Australian prelate: time to ‘rethink’ communication of Church’s teaching on homosexuality
October 10, 2014
Archbishop Denis Hart, who had led the Archdiocese of Melbourne since 2001, has told Vatican Radio that the Church needs to “rethink” how to communicate its teaching on homosexuality.
He said, “That’s true in what the theology expresses, in that Catechism of the Catholic Church, about people being ‘disordered,’ things being ‘intrinsically evil,’” according to a Vatican Radio transcript. (Archbishop Hart was apparently referring to the teaching of the Catechism that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”)
“You say that to a parent who has a gay son or daughter and they just cannot understand that this child whom they love and who they have nurtured-- might have chosen a thing that they don’t approve of-– but is to be totally rejected because of that,” he continued. “And I think we have to be faithful to our doctrine and our teaching and practice have to go hand in hand, but we can do so with mercy and love and help people to realize that whatever may be the challenges that our in their life, they are respected and loved by the Church.”
He added:
There are people who are separated and divorced, there are people who are same-sex attracted, there are people who are really struggling in their marriage, and wondering how they will go. The bishops have been emphasizing that we are pastors. When our people suffer we feel for them, when our people are bereaved we cry with them, when our people are burdened with sickness we struggle with them, when people are uncertain about where they can go or are suffering terrible material poverty the Church has to be there with them.
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Posted by: -
Oct. 12, 2014 8:55 AM ET USA
Filioque, r u saying that homosexuality is not disordered, not sinful, or just that Church teaching should not lead with that? And if it's the latter, when should the sinfulness of the act be addressed?
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Posted by: bruno.cicconi7491 -
Oct. 12, 2014 2:37 AM ET USA
I am very bothered by the fact that Bishop wants to dress his capitulation as mercy. I always had this thought when reading things about the last times - if it is written, then how come will people not perceive, but be caught by surprise? For it is written that lawlesness (anomia) will afflict us. And it becomes clearer to me now, that slowly, bit by bit, we close our ears and harden out hearts, and stubbornly ignore what we received.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Oct. 11, 2014 9:30 PM ET USA
I listened to the transcript of the Archbishop's intervention with dismay. He actually said that the theology of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) expresses that "people" are disordered and "things" are intrinsically evil. To call this sloppy language would be an understatement. His statement is downright misleading. The CCC in reality teaches that the "inclination" is "objectively disordered" and that "acts" are "intrinsically evil." I hope that somebody set him straight.
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Posted by: filioque -
Oct. 11, 2014 3:32 PM ET USA
Strangely, theology of the body was not mentioned in the working documents for the Synod. Pope St. John Paul II was barely mentioned and his great exhortation Familiaris consortio was recently dismissed by a prominent cardinal as obsolete. We have a very rich body of work to draw on. Why is it being ignored? One gets the impression that prelates have not been paying attention to this topic for more than 40 years. They never accepted Humanae vitae so they cannot deal with sexuality generally
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Posted by: filioque -
Oct. 11, 2014 3:22 PM ET USA
We will never teach well if we start with the proposition that homosexuality is disordered and acting on it is sinful. We must begin with sexuality, its integral role in personality, its connection to our being made in the image of God, most of all that it is sharing in the creative activity of God. Pope St. John Paul II gave us the theology of the body to develop this understanding and his rather dense work is now available in very accessible study group materials and other presentations.
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Posted by: FredC -
Oct. 11, 2014 10:55 AM ET USA
We must continue to love our children, correcting them as needed, but in a firm and convincing way. Ignoring the error fails to correct. Cutting them off from the family is not a good way of convincing, because communication is necessary. The issue of homosexuality is no different from cohabitation in this regard.
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Posted by: bnewman -
Oct. 11, 2014 12:28 AM ET USA
The hypothetical situations posed here seem to be of one particular type, which I cannot imagine ever occurring. I suppose there must be some homosexuals who might believe that homosexual acts are sinful acts: and despite this simply want to be accepted by their families. I have met many gay people in my life: but I have never actually met any with this belief. Rather the presupposition seems to be that Catholics are simply thoughtless bigots, with no justification for their position at all.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Oct. 10, 2014 9:24 PM ET USA
Clergy who reflect the love of Jesus to their parishioners are the ones who draw them in closer to God. Wrapping up in self-righteousness virtue is poisonous to the human spirit,both on the one doling it out and on those receiving end.
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Posted by: Defender -
Oct. 10, 2014 6:12 PM ET USA
It would have helped if the bishops taught what the Church has always taught, instead of trying to repackage it or avoid it. My junior high students had never been taught what the Church teaches, their parents and the priests never mentioned it. I went through what the Church teaches with them and they understood what was being taught and why. (Their parents appreciated it, too.) Why is this?
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Posted by: 1Jn416 -
Oct. 10, 2014 5:06 PM ET USA
I think many good Catholics are afraid that a change in communication means a change of doctrine. Why can't it mean trying to explain things to people in a way in which they'd be more open to the Gospel? The Church historically has explained things in different ways to different times and cultures. It doesn't necessarily mean heresy is in the works to say we can try to reach people by explaining the same truths, the same Good News, in a different manner.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Oct. 10, 2014 2:38 PM ET USA
“You say that to a parent who has a gay son or daughter and they just cannot understand that this child whom they love and who they have nurtured-- might have chosen a thing that they don’t approve of-– but is to be totally rejected because of that,” he continued. Have you noticed, Bishop, that something similar is true of what we say about murder, thievery, adultery, lying, and a host of other disagreeable matters? Should we try to sweeten those pills too? Or are we to single out sodomy?
