Vatican synod ends without clear stances on women deacons, LGBT.
AMERICA MAGAZINE :
“… There was a section on truth and love where the document talks about controversial issues and how to address them. In that section, the term L.G.B.T. doesn’t specifically appear. What do you see [that] is addressing that issue? Because it was discussed a lot in the synod.
Yes, it was. And it’s reflected in terms of how people identify their sexuality. And it was broader than the letters of L.G.B.T.Q. It also dealt with people who are in their second marriage.
What was being conveyed in the synod discussions and what the document tried to pick up was, first of all, that we should not start just with condemnations. [We should] also get to know people and realize that in many discussions, we don’t know a whole lot. We have to really be careful about going full forward and pronouncing on things because we believe that there’s a violation of God’s law or a church protocol. We really have to accompany people; nobody should feel excluded.
…I would say this, [in regard to] the discussions about the L.G.B.T.Q. community: There was greater discussion about that than polygamy. And polygamy was named in the document….
Were you surprised that there was less explicit reference to L.G.B.T. issues in the document?
Yes. Only because there was, at least in the groups that I was in, quite a bit of reference to that. People spoke of their experiences. There were some very compelling testimonies on the part of people about that in terms of their families. That was not fully reflected in the document.
That doesn’t mean we’re not going to return to it next year. I think that’s going to happen.
I would say this, [in regard to] the discussions about the L.G.B.T.Q. community: There was greater discussion about that than polygamy. And polygamy was named in the document. And it was not a universal problem. And an issue like the gay and lesbian community would be.
But one thing that was in the same paragraph [on sexuality and identity] was that the church has the responsibility to defend the human dignity of everybody. And that’s a powerful message, particularly in some countries, where, in fact, gay and lesbian people are prosecuted, even put to death, I think it was a clarion call to all of the church, that we cannot tolerate that kind of violence against people. And we have to defend human dignity.
Note: Most of us understand I think that it is important to distinguish homosexual persons (persons with psychologically based homosexual tendencies) from the aggressive elite ideological movements which exploit these confusions. God alone judges the degree of culpability in each person. — SH
Catholic Critique 