Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, November 1, 1974 Page: 2 of 6
six pages : ill. ; page 20 x 14 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Page 2
TEXAS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
Friday, November 1. 1971
Family Clinic
66A Marriage of Convenience?”
SWCfS
We had a large family with a mother who
was a saint. My father died when l was very
young.
Because of the puritanical atmosphere in
our home, I had no sex education outside of
the backyard. In other words, I was brought
up to think that anything about sex was bad.
V<",i don’t talk or think about ii beesase you
will go straight to hell—this sort of attitude.
1 have suffered through scrupulosity and all
its ramifications. 1 am in my middle thirties
and find myself either a latent homosexual or
unable to form any kind of meaningful
relationship with a woman because of lack of
interest or just plain fear ol being unable to
perform sexually with a woman.
I am considering forcing myself to marry
for caivenience to provide a normal outlet for
sexual desires that 1 hope would solve many
of my problems.
1 do not want to cause unhappiness for
anyone. Therefore, my question is: What are
the possibilities for future happiness for me? I
do not really want to become an active
homosexual.
Your need to provide a solution to your
sexual problems has led you to believe that
marriage would give you the idea] answer.
You would then have heterosexual ex-
periences that might conceivably dissuade
you from homosexual activities.
CHILDHOOD PROdLEM
However, beneath this confused thinking
you seem to understand that the crux of your
difficulties began in childhood with (he ab-
sence of vital sex information to which you
were entitled. Moreover, your problem was
complicated by the fact that your mother
erroneously believed that as long as you were
By James J.Rue, Ph.D.
denied sex information, you would be leading
a “good” life. Hence, your informal
“backyard” education reenforced the notion
that mere knowledge, apart from sexual
activity itself, was “bad.”
Therefore, in your early years yoij. began
unconsciously to repudiate sex. You were
unable to assimilate it into your life as a
normal part of human behavior. Your un-
derstanding of sex became more and more
distorted through adolescence and adulthood.
On the one hand, you accepted without
question or examination your mother's at-
titudes towad sex. At the same time, your
human nature rebelled as you gradually
came to realize that a heterosexual
relationship provided the basis for a stable
marriage and family life.
ABSENCE OF MANLY GUIDANCE
You were apparently further hindered
during these years by the absence of any male
figure: an uncle, an older brother, or a
teacher from whom you could have accepted
guidance. Therefore, your lack of opportunity
to identify with a normal male adult during
your childhood and adolescence was an ad-
ditional handicap and drove you further
within yourself.
A third factor is that as your sense of
alienation deepened, you were unable u>
develop comfortable relationships with men
or women on the basis of their total human
personalities. That is, sex became such an
obstacle and barrier that you could not find
satisfaction or contentment in all the non
sexual aspects that necessarily exist in any
continuing friendship between two people
whether they are of the same or opposi te sex.
These formidable barriers are the result of
many years of erroneous attitudes initiated in
childhood.
NEED COUNSELING
In order for you to participate in normal
social relationships as a prelude to marriage,
il would be advisable lor you to seek extensive
counseling A counselor can evaluate specific
fears, habits, attitudes, and past relationships
that have brought you to your present state of
mind.
Once the counselor understands the cir-
cumstances leading to unhappiness, he can
then guide you towad a systematic process of
relearning proper and healthy des towad sex
and human relationships in general. Such
therapy will probably be of some duration
since your problem has existed for many
years
As you progress in counseling, you will find
that your fears of participating in a normal
relationship with a woman will dwindle.
Moreover, you will be able to appreciate the
totality of the human personality without an
isolated preoccupation with sex.
In addition, it s likely that a counselor will
help you toward an acceptance of normal
masculine friendships without fear of
homosexual activity.
Your motivation to enter into a normal
marriage relationship at some later date will
provide the counselor with the means to
direct you toward achievement of your goals.
While i t would certainly be undesirable at the
present time for you to consider marriage,
you may find that through the process of
relearning sexual attitudes, you may be
ready for marriage and a heterosexual
relationship at some time in the future.
COUNSELOR AVAILABLE
In order to find a qualified counselor in your
area, you may find one by writing to:
The National Alliance for Family Life, Inc.
