"Church’s teachings on sexuality are profoundly protective, not punitive" -- ++Cordileone

 

The Pillar has an interview with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in which he gives a beautiful exposition of Church teaching regarding many of the difficult issues we face in society today. 

Would that we had such clarity from the Vatican!!

Salvatore Cordileone is the Archbishop of San Francisco, without doubt the hub of homosexuality in the USA. He is someone I have had the privilege of meeting. 

He has to walk a difficult line, especially given the demographic he works within. One could see how, even if he were a silent administrator, he would be hated just because he represents the Catholic Church. When I met him, he explained that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

In this interview he defends Church teaching providing some much needed clarity. I want to say "bravely defends" but, lets face it, this is just what all bishops should be doing.

He says:

"the Church’s teachings on sexuality are profoundly protective, not punitive. Just look at the destruction that comes when we do not accept our sexuality as a gift from God to be used for God’s purposes. We can look all around us and see the suffering that comes when people do not discipline sexual desire and put it at the service of love: broken homes, broken lives, fatherless boys and girls, abortion, not to mention rape, abuse, molestation, sex trafficking. The body count of the sexual revolution is large and growing, indeed, growing exponentially.

This disciplining of desire that Christ calls for can be difficult. God knows that. But the suffering that ensues when sexual desire is held up as an end in itself to be pursued without regard for the consequences, practically deified, is hard to ignore at this point."

On the line between clarity & care:

"Yes, we need to speak clearly, but we also need to show our hearts so that those who disagree with us can see that we are coming from a place of love, rather than see us simply according to what we oppose. It can be hard to show love for someone denouncing you as a bigot, but isn’t that what Christ asks of us? Do good to those who do you wrong.

That said, I think we need to realize that no matter how kindly Catholics say what we believe or explain its source in the deep love of God, some people in our contemporary culture will remain determined to find our views offensive."

This is important and interesting I think - as mentioned in our recent episode of Catholic Unscripted, I think this is the best of the Franciscan Pontificate, even if the Holy Father has tended overall to go too far or confuse the message, his talk of "going out to the peripheries" does speak of the need to create a space to bring the kerygma to our atheist society. The problem is where the space becomes condonement, acceptance or even encouragement - "God loves you just as you are" - the Gospel is about change; metanoia; to “be holy just as our father in heaven is holy” Mt 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15; Luke 1:74-75, etc.

If you just ban people from having anything to do with you, the Church or even Christ, because they are at odds with Church teaching, how on earth can any of us expect them to feel anything other than condemned and rejected? How can we expect them to hear the Good News of Jesus and recognise that it is salvific and true? We have to be aware that people need space and time in order to recognise the call of the Gospel.

Returning to the teaching of Sacred Scripture, Archbishop Cordileone states:

"It’s all there in Genesis: God made us male and female because it is not good for man to be alone. The sexes are oriented toward each other and toward the great task of making new life together, in a relationship at once equal and complementary.

This is the image of God, the Most Holy Trinity, a communion of divine persons: the loving complementarity of man and woman, a communion of persons that generates new life.

And then God gave them dominion over the earth, to care for it and cultivate it, not to ravish and destroy it for their own selfish purposes. The strange rejection of the givenness of the created order, whether of our bodies or our common home, is a deep rejection of our relationship with each other and with God."

I love that he links the First Sin here to our current cultural direction. It is one of my own insights that with ideologies like gender theory we are creating false idols, having chosen that our own ideas and morality is far more reliable than God's Word. This can only go badly for society.

When asked why Catholics don't take Pope Francis criticism of gender theory seriously, Archbishop Cordileone makes the excellent point that the stories and the research that rebut this media narrative don’t reach nearly as many people. He continues:

"I do think the emergence of young adults who regret their surgical and hormonal procedures is beginning to have an impact; even the New York Times is at least asking new questions when it comes to chemically or surgically mutilating children and teens, amidst the current sudden surge in children with gender dysphoria."

I think he very generously and tactfully ignores the blindingly obvious answer - which is that the Pope sends mixed messages about this issue as with a lot of issues. He apparent condonation of gender theory receives far more attention than his condemnation because that is the nature of the news cycle. The truth is that this on its own is a good reason for the pope to speak clearly and concisely on these issues.

Read the fill interview here and listen to me discussing this in more depth with Dr. Gavin Ashenden & Katherine Bennett on Catholic Unscripted #11