Church teaching is merely a blueprint?

[blessed_R_U]

I had this statement handed to me earlier this week by a member of parish staff. It was in reference to a comment made that one’s mother took a “courageous” step in the 60’s when she went to Planned Parenthood for contraception after her 6th child. The comment was made during a homily on Mother’s Day.

Several parishioners expressesed their disappointment and were rebuked. We felt that the comments were not just “part of a story” as we were told- but came across as “contraception is OK in certain circumstances. It is an individual situation between God and ‘whomever.’” We felt the comments to be misleading. But, the “powers that be” found nothing wrong with it.

My general take was that if it is, in fact, a blueprint- and the blueprint is altered even slightly- the structure that the architect intended will not be built. Furthermore, do the builders have the right to alter the blueprint, anyway?

I am very sad. I am also angry. But I am praying.

 

[dylanschrader]

I’m sorry that you were subjected to this.

 

[Cari]

I don’t understand- were the comments in a Mother’s day homily by your parish priest? Who rebuked the parishioners who complained? What was the context for these comments being made?

I would consider asking your parish priest why these comments were allowed to be made.

 

[Jay2]

My general take was that if it is, in fact, a blueprint- and the blueprint is altered even slightly- the structure that the architect intended will not be built. Furthermore, do the builders have the right to alter the blueprint, anyway?

The “architect” only layed down 10 basic rules in our case. Every word, interpretation, or addition after this was a product of the “builders”, applied to clarify the blueprint (or sometimes confuse it).

The Bible as we read it is a product of man. Also remember that the earliest copies were all made by hand… not to make light of your question, but here’s a joke:

A new monk was assigned the duties of hand copying a few pages of the Bible. Being a “new” guy, and somewhat ignorant of the old ways, he asked his Superior:
“This is fine, but… what if somebody somewhere forgot a letter, or misspelled a word? All subsequent copies would be in error!”
The old monk replied “You bring up a very good point, but be assured that hasn’t happened”.
After a few days the old monk couldn’t be found. After a search the young monk did find him, in the Archives. The old monk was banging his head against a pillar! After each smack he’d say "The forgot the “R”… they forgot the “R”’!

As it turns out, he decided to check on the possibility of an error, by referencing the earliest texts he could find…

The word in question was “celebrate”!