Suite 2!)
J 9734 Paramount Boulevard
Downey, California 90241
Behold Your Mother
Part V: Mother of the Church—Mother of Me
Edited by Clctus Healy. S.J.
W&
THE FIRST CHILL WINDS
Talks With Parents
Getting It All Together
The title, "Mother of the Church", was
announced by Pope Paul VI during the
Council.... The Holy Father desired to state
in a single phrase the spiritual motherhood
that the Mother of Jesus exercises toward the
members of the “Mystical Body”, the
Church, of which Christ is Head____
She remained joined to her Son’s saving
work in the new economy in which He dreed
men from sin by the mysteries of His flesh. On
Calvary, Jesus gave John into Mary’s care
and thus designated her Mother of the human
rape which the beloved disciple represented.
THE ANNUNCIATION
At the Annunciation, Mary conceived Christ
by the pewer of the Holy Spirit. After Christ’s
Resurrection, surrounded by His disciples,
Mary prayed for the coming of that same
Spirit in order that the Church, the Body of
her Son, might be born on Pentecost. Through
her faith and love, Mary’s maternity reached
out to include all the members of her Son’s
Mystical Body.
Her union with the risen Lord has added
to Mary’s motherhood of the Church a new
effectiveness, as she shares in the everlasting
intercession of our great High Friest.... The
basic reason why Mary is Mother of the
Church is that she is Mother of God. and the
associate of Christ in His saving work. ...
The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Mary
is especially pariinent to our time. Mary of
the Magnificat is, after Jesus himself, the
supreme New Testament example of cne who
is led by the Holy Spirit. Not only the
Magnificant, but Mary’s whole life was a song
of love inspired by the Holy Spirit____
All the members of the People of God share
in the priesthood of Christ, and join in the
offering of the Eucharist. Nevertheless, there
is a difference not only in degree, but in
essence between the common priesthood of
the faithful and the ministerial priesthood of
those who have received Holy Orders... .
Our Lady's relationship to Christ the
eternal High Priest overflows into her
spiritual motherhood of all priests in their cal!
to holiness and ministry. As our Lady’s fiat a t
the Annunciation was consummated in her
total surrender to the Father’s will at the foot
of the cross, so too through Mary’s inspira tion
and intercession the priest is offered the
grace of Christ to give of himself, in union
with the Eucharistic victim, for the salvation
of his follow-men.
INSPIRATION AND STRENGTH
In the Latin Rite, the priest freely accepts
the solemn obligation of celibacy out of love
for Christ The spotless puriety of Mary is a
constant source of inspiration and strength to
him in living his celibate life. Having
sacrificed for the kingdom of God the natural
right to marriage and a family of his own, he
feels himself more closely bound to the
Mother of the Savior for whose sake he has
made this sacrifice. There will be inevitable
loneliness in the life of the good priest, ac
ceptedoutof love for the suffering Christ. The
sorrowful mysteries of the rosary have
special meaning to the priest as he walks with
the Mother of Jesus along the way op the
Cross. ...
In a family where love rules, the mother
has a special affection for each child. Mary,
Mother of the Church, is universal mother.
What does “holy Mary” say to struggling
humanity in a sinful world? How does the
example of her virtues touch laymen and
women in the pilgrim Church? (n her faithful
discipleship, her union with Christ, her
openness to the Spirit, Mary stands in con-
trast toall the sin, all the evil in the world. . . .
When Mary conceived and gave birth to
Jesus, human motherhood reached its
greatest achievement. From the time of the
nciation, she was the living chalice of the Son
of God made man. In the tradition of her
peopleshe recognized that God gives life and
watches over its growth . .
Reverence for hjman life as sacred from
the beginning is bound up with the correct
understanding and use of sexual love. . .. God
called Mary and Joseph to sublimate the
consummation of their married love in ex-
clusive dedication to the holy Child, conceived
notby a human father but by the Holy Sprit .
The conjugal chastity of a holy marriage is
an answer to the neo-pagan degradation of
human sexuality by pornography and by the
glorification cf promiscuity, divorce and
perversions. Parents and children will find
renewed strength in the grace of Christ and in
the example of assistance of the Blessed
Virgin, model of perfect purity and of self-
surrender to God and neighbor. . . .
