Reframing the message

by Editor · Published May 23, 2012 · Updated May 21, 2012

In March Cardinal Christoph Sch�nborn, the archbishop of Vienna, was asked to arbitrate in a dispute in an Austrian parish which had elected to its pastoral council a man living in a registered same-sex union. Cardinal Sch�nborn, a prot�g� of Pope Benedict, endorsed the man�s election. In a later homily he restated the Church�s teachings on homosexuality, but noted that many Catholics �don�t live according to [God�s] master plan�, either because of inadequate formation or because they �honestly believed that they were simply unable to follow God�s master plan�.

The Church�s teaching of sexuality, he said, must be communicated through an approach that is �neither rigorist nor lax, but in which the law is completed by love�.

Throughout the world, the Catholic hierarchy has energetically communicated its teachings and opposition to the legalisation of same-sex marriages. In doing so, it has emphasised the uniqueness of marriage as being the exclusive and lifelong union of one man and one woman that is open to procreation. Compromising this definition, accordingly, would undermine not only the sanctity of marriage, but also pose a social threat against it.

This message, it seems, is not being embraced by the faithful, according to poll results in the United States, where the question of gay marriage currently is a hot topic.

A poll conducted in March by the Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service found that 59% of Catholics support same-sex marriage, higher than the overall figure of 52%, with 36% of Catholics opposed. It is apparent that the Church is failing to persuade the faithful of its case.

As western society becomes increasingly tolerant towards homosexuality, so the numbers of openly homosexual men and women increase. Many Catholics are faced with the choice of rejecting or embracing their gay children or friends. Those who embrace them may well feel conflicted by the Church�s message, or by its sometimes forceful tone.

Some Catholics, presumably many of the 59%, may be turned off by what they perceive to be the belligerence of bishops who label those who do not subscribe to the Church�s teachings�and who as non-Catholics are not required to�as enemies of the family. Especially those Catholics who have gay family members might feel that such rhetoric is also making a severe judgment of people whom they love.

When 59% of Catholics state their opposition to their own Church�s position, then the Church clearly is not being heard or understood. Self-evidently, the message must be communicated more effectively to be persuasive.

The faithful would benefit from a message which would address questions such as these:

� How can we explain to our homosexual brothers and sisters and their families that the Church�s opposition to gay marriage (which is backed by the Catechism, 2357), and the way it is sometimes expressed, does not compromise the Catechism�s teaching that homosexuals must be treated �with respect, compassion, and sensitivity� and not be discriminated against (2358)?

� How exactly is the institution of marriage threatened by the emergence of same-sex marriage, and how will that affect heterosexual marriage?

� What is the Church�s advice to same-sex couples�especially non-Catholics who are not bound by the Church�s teachings�who would like to commit to one another while enjoying the same legal benefits as heterosexual couples?

These are complex questions that require comprehensive and sensitive answers, not slogans or soundbites.

It may be that the 59% of US Catholics who do not believe the Church�s case against same-sex marriage require catechesis on the subject. Their great number, higher than the general population, may well indicate a teaching failure by the Church.

Commenting on Cardinal Sch�nborn�s pastoral decision in Austria, Professor Rocco Buttiglione, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, wrote in the Italian daily Il Foglio that the Church�s doctrine on same-sex attraction must not �be accompanied by an attitude of human closure or hostility towards homosexuals�. This, he wrote, �is the lesson that we have these days from Vienna�.

It is a lesson worth learning.