Tag: In The News

Posted on

Proud U.S. Catholics celebrate the Respect for Marriage Act, and they want more

By Lana Leonard

Roman Catholic organizations celebrate the Respect for Marriage Act signing into law by recognizing the values of family and equality shared between Catholicism and the LGBTQ community.

Organizations like New Ways Ministry, DignityUSA, and religious leaders like Father James Martin speak to that strength through shared values, while advocating for the LGBTQ community and wanting more from equality. All these people and organizations have worked with GLAAD to advance LGBTQ acceptance within the Roman Catholic Church.

Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a 45-year old national Catholic ministry of justice and reconciliation for LGBT people and the church, reminds the people that even Pope Francis has said that LGBTQ couples deserve protections.

“Catholics want same-gender couples to receive the same societal protections and benefits that opposite-sex couples enjoy. Family stability and equality are strong Catholic values,” said DeBarnardo in a press release.

DeBernardo also says that two Catholic politician powershouses heralded RFMA into law.

“We are particularly proud that this bill was shepherded through the House of Representatives by a Catholic, Honorable Nancy Pelosi. That it was signed into law by a Catholic, President Joe Biden, is an even greater reason to be proud.  They are leaders who have imbibed Catholic Social Teaching, and their beliefs in the human dignity and equality of all people are inscribed in this Act,”  the New Ways Ministry executive director said.

Catholic support in today’s LGBTQ current events sheperds a new layer of hope among advocates in a time of religious extremism against LGBTQ communities and couples.

The US Conference for Catholic Bishops believes the Act works to slice away at religious freedom. “Obergefell created countless religious liberty conflicts, but the Act offers only limited protections,” said Chieko Noguchi of the USCCB Public Affairs Office in a statement. “Those protections fail to resolve the main problem with the Act: in any context in which conflicts between religious beliefs and same-sex civil marriage arise, the Act will be used as evidence that religious believers must surrender to the state’s interest in recognizing same-sex civil marriage.”

However, to DeBernardo this is the perfect time for the Catholic hierarchy, for bishops, for USCCB, to open up to the long-requested, and long overdue dialogue about equality for LGBTQ people.

“The Catholic bishops’ opposition is based on the idea that the bill does not provide enough religious exemptions, yet other religious leaders, legal analysts, and politicians who value faith are confident that the bill protects religious institutions,” said DeBernardo.

Some conservative Christian denominations like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Seventh Day Adventists have come to support laws like RFMA. They aren’t the only ones.

Over the last six years from 2015 to 2021 diverse support among various religions have increased their acceptance for LGBTQ legal protections, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

Of all Americans 79% are in favor of LGBTQ protections. As for Catholics of color the support for LGBTQ protections has increased by 16% since 2015 (87%), Latine Catholic support has grown 8% with 83% in favor of LGBTQ protections, with white Catholics showing 7% growth at 80% in favor of LGBTQ protections, according to PRRI research.

The growing support shows as DignityUSA, the nation’s foremost organization of Catholics working for justice, equality, and full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in our church and society, believes the RFMA affirms that the majority of US Catholics of all political affiliations believe that same-sex marriage should be a legal right.

Yet, Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, believes that this isn’t a complete victory.

“Moreover, it fails to address the ongoing inequities, legal and cultural, that continue to push LGBTQIA+ people and people of color out of the center of many communities.

“Indeed, DignityUSA is deeply concerned that the final version of the Respect for Marriage Act will in some ways actually work to perpetuate the inequity that interracial and same-sex couples have long experienced in our country,” said Duddy-Burke in a press release.

Unfortunately the RFMA comes to Pres. Biden’s desk under the fear that interracial marriages and LGBTQ marriages are threatened by the current Supreme Court majority. Many are preparing for Obergefell v. Hodges to be overturned, in turn, resulting in LGBTQ and interracial marriages a state-by-state issue. RFMA allows for couples to travel to states where it’s legal to  marry with nationwide recognition regardless of the state law of a couples’ home states.

Ross Murray, Vice President of the GLAAD Media Institute, and a deacon in an Evangelical Lutheran Church, told the National Catholic Reporter that the fear of Obergefell overturning makes the Respect for Marriage Act’s passing as imperative as it is.

“Knowing that we have heard justices signal their intent to want to review and potentially roll back protections for LGBTQ Americans is what made this legislation so incredibly important,” said Murray.

However, Murray also notes that the implementation of religious freedom was important to the political process.

Sec. 6 No Impact on Religious Liberty or Conscience of RFMA protects religious groups who oppose LGBTQ marriage from having to provide “any services, facilities, or goods for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage.” Additionally, the law prevents churches and religious nonprofits that decline recognition of LGBTQ marriages from having their tax-exemption status revised or revoked.

