Sir, – It is difficult to understand why some members of the Roman Catholic Church expect the Vatican to lift its ban on blessing same sex-unions. The institutional church is very clear on the issue when it states that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered . . . Under no circumstances can they be approved” (Catechism of the Catholic Church). The church reiterated its traditional stance on February 22nd when the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that same-sex unions cannot be blessed because God “does not and cannot bless sin”.
It would be difficult for the church to now change its position on this issue without losing credibility.
Given that most Catholics in Ireland now express opinions about contraception, divorce, and abortion that are incompatible with papal teaching, why now look to the Vatican for enlightenment on same-sex marriage? It seems pointless! An alternative for Catholics is indicated in Patsy McGarry’s “LGBT groups upset over blessings” (News, March 17th), when he writes that Catholic priests are now increasingly bestowing blessings on same-sex couples in private. This would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. From a historical perspective, this seems like progress. – Yours, etc,
Dr DON O’LEARY,
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Mallow,
Co Cork.
A chara, – Mary McAleese seems not to have read with any great attention the Vatican’s recent pronouncement concerning same-sex blessings.
True, the document does apply to homosexual people the same logic that it applies to all Catholics who are not married: “[I]t is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (ie, outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life).”
This teaching can hardly be said to discriminate against homosexuals – after all, it applies to anyone who is not married.
At the same time, the document is clear that, “The Christian community and its Pastors are called to welcome with respect and sensitivity persons with homosexual inclinations.”
It adds, moreover, that blessings can be given “to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching.”
This language is hardly “gratuitously cruel in the extreme” (News, March 19th).
Some, like Mrs McAleese, might not be happy with the church’s sacramental logic being applied to all its members without exception.
That unhappiness, however, is not to be confused with the church’s stance towards homosexual persons – they are to be welcomed and any discrimination against them is inadmissible.
All alike are called to cooperate with the transforming power of God’s grace in their lives. – Is mise,
Fr KEVIN E
O’REILLY, OP,
Professor of MoralTheology,
Pontifical University
of St Thomas Aquinas,
Rome.