Cardinal Robert Sarah delivered what could be the most important religious message in modern times.

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<Cardinal Robert Sarah delivered what could be the most important religious message in modern times>:Jim Stone
 
"...Today we are witnessing the next stage - and the consummation - of the efforts to build a utopian paradise on earth without God. It is the stage of denying sin and the fall altogether. But the death of God results in the burial of good, beauty, love and truth. Good becomes evil, beauty is ugly, love becomes the satisfaction of sexual primal instincts, and truths are all relative...."

"...This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given, anthropological foundations self-giving, fruitful love. If it is true that the family is the place where more than anywhere else human beings can flourish and truly be themselves, it is also a place where human beings can be humanly and spiritually wounded...."
"...Advanced societies, including - I regret - this nation have done and continue to do everything possible to legalize such situations. But this can never be a truthful solution. It is like putting bandages on an infected wound. It will continue to poison the body until antibiotics are taken. Sadly, the advent of artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, so-called homosexual "marriage", and other evils of gender ideology, will inflict even more wounds in the midst of the generations we live with...."

"...This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church and every society. This is not about abstract ideas. It is not an ideological war between competing ideas. This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from a demonic ideology that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off entire generations from God..."

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Cardinal Robert Sarah
Washington DC
May 17, 2016
National Catholic Prayer Breakfast 2016 Thank you for inviting me to this remarkable gathering, in the company of such a distinguished audience.
As you well know, what happens in the United States has repercussions everywhere. The entire globe looks to you, waiting and praying, to see what America resolves on the pressing challenges the world faces today. Such is your influence and responsibility.

I do not say this lightly, because we find ourselves in such portentous times.
Rapid social and economic development in the past half century has not been accompanied by an equally fervent spiritual progress, as we witness what Pope Francis calls "globalized indifference."
It is the result of giving in to the delusion that we are self-sufficient, that man is his own measure in a pervasive individualism. It is manifested in the fear of suffering in our societies, our closing our eyes and hearts to the poor and vulnerable, and, in a very despicable way, in how we discard the unborn and the elderly.
Saint John XXIII remarked that the human community was in “turmoil” as it sought to establish a new world order where humanity relies entirely on technical and scientific solutions instead of God.
Today we are witnessing the next stage - and the consummation - of the efforts to build a utopian paradise on earth without God. It is the stage of denying sin and the fall altogether. But the death of God results in the burial of good, beauty, love and truth. Good becomes evil, beauty is ugly, love becomes the satisfaction of sexual primal instincts, and truths are all relative.
So all manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, but even promoted as a social good. The result is hostility to Christians, and, increasingly, religious persecution. Nowhere is this clearer than in the threat that societies are visiting on the family through a demonic "gender ideology," a deadly impulse that is being experienced in a world increasingly cut off from God through ideological colonialism.

The future of the world and the Church passes through the family. The Church, in our time, must, above all, defend and promote the beauty of the Christian family in fidelity to God's design. Pope Francis states clearly: "In no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God's plan in all its grandeur ... proposing less than what Jesus offers to the human being." This is why the Holy Father openly and vigorously defends Church teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, the education of children and much more.
The generous and responsible love of spouses, made visible through the self-giving of parents, who welcome and nurture children as a gift of God, makes love visible in our generation. It makes present the perfect charity of the Trinity. From the beginning of creation, God has built a Trinitarian structure into our very nature. Man is nothing without woman, woman is nothing without man, and the two are nothing without a third element, which is the child. The Triune God dwells within each of us and imbues our whole being: Gods own image and likeness.
Every human being, like the persons of the Trinity, has the capacity to be united with other persons in communion through the Holy Spirit. The family is a natural preparation and anticipation of the communion that is possible when we are united with God. The family, as it were, is a natural praeparatio evangelica – written into our nature.
This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given, anthropological foundations self-giving, fruitful love. If it is true that the family is the place where more than anywhere else human beings can flourish and truly be themselves, it is also a place where human beings can be humanly and spiritually wounded.
The rupture of the foundational relationships of someone's life - through separation, divorce or distorted impositions of the family, such as cohabitation and same sex unions - is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love unto death, and even leads to cynicism and despair. These situations cause damage to little children through inflicting upon them a deep existential doubt about love. They are a scandal - a stumbling block - that prevents the most vulnerable from believing in such love, and a crushing burden that can prevent them from opening to the healing power of the Gospel.
Advanced societies, including - I regret - this nation have done and continue to do everything possible to legalize such situations. But this can never be a truthful solution. It is like putting bandages on an infected wound. It will continue to poison the body until antibiotics are taken. Sadly, the advent of artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, so-called homosexual "marriage", and other evils of gender ideology, will inflict even more wounds in the midst of the generations we live with.
This is why it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church and every society. This is not about abstract ideas. It is not an ideological war between competing ideas. This is about defending ourselves, children and future generations from a demonic ideology that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off entire generations from God.

Religious Freedom

I encourage you to truly make use of the freedom willed by your founding fathers, lest you lose it. In so many other countries, on almost a daily basis, we hear of merciless beheadings, futile bombings of churches, torching of orphanages and ruthless expulsions of entire families from homes that religious minorities suffer worldwide simply because of their beliefs. Even in this yet young twenty-first century of barely 16 years, one million people have been martyred around the world because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Yet the violence against Christians is not just physical, it is also political, ideological and cultural. This form of religious persecution is equally damaging, yet more hidden. It does not destroy physically but spiritually; it demolishes the teaching of Jesus and His Church and, hence, the foundations of faith by leading souls astray. By this violence, political leaders, lobby groups and mass media seek to neutralize and depersonalize the conscience of Christians so as to dissolve them in a fluid society without religion and without God. This is the will of the Evil One: to close Heaven ... out of envy.
Do we not see signs of this insidious war in this great nation of the United States? In the name of "tolerance," the Church's teachings on marriage, sexuality and the human person are dismantled. The legalization of same sex marriage, the obligation to accept contraception within health care programs, and even "bathroom bills" that allow men to use the women's restrooms and locker rooms. Should not a biological man use the men's restroom? How simpler can that concept be?
How low we are sinking for a nation built on a set of moral claims about God, the human person, the meaning of life, and the purpose of society, given by America's first settlers and founders! God is named in your founding documents as "Creator" and "Supreme Judge" over individuals and government. The human person endowed with God-given and therefore inalienable rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." George Washington wrote that "the establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the motive that induced me to the field of battle."
Today, we find ourselves before the battle of a sickness that has pervaded our world. I repeat: the battle of a sickness. That is what we face. I call this sickness "the liquidation, the eclipse of God." Pope Francis describes the causes of this "sickness." I quote:

"Religious liberty is not only that of thought or private worship. It is freedom to live according to ethical principles consequent upon the truth found, be it privately or publicly. This is a great challenge in the globalized world, where weak thought - which is like a sickness - also lowers the general ethical level, and in the name of a false concept of tolerance ends up by persecuting those who defend the truth about man and the ethical consequences."

What are the remedies to this sickness? What should we do to protect the family, religious freedom, and marriage - as revealed to us by God? Specifically for you, as men and women called to influence even the political sphere you have a mission of bringing Divine Revelation to bear in the lives of your fellow citizens. Uphold the wise principles of your founding fathers. Do not be afraid to proclaim the truth with love, especially about marriage according to God's plan, just as courageously as Saint John the Baptist, who risked his life to proclaim the truth. The battle to preserve the roots of mankind is perhaps the greatest challenge that our world has faced since its origins.
Pray. Sometimes, in front of happenings in the world, our nation or even the Church, the results of our prayer might tempt us to become discouraged. People who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone.
Whether in doctrine or morality or everyday decisions, the heart of prayer is to discern God's will. This can only happen in prolonged moments of silence where, like Elijah before the horrendous threats of Queen Jezebel, we allow the "gentle breeze" of God to enlighten us and confirm us along our journey to do God's will. Be prophetic, Be faithful. Pray. That is why I came to this prayer breakfast. To encourage you. Be prophetic, Be faithful. And, above all, pray. These three suggestions make present that the battle for the soul of America, and the soul of the world, is primarily spiritual. They show that the battle is fought firstly with our own conversion to God's will every day.
And so I wholly welcome this initiative, and join you in prayer that this great country may experience a new great "spiritual awakening", and help stem the tide of evil that is spreading in the world. I am confident that your efforts will no doubt contribute to protecting human life, strengthening the family, and safeguarding religious freedom not only here in these United States, but everywhere in the world.
For in the end: it is God or nothing.