I found this video out on YouTube. It is rather well done in articulating the Church Teaching against “Same-Sex Marriage.” It is sensitively done as well, making clear that the Church does not reject or “hate” individuals with homosexual orientation. Yet to speak the truth in love means that we must insist on abstinence from sex for all unmarried individuals. Further, we cannot depart from Biblical teaching on the nature and purpose of marriage. We must remain consistent with Biblical truth and the constant teaching of the Church. It is a rather brief video and I recommend you view it and share the link with others.
Bottom line is, God has established marriage as a stable, lasting union of a man and a women and oriented it to the pro-creation and rearing of children. I have often quoted Genesis 2 and 3 in this regard but, here is another quote from the book of Malachi 2:15-17:
15Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 16 “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
Every now and then a little humor does us some good. Over at Creative Minority Report is an intentionally silly post about the remarkable ages of the Patriarchs who lived before the great flood. Adam, Noah, Enoch and others lived 800-900 years! How to understand these references?? Personally I think we need to take them at face value and just accept a mystery, that the ancient patriarchs lived a great number of years, far more than our modern experience. Attempts to render the 900 years as months or divide by 10 etc. yield absurd results such as the Patriarchs having children when they 2 years old etc. So just take it for what its worth, they lived a lot longer than we do and, as sin multiplied, our years grew shorter. Moses and Joshua made it to 120 but by King David our years were 70, or 80 for those who were strong.
I entered my own comments explaining the Age of the Patriarchs. Here are my entries: (Now don’t take this seriously folks, IT IS A JOKE!, in other words, I’M JUST KIDDING)
Explanation 1 The Bible clearly says we were visited by aliens who were also giants. This race of Giants is referenced in the book of Genesis. Now these giants had very large spaceships circling the planet. The combined gravometric effect of these giant spaceships actually slowed time down here on earth and thus we had 900 year life spans.
Explanation 2 – Another explanation is this: A guy goes to the dcotor and says, “Doc, I’ve gven up smoking, drinking, fattening foods and all sodium in my diet. Will I live longer?” And the Doctor says, “No, it will only seem that way.” Thus what he have in the Bible is the cummulative experience of a very long life, but it only seemed long to them because they did not have liquor, fattening foods, cigarettes, and high sodium diets. Hence the 900 year life span only seemed like 900 years, it was actually nine months.
The Pope’s New Encyclical is entitled Caritas in Veritate. Simply translated, Cartias in Veritate means “Love (or Charity) in Truth”. But what the title really sets forth is a teaching that Love and Truth need each other for there to be balance.
Consider charity or love without reference to the truth. Too easily it becomes soft and affirms what should not be affirmed. Charity without truth can easily enable bad behavior. By this it can, though with good intentions, further enslave people in self-destructive behaviors. Charity without truth can lead others into error and sin by failing to correct. Charity without truth can rob others of their dignity through a kind of “soft bigotry” of low expectations. This kind of charity is patronizing and presumes that the poor and needy cannot be expected to attain higher goals, so it simply moves the goal posts. Charity without truth can rob others of the discipline they need to discover self-mastery. Without the truth Charity, or love, is soft and can become downright poisonous. Charity (or love) needs reference to the truth to be true charity, true love.
But Consider truth without charity. Without Charity, or love, the truth too easily becomes a club to swing at others, merely an argument to be won. Without Charity the truth can seem harsh and demanding, something to be avoided and feared. Without Charity the truth can seem unattainable. Without Charity, people usually lack the self-esteem necessary to even consider they could live the truth. When I was a child I needed my parents reassurance that I was able to do what was right and true. Without that love and encouragement the truth could seem crushing and impossible.
So there it is, a title, but more than a title, a teaching.
Familiar???? By the way Washingtonians, this title should seem familiar to you. The Late Archbishop of this Archdiocese James Cardinal Hickey had this for his motto: Veritatem in Caritate (Truth in Charity).
I was alerted to the following CNS Article on a recent CARA survey of Catholic Attitudes on Marriage. I post excerpts of it here below with some comments in red by yours truly.
Catholic attitudes about marriage differ by generation, says survey
By Maria Wiering, Catholic News Service
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — Catholic attitudes on marriage in the church are different among generational groups, according to results of a 2007 survey of U.S. Catholics by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington.
Social scientist Barbara Dafoe Whitehead talked about the survey results in a keynote address June 25 in St. Paul at the annual conference of the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers.
