Civil Unions rather than "Marriage"

I really believe lesbian and gay partners' rights should be protected.  I believe civil unions would do that...

So what do you think?

Abortion Mill

Anonymous has asked this question:

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Has anybody else read this article in the Virginian Pilot?

January 19, 2011 11:13 PM

Condom use among (male) prostitutes... and others

The lesser of two evils? What about couples where one has HIV/AIDS and the other not? Can condom use be "responsible sex"? Will the Pope's remarks eventually open the door for contraceptive use in "other limited cases"?

A Provocative Article about Priestly Celibacy

National Catholic Reporter's James Carroll, has written a comprehensive but provocative article in the June 9th issue which describes why progressives in the Church believe that priestly celibacy is a major reason why the Church is experiencing its present problems.

Please take the time to read this interesting article:

Mandatory Celibacy at the Heart of What's Wrong

I hope you will also take time to comment.

A different perspective ~ sexual abuse and clerical celibacy

Another good NCR article on the recent abuse scandal in Germany and Ireland. This one by Hans Küng - Ratzinger's Responsibility. Whether you like the National Catholic Reporter or not, it contains many hard-hitting articles that will cause you to think out of the box... and hopefully broaden your understanding of the issues.

Excellent NCR Article about Pope Benedict and the Sexual Abuse Crisis in Germany

This National Catholic Reporter article by John L. Allen, Jr., "Will Ratzinger's past trump Benedict's present" is a very extensive analysis of the history of the sexual abuse scandal in the Church and how the Vatican has reacted to the scandal in the past and the present. I think it is a fair article and an important one. It begins:

"Gino Burresi may sound like the name of a shortstop from the '50s, but among Vatican insiders, it marks a watershed in the sexual abuse crisis. For those with eyes to see, the fall from grace of Burresi, a charismatic Italian priest and founder of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shortly after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, was taken as a signal that the days of lethargy and cover-up were over.

Burresi, 73 at the time, was barred from public ministry in May 2005, just one month after the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the church's top job. While the decree cited abuses of confession and spiritual direction, Vatican sources were clear that accusations of sexual abuse involving Burresi and seminarians, dating to the 1970s and '80s,were a principal motive for the action against him....."

I would like to have your comments on this article...

These Stone Walls

If you have never visited this blog, you are in for a spiritual journey. These Stone Walls contains a weekly column written by a priest who was falsely accused. He is serving a 67-year sentence. You can read his story and what has happened to him after refusing a deal to plead guilty.

If you are looking for spiritual reading for Lent, this is it! I pray for him every day...

The Universal Health Care Debate

From a Catholic point of view, what is the best way to approach universal health care? I expect there will be several Catholic points of view. Let's hear them.

Campaign for Human Development: Worthwhile or not?

With Anonymous' suggestion that we look into the Bishop's Campaign for Human Development and the remarks by Katie and Jim, I decided to open up an opportunity for discussion.

I realize this is a hot-button issue, so please be respectful with your remarks. I don't delete anything unless it is tasteless or attacking specific people.

Sex and the Priestly: Father Cutie Renews Celibacy Debate

Amy Sullivan has written an interesting article about the renewed celibacy debate in the latest issue of the online Time ezine. The article "Sex and the Priestly: Father Cutie Renews Celibacy Debate" can be found HERE.

Obviously, former Catholic priest Alberto Cutie and former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland have brought the celibacy debate to the forefront in recent weeks through Cutie's actions and Archbishop Weakland's memoirs.

In a quote from the article: "Although both he and Cutie have insisted they do not want to be held up as poster boys for changing the Church's celibacy requirement, their stories have added new fuel to a long-simmering debate. The Catholic Church in the U.S. has a serious priest crisis — the number of men entering the priesthood has dropped by 60% over the past four decades and the current average age of active priests is 60. Many dioceses have been forced to close parishes or import foreign priests to deal with shortages. But advocates of celibacy reform say there is a better solution: ditch the 900-year-old church law prohibiting priests from marrying or being sexually active."

Ms Sullivan gives a short history of celibacy in the Catholic Church in her article and notes the possibility of making the "rule" into a voluntary discipline, advocated by some theologians.

What say you?

"Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."

I came across an interesting CNS article from March 27, 2009, that speaks about the weekly Lenten meditation given by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household. Fr. Cantalamessa reminds us that the Holy Spirit speaks to us individually, as well as through the Church. This important aspect of the Holy Spirit's action in our lives is something that I had not really thought much about.

According to the article: "When people forget that the Holy Spirit speaks directly to individual consciences and not only through the church, there is a risk that laypeople would be pushed to the margins of the church's life..."

Father noted: "...In other words, there is a risk of reducing the guidance of the Paraclete to only the official teaching of the church, impoverishing the varied action of the Holy Spirit. In this case the human, organizational and institutional elements prevail, the passivity of the members is encouraged and the door is opened to the marginalization of the laity and the excessive clericalization of the church."

You can read the complete Catholic News Service article, HERE.

Have you ever needed to get a speaker approved?

Someone passed this on to me.

A group in a parish wanted to have someone from the community to speak to the parish about a particular subject. Sorry, I'm not going to be more specific.

The parish group was told that they would need to have the potential speaker approved by the diocese. The speaker would have to fill out the diocesan form for approval of his program; as well as to submit an official invitation on the parish letterhead by the parish group, to include his CV and to obtain a letter from his pastor attesting that he was a Catholic in good standing. I'm not sure what else was needed.

I understand that this diocesan approval is to make certain that speakers faithfully teach Catholic doctrine. My question is this: Why is this approval needed even for programs that are not religious in nature; but cultural or educational? And what about a speaker who is not Catholic? It seems to me that the diocese is making it needlessly difficult for parishes to recruit speakers by forcing them to jump through hoops in order to obtain the approval.

Care to respond? If I have incorrect information, please be kind enough to supply the accurate information.

Scientist Reacts to Vatican Bioethics Paper ~ National Catholic Reporter Article

The National Catholic Reporter has just published an article by William B. Neaves, who is president and CEO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo. Neaves is responding to the bioethics paper, Dignitas Personae, that has just been released by the Vatican.

Here are a few paragraphs from the NCR article:

"Dignitas Personae catalogues the consequences of actions derived from a moral framework based on a point of view about personhood — a view that is not shared by all. This point of view accords the dignity of a person to the first cell that results from fertilization of an egg by a sperm. If this premise is accepted, all the consequences detailed in Dignitas Personae logically follow."

and further along:

"An alternative point of view to the Vatican’s, embraced by many Christians, is that personhood occurs after successful implantation in the mother’s uterus, when individual ontological identity is finally established. This way of thinking about when a person comes into existence reconciles another otherwise troublesome reality of normal, natural human reproduction: in many (and probably most) instances, the single cell resulting from fertilization of an egg by a sperm perishes in the woman’s reproductive tract and never implants in the uterus. Only after implantation does a birthed baby become highly probable. Would God have ordained that most people should die in the first two weeks of existence, long before seeing the light of day? No human being can know, but it seems unlikely."

Please go here to read the complete article before responding.

I thought this was a very thoughtful article and an important one to consider. What say you about this alternative view?