Gay Catholics urge synod fathers to reject 'harsh language' [CH-UK]

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Please remember to charitaby discuss the issues, not each other
 
Homosexual behavior is either sinful or its not sinful. It can nobe be up to the person to decide one way or the other.
Yet that is what is happening. I have chosen to not let things like this upset me because that leads to nothing but bad stuff like anger. Now that I no longer let these things bother me I am more at peace. A gay person living how they choose is not bothering me or anyone in any way what so ever that I can see.
 
My guess is that many LGBT people are your brothers and sisters in Christ and baptized members of the Catholic Church. That would be a good reason alone to change the language.
No, they want to change the doctrine of the Church to allow gay marriage and an approval of their lifestyle and making it as normal as anyone else’s.
 
My guess is that many LGBT people are your brothers and sisters in Christ and baptized members of the Catholic Church. That would be a good reason alone to change the language.
No reason not to find another word or phrase for “disordered”, “intrinsically disordered” and “objectively disordered”. The last of these terms is only used once in the Catechism (in referring to SSA) but the other 2 are used many times throughout the Catechism, across a wide range of topics. Any change in language would not alter the substance of what is being said.
 
So…who came up with the word “disordered” when describing homosexuality within the Catholic paradigm?
Who decided that this was the word that should be used?

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The word is not specific to homosexuality. It is widely used in the Catechism. Access a .pdf copy of the catechism and do a search. You may find it illuminating.
 
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I didn’t say the church described it as “normal”.
I said I hadn’t seen or read the church ever describing it as “not normal” or “abnormal”.

After all, the CC uses the word “inclination” as you write above…which means:
“a person’s *natural *tendency or urge to act or feel in a particular way; a disposition or propensity.”

I looked for a definition by the church that says “disordered” means “not ordered to the normal” as you wrote above.
Is there one, or is that *your *wording?

Because again, I haven’t seen that definition using the word “normal”.
Disordered may mean “not ordered”…but, that is very different from “not normal”.

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You are begging the question “what does normal mean?”. I would argue that it is not normal for two men to engage in ejaculatory acts, given an exchange of gametes is intrinsic to the act, yet utterly flawed in light of the non-complementary nature of the participants, and the very biological nature of exchanging gametes.

The above does not conflict with the observation that some persons desire this act (for whatever reason). Objectively, when observing such an act, it is difficult not to conclude that something is amiss. Indeed, that is so for any sexual act where the participants are of the same sex.
 
Um…are you saying that the Catholic church will excommunicate someone–which means to “officially exclude (someone) from participation in the sacraments and services of the Christian Church”–and then, still expect them to attend the Mass they’ve just been commanded not to take part in anyway???.
Yes, except you said “sacraments and service.” Mass is not just Communion. This is the very point that your combining the two terms above misses. Yet you are not alone in this. We have pretty much gotten to the point that we just equate these two and that is part of the problem. Receiving communion is expected if one goes to Mass. I do know several adults that come to Mass with their spouse that are not Catholic that regularly do not receive communion.
 
Should they also change the language to say abortion, murder, adultery, etc, is no longer a grave sin? Because that would make baptized brothers and sisters in Christ feel better, too.

Homosexuality is disordered, plain and simple.
I read the article, they didn’t ask for the Church to say gay sex is not a sin.
I must admit that the existence of an “LGBT Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council” is a surprise to me. These sorts of organizations always seem to leave some doubt as to whether or not the organization supports chastity or not. The fact is, the Church, along with mother nature, recognizes marriage as possible only between a man and a woman. I would hope that the Synod were recognize that as well.
As the article gave us no evidence that they were not in favor of chastity I suggest we regard them with charity and assume they are in accordance with Church teachings unless given evidence otherwise.
I think the Catechism’s approach to homosexuality is very sensitive and pastoral, as are the people involved with Courage.
The CCC on that thing is not very clear.
Um…are you saying that the Catholic church will excommunicate someone–which means to “officially exclude (someone) from participation in the sacraments and services of the Christian Church”–and then, still expect them to attend the Mass they’ve just been commanded not to take part in anyway???

