Letter to the Editor: More professors respond to editorials
Paul J. Murano, Dept. of Theology
Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: Viewpoint
The following statement appeared in this paper (signed by several faculty members):
We are sorry that, in the context of the good intentions of praying for President Obama and his administration, the website cited in the recent calls to pray the rosary included references to the idea that homosexual marriage is an intrinsic evil. This language opens up the possibility for hate, although we note that the official Catholic doctrine is to love all of God's children. The statement on the website is hurtful to a number of people in our community, and seems to us to diminish the lofty goals of the project.
(Website: http://www.catholicculture.org/rosary/index.cfm?rosary=7)
After reading this blurb a student earnestly asked me if I would write a clarification out of concern that his fellow students at this Catholic college may be led astray by such a statement. This is authentically accomplished by the many beautiful papal encyclicals and official Vatican documents that have come out on this subject, but here I will directly speak to each part of this statement. First, praying for the U.S. president and his administration is certainly a good thing. Now let's look at each of the next three propositions:
1. We are sorry that…the website…included references to the idea that homosexual marriage is an intrinsic evil.
This reflects exactly what the Church teaches, that homosexual activity is intrinsically evil, and that the oxymoron of same-sex marriage would also be inasmuch as it condones or promotes such behavior. This truth has its roots in the word of God, which in the Old Testament calls homosexual acts an abomination and in the New Testament a grave depravity (Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10). Philosophically it is rooted in natural law, the unchanging law of God applied to human beings, which recognizes certain objective ends and values relating to human nature. The term "intrinsically evil" simply means an act which by its very nature can never be good regardless of circumstance or consequence. Marriage is the coming together of the two halves of humanity for unitive and procreative ends, and can occur only between a man and woman. Homosexual acts are perversions of love that have neither unitive nor procreative potential, contradicting conjugal love as designed and willed by the Creator. The Catechism calls them objectively disordered, and John Paul II called the idea of homosexual marriage part of "a new ideology of evil".
We are sorry that, in the context of the good intentions of praying for President Obama and his administration, the website cited in the recent calls to pray the rosary included references to the idea that homosexual marriage is an intrinsic evil. This language opens up the possibility for hate, although we note that the official Catholic doctrine is to love all of God's children. The statement on the website is hurtful to a number of people in our community, and seems to us to diminish the lofty goals of the project.
(Website: http://www.catholicculture.org/rosary/index.cfm?rosary=7)
After reading this blurb a student earnestly asked me if I would write a clarification out of concern that his fellow students at this Catholic college may be led astray by such a statement. This is authentically accomplished by the many beautiful papal encyclicals and official Vatican documents that have come out on this subject, but here I will directly speak to each part of this statement. First, praying for the U.S. president and his administration is certainly a good thing. Now let's look at each of the next three propositions:
1. We are sorry that…the website…included references to the idea that homosexual marriage is an intrinsic evil.
This reflects exactly what the Church teaches, that homosexual activity is intrinsically evil, and that the oxymoron of same-sex marriage would also be inasmuch as it condones or promotes such behavior. This truth has its roots in the word of God, which in the Old Testament calls homosexual acts an abomination and in the New Testament a grave depravity (Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10). Philosophically it is rooted in natural law, the unchanging law of God applied to human beings, which recognizes certain objective ends and values relating to human nature. The term "intrinsically evil" simply means an act which by its very nature can never be good regardless of circumstance or consequence. Marriage is the coming together of the two halves of humanity for unitive and procreative ends, and can occur only between a man and woman. Homosexual acts are perversions of love that have neither unitive nor procreative potential, contradicting conjugal love as designed and willed by the Creator. The Catechism calls them objectively disordered, and John Paul II called the idea of homosexual marriage part of "a new ideology of evil".
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Amen
posted 4/23/09 @ 8:40 AM EST
I am so glad that Professor Murano is around to alert us to the evils that surround us, not only at Assumption but in the world at large. I had no idea that gays and lesbians and their marriages were EVIL! Now that I know that I can understand why Castro wanted to sequester gays and lesbians on their own island off Cuba, why the Iranians have no gays and lesbians, at least not live ones, and why some Iraqis disown their own children who are gay or lesbian while others murder the gays and lesbians. (Continued…)
Paul Murano
posted 4/27/09 @ 2:26 PM EST
This last comment by "Amen" is an example of the intellectual disease that plagues America today, including (and at times especially) found in her institutions of higher education. (Continued…)
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posted 5/03/09 @ 11:35 PM EST
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