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US bishops’ homosexuality statement “fatally flawed”
(I tried posting this yesterday and either my blogging software ate it or I flubbed it in my brain-dead state. Either way, I’ve tried to reconstruct it as best I can.)
Mary Jo Anderson, at WorldNetDaily, follows up on the US Bishops’ forthcoming statement on homosexuality, due out at next week’s meeting of the USCCB. (I blogged about it before here.)
The Catholic Medical Association has received advance copies and pans it as flawed because it ignores the medical and scientific literature on the subject, so they’ve sent along notations to certain bishops, including the facts that there is no genetic basis for homosexuality, that people move in and out of the lifestyle, and that rampant promiscuity goes along with an inability to form lasting commitments. The doctors point out that the statement fails to mention the destructive nature of same-sex attraction that is allowed to run rampant and that, in reality, the document shows a lack of understanding of the disorder and instead create “a sentimental invitation to live chastely and join parish activities,” which is like telling a child-molesting priest that he should shake it off, live chastely, and return to parish activities. Oh wait… Seriously, it treats same-sex attraction as just another life event and not a serious impediment.
Objectively disordered
Technorati Tags: Catholic, homosexuality, USCCB
The text does include a call to virtue, including chastity for all who are unmarried, and reiterates the Church’s official teaching that although a homosexual attraction is not immoral, any homosexual act is immoral and objectively disordered. But the document casts those with same-sex attraction as victims of the culture, of “scorn, hated and even violence in some sectors of our society.”
Actually, it’s not just the act which is objectively disordered, but the inclination itself. In the 1986 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called “Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,” we are told:
In the discussion which followed the publication of the Declaration, however, an overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral, or even good. Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.
How often have you heard that from any diocese or any ministry to gays or just about anyone else in the Church? We’re so afraid of hurting anyone’s feelings that we are censoring ourselves and withholding such truths from those who need to hear that.
In fact, after re-reading that older document, I’m wondering why the USCCB even feels a need to issue a new statement. The CDF’s document says it all if only they would implement it. Yet, we know why it’s not implemented, don’t we?
Meanwhile, another problem with that new document is that it has more in common with secular liberal political ideology on homosexuality, namely that the biggest problem with same-sex attraction isn’t that there is something inherently wrong with it. No, the main problem, according to this view, is the “homophobia” of critics, never mind that rampant homophobia is a myth.
Lay people “will resent this document because it attempts to blame so-called ‘hate-crimes’ as the source of the homosexual person’s unhappiness and anger,” said one researcher. “This document suggests that our lack of ‘welcoming’ toward a homosexual parishioner or – God forbid – a priest, is somehow more grievous than the sorrow and hurt that homosexuals have caused hundreds of us. If the bishops could bring themselves to be honest, they would define a homosexual assault on a pubertal boy as a true ‘hate crime.’”
It’s all the fault of those who take seriously the Church’s teaching. It continues the myth that the most heinous sin is judgmentalism and being un-welcoming.
We can nurse a small hope that a solid cadre of bishops will oppose this document to such a degree that it will wither on the vine, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. The various pronouncements of the bishops’ conference don’t really make a difference after all, except perhaps when they are portrayed in the media as representing the Church’s teachings. Bishops who reject such statements will continue to reject their application in their dioceses, and bishops who embrace them are already implementing their ideas in their dioceses. It just doesn’t matter much in the long run.
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COMMENTS
Once more, we need REAL catechesis on JPII and theology of the body. I recommend everyone own a copy of the “Good News about Sex and Marriage” and study JP’s Theology of the Body talks.
Posted by infanted on 11/10/06 at 01:57 PM One sign of hope I have noticed so far is today’s re-consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Conception in Washington by the Apostolic Nuncio with the bishops of the United States present. One cannot help but wonder if Archbishop Sambi, historically a critic of the homosexual agenda when he was assigned to Jeruselem, has something up the sleeve of his cassock and will be letting the U.S. Bishops know that the waffling about this and other issues (liturgical language, contraception, etc.) must stop.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 11/11/06 at 04:15 PM Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
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