This is a new series that I would like to start doing called Cultural Commentary. I will try not to rant too much and hopefully discuss a real solution, but I would like to try and establish Catholic’s place in the world and where we stand on certain issues. I would like to start this first one as a foundation of our belifes. My goal is to break down what we believe and draw it out in our society. What is a Catholic’s place? What is his or her role? How should one accept or fight gainst the new norms of our culture?
I would like to begin with where we are in America and start with some history. There has always been a skeptiscism of Catholics in this country. Back when President Kennedy was elected in 1960, there was a great concern among many secularists that Kennedy (a Catholic) would be too loyal to the Pope and submit his authority to the Pope as opposed to the people of the United States. (I would like to take the time to add that Catholics should not be loyal to the Pope but to the magisterium of the Church, lest we forget that the Pope, while holy and wise, is fallible.)
Going back further, Irish Catholic immigrants were greatly discriminated against when they came to this country. This mainly came from the ideas of the Pilgrams from Holland and Great Britain, who (respectively) were Dutch Calvanist and Anglican, and completely denied the authority of the Pope. Another cause for discrimination came from the xenophoic ideas that Irish, Italians, and non-northwestern Europeans were lesser people.
And even now we see a bias against Catholics. As I wrote a few weeks about a few weeks ago, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) told a Catholic judicial nominee, “the dogma lives loudly within you … and that’s concerning.”
Not only has our faith in general been attacked in our country, but, and I would argue more so, our values and conceptions of the human person, human sexuality, and of life.
We have been attacked for believing that homosexual marriage is wrong (and some are praised when certain priests who shall remain nameless decide to defy the dogma of the Church on human sexuality). Homosexual relations in any way is wrong and is sinful. Paragraph 2357 of the Chatechism clearly states that it is “contrary to natural law.” The point of sex is is to create a bonding between a man and a woman in the scarment of marriage and for the purpose of creating children. While modern politicians and activist may deny the science that only a man and a woman together can create a child, it is indeed a biological fact. Thus making the sin of homosexual relations contrary to natural law, for the simple fact that it is unproductive.
This is absolutely not to say that people who feel same sex attraction are themselves sinful, but the act of homosexual relations is. It is a cross that some have to bear, similar to those of greed, gluttony, and lust. Those that feel same sex attraction must find a way to integrate chastity in themselves in the same way that the rest of us do. Paragraph 2338 speaks on how sexuality must be integrated into the person. Only the person who succesfuly does this is chaste.
I will talk at length more on this subject and the subject of gender identity in a later post.
I have talkes substantially on the issue of life here on EPIC Radio. You can read some of those articles here, here, and here. I can also garuntee you that I will write more on this in the future.
And finally, for this blog post at least, a thought on the human person.
“God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.” (Genisis 1:27)
Because we are made in the image and likeness of God, we must treat ourselves like we are in the image and likeness of God. Drugs, violence, and premarital affairs violate that image. We are all created with the same dignity, in His image. In addition we must treat eachother as we are all equal. This includes those that are not the same race, socio-economic class, or follow the same religion as us. We must create everybody equally. This is essential to justice in human life.
I hope you have found this first in what will hopefully be many blog posts interesting. Just a reminder, I am not using my social media during lent, so if you would like to get up with me, comment below or email me at mhandley@epicdmr.org. I look forward to your responses and hope that you will send suggestions to help make this series better.
May the dogma of the Catholic church always live loudly within you,
Matthew
EPIC Radio 