Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Benedict on Family... Good and Bad

This past week, Pope Benedict gave some comments on same sex unions and wifely duties to officials from the city and province of Rome and the Lazio region of Italy. He spoke of the "penalizing" effect that same sex unions have on heterosexual marriages. I must admit that I don't understand how married couple are penalized. I have asked some married couples how they could possibly be penalized by the existence of legalized same sex unions and no answer was found. I look forward to comments from my conservative readers about how this occurs. I do not think that "It's not fair that they have the same rights as me," counts as penalization.

A bright spot in this speech was Benedict's emphasis on the need to make provisions in society for women who would like to work in addition to having the role of child rearing. Because society does not often honor working mothers, women often feel compelled to wait to have children. He stated that women should not be put in a position that makes them have to choose between one or the other. This is a significant departure from John Paul II (who should not be beatified). JPII was pretty clear in his writings that a women's place is with the children. It is part of their special womanly nature (another term not present in Benedict). JPII made concessions about the right of women not be be discriminated against in broader society, but a working mother was never ideal in his mind. Benedict, on the other hand, has never stated that mothers should ideally not work.

A Faithful Catholic


2 comments:

Dad29 said...

Derogation of the state IS a penalty.

Kat said...

Have you ever asked anyone who doesn't agree with you? And would you listen if you did?