South African Catechism

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Apr 26, 2006

South African Bishop Kevin Dowling was invited to Washington to discuss the use of condoms...

... and you can already see what's coming, can't you?

You don't get invited to speak in Washington, and interviewed by the Washington Post, because you agree with traditional Catholic teaching.

Sure enough, Bishop Dowling doesn't.

It's not just that he, like several other prelates and theologians, sees a special problem for married couples coping with HIV infection. No, he wants to "rethink" the Church teaching entirely.

You should come up with a position which makes sense and which is in sync with the values we espouse, a nonjudgmental God and the infinite worth of a human being.

Inexplicably, my copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not include the part about a nonjudgmental God. Come to think of it, I wonder if I should capitalize the "g" here, since this doesn't sound like the God of Abraham and Isaac.

Sure enough, before the paragraph is ended, there's another clue that our hero is not completely "in sync" with the God of the Old Testament. He tells the Post:

Moral injunctions do not help people.

Too bad the bishop didn't tell God that, before Moses got to Mt. Sinai.