Category: Out Of Touch

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Catholic bishops to flock: Fight same-sex marriage

Washington’s four Roman Catholic bishops have taken a foursquare stand against legalization of same-sex marriage, a cause rapidly gaining momentum in the State Legislature.

Catholics should contact their legislators and tell them to “defend the current definition of marriage” against legislation to legalize marriage between same-sex couples, the bishops declared in a strongly worded pastoral letter posted late Friday.

Society’s recognition of marriage is “related to bringing children into the world and the continuation of the human race,” argue the bishops, and any change of definition would add “to the forces already undermining family life today.”

The letter is signed by Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich, Yakima Bishop Joseph J. Tyson, and Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo. It is published on the Archdiocese of Seattle web site.

“My first reaction, as a practicing Catholic, is that this is very hurtful,” said State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chief sponsor of marriage equality. Murray is a gay man in a 20-year committed relationship.

Earlier Friday, 23 senators introduced legislation to allow same-sex couples to receive marriage licenses. The marriage equality legislation was requested by Gov. Christine Gregoire, who is also a Catholic.

The Catholic bishops root their argument in what they see as the role of procreation in marriage.

“Marriage is certainly about the public recognition of a relationship between a man and a woman,” said the letter. “But it is much more. Marriage in faith and societal traditions is acknowledged as the foundation of civilization.”

“It has long been recognized that the stability of society depends on the stability of family life in which a man and a woman conceive and nurture new life.”

The Catholic bishops argue that “civil recognition of marriage” has sought to bestow “on countless generations of children the incomparable benefits of a loving mother and father committed to one another in lifelong union.”

“Were the definition of marriage to change, there would be no special laws to support and recognize the irreplacable contribution that these married couples make to society, and to the common good by bringing to life the next generation.”

The definition of marriage has been undergoing change by courts and legislators. Six states and the District of Columbia have legalized marriage between couples of the same sex. Nine states, including Washington, have extended legal recognition and rights to domestic partners.

Several of the states where same-sex marriage is legal — notably Massachusetts and Connecticut — are heavily Catholic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, a Catholic, pushed his legislature to approve same-sex marriage last spring. Another Catholic governor, Martin O’Malley of Maryland, is campaigning for approval. Gov. Jerry Brown of California, a former seminarian, has refused to defend a narrowly passed initiative that rolled back gay marriage.

Catholic bishops in Washington have taken progressive stands on numerous social issues. They have championed the rights of immigrants, defended social programs, opposed the death penalty, and even taken a strong position for restoring decimated Columbia River salmon runs.

But the statement released Friday upholds traditional Catholic teachings, and appeals beyond the faithful.

“Upholding the present definition of marriage does not depend on anyone’s religious beliefs,” the bishops argue. “Washington State’s present law defining marriage as a ‘civil contract between a male and a female’ is grounded not in faith, but in reason and the experience of society.

“It recognizes the value of marriage as a bond of personal relationships but also in terms of the unique and irreplacable potential of a man and woman to conceive and nurture new life, thus contributing to the continuation of the human race.”

The bishops end their letter by calling for practical action, adding.

“We urge you to contact your own State Senator and your two State Representatives to request that they defend the current legal definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”

The letter will be made available — or read — at Saturday vigil and Sunday masses around the state.

The reaction is hard to predict.

Bishops often refer to their “flock,” but American Catholics do not behavie like sheep. An ABC News/Washington Post poll last spring found that 63 percent of Catholics in the U.S. support civil marriage betwen same-sex couples.

In Minnesota, where the Catholic Church is supporting a constitutional amendment entrenching heterosexual marriage, Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedy has issued a warning to priests:

“There ought not to be open dissension on this issue. If any have private reservations, I do not wish that they be shared publicly. If anyone believes in conscience he cannot cooperate, I want him to contact me directly and I will plan to respond personally.”

As in New York, the legislation introduced in Olympia Friday would allow churches and clergy full rights in terms of who they choose to marry, and whether to allow marriage on church property.

“As the bill is written, the church would never be forced to marry people of the same sex or divorced people,” said Murray.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/Catholic-bishops-to-flock-Fight-same-sex-marriage-2520855.php#ixzz1jjCZfmIT

Complete Article HERE!

