More on Piergiorgio Welby and Gay Parents Adopting
I saw a couple of articles in this week's Tablet that address subjects I've mentioned in past posts, so I thought I'd do a little updating.
One of the past posts was about a Tablet article - A life too burdensome by John J. Paris, S.J. - which addressed the death through euthanasia of Piergiorgio Welby, and the Church's refusal of a funeral. Today, the Tablet has another article on the same subject, this time about Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's take on it. Here's a little of the article - Martini weighs into Welby row .....
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has called on the Church to be "more attentive" to how it responds to situations involving the "end of the life of a gravely ill person", saying that the "will of the patient, in as much as he is competent, must not be overlooked". His words - which appeared in a full-page article last Sunday in the Milan-based Il Sole 24 Ore - were widely interpreted as a criticism of Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who last month ruled out a church funeral for a quadriplegic who had asked doctors to switch off the artificial respirator that had kept him alive for nine years ..... The cardinal, who has been undergoing treatment for Parkinson's disease, indicated that a patient had a major role in "judging whether treatments being proposed, in such a case of exceptional gravity, were effectively proportionate" to the result. He said that because of new technology, wisdom was needed in order "not to prolong life when it is no longer to a person's benefit" ....
The other past post was about the negative Catholic reaction to gays adopting childrenby through a San Francisco Catholic run charity. The article that's on a similar subject in this week's Tablet is A love found wanting by Anglican priest Fr. Martin Reynolds, about gays being refused in attempting to adopt children in the UK. Here below is a bit of the article ...
This week, the Catholic Church stated that its adoption agencies would have to close if the Government forced them to accept applications from gay couples. Here, a gay Anglican priest describes how he and his Catholic partner took on a child and why they wish to do so again.
We are a family with mixed religious backgrounds. Chris, my partner of 27 years, is a Roman Catholic and I am an Anglican priest. Our son is 19 now and preparing for college. We first got to know him 15 years ago, and for 10 years we were respite carers, with him staying with us for a third of his time. Then five years ago his family relationships broke down. He came to live with us permanently and we became his long-term foster carers. He is a wonderful lad whose severe learning difficulties and behavioural problems are but a tiny part of that whole person we have come to love with all our hearts .....
While he has been preparing himself to start going to college in September our son has said that the one thing he wants more than anything else when he comes home are brothers and sisters. Chris and I were taken aback by this but, after a lot of thought and seeing how great he is with younger children in the family, we decided to try .....
When we telephoned our local Catholic agency, the St David's Children Society in Cardiff, we explained our circumstances truthfully. The receptionist told us that they did not accept gay couples as adopters. To be turned down without even being asked your name, seems, in the circumstances, rather a harsh dismissal .....
This is not an argument with two sides. This is not a debate between Catholic rights and gay rights - this is about very vulnerable children, thousands of them, waiting in inappropriate conditions for a loving family to help mend broken hearts. Many of these kids have disabilities - many have been in as many as 20 and more different short-term placements .....
And what of us? We have already had mentioned to us a couple of children who have such profound disabilities that they will never know the gender, yet alone the sexuality of the loving parents they need. They cannot see nor hear and will only know love from the tender way they are cared for. If only the Church could know this love.
As yuo would expect, if you've read my earlier posts, I agree with Cardinal Martini that the feelings of the ill patient should be considered in their desire to stop treatment, and I agree also with Fr. Reynolds that the homosexuality of prospective parents should not automatically disqualify them from adopting children.
One of the past posts was about a Tablet article - A life too burdensome by John J. Paris, S.J. - which addressed the death through euthanasia of Piergiorgio Welby, and the Church's refusal of a funeral. Today, the Tablet has another article on the same subject, this time about Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's take on it. Here's a little of the article - Martini weighs into Welby row .....
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has called on the Church to be "more attentive" to how it responds to situations involving the "end of the life of a gravely ill person", saying that the "will of the patient, in as much as he is competent, must not be overlooked". His words - which appeared in a full-page article last Sunday in the Milan-based Il Sole 24 Ore - were widely interpreted as a criticism of Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who last month ruled out a church funeral for a quadriplegic who had asked doctors to switch off the artificial respirator that had kept him alive for nine years ..... The cardinal, who has been undergoing treatment for Parkinson's disease, indicated that a patient had a major role in "judging whether treatments being proposed, in such a case of exceptional gravity, were effectively proportionate" to the result. He said that because of new technology, wisdom was needed in order "not to prolong life when it is no longer to a person's benefit" ....