This amendment is what DignityUSA deems as a partial victory, and uplifts what USCCB thinks of as a compromise to religious freedom. That is, wherever religious freedom has power, it will be used to take away the freedom of LGBTQ people, and not only in marriage, but in day-to-day life.

Father James Martin used this moment in history to uplift Catholic values in support of LGBTQ people.

“Never forget that both John the Baptist and Jesus sided with the poor, the marginalized and the disenfranchised,” Father Martin wrote on Twitter yesterday.

While the LGBTQ community continues to fight for equality, the community advocacy will carry on into a new chapter of policy: the Equality Act.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Pope Francis ‘Mansplains Why Women Cannot Be Ordained as Priests

— The “Petrine Principle” makes the ministry impossible, but they are excellent administrators

Pope Francis leads the weekly general audience in Paolo VI Hall at the Vatican, 17 August 2022.

by Amanda James

In an interview published in America Magazine today, Pope Francis ‘mansplained why women cannot be ordained as priests, but he emphasized the important role they can play in the life of the Church.

“Many women feel pain because they cannot be ordained priests. What would you say to a woman who is already serving in the life of the Church but who still feels called to be a priest?” asked Kerry Webber, executive editor of the monthly magazine published by the Jesuits of the United States.

Pope Francis explained by referring to two distinct principles: the Petrine and the Marian. “The Petrine principle is that of ministry,” he said. Since this is the principle that guides the Church, it means that women cannot ever be ordained. “But there is another principle that is still more important, about which we do not speak, that is the Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity (femineidad) in the Church, of the woman in the Church, where the Church sees a mirror of herself because she is a woman and a spouse.”

The Petrine Principle, or Theory as it is also called, refers to Christ’s bestowing of the “keys of the Kingdom” on Peter (the first pope, according to Roman Catholic tradition) and partly on Christ’s words: “And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek: Petros], and on this rock [Greek: petra] I will build my church.” It makes no mention of gender or indeed, of ordination, as the Catholic Church had not been founded yet in the time of Jesus and therefore fails to justify the banning of women to ordination.

Reiterating often-cited images of the Church as marriage and women as spouses, Pope Francis hoped to strengthen his argument by pointing out alternatives: “The way is not only [ordained] ministry. The Church is woman. The Church is a spouse. We have not developed a theology of women that reflects this,” Pope Francis said.

“A church with only the Petrine principle would be a church that one would think is reduced to its ministerial dimension, nothing else. But the Church is more than a ministry. It is the whole people of God. The Church is woman. The Church is a spouse. Therefore, the dignity of women is mirrored in this way,” he once again repeated.

“This is an abbreviated explanation, but I wanted to highlight the two theological principles: the Petrine principle and the Marian principle that make up the Church.”

Hoping to mollify anyone who has not yet found the metaphor of women being mere spouses to the Church as satisfactory, the Pope adds that if “the woman does not enter into the ministerial life [it] is not a deprivation. No. Your place is that which is much more important and which we have yet to develop, the catechesis about women in the way of the Marian principle”.

Pope Francis said that in addition to the Petrine and the Marian principles, there is still another function of the Body of Christ that is particularly suited to women: “There is a third way: the administrative way… which is not a theological thing, it is something of normal administration. And, in this aspect, I believe we have to give more space to women,” Pope Francis said.

The Holy Father then pointed to the women he has appointed, noting that women generally do a “better” job managing things.

He praised the women who work in “administration” by inadvertently recalling the long-established image of women as accomplished domestic organizers and managers: “Here in the Vatican, the places where we have put women are functioning better…When a woman enters politics or manages things, generally she does better. Many economists are women, and they are renewing the economy in a constructive way,” he said.

Finally, in a stunning reiteration of the stereotypes that have kept women relegated to the home and the office merely as nurturers or support for men, he stated that, “The woman is a mother and sees the mystery of the Church more clearly than we men. For this reason, the advice of a woman is very important, and the decision of a woman is better.”  And for that reason, she is valued as an “administrator”.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Catholic bishops face a choice: Pastors or politicians?

In this Friday, May 1, 2020 file photo, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez gives a blessing after leading a brief liturgy at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. The nation’s Catholic bishops begin their fall annual meeting Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, where they plan to elect new leaders — a vote that may signal whether they want to be more closely aligned with Pope Francis’ agenda or maintain a more formal distance.

by John Kenneth White

The last two years have been tumultuous ones for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. On Inauguration Day 2021, its president, Archbishop Jose Gomez, sent a churlish message to Joe Biden, condemning him for pledging “to pursue certain politics that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage and gender.”

