My Take on the News: 'Wikileaks,' Italian Style; Conscience and the Constitution; Same-Sex Attraction

---

More posts about forcing Catholics to violate our conscience:
The Department of Health and Human Services vs. Conscience

---

There's a lot going on, as usual. Including this:

1. Vatican Document Leak: Drama, Reason, and Selling Papers
2. HHS 'Ignore Your Conscience' Mandate
3. Living With Same-Sex Attraction

About the first item: Emotion and reason don't play well together. I think reason is a better guide to decisions. Incidentally, there's a reason why it's hard to think straight when our emotions are whipped up:

• "Emotions, the Frontal Cortex, the War on Terror, Anarchists, and the Illuminati"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (December 23, 2008)

---

1. Vatican Document Leak: Drama, Reason, and Selling Papers

I posted about this on Wednesday:

"Vatican Spokesman Calls for Calm, Clear Thinking" Responds to Series of Leaked Memos Causing Italian Media Uproar ZENIT, via EWTN (February 14-15, 2012)

"The director of the Vatican press office advises remaining calm, as a series of leaked Vatican documents has created something of a media storm in Italy....

"...'We must, then, remain calm and keep our nerve, make use of reason, something which not all media outlets tend to do,' he suggested...."

---

"Vatican spokesman says leaks are incentive for further reform"
CNA (Catholic News Agency (February 14, 2012)

"In the face of leaks of various Vatican documents, Holy See officials must not become caught up in controversy and confusion but should stay committed to reform and 'authentic transparency' in government, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said on Monday afternoon.

" 'Both sides bear responsibility: firstly the suppliers of documents of this kind, but also those who undertake to use them for purposes that certainly have nothing to do with pure love of truth,' he said in a Feb. 13 statement. 'We must, therefore, stand firm, not allowing ourselves to be swallowed up by the vortex of confusion, which is what ill-intentioned people want, and remaining capable of using our reason.'..."

I think the drama brewing in Italy shows that:

• Everyone on the Vatican staff is a human being
  • "...man himself begets mischief, as sparks fly upward."
    (Job 5:7)
• Reporters and editors need to sell newspapers
  • Drama helps sell newspapers
• Interoffice memos and reports generally aren't dramatic
  • Until they're 'properly' presented

Here's how I put it in Wednesday's post:

"...Looks like there's another 'Wikileaks' situation brewing: this time with the Vatican as the star attraction. If I thought that the Vatican was staffed by perfect people, or that the Pope could do no wrong,¹ I might be shocked. As it is, not so much.

That doesn't mean that I think the Vatican's up to no good: or that whatever's been leaked is a pack of lies. The way it's presented may be something else....

"...As for the way news media seems to be covering the story? Which do you think would sell more papers: a detailed analysis of an accountant's report; or 'VATICAN MONEY MISMANAGED?!'..."
(February 15, 2012)

---

2. HHS 'Ignore Your Conscience' Mandate

This could get interesting. Looks like close to a quarter of state-level attorneys general have read the Constitution: including the First Amendment.

"Twelve attorneys general threaten to sue over contraception mandate"
CNA/EWTN News (February 16, 2012)

"Attorneys general from a dozen states say they intend to sue over the Obama administration's contraception mandate that requires many religious employers to violate the teachings of their faith.

"In a Feb. 10 letter, the attorneys general voiced their 'strong opposition' to the mandate, which they called 'an impermissible violation of the Constitution's First Amendment virtually unparalleled in American history.'..."

Maybe the state attorneys general who haven't threatened to sue are waiting to see what happens next. I've posted about the current administration's efforts before:

• "HHS Mandate, Catholic Bishops, and Foster Auditorium"
  (February 12, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Current Events and Getting a Grip
• "My Take on the News: Bishops and Sterilization; Chaplains and Free Speech; Racketeering and Lizard Men"
  (February 10, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Sterilize! You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Future!

I am concerned about the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) mandate. I think it's wrong to force folks to violate their conscience.

Cautious Optimism and the 'Good Old Days'

I'm cautiously optimistic. Antics in Washington remind me of the 'good old days,' when a WASPish establishment was tearing itself to shreds.

Folks in today's establishment aren't likely to say, "the KKK is an old American institution,"² and go commie-hunting in a Federal Writers Project. But I think they've got the same sort of disconnect from the world we all live in.

I also think that an increasing number of folks have started to notice.

One question we need to ask ourselves is, 'do we really want that lot in charge?' There's an election coming up in November, by the way.

---

3. Living With Same-Sex Attraction

Some folks believe that Christians hate homosexuals. I can see why:


(Reuters photo, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

I don't think that lot is typical of American Protestants. They emphatically don't reflect what the Catholic Church teaches.

We're not allowed to hate anybody. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033) That includes homosexuals, used car salesmen, and Lithuanians - which are three quite different sorts of categories, and that's another topic.

