Posted on 03/13/2007 7:18:07 AM PDT by rface
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Church's opposition to gay marriage is "non-negotiable" and Catholic politicians have a moral duty to oppose it, as well as laws on abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict said in a document issued on Tuesday.
In the "Apostolic Exhortation" Benedict says all believers had to defend what he calls fundamental values but that the duty was "especially incumbent" for those in positions of power.
He said these included "respect for human life, its defense from conception to natural death, the family built on marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms".
"These values are not negotiable," he said.
This was an issue in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, when Democratic candidate John Kerry, a Catholic, supported abortion rights.
The Pope implied local bishops could not turn a blind eye to such politicians. "Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them," he wrote.
Some bishops in the United States have refused to give communion to Catholic politicians who back abortion rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
about all male-priesthood,
Catholics who divorce and remarry cannot receive communion.
about Latin.....
.........I am not Catholic.....
(sound of crickets)
Teddy is already relegated to the fryer for Mary Joe Kopechne. I don't expect this pronunciation will bother him much.
More crickets.
And the reaction from the offices of Pelosi,Kennedy and Kerry?
(sound of crickets)
Until the church is willing to use sanctions, their statements to unbelieving members are meaningless.
He also divorced his first wife and remarried. At least his tour in Hell should help get rid of some of the excess weight.
I wish he would say, "Employer's and Employees must oppose gay marriage" - we could use a little air cover ...
I think this is basically to build a solid foundation for the implementation of sanctions. Catholics, both those in the legislature and those outside of it (as well as a few bishops!), have been ignoring or fudging Church doctrine with impunity for the last 40 years, and I think it's going to take a lot of work to get them back. I suspect the next thing we will see is that some bishop with guts will actually do the right thing in the case of a "Catholic" pol, and this will give the others courage to follow. And now they have the unambiguous words of the Pope to support them.
This one has always puzzled me a bit, because the Bible does allow divorce for adultery (marital unfaithfulness).
And Rudy...
Time for some serious excommunication??
There is a difference between being divorced and annulled. But even being divorced and thus excommunicated, one can have that overturned if one is willing to go through the hoops and show his/her devotion to the church. There are some nominal feels for classes and the like, and I have heard many Christ-aphobes claim that it costs tens of thousands of dollars to have this done (their excuse to bash the church) but I have yet to see any proof of this. I think our church charges around 200 bucks for the classes, and they last for months and cover everything from catechism to marriage relationships, etc. Much cheaper than marriage counseling in any event.
They require the classes for both man and woman, so as to help prevent another divorce I imagine (in the case of remarrying).
In the King James version. That is not the Bible Catholics use.
Actually, it is my understanding that divorce alone is not means for excommuniation. Divorce and remarriage is when one is not supposed to receive the eucharist.
Yes, you are correct that in Catholicism you can seek an annullment... an interesting concept that says based on determination that the marriage was not valid to begin with in the churches eyes.
I have little faith in the Catholic church on this particular topic.... as they granted my grandfather an annullment after he not only married my grandmother, had 4 children with her and were married for a few decades, but divorced and a few years later remarried each other AGAIN only to finally divorce again. Yet the church managed to grant an annullment to him years after the second divorce....
I think the church needs to come clean on this one, and I say this as a Roman Catholic. Marriage is a union of two flawed and sinful people, while it is santified by God, this cannot be denied. The bible clearly allows divorce for certain reasons, and even denies divorce for others. IE a man who takes a virgin must marry her, and may never divorce her.
When I read the bible myself I see far more pragmaticism on the nature of marriage and divorce than the Roman Catholic faith takes on the issue.
What are you talking about:
Matthew 5:32 from the Catholic Bible:
But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.
Matthew 19:9
And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.
While Mark's Gospel does mention the exception for fornication in the Catholic version, Matthew clearly does. I think you might want to check your Catholic Bible again.
Did you see the priest take on Sean Hannity on the scandal he gives by advocating birth control? He was awesome. At the end, Colmes asked the priest if he would deny Sean communion. He said he would and both pundits went Whoa.
Kennedy was too drunk to understand the Pope's message.
Besides the church still has done nothing about pols that support abortion.
Yes and he sounded like a liberal too by responding by changing the subject. A priest's job is to teach and advise but Sean reacted rather than listened. It is not possible to change church doctrine and he creates scandal by being a cafeteria catholic. Sean may have gone to seminary but knowing Latin is knowing a language, it is not theology. I had 2 years of Latin in high school but that does not make me a theology scholar nor does it allow sean to be so disrespectful to the priest who was trying to help him. This conversation should have been in private, I think.
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