https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/amoris-laetitia-conference-signals-big-changes-highlights-problems-left
MGB: Natural law as practiced at the CDF concerns itself with Platonic idealism, where celibacy and chastity are the ideals, often through the filter of papal infallibility rather than reason and with an unspoken asexual bias. Before LGBT rights, being asexual was considered an attraction disorder, except in the Church, where it gets you a pointy hat and shepherds crook. I suspect there was no percentage in fighting over how natural law is best used, i.e., authoritatively v. by reason and evidence, so Francis ignored its conclusions. Professor Imperatori-Lee highlights the romanticism, or clerical idealism, often brought to this topic. Meghan Clark also notes this.
Eight women is progress over none, but not nearly enough in a conference about male and female relationships, regardless of how talented the women were. Meaghan Clark is right to cite Francis' implicit change of Pius XI Ozzie and Harriett view of women in marriage and even more so the USCCB allergy to lesbians and trans women. Unless you are following the conservative cultural herd, there is no moral question on transexuality, just a medical one.
MSW asks why the USCCB is not actively part of this event? My guess is that there is such a cultural divide here that it would violate the rules of their asexual boys club. Coping with modern reality is not their strong suit. The Archbishop of Malta shared that they have nothing to be afraid of and that AL is not a rupture. Of course, he does not have the same donor pool our bishops do or the same seminarians who prefer asserting authority to acting with mercy, as well as young people of the same stripe who thrive on certainty, which is really more about loyalty than faith. A counter-culture witness is fine, but it must be a witness of inclusion, not isolation and rigidity. The Church will not fail just because we rethink sexuality in light of more recent human experience.
Gaillardetz raises an interesting point about going out to where the people are hurting, as does MSW when he quotes Francis before the conclave as saying Jesus is knocking on the door - to get out! The Church is not an NGO, but it is not the clergy and the hyper-faithful either. All of the baptized are both called to ministry and ownership. There is no "them" who are going to fix the Church or fix us. The latter is God's job and we must all bring God to those who call for help, especially the brokenhearted grieving a marriage gone wrong. Citing dogma and tradition are not helpful to the hurting and not particularly attractive to potential converts, especially those doctrines which stem from bad proof texting about divorce. Call it bad branding. The image of Francis washing the feet of a female Muslim inmate is cited. It is sad how clericalism the rest of the year has turned that rite into a mockery.
Just like in civil jurisprudence, the new overcomes the old. We don't have apostates stand in fromt of the Chruch anymore in sack cloth and ashes. Indeed, except in Syria where Islamic State attacks Christians, we no longer have apostates. There is no one else on earth who is being told to abandon Christ or be martyred. Maybe Pashtunistan, but I suspect most of the victims of Muslim Trads are simply killed rather than being given the opportunity to express faith in Allah, since Allah is Arabic for Elohim, which is Hebrew for God. Technically, saying there is no God but Allah is not apostacy because it is the same word. DH, by the way, gets us out of that mindset which has wars over religion or doctrine. That is not piety, it is sacralidge. DH is the final step in denouncing the past sacrliedges of the Inquisition, the 100 years war, the Crusades and the blood shed in the 4th Century over heresy.
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DeletePapal infallibility is modernist for relativism. Truth does not depend on authority. To-say-so is a logical fallacy. Truth needs evidence, not just pristine-reason. Especially on sex. Relativism is to say there is some kind of unique Catholic sexuality, which in truth are a collection of neoplatonic arguments that have been disproven by science. Morality is for the good of people, not of God. Saying otherwise does not serve God but makes him look like an Ogre and a Fool, and God is neither of those things, but many clergy are both.
ReplyDeleteThat neo-platonic asexualism, not Gospel or even Torah, which said that the penalty for nocturnal emissions was to bathe in a warm pond. Hardly Hellfire, that. Fornication is not adultery and is not the 6th Commandment, just as Abortion is not the 5th. Numbers makes abortion mandatory, in fact, if adultery is expected because the husband returned to a pregnant (as opposed to a fat) wife, because she was property. You are correct in stating the opinion in the Baltimore Cathecism, but that was based on the pietousness of clergy, not divine law. Like sacred continence for clergy, which is a gross insult against women and the married state. The only way for the Church to expiate that sin is to ordain women and give sexual counseling to those priests who find celibacy so easy that they want the rest of us to try it.
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