Catholic bishops set out to save marriage

[JMJ_Pinoy]

Catholic bishops set out to save marriage :clapping:

By DON LATTIN San Francisco Chronicle
Posted on Sat, Nov. 20, 2004

WASHINGTON — The nation’s Catholic bishops, promising to “stop the erosion of marriage in our society,” voted this week to start a campaign against divorce, gay marriage, birth control, premarital sex and unmarried cohabitation by heterosexual Catholic couples.

The bishops in their three-day meeting approved a National Pastoral Initiative on Marriage just two weeks after 11 states passed initiatives outlawing same-sex unions and after many U.S. voters cited “moral values” as their most pressing concern.

“This is a bedrock of our teaching; this is our moment to teach,” said Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, one of the main backers of Michigan’s successful ballot measure banning same-sex marriage. “We have been co-opted by the media and the society in which we live.”

What’s new about the bishop’s crusade is not the teachings but the feeling among church leaders that they finally may have the attention of the people in the pews.

Bishop Kevin Boland, chairman of the conference Committee on Marriage and Family Life, said the church needs to do much more than “counter certain threats” such as gay marriage and divorce on demand.

“A pastoral letter at this time could deliver a positive, pro-marriage statement,” Boland said.

Civil unions for gay couples, Boland said, “is not our main cause or focus.”

“In the United States the marriage rate has declined by more than 40 percent in the last 30 years,” he said. “Among Catholics it has declined at a similar rate.”

The new four-year initiative will start with research, consultation and the drafting of a major pastoral letter on marriage.

That will be followed by a revision of guidelines to prepare people for marriage, new parish programs designed for different ethnic groups, and a radio and television campaign to try to change the hearts and minds of the nation’s 65 million Roman Catholics and the broader American society.

kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/10225774.htm?1c

 

[puzzleannie]

well, like, duh, where have they been for 50 years, and why do they need to take a vote to get a majority to get on the program

 

[caroljm36]

puzzleannie:

well, like, duh, where have they been for 50 years, and why do they need to take a vote to get a majority to get on the program

Hey, better late than never! The 1960s took its toll on the church as well as on everything else. They can’t just stand back and let it all happen because they were derelict in their duties before. It’s time the Church stopped caving in to the dominant culture. Look where it’s gotten us! They need to start teaching again, and they know it.

I hope this is just the beginning.

 

[kmktexas]

A pastoral letter is not going to cut it, though, unless it is a letter that spells out a much more comprehensive program. Otherwise, it’s preaching to the choir.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I know it’s a “duh”, annie, but at least it seems as though things are starting to go “right” again.

We’ve lost a generation due to poor or non-existent catechesis. The only way we’ll get them back and not lose another generation is to get back in the trenches.

As C.S. Lewis once said, paraphrased, if one has been going in the wrong direction, the only thing to do is to retrace one’s footsteps back to the point where one began to go wrong, in order to get back in the right direction.

So, it’s back from the “new ages” and the muddle-headed albeit well meant efforts to be “contemporary”. Back from “do your own thing Catholicism”. Back to the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, the Church Suffering, Militant, and Triumphant. Back to the basics, in fact.

Gloria!