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Bishops don’t speak for the flock on same-sex marriage

COMMENTARY — Joel Connelly

Our state’s Catholic bishops came out strongly against same-sex marriage this past weekend, and appealed for members of the flock to contact their legislators and tell them to uphold the traditional definition of marriage.

The bishops’ letter left this recently returned Catholic perplexed at the way my shepherds view their faith and human commitment . . . and how they treat people I know who are in loving, committed same-gender relationships, in several cases doing a splendid job of raising children.

The bishops used biology to defend the “present definition of marriage”, returning again and again to a theme they described as “the unique and irreplacable potential of a man and woman to conceive and nurture new life thus contributing to the continuation of the human race.”

We humans are, however, created by God as emotional and spiritual and reasoning beings. Is society to legally “recognize” committeed partnerships only for the potential and purpose of procreation?

“Jesus befriended those who were marginalized because He knew it was only in the security of loving, unconditional relationships that hearts and lives are healed,” argues writer Justin Cannon, reflecting the Christian faith as taught to us by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Not only healed, but enriched. I’ve witnessed a warm, very traditional moment over the years. A goofy, dreamy smile crosses the face of a friend, who after years of playing the field announces “Well, I met this woman (or guy)!” It signals a readiness to settle down. My natural reaction is to say, “You lucky dog!” and to be there, in affection and support, when the knot is tied.

Life together is a natural passage in life. Yet, according to “natural law” the Catholic church frowns on my friends who fall in love with somebody of their own gender. It violates nature, according to a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops statement, because such “inherently non-procreative” relationships “cannot be given the status of marriage.”

The church’s positions are, as state Sen. Ed Murray put it Friday night, “hurtful” as well as contradictory.

Out of one side of its mouth, the church condemns “all forms of unjust discrimination, harrassment and abuse” against gays and lesbians. At the same time, the Cathechism of the Catholic Church describes “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” as “objectively disordered.”

The bishops see themselves as shepherds, but American Catholics are not sheep. They think and act independently. A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that nearly three quarters of Catholics favor letting gays and lesbians marry (43 percent) or form civil unions (31 percent).

“Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall,” the survey concluded.

The church is also hurting itself: Its social activism, defense of human dignity and witness to peace should make it a beacon for all who seek justice. Instead, the church is pilloried as an instrument of reaction.

Its wounds are self inflicted, a classic case of clerical error. As the National Catholic Reporter put it, editorializing after New York legislators approved marriage equality last spring:

“Even if the bishops had a persuasive case to make and the legislative tools at their disposal, their public conduct in recent years — wholesale excommunications, railing at politicians, denial of honorary degrees and speaking platforms at Catholic institutions, using the Eucharist as a political bludgeon, refusing to entertain any questions or dissenting opinions, and engaging in open warfare with the community’s thinkers as well as those, especially women, who have loyally served the church — has resulted in a kind of episcopal caricature, the common scolds of the religion world, the caustic party of ‘no’.”

A couple examples: Bishop Nichlas DiMarzio of Brooklyn directed that his diocese is “not to bestow or accept honors, nor to texend a platform of any kind to any state elected official, in all our parishes and churches for the forseeable.”

Archbishop John Nienstedy of Minneapolis is pushing an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. He recently issued a fiat to diocexan priests: “There ought not to be open dissension on this issue. If any have private preservations, I do not wish that they be shared publicly.”

These guys are losing touch, and costing the church credibility.

Public opinion, among believers and non-believers, is undergoing rapid change. The change is rooted in day-to-day human experience.

Contacts with gays and lesbians — as family members, co-workers and friends — underscores the absurdity of such phrases as “objectively disordered.” As NCR noted: “The label is not only demeaning but to contemporary Christians has no resonance with the heart of the Gospel.”

The best advice, which Catholic bishops in Washington and elsewhere should heed, came recently from Nicholas Cafardi, formerly legal counsel to the Diocese of Pittsburgh and formerly a board member of the bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth:

“We need to give it up. This is not defeatism. This is simply following Jesus in the Gospels, who besides telling us not to act on our fears, also told us to render to Caesar what it Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Civil marriage is Caesar’s.”

Complete Article HERE!

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Catholic Diocese spends $1M on priest sexual abuse cases

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese spent more than $1 million during four months of 2011 in connection with priest sexual abuse cases, according to a diocesan report.

