October 19, 2015, Thursday — The Best Talk at the Synod
“My father was a Christian political leader, who was imprisoned by the communists for 17 years. My parents were engaged to marry, but their wedding took place 17 years later. My mother waited all those years for my father, although she didn’t even know if he was still alive…” —from an address given at the Bishops’ Synod on the Family on Friday, October 16, by a Catholic woman doctor from Romania, Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea, head of the Association of Catholic Doctors in Romania. Her talk is being called by many “the best talk at the Synod”
“Not only us, the Catholic laity, but also many Christian Orthodox are anxiously praying for this Synod. Because, as they say, if the Catholic Church gives in to the spirit of this world, it is going to be very difficult for all the other Christians to resist it.” —The concluding lines of the address given on October 16 by Dr. Cernea. Her words make clear the ecumenical importance of the work of this present Synod, especially in the Orthodox world.
“Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property. Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sexual identity and human nature. This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world.” —Ibid.
“The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole people’s supernatural discernment in matters of faith when ‘from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful’ they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. That discernment in matters of faith is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth. It is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful obedience to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men but truly the word of God.” —The Second Vatican Council document on the Church, Lumen Gentium, Chapter 12. The passage is a definition of the term “sensus fidelium,” the “sense of the faithful,” that divinely-inspired knowledge of, and belief in, the truths of the faith that Catholics believe is infallible, that is, incapable of falling into error, as paragraph 92 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The whole body of the faithful… cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole people, when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals.”
The Best Presentation at the Synod
I just received this email from a friend with an attached text: “THIS IS THE BEST PRESENTATION AT THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY!”
I read the text, was moved by it, and decided to send out the text in this letter.
There have been hundreds of presentations at the Synod, which is now entering its third and final week.
Most of the presentations have been by bishops, and many have been excellent.
However, this text is not by a bishop.
It is by a lay person.
It is not by a man.
It is by a woman.
She is not from that part of the Church which is (for the moment) rich and influential (for example, Germany or the United States) but from a country in Eastern Europe, from Romania.
She experienced life behind the “Iron Curtain” under Soviet rule.
We might say, then, that her faith was “tested” by the sufferings of life.
She is not a theologian or canonist.
Rather, she is a physician, a doctor, someone trained in medicine to heal and to help people in their earthly, physical lives.
In this sense, she is familiar with ordinary life, with — to use a phrase of the Pope — the “smell of the sheep,” with sickness, with childbirth, with disease and death, with marital joys and sorrows, with all that threatens human beings living in this world.
And yet, despite this focus on human health and the overcoming of disease, she is persuaded that the great battle we face is not a physical one, but a spiritual one.
She writes: “Now we need Rome to tell the world: ‘Repent of your sins and turn to God for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’”
(Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea of Bucharest, Romania. Her professional accomplishments have led her to be chosen as the head the Association of Catholic Doctors in Romania)
Though brief, her talk is comprehensive, profound, and eloquent.
It deserves to be read, reflected upon, and shared widely.
In my view, the many warnings that Pope Francis has made during his two and a half years as Pope about the profound danger of a sort of “ideological colonization” in our time are quite coherent with the warnings expressed in Dr. Cernea’s brief intervention.
Dr. Cernea, a woman on the “front lines” of the battle for life, and for the faith, gives us in her talk the considered opinion of a modern Catholic woman who is highly trained and a leader in her community.
As such, her words express that “sensus fidelium,” that “sense of the faithful,” which is informed by, and adheres to, the Catholic faith of all time.
A Romanian Woman Doctor Makes a Powerful Plea to Pope and Bishops in Her Synod Talk
By Dr Anca-Maria Cernea
Doctor at the Center for Diagnosis and Treatment-Victor Babes
President of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Bucharest (Romania)
Presentation to Pope Francis and the Synod bishops
Friday, 16th October 2015
Your Holiness, Synod Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, I represent the Association of Catholic Doctors from Bucharest.
I am from the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.
My father was a Christian political leader, who was imprisoned by the communists for 17 years. My parents were engaged to marry, but their wedding took place 17 years later.
My mother waited all those years for my father, although she didn’t even know if he was still alive. They have been heroically faithful to God and to their engagement.
Their example shows that God’s grace can overcame terrible social circumstances and material poverty.
We, as Catholic doctors, defending life and family, can see this is, first of all, a spiritual battle.
Material poverty and consumerism are not the primary cause of the family crisis.
The primary cause of the sexual and cultural revolution is ideological.
Our Lady of Fatima has said that Russia’s errors would spread all over the world.
It was first done under a violent form, classical Marxism, by killing tens of millions.
Now it’s being done mostly by cultural Marxism. There is continuity from Lenin’s sexual revolution, through Gramsci and the Frankfurt school, to the current-day gay-rights and gender ideology.
Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property.
Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sexual identity and human nature.
This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world.
It’s an error of religious nature, it’s Gnosticism.
It’s the task of the shepherds to recognize it, and warn the flock against this danger.
“Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”.
The solution is: Evangelization. Conversion.
Not an ever increasing government control. Not a world government. These are nowadays the main agents imposing cultural Marxism to our nations, under the form of population control, reproductive health, gay rights, gender education, and so on.
What the world needs nowadays is not limitation of freedom, but real freedom, liberation from sin. Salvation.
Our Church was suppressed by the Soviet occupation. But none of our 12 bishops betrayed their communion with the Holy Father. Our Church survived thanks to our bishops’ determination and example in resisting prisons and terror.
Our bishops asked the community not to follow the world. Not to cooperate with the communists.
Now we need Rome to tell the world: “Repent of your sins and turn to God for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
Not only us, the Catholic laity, but also many Christian Orthodox are anxiously praying for this Synod. Because, as they say, if the Catholic Church gives in to the spirit of this world, it is going to be very difficult for all the other Christians to resist it.
What is the glory of God?
“The glory of God is man alive; but the life of man is the vision of God.” —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, in the territory of France, in his great work Against All Heresies, written c. 180 A.D.
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