The Boston
Globe
Bishops stress sexual issues and warn on
Communion
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff |
November 15, 2006
BALTIMORE -- The Catholic bishops of the
United States overwhelmingly approved new
documents yesterday, exhorting Catholics
to refrain from using artificial birth
control, describing gay sex as immoral,
and saying that anyone who disagrees with
key church teachings should not take
Communion.
The statements mark the first time the
bishops have attempted to explain and
offer guidance on longstanding church
teachings, in light of recent
controversies.
The bishops said current events, including
the legalization of same-sex marriage in
Massachusetts and the 2004 presidential
candidacy of Senator John F. Kerry, a
Catholic Democrat from Massachusetts who
supports abortion rights, prompted them to
speak out.
They acknowledged that most married
Catholics -- 96 percent, according to
their own estimate -- use birth control,
and the bishops said they recognize that
the church's teachings on homosexuality
are contested in American society.
"To be a Catholic is a challenge, and to
be a Catholic requires a certain choice,
and these are the choices that are
consistent with the Gospel of Jesus," the
chairman of the bishops' doctrine
committee, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of
Paterson, N.J., said during a press
conference.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas
City, Kan., also speaking at the press
conference, said: "As teachers, we have an
obligation to teach, not just about the
things people agree with, but the
difficult things as well. . . . We have a
responsibility to try and help our people
understand things that, because of the
culture being hostile, aren't easily
accessible to them."
The documents approved yesterday drew
criticism from liberal Catholic
organizations. Call to Action, a reform
organization, said "the bishops are going
against everything for which Communion
stands" by emphasizing the reasons people
should not seek Communion.
New Ways Ministry, an organization focused
on outreach to gay Catholics, called the
bishops' guidelines "out of touch" and
said "this document tries to turn back the
clock three decades." And Catholics for a
Free Choice, an organization that supports
abortion rights, said that " if the
bishops continue making pronouncements
such as those issued this week in
Baltimore, they will find themselves
increasingly isolated."
The Communion document was prompted by the
2004 controversy among the bishops over
Kerry. During the presidential campaign, a
handful of bishops said Kerry should be
denied Communion for opposing a key church
teaching; most bishops, including Cardinal
Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, said Communion
was a matter for the conscience of the
worshiper, not for the judgment of the
priest or bishop.
The Communion document endorses the less
confrontational approach taken by O'Malley
and other bishops, declaring that
Catholics who "knowingly and obstinately .
. . reject the defined doctrines of the
church" should not seek to receive
Communion, but it does not advise any
action by priests or bishops against
politicians who oppose church doctrine and
yet seek to receive Communion. The
document also declares that people guilty
of mortal sin should not seek to receive
Communion without first going to
confession; among the disqualifying
behaviors, according to the bishops, is
"engaging in sexual activity outside the
bonds of a valid marriage" and "failing to
worship God by missing Mass on Sundays . .
. without a serious reason."
The document on contraception, which the
bishops plan to publish as a pamphlet for
distribution to couples preparing for
marriage, is titled "Married Love and the
Gift of Life." "Suppressing fertility by
using contraception denies part of the
inherent meaning of married sexuality and
does harm to the couple's unity," the
document declares.
The document on gays, titled "Ministry to
Persons with a Homosexual Inclination:
Guidelines for Pastoral Care," is intended
to provide criteria for the church's
ministries to gays and lesbians.
Those outreach programs, which exist in
multiple parishes and dioceses including
Boston, are often the target of criticism
by conservatives. In 1999, Pope John Paul
II barred a US priest, the Rev. Robert
Nugent, and nun, Sister Jeannine Gramick,
from "any pastoral work involving
homosexual persons," declaring that the
two had refused to communicate the
church's teaching about "the intrinsic
evil of homosexual acts and the objective
disorder of the homosexual inclination."
The bishops were encouraged to produce the
document approved yesterday by the Vatican
agency then headed by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI.
The document says outreach programs must
be clear about the teachings on
homosexuality. It says that such gays
should be welcome in churches, but that
"the church has a right to deny roles of
service to those whose behavior violates
her teaching" because "such service might
be an occasion of scandal and appear as
condoning immoral lifestyles."
The document also says there should be no
hatred of or discrimination against gays.
But it reiterates the church's teaching
that "homosexual acts are immoral" and
that "the homosexual inclination is
objectively disordered." It declares that
the church opposes same-sex marriage and
cannot bless civil unions and says that
the church does not support adoption by
gay couples.
"Because homosexual acts cannot fulfill
the natural end of human sexuality, they
are never morally acceptable," Serratelli
said.
O'Malley said the church's opposition to
the use of artificial contraception and to
same-sex marriage is linked by the
church's belief that heterosexual marriage
is divinely ordained because of its role
in procreation.
"Our teachings are all interconnected, and
we're hoping as people reflect on what
marriage and sexuality mean for us, it
will help people understand why we're so
against a redefinition of marriage," he
said.
Also yesterday, the bishops elected
O'Malley the next chairman of the
committee on world missions.
Michael Paulson can be reached at
mpaulson@
globe.com.
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