USCCB Statement on Marriage Ruling

Source: http://www.marriageuniqueforareason.org/20...arriage-ruling/



Today Archbishop Kurtz issued a statement about the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling, calling it a “tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us.” Read the full statement here.

Archbishop Kurtz compared the decision to Roe v. Wade and how it doesn’t change the truth- which is “unchanged and unchangeable.” He continues on to say that, “Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.”

It is a deep truth that the human being is an embodied soul, male and female. The archbishop writes, “The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female” and notes that this is part of what Pope Francis has described as “integral ecology.” “The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.”

The bishops follow Jesus Christ who taught these truths unambiguously, and the president of the USCCB encouraged Catholics to keep speaking for the truth and moving forward with the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Archbishop Kurtz ended by saying, “I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.”

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 98

Reading 1 (Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24)

God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being;
and the creatures of the world are wholesome,
and there is not a destructive drug among them
nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,
for justice is undying.
For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it.

Responsorial Psalm (Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13)

R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the netherworld;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Reading 2 (2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15)

Brothers and sisters:
As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse,
knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you,
may you excel in this gracious act also.

For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Not that others should have relief while you are burdened,
but that as a matter of equality
your abundance at the present time should supply their needs,
so that their abundance may also supply your needs,
that there may be equality.
As it is written:
Whoever had much did not have more,
and whoever had little did not have less.

Alleluia Cf. (2 Tm 1:10)

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel (Mk 5:21-43)

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who has touched my clothes?”
But his disciples said to Jesus,
“You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

While he was still speaking,
people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said,
“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child’s father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.

Or (Mk 5:21-24, 35b-43)

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.”
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said,
“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child’s father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.

Have a Blessed Sunday All!

The sad thing is 6 out of the 9 judges are Catholics...well..nominally.

Pride is the excessive love of one's own excellence. It is ordinarily accounted one of the seven capital sins. St. Thomas, however, endorsing the appreciation of St. Gregory, considers it the queen of all vices, and puts vainglory in its place as one of the deadly sins. In giving it this pre-eminence he takes it in a most formal and complete signification. He understands it to be that frame of mind in which a man, through the love of his own worth, aims to withdraw himself from subjection to Almighty God, and sets at naught the commands of superiors. It is a species of contempt of God and of those who bear his commission. Regarded in this way, it is of course mortal sin of a most heinous sort. Indeed St. Thomas rates it in this sense as one of the blackest of sins. By it the creature refuses to stay within his essential orbit; he turns his back upon God, not through weakness or ignorance, but solely because in his self-exaltation he is minded not to submit. His attitude has something Satanic in it, and is probably not often verified in human beings. - Catholic Encyclopedia

This should come as no surprise. After all, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden are also Catholics, and they both unreservedly support abortion, and same sex marriage.

Technically speaking, both have already excommunicated themselves. All it needs for the Church in US is to have a very strong and confident USCCB to officially make the announcement.

For the most part, IMO, they are following the orders of their higher ups. This is the reason, I personally believe that Catholics should not go into politics, unless one has very firm grounding in their faith ... lest they end up as servants to Mammon instead.

This post has been edited by khool: Jun 28 2015, 08:06 AM

khool, i think catholics has to go to politics, because number talks maaa... ... more catholic reps can vote more catholic values imo... 1 catholic or 2 like those judges sure cannot fight with a lot of pagans... how about 99999999999999999999999 catholics ?

SINCE YOU ASKED ..? (Q.210) Father, explain how Catholics read and interpret the Bible?

Good morning de1929, and a blessed Sunday to you.

Somehow, I knew you might chime in on this. The reason I present my opinion in this matter, i.e. vote in more Catholic values, is because Catholics are not called to force our beliefs on others. We are asked to present our faith and beliefs of the Church to the rest of the world, and let the Holy Spirit do His work, that is all.

The only reason the Church puts up defence with this whole LGBT marriage is due to the fact that the Church knows and recognizes that sooner or later, the issue will come knocking at her door in USA, like how it happened Ireland. Better to make take a stand earlier, than to only make one at the eleventh hour. The Church does it because she knows she can take the blows and the criticisms.

