To the Editor:
Although disappointed by the inaccuracies in the editorial “Tending to the Flock,” I must in charity believe that they are not intentional. I applaud The Voice’s concern with spiritual matters, but it seems that bias and agenda filters its understanding of the Catholic faith and of the Church, to the point of severely deforming it. Most tellingly, the editorial claims that “the church has failed to remember its primary mission: to advance the moral teachings of Jesus Christ, beginning with love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is a misrepresentation.
The primary mission of the Church is to tell the world the truth about God and about itself. Even the editorial’s presentation of the Greatest Commandment is a tremendous misrepresentation (I must hope that it was unintentional). In Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus answers the question, “what is the greatest commandment?” with the words: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” Then He says: “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus is not primarily a great moral teacher. He is God-made-man, come to earth to reveal to us the truth about Himself and the truth about ourselves (that is, we are created by God and called to return to Him). Given this, worship of God and the preaching of the truth is the primary mission of the Church. The promotion of moral values, including love of neighbor, flows naturally from this first mission. But it is not what should guide the Church.
A vague, feel-good notion of love of neighbor leads to permissiveness, where “tolerance” without limitation is valued above all else. A true love of neighbor includes telling the neighbor the truth that he or she may be unwilling to recognize. True love seeks the good of the other person. Ask
any parent that refuses to feed a child junk food.
The truth that the Church is called to proclaim includes such things as the permanence of marriage and the sacramental impossibility of remarriage after a divorce. This is not to say that a divorced person is excluded from the Church as the editorial implies. The Church encourages divorced persons (including those who re-marry) to continue participating in the life of the Church. It does not, on the other hand, simply gloss over their irregular state and permit them to pretend that everything is just fine. The Church does indeed forgive divorcees, as the editorial suggests that it do, as long as they ask for forgiveness. But it cannot ignore the truth that they are in contradiction of Jesus’ teaching on divorce.
It is difficult for me to believe that Professor Gillis was cited correctly. Surely the chair of the Theology Department must have had some courses in Church history and Holy Scripture. Even with a cursory glance, it is clear that priestly celibacy arose long before 12th century, appearing in the writings of the Church Fathers and even in the example of the Apostle Paul. It is true that the requirement is “only” 800 years old, but its roots go back much further. And its fruit continues to be seen in the total availability of priests to minister (in a way that married priests can not and should not be, since their first obligation is to their family).
Sadly, many who disagree with the teachings and the positions of the Church do so without bothering to investigate the reasoning behind them and their support in Holy Scripture. How easy is it to disagree without seeking to understand. I sincerely hope that The Voice will seriously study the Church and her motivations before again passing judgment on an institution whose decision-making rests on the wisdom of thousands of saints, countless years of study, and two thousand years of pastoral experience, not to mention the the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Marco Schad
MSFS/JD ‘03
[Editorial Clarification: Professor Gillis and the Editorial were referring to the First Lateran Council of 1123, where celibacy was made mandatory for the entire priesthood. However, Professor Gillis also told our reporter of the roots of the celibate tradition extending back to the third century. We regret not putting Professor Gillis’ comments in their proper context.]
To the Editor:
There’s an old Texas proverb: when trying to get out of a hole, the first step is to stop digging. Your editorial “Tending to the Flock” violates this principle by urging the Church to walk even faster down the wrong path. The Episcopalian Church has already shown what happens when you allow divorce, female ordination, and married priests. Yes, the priest shortage becomes less severe, but only because two-thirds of the congregation leaves. While the dioceses infected with liberalism have priest shortages, the orthodox dioceses have no priest shortage and the seminaries are overflowing. So the solution to the priest shortage is a return to orthodoxy, not digging a deeper hole into the darkness of liberalism.
Jack Ternan
CAS ‘04
