Check out Chris Wallace's interview of Washington's Cardinal Donald Wuerl on Fox News Sunday. Wuerl highlights his efforts at "new evangelization" and the need for respect in discourse, as well as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," of which he says that there is no official Church stance. Have a look below.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
If we respect and love those who suffer with a homosexual inclination we would desire that they receive the help and guidance they need to heal their wounds in order that they may develop healthy and Holy relationships grounded in authentic Love.
Still, I would have thought being loved by God is the basis for our dignity and respect: if God love's us, why shouldn't we love each other? I didn't know God was a slave to our categories, and I didn't know our dignity was based on our biological functions.
Hey look, I can digest food. Give me dignity and respect!
But to say that he should have used the opportunity to condemn homosexual activity is what I mean when I say you are moving the goal post. Wuerl has been plenty vocal on that topic in the past, but the question was homosexuals serving in the military, not homosexuality itself.
If you are bothered that gay people will now be able to serve in the military without lying, tell us, what jobs should gay people have? Let's presume they are "actively" homosexual-should they be left to die in the streets without housing or employment? Is that properly Catholic? Is that just discrimination? I don't understand why this "sin" disqualifies people for so much in your eyes. Sinners or not-people are people. You seem to think that because they are gay they should not be able to participate in any of life's goods. Why do you hate them so much? (Or Claim To Love Them By Making Their Lives Miserable Because You Think That Is The Truth?)
Are you claiming that we are not the objects of God's desire? Is God not the object of our desire? By saying that we are in fact objects of desire, I am not saying that is all we are, or all God is, but by acting like this is not the case, well, then I suppose you are contradicting the entirety of Church teaching. The inherent goodness of desire was affirmed by Trent, not rejected by it. Read some Aquinas, or Augustine for that matter. Or, read Benedict's Deus Caritas Est if you want a defense of erotic love and desire. This doesn't say anything about the licitness of homosexuality, only that your charge on 'object of sexual desire' doesn't stick or stand by itself with regard to homosexuality.
Still, it's special pleading to claim that husband/father/mother/daughter etc. make no reference to sexual activity and only "homosexual" does. It beggars belief, in fact.
You still haven't said anything to explain how in fact DADT was not discrimination against persons and was only justifiable discrimination against acts. And why Wuerl wasn't properly catechized, given a lack of explanation for your claims on DADT. That's bordering on libelous, given Wuerl's role as a shepherd of the Church.
I do not define myself as an object of sexual desire. I consider my partner of 38 years to by my husband, and I, his. Who we are and how we live most certainly respects each other's human dignity. That is one of the reasons we have been in a committed relationship for 38 years and intend to remain as such so long as we both shall live.
But absolutely none of that is relevant to the repeal of DADT.
We should pray that Cardinal Wuerl will become even more articulate and assertive, and that he and other members of the hierarchy will eventually realize that the Faith and unborn children cannot be adequately defended unless the bishops first eradicate the terrible scandal of the non-excommunication of politicians who support legalized abortion. There is an evident logical clash between telling people (correctly) that abortion is murder and simultaneously allowing pro-abortion lawmakers to receive Holy Communion and present themselves as Catholics in good standing.
As for the rescission of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, while it would have been preferable, from a Catholic standpoint, to retain that policy to contest and impede social acceptance of the sin associated with the Biblical city of Sodom, Cardinal Wuerl prudently stated that the Church has no official position on that military issue per se. True, the Vatican document entitled Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons (July 23, 1992) mentions military recruitment, but that topic is notably missing from two subsequent Vatican instructions: Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life (November 24, 2002) and Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (July 31, 2003).
Given Congress’s recent vote, Catholics in the United States should now realize that the fight to secure societal respect for the virtue of chastity (CCC 2348 and 2359) has moved to a more propitious battleground: upholding the authentic concept of marriage in accordance with Jesus’s teaching (Mt 19:4-5) and the natural moral law.
I do not recall ever seeing any Catholic leader on CBS's "Face the Nation" or NBCs "Meet the Press". the two weekly news shows that I always DVR to keep up with what is going on in America.
It seem smart for a representative of the Church to appear on these public forums with their large audiences to give the church's view point on issues in our society the church is involved with. That makes the church more understood and more of a Player in America society. Too bad the church does not have better access in all news venues.
Wuerl's explaination of why the Washington D.C. archdiocese withdrew from Washington , D.C.'s social service programs was most informing and instructing while being very matter-of-fact: "we don't do that". He very non-confrontationally but also very non-apologeticly stated we don't do abortions, we do not provide the service of adopting children to homosexuals as demanded without exemption or regard for religious conviction by Washington ,DC municiple governmment. In time Wuerl's policy of "We do not do that" which obviously has the approval of the Pope since Wurerl was just made a Cardinal will be adopted by all Catholic diocese across the United States.
Wuerl's understated but clear policy of "We do not do that" is good for everyone to know in all available media forums. Wuerl's use of Fox News Sunday made Wuerl's important views and prospectives known to all. Very vise and adroit use of media.
What if the subject had been the admission of openly divorced and remarried Catholics in the military (yes, there are more than a few of those!). Do you think he should have said that the church was against that? Of course not; he's way too much of a politician to deal with THAT kind of a hornet's nest, but the church considers divorced and remarried Catholics to be living in sin.
Or should the church just pick the battles that you like?
I suspect victim groups will be quite unhappy with his take and they probably have something to be said for that point of view.
Love is not possessive nor does it serve to manipulate.