Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, December 3, 1976 Page: 2 of 6
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TEXAS GULF COAST CATHOLIC
Friday, December 3, 1976
Page2
Some plain talk
By Dale Francis
Dale Francis
The new pastoral
letter from the U.S.
Bishops on the moral
life is a forthright
document that offers
plain talk on questions
of moral values The
subject matter ranges
from personal sexual
behaviour to respon-
sibilities of nations, it
deals with issues from
marriage to conscientious objection.
On all the subjects it approaches, it speaks
without ambiguity. You don’t have to wonder
what the bishops mean. They have told you
exactly what they mean in the pastoral letter,
“To Live in Christ Jesus.”
It is interesting that after two years of the
widest possible consultation, involving
hundreds of theologians, scholars and all of
the bishops, there was an effort on the floor
at the U.S. Bishops meeting to have the letter
sent back to committee and not released at
all. When there was a vote on the motion not
to release the letter, it was defeated but there
were 65 bishops who voted in favor of not
releasing it.
In a way the effort to keep this letter from
reaching the people is one of the most in-
teresting things about it. In that effort there is
shown a profound difference among some of
the bishops in their attitude towards the
people and their understanding of their
pastoral role.
First of all, let it be understood that those
bishops who wanted the pastoral letter
returned to committee did not oppose the
principles stated in the letter. That wasn’t the
problem. The motion not to release the
pastoral letter was made because the “tone”
of the letter was not liked. One bishop
suggested it lacked “understanding and
compassion.” Another thought the principles
stated were too “sharply defined.”
There was no argument concerning the
principles stated, it was just that some of the
bishops taught it should have been presented
in a more compassionate manner. While I’m
certain these bishops had no intention of doing
so, it seems to me they were perpetuating an
attitude that I had hoped belonged to the past,
that of treating the laity like little children.
They were saying in effect, these principles
are true but we must be careful to state them
gently so we will not offend the sensibilities of
the people.
I believe this paternalistic attitude is
exactly what the people do not want from the
bishops. The bishops are teachers, they are
expected to teach. The people expect them to
teach clearly, to speak plainly and without
ambiguity, stating the teachings of the
Church in a way in which they can be un-
derstood.
The people do not want to be spoon-fed, they
do not want teachings sugar-coated. There is
not some separation between an educated
hierachy and uneducated masses. The laity
is as well-educated and as sophisticated as
the hierarchy and the people expect the
hierarchy to fulfill its teaching responsibility
in a forthright manner. They expect the
bishops to say what they mean and make
clear they mean what they say.
I’m sure those bishops who wanted to delay
this letter would insist they didn’t really mean
to act paternally towards the people, they
only wanted the tone of the letter to be more
compassionate. But compassion must be
truth. After the issuance of the Vatican
declaration on sexual ethics, one bishop who
thought that declaration too harsh in stating
principles concerning homosexuality, wrote a
statement of his own. It was beautifully
written, sympathetic to the plight of
homosexuals, the principles were sound. But
some who were homosexuals misunderstood
it to condone homosexual activity. What does
not make clear the Church’s teaching is
finally for all the good intentions, the very
antithesis of compassion..
The pastoral letter we have received calls
for compassionate pastoral care for
homosexuals but it makes absolutely clear
that homosexual acts are wrong. It denounces
pre-marital and extra-martial sexual
relations. It absolutely defends the in-
dissolubility of marriage and denounces as
erroneous the theological opinion that says a
sacramental marriage can be broken. Truth
is compassion in its purest sense. If the
bishops are to fulfill their role as teachers
then the people have a right to expect them to
do it clearly and boldly without acting under
some misapprehension the people must be
mollified.
But if those who would have delayed this
pastoral letter seem to me to misunderstand
the people and how they should approach the
people, it seems to me they had an even
greater misunderstanding of the pastoral
responsibility to the people.
This pastoral letter had been in preparation
for two years. It was known that the letter
would be released at this meeting of the
bishops. The secular news media had
reported it.