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Excommunication is a medicinal punishment.

I think that the CCC section on homosexuality runs into problems as it uses words in ways that are somewhat archaic relative to modern English. That said I don’t know how to make it into modern English without the section becoming substantially longer.
 
… I think that the CCC section on homosexuality runs into problems as it uses words in ways that are somewhat archaic relative to modern English. That said I don’t know how to make it into modern English without the section becoming substantially longer.
The church has been on the retreat for 80 years leaving us all - whatever viewpoint we are anxious to protect - high and dry.

The CCC is a multi-purpose book and is in the public forum and needs to be clearer. It is often read in conjunction with another document or documents.

Its problem is not the word “disordered” per se but the H-word as a state or condition, not making it clear it should refer essentially to an act. A person has to emphatically identify himself with an act to be described by it.

The CCC adopts the Freudian framework on this categorisation of persons. The world just as much as the Catholic Church doesn’t realise that this framework is (to put it one way) “archaic” and superficial.

The CCC doesn’t expand sufficiently how the Christian faith is lived existentially. Where is the indwelling Christ on a bad Thursday? Does the Holy Spirit really exist? Why did God permit some people to be brought up semi-abusively and “taught” religion neglectfully?

Real religion is going to stop avoiding mess.
 
Joie de Vivre said:
Lol. It’s funny to think that I’m not as old as Jesus was when he started his public ministry, and that I understood archaic words even in high school. I must be an old fogey. But truly, why do you think they’re so archaic? Wasn’t the CCC put together in the early nineties?
 
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Since the Catholic church* .it would be a very loving thing for the church to come up with a different word than “disordered”-- surely, there is another adjective we can all think up to use instead…*

Catechism wasn’t written in the American-ized use of the English language. Disordered is an accurate word, almost scientific if you will. because some here don’t understand the context in which the language is used is not a strong justification to change it. imho
 
are you sure about that? :confused:
Yes, for Catholic marriage, infertility is not an impediment. Impotence is an impediment.

Marriage among other things, is an agreement to sexual exclusivity with one’s spouse. One cannot give what one does not have. So inability to engage in marital sex is an impediment to marriage.

Note, though, that the impotence must exist prior to the marriage, and be permanent and incurable. Impotence is rarely incurable.
 
Yes, for Catholic marriage, infertility is not an impediment. Impotence is an impediment.

Marriage among other things, is an agreement to sexual exclusivity with one’s spouse. One cannot give what one does not have. So inability to engage in marital sex is an impediment to marriage.

Note, though, that the impotence must exist prior to the marriage, and be permanent and incurable. Impotence is rarely incurable.
Interesting. Is that spelled out somewhere? NM, I found a source.
 
The church has been on the retreat for 80 years leaving us all - whatever viewpoint we are anxious to protect - high and dry.

The CCC is a multi-purpose book and is in the public forum and needs to be clearer. It is often read in conjunction with another document or documents.

Its problem is not the word “disordered” per se but the H-word as a state or condition, not making it clear it should refer essentially to an act. A person has to emphatically identify himself with an act to be described by it.

The CCC adopts the Freudian framework on this categorisation of persons. The world just as much as the Catholic Church doesn’t realise that this framework is (to put it one way) “archaic” and superficial.

The CCC doesn’t expand sufficiently how the Christian faith is lived existentially. Where is the indwelling Christ on a bad Thursday? Does the Holy Spirit really exist? Why did God permit some people to be brought up semi-abusively and “taught” religion neglectfully?

Real religion is going to stop avoiding mess.
Making it clear that it essentially refers to an act would not help that much due to human psychology.
Lol. It’s funny to think that I’m not as old as Jesus was when he started his public ministry, and that I understood archaic words even in high school. I must be an old fogey. But truly, why do you think they’re so archaic? Wasn’t the CCC put together in the early nineties?
And I could read Chaucer without any kind of gloss as a teenager, just because I could doesn’t mean it is normal for many adults. The CCC was put together in the 1980s by men in at least their 60s and directly translating the Latin which can make it difficult to parse sentences. The word disinterested is rarely if ever used in the present day the way the Catechism uses it. Usage of the word disordered suffers from he fact that while disorder and disordered have substantially different meanings they are often misunderstood to be the same word as they do not have truly separate words for it like other languages . People often misunderstand the word disordered to mean disorder as in menal disorder, I have had numerous arguments with people on this forum who sincerely believe that the Catechism says homosexuality is a mental disorder.
 
