As witnessed with reference to the other offerings in this
section, there are times when I am provoked to offer a
counter-point to
the positions of my chosen Church. That is not unique to me. It
has been
going on for the entire 2,000 years of the Church's existence, and for
the
numerous times that Church teaching has been in error - often for
hundreds of
years at a time.
In addition to my faithful membership in the Catholic Church for nearly
79
years, regular reading of the offerings in "Zenit: The World Seen
from
Rome" (www.zenit.org) sometimes
provides the stimulus. Such is the case today regarding several
recent
articles:
- "Dropping Out: Why Young People Leave
The Church", 11/25/2011;
- "Multipurpose Theology Of The Body",
11/17/2011;
- "Theology Of The Body Experts Gather
In Rome", 11/11/2011
To
this I offer some observations, dealt with in
greater detail in other offerings in this section on The Catholic
Church.
Some of the teachings of the Church during the last 150 years have been
disastrous
for the continued relevance of the Church to the grandfathers and
fathers of
the "young people" as well as to themselves. These have largely
been in the area of human sexuality, wherein the Church has refused to
absorb
and integrate the relevant findings of Science in those decades. Worst
is the
teaching of the "unitive" function of the sex act that allegedly
"must always be open to procreation". As this is deemed to
relate to the decisions and actions of committed married couples in the
discharge of their responsibility to have children whom they can
properly
raise, the Church has no jurisdiction, in my opinion. As
it
relates to sex outside of marriage, the age-old prohibitions regarding
Adultery
and Fornication are clear enough. But the result of this
situation is
that the Church is alienated from and totally ignored by the vast
majority of
otherwise faithful Catholics. The other result is that this
subject
matter is left to the lay press to confuse, as in the recent offering
in the
Sunday Times Magazine article entitled "Teaching Good Sex" (November
20, 2011). What a vital and wasted opportunity on the part of
Church
teachers. What a gross self-inflicted wound, given the clear
scientific -
and personal - insights regarding the importance of sexuality and the
sex drive
in the lives of all human beings as created by God.
GS