The pastoral letter, as the secular news
media noted, offered nothing new, just a
reaffirmation of what the Church teaches.
But that reaffirmation was critically needed.
There have been a host of moral theologians
dancing around the truth, making little bows
to situationalism. We have just come off the
assembly in Detroit where some of the
resolutions raised questions of confrontation
with moral teachings of the Church.
Had the effort to prevent the pastoral letter
from being released succeeded there is no
doubt as to how the secular news media would
have interpreted this. It would have been
seen as an unwillingness on the part of the
bishops to take a firm stand for the traditional
moral values of the Church.
Those who wanted to send the letter back to
committee emphasized they supported the
document and the principles in it. But what
baffles the mind is how they could have so
little understanding of the modern news
media that they could be unaware of how
their action would have been interpreted.
Pastoral maturity requires an understanding
of how pastoral actions will be understood. In
this case, had the pastoral letter on moral
values not been released, the results would
have been disastrous.
But the pastoral letter was released. In the
final vote only 25 bishops opposed it and an
overwhelming majority of 172 approved. It is
a clearly stated exposition of Catholic morai
principles. It calls on Catholics to not only
oppose present discrimination but to work to
overcome the results of past discrimination
against racial and ethnic minorities. It says
that considering women inferior to men is un-
Christian and inhuman. It supports not only
conscientious objection to all wars but
selective conscientious objection to particular
wars. It calls for the protection of human
rights against violations by repressive
governments. It commits Catholics to effort#
for peace and to theJijjeration of the op-
pressed and powerless. It teaches, clearly
and boldly, which is exactly what we have a
right to expect bishops to do.
Loving (Christ
in Appalachia
"little sermon
(From a new Catechism)
The evangelical counsels
Man is ordained for marriage according to
the structure of his mind and of hiB body. But
there are people who deliberately and gladly
remain unmarried. They do it “for the sake of
the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:21).
Man is allowed to call certain things in this
world his own. He needs them to be in-
dependent, as human being should be. But
there are people who undertake to possess
nothing personally.
Man develops by being able to follow his
own initiative. But there are people who
freely vow obedience.
Those who renounce these three human
values are trying to follow the example and
counsel of Jesus. Hence the name of “the
evangelical counsel.” Those who model their
lives perpetually on these counsels are called
religious.
Celibacy for the Kingdom
The unmarried state is not a state without
love. On the contrary, the only motive of its
existence is love. And it is not an existence
without a body. The man cherishes no woman
and begets no child. But the body after all is
there for many other things besides sexual
intercourse. It is there to be kind, to utter the
truth, to be a sign in a thousand ways of all
that man can be, to be the startingpoint of the
service of many and thus too to be fruitful.
Ultimately the body is there to be with God.
“The body is...for the Lord, and the Lord for
the body. And God raised the Lord and will
also raise up by his power. Do you
know that your bodies are members of
Christ?” (1 Cor. 6:13-15). These words (which
do not speak of the unmarried state, but of
avoiding unchastity) tell us that the ultimate
purpose of the body is not sexuality. Hence
celibacy for God need not ultimately signify a
denial of the body.
But it remains true, it will be said, that they
do not get married. The growth of the seed,
the waiting womb, the heart to be given to
another-all is in vain. No-it is not in vain, but
simply a subordinate part in the totality of
being a fully-grown man or woman. Religious
renounce marriage but not the development
of their human personality. A nursing sister,
a teaching sister, does her life’s work as a
woman. A missionary does the work of a man.
Physical sex is not exercised, but it must of
course be there to make someone a real man
or woman, so that they can have the real
goodness of an adult person. In this sense no
faculty of body or heart is superfluous. We
understand that Christ was fully a man. It
was as a man that he brought the good news to
mankind.