The survey showed that older Catholics — those who were adults before the Second Vatican Council — are more likely to look to the Church as the source for meaning and expectations for marriage than are baby boomers or members of Generation X or the millennial generation. Older Catholics also are more likely to be familiar with the Church’s teaching on marriage, to believe in marriage as a lifelong commitment between a man and woman, and to think of marriage as a sacrament that extends beyond the wedding day, it said. Whitehead attributed this attitude to being raised in a time of a distinct Catholic identity that included an emphasis on the church’s teachings on sex, procreation and marriage.(I have commented before on this blog that, beginning in the 1960s many began to reinterpret the basic meaning of marriage. No longer were children and raising a family the central focus. The focus came to center on the happiness of the spouses. Hence easier divorce came to be seen as “essential” since without it happiness might be hindered. Prior to that time, when children were the essential focus, divorce was seen as highly problematic since it so negatively impacted children. Likewise in the 1960s sex became no longer associated with the procreation of children but, again, only associated with the happiness of the spouses. If children were a part of that happiness fine, if not, fine too. With children out of the picture as the central purpose of marriage many distortions follow such as easy divorce and now even “gay” marriage. If marriage is just about the happiness of the couple and children are merely a possible “accessory”, not an essential component, then who is to say two gay people can’t be happy together – or so the argument goes)
Generation Xers — ages 25 to 35 — … are confused about marriage, and their attitudes are closer to those of the general population, Whitehead said. “[Generation Xer] Catholics want to marry a soul mate, and they’re much less likely to see marriage in these broader, institutional [family] terms,” she said. Sixty-nine percent of Catholics [from this generation] believe that marriage is whatever two people want it to be, and the sacramental understanding does not figure as prominently into their understanding, she said.(So there it is. Depart from the Biblical and Church teaching on marriage and we are left with a designer marriage. Such widely variable definitions of marriage cannot be the basis for a strong or united civilization, country or Church. The privatization of marriage and the anything goes notion are not a stable basis on which to build. Hence we are left with the modern experience of a balkanized (divided) vision for marriage, family, basic values and moral teaching. Unity decays and the basis for country Church and even civilzation is lost).
….However…the youngest generation — the millennial generation (ages 18 to 24) — is showing a swing toward traditional ideas. “The youngest Catholics … look a lot more like the pre-Vatican II, Vatican II or post-Vatican II cohorts,” she said. “Huge majorities — 80 percent or more — of these youngest Catholics believe that marriage is a lifelong commitment and that people don’t take marriage seriously enough when divorce is readily available.” Many children of this generation have experienced divorce in their own families, and they are determined not to divorce themselves, Whitehead said. “This is a hopeful change,” she said.(Indeed it is a hopeful change! I too have encountered children and young adults in their 20s who are saddened, even disgusted with the broken down situation they have had to endure from their parents and grandparents. They know first hand the bankrupcy of the “designer marriage” easy divorce and confused atmosphere of the current climate. There is a knod of backlash setting in wherein the youngest couples I prepare for marriage are eager to be taught the Scriptural and Church teaching on Marriage. Thus THERE IS HOPE!)
Whitehead urged family ministers to share the social science evidence to dispel misconceptions, she said….”In these times when we have a culture that is so really difficult for people to remain faithful in their marriages, there must be a polar recognition of the circumstances of life and the need of support to help people live out the teachings of their faith,” she said.
Below is some remarkable “raw footage” of the President’s visit at the Vatican yesterday (July 10) First a brief article:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama arrived at the Vatican on Friday for his first meeting with Pope Benedict and what the White House says will be frank discussions on issues they agree and disagree on.
Obama arrived at the Vatican under tight security from the central city of L’Aquila, where he participated in the G8 summit. Much of the area around the Vatican was blocked off and cell phone coverage was jammed as his motorcade passed.
Obama was driven up to the San Damaso courtyard at the base of the apostolic palace where he was greeted by an honor guard of the Swiss Guard in full regalia Michelle Obama and their children Malia and Sasha were given a private tour of St Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.
So what did the Pope say? Among other things he delivered a strong pro-life message to the President. Here is an excerpt from John Allen’s Article:
Pope Benedict XVI today used his first-ever meeting with President Barack Obama to deliver a strong pro-life message, even pointedly offering President Obama a copy of a recent Vatican document on bioethics. In effect, Benedict made clear that he backs the American bishops in their challenge to President Obama over matters like abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
It is not unusual for people who read encyclicals from a political viewpoint or to read a political viewpoint in to them. Such is surely the case with the latest Encyclical by Pope BenedictCaritas in Veritate. Clearly, it touches on the the much debated issue of social justice. While Church teaching in this matter isn’t all that complicated, the method of implementing it is debated. Should the poor be cared for by expansive Government programs, or by initiatives based more in the private sector? How are private property rights balanced with the universal destination of all goods? And so forth.
Some in the media see Caritas in Veritate as largely an affirmation of what we Americans would call Democratic (Party) social policies. Some lament this fact, others celebrate it. But honestly do you really think the Pope means to speak in such simple categories? As with most encyclicals the Pope (especially this one) speaks with careful nuance and balance which is often missed by the sound byte oriented media. The Pope is speaking from Catholic Social Teaching which has a trajectory and history well removed from American Politics. We need to be careful not to over simplify the Pope here.
