In response to the story at St. Cecilia Parish in Boston where the Archdiocese recently indefinitely postponed a Mass advertised with reference to Gay Pride Month, the weekly archdiocesan newspaper, The Pilot, has an editorial in this week's edition
Titled, A Teachable Moment, the editorial gives a brief summary of church teaching on sexuality and devotes the rest of the page to a lengthy excerpt from the U.S.C.C.B. 2006 document, Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care (available online only in PDF).
The editorial and the text from the bishops' document come with no surprises and break no new ground: this is the Church's teaching on sexuality.
That we welcome all to our parishes is not a question up for discussion but how we welcome everyone (straight, GLBT, married, single) in light of this teaching is a pastoral question facing many challenges.
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Thanks for linking the editorial.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, how we welcome all is the pastoral question. Then there is the question of how and when we go about presenting the Church's teachings on homosexuality. (One might wonder, for example, whether presenting "guidelines for pastoral care" to large numbers of people who are not engaged in pastoral ministry is the best way.) That there is a duty to teach, does not tell us precisely how to go about it. That there is no specific rule about how to go about it does not mean that the Church has no obligation to teach.
I have suggested elsewhere that the Archdiocese might do well to be more vigorous in calling people's attention to the availability of the ministry of Courage.
With Courage and conviction, I trust.
ReplyDeleteMary
I certainly hope that once the dust has settled in this latest dust-up, St. Cecelia's will have a Welcome Everyone Dinner.
ReplyDeleteI read that when St. Ann's closed in 2004, it had a Sunday evening mass that was attended by 300/400 students. Fr. Unni, who was leaving St. Ann's to go to St. Cecelia's, encouraged as many of the students to come as possible. Fr. Unni strikes me as a person who attracts parishioners because he is a welcoming person, a kind person who reaches out to all. Someone we might try to emulate.
Rosemary