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CURRENT ISSUE: November 20, 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 20 • Oakland, CA
Bishops OK statements on Iraq, gays, contraception
BALTIMORE
(CNS) – During the public portion of their Nov. 13-16 fall general
meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. Catholic bishops called for “substantive
discussion” leading to “ a responsible transition in Iraq,”
outlined the preparation needed to receive Communion worthily, admonished
married couples to live the Church’s teaching against artificial
contraception, approved a set of guidelines for pastoral care of persons
with a homosexual inclination, and gave their OK for a “Directory
for Music and the Liturgy” for use in U.S. dioceses. They also approved
funding for the next phase of a study on clergy sexual abuse of minors.
Iraq
The bishops endorsed by unanimous voice vote the issuance of a statement
calling for a “substantive, civil and nonpartisan discussion”
leading to “a responsible transition in Iraq.”
“We hope our nation has moved beyond the divisive rhetoric of the
recent campaign and the shrill and shallow debate that distorts reality
and reduces the options to ‘cut and run’ versus ‘stay
the course,’” said the statement, issued in the name of Bishop
William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
“The (Bush) administration and the new Congress need to engage in
a collaborative dialogue that honestly assesses the situation in Iraq,
acknowledges past difficulties and miscalculations, recognizes and builds
on positive advances (e.g., broad participation in elections), and reaches
agreement on concrete steps to address the serious challenges that lie
ahead,” it said.
The four-page document was prepared by the USCCB Committee on International
Policy in collaboration with the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services
and the USCCB Administrative Committee, which approved its addition to
the agenda of the bishops’ meeting Nov. 11.
Receiving Communion
Their Communion statement, “’Happy Are Those Who Are called
to His Supper’: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist,”
calls on those in a state of serious sin to refrain from receiving Communion.
The bishops emphasized they were addressing all Catholics, and not just
politicians or any other group.
An effort to amend the document to specifically name politicians as among
those who need to examine their consciences before receiving the Eucharist
failed on a voice vote.
The document said all Catholics “should strive to receive Holy Communion
regularly, gratefully and worthily.”
“We may find ourselves in situations, however, where an examination
of conscience before God reveals to us that we should refrain from partaking
of the body and blood of Christ,” the bishops said.
But among the 79 amendments to the document was a warning that everyone
“should be cautious when making judgments about whether or not someone
else should receive Holy Communion.”
“In order to receive Holy Communion we must be in communion with
God and with the Church,” the document says.
A U.S. military chaplain touches the head of a
wounded Iraqi soldier inside a U.S. military hospital in the fortified
Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 30.
CNS PHOTO/THAIER al-SUDANI/REUTERS
Auxiliary Bishop Peter A. Rosazza of Hartford, Conn.,
signals his desire to speak.
CNS PHOTO/NANCY WIECHEC
“If
we are no longer in a state of grace because of mortal sin, we are seriously
obliged to refrain from receiving Holy Communion until we are reconciled
with God and the Church.”
Among examples of such sin, the document cites “committing murder,
including abortion and euthanasia; harboring deliberate hatred of others;
(and) sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult, or physical or verbal
abuse of others that causes grave physical or psychological harm.”
Other “serious violations of the law of love of God and of neighbor”
listed in the document included swearing a false oath, missing Mass on
Sundays or holy days without a serious reason, “acting in serious
disobedience against proper authority,” sexual activity “outside
the bonds of a valid marriage,” stealing, slander or involvement
with pornography.
The document criticized those who “give selective assent to the
teachings of the Church.”
But Catholics who have “honest doubt and confusion” about
some Church teachings “are welcome to partake of Holy Communion,
as long as they are prayerfully and honestly striving to understand the
truth of what the Church professes and are taking appropriate steps to
resolve their confusion and doubt,” the document says.
Homosexual
Catholics
The statement “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination:
Guidelines for Pastoral Care” reiterates Church teaching that all
homosexual acts are morally wrong but affirms the dignity of those with
homosexual inclinations and says that experiencing such an inclination
is not in itself sinful.
The bishops approved the statement 194-37 with one abstention, after turning
back a motion to send it back to their Committee on Doctrine, which drafted
the document, for more consultation and revision.
“These guidelines are intended to assist bishops in evaluating existing
or proposed programs and ministerial efforts (for ministry to those with
homosexual inclinations) and to provide direction and guidance for those
engaged in this ministry,” it says.
The statement says that “a clear understanding of the place of sexuality
within God’s plan for humanity” is needed to meet the challenges
posed by the issue of homosexuality.
“The complementary sexuality of man and woman is a gift from God
and ought to be respected as such,” it says.
It says the union of man and woman in marriage for the expression of marital
love and the procreation and education of children “is the order
of nature, an order whose source is ultimately the wisdom of God,”
and any sexual expression outside marriage “is disordered.”
Homosexual acts are “objectively sinful” and “the homosexual
inclination is objectively disordered,” although “simply having
the tendency is not a sin,” the statement says.
