Saturday, October 12, 2013

Is Church teaching clear to parishioners?

Pope Francis, it will be recalled, in his recent interview in Civiltà Cattolica insisted that we should not insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods," just as he said in his America interview that the church had grown "obsessed" with these issues.

Quite apart from the question whether any priest in any parish of the world can be found who ever preaches on these issues, let alone "obsesses" over them, it should not pass notice that Pope Francis remarks in the former interview that the "teaching of the Church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the Church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."

The operative term here is "clear."

But is the teaching of the Church on these matters clear? I don't mean in the catechisms but in parishes. Is it clear to the pew sitters?

Guy Noir comments:
I demur....

Ask any Catholic these questions, and see how CLEAR the Church teaching actually is....
  1. Is Homosexuality a mortal sin?
  2. Can you be homosexual, be involved in a physical relationship, and be a faithful Catholic?
  3. Is gay marriage always a bad thing?
  4. Why can't gays adopt need kids?
  5. What is the big deal with sexual strictures since most people have happy sex lives outside of marriage without being promiscuous?
  6. Isn't it time the Church repented of its dated views?
I think for all his talk of laity and reform, Pope Francis shows himself to be the ultimate case example of someway clerically hidebound. How on earth could anything else explain the thinking that teaching on these maters, at any practical level, is remotely clear? Homosexuality... how 'wrong' is it anyway, and why, and can't that change? I can't think of more than two or three voices ever answering these things in anything but timid tones.

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