Those who are unmarried for the sake of the
kingdom try to be fully prepared, through
prayer and work, and so to be fruitful in ways
for which others are often not free. Their
heart is given in many ways to many different
men, through whom and ij^ whom they find
the one, the constant and the true. This shows
how essential faith is in the religious life. For
how could anyone choose to love many,
without giving his heart to one?
e
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s
by Joe C. Schaub
When I returned from the CPV program in
Appalachia a friend asked, "Well, how many
people did you save from poverty?" I answered,
"None," and my friend mumbled something
about "do-gooders wasting their time."
What makes the CPV (Corps of Passlonist
Volunteers) different from other groups like
Vista or Peace Corps? Such groups may be
united only in that each member wants to help
others. They may not agree on how, who, or why,
but each in some way wants to help others.
The members of the CPV program were united
not only in a desire to be of service to others, but
also in the source of that desire. That desire was
based on a love for Christ and a willingness to
© wdrld
answer a call, a challenge, that Christ gives to
his followers: "Love one another as I have loved
you." "When I was hungry you gave me to eat,
when i was lonely you stayed by my side."
The roofs could be repaired, the tarpaper and
drywatl could be put up, and the houses could be
painted by professionals hired by the state or
federal government. But would it have been the
same? Would a hired worker listen to a woman
tell how her father had been injured in a mining
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SEARCH
FOR
GOD • ••
I WOULD like to speak to
you about the search foi-
God. This will not surprise
those of you who have read
the Rule of St. Benedict.
“To seek God” is the first
task of the monk. Everyth-
ing else that he does is
secondary to this.
There is nothing special
about saying that the
monk’s first task is to seek
God; seeking God is the
task of every Christian, in-
deed it is the point of all
religion.
The search must never cease; it
is never completed and it has to
be started all over again each
day.
It is always a personal respon-
sibility. Of course, the part which
a community will or can play is
vital, but nonetheless the search
itself has to be something to
which the individual commits
him or herself.
'Experiences'
accident? Would a mother tell someone who was
there "just to do the job" how she prayed for her
sick baby when the doctor said there was nothing
more he could do? Would a hired worker have
the time to stop when an old man wanted to show
snapshots of his family and neighbors, or when a
six-year-old boy just needed some time and
attention?
Hopefully, in addition to patched walls and
water-tight roofs, we left some people with a ray
of hope, a little more self respect, and with the
thought that maybe someone really does care
about them.
After two short weeks in Appalachia I find
myself thinking, "What could I say that someone
who has not been there could understand?"
Could someone understand the unity and
brotherhood the ten of us felt while working,
praying, and playing euro's together? How could
I explain what it was likt sit with a group of
poeple in a backyard under a starry sky, and
listen to a blind man play the dulcimer and sing
the sad songs of the hills? But then Bill Brlckley
and Fr. Killian are stories in themselves. I will
not even try to describe them.
Lift anyone out of poverty? Maybe. Maybe I
lifted myself out of the poverty of my own
narrow culture and experience.
Joe Schaub, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is an
Associate-in-residence with the Passionist
Community in Louisville.
There are. I suggest, a number
of “experiences” which can lead
us to discover the presence of
God. It is not strictly accurate to
use words like ’ experience”, if by
that word it is suggested that we
can see God with our eyes, hear
his voice with our ears or touch
Him with our hands.
The word can only be used in a
ViV qualified sense. The “exper-
vj-jj iences” about which I am speak-
>:$3 *n8 can !eave us with conviction
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that God is and that He is con-
cerned for us.
St. Paul wrote:
‘For what can he known about
God is perfectly plain to them
since God himself has made it
plain. Ever since God created the
world his everlasting power and
deity — however invisible — has
been there for the mind to see in
the things he has made.'
(Romans 1:19).
It is in the light of this assertion
by St. Paul that we can go on to
>•$: speak of “experiences.” The “ex-
;>:$ periences” to which I am refer-
ring at l^e Present are the seeking
m °f truth, the admiring of beauty
;$£ and the wanting of the good.
These “experiences" are “ways”
that may lead us to God.
We are constantly looking for
the reasons for things, asking
ijigi questions, such as: “What is it?
What is it for? Where does it
gijij come from?”
