Catholic Teaching on Marriage is Settled: Let’s Teach It and Live It
In spiritual direction, one learns quickly the difference between discussing “issues” and living the “gospel.” Discussion of issues is a way to avoid actually living the life God has called me to live.
As I’ve said before, one should have a healthy interest in church affairs. If I didn’t believe that we would drop a decent bit of our programming. Too often, however, I’ve seen Catholics, distracted, and even derailed, by preoccupation with issues rather than growing more deeply into the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
A good example is the coverage of the Extraordinary Synod on Marriage and Family and the upcoming October Synod on the same theme. Consider the time spent discussing the so-called Kasper Proposal which was never clearly identified in a manner that would allow a preliminary vote of the merest consideration.
The best we could come up with was that Cdl. Kasper would permit civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to return to the Eucharist after some kind of penance. Even Cardinal Kasper in his famous February lecture didn’t propose how to make that happen. Nobody could just declare this kind of change. One would have to deal with the theological and canonical problems such a move would entail. How would this impact our understanding of the sacrament of reconciliation? How, in the world, can you practically protect the indissolubility of marriage if any civilly divorced and remarried Catholic can simply fashion their own get out of adultery card and take to the Eucharist. We would love to see all those who yearn for the Eucharist welcomed at Holy Communion for full participation. But the gulf between wish and reality is probably unbridgeable. If it is bridgeable it will take a whole lot more meat on the bones of the so-called Kasper proposal.
In Crisis magazine, Dr. Monica Miller did a fine job laying out the moral theology that would have to be accepted to even move forward in such a direction. While we have had moral theologians advocating these matters for a generation, they were challenged by the teaching of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI. They may think they have an ally in Pope Francis. My guess is that they are suffering under the same wish fulfillment illusion that secular journalists have accepted: the illusion is that Pope Francis isn’t really Catholic in his teaching on faith and morals and can simply make sweeping changes with the stroke of a pen or through a chatty conversation with a divorcee.
All this is high drama for some of us. But what does it really have to do with teaching marriage and equipping the saints on earth to live it. If we ever want to bless the nation, we must build a Church that shows how Christ loves the Church by watching the way husbands love their wives. In a generation that despairs of having children or passing along the joy of Catholicism to them, the world needs to see parents not exasperating their children and children obeying their parents and all worshipping the same God.
We need living pictures of this married life not preoccupation with internal church squabbles. Again, there is a difference between a healthy interest in and a fascination with church conflict that keeps us from prayer or Scripture study or the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Enjoying discussion of church controversies is no more spiritual, life giving or edifying than enjoying discussion of any corporate intrigue.
Thankfully, the U.S. Bishops are serious about Marriage as foundational. For those who think the U.S. bishops are “soft” in these areas, Look again after you’ve looked across the Atlantic. American Catholics have much to thank God for including the opportunity to lead the way to worldwide Church renewal. Living God’s design for marriage is a great place to start after people encounter the Master and hear him say, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Forming the domestic church will guarantee healthy parish churches.
