From the blog
(story link via Atrios)
So, it's happened. The rift is beginning to widen in the Catholic community. Some 100 parishoners were denied Communion in a St. Paul church today for wearing rainbow-colored sashes in support of homosexuals. One of those denied Communion was a nun, Sister Gabriel Herbers. Archbishop Harry Flynn said the decision was made because those people wearing the sashes were protesting Church teaching. Just a thought, but wasn't it this stifling of discussion that led to the Reformation?
I firmly believe if it had not been Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger chosen as the new Pope, things would not be coming to this. I was hoping there would be a different Cardinal, so the Church could finally have the dialogue it has long been lacking about the status of gay people. Instead, our new pope is a man with limited tolerance, who had Father Thomas Reese, the editor of
America, the Catholic magazine, fired for publishing articles that expressed dissent with Ratzinger's positions as guardian of church doctrine.
I'm Catholic. I'm in dissent with the Church's position on several issues right now, but I still practice on my own. I pray, I follow the Holy Days, I observe Lent, etc. I think the only way the Church can have a true future is to have a brutally frank conversation about where our religion is going. Jesus changed a lot of tenets, and made enemies because he challenged the Old Testament. He demonstrated that God has flexibility in his teachings, that there are not as many moral absolutes as we once thought. The evangelical movement claims to be part of Jesus' teachings, but ignores much of what the Son of God actually taught. Their tolerance is very limited, considering Jesus saved an adulteress, a prostitute, and lepers. Pope Benedict XVI is unfortunately part of this movement, in a sense.
If this conversation does not take place, Catholicism will experience another schism. Many dioceses in South America and Africa are breaking the rule about contraception in order to try to prevent the spread of AIDS. Priests in South America often marry or have relationships in the alley, so to say. It is not enough to "just say no." The idea of sex purely for procreation is antiquated. Married couples, let alone the unmarried ones, enjoy having sex. When it comes to AIDS, as Nick Kristof pointed out in a recent column, it's beginning to spread more among married couples in Africa because they don't know they're infected. This is where condoms could save thousands, if not millions of lives.
Also, every other religion in the world allows their preachers to marry. Why not Catholicism? Having children is a gift from God, so why should priests be prevented from having this gift? Furthermore, wouldn't this help raise the number of priests in Catholicism, considering that we have a genuine crisis in our lack of priests. What keeps many men from joining the priesthood is an inability to partake in what is part of natural instincts, the desire to raise a family. More men are committing to marriage and monogamous relationships than ever. I mean, around the time I was 13, I was thinking that I might be a priest, but the idea of not having a family kept me away. It does the same to many others.
It might be a foreign concept in America right now, but Darwin's law applies to the Catholic Church of 2005: Evolve or slowly become extinct.