I am somewhat amazed at the reactions to the synod's midterm report. The usual suspects are doing the usual things. Liberals are seeing the document as some sort of ground breaking change while conservatives are jumping up and down in a furor. I briefly perused the relatio last night and the one thing that struck me is that much of the document consists of "some bishops said this and other bishops said that". That was my first clue to the actual authority of the document. This morning I dug up a reasonably coherent report from Elizabeth Dias at Time detailing what the relatio actually is. Go read it while I get another coffee.
What the Vatican Really Said About Homosexuality
Elizabeth Dias, Time Oct. 14,2014
What the Vatican Really Said About Homosexuality
Elizabeth Dias, Time Oct. 14,2014
First, here’s what the document actually is:
The relatio is a mid-Synod snapshot of 200+ Catholic
leaders’ conversations that happened in the Synod hall last week. It is a
starting point for conversations as the Synod fathers start small group
discussions this week. It is a working text that identifies where
bishops need to “deepen or clarify our understanding,” as Cardinal Luis
Antonia Tagle put it in Monday’s press briefing. That means that the
topic of gays and Catholic life came up in the Synod conversations so
far and that it is a topic for continued reflection.
Second, here’s what the document is not:
The relatio is not a proscriptive text. It is not a decree.
It is not doctrine, and certainly not a doctrinal shift. It is also not
final. “These are not decisions that have been made nor simply points of
view,” the document concludes. “The reflections put forward, the fruit
of the Synodal dialogue that took place in great freedom and a spirit of
reciprocal listening, are intended to raise questions and indicate
perspectives that will have to be matured and made clearer by the
reflection of the local Churches in the year that separates us from the
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of bishops planned for October
2015.”
Freyr's first rule in dealing with Vatican documents... look at who signed it and where it came from. I will personally give this document the same attention I would anything else coming out of the press office.
That it has no authority is not the point; that the media and the Lombardi-Rosica crowd claim it does; or that it represents the Fathers IS the problem.
ReplyDeleteWith each passing hour more and more bishops are speaking out on the sinister hosting of this "counterfeit gospel" on the Church.
It is not necessary for the press office to claim that it is authoritative. All that is necessary is that enough people treat it as though it were. The real scandal is that a handful of clerics in an obscure office in the Vatican can succeed in turning the entire Catholic world upside down. By all means feed the flames. You know what they say in the PR game... any publicity is good publicity.
ReplyDeleteFreyr, we agree on the authority of this paper trash. The problem is it speaks volumes about the agenda and it is now fodder for the main stream media. I've just heard from Damian Goddard that he's been invited on CHCH tomorrow for a debate with guess who? Michael Coren! How's that, eh?
ReplyDeleteI find it curious that in one day weekend since Saturday 6000 words were written, edited, approved and translated into six languages.
The whole thing stinks and its not the smell of the sheeple.
It is sulphur.
The flames were fed by the media...
ReplyDelete“We’re now working from a position that’s virtually irredeemable,” said Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South Africa.
ReplyDelete“The message has gone out that this is what synod is saying, that this is what the Catholic Church is saying,” he said. “Whatever we say hereafter will seem like we’re doing damage control.”
This about sums it up.... sadly, blogs do not have the reach of the media which turned the unofficial, unauthoritative document into a whirlwind storm of "change" in the Catholic Church.
Michael Voris called a spade a spade. http://churchmilitant.tv/daily/?today=2014-10-16 He said the relatio was treachery from someone unidentified in the press office. The bishops didn't see the document before the world did. It's interesting because on the issue of homosexuality the opinion that appeared in the document comes from The New Homophiles, a group of Catholics who still want to call themselves "gay" while living a chaste lifestyle. Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute did an investigative report on this group for Crisis magazine. http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/the-new-homophiles
ReplyDeleteThe New Homophiles say that their "gayness" offered something to society, allowed them to contribute something unique. That came out of that treacherous relatio document. Austin really nailed it when he said this is not Catholicism. We don't celebrate who we are because of our sins. That's like being a terrible gossip, and then celebrating the fact that you know everything that is going on! LOL. I know everybody has something unique to offer to the Church. Certainly St. Augustine understood heresy better because he had lived a promiscuous lifestyle. But those are the good fruits that God brings out of an evil situation.
One of the new homophiles, Eve Tushnet said: "My lesbianism is part of why I form the friendships I form. It’s part of why I volunteer at a pregnancy center. Not because I’m attracted to the women I counsel, but because my connection to other women does have an adoring and erotic component, and I wanted to find a way to express that connection through works of mercy. My lesbianism is inextricable from who I am and how I live in the world. Therefore I can’t help but think it’s inextricable from my vocation.”
I reported this wrong thinking in the context of an article that relates the proper way the Church should look at homosexuality and homosexuals: http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-new-evangelists-bringing-christ.html#.VECsjEskOpU God bless you. Susan Fox www.christsfaithfulwitness.com