More than any other person, the Blessed
Mother understood that the beginning of
human life is attributable to God’s creative
Jove, as weUas to the parents action.. ..
QUEENOFTHEHOME
Mary is Queen of the home. As a woman of
faith, she inspires all mothers to transmit the
Christian faith to their childrea. In the set-
ting of family love, children shcr-dd learn free
and loving obedience inspired by Mary’s
obedience to God. . . .
Young people, adolescents in particular,
will find in Mary the totally unselfish person,
the brave young woman who could face and
accept the hidden future bound up with being
Virgin Mother of the Messiah, . . ,
We have contemplated our Lady with joy,
pondering her holiness, her generosity, her
hope, her burning love, her whole-hearted
dedication in faith to the saving work of her
Son.
May her pilgraimage of faith strengthen us
in our individual Christian vocations. May her
loving desire that her Son^’words be heeded
hasten Christian unity. May her motherly
intercession make us worthy of the promises
of Christ.
One time I spoke with parents in a parish,
encouraging them to take on the religious
nourishment of their children. Before my
talk, the pastor confided in me, “Don’t get
your hopes too high. My parents just aren’t
that interested in doing anything them-
selves.”
Later, after the talk, some parents con-
fided in me, "We’d really like to get some
small groups together for family religious
education but our pastor isn’t interested.’*
I call this the “Parents-Don’t-Care —
Father’s-Too-Busy” syndrome. As long as
one of us can use the other as an excuse for
by Dolores Curran
inaction, we will continue our inaction.
The Spirit in Action
Efficacy of the Signs
Through History
By Fr. Ignatius P. Chetcuti
tejras gu\f coast
CATHOLIC
Published weekly, except ttvi last week ot December and the last week of July.
Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Corpus Christi
f*reaidenl.......... ..............Most Rrr. Thomas T Drury, D. D.
Editor and Bwiwn Manager................Father Raymond Pena
Circulation Manager............................. Mrs. Irene Doyle
Advertising Manager i....................Mrs. Alice Price
Pfu*tograf>her..... ...................................Ray Madrigal
Address all communications to:
TEW AS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
1* O. Box 2584. Corpus Christi.
Telephone 8&2-6I9I Ext. 34
Price. $4.00 per year
Texas 78403
•Isi V-
V
Entered as Second Class Matter United States Post Office
C orpus C’hniti. Texas
In this series of reflections on the economy
of the signs of revelation, some thought
should be dedicated to the efficacy of the
signs as they proceeded throughout history, in
the succession of human generations.
Because it has to be agreed upon that this
efficacy varies with ages, and according to
the human settings in which the event of the
sign occurs.
The argument from prophecy, for example,
v/nich was important and convincing for a
Jew of the first era, who witnessed in Christ
the fulfillment of a long series of promises
recorded in the Old Testament, does not exert
the same effect on the man of the twentieth
century who is not familiar with the en-
vironment of the distant history of the people
of Israel. On the other hand, martyrdom
which, in the era of the persecutions of the
Church, became the mark of the divine origin
of Christianity, is again becoming, with the
new forms of persecution against the Church
in this century, the object of sympathetic and
attentive reflection (Cf. Karl Rahner,
Tehological Investigations 111, London 1967).
MIRACLES
Now, let us take miracles under
examination. These have never stopped from
happening in the Church, however one might
say that there are times when they are more
numerous and powerful, maybe because of
the needs, great or small, of the times. To the
Israelites, for instance, accustomed as they
were since tht times of Exodus to the power of
Yahweh and his control over nature, Jesus
put forth miracles : these wonders revived the
marvelous happenings of the past which were
destined to help men to recognize that Christ
was present on earth with the power of Yah-
web.
In the twentieth century, however, in the
fervor of science and of a liberal philosophy
and theology aspersed with rationalism, man
contests God’s right to rule the universe as he
pleases. Despite this, miracles still happen,
as of old, but man’s receptive capacity
dwindles. The character of the man of the
twentieth century, under the influence of
science, fashions for himself a critical
mentality, thereby the influence exerted by
miracles undergoes a decline. The un-
sophisticated believe in wonders as easily as
before, but the environment affected by
scientific culture is less open-minded to the
effect of the miracle than the cultivated of
previous times.
