DIARY:
Ruminations, Occasional thoughts & happenings - as they
arise
Guardians of the Faith at Work
December / January 2000
There y'are now!
We need not be worried about the 'Deposit of
Faith' as some starchy theologians would call it.
The
eagle-eyed Doctrine of Faith Congregation in Rome spotted that a priest
and an nun in America had been trying to help homosexual and lesbian
people and their families cope with the fact that homosexuality is a
gravely disturbing phenomenon. For thirty years or so Sr Jeanine
Grammick and Fr Robert Nugent have been talking to everyone involved and
trying to assure them that hell is not the inevitable destination for
people afflicted with this type of sexual
orientation.
Having examined the situation over a
period of years The Faith Congregation decided that Sr Jeanine and Fr
Robert should be prohibited "from any pastoral work involving homosexual
persons."
I was shocked to the core when I read
about this in the pages of the marvelous magazine Céide, published
in the West of Ireland, and I wrote the following letter:
We Catholics tend not to disagree with Church Authorities. We tend to look upon ordained ministers, bishops, monseigneurs etc. as the guys who really know! They've got an Authority given by Christ - the man who is also God, for goodness sake! So you tend not to disagree - except maybe at parish level, where the odd PP is told by the odd angry parishioner to go and take a running jump at himself - for he made a haims of organising a fete and never was any use as a footballer anyway! But we must get away from this attitude at a theological level. If a church official is mistaken it must be pointed out that he is in error - politely of course, no matter what happens at parochial level. The truth is so important. (See Authority and Essay on Authority for some thoughts.)
By the way, Céide is published at Moy Valley Resources, Ballina, Co. Mayo, Republic of Ireland.
email: ceide@tinet.ie It's well worth ordering & reading - a first class publication of permanent interest to people who think - I stress think - about Ireland.
I hope to God the editor will forgive me reproducing the above without his permission. I'll check with him asap.
[Checked with him! Ah Dear! Céide folded about a year ago! That's a pity. It was a great, independent magazine!]
My God! It's a long time since I made an entry in this page! Just too much happening to record it all .....