Politics is Where the Competing Moral Visions of a Society Meet and Struggle

The Pope Comes Out Swinging

By Tom Walsh

 In a Decisive Return to Orthodoxy the Pope Condemns Gay Marriages as Anarchy.

Pope John Paul II referred to dissenters within the Church as, Cafeteria Catholics.  These individuals, who believed themselves to be good Catholics, would pick and choose which doctrines they wanted to believe in and which ones they did not.  In his recent autobiography, reflecting on his priesthood, John Paul laments that he was not commanding enough. Pope Benedict does not seem to have the same difficulty.

 "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."

 Proverbs 27:5

Father Tom Reese 

As his first shot across the bow of the dissenting American Catholic Church, the new Pope arranged for Father Tom Reese, editor of the flagship magazine of Jesuit dissent to be removed from his post. 

 “This Spring Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ resigned as editor of America magazine ‘after repeated complaints from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,’ according to the Catholic News Service (CNS).

 For five years pressure was exerted on the Jesuits by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. According to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), Fr. Reese received the news that the Jesuits found the debate ‘unwinnable’ when he returned from Rome after covering the election of Pope Benedict XVI.”[1]

 The second shot across the bow came in the form of the appointment of his personal friend, co-worker, and orthodox Archbishop William Joseph Levada of San Francisco to replace himself as head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

 For those who did not hear or heed these warning shots, they were about to experience a painfully clear message.  Pope Benedict XVI scored a devastating blow to Amchurch with his proclamation on June 6, 2005.

 Archbishop William Joseph Levada

 “The Pope in his first clear pronouncement on gay marriages since his election, condemned same-sex unions as fake and expressions of "anarchic freedom" that threatened the future of the family.

 The Pope, who was elected in April, also condemned divorce, artificial birth control, trial marriages and free-style unions, saying all of these practices were dangerous for the family.

 ‘Today's various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages as well as the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are instead expressions of anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man,’ he said.

 The Pope spoke to families at Rome's St. John's Cathedral on an issue that has become highly controversial around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States.

 In April, parliament in traditionally Catholic Spain gave initial approval to a law legalizing gay marriage. It is widely expected to be approved by the Senate and to become law.

 But just last week, California's Assembly killed off a bill that would have allowed gay marriage in the most populous U.S. state.

The Pope, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Vatican's doctrinal department for more than two decades, said pseudo freedoms such as gay marriages were based on what he called ‘the banalisation of the human body and of man himself.’” [2]

 Looks like the cafeteria is closed.