The 'Credo Priests' Petition | National Catholic Reporter

The 'Credo Priests' Petition | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The Credo Priests are wrong from the first word - their name. All off these matters are essentially natural law - not the kind used to justify tradition no matter what - but a real exploration of what is truly beneficial - a blessing - to families - both straight and gay, whole and broken.  Old answers from the Bells of St.Mary's and Ozzie and Harriet era won't work, if they ever worked then (they certainly did not work for gays - even those who were pushed into the priesthood and consecrated life to provide them the structure of self-loathing.  One can argue with a straight face that nothing has changed but obedience to demands that did not seem human - but were rather designed of an unhealthy fear of damnation by the faithful and disobedience by the clergy.  This is not a good place to discern moral reasoning or the will of God (which, by the way, is happiness in both the next life and this one. Best does not necessarily mean easy all the time, but it does not mean impossible or heroic either.  Heroism and martyrdom are special gifts, not mandates.



I am actually going through a marriage break up and while I would welcome a reunification I am not going to default to the easy answer and use doctrine or our vows to force an unwilling partner back into a marriage she wants out of.  That does not mean, however, that I wish to be heroicly celibate or even heroicly chaste. I can discern that without the Church, as well as act on a belief that should I marry again, doing so is not an act of adultery agaist a partner who ended the marriage already.  Most of this generation feels this way and either attends Mass, does not (it may not have been their practice, or finds another sect - I would hope a true pressence sect because going Evangelical, which some do, kind of defeats the purpose of finding a place to celebrate the Eucharist, landing somewhere that it is regarded as a mere symbol - now that is the kind of question Credo should address - although they often get that wrong for political and loyalty reasons having nothing to do with the pressence of Christ in the Sacrament.



Note that I did not raise all the process concerns over how the message from Credo was delivered.  Indeed, if one person drafts a position and his fellows agree with it, I see no reason to fear its format in a petition - or do I care about how the bishops communicate and back channel on this issue.  I am more concerned about processes which exclude the vast majority of the faithful, including non-regular Mass attendees, from having their say on the Synod.  I also question how structured the questions are - there should be more of an open ended free for all - indeed what I just wrote should be the kind of response the Synod Fathers need and I doubt they will get it - which means that there is doubt that those not reached will care about the result and will simply keep doing what they think is right - which is very moral but bad for Church unity.