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| Back to Archive 2003
August 17, 2003 Must one attack people to defend the faith? I hate public controversy. This deep dislike stems from a personal conviction that no one really wins public disputes and that people often get beat up in the process. It stems also from a pastoral conviction that a bishop is, whenever possible, supposed to unite rather than divide. It’s best to avoid most arguments or carry them on only privately and between friends. I entered into public controversy on August 3 because I felt, and a number of people I respect confirmed my feelings, that a response had to be made to an inflammatory headline in a major Chicago daily. The headline read: “Pope Launches Global Campaign against Gays.” The Pope, of course, did no such thing. “Gays” are not to be the object of attack by anybody or from any source, let alone the Pope. The headline was inflammatory not only in misrepresenting the Holy Father and inviting opposition to him for “launching a global attack”; it also was dangerous inasmuch as some who might want to hate homosexuals could use the Pope’s supposed example as justification. What did the Pope do? He taught what Jesus taught about marriage: it is a lifelong union between a man and a woman who give themselves totally to each other for the sake of family. The Pope did not make this up himself. Marriage is the invention neither of the Church nor of the State, and neither has the authority to change its nature. In pointing out this rather obvious truth, the document from the Holy See drew conclusions about not creating a legal parity between marriage and homosexual unions, because there is no biological or moral parity between them. For some, opposition to so-called “gay marriage” is evidently a species of attack against homosexuals themselves. In recent years, homosexual persons have claimed their right to be part of society, politically and economically. This is a positive development. If it is important for someone to let others know his or her homosexual orientation, he or she shouldn’t be punished or demeaned, let alone attacked. But it’s a very great leap to move from respect for and acceptance of homosexual individuals to a demand that sexual relations between persons of the same sex be treated as the equivalent of marriage, morally and legally. This is a “leap” which will be the subject of public conversation in the months and years to come. The document from the Holy See helps set the terms of that debate in clear moral argument. Many will not agree, but the teaching should not be misrepresented. Misrepresenting the teaching in a way to elicit anti-papal prejudice is especially worrisome at a time when the Church finds herself an object of hostile scrutiny because of the sin of sexual abuse of minors by some priests and bishops. The scandal, which shames us all, does not really bring into question the teachings of the Church, since there would be no scandal if the Church’s moral teaching had been followed by sinful priests and bishops. Nonetheless, the scandal certainly weakens the moral witness of the Church and brings her life and teaching into question in the minds of many. It can also serve to confirm the anti-Catholicism that is endemic in some strains of American culture. The Church herself is now an object of suspicion and attack in ways and places where, a few years ago, openly antagonizing Catholics would have been avoided. This is so even in Chicago, where the Archdiocese has tried to be responsive and open in its actions. The Sun-Times printed a conciliatory explanation of their headline. It was fair of them to do so, since statements that offend Catholics are not peculiar to the Sun-Times. On August 3, the Tribune contrasted statements from the Holy See’s document on homosexuality and marriage with a statement from a Catholic with an animus toward bishops: “There have been so many contradictory statements, so many cover-ups, so many lies. How can you expect any moral credibility with the faithful or the general population when they’ve been such hypocrites themselves?” That’s an opinion, I imagine, not uniquely his. But such a vitriolic generalization about any group of people, whether bishops, imams, rabbis, ministers, politicians, journalists, shopkeepers or gays, would not usually have been given voice in a respectable newspaper eager to discourage prejudice. Moving to television, CBS is currently engaged in defending its ridiculous misrepresentation of a severe 1962 Vatican document on how priests who use the confessional to solicit sexual partners must be accused and tried and punished by removal. This document, approved and promulgated by Pope John XXIII and sent a generation ago to every bishop in the world, is being portrayed as resting in the “secret archives” of the Holy See and, at the same time, giving instructions to all on how to “cover up” the crime of sexual abuse of minors. Apparently, no accusation against the Holy See or Catholic bishops is beyond credence. If the hierarchy today, what of ordinary Catholics tomorrow? Is the current scandal to be an excuse in this generation for open expression of the anti-Catholic bigotry which marks the history of this country? What will be the public place of Catholicism? Must one deny that his or her faith will influence them as the price for participating in public life? What is the difference between living in a ghetto and living in a closet? College students tell me it is hard to be Catholic on many campuses. All of us cringe at the nightly jokes about bishops and the Catholic Church that are the stuff of stand up comedy acts. Caught in scandal, the Church is to remain paralyzed and any initiative on her part resented. I do not know what the future holds. The Church is secure in the gifts that come to her from Christ and is strong in those parts of the world where the long-term future of the human race will be decided: Asia, Africa and Latin America. What will happen here in the next several years is more problematic. I imagine I am not the only one who hates public controversy; but much depends on those Catholics who know why they are Catholic and are not easily intimidated, especially the laity. At the end of my sermon on August 3 defending the Pope against a false accusation, I said to those in the Cathedral: “I ask you to pray for the Holy Father; pray as well for the enemies of the Church; and let us pray for one another, for strength in the present and perseverance in the difficulties to come.” I ask that of those who read this column as well. God bless you.
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