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Oswald's avatar

I think it's a bit naive to believe at this point that there is not an agenda to undermine the Church's teachings on sexual morality when this has been the primary focus of many of the doctrinal debates of the last several decades. Perhaps it is not one giant, coordinated conspiracy across the whole world, but there are certainly enough concrete examples that can be cited that there is too much evidence to simply be waved away as moral theologians with "different opinions." These are individuals that have fundamentally different views not on pastoral care (as is noted in the article) but rather on basic moral questions, i.e, is something an evil act or not? Different theologians and bishops in the Church today hold opposing viewpoints that cannot be reconciled; viewpoints where only one option or the other can be right. One view must completely triumph and win out over the other.

For this reason I don't see there being much hope for these debates being honest, because as Dr. Cloutier notes, there is a reluctance by some to admit what they are actually debating and challenging when these kinds of disputes arise. In order to have a reasoned discussion, you first have to find your baseline; a list of given statements and beliefs that you can agree upon with whom you are having the discussion. Now imagine having a debate about the pastoral care of homosexual or transgender individuals with Fr. James Martin, Cardinal McElroy, or a German bishop that supports the Synodal Way. Would you be able to get any of them to sign onto a statement that plainly states that homosexual acts are immoral, or that a same-sex marriage is immoral, so that you could discuss different viewpoints on pastoral care for these individuals? I doubt that you could. And if not, that is why these kinds of debates are doomed before they even get started.

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William Murphy's avatar

Thanks, Mr Camosy, for a helpful overview of the (im)moral theology scene in American academia. I doubt that it would be more promising elsewhere. True, theologians have no teaching authority. But they seem to have the ears of the guys who do.

I think it was Father Edward Holloway, writing in the British "Faith" magazine back in the early 1980s, who noted how the English bishops seemed to have problems mounting a credible defence of Humanae Vitae to their visibly dissenting flocks (just check the family size). He declared: "God help bishops if they turn to their theologians for help. As most of them will be rejecting HV in their hearts, the bishops can expect a lesson in delicate figure skating on thin ice".

Come 2023 and we have Bishop Johan Bonny in Antwerp, Belgium going all squidgy on euthanasia, with or without help from local theologians. Whether we are killing people a million at a time or one at a time, we can't get our moral story straight. Anyone waiting for Pope Francis to clarify Bishop Bonny's position?

https://www.complicitclergy.com/post_publication/riposte-catholique/

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