Posted on 05/06/2005 1:07:06 PM PDT by Caleb1411
Spain used to be one of the most culturally conservative, devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe. Now Spain is about to pass a law legalizing homosexual marriage and adoption.
When equally Catholic Belgium legalized gay marriage and adoptions, the Vatican, under Pope John Paul II, opposed the action with words. But Pope Benedict XVI, in the first policy test of his papacy, is going much further.
A Vatican official told Spaniards that if the measure passes, they must defy it. Officials should refuse to marry same-sex couples or even process the paperwork if they try to adopt a child. Bureaucrats and others who find themselves complicit in gay marriage or adoption should refuse to obey the law, even if it means losing their jobs.
"A law as deeply inequitable as this one is not an obligation," said Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo of Colombia, the head of the Pontifical Council on the Family. "One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is a law." To tell citizens that they should not obey the laws of their country is a very unusual and aggressive action. Said a history professor at a Spanish university, "I had never heard of such a direct call to civil disobedience."
American evangelicals, for all of their political activism, have not gone so far as to tell file clerks in Massachusetts to misplace the marriage records of gay couples, or a worker in an adoption agency to lose the application of homosexuals. And it is not clear that they should. It is a tough call on where to draw the line between Romans 13 ("be subject to the governing authorities") and Acts 5 ("we must obey God rather than men"). It may be easier under Roman Catholicism, with its ancient—and unbiblical—teaching that the church has temporal authority over the state.
Still, if the new pope is going to be this assertive on cultural issues, evangelicals should pay attention. Evangelicals and Catholics have huge—and important—theological differences, but when it comes to pro-life issues, sexual morality, and resistance to militant secularism, they find themselves on the same side of the culture wars.
Some critics say that a hard line from the pope will only increase the secularization of Europe. Eighty percent of Spaniards are Catholic, but only a third of them go to church and follow its teachings. Won't threatening the file clerks just drive them away? If the file clerks disobey and process the marriage licenses and adoption forms despite what the pope tells them to do, will the church excommunicate them? Whether the hard line makes the nominal Catholics quit or if the church expels them, either way the result will be fewer Catholics.
But this brings up the other part of the pope's strategy, one that is even more radical. Before he became pope, Cardinal Ratzinger argued that the church needs to get smaller so that it can become purer.
Some observers are interpreting this in institutional forms. "If it's true Pope Benedict XVI prefers a leaner, smaller, purer church as he has spoken of before," said Notre Dame professor R. Scott Appleby, "we could see a withering of certain Catholic institutions because they're not considered fully Catholic. This might include Catholic colleges, hospitals, and other Catholic institutions."
But surely it is precisely the nominal Catholics—those who claim membership but hardly ever go to church and ignore its teachings—that the new pope would be glad to be rid of.
The problem of secularism is not just with the outside culture thinking it can do without God. The deeper problem is that the church itself has become secularized. A smaller but purer church may well have more impact than the diffuse cultural Christianity that has lost its saltiness and its savor.
This is a challenge that evangelicals need to consider. With our megachurch, church-growth mindset, we often assume that bigger is better, and a church with lots of members is a strong church. Is this always true? In our efforts to reach the secular culture, is the secular culture instead sometimes reaching us?
The ideal would be to have both size and purity. But might there come a time when American evangelicalism too will need to be winnowed? —•
He's not as dead as I am! :-)
The Cardinal didn't say they should lose the paperwork, but that they should not process it and good for him!
First off, it's not likely one will find a liberal who is intellectually superior to B-16...
:
"As a FR discussion lengthens, the probability of a libertarian or atheist FReeper comparing a Christian FReeper to al Qaeda or a Talibanic theocrat approaches one."
Doesn't quite meet my needs for a tagline...have to work on it some more.
Edmund, well done! Are you familiar with Henry Edward Cardinal Manning and his essays on Caesarism and Ultramontanism circa 1870? His arguments are just the ticket you need; they are masterfully done.
In sum, "Divus Caesar, Imperator et Summus Pontifex."
Kind regards,
Frank
Nisi Dominus Frustra!
This is irresistable...
Dum deedle deedle deedle dum da-la-la (repeat)
Super-Cali-Fragilistic EX-COMM-U-NI-CA-TED!
When you are a heretic like little Fr. Reese was,
Then you find that Rome will put its special case of freeze-es
On your resume, and then you'll find that you-r cheese is,Dum deedle deedle deedle dum da-la-la (repeat)
LOL
The argument should not be about whether the Pope is a sovereign, or the religious affiliation of legislators.
This argument is about the nature of law.
Law which does not comport with (or which directly contradicts) moral law cannot be morally enforced. The moral obligation is what is at stake here, not a "religious allegiance."
Big difference.
LOL!!!!!
Do like I do: buy more ammo.
How dare you speak the Truth!
He's not as dead as I am! :-)
Now, for crying out loud, we have "Who's Deader" contests.
I know who Cardinal Manning was, and some of his positions, but I have not read his writings.
Divus Caesar, Imperator et Summus Pontifex.
"Divine Caesar, Emperor and Supreme Pontiff", hmm.:-)
Have you ever read a rather remarkable American science fiction novel from the 1950's (of all things) entitled "A Canticle for Leibowitz"? It's a really rather profound meditation on these themes, against the backdrop of a post-Christian society drifting toward nuclear war.
Here's an excerpt:
He fingered the mound of faggots where the wooden martyr stood. That's where all of us are standing now, he thought. On the fat kindling of past sins. Mine, Adam's, Herod's, Judas's, Hannegan's, mine. Everybody's. Always culminates in the colossus of the State, somehow, drawing about itself the mantle of godhood, being struck down by wrath of Heaven. Why? We shouted it loudly enough -- God's to be obeyed by nations as by men. Caesar's to be God's policeman, not His plenipotentiary successor, nor His heir. To all ages, all peoples -- "Whoever exalts a race or a State or a particular form of State orthe depositories of power ... whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God ..." Where had that come from? Eleventh Pius, he thought, without certainty -- eighteen centuries ago. But when Caesar got the means to destroy the world, wasn't he already divinized? Only by the consent of the people -- same rabble that shouted: "Nil habemus regem nisi Caesarem," when confronted by Him -- God incarnate, mocked and spat upon.Sadly, the author of that beautiful Catholic book later left the Faith and took his own life.
Look, buddy, when there's a St. Ninenot, Priest and Martyr, on the calendar, then maybe you can play, too. Until then, it's just a bunch of sour grapes if ya ask me. ;-)
Which oath is that?
I must have missed it.
Ah! Fascinating! We have no king but Caesar! No, I haven't read that. I'll have to make a note of it.
I mucked around with things like "Dune." I tended more to Russian classics rather than science fiction. Just got a new translation of the "Brothers Karamazov" I'm dying to delve into. I must see what he's done with the "Grand Inquisitor."
Frank
The Oath of Personal Injury Tort Avoidance!
You're absolutely right.
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