The report shows a diocese insurance program incurred $631,553 in costs relating to clergy sexual abuse from July through October. It also paid $427,707 in connection with an independent investigation led by former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves at the request of the diocese.

No legal costs have been paid from that fund or any other diocesan fund for the defense of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a priest who was charged last year in state and federal courts with possession of child pornography, the report says. Ratigan’s arrest sparked a flood of lawsuits and resulted in an indictment against Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese on misdemeanor charges of failing to report suspicions of child sexual abuse.

The figures — the most detailed the diocese has provided on the costs related to priest sex abuse cases — were released in a five-page document that was published in The Catholic Key, the diocesan newspaper, and posted on the diocese website.

In a letter with the report, Finn called the document an overview of how the diocese has fulfilled the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a groundbreaking document that U.S. bishops approved 10 years ago at the height of the church’s sex abuse scandal.

“We have taken many important steps to prevent abuse from happening in diocesan, parish or school settings,” Finn said.

But critics said it was unfortunate that the diocese has had to spend so much on sex abuse cases.

“It’s a shame that the diocese spent a million on this when they could’ve used it for the real purposes of the church,” said Patrick Wall of California, a canon lawyer and former Roman Catholic priest who has worked on behalf of clergy sexual abuse victims since 2002. “That’s a million dollars that couldn’t be used to help the widows and the orphans and the poor on the street.”

Church officials have said that the money doesn’t come directly from offerings.

Funding for the Diocesan Property and Casualty Insurance Program “comes from insurance premiums paid by parishes, schools, cemeteries, and Catholic Charities, as well as interest income on insurance reserves,” according to the report.

The insurance program is not funded by money paid by parishes to support diocesan ministries, offices and programs, nor is it funded by money given to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, the report says. Money from the appeal goes toward paying for social and emergency services, parish-based ministry grants and educational programs.

But Nicholas Cafardi, a law professor at Duquesne University and former chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Youth, said no matter how the funding is described, the money ultimately comes from parishioners.

“It’s simple logic, really,” Cafardi said. “Every penny the church has today has its origins in the charity of the faithful. They may have insurance policies, but the premiums to pay these insurance policies come from the collection plates.”

Rebecca Summers, spokeswoman for the diocese, said Friday that the report was issued because the diocese had received a number of questions about its safe environment programs and expenses.

“Our purpose in publishing this Special Report is to be responsive — in an open and transparent way — to our Catholic community and to those we serve,” Summers said. “We recognize that, through the stewardship of the people of this diocese, we can remain resolute in our commitment to the mission and ministry of the church.”

The report says the $631,000 paid from the diocesan insurance program in the four-month period last year includes $5,285 for counseling requested by victims or their family members and legal costs for defending the diocese, its employees and priests who are named in 24 pending lawsuits involving sexual abuse allegations from the 1960 through 1980s.

Of the money that went toward the Graves report, $77,432 was to the diocese’s legal counsel for file retrieval, document reviews and interviews conducted for the investigation.

The report also shows that the insurance program paid a total of $14.8 million on issues related to priest sex abuse allegations from July 1, 2002, through Oct. 31, 2011.

That includes a $10 million settlement paid to 47 victims or their family members in 2008 and $4.3 million in legal costs, the report says.

Money also went for safe environment training for adults and children and counseling for victims.

In his letter, Finn said that although the diocese has taken many steps to protect children from abuse, he knows the work will never be completed.

“Together — as bishop, clergy, religious, staff, volunteers and families — we must continue to do all within our power.”

Cafardi, who is a canon lawyer, said the diocese’s hefty expenses are understandable.

“Given the circumstances they find themselves in, I don’t think those are disproportional expenses, but the bigger issue is, wouldn’t they have been better off keeping the terms of the (U.S. Bishops’) charter and following their own internal policies and not finding themselves in the situation they’re in?” he said.

The Graves investigation, released in September, found that diocesan leaders failed to follow their own policies and procedures in responding to reports of child sexual abuse. It laid out a set of recommendations.

Graves said Friday that he hadn’t yet seen the diocese report. However, he said, “When we gave them our report, I believed that they were going to implement virtually everything in the report. And I have no reason to believe any different today.”

The diocese report describes a series of prevention measures that have been implemented to create a safe environment for children, including criminal background screening of clergy and employees, a three-hour training session called “Protecting God’s Children” and education programs for children and youth.

Last year, the diocese established a Department of Child and Youth Protection and hired an independent ombudsman to receive and investigate sexual abuse allegations. The ombudsman also is to report all allegations of sexual abuse of a minor to law enforcement.

According to the report, the earliest allegation of sexual abuse of a minor occurred in 1948 and was reported 60 years later. The diocese to date has received 108 reports of sexual abuse, the report says.

A total of 23 diocesan priests have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors, seven of whom were accused after they died. Of the remaining 16, the report says, four are in the process of being dismissed from the priesthood; six retired and were later barred from ministry; three have died since being accused; two are on administrative leave; and one has been dismissed from the priesthood.

The four priests who are in the process of being formally dismissed have been the subject of credible accusations, the report says. Included among the four is Ratigan, the only priest named in the report.

U.S. dioceses and religious orders have spent billions on priest sex abuse cases, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. In a report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the organization said the costs associated with child sex abuse in 2010 was $123.7 million for dioceses and $25.9 million for religious orders.

Cafardi acknowledged that enormous amounts have been spent but said the focus shouldn’t be on the costs involved.

“The proper measure of the tragedy is not in the dollars that are paid,” he said. “The proper measure of the tragedy is in the lives that were ruined.”

Complete Article HERE!

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Archbishop orders priests to oppose or stay silent on gay-marriage

“There ought not be open dissension on this issue,” is the message the Catholic hierarchy is telling priests in Minnesota — “this issue” being same-sex marriage.

In a private speech to Minnesota’s priests last October, Archbishop John C. Nienstedt said that any priest who disagreed with the church’s efforts to place a constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples should remain silent. Any disagreements should be brought to him personally, he said. The Catholic Church in Minnesota has been a driving force for the anti-same-sex-marriage amendment since it passed onto the 2012 ballot last May.

Nienstedt later sent the text of that speech to priests who were unable to participate in the gathering. Someone in the church recently leaked the text to the Progressive Catholic Voice, a group working for reform within the church. On Thursday, PCV published statements condemning Nienstedt’s speech.

In the speech, Nienstedt told the priests he expects participation in getting the amendment passed from everyone within the church:

It is my expectation that all the priests and deacons in this Archdiocese will support this venture and cooperate with us in the important efforts that lie ahead. The gravity of this struggle, and the radical consequences of inaction propels me to place a solemn charge upon you all — on your ordination day, you made a promise to promote and defend all that the Church teaches. I call upon that promise in this effort to defend marriage. There ought not be open dissension on this issue. If any have personal reservations, I do not wish that they be shared publicly. If anyone believes in conscience that he cannot cooperate, I want him to contact me directly and I will plan to respond personally.

Nienstedt also noted that he’s created teams of “a priest and a married couple” to go into Catholic schools to talk about the amendment.

In a public statement, various members of Progressive Catholic Voice said the Archbishop’s direction is unbelievable.

“When I first read this letter I couldn’t believe that the Archbishop was telling priests and deacons to be silent if they were opposed to the marriage amendment,” said Paula Ruddy, parishioner at Minneapolis’ St. Boniface. “Is one’s position on whether the State constitution should be amended a matter of Church doctrine? How are Catholics to form their consciences if their pastors are not candid with them?”

Ruddy is also a member of the editorial board of the Progressive Catholic Voice.

That group’s editor, Michael Bayly, called the speech problematic.

“The Archbishop’s letter is problematic in many ways,” he said. “As a gay man, I find it particularly offensive that he can’t even bring himself to name gay and lesbian people. We’re simply a ‘minority’ seemingly out to destroy the church and civilization. Such an absurd caricature would be funny if not for the hurtful and damaging consequences to individuals, couples and families resulting from the Archbishop’s anti-marriage equality activism.”

Minnesota’s Catholic hierarchy has come under intense scrutiny over its support for the anti-gay constitutional amendment.

In the run-up to the 2010 gubernatorial election, the church sent out approximately 400,000 DVDs and mailings urging Catholics to vote for Republican Tom Emmer, the only candidate in the race who opposed marriage equality for same-sex couples and a staunch Catholic.

The campaign, paid for by an anonymous donor and produced by the Knight of Columbus, sparked protests against the church.

More recently, the Archdiocese’s lobbying wing, the Minnesota Catholic Conference, has joined with the National Organization for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council to form the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition, a group dedicated to passing the amendment in November.

