By Brian Cahill [former executive director of Catholic Charities in San Francisco].
I am a Catholic who voted against Proposition 8 in 2008 and contributed $1,000 to the No on 8 Campaign, a Catholic who is sustained by regular Mass, scripture and prayer. I am also the father of a gay son, from whom I was slow to learn how painful, debilitating and denigrating are the constant legal and social reminders that he and those like him are not fully accepted members of the human community.
In their statement supporting Prop. 8, the California Catholic Bishops declared that marriage is "intrinsic to stable, flourishing and hospitable societies." Ironically, this is one of the compelling reasons gay and lesbian couples wish to be joined in civil marriages. They are seeking a structure and context for their love, commitment, fidelity and mutual support.
Many believe that the ideal for children is to be raised by a mother and a father, yet we know what the divorce rate is among heterosexual couples. We know there are 75,000 children in the California foster care system, a quarter of them waiting to be adopted. We know that these children have been victimized by the inability, neglect or abuse of their heterosexual parents. These mothers and fathers are living proof that sexual orientation is not a reliable indicator of good parenting.
[Read the rest, in the San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 2011, here.
HT: NCR Today.]
When you stop believing in your Church, are you still allowed to call yourself a member of the Church? Can you rightfully be called a Catholic, and not believe in the sanctity of the communion of man and woman? Maybe the author would benefit from reading John Paul II's Theology of the Body.
If my daughter has an abortion I'm not going to stop loving her. But my love doesn't diminish her sin. The author claims to have been head of Catholic Charities yet is very ignorant of the Catholic Faith. Faith and Church often require from us a sacrifice for our spiritual growth. Maybe, now that we are in Lent the author can practice restrain and control his lust. Thereby teaching his son by example that the satisfaction of our earthly desires is not the purpose of life.
Posted by: GM | 03/14/2011 at 08:43 PM