The times, they are a-changin?

[hedgehog]

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna calls for reforms in the Church's treatment of Catholics who divorce and remarry and appears to accept same sex realtionships:

the cardinal said: “We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships,” adding: “A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous.”

The cardinal also said the Church needed to reconsider its view of re-married divorcees “as many people don’t even marry at all any longer”.

The primary thing to consider should not be the sin, but people’s striving to live according to the commandments, he said. Instead of a morality based on duty, we should work towards a morality based on happiness, he continued.

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/14678

and another Austrian Bishop Paul Iby called for an end to mandetory celibacy for priests:

"it should be up to priests to decide whether they want to live a celibate life and that he would welcome it if married men could be ordained."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/12/paul-iby-reformist-bishop_n_573536.html

Here's my question: What happens should the Vatican ever change the rules on one of the hot button issues such as celibate priests, female priests, divorce and re-marriage or contraception? What do Right wing Catholics do? What do left wing Catholics do?

[tjwmason]

1. What is Cardinal Schönborn up to?

Until very recently he was usually referred to as one of Benedict XVI's closest allies, but now he's making statements like this and visited Medjugorje (which was and is under Vatican investigation).

[rug]

3. He's papabile. Benedict is 83.

[Beer Snob-50]

2. i am concerned with the phrase "morality based on happiness"

Does that mean, it is moral if it gives you joy?

[hedgehog]

4. This is more subtle than "If it feels good, do it." Before Vatican II,

we were drifting into an attitude that if it caused you personal pain, it pleased God. Thus, the woman who wanted to marry and raise a family pleased God by entering the convent and being miserable. A young man who denied his deepest desires for home and hearth to become a priest was also pleasing God. In other words, you knew God was pleased when you entered certain vocations by how distressed you were. Add to that all the people who stayed in loveless and/or dangerous marriages because "that's what God wants".

Another aspect of all this was that we earned Heaven by our suffering. Isn't Heaven an undeserved gift freely given to us? Didn't Jesus earn it for all of us for all time?

I think the Cardinal was suggesting that a loving Father isn't pleased by His children's pain.

Note that the Cardinal affirms a stable loving relationship is better than promiscuity, and he affirms the value of the commandments. The best analogy I can draw is to sports medicine. We used to be told that "No pain, no gain". Now, we are encouraged to push ourselves to get stronger, get more flexible, more agile, but that if it hurts, it means we're doing it wrong.

[Beer Snob-50]

5. I have always had trouble with the thought of suffering

as a way to God. A loving God should not want to see us suffer for his love (although I think my wife thinks I should suffer for her love LOL).

I am happy to see the Cardinal affirm a stable loving relationship is a good thing.

[hedgehog]

6. This article from the Washigton Post is an example of what I'm talking about:

"For him, answering God's call meant abandoning all his careful plans -- a career as a forest ranger, the girlfriend he'd been dating for three years at the University of Nebraska, the prospect of marriage and children."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/13/AR2010051305537.html


If Peter was a fisherman, why not a priest who works as a forest ranger?

I suspect God doesn't approve of the young woman being left in the lurch, either.