“It is crucially important to understand that saying a person has
a particular inclination that is disordered is not to say that the person
as a whole is disordered. ... While the particular inclination to homosexual
acts is disordered, the person retains his or her intrinsic human dignity
and value,” the statement says.
It says ministry to those with a homosexual inclination must be based
on sound Catholic moral teaching, which regards any sexual activity outside
marriage as sinful.
In its section on pastoral care the statement condemns “unjust discrimination
and harassment” of those with a homosexual inclination and stresses
the importance of a parish community that welcomes them as active, participating
members.
It adds, however, that “the Church has a right to deny roles of
service to those whose behavior violates her teaching. Such service may
seem to condone an immoral lifestyle and may even be an occasion of scandal.”
It says catechesis should help Catholics understand the fullness of Church
teaching on human sexuality and at the same time appreciate the dignity
of all people, condemning violence or unjust discrimination toward those
with a homosexual inclination.
It says Church ministers must not promote or bless homosexual unions.
The Church “does not support the adoption of children by same-sex
couples,” but it should not refuse baptism to such children if there
is “a well-founded hope that the children will be brought up in
the Catholic religion,” it says.
It encourages the formation of support groups for those with homosexual
tendencies and their families and emphasizes special pastoral care needs
for adolescents experiencing same-sex attractions.
Liturgical music
The hymn directory, approved 195-21 with five abstentions, is intended
to ensure that hymns used at Mass are doctrinally correct and based on
Scripture and liturgical texts. The document also includes norms saying
that each diocesan bishop is responsible for approving liturgical songs
in his diocese. The directory and norms now go to the Vatican for its
assent.
The norms for liturgical music say that the bishop in the diocese in which
a song is published is charged with approving the song, with the help
of a review committee made up of theologians, liturgists and musicians.
By a close voice vote, the bishops rejected an amendment proposed by Oakland
Bishop Allen H. Vigneron that would have required the Committee on the
Liturgy to draw up “a process for reviewing worship aids (hymnals,
seasonal booklets, etc.),” to be voted on by the bishops within
the next three years.
The three principles that should guide bishops’ decisions are that
songs be doctrinally correct, based in Scripture and liturgical texts
and “relatively fixed” in number, the document said.
The directory is intended to serve “not so much as a list of approved
and unapproved songs as a process by which bishops might regulate the
quality of the text of songs composed for use in the liturgy,” said
Bishop Trautman in an introduction to the document.
Natural
Family Planning
The contraception document, “Married Love and the Gift of Life,”
passed 220-11 with one abstention. It strongly supports natural family
planning, saying it “enables couples to cooperate with the body
as God designed it,” adding that contraception introduces “a
false note” that disturbs marital intimacy and contributes to a
decline in society’s respect for marriage and for life.
Natural family planning -- which describes several methods of family planning
based on the woman’s menstrual cycle -- “enables couples to
cooperate with the body as God designed it,” the bishops said.
On the other hand, “suppressing fertility by using contraception
denies part of the inherent meaning of married sexuality and does harm
to the couple’s unity, and is thereby considered objectively gravely
sinful,” they added.
Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, chairman of the bishops’
Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said it is the “first document
in many years in which the U.S. bishops are collectively addressing a
message on contraception directly to engaged and married couples,”
the cardinal said, adding that “this is our first word on the subject
in a long time and not our last word.”
In the document, the bishops disputed the view that the Church’s
opposition to contraception means that Catholic couples must “leave
their family size entirely to chance.”
“In married life, serious circumstances -- financial, physical,
psychological or those involving responsibilities to other family members
-- may arise to make an increase in family size untimely,” they
said. “The Church understands this, while encouraging couples to
take a generous view of children.”
That’s where natural family planning comes in, the bishops said.
The method helps couples avoid pregnancy by refraining from intercourse
for the few fertile days around the time of the woman’s ovulation.
“A couple need not desire or seek to have a child in each and every
act of intercourse,” the document said. “And it is not wrong
for couples to have intercourse even when they know the wife is naturally
infertile. ...
“But they should never act to suppress or curtail the life-giving
power given by God that is an integral part of what they pledged to each
other in their marriage vows,” the bishops added.
The bishops also cautioned Catholics that newer forms of contraception,
such as the “morning-after pill,” may cause an abortion if
taken after a sperm and egg have joined.
Sex abuse
The bishops allocated $335,000 for the next phases of a national study
on the causes and context of clergy sexual abuse of minors.
Patricia O’Donnell Ewers, chairwoman of the National Review Board
overseeing the bishops’ compliance with their child protection charter,
told the bishops Nov. 13, “I can’t emphasize enough how important
this study is for society as a whole” as well as for the Church.
The first study, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice
in New York, was considered a landmark in its field, and the new study
is expected to be similarly groundbreaking.
The board commissioned the college to do the follow-up on causes and context,
expected to cost around $3 million in November 2005
(Contributing to this roundup were Jerry Filteau, Nancy Frazier O’Brien,
George P. Matysek Jr. and Paula Glover in Baltimore.)
