Talk About a PR Fiasco.
Today's monday morning homeless breakfast and scripture reading in a basement conference room at Saint Matthews Cathedral took a disturbing turn until one of the homeless ministry leaders reigned the conversation back on track and quieted a potential uproar over hot cocoa and day old muffins. The homeless men were actually talking about the controversy over Catholic Charities allegedly not providing certain services as a response to the same-sex marriage legislation. "The church runs the shelter! are they going to shut it because they don't like gay people? " one upset homeless man said, sitting in the scripture discussion circle. No one really wanted to talk controversy. "It's complicated."
On another note-a senior ministry leader in a Jesuit parish said "I was raised in a Non-Traditional Marriage because my parents divorced when I was 2. I lived with my Mom, my aunt and my grandmother-all women. I think I turned out fine." She was raised in a strict polish catholic home. She turned out spectacularly in fact.
I, and many head scratching people like me are incredulous if we are told that Catholic Charities or other catholic social service agencies will not, once the City has called someone gay "married" give them any essential services that Catholic Charities normally provides to everyone- like HIV counseling, medicines, Health clinic care or other services. Certainly health care should not be dependent on one's state of sin or grace- or we wouldn't treat diabetics if they ate too many Twinkies, we wouldn't treat lung cancer if the patient snuck a cigarette, we wouldn't treat heart conditions if people didn't get their regular exercise and stop eating so many burgers, and we wouldn't treat obesity if people kept eating too much and drinking sodas.
Health Care should be provided regardless of any one's state of sin or grace. Because Jesus did that. He didn't ask anyone seeking healing what got them in that predicament. So I hope that isn't what they mean.
The adoption question poses another interesting ethical situation. Should kids be languishing in parent less situations in orphanages, or in foster care with too many kids to get necessary attention, because we don't want to allow two people who are of the same gender to adopt a child because we don't like what they do with each other in the bedroom and consider it sin? Should kids suffer because we morally disapprove of people's lifestyles? Does anyone seriously think gayness transmits to kids?
Have you not heard of kids raised already by gay people who are not gay?
When Catholic Charities takes a moral position like this (or the Wuerl-Wind dictates it)- it means everyone who is Catholic has to step up to the plate to fill in the funding void that loss of city funding means-and we are as broke as the next guy. So now we see double collections more and places that used to have Masses during the week free of the collection basket circuit now are asked to pony up. So while Catholic charities used to service catholics and non-catholics alike, because they operated under city contracts, now only Catholics will be paying for services for catholics and non-catholics alike- because this is what it means to be catholic. But this imposes an increased burden on the flock- to take a moral position about not wanting gay people to have adopted children. Just so we can feel superior to people who sin in a different way than other people sin-according to our theology.
If I am missing something here- please correct me because the record on this has me more confused than Anglican priests who can be married unless they haven't started Seminary yet.
The social justice committee advocacy chair at one catholic church in the District raised the question of possible objection or even civil disobedience to the church hierarchy which appears at times painfully nonsensical in its positions, at which point the old excommunication bugaboo reared its ugly head and people reminded the group that the church hierarchy isn't exactly a democracy. Deal with it.
The best thing that can be said about this recent upheaval about toting this moral line is that it has caused people to be truly exercised and upset- on both sides of the catholic divide. And a few homeless guys are choking on their day old muffins.
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