Complete Article HERE!

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New church group to assist gays draws criticism

A new program by the Archdiocese of Hartford to provide a spiritual support system to assist men and women with same-sex attractions to live chaste lives has drawn criticism from the gay community who say it can do more harm than good.

The new program called Courage, which has chapters around the world, does not condone physical sex between same-sex partners. But it creates a “spiritual support system which would assist men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love,” according to the Courage website.

“We really needed to do something because a lot of people are hurting, because families are torn apart by this, and we really need to be responsive,” said Deacon Robert Pallotti, who operates the Courage program in Connecticut.
“We do have a pastoral responsibility to do all we can to make people feel welcome in the church.”

Catholic pro-gay groups generally had a negative reaction to Courage.
“Courage does not want to convert you to become heterosexual, so in some ways, it’s a little more enlightened that the other programs that the Catholic Church has had for gays,” said Phil Attey, executive director of the national group, Catholics for Equality. “But at its core it’s still rooted in dangerous, harmful and barbaric thinking. The idea that you can suppress someone’s sexuality and still have that person develop into a happy, well-adjusted person, well, there’s very little evidence that that’s possible.”

Attey, however, said the church’s stance on gays isn’t pushing him out of his faith.

“Most non-Catholics don’t understand the Catholic experience, which is very much rooted in family and community,” Attey said. “It’s not unlike someone who is a Jew. He might not attend his synagogue, but that doesn’t make him any less Jewish. We will always be Catholic, regardless of what comes out of our hierarchy.”

Attey said that most rank-and-file Catholics, in fact, support the gay community, and because of this, gays feel comfortable in the church.
“American Catholics are the most supportive faith group in the country on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues. That may come as some as a surprise to a lot of people, given the harsh statements from the hierarchy, but if you look at the people and the `body church,’ it’s the most pro-gay church in the country.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke of the Dignity USA agrees. Dignity USA is the nation’s largest advocacy group for LGBT Catholics.

“You really have to differentiate between Catholics and the church hierarchy,” she said. “Even the Catholics who go to church every single week are more supportive toward gays than the population as a whole.”

She said that this might spring from the Church’s demands for the humane treatment of a host of other groups that have often go neglected and even hated — prisoners, the sick, the poor, men on death row, and so forth.

“Catholics are more supportive of gays than any other denomination according to the Public Region Research Group, and that surprises a lot of people,” she said.
As for the future, Attey said he doesn’t expect the Vatican to change its posture on gays anytime soon.

“We don’t expect any dogmatic change on LGBT issues anytime soon, but what we do expect is that more and more Catholics will be speaking out on their own on LGBT rights,” Attey said.

“This is a place where the leaders have to catch up with the truth that Catholics are living out every single day in their families and in the workplace,” said Duddy-Burke.

Pallotti said not all of the hierarchy in the archdiocese was on board with Courage from the outset.

“Many of them were fine with this, but we wanted to educate those deacons who had a reluctance to get involved or had some resistance, and many were dealing with their own personal feelings on this,” Pallotti said.
He said that Courage is sanctioned by the Vatican as the “only approved approach.”

The Rev. Paul Check of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, who runs the Courage meetings, explained that Courage “addresses homosexuality as a lived reality in the lives of individual people.”

Check said that “there’s no doubt” of the difficulty of the church’s teaching on homosexuality.

“But we have a way for people to live this teaching, and that’s where Courage comes in,” Check said. “Really, as a matter of natural justice and pastoral charity, we have to have a way for people to live that teaching. It’s difficult and challenging, but it helps people with this particular struggle.”

The roots of the Connecticut Courage chapter grew in the gay marriage debate in the state, Pallotti said.

“I was very fearful of the emotional backlash that was I was witnessing in Connecticut during the gay marriage debate,” Pallotti said. “So I went to the archbishop and I said, `OK, yeah, this is our position (to oppose gay marriage), but I’m concerned about people who are whipping up hate against gays as if they have the Plague or something — and some Christian churches were doing that. We had to confront this head-on.”

The Connecticut Courage chapter will meet twice a month “somewhere in Greater Hartford,” he said, and the exact location will be disclosed only to those who plan to participate. If there’s sufficient interest, other chapters might be set up in the state.

Complete Article HERE!