Here’s Rod Dreher accusing me of being unhinged. He then pivots to news about Pope Francis:
He warned against the common view in society that “you can call everything family, right?”
“What is being proposed is not marriage, it’s an association. But it’s not marriage! It’s necessary to say these things very clearly and we have to say it!” Pope Francis stressed.
He lamented that there are so many “new forms” of unions which are “totally destructive and limiting the greatness of the love of marriage.”
From the context, it does not appear he was referring to gay unions. But surely these statements only reinforce my point. Francis is not changing doctrine of any kind. He has no intention of altering the Church’s understanding of the sacrament of marriage. I have never uttered a word suggesting that either. Francis is merely trying to reach the wounded in the field hospital of the church, which means finding ways to reach and evangelize the divorced or the re-married or the gay or lesbian Catholic and not act like the Pharisees and spurn their faith or be callous toward them. What Francis is talking about is a pastoral, not a theological, revolution. He is arguing that these truths be told with mercy and humility. Here’s the passage from the mid-week Relatio that prompts Ross’s and Rod’s alarm:
Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?
It is perfectly clear that this is not about changing doctrine:
It is necessary to accept people in their concrete being, to know how to support their search, to encourage the wish for God and the will to feel fully part of the Church, also on the part of those who have experienced failure or find themselves in the most diverse situations.
I honestly cannot see how this is incompatible with any formal or informal teaching of the church. That it is objectionable to so many seems to me remarkable. Ross thinks it’s wrong to value and accept homosexual orientation? It’s wrong to offer us a fraternal space in the church? So wrong, in fact, that it could force the church to a precipice or eventual schism? A reader offers his view:
The whole tenor of Douthat’s column – which aptly summarizes the criticisms of the synod by churchmen such as Cardinal Burke and Archbishops Chaput and Mueller – is so much that of the prodigal son’s older brother. The orthodox and traditionalists are going to leave because the Church welcomes in more people (those people)? This variety of envy is part of human nature. But who on earth holds up the older brother as a role model?
Today, I asked if the Cheneyite right believes that the American captives of ISIS were tortured. We wondered how big the legal cannabis market could become; whether Kobani is a distraction in the Syrian civil war; and if we face a lone wolf Jihadist problem in the US. Plus: roads that actually consider our fellow animals; and Rand Paul’s encouraging foreign policy realism; and another fall Window View to take your breath away. What is it about windows and autumn?
The most popular post of the day was A Declaration of War On Francis; followed by The End of Gamer Culture?
Many of today’s posts were updated with your emails – read them all here. You can always leave your unfiltered comments at our Facebook page and @sullydish. 20 more readers became subscribers today. You can join them here – and get access to all the readons and Deep Dish – for a little as $1.99 month. Gift subscriptions are available here. Dish t-shirts are for sale here, including the new “Know Dope” shirts, which are detailed here. A subscriber writes:
That Chicago Sun Times story is chilling. Thank you all for providing a diving board into topics of which I was unaware I even had any interest! Every single day I find something on the blog that sends me down a rabbit hole of links and thoughts which in turn allow me to open another window in my own way of viewing the world. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to be a subscriber?
One more reader for the day finally “surrenders” over the Book Club discussion:
Okay, okay: I finally caved, and bought Sam Harris’s book.
See you in the morning.
(Photo: Arabic graffiti on the wall reads “Death to Islamic State (IS)” in the Jurf al-Sakhr area, north of the Shiite shrine city of Karbala on October 26, 2014. Iraqi officials said that government forces backed by Shiite militias retook Jurf al-Sakhr, southwest of Baghdad, from Islamic State (IS) group militants on October 25. By Haidar Hamdani/AFP/Getty Images.)
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