Posted by Cathy Taggart I certainly agree that this is a conversation we need to have, and I think it is important that we look not just at issues, but at the social and historical context in which Church teachings have evolved. I myself feel at odds with the Church's teaching on marriage/family/sexuality, and this is because, so far as I can see, it has its roots in the values of an earlier secular culture more so than in the Gospel, and certainly, more so in the the real-world experience of family life! We need moral norms, but surely specific moral teachings should be forged in the hurly-burly of the real world, with all its ambiguities, uncertainties and contradictions. Take, for instance, the Church's teaching on divorce. On the face of it, this comes directly from Jesus, but to me it seems unthinkable that Jesus would have intended his teaching to be made into such a rigid, black-and-white law: this was the very thing for which he most criticised the religious leaders of his own day! It also amazes me how some people seem to see the Church as a kind of club: they take the view that if you don't accept all its rules, you should get out. I find it more meaningful to use the time-honoured, in fact biblical, image of the Church as a body. Since Christ is the head, I think of the Church hierarchy as being the nervous system: transmitting "messages" from the head to the rest of the body. Of course, the members of the body have to obey these "messages", but it is a two-way thing: sometimes a part of the body will send back a "message": "I'm hurting", "I can't function properly", etc. Now, no-one in their right mind would suggest that, as soon as a part of your body starts to hurt or feel sick, you get rid of it. That's a very desperate last resort! But unless an ACCURATE diagnosis of the problem can be made, and something done about it, the whole body will suffer. A final thought: a healthy body always has organs whose job it is to get rid of the "waste products" of the body!
on August 15, 2005, 5:20 pm
Many thanks to Fr Michael Whelan for his very thoughtful and well-rounded essay on "Freedom and Conscience", and also to you, Kevin, for making it available to us.
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