2014 Synod on the Family

[quickplay]

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/catholic-church-gays-_n_5976134.html

[TC]

edit after the fact : The synod thing probably deserves its own thread and probably shouldn't be shuffled under a thread entitled "Catholic Cowardice", but it is posted here so I guess I'll reply here (not criticizing quickplay whatsoever - great topic to bring up, just that the title of the thread doesn't fit if we're talking about an institution changing thousands of years of practice, which doesn't seem like a cowardly act whatsoever - then again the thread titles in this part of the board are always pretty stupid like the Health Care "Reform" air quote title like the ACA didn't actually try to reform healthcare, or Global Warming? Really? with lots of question marks like it's not actually happening).

Can someone explain what all this means practically? That a parish shouldn't fire its choir director, if that choir director is gay and gets married? Or that a Catholic school shouldn't fire a teacher who is gay and marries? Adoption by gay couples?

Also, I noticed a story that Francis added 6 priests to the synod - is that logistical, or is it synod-packing like how Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court?

www.americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/pope-unprecedented-significant-decision-adds-six-synod-fathers-team-writes-final

[EasyEd]

The press seems determined to report the Catholic Church will change its doctrine on family matters even if that is not what is occurring.

[hoya9797]

The church is already backing off - www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/world/vatican-backtrack-gays/

And, the crazy thing is that they weren't even proposing any real changes in the terrible way they treat gays. Essentially, they were saying that they would pretend to be nicer and say fewer bad things (in public) about gays but that they wouldn't make any meaningful changes in the way they really think about gays or the role they have in the church. And, that was way too much for the EasyEd's and Hoyaloya's of the world. Once again, I wonder how anyone could be part of this organization. It baffles me.

[TC]

Is "the Church" really backing off or is it just a bunch of African bishops and Burke making a lot of derp derp?

[hoya9797]

The Vatican did issue a statement saying that this was just a "working document" and that they wanted to be sure that nobody thought they were creating a positive impression of same sex relationships. So, like I said, nothing meaningful actually changes with this. The catholic church is the same bigoted, out of touch group it's always been.

[Elvado]

Oct 15, 2014 10:30:36 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

The church is already backing off - www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/world/vatican-backtrack-gays/

. Once again, I wonder how anyone could be part of this organization. It baffles me.

Kind of sums up my feelings about the Democrat party

[TC]

Oct 15, 2014 13:13:35 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

The Vatican did issue a statement saying that this was just a "working document" and that they wanted to be sure that nobody thought they were creating a positive impression of same sex relationships. So, like I said, nothing meaningful actually changes with this. The catholic church is the same bigoted, out of touch group it's always been.

As far as I'm reading the quotes the "positive impression" quote was from bishops trying to sway the final report (very likely Burke, etc), and not from the group that Francis sent in to actually write the report up :

www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/10/14/conservative_bishops_push_back_against_vaticans_gaypositive_tone.html

I find it fascinating because it's so obvious there's a real struggle between Francis and the grumpy old guy bishop contingent who like to wear the funny hats.

[Problem of Dog]

Oct 15, 2014 13:22:21 GMT -5 Elvado said:

Oct 15, 2014 10:30:36 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

The church is already backing off - www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/world/vatican-backtrack-gays/

. Once again, I wonder how anyone could be part of this organization. It baffles me.

Kind of sums up my feelings about the Democrat party

Great retort. Super clever. Five stars.

[hoya9797]

Apparently Burke has been demoted from his very high ranking position to a figurehead role. I'd like to think this is because the pope realizes that the church is held back by having an outspoken bigot in a position of power. If that's the case, I have to give some credit here. They still have a long way to go before their treatment of gays is remotely acceptable but this could be tiny sign of progress which is something, I guess.

[TC]

I'm not sure it's really that - I'm sure some of the African bishops are pretty good at rivaling what Burke says about gays, and Francis isn't demoting them. But I'm sure it's a part of it.

I've never been interested whatsoever in Vatican news, but I was searching Twitter once a day and reading America and even some of the wackadoodle conservative Catholic websites to see what they were saying. I'm pretty impressed about how committed Francis is to bringing about reforms even if it takes some strongarming - from designating the report writers, to publishing the entire report, to basically admonishing them all on not getting what he wanted done in his closing sermon.

[hoya9797]

He's reformed the PR wing of the church, that's for sure.