Cardinal Robert Sarah made headlines this week when he told Synod Fathers that Nazi-Fascism and Communism of the 20th century are what western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic Fanaticism are to the world today – and both have the same demonic origins.

The National Catholic Register is reporting on the hard-hitting intervention delivered by Cardinal Sarah at the Synod of Bishops on the Family. The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said the family faces two major threats: 1) the “idolatry of Western freedom,” which he defined as “atheistic secularism,” and 2) “Islamic fundamentalism.”

He described these two threats as “almost like two ‘apocalyptic beasts,’” who are as threatening to the world today as communism and Nazi-fascism were to the 20th century.

“A theological discernment enables us to see in our time two unexpected threats (almost like two ‘apocalyptic beasts’) located on opposite poles: on the one hand, the idolatry of Western freedom; on the other, Islamic fundamentalism: atheistic secularism versus religious fanaticism.”

He went on to urge the Synod Fathers to respond to the broader picture of these global threats in addition to confronting local issues such as communion for the divorced and remarried.

“We find ourselves between ‘gender ideology and ISIS’,” Sarah said. “Islamic massacres and libertarian demands regularly contend for the front page of the newspapers.”

Referring to the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homosexual marriage, he said, “Let us remember what happened last June 26!”

These two radicalizations represent major threats to the family. 

As he explained, the first is “its subjectivist disintegration in the secularized West through quick and easy divorce, abortion, homosexual unions, euthanasia etc. (cf. Gender theory, the ‘Femen’, the LGBT lobby, IPPF ...),” he said.

“On the other hand, the pseudo-family of ideologized Islam which legitimizes polygamy, female subservience, sexual slavery, child marriage etc. (cf. Al Qaeda, Isis, Boko Haram...).

Both the dangers of Islam and the liberal West have “the same demonic origin,” he warned.

“Unlike the Spirit of Truth that promotes communion in the distinction (perichoresis), these encourage confusion (homo-gamy) or subordination (poly-gamy),” he continued. “Furthermore, they demand a universal and totalitarian rule, are violently intolerant, destroyers of families, society and the Church, and are openly Christianophobic.”

These are spiritual challenges that must be faced, he said.

“’We are not contending against creatures of flesh and blood’. . . We need to be inclusive and welcoming to all that is human; but what comes from the Enemy cannot and must not be assimilated. You cannot join Christ and Belial [the devil]!”

He went on to urge the delegates to “proclaim the truth without fear, the plan of God, which is monogamy in conjugal love open to life.”

He also called for strong and clear teaching from the magisterium of the Church saying that all pastors “have the mission of helping our contemporaries to discover the beauty of the Christian family.”

Later, the Cardinal told the Register that when three controversial paragraphs were left in the Instrumentum laboris at last year's Extraordinary Synod, it hinted that “there is an agenda that some members are trying to impose.”

Next week in the Synod will be more “difficult”, he said, because the “gravest and most serious” part of the Instrumentim Laboris will be discussed. He warned that there were still bishops’ conferences in the West that “want to open the doors [to everything], but they are few.” The bishops of the “East are orthodox,” he said, as are “Africa, America.”

Overall, Cardinal Sarah stressed the need to “insist on God’s plan for the family, because we began in a somewhat mistaken way. We need to begin with God’s plan for the family. Instead we began by looking at the difficulties. I don’t think it was a good way to start. But even so, in this moment I saw that the Holy Spirit was guiding it well.”

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