I agree with our EB3 that Crux has a lot of work to do. Recycling Margarey Eagan diatribes, Notre Dame and BC box scores, and laughable quizzes and advice columns take away from the seriousness of purpose with which it launched and the differentiating value proposition it hoped to have. John Allen argued that the Vatican Beat is directly important to the sixth of the planet that is Catholic, and to the five-sixths of the planet impacted directly and indirectly by the actions of that church on the rest of the world. Particularly during the dynamic Francis. And he showed us why his reporting remains relevant with todays piece on the 2014 Synod on the Family-something you won’t see in any other mainstream newspaper.
The 2014 Synod of the Family is the first major global meeting of Cardinals and Bishops since the college that elected Pope Francis, and the Pope is arguing with the help of allies like Cardinal Kasper, that the Church should relax and reform its approach to sexual teaching. Already we have seen unprecedented things, like a Pope demanding that his bishops debate one another freely and not just rubberstamp his agenda; parents of gay children address Bishops directly on how they feel the Church should respond to LGBTQ issues; and bishops openly arguing for a reinterpretation of old dogmas on divorce and birth control using a theology of gradualism.
John Allen helpfully defines this for us:
gradualism is no more than the common sense observation that virtues such as honesty and courage aren’t all-or-nothing propositions, and that people move towards them through stages and at different speeds. It implies that just because someone’s current situation falls short of perfection doesn’t mean it has no moral value, and it’s often better to encourage the positive elements in someone’s life rather than to chastise their flaws.
And how the Bishops are using it to approach old dogmas:
In his opening address on Monday, Cardinal Péter Erdő of Hungary argued that Humanae Vitae should be read in light of graduality. In a session with reporters at Vatican Radio Monday night, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich invoked graduality as a key to helping the church develop a new way of talking about sex.
To the lay reader this might not sound like much relaxing, the church would still be teaching that divorce, gay relationships, and birth control are immoral. Teaching that American Catholics have long discarded or ignored. But, it is important since in areas where this teaching is still embedded in civil law like Ireland or the Philippines, or embedded in culture like the Catholic parts of Africa-we are now seeing a new framework develop.
Gays are human beings with inalienable human rights, and the fact that they may on occasion ‘commit’ the ‘sin’ of gay relations should not bar them from employment in a Catholic institution (still very relevant in the US actually), having children baptized and raised in the faith, having their spouse recognized as part of the community, etc. The divorced and remarried should also receive the sacraments, particularly communion, and maybe even a religious blessing of a second civil marriage like those that occur in the Orthodox church (something my parent did not have the choice to receive since my mother couldn’t afford an annulment and didn’t want to bastardize my siblings from her first marriage). And on the subject of birth control it is no longer a taboo, no longer soemthing Catholic countries should bother banning or regulating, and something that can be an evolving part of someones relationship with another person. Obviously, using it is not the ideal, but it is no longer the ostracizing stigma that it still is in developing Catholic countries.
All very relevant and interesting coverage, courtesy of Crux.
JimC says
But I disagree. On this:
That’s a great point, and certainly relevant news. But I’m not comfortable with the civic institution of the the Globe separating out one religion or even all religion in its own section. In general faith is private.
When churches make news … then they should be in the regular pages of the paper, no?
Christopher says
…as is most journalism in this country. Religion is just as much a factor as sports or food or anything else that might get its own section and if there is a market for it nothing wrong with catering to it. MA is I believe one of two states with a Catholic majority, or at least largest share among religions. It does frustrate me sometimes that they seem to get all the press among religions and denominations here, but there is such a thing as religious news that would not otherwise be news just like there is in those other sections of the paper.