From there, the conference engaged in a prolonged discussion as to whether Biden and other prominent Catholic politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), should be denied communion — a ban that was imposed by Pelosi’s San Francisco archbishop, Salvatore J. Cordileone. After months of debate, the bishops punted on the issue and are currently spending $14 million to promote a National Eucharistic Revival.

With Gomez’s departure this month, the bishops were faced with selecting a new conference president. Over the past year, the Vatican has made it abundantly clear it is displeased with the American bishops and wants them more in alignment with Rome. In October, President Biden visited Pope Francis, and the pontiff went out of his way to call Biden “a good Catholic.”

A few months earlier, Speaker Pelosi and her husband, Paul, had an emotional meeting with the pope where she received a papal blessing and took communion at a Vatican mass. Prior to the bishops casting their votes for a new leader, the papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, pointedly reminded them that they were “cum Petro and sub Petro,” translating, “with Peter and under Peter.” He listed what Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Ky., described as the pope’s “greatest hits,” with an emphasis on the environment, immigration and promoting a greater sense of brotherhood and sisterhood — priorities that Stowe laments the bishops have ignored.

Thirty minutes after Pierre’s remarks, Timothy Broglio was elected as conference president. Broglio is no stranger to the culture wars. As archbishop of the Military Services, he supported a U.S. Air Force chaplain whose homily blamed “effeminate” gay priests for clergy sexual abuse. Broglio has repeatedly claimed that the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals are “directly related to homosexuality” — a position rejected by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice report, which found that “no single psychological, developmental, or behavioral characteristic differentiated priests who abused minors from those who did not.”

For two years, the worldwide Catholic Church has been engaged in a “synodal process,” a common term used for listening sessions. Repeatedly, the laity have expressed their desire that the church welcome migrants, ethnic minorities, the poor and divorced and remarried couples into its increasingly empty pews.

In its report to the Vatican, the bishops wrote, “Concerns about how to respond to the needs of these diverse groups surfaced in every synthesis.” But it was questions concerning LGBTQ Catholics that were especially troubling to the laity, with “practically all” consultations stating that the lack of welcome contributed to the hemorrhaging of young people from the faith. For his part, Pope Francis has gone to extraordinary lengths to convey his sense of fraternity with gay Catholics. This month, Francis welcomed Fr. James Martin, well-known in the U.S. for his outreach ministry to gay Catholics, to an extraordinary private meeting to discuss his ministry and offer support, previously telling Fr. Martin to “continue this way.”

Addressing the conference, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, it’s newly elected vice president, said, “We cannot credibly speak in a polarized society as long as our own house is divided.” But like so many other institutions, the Catholic Church has fallen victim to today’s cultural chasms. For some Catholics, the solution lies in a smaller, more homogenous, and culturally conservative church, set apart from a secular world that it so easily condemns, and producing leaders who are willing to wage war with the cultural politics of the moment.

For others, the choice is to be pastoral, listening without condemning and meeting people “where they are.” Pope Francis clearly prefers the latter approach, writing that when “victory consists in eliminating one’s opponents, how is it possible to raise our sights to recognize our neighbors or to help those who have fallen along the way?”

Bishop Stowe laments that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is becoming “more and more irrelevant” to the average Catholic, while other organizations are filling the void — including Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities, Caritas and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

Over the past two decades, one thing is clear: The bishops make for lousy politicians. But they could be pretty good pastors. It’s their choice.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

What will the Pope’s latest synodality surprise mean?

—The final phase of the synod on synodality will now be spread over two gatherings, in October 2023 and October 2024.

Pope Francis has extended the timescale of the synod on synodality, so that the October 2023 will no longer be the last word.

by Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis pulled off a “synodal surprise” last Sunday, when he announced that the final phase of the synod on synodality due to take place in October 2023 will now be spread over two gatherings, with the second one a year later, in October 2024. 

The decision to extend the global synod by a further year is significant. One source in Rome told me that it indicates the Pope intends to remain in post until at least the end of the autumn of 2024.

On the other hand, there is the possibility that a conclave could occur in the middle of the process, in the same way that the Second Vatican Council was begun by one Pope (John XXIII) and shepherded to its conclusion by another (Paul VI).

The extension of the synod suggests three things.

First, it underlines that this is a process rather than a one-off event: Francis wants synodality to become what he calls a “constitutive” part of the Church.

The decision to spread the final phase of the synod over two sessions shows he believes more time is needed for the synodal way to become embedded in the life of the Church, and is an implicit recognition of the resistance to the process. It also seeks to tackle the mentality in some quarters that the synod will soon be “over”.

Second, it is recognised that changes in discipline and developments in teaching need a careful process of assimilation and cannot be rushed.

The Pope made his latest announcement two days after meeting the synod office leadership team and having read the synthesis of what the local churches and communities around the world have been saying. Calls for expanded roles for women, for the inclusion of LGBT Catholics and for the problem of clericalism to be addressed feature prominently. All these questions are likely to be hotly contested.

