My daughter had a good question

[hedgehog]

She saw a picture of St. Katherine Drexel and I explained her work with Indians and Afro-Americans. My daughter wanted to know, how could the Church be so far ahead in its treatment of oppressed minorities a century ago and so wrong with its attitude towards gays now?

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. There are millions of Catholics worldwide...

some are very close minded and some are very open minded. I'm a catholic and I believe in gay marriage, and I'm sure if you talked to some Catholic priests (especially liberal Jesuits) They would probably tell you "off the record" that they aren't opposed to it either. I believe that there are too many important things going on in the world and worrying about who should be able to marry and who shouldn't isn't one of those things. I'm sure a lot of other Catholics agree with me.

[AngryOldDem]

3. And I'm one of 'em

<<I'm sure a lot of other Catholics agree with me.>>

Tradition, dogma, what-have-you aside, I try to keep in mind that Christ gave us only two (relatively) simple commands: Love thy God with all thy heart, soul, and might, and love thy neighbor as thyself.

The rest, as they say, is commentary.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. The official Catholic teaching is that every person is a child of God.

If a person is homosexual, he or she is as much a child of God as any heterosexual.

It's very important to understand that, before considering anything else. Because everyone is considered a child of God, the Catholic Church does not approve of discrimination in the job market, housing, education, etc.

The Church does not allow priests to perform same sex marriages, as you know, but that's not the only restriction placed on marriage. In the Catholic Church, marriage is one of the seven sacraments. Because it is a sacrament, it is taken very seriously. There is NO divorce in the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II has frequently spoken out against divorce and supported the existence of families for the purpose of raising children.

Catholics who do divorce have to get an annulment from the Church if they want to remarry. If they remarry without an annulment they're automatically excommunicated. Teresa Heinz and John Kerry were excommunicated when they married. They kept going to Mass but eventually they wanted to be able to take Communion again so John sought an annulment from his first wife. (Note that Teresa had not been divorced, but widowed, but she was excommunicated for marrying a divorced man.) People routinely wait years for an annulment, years during which they can't take Communion or receive the Last Rites. Not all annulments are granted, either. Pope John Paul II has spoken out quite recently about too many annulments being granted in the United States, which is true.

Please be sure your daughter knows all these things, too, and that there are many gay and lesbian Catholics who stay in the Church. There are special ministries for them, too. And it's no secret that there are many gay priests and monks and many lesbian nuns, some of them true to their vows of chastity, some of them not. Catholic teaching doesn't put sexual sins at the top of any sin list or teach that gays will all go to Hell or any of that nonsense either.

The seven cardinal ("deadly") sins are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. No mention of homosexuality at all.

Peace. :hippie:

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. That is extremely well put!

n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

5. Thank you. I put a lot of thought into it. nt

[hedgehog]

6. The point is that the rules are based on Roman attitudes

(as in the Roman Empire) and medieval science. The people telling us that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered are the same ones telling us that birth control is wrong and the same ones who "cured" pedophiles and put them back in charge of children. It's time to revisit some Church teachings.

[elshiva]

7. I think some teachings are being revisited.

I don't know about Catholics, but some Episcopalians have been trying to move towards equal rites for homosexual marriage.
The thing is that commitment between two people is very sacred, dare I say sacramental. A sure sign of God's presence, love whether between woman and man, man and man, and woman and woman is holy.