In our own personal lives we
are looking for explanations
which will give meaning to and
will explain the things that hap-
m
to us. Why do we have to
after
passionist media
pen
suffer? What happens
P death?
To all the questions which I
£$£ put to myself I am looking for an
Tmfh,
beauty
love
CARDINAL HUME. Archbishop
ol Westminster, delivered a ser.
mon in French from the pulpit of
the world-famous Notre Oame
Cathedral in Pans on Sunday
when he took as his theme our
search for God and the impor-
tance of spiritual experience in
Our daily lives
So important was this, sermon
that we are publishing it in toll
The first part appears here The
remainder ot the sermon, deal-
ing with prayer and love of G|><K
and our neighbour, wrll appear
next Friday,
answer which is clear, true and
authentic. I am in search of truth.
Man is also a creature of
desire. He remains anxious and
agitated so long as his desires are
not satisfied. The experience of
everyday living tells him that he
cannot find anything which can
satisfy him in a way that is total
and absolute.
Happiness
The things that can give him
joy at the present are of their
nature transitory. How many
times do we get the impression
that we have been, in a sense,
cheated? We expected so much of
a thing or indeed of a person and
the reality did not match the
expectation.
We are in search of happiness,
but a happiness which must be
totally satisfying and which can-
not be lost. Slowly, and by
degrees, we discover that it is
later on and in another mode of
life that we shall find and have
what in the depth of our souls
we search for at every moment. It
would seem unbelievable that the
great and noble aspirations with-
in our natures should go unsatis-
fied.
In seeking, therefore, the ulti-
mate reason and explanation of
all things and in the desire to be.
overwhelmed by a joy which has
no end and no limit, we are in
fact in search of God.
I believe that every man.
woman and child is more or less
consciously in search of God. The
truth which they want to know,
the beauty which they admire or
the good which they desire puts
them on the road to this search.
Cardinal Hume
We want to possess the truth,
the good and the beautiful — we
want to possess God.
We may translate these
thoughts into another language.
In what experience of daily life
can we find something which
gives meaning and value to the
rest of life? It is surely in the act
of loving,
Most human beings discover
that it is in the act of loving that
they find the greatest happiness.
This love must be mature and
adult with a measure of self-
control and selflessness.
That kind of love is an exper-
ience which may enable us to
have some understanding of the
mystery of love in God. “God is
Love.” says St. John, and we do
well to ponder long and often on
that.
The "experience” of love ena-
bles us to rise above ourselves, if
that love is genuine. Nonetheless,
the object or the person which
attracts us is only a particular
good. It cannot satisfy us totally.
The good that we want in our
present condition is only a reflec-
tion of a greater good. That
greater good is God Himself.
Love can give us our greatest
happiness: it can also bring us
the greatest sadness. This is one
of the paradoxes of human living.
The “experience” of sorrow
underlines in a special way the
limitations which we know to be
ours. We want to love and be
loved, but so often we find our-
selves lonely, abandoned or even
betrayed.
And what failures in human
love we see all around us. How
cruel man can be in the way he
discriminates, accepting some
and rejecting others.
Suffering
What suffering can he impose
on his fellow men. There are
indeed noble aspirations in man,
great thoughts and generous ac-
tions. and such things enable us
to rise above ourselves.
And it is so whenever we seek
the truth or desire the truly good
or admire what is reallv beauti-
ful.
That kind of drive produces
what is best and most worthwhile
in every civilisation. But there is
another side; too often we spoil
what is good and noble by our
egoism, our cruelty, and our
small mindedness.
It is this weakness and the
failures which make us think of
the need for a saving hand, to
hope that something will happen
or that somebv>dy will come to
show us how we can be truly
ourselves.
QPart two of Cardinal Hume’s sermon,
dealing with the Importance of prayer, will
appear in The Universe next Friday,
November 26.
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Clarke, Hugh. Texas Gulf Coast Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, December 3, 1976, newspaper, December 3, 1976; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth835475/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .