“Given the
chance to do the right thing — the obvious thing
— the Catholic Church has, once again, failed.
“The Vatican issued a formal response [on March 15] to the question of whether Catholic priests can ‘bless’ same-sex unions. The answer up to this point has always been no. After all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says homosexual acts are ‘intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law’ and that homosexual ‘tendencies’ are ‘objectively disordered.’
“But given
that Pope Francis supports civil unions — i.e. legal
rights for gay couples — maybe the Church had finally opted to move into this
century? Nope. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the office
responsible for the Inquisition) said in a statement approved
by the pope that the Church was still officially opposed to supporting
same-sex marriages…
“It is not licit
to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that
involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e.,
outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the
transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same
sex. The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in
themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot
justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial
blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context
of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan…
“At the same time, the Church recalls that God Himself never ceases to bless each of His pilgrim children in this world, because for Him ‘we are more important to God than all of the sins that we can commit.’ But he does not and cannot bless sin: he blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him. He in fact ‘takes us as we are, but never leaves us as we are.’
“In short,
God hates gay marriage, because gay couples in those marriages have sex...
“Keep
in mind this response goes against nearly 73% of practicing Catholics who say they support same-sex marriage. Those
believers are better than the institution to which they belong. It’s too bad so
many of them don’t consider this issue a deal-breaker; they’d rather support a
bigoted organization than walk away due to the Church’s institutional
homophobia.
“The
silver lining here, I suppose, is that the longer the Church opposes basic
human decency, the easier it’ll be for younger Catholics to leave the fold.
When the secular world has higher moral standards than the Catholic Church, it
becomes harder for believers to justify their membership. Why cling to the
stain of Catholicism when it’s optional?” (Patheos).
The Catholic Church’s grim history of ignoring priestly pedophilia – and silencing would-be whistleblowers
“…No American bishops or cardinals
have ever been jailed for their role in covering up and enabling child sexual
abuse. Civil settlements have held the Church accountable only
financially. A combination of political complacency and expired statutes of
limitations has prevented most survivors from obtaining real justice.
“Outraged by this lack of justice,
survivors urged the International Criminal Court at The Hague to investigate
the Vatican for crimes against humanity. The International
Criminal Court declined, citing the fact that many of the alleged crimes
occurred before the court was formed, and were thus beyond the scope of the court’s ‘temporal
jurisdiction.’
“To date, the highest-ranking
priest tried in an American court is Philadelphia’s Monsignor William Lynn, who
was charged with conspiracy and two counts of endangering children. His 2012 conviction for one count of
endangerment was vacated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2016. He now
awaits an unscheduled retrial.
“Even as scholars and theologians have called for all of the American bishops to resign, there has been little talk of criminal prosecutions. If yesterday’s survivors do not find justice, tomorrow’s children will not know safety.
“As the Pennsylvania grand jury emphasized: ‘There have been other
reports about child sexual abuse within the Catholic church… For many of us,
those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the
truth: it happened everywhere’” (The Guardian).
I was raised a Catholic. I went to a Catholic elementary school and to a Catholic high school. In seventh grade, I even considered becoming a priest, like many other young boys. My younger brother went to a Catholic elementary school and to a Catholic high school as well. He died of AIDS at the age of 26 in 1987. He was a transsexual. He once told me he wanted to marry someone like me. I gave up believing in Catholicism decades ago, but the Catholic Church still continues to upset me.
ReplyDeleteWhat really matters is that we pursue a life based on logic, reason, critical thinking, justice, solidarity, intellectual honesty and life-long learning; that we live our lives peacefully and with tolerance and mutual respect, and with compassion and love for one another, and that we oppose hatred, racism, bigotry, subjugation, misogyny, xenophobia, hypocrisy and indifference...
ReplyDeleteA bunch of men who take sacred vows of celibacy dictate their interpretation of what is permissible in everyone else's sex lives is bizarre. These men wear flowing gowns and robes and never turn their fellow clerics who rape and sexually assault children over to the police.
ReplyDeleteThe reality of the processes regarding sexual behavior followed by the Catholic Church is that it eschews logic and morality.