God Defines Love

Relative to “Pre-Synod Shadow Council? Confidential Meeting Seeks to Sway Synod to Accept Same-Sex Unions” (June 14 issue) by Edward Pentin:

While this confidential meeting at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome was spearheaded by Cardinal Reinhard Marx to promote same-sex “marriages,” I, as a married permanent deacon, ordained 29 years ago last May (with four children, four grandchildren-plus) would like to focus on the comments of Father Eberhard Schockenhoff. Father Schockenhoff, a so-called moral theologian, stated, “We must separate our moral theology from the natural law.” I did not think it possible for one to separate common sense from natural law.

As St. John Paul II (whom he disagrees with on his theology of the body) simply stated, our sexuality is imprinted on our bodies.

Since Father Schockenhoff is a critic of Humanae Vitae, which Pope Francis reaffirmed in his homily to 6 million Filipinos this year, he is not only speaking against the successor of Peter, but also the teaching of the Church Christ founded. Did anyone at this meeting know that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, primate of Argentina and archbishop of Buenos Aries, openly confronted the president of his country, who was supporting same-sex “marriage,” with the statement that “same-sex marriage is the work of the Father of Lies”?

Aside from ignoring the word of God, Tradition and the teaching of the Church, it would seem that these clerics have little understanding of the sacrament of matrimony as a co-equal sacrament of holy orders for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of God.

Finally, it would seem that this could be the beginning of a schism, not just there, but also in the U.S., since there are some bishops and priests who seem to support same-sex “marriage.” No wonder Pope Emeritus Benedict said in his interview with Pete Seewald (Light of Christ) in August 2010, “Right now, because of the (priest) scandals, we have experienced what it means to be very stunned by how wretched the Church is and by how much many of her members fail to follow Christ.”

He then reminds us of how Christ will be with his Church, as he promised. All one can do is pray for this group of dissidents, who feel that the “theology of love,” as the people see it, is better than the theology of the body.

Love is not defined by people, but by God, who humanly defined that love in the incarnation of Jesus, the eternal Son and our brother, who is also Lord.

         Deacon John M. Edgerton

         Tarpon Springs, Florida

 

God’s Poetic Justice

I need to respond to the letter titled “No-Strings Social Justice” (Letters to the Editor, April 5 issue): The writer came to a conclusion about social justice that is quite different from the teachings of Jesus I learned. He taught very specifically, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, that he was to be found in the poor, the hungry and the homeless. To me, the writer’s letter was “comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted.”

As best I can tell from her letter, she states that people earn a minimum wage because they don’t work enough and that businesses cannot afford a wage increase. I am not disagreeing with the fact that we strongly lack a serious work ethic and that material benefits should not supersede morality in creating a more just society. However, she seems to believe that the market is an infallible mechanism that would imply that all individuals, since the market is a collection of individuals, are infallible.

In U.S. history, steelworkers had an extremely difficult lot: They worked 12-16 hours a day in difficult conditions; they received low pay; they and their families lived in squalid conditions; and their children received no education, but had to work. They had no bargaining power, but were price-takers; they had to take what they got or they lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, business titans like Carnegie, Frick, Mellon and Schwab made fortunes and viewed workers as chattel. They had no concept that everyone has human dignity, but used their leverage as price-seekers to get the lowest price they could. Moreover, they bribed legislators to give them favorable treatment. If it happened then, it could happen again.

Only legislation from progressives prevented, and can again prevent, this type of abuse from happening. Laws setting minimum wages and the provision of universal health care are necessary because, try as hard as they might, some simply aren’t able to rise high on the career ladder. No matter how hard I try, I can never be a software engineer or any professional who can set his own price, and there are millions like me. The state, not people, has the power of coercion.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, entries 1878 through 1923 express clearly the need for human solidarity, protection of the weak, the reality of inequality and injustice in the marketplace (which is the work of human hands and therefore an idol) and the need for just authority in society.

Just as we need laws against abortion, euthanasia and other violations of human dignity, we need to protect people during their lives by providing just wages for honest work done to the best of the worker’s ability. However, social justice has warped into a Marxist “us vs. them” ideology, with relativist morality, and in which the state has become a secular tyrant (like in Europe). There, and perhaps here, the Church is viewed as quaint at best or, at worst, as a reactionary hindrance to be overcome via enlightened progressives. This owes to the fact that we have failed to acknowledge the injustices of the marketplace. A paraphrase of a Protestant minister I learned of from my wife’s former church is that a church that fails to champion the marginalized becomes marginalized itself. It’s God’s poetic justice.

         Francis Jacobson

         Bainbridge Island, Washington

 

Ignore No More

Regarding “The War for a Nation’s Conscience” (In Depth, July 26 issue):
In the article written by Lawrence Grayson, he mentions a war being fought for America’s conscience. On the front lines of that battle is Planned Parenthood (PP) — at the heart of how we value “our values.”

The left has circled its wagons around Planned Parenthood, claiming we should overlook abortion and focus on the 90% of good works they supposedly perform. The same revisionists want to marginalize the many accomplishments of Washington and Jefferson because they were slaveholders. Jefferson’s 90% isn’t deemed as worthy as that of Planned Parenthood. I guess the slavery of abortion is overlooked for the “greater good.” Now the issue of Planned Parenthood selling body parts has surfaced. Abortion proponents continually tell us that fetuses are not human beings, but oddly enough, body parts are human — at least human enough for cultivation. The folks at PP claim they don’t sell body parts, that they just make them available and transfer them.

If Planned Parenthood isn’t disturbing enough, consider its roots: The organization was founded by Margaret Sanger, an early-20th-century birth-control activist, sex educator, nurse and radical feminist icon.

There is a lot about Planned Parenthood that we are encouraged to ignore. But we can’t ignore the inappropriate use of taxpayer funding, directed by a federal government all too willing to ignore the 90% of work also performed by other private and religious groups that offer the politically incorrect suggestions of abortion’s alternatives.

Yes, let us tax the organizations that don’t offer abortions and give the money to Planned Parenthood, which will offer abortions: Washington and Jefferson are not the slaveholders we should be worrying about.

         Charles Lopresto

         Phoenix, Arizona