldisseri called for Catholic lay movements to help suggest solutions to the issue facing family life in the modern world, and to care for those families which are broken or wounded.

24. The request made by the Cardinal is a facetious. This calling for is highly objectionable, for can a doctrine be decided by vote? Can the teaching of the Holy Scripture be decided by voice? It is highly antithetic and atheistic.

25. Whatever may be the doctrinal position of the Church in respect of marriage between one man and one woman, it is now perverted and the sexual pleasure is the sole purpose, everybody  live according to their convenience, that is why the family is broken, consequently, its effects are divorce, polygamy, polyandry and civil union. But these sexual perversions and the sexual lust exist in the world from time immemorial. We see this in the Holy Bible already narrated.

26. Now the question is whether persons who divorcee and remarried and living together, co-habitation and civil union could be permitted to receive Holy Communion or not.

27. St. Paul categorically made it clear “That is for the married I have something to say, and this is not from me but from the Lord: a wife must not leave her husband - or if she does leave him, she must either remain unmarried or else make it up with her husband - nor must a husband send his wife away.” (1 Cor. 7:10-11) Again “if you are tied to a wife, do not look, for freedom, if you are free of a wife then do not look for one” (1Cor: 7: 27). Further St. Paul writes: “A wife is tied as long as her husband is alive. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anybody she likes; only it must be in the Lord.” (1Cor. 7: 39)

28.Our Lord Jesus Christ said that “But I say this to you everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, makes her adulteress and any one who marries a divorced woman commit adultery (Mt.5:31-32)”. According to this, a divorced person marrying another one or a man or a woman in continuous adulterous life or living a sexual life is a continuous sin. There is no reparation. Where the continuing moral life is a must, it may be plausible to say that the continuing failure of morality, it gives rise to a series of a continuous sin, while the failure is continuous. This is because breach of morality accrues upon breach and it seems artificial and unacceptable to say that in the case of continuing failure to live in the state of morality is possible without sin of lust.

29. You can’t do whatever you like and then ask for forgiveness because you’re not repenting when you ask for forgiveness. If your repentance isn’t sincere God might tell you: “In fact, if you want to continue in your sin without listening to the warnings of the Holy Spirit you may as well call yourself a pagan.” No one who has been borne of God continues in sin (1Jn.3: 5-6). Continuing in sin, means sin without repentance and in disregard for God’s law. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “If you love me, you will obey me.” (Jn.14:15) If you are disobedient all the time and on purpose how can you call yourself a Christian? When you are born again, the Holy Spirit will be your conscience and will prevent you continue in grave sinful habit.

30. If persons remarried/divorcee, homosexuals, co-habitation are allowed to receive the Holy Communion, it is a continuing state of sin. For example: A Catholic married a Hindu girl, according to Hindu rite and customs. He is living with her peacefully. He goes to Catholic Church as well as Hindu temple. Every Sunday he receives Holy Communion and evening he goes to the Hindu temple with his wife. Is it right? Can he be allowed to receive Holy Communion? If it is allowed, then the remarried /divorcee can be allowed to receive Holy Communion. Is it not a continuing state sin?

31. Again, if you allowed receiving holy communion by the remarried/divorcee, then it opens the floodgates, because, there is a possibility that a man can be remarry as many times as he likes without limits, and every time there will be a good reason for divorce and to get another marriage.

32. Further, I am an attorney. In the legal practice, we have to defend our client, whether our client is a murderer or rapist or dacoit. In this legal process, we always take a defense stand to save our client to set him at free. But, in the case of moral theology, there is no compromise because, wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it. Right is right even if no one is doing it. The truth is the truth and there is no compromise. Christian life requires, so to speak, the daily, martyrdom of fidelity to the gospel teaching that is, the courage to let Christ grow in us and direct our thinking and our actions.  Then Jesus said to his disciples: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt.16: 24). But this can only happen in our lives if there is solid relationship with God.

33. If you believe in the Holy Bible, especially the gospel teachings taught by our Lord Jesus Christ, then you should follow his teachings in letter and spirit and you should accept His WILL that is: “you have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Then we know: “And especially them who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, audacious, self willed, they fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming” (2 Peter 2:10).

34. As a matter of fact the present “Synod of Bishops 2015” is interfering with the Holy Scripture and the doctrines of the Catholic Church, in respect to the sacrament of marriage and discipline of human sexuality. The Catholic Church professing that Jesus Christ is our Lord God and His teachings are binding the faithful believers. It is impossible to go against the Will of our Lord God. If a man has written a Will and after his death, no court or authority has the right to change or alter anything in the Will. It is likewise, the foregoing reasons in respect of adultery, polyandry, polygamy, polyamory, homo-sex, civil union and co-habitation is against the Will of God. So, the Catholic Church or the Pope or any other holy ecumenical body does not have the right to change or alter or modify or go against anything in the teaching of the Holy Scripture.  “Not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God” (1 Theseloni.4:5). This is clear from the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “I tell you most solemnly no servant is greater than his master, no messenger is greater than the man who sent him” (Jn. 13: 16).

35. Therefore, the present “XIV Ordinary General Synod” (Synod of  Bishops  2015) is going  to  discuss or deal  in  respect of  divorced, remarried and  living-together/co-habitation  partners  and civil union /gay marriage persons whether they could be permitted to receive Holy Communion or not. It is unnecessary and  unwanted. In that case the object of the Synod is unbiblical, and the  Synod has no such power to deal or no such power to  interpret  the Scripture or  no such power to redefine that the divorced, remarried and living-together/co-habitation partners and civil union /gay marriage  persons are  to be permitted to receive  the Holy  Communion  is  contrary  to  the Scripture, Tradition and WILL of GOD.

Yours devotedly in

Our Lord Jesus Christ

S/d 

(G. ALEX BENZIGER)

April 27, 2015