Yesterday my wife attended a wedding shower for a young Catholic bride-to-be and asked her if she and her fiancee had found a place to live after the marriage. The young woman replied, “Oh, we’re already living together in sin”. She said this with a giggle and had no sense of shame regarding her immoral lifestyle. She will be married in a Catholic church.

Several months ago a coworker of my daughter, who is also “living in sin”, was getting ready to meet with her parish priest in order to plan her upcoming wedding. The girl’s father warned her that the priest would certainly have a big problem with the immoral living arrangement of his daughter. In fact, the young woman became quite anxious and concerned about the upcoming meeting. She needn’t have worried-not a word from the priest about her cohabitation.

One of the explanations I have heard for the priests who refuse to communicate the Church’s teaching on premarital sex is that they don’t want to drive these young people out of the Church. Now this would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. In a way these couples are already out of the Church. They certainly aren’t following the Church’s teaching on premarital sex and you can be sure that they are using artificial contraception.

We are currently living through one of the greatest spiritual struggles in the history of mankind. There is an all out war being waged by secular forces against the teachings of Jesus Christ. Many of our leaders in the Church refuse to engage in the battle. They are complacent and perhaps cowardly as millions of souls are being lost in this all out war.

In the military a soldier convicted of cowardice is dishonorably discharged and faces a prison sentence. In God’s Church a priest or bishop who refuses to teach sound doctrine will one day have to face his Creator. If they are found guilty and convicted, their prison sentence could be of an eternal nature. They may want to consider this the next time they give a free pass to a couple who is “living in sin” and proud of it.