"CNA columnist begins series on living with same-sex attraction"
CNA (Catholic News Agency) (February 16, 2012)

"In a new series of guest columns, CNA contributor Patrick Einheber will discuss his experience as a faithful Catholic with same-sex attraction.

" 'I was born and raised as a Catholic and have experienced same-sex attraction for as long as I can remember being aware of attraction,' said Einheber, a 37-year-old software engineer from Denver, Colorado.

" 'In college I abruptly and naively came to the conclusion that the Church was wrong about its views on same-sex relationships and marriage,' he told CNA. 'I rebelled against the idea that Catholics need to understand and believe everything the Church teaches and so I stopped going to Mass.'

"But after college, 'I experienced a profound emptiness that God eventually revealed as a longing for him,' he recalled. 'When I again sought the face of God and tried to learn why the Church teaches what it teaches, I began to see its wisdom and beauty and have been drawn onward ever since.'..."

My own experience is a little like Patrick Einheber's. I was raised in a nice, normal, non-Catholic American family. I assumed that what the Catholic Church taught about artificial contraceptives was stupid. So I read Humanae Vitae: and eventually became a Catholic.

I don't experience same-sex attraction. That's no virtue on my part: just part of the package I deal with. My run-in with Catholic teaching had more to do with my disordered view of human sexuality.

I recognized that sex was an integral part of human nature, but didn't realize how important being open to the creation of new life was. There's more about that on the Vatican website:

• "Humanae Vitae"
  Paul VI (July 25, 1968) (English translation)

'Either - Or' Ain't

"...In his remarks to CNA, the new columnist criticized the media's presentation of a 'false dichotomy' between 'authentic, traditional Christians' on the one hand, and people who experience same-sex attraction on the other.

"These categories are not mutually exclusive, Einheber noted.

" 'The world needs to know that there are people who experience same-sex attraction and still want to follow Christ on the narrow road.'..."
(CNA) [emphasis mine]

Maybe you've run into a Catholic who hates homosexuals. Or used car salesmen. Or Lithuanians. Some of the 1,100,000,000 Catholic alive today don't behave well. That's an individual. Sometimes malcontents get together and form a sort of club. Individually, or in a group: they don't speak for the Church.

This isn't all there is to say on the subjects, but it's one way to wrap up this post:

• I'm not allowed to hate anyone
  (Catechism 1033)
• Homosexual behavior is wrong
  • So is unjust discrimination against people who engage in homosexual behavior
  (Catechism, 2358)

Like I've said before

• Jesus told us that the Commandments boiled down to 'Love God, love your neighbor.'
  (Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-31)
• Everybody is our neighbor
  (Matthew 5:43-44; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-30; Catechism, 1825)
• "Love" isn't "approval."

Related posts:

• Catholic Church
  
  • "Ancient Style and Today's Discussions at the 'Vatican Science Academy' "
    (October 2, 2011)
  • "Zambia, America, and Two Millennia of Weaseling"
    (September 26, 2011)
  • "Hope, Joy, and Working for a Better World"
    (September 13, 2011)
  • "We Won: Quite a While Ago"
    (January 13, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Wildly Improbable Survival
  • " 'Going My Way,' and Why Anti-Catholicism is a Good Sign"
    (November 18, 2010)
• Religious freedom
  • "My Take on the News: 'There Oughtta be a Law?' "
    (November 11, 2011)
  • "My Take on the News: Religion, Politics, and Freedom"
    (October 28, 2011)
  • "First Amendment Suspended for 9/11 Memorial Service: Wrong, but Understandable"
    (September 10, 2011)
  • "Separation of Church and State, Assumptions, and Fear"
    (September 2, 2011)
  • "Freedom of Religion, or Freedom From Religion?"
    (June 1, 2009)
• Sex, Catholic style
  • "Same-Sex Attraction, 'the Devil Made Me Do It,' and Getting a Grip"
    (November 4, 2011)
  • "Sex, Science, and the Home Schooling Parent"
    (September 17, 2011)
  • "Sex Isn't a Product for Consumption?"
    (June 8, 2011)
  • "No Open Season on Transgendered People, Please!"
    (April 26, 2011)
  • "The Catholic Church and Homosexuals: Harsh and Soft, Judgmental and Understanding"
    (March 13, 2009)
• Faith and reason
  • "Faith, Reason, Certainty, and Getting a Grip"
    (January 11, 2012)
  • " 'Religious People aren't Reasonable?' "
    (December 18, 2011)
  • "Becoming Catholic for Reasons, Leaving Because of Feelings"
    (August 5, 2010)
  • "It's Faith and Reason"
    (June 19, 2010)
  • "Reason, Faith and 'What Folks Know,
    that Just Ain't So' "
    (June 4, 2010)

---

¹ Papal infallibility doesn't meant that a Pope can't make mistakes. I've been over this before. (January 11, 2012)

² Source:

• "McCarthyism"
  
  Spartacus Education, U.K.