Just to show how two authors (both conservative) come away with different impressions look at the following two quotes.
There is also rather more in the encyclical about the redistribution of wealth than about wealth-creation — a sure sign of Justice and Peace default positions at work. And another Justice and Peace favorite — the creation of a “world political authority” to ensure integral human development — is revisited, with no more insight into how such an authority would operate….It is one of the enduring mysteries of the Catholic Church why the Roman Curia places such faith in this fantasy of a “world public authority,” given the Holy See’s experience in battling for life, religious freedom, and elementary decency at the United Nations. …. The incoherence of the Justice and Peace sections of the new encyclical is so deep, and the language in some cases so impenetrable, that what the defenders of Populorum Progresio may think to be a new sounding of the trumpet is far more like the warbling of an untuned piccolo. George Weigel In National Review Online
To be fair, Weigel also finds thing to praise in the new Encyclical. Yet still it is clear that he struggles with what he sees as a big Government solution.
But now consider another reflection from the Catholic League that takes away a rather different notion from the Encyclical:
The best way to serve the poor, according to the pope, is not to create bureaucratic monstrosities that cripple the dignity of the indigent. “By considering reciprocity as the heart of what it is to be a human being, [the principle of] subsidiarity is the most effective antidote against any form of all-encompassing welfare state.” Similarly, the pope admonishes us not to promote “paternalist social assistance that is demeaning to those in need.” In other words, the tried and failed, dependency-inducing welfare programs that mark the social policy prescriptions of the poverty industry are seen by the pope as a disaster. Not exactly what those who work for HHS want to hear.Statement by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
So here is the point. Be careful about simply accepting what one author or group says about how to understand this encyclical. It is carefully written and nunaced, based in a long tradition of Catholic Social teaching which cannot be said simply to affirm one or another political party here in the USA. Our is not the world the Pope lives in nor is it the template with which he thinks. We cannot reduce Papal teaching merely to American political categories. The Pope is Catholic
The Following article answers the question. Pray today for both our Pope and our President. May their meeting please Jesus Christ.
BALTIMORE (CNS) — During President Barack Obama’s July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, he will present the pope with a stole that was placed on the remains of St. John Neumann. “It’s a delight that something of one of our Redemptorist saints would be given to our Holy Father,” said Father Patrick Woods, provincial of the Redemptorists’ Baltimore province. “We’re delighted as Americans that our president is visiting the Holy Father and delighted that something belonging to our province would be given to him.” Father Woods said in a statement that the stole was an appropriate gift because it symbolizes the priesthood that was “at the heart of St. John Neumann’s life as a Redemptorist.” He also said the stole, placed on the saint who had worked extensively with immigrants, was symbolic of the new wave of immigration in the United States and the Redemptorists’ continued service to these groups. A stole is a long, narrow strip of cloth worn around the neck by a priest or bishop as part of his liturgical vestments. St. John Neumann, Philadelphia’s fourth bishop, is enshrined in a glass casket under an altar at St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia. New vestments have been placed on his remains four times since his 1860 death — in 1903, 1962, 1989 and 2008.
My Grandmother read a lot of Mystery Novels. One odd thing though, she always read the last chapter first! Strange perhaps but she said it helped her to understand the book better and to make sense of the important details and over look the less important ones.
Well, fellow Christians I am living out the mystery of my life and I too have read the end of the story. It in the last pages of the Bible, the Book of Revelation and it is very clear, Jesus wins. Jesus and all who are in him conquer overwhelmingly:
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. ….13The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. … There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Rev 19:7-20:5)
So there it is, Jesus wins. Don’t let current setbacks and troubling times distract you, Jesus wins. Get with him, stay on the winning team. It may be the end of the 4th Quarter, fourth down on our own 15 yard line, and we’re down 28-7 but Jesus is the Quarterback! We’re gonna win. Don’t doubt it, just believe.
Here is a wonderful excerpt from a homily that makes this same point. Fr. Bill Casey of the Fathers of Mercy. A lot of good strong priests and fine preachers in this order. You will probably recognize Fr. Casey from EWTN. Enjoy this powerful and brief word of encouragement!
I found this video out on YouTube. It is rather well done in articulating the Church Teaching against “Same-Sex Marriage.” It is sensitively done as well, making clear that the Church does not reject or “hate” individuals with homosexual orientation. Yet to speak the truth in love means that we must insist on abstinence from sex for all unmarried individuals. Further, we cannot depart from Biblical teaching on the nature and purpose of marriage. We must remain consistent with Biblical truth and the constant teaching of the Church. It is a rather brief video and I recommend you view it and share the link with others.