The Catholic Church does not focus on the temporal, this world, this life but on the promises made to her by Christ before He ascended into heaven. In order to be worthy of His promises, we need to uphold His values. Again, please take note, I said uphold not force. These values are to be upheld by the Church, and she Herself has no authority to change these values and laws, which were given by God Himself. This is why the Church will not accept any revision or redefinition of both abortion and marriage.

To God, all life is sacred and good, because He has declared it so as mentioned in Genesis chapter 1. Same goes for marriage, which is considered as a Holy Sacrament, "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’" (Mark 10:9 NRSV CE)

This is not a numbers game, this is our faith and our belief in the God the Father; Jesus Christ His Son, the Living Word of God; and the Holy Spirit, the Lord Giver of Life. Public opinion should matter little, or none at all.

And that is why my personal opinion be that Catholics should not involve themselves in politics unless they are properly grounded in their faith first.


This post has been edited by khool: Jun 28 2015, 09:23 AM

what do you mean "force our belief" ? are you talking receiving JESUS as savior n GOD ? or something else ?

Church puts up defense ? by putting catholic believer in politics is an acceptable maneuver or not ? maneuver to defense the holy sacrament i mean.

Up to a point, a church is consist of catholic believer imo... so to defense the church, is to defense catholic believer values... unless you have other opinion...

about grounded in their faith first... not enough holy people in this earth lah... imo e.g. don't have car, motorcycle pon boleh hehehe... still better than no catholic at all... my mentor told me it takes a generation to build a high quality christian (or catholic)... 1 generation is 50 year lah brader... while waiting for 50 years, i think better put any catholic instead of vacuum 100%

just discussion lar... don't get offended

This post has been edited by de1929: Jun 28 2015, 05:08 PM

You can say that again. Even many bishops are spineless.

When i say 'force our belief', it means that if someone asks question is asked about our belief, the most we do is answer the question and stop right there. if the person is still interested then we will usually point the person to the nearest parish for proper lessons. that's all.

To put this in perspective, in the issue of same sex marriage, in contrary to the MSM hype, the church has been only explaining her stand to all why she does not support or perform gay marriages. She also gives the reasoning and back ground for such a stand, nothing more. There is no condemnation from Church clergy, although some more devout Catholics do go over the edge, but then again, they are only human and are passionate about their beliefs. One cannot fault them for that.

To defend the Church is to defend the Body of Christ, Christ is the head and the Church is His body. As Catholics, should there be any differences in opinion, again we will present our case and eave it at that. Really, we cannot do anything more, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.

Being grounded in faith is surprising not as hard as it sounds, keep a regular prayer schedule (if possible) and read the daily Bible verses of the day, make an effort to attend as many classes in bible and theological studies, ask questions, try to live life as a God would have you live, i.e. in the sacraments and most importantly always attend Mass and partake in Holy Communion ever Sunday. The last one is the best I notice, the Lord gave up His life for you, I can certainly spare an hour or two to celebrate His sacrifice with Him.

Personally, I am still learning and growing as a Catholic, and I wish I could find more time to attend more classes. It is a joy to learn about our God, every time I go through the verses, something new always pops up.

No need to worry about offending anyone here, the Catholic Church is a 2000 year old institution, I think she is able to field a couple of questions here and there.

God Bless! And the Lord be with you!

Hahahaha! You referring to Dolan? Or Burke? or others? The Lord is truly a cosmic prankster, he stuffs the clergy with a myriad of characters. Makes for a more lively congregation I say. I would much prefer this than a cookie cutter collection of Cardinals.

One needs for his faith to be called into question from time to time, else one grows complacent; read 'lukewarm Catholics', and you know what the Lord does with lukewarm Catholics ...

I think something need to be clarified here lest it is misunderstood. I am referring to "There is no condemnation from Church clergy". The Church is duty-bound to condemn sin but offers all possible remedies for the sinner to repent and return to the Lord, i.e. through the Sacraments. Homosexual acts are definitely to be condemned, just like any sin should be, yes..even sins committed by heterosexuals (fornication, adultery, etc...)

Thanks Bro Yeeck, I left that out accidentally. In the eyes of the church, extra marital sex is considered a