The “fruits of the synodal process underway are many”, Francis said last Sunday, but they still need to come to “full maturity”.

Third, by spreading the final phase of the synod over two years it is less likely to become mired in an ideological clash. Rather than seeking to have the last word, the October 2023 meeting will be an important step in a longer journey.

Something similar happened during the synod on the family in 2014 and 2015: the added time allowed for the bishops to find a resolution to the contested issue of communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, leading to the Pope opening a path for this to happen in his teaching document, Amoris Laetitia.

It’s also possible that when Francis gathers the bishops in the Vatican in 2023 and 2024 he will seek to move them away from voting on particular issues but instead seek consensus on the principles of a synodal Church.

Throughout this pontificate, the synod of bishops has become the vehicle through which the Pope has implemented his pastoral agenda. The structure, however, is evolving, and in 2018 Francis opened the possibility for the synod to exercise formal teaching authority in the document Episcopalis Communio.

Although the Pope has the final say, the synod’s authority has been significantly beefed up.

Another evolution has been in the name of the synod structure, which in Francis’ constitution for the Roman Curia, Praedicate Evangelium, is termed the “synod” rather than the “synod of bishops”. This suggests a desire for a body which includes all the People of God and not just the hierarchy, although it will primarily be the bishops who meet in assembly in the Vatican.

With its greater authority and lengthier time span, some have likened the global synod to a “Vatican III”. A synod, however, is not an ecumenical council, and the global synod is an attempt to implement the reforms of Vatican II, not to convene a successor.

The structure of the synod of bishops, however, was established by Pope Paul VI in 1965 at the end of Vatican II to continue the conciliar experience. Might the move to a synodal church eventually lead to a Vatican III in the longer term?

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

German Bishops Fail To Pass Document Radically Altering Church Teaching On Sex

By John Rigolizzo

Liberal Catholic bishops in Germany failed to approve a document changing the Church’s teachings on sex and sexuality.

The 30-page document, entitled “Life in succeeding relationships – The principles of renewed sexual ethics,” was brought to a vote at a meeting of the German Bishops’ Conference’s “Synodal Way” in Frankfurt Thursday. The resolution to approve needed a two-thirds majority to be adopted, but it did not meet that threshold. The document would have radically reformed the Church’s teachings around same-sex relationships, gender identity, and masturbation, among others.

“We are convinced that it will not be possible to re-orientate pastoral care without re-defining the emphasis of the Church’s sexual teaching to a significant degree,” the preamble to the document stated. “This is why we are suggesting such a major re-emphasis, as we consider it urgently necessary to overcome some of the restrictions in questions of sexuality, for reasons of sexual science as well as theology. In particular, the teaching that sexual intercourse is only ethically legitimate in the context of a lawful marriage, and only with a permanent openness to the transmission of life, has caused a wide rift to open up between the Magisterium and the faithful. This threatens to completely obscure other important aspects of God’s Good News which could have a liberating effect on shaping dignified sexuality.”

A total of 33 bishops voted to approve the document; 21 voted against it. Three bishops abstained from voting, The Pillar reported.

The leaders of the conference expressed outrage at the result. Delegates took the floor for two hours after the vote concluded, blasting those who voted to disapprove, and claiming that the move would foment division in the Church.

Bishop Georg Bätzing, the president of the bishops’ conference, threatened to take the document to Pope Francis’ worldwide bishops’ synod in 2023, despite failing to approve it. “We will take it to the level of the universal church when we are in Rome in November for the ad limina visit when we go about preparing the World Synod with the continental bishops’ conferences in January,” he said, via Fox News.

The first reform the German bishops pushed was for the Church to honor all forms of personal sexual identity, including gender identity. The German bishops’ document also affirms non-binary and so-called “intersex” identities: “[b]iological gender cannot be clearly determined in binary terms in some cases,” the document states, noting that intersex people have physical and chromosomal variance, while transgender people have a difference of “gender perception” from their biological sex. “As a Church, we must respect the individual self-perception of the sexual identity of any person as an inviolable part of their uniqueness as made in God’s image,” the document says.

The document went on to call for a radical reform of the teaching on homosexuality. Church doctrine declares homosexual acts as a mortal sin that completely separates the individual from God. The document called on the Church to reject that. “Same-sex sexuality – also expressed in sexual acts – is therefore not a sin that causes separation from God, and it is not to be judged as intrinsically bad,” the document declared.

The document would also have radically altered Church teachings on masturbation, which is also a mortal sin under Church doctrine. “Experiencing one’s own body through self-stimulation in a pleasurable way can be an important building block of self-acceptance for everyone,” the document declares instead.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!