The other day, I wrote about Bishop O'Donoghue's letter to the Catholic Caring Services of Lancaster (More from Lancaster). The day after the Bishop's Letter, the Catholic Caring Services offered a curious response.The new legislation has posed difficulty for the Church as it would appear to some to challenge the Church’s views on marriage.The "some" here include the Holy Father, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Bishop O'Donoghue. The Sexual Orientation Regulations do not "appear to challenge" Catholic teaching on marriage, they flatly contradict it.
The press statement asserts that the charity has taken legal advice, undergone extensive consultation and "discernment". Despite this, it does not seem to be able to offer any answer at all to the suggestions offered by Bishop O'Donoghue based upon his consultation with lawyers, moral theologians, and those involved in adoption.
Jim Cullen, Chief Executive of the Charity, said:
“So our work continues. We will remain a Catholic Charity, operating the same services, with the same staff, same values and same ethos."This is a peculiar use of the word "Catholic". There seems to be a fashion according to which people think that they can define themselves as Catholic without any reference to the teaching of the Catholic Church.
So I will try this out. Although I am a human being by nature, I consider that in this universe of the Cartesian self, I can define myself to be whatever I choose. Therefore from now, I am an aardvark. Does this work?
12 comments:
Jim Cullen seems to be suggesting a continuity of service provision before SORS and after SORS- business as usual- does that mean that before SORS, his agency was matching children to homosexual adoptive couples?
No. But then I never was a disciple of Descartes, anyway.
As to Catholic Caring Services, the Trustees cannot, I think, unilaterally alter the nature of the Charity.
Also, an organisation cannot call itself Catholic when it isn't, can it ? Doesn't Canon Law have something anything to say about this?
A better example to have chosen, in the circumstances, might have been Humpty-Dumpty.
In this context, "discernment" is a very futurechurch word, isn't it! It means "I thought for a second or two to confirm that my gut feeling is completely right and of course it was".
Father Tim, I am a bit worried about you becoming an aardvark. I think we need more good priests like you and not that many aardvarks or whatever...
Why not come to Finland again at a suitable time?
Best greetings from the whole family!
Marko, Pilvi and the girls
Henceforth we shall all you Father Aardvark, then. ;)
It is indeed a very curious response, and a disappointing one. It glosses over virtually all the points made by Bishop O'Donoghue, and I wonder how the CCS reach their conclusion that they can still call themselves Catholic, when the bishop has adequatly pointed out that they can't if they continue in this manner.
Sounds like a good call to me!
Fr. Tim,
There seems to be an emerging pseudo-science that seeks to legitimize homosexuality (and undermine Catholic teaching on the matter) by asserting that homosexual behaviour is widespread in the animal kingdom and is therefore perfectly natural. A comment made by an apologist on a recent "Holy Smoke" blog post exemplifies this viewpoint:
"Emerging discoveries [about animal behaviour] undermine the church's claim that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered...Many (within and outside the church) believe that the church's current stance/ understanding will prove to be another Galileo moment."
The problem is not so much that this erroneous theory exists -- there was a lot of racialist and eugenicist pseudo-science around in the 19th and early 20th centuries -- but that it seems to have gained ground among leading Catholics.
It's maddening that the scientific heresy that led to Auschwitz in the last century is now being followed by a new scientific heresy that is leading us back to Sodom and Gomorrah in the 21st.
Abraham Lincoln quote alert: "How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
Father if your conscience tells you you are an aardvark then it only right and good that you are actually an aardvark, and people should respect you for who you are!
At one time we would lock you up for your own safety, but those were unenlightened times. Now we realise individual freedom trumps the preservation of life, so you go and do what aardvarks do, as long as your a Catholic aardvark of course ;)
It's all very well being sarcastic, but who's to say they're not "Catholic"? It's not as if the Bishop of Lancaster is going to level any canonical penalties against them just for obeying the law. If he thinks homosexuality is so terrible, perhaps he could get his priests to start preaching against it!
Miss Book, I'd have thought the answer to your question is obvious. But I don't really see the difference between placing children with homosexual "couples" and placing them with homosexuals per se - apart from the obvious difference that a homosexual couple will be able to look after a child better than one homosexual on his own.
Peterhwright, if the worst came to worst we'd just see a gay version of what's going on at John and Lizzie's over abortion referrals. Anyone on any board who makes a fuss will simply be invited to leave and then frozen out of the debate as too embarrassing to take part.
Aardvark of the Covenant, pray for us!
Well he may institute canonical penalties for all we know if they continue to act against the teaching of the Catholic Church. I think that he has said what needs to be said in a reasonable and charitable manner.
Francis makes some good points about that 'old pup' the animal homosexuality myth and how this alleged behaviour makes it somehow justifiable for Human beings to behave in this degrading and dysfunctional behaviour.
Here is a good link for anyone who wants some reasoned and scientific back-up for why this particular route of justifying homosexual behaviour is so completely flawed:
http://www.narth.com/docs/animalmyth.html
With this infernal homosexualisation of teh world and the latest from Lifesite News that public homosexual behaviour in parks and open spaces will now be virtually legal as police have been told not to interfere with the human rights of the 'engaged homosexual couples'.
Francis - it's impossible for to me to believe that we are only heading for the Sodom and Gomorrha of the 21st century. Surely we have reached a point now where we have far surpassed the diabolical behaviour and perversion of those Biblical times. I marvel in awe at the love and patience of Our Heavenly Father, for us His children. Prayer and reparation remain our true and only weapons.
Holy Michael the Archangel.......
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