SANCTITY
Hence the sign that seems to exert a
special influence in ourlcontemporary age is
the sign of sanctity. While physical miracles
occur almost at the same rate as before,
God’s intervention in nature does not impress
tiie man of today as His presence and action
in human beings do. Because if God’s right to
intervene in the cosmos is disputed, his power
to transform the human spirit is more readily
accepted.
THE CHURCH
Now we come to the richest and most at-
tractive of signs; the sign of the Clxirch.
At the time of Christ, his disciples were
recognized because of the sign of charity:
"By this all men will know that you are my
disciples, if you have Jove for one another”
(Jn 13: 35).
In those primordial days of the Church the
Spirit of Christ acted freely. Selfishness and
hatred did not dim his light. The life cf the
Church, as a shining crystal, was the tran-
sparent sign of the charity preached and
practiced by Christ, even to his death on the
cross.
Now, in this twentieth century, at the time of
and after th eSecond Vatican Council, the sign
of the Church seems to be experiencing a new
transparence and vitality. The much talked
about concept of renewal is responsible for
this. The men of this society appealing to the
intervention of God in Christ, confesing its
weakness and faults, and in sincerity
correcting its past errors and striving to
become holier, arouse in all the others,
believers and unbelievers alike, their interest
in the Church.
EDITORIALS
FAMILY RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Just what is family religious education?
Depends on where you live. In a Denver
parish, the whole family attends 'class one
night, all studying the same subject. Only the
level of teaching changes. The idea is that
then the family can go home and discuss that
particular facet of their faith with one another-
during the week.
In Phoenix, small groups of families cluster
and teach each other’s children and them-
selves at home. In Minneapolis, parents at-
tend religious education classes on how to
teach their children religion and then they go
home and do it.
In some Air Force parishes, the chaplains
teach the parents, the parents teach their
teenagers, and the teenagers teach the
younger children. Many hundreds of other
parishes hold regular weekly CCD classes
with a companion enrichment program for
parents. This format is particularly popular
in sacramental preparation.
Wherever you are, you can be sure your
director of religiuus education (DRE) is
waiting for you to step up and become your
children’s primary religion teacher. At the
same time, you may be sitting back waiting to
be asked. Or you may be actively resisting his
invitation, wondering aloud, “Why can’t
“They” doit? That’s what “They” were hired
to do.”
Even if the pastor or DRE had the time to
teach weekly classes they hesitate to do so
because it prolongs the idea in parents tht
“Father can do it better.” And it reinforces
the idea in children’s minds that religion is a
subject to be leraned, not a life to be lived. It
is like Math or piano lessons — you study
them when you’re young from some qualified
teacher and whenyou grow up, you don’t have
to bother about them any more. You have
enough knowledge for life.
CATECHETICAL DIRECTORY
The Vatican’s General Catechetical
Directory clearly points out the fallacy of this
kind of thinking which has captured the minds
of generations of parents. It emphasizes that
teaching adults and parents is our first ob-
jective. Cardinal John Krol, president of our
American bishops, put it more bluntly when
he said the faith of the majority of American
Catholics is as “a stunted or adolescent
level.”
I hear it when parents say, “I don’t know
enough to teach my children religion.” That’s
the purpose of the parish, of the DRE, of the
pastor — to teach us enough so that we can let
it shine forth at home.
These parish personnel are waiting to be
asked for help from you. They are familiar
with materials, methods, and content for you
to use with your childrea But they can’t force
you to ask them for help. You have to do that.
And if you’re in a parish that hasn’t started
family programs yet, begin doing some of
these things on your own. From time to time,
1 will be offering certain family units, lessons,
religious practices, and para-liturgies. Don’t
always wait until “Father says so,” but look
at your children, watch them grow, tally up
the amount of time you have to pass on the
Good News before they leave home, and make
the decision to become their primary
religious educator today.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Pena, Raymond. Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 9, No. 25, Ed. 1 Friday, November 1, 1974, newspaper, November 1, 1974; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth835458/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .