The now-publicised prohibition of Deborah Schembri from practising in the ecclesiastical tribunal is partly the result of a prohibition emanated by the Holy See. But, more than that, it is simply a just statement of common sense in practice. No amount of wisdom is required to admit the deep anomaly of seeing Dr Schembri practising in an ecclesiastical tribunal after she has made so public her position in the question of divorce.
We all know the procedure of ecclesiastical tribunals in this matter. Guided as they are by Church legislation and above all by teachings of Holy Scripture in this particular sphere, it is unbelievable that we should see the chairpman of a pro-divorce movement perorating exactly in marriage-dissolution cases of ecclesiastical tribunals! Let us be frank and ask ourselves what Lord Jesus would have remarked on such happenings!
Indeed, I know not whether I could say that the decision of the ecclesiastical authorities concerned to take the demanded steps came rather late. Local ecclesiastical authorities were absolutely not at liberty to let the thing pass for any period of time.
They had to abide by the Holy See’s prescriptions, and this as soon as possible. Loyalty to God and to His Vicar on earth demands exactly that.
It is really sad to see that, when God’s and Church’s laws are clear in their prohibitions, you can have some of God’s ministers not in unison with Catholic belief. It is precisely this that strikes you when you read of priests “supporting” pro-divorce movements (April 28).
Conscience is the supreme light which should guide us. But it has to be soundly built on God’s laws. Never whimsically and never permitting breaking Divine laws for any human considerations, be these even so serious as the destruction of the world. Let alone commiseration of unhappy human familiar situations, the reason normally erroneously adduced for “justifying conscience to thwart God’s laws! That is what moral theology has always taught by such clear principles as Non sunt facienda mala ut eveniant bona.
To be just, when we hear or read of priests “who are supporting us with information on the Church teachings about divorce and the importance of one’s conscience” and are at the same time told that those same priests “were not named”, it would be wise to remember that Latin saying “Quod gratis asseritur gratis negatur”.