MARCH 31, 2015 The Archbishop Emeritus of Manila, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, has spoken out strongly against divorce after a poll showed that 60% of Filipinos thought that the practice should be made legal.
Zenit has reported that the Cardinal said that divorce is contrary to divine law and that those asking the Church to change her teaching are asking her to overrule God and ignore the Bible. “It’s in the Bible,” he said “unless you don’t believe in the Bible.”
“Even if it is 99 percent surveyed [who] favor divorce,” he said, “what is wrong is wrong.”
The current Archbishop of Manila, Luiz Cardinal Tagle, has emerged as a supporter of the radical agenda being advocated at the Synod on the Family. He has expressed himself “open” to the admission of the divorced and “remarried” to Holy Communion.
In particular he drew attention to the language used to speak about moral issues; such undermining of the Church’s traditional terminology was a key aspect of the progressive party’s strategy at the Synod.
Cardinal Tagle said:
I think even the language has changed already, the harsh words that were used in the past to refer to gays and divorced and separated people, the unwed mothers etc, in the past they were quite severe.
Many people who belonged to those groups were branded and that led to their isolation from the wider society.
Such views are not representative of all bishops in the Philippines. Mt Rev. Oscar Cruz, the Archbishop Emeritus of Lingayen-Dagupan also commented on the Filipino poll: “the Bible says what God has joined together let no man put asunder.”