The other past post was about the negative Catholic reaction to gays adopting childrenby through a San Francisco Catholic run charity. The article that's on a similar subject in this week's Tablet is A love found wanting by Anglican priest Fr. Martin Reynolds, about gays being refused in attempting to adopt children in the UK. Here below is a bit of the article ...
This week, the Catholic Church stated that its adoption agencies would have to close if the Government forced them to accept applications from gay couples. Here, a gay Anglican priest describes how he and his Catholic partner took on a child and why they wish to do so again.
We are a family with mixed religious backgrounds. Chris, my partner of 27 years, is a Roman Catholic and I am an Anglican priest. Our son is 19 now and preparing for college. We first got to know him 15 years ago, and for 10 years we were respite carers, with him staying with us for a third of his time. Then five years ago his family relationships broke down. He came to live with us permanently and we became his long-term foster carers. He is a wonderful lad whose severe learning difficulties and behavioural problems are but a tiny part of that whole person we have come to love with all our hearts .....
While he has been preparing himself to start going to college in September our son has said that the one thing he wants more than anything else when he comes home are brothers and sisters. Chris and I were taken aback by this but, after a lot of thought and seeing how great he is with younger children in the family, we decided to try .....
When we telephoned our local Catholic agency, the St David's Children Society in Cardiff, we explained our circumstances truthfully. The receptionist told us that they did not accept gay couples as adopters. To be turned down without even being asked your name, seems, in the circumstances, rather a harsh dismissal .....
This is not an argument with two sides. This is not a debate between Catholic rights and gay rights - this is about very vulnerable children, thousands of them, waiting in inappropriate conditions for a loving family to help mend broken hearts. Many of these kids have disabilities - many have been in as many as 20 and more different short-term placements .....
And what of us? We have already had mentioned to us a couple of children who have such profound disabilities that they will never know the gender, yet alone the sexuality of the loving parents they need. They cannot see nor hear and will only know love from the tender way they are cared for. If only the Church could know this love.
As yuo would expect, if you've read my earlier posts, I agree with Cardinal Martini that the feelings of the ill patient should be considered in their desire to stop treatment, and I agree also with Fr. Reynolds that the homosexuality of prospective parents should not automatically disqualify them from adopting children.
posted by crystal | 12:37 AM
3 Comments:
Crystal, when it comes down to these sensitive issues, it’s not always easy to know what to say and do so I believe that I must side with my Christian values. We Christians should always leave it up to what Jesus our God wants us to do.
Because of all kinds of conflict in these days, it’s not always easy knowing what God truly wants us to do. Even in prayer sometimes our hearts can find difficulty deciding what True Love really is?
It's not easy being a Christian when we hear in Canada that some people want to legalize Prostitution as if it’s ok with God in this twenty first century because so many are being mis treated and even killed. The Bible tells us that Jesus made it clear to a certain woman after saving her from death that she should go and sin no more but He never condemned her. Because of what Christ did, all I can say to the legalizing of Prostitution is that two wrongs don’t make a right.
As followers of Christ, we must also ask ourselves if He could ever accept and go as far as blessing these physical behavior of two men having sex together. Although we know that if they were to ask for forgiveness with a sincere heart that He would forgive them and continue helping but it still won't make it right. Just because He's gives all people free will does not mean that He accepts these unnatural, unaccepted physical behavior no matter how much good we might think is comming out of it.
Some will say that letting these people adopt poor innocent starving children should override the wrong that only a few homosexual might even take part in. Again I must say that two wrongs will never make a right in The Eyes of “The Holy Trinity” and for us Christian to condone this practice would be wrong. The only reason that He's letting many get away with these practices is because God The Father, God The Son and The Holy Spirit are Infinitely Good and Infinitely Loving but let's not kid ourselves,sin does not please Him.
Having said all these above words, we must be as kind as possible in doing God’s Will.
I could discuss this till hell freezes over and I guess that even then, I wouldn’t be surprised that some might say something like, I’m sorry Jesus but I’m still not convince that You are completely right and to be honest with you, I don't really believe that You even are "The True God".
Crystal, you did tell me in a pass comment that who knows some days your views may change but between you and me and God if they have not yet changed then as usual we’ll just need to continue to learn to disagree with Love in our heart of hearts.
I’ll close by saying that Lusting for Love does not equal “True Christian Love”
God Bless All His Children and may He guide us to "HIS TRUTH".
Hi Victor,
I'm with you on the legalization of prostitution ... against it.
About homosexuality - Jersus didn't overtly mention it in the gospels, as far as I know, and I can only guess at what he'd think. So far, my feeling is that it is not a bad thing, so we still must agree to disagree :-)
Fair enough and God Bless You :-)
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