Courtney McGrailDear Editor, With regards to the proposed “reality check” that the Roman Catholic Church may or may not need to take, depending on your point of view, permit me to throw the following observations into the mix.
Firstly the general population’s understanding of the nature of marriage, sexual intercourse, contraceptives and homosexuality has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Many devout and sincere Catholics see some of these changes as healthy and wholesome and in tune with the broad thrust of the teaching of Our Lord in the Gospels.
The fact remains that many of the changes in commonly accepted social mores are contrary to official Church dogma.
This is an issue that all who voted ‘yes’ in the recent referendum need to take cognisance of. Having done so, many clearly felt obliged to vote in favour of constitutional recognition of same-sex marriage.
The second point I would like to make is that the general approach of the Roman Catholic Church to scripture is not particularly amenable to supporting dogma with isolated references to biblical text. In this context I would like to point out that it is in my view dubious, but certainly debatable, that when our Lord was asked about the permissibility of divorce in Mark 10: 1-12, he intended to answer a question about the legality of same-sex marriage 2,000 years later!
Issues of sexual morality are the ones that Our Lord spoke least about, but about which we sometimes appear to speak most about. Attempts to justify dogmatic positions through isolated references to biblical text rather than through a thorough attempt to get to truly know the Christ of the Gospels are, I propose, an ill judged attempt to stifle a conversation that does need to take place.
Yours etc.,
James Reeves,
Athy,
Co. Kildare.