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Friday, June 27, 2014

Preparatory document for the upcoming Synod

I was really hopeful about the Vatican requesting the opinions of we lay people on church teaching about sex, marriage, and the family but it all appears to have been just a waste of our time. As this article on the document states, The document doesn't recommend changing church teaching on key hot-button issues.

Here's the beginning of an article by Thomas Reese SJ on the document ...

Synod working paper is boring and joyless

A document "intended to provide an initial reference point" for the October Synod of Bishops on the family was released Thursday at the Vatican. The document acknowledges that "the primary task of the church is to proclaim the beauty of the vocation to love," but there is little beautiful or inspiring in this document. If married life is as boring and joyless as this document, I am glad I am celibate ...

One of the creepier things about the document is its reference to JPII's Theology of the Body, and one kind of fun thing about the document is that in it the Vatican acknowledges natural law makes no sense today. Actually it hasn't really ever made sense, and the church's preference for a medieval scholastic's Catholic version of an ancient Greek philosopher's beliefs about the natural world over the gospels has always seemed weird to me.

Ultimately, I find this all depressing - it appears the point of the survey and the coming synod was not to discuss the merits of teachings that have so badly failed among Catholics world-wide, but instead to double down on that failure. The church has decided that the lived experience of its members is worthless.

3 Comments:

Blogger Victor said...

(((The church has decided that the lived experience of its members is worthless.)))

With all do respect Crystal, no matter what lived experience members have add, it doesn't make them worthless.

We must remember that The True Foundation of The Catholic Religion is "Jesus Christ" and through His First Apostles, The Holy Spirit leads Saint Peter and long story short, members have no choice but to follow in GOD's Foot Print because GOD is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

I hear YA! YA may take a deep breath now Victor! LOL :)

http://timeforreflections.blogspot.ca/

God Bless Peace

12:14 PM  
Anonymous Henry said...

I agree with Victor, your experience is NOT worthless.

Of course, I don't agree with the opinion - not fact -you stated near the end: "The church has decided that the lived experience of its members is worthless."

Remember, the are other people have different experiences and they are equally valid and valuable.

I often elevate my opinion to a fact, is it possible you are doing the same thing?

7:28 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Henry,

But the surveys - all of them that have been made public, from the US to the UK, Germany and Sweden, Ireland, Latin America, and Japan - all had a majority of respondents saying that they disagreed with the church on contraception, divorce, same-sex marriage, cohabitation, etc.

Instead of listening to what a majority of lay Catholics world-wide have said and re-examining the doctrines in that light, the church has instead decided we're all to dumb to understand the teachings. That's what I mean by saying that our experience doesn't matter to the church.

9:30 PM  

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