Fornication - Is It All Bad?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church 2353 states: "Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young."

While I have no problem with the last sentence regarding "grave scandal" where the young (high schoolers) are involved, what about with adults who have taken the time to inform their conscience? The only "official" teaching I see against fornication is that sex is only for the good of spouses and the generation of children. But, if one agrees with the logic in the previous blog entry that sex need not always have the generation of children in mind, perhaps there is wiggle room for responsible sex between adults in certain situations. I think fornication may be good within the context of a loving relationship where both individuals believe that their action is healthy and will not cause harm, but joy & love for the other individual. I believe I have seen this situation with in certain adult relationships, though I have never seen this situation am0ng high school students.

A Faithful Catholic

Christian Marriage in the New Millennium

The "traditional" Catholic view of Christian marriage is that it is a vocation in life like a religious vocation or a celibate vocation, with the purpose of having children to found a "domestic church." And as far as vocations go, that's about the only three that exist in the church.

I find this view of marriage outmoded in its view of married life and the official meaning of vocation too limited. Our Christian vocation in the widest sense of the word should be of the greatest importance in our lives, whether this means married life, priesthood, prison ministry, social worker, volunteer work, being a cook, private prayer, bus driver, etc. In whatever way we discern the Christian call, THAT very well could be our vocation in life.

After that, it is seeing how everything else fits into that Christian vocation, including marriage. Perhaps marriage fits in easily, but depending on an individual's vocation, certain marriages may be not work out or simply be unwise, even where love is concerned. And of course, in this view of marriage, having children is not necessarily an essential part of marriage or the marriage sex act. Again, it needs to fit into the vocations of the individuals. Whether the marriage is between a man and a woman, a man and a man, or two women, has no importance when measured with if the marriage fits into the vocation of the individual members.

A Faithful Catholic

ELCA Does Not Equal Liberal Catholic

A prior comment thought that this blog sounded a lot like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) church of which s/he used to be a member. While I am whole-heartedly in favor of greater ecumenical relations, for our two denominations to have a lot in common, there is at least on striking difference - Christian anthropology.

Despite what some Catholics say, traditional Catholic teaching states that we are basically good individuals. We are a little off course and we could use some of God's grace and liberation to put us back on track. Lutheran theology (and even every liberal Lutheran pastor I've met) states that we are like a piece of dung - basically deplorable to God. It is faith in the paschal mystery that allows us (dung that we are) to be covered with a layer of white beautiful snow. We look pretty now in the eyes of God, but underneath, we are still rather repulsive. And while Catholic theology is very diverse, Lutheran theology is very much rooted in this Christian anthropology that I cannot buy into. Since the commenter did not share any other personal info, I can only assume they may be ignorant of this difference in Catholic and Lutheran theology and joined the Catholic church because of the its erroneous teaching about apostolic succession or the like.

A Faithful Catholic

The "Virgin" Mary?

With tomorrow being The Solemnity of the Mary, Mother of God, I thought it may be appropriate to consider the virgin birth. While I disagree with atheist Paul Tobin's view of Jesus a whole, I think his view of the virgin birth is dead on.

1) The Isaiah 7:14 passage that Matthew and Luke use to "foretell" the virgin birth is a Greek mistranslation. In Hebrew it just means young girl.

2) The Isaiah passage refers a boy to born shortly, not some 700 years in the future after the death of Ahaz and Isaiah.

3) Neither Paul nor the Gospel of Mark, our earliest Christian sources mention the virgin birth.

4) It seems to be an import from the Roman mystery religions. It was a "creative" way for Matthew and Luke to demonstrate that Jesus was God's son.

Personally, I have no problem believing that Joseph and Mary had sex, conceived Jesus, and at conception, the Word became Flesh in a very special way that has never happened before or since, but I have a feeling that others may find that view horrific (but hopefully not).

Does it really matter to if Mary had a virgin birth within the greater scheme of the paschal mystery?

A Faithful Catholic

Vatican Folds Under Pressure?

Last week, I was praising the Vatican for its scholarly honestly in its plans to portray the birth of Jesus in Nazareth via its annual Christmas creche. Per Catholic News Service, someone had the creche revised before its unveiling on December 24th to have the birth occur in Bethlehem instead, according to the tradition in Matthew's Gospel, that the holy family is from Bethlehem originally and did not travel there for the census (as in Luke's Gospel). As can be seen in my previous blog's comments, this is a surprisingly touchy subject, especially considering that I was praising the Vatican for its scholarly integrity. I received comments from distraught readers that for some reason were aimed at me instead of the Vatican that wanted to bring them into 20th century biblical scholarship.

A Faithful Catholic

Jesus Had Christmas At Home In Nazareth

As reported at Catholic News, the Vatican creche this year depicts a scene of Jesus to be born at home. Whether this is at home in Nazareth or Bethlehem, Pier Carlo Cuscianna, director of technical services for Vatican City, did not say. His silence indicates that this creche represents Jesus being born at home in Nazareth, not Bethlehem.

What a breath of fresh air. The conflicting infancy stories in Matthew and Luke that both have Jesus being born in Bethlehem are beautiful, but obviously false. They were written in the creative spirit of the authors to fulfill Old Testament prophesies, but at some point we need to dispel the myths of our faith, so that we can look more honestly at the Gospels to see who Jesus really was.

So bravo to Pier Carlo! You made my Advent. This may also be a continuing sign that Benedict is truly a person of scholarly honesty.

A Faithful Catholic

Can I Have Some of Your Kool-Aid Drew Mariani?

Last Wednesday afternoon, I made the mistake of turning on "Relevant" Radio. The Drew Mariani Show was on and Drew was trying to give me the special Kool-Aid. The show was on birth control. I believe that under most circumstances, the use of birth control is a good thing. Drew is of the traditional belief that birth control is an intrinsic evil - wrong in any circumstance.

He then explained that when you except birth control, you are not far from becoming pro-abortion, which means you are about to think that euthanasia is a good idea, which means that you are about to support genocide. Uh?

Logically then, since I think birth control is okay, I guess I also think that the genocide of all Native American tribes, Jews, Shiite Muslims, and any other group that I'm not a part of is a wonderful idea. The next logical conclusion is that almost every American would also think that genocide is okay. Unfortunately, he didn't explain at all how this sequence occurs, I would imagine because it does not make any sense. Also, if you look at my previous blog entry, the US and WI bishops appear to be swaying towards genocide themselves.

Someone please let me know when "Relevant" Radio is having another fundraising drive so that I can donate. (I'm being very sarcastic.)

A Faithful Catholic