catholicsphere

There seems to be a need for answers among Catholics in New Jersey, based on this article, New gay rights leave Catholics with questions. And, perhaps New Jersey is not isolated.

As a seminarian, the Rev. Frank Agresti played devil’s advocate with the question of what the Catholic Church would say to a faithful same-sex couple who had won recognition from the government but craved the same from the church. [Now he says of the question...] “It’s a tough one. It’s a really tough one,” he said yesterday after celebrating Mass at St. Peter the Apostle Church. “Their love for each other is a valid love. … How does that fit in with God’s plan? I don’t know.”

With such answers, it is no wonder that Catholics such as Margaret Mitchell and Chad Dalzell are having difficulty understanding why the Church teaches as she does.

“I’m a little biased about it because I’m a Catholic, but if they think it is (love), then it’s their right,” said Margaret Mitchell, 74.

“God never really said anything as far as one man, one woman,” said Chad Dalzell, 24, another lifelong Catholic. “They’re still people.”

As I’ve seen the reporting and the commentary coming from ordinary people on the matter of same-sex marriage and homosexuality, there seems to be confusion on the issue particularly in terms of religious belief. That confusion seems to stem partly from the idea that homosexuals were “born that way”.

Regardless of whether sexual orientation is “pre-determined” people of faith should, and must, understand that the answer to the question matters little to the correct belief on the issue. Why is it irrelevant? Because as children of God, we are called to a life in relationship with God. In that relationship, God presents us a standard for living that gives us not only the proper enjoyment and perspective in this world, but also that proper understanding for living in the next.

Every person is called to turn from sin. We all struggle with certain things that are sinful. We do not make adultery, murder, theft, or greed, lust or gluttony acceptable because we may have been born with a tendency to commit such things. It is no different for homosexuality. Instead, Jesus says “take up your cross and follow me”. In fact, all are called to refrain from sex outside of marriage, something which we must, espcially in this day and age when we are surrounding by images and pressures, struggle to do. It is in this context that the Church teaches as she does about the dignity and respect that must be given to people who suffer with homosexual attraction, just as it must to those who stuggle with different sins.

It is unfortunate that there are Catholics who don’t understand this. Such as young Chad quoted in the article. It does not take long in reading the Bible to see that God does lay out His plan for the marriage covenant in the first chapters of Genesis.

Based on this knowledge of God’s plan and desire for the lives of His children, why would those who do not wish to accept such things want to be part of that family? The quest for the Church to sanction and accept gay marriage is part of an agenda to tear away at the means which God has ordained to make His will known. They want to secularize the Church so that those who struggle with guilt over their choices may feel absolved of that guilt. Otherwise, why would they want to be part of that which they don’t believe? That would be like the theist wanting to join the atheist club.

It does sound like a forthcoming document from the US Bishops will be faithful in addressing the issue, and trying to reach those who do not feel the church welcomes them. Hopefully, it will not leave open the possibility of rogue priests and parish leaders to allow those who are openly in violation of the moral law to circumvent the teachings, and confuse the issue for Catholics all the more.

[tags]church, catholic, bishops, gay, marriage, homosexual, sexuality, sin, Jesus, Christ, faith, love, God[/tags]