U.S. Catholic bishops claim in a pastoral letter that marriage is being destroyed by contraceptives, unmarried couples living together, the failure of married couples to remain in their relationships, and the commitment of gay and lesbian families, an Oct. 13 article at the Salt Lake Tribune reports.The statement is part of a "pastoral letter" due to be taken in November up at the next gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, scheduled to take place in Baltimore.
In the letter, the bishops write that, "We are troubled by the fact that far too many people do not understand what it means to say that marriage--both as a natural institution and a Christian sacrament--is a blessing and gift from God."
The Salt Lake Tribune article reports that the letter was obtained in draft form by weekly publication the National Catholic Reporter.
The publication posted the 57 pages of the document, titled Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan online at its Web site.
The letter attacks marriage equality as a menace to "the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good," and claims that, "The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the very source from which society and culture come," the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
The letter also brands contraceptives and couples living together without being married as "intrinsically evil," the article reports.
The National, Catholic Reporter also published an editorial on the content of the draft document, saying that it was not "pastoral."
Opined the National Catholic Reporter, "In fact, it reads as if it was written by someone who has never once engaged in a marriage preparation program, let alone actually ever been married."
Another Catholic publication, Catholic Online, attacked the National Catholic Reporter for the editorial, branding the opinion piece as "denigrating, dismissive and dissenting," and going on to declare that the National Catholic Weekly was "wrong, wrong, wrong!"
The Catholic Online article, dated Oct. 16, added, "Millions of Catholics, other Christians and other people of faith and good will join me in rejoicing over this letter once they read ’Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan.’"
The Catholic Online article focused on what the pastoral letter had to day about gay and lesbian families, culling extensive quotes from the draft.
"Marriage is a unique union, a relationship different from all others," the Catholic Online article quoted the draft of the bishops’ letter.
"It is the permanent bond between one man and one woman whose two-in-one-flesh communion of persons is an indispensable good at the heart of every family and every society," the letter continued.
"Same-sex unions are incapable of realizing this specific communion of persons.
"Therefore, redefining marriage to include such relationships empties the term of its meaning, for it excludes the essential complementarity between man and woman, treating sexual difference as if it were irrelevant to what marriage is."
The Catholic Online article went on to quote further from the draft’s argument against marriage equality.
"When marriage is redefined so as to include or be made analogous with same sex partnerships, society is effectively stating that the permanent union of husband and wife, the unique pattern of spousal and familial love, and the generation of new life are now only of relative importance rather than being fundamental to the existence and well-being of society as a whole," the bishops claimed in their letter.
The bishops went on to argue that denying gay and families protections, rights, and recognition was not a form of discrimination.
"The denial of the social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not and cannot be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice requires it," the Catholic Online article quoted, putting the text in bold to emphasize the passage.
The Catholic Online article went on to declare, "This draft letter from our Bishops presents a stellar summary and synthesis of the teaching of the Catholic Church, the champion of true and authentic freedom," and to dismiss the National Catholic Weekly as "champion[ing] dissent."
The Salt Lake Tribune noted that the draft would be finalized at the Baltimore meeting, scheduled to take place from Nov. 16-19.
Other controversial issues are expected to be addressed at the bishops’ meeting, including the church’s pedophile priest scandal, end-of-life care, and medical intervention in fertility issues.
The article quoted the executive director of the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, H. Richard McCord, who explained that a pastoral letter "is a teaching tool in which the bishops attempt to summarize the relevant and foundational points of Catholic teaching on a particular subject and apply it to certain issues of the day."
The letter enters the debate among people of faith--and between believers and those who do not share their beliefs--as to the role of religion in civic affairs.
The document also comes in the wake of a global scandal that rocked the Catholic faith when it was revealed that a number of priests had systematically, and over the course of decades, subjected children to sexual abuse.
Allegations that the church hierarchy protected the priests and shuffled them from community to community, where the patterns of abuse were repeated anew, sharpened outrage both within and outside of the faith.
A more recent revelation concerned a Catholic clergyman who had a son with a married Catholic woman whom he had met when she attended a religious retreat more than a quarter-century ago.
The woman, Pat Bond, left her husband as the affair with the priest--who had been a director for the retreat--continued, according to an Oct. 15 article in The New York Times.
Then Ms. Bond and the priest, Henry Willenborg, has a child of their own, the article said, a son that Bond named Nathan. The church agreed to provide financial support, but imposed a condition: Ms. Bond was not allowed to disclose any information about the affair or the church’s payments.
But mother and son--now 22 years old--have broken their silence, the article said, because the young man has been stricken with cancer.
Bond says that the church has been stingy when it comes to helping pay for Nathan’s needs; church officials, however, say they have been more than fair in their dealings with Ms. Bond and the son she bore to Rev. Willenborg, who now is a senior pastor at a prosperous parish.
The article said that while the pedophile priest scandal has sent tremors of shock through the world’s Catholic community, sexual abuse directed at children is far less prevalent than affairs between clergymen and women whom church tenants say they may not marry.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: Edge