Making it clear that it essentially refers to an act would not help that much due to human psychology.

And I could read Chaucer without any kind of gloss as a teenager, just because I could doesn’t mean it is normal for many adults. The CCC was put together in the 1980s by men in at least their 60s and directly translating the Latin which can make it difficult to parse sentences. The word disinterested is rarely if ever used in the present day the way the Catechism uses it. Usage of the word disordered suffers from he fact that while disorder and disordered have substantially different meanings they are often misunderstood to be the same word as they do not have truly separate words for it like other languages . People often misunderstand the word disordered to mean disorder as in menal disorder, I have had numerous arguments with people on this forum who sincerely believe that the Catechism says homosexuality is a mental disorder.
I understand your point, but I don’t think the comparison between the CCC’s language and Chaucer is the best. That’s quibbling though. I think there’s a possibility people are making it harder than it has to be. i can’t reread all your quotes at the moment, but did you suggest an alternative word that would be as succinct?
 
Catechism wasn’t written in the American-ized use of the English language. Disordered is an accurate word, almost scientific if you will. because some here don’t understand the context in which the language is used is not a strong justification to change it. imho
This is exactly why I think it should be changed.

“Disordered” means one thing in Catholic beliefs and I accept that.

It means something else in the social sciences.

According to the famous piece from the APA from 1973, it doesn’t meet the requirements for a “disorder” (i.e., it “must either regularly cause subjective distress, or regularly be associated with some generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning”).

torahdec.org/Downloads/DSM-II_Homosexuality_Revision.pdf

So, when Catholics say gays or “disordered” or that SSA is “disordered” it might sound to someone else that they’re saying that they’re “mentally ill,” possibly in need of “treatment,” which is not the case according to the objective standard above.
 
This is exactly why I think it should be changed.

“Disordered” means one thing in Catholic beliefs and I accept that.

It means something else in the social sciences.

According to the famous piece from the APA from 1973, it doesn’t meet the requirements for a “disorder” (i.e., it “must either regularly cause subjective distress, or regularly be associated with some generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning”).

torahdec.org/Downloads/DSM-II_Homosexuality_Revision.pdf

So, when Catholics say gays or “disordered” or that SSA is “disordered” it might sound to someone else that they’re saying that they’re “mentally ill,” possibly in need of “treatment,” which is not the case according to the objective standard above.
The primary audience for the CCC is the Bishops around the world. The CCC is not a textbook but more of a reference manual. A reference manual for the Church should use the language of the Church and the philosophy of the Chuch just as a reference manual for psychologists (such as the DSM) should use the language of psychology and social science. “Disordered” has a very specific meaning in philosophical and theological terms. Bishops and theologians understand that and “speak” that language.

Watering down the language because some people don’t understand the philosophical context doesn’t help anything. Using a social science construct for a theological reference book is no more useful than writing the DSM using theological terminology.
So, when Catholics say gays or “disordered” or that SSA is “disordered” it might sound to someone else that they’re saying that they’re “mentally ill,” possibly in need of “treatment,” which is not the case according to the objective standard above
Even in everyday parlance, “disordered” does not mean mentally ill. A disorder can certainly stem from a psychological condition, but it can also be medical, moral or economic. You don’t infer that someone with a blood disorder, for example, is mentally ill. Why would mention of a disordered sexuality have to include that connotation?
 
Archbishop Coleridge … said there’s strong support in the synod, something on the order of 70/30, for a “less condemnatory” language about gays and lesbians.

cruxnow.com/church/2015/10/07/archbishop-coleridge-says-synod-6535-against-communion-for-the-divorced-and-remarried/
I am curious as to how this will play out. Rhetoric has already been turned down a lot. I cannot see where it could go lower, except to go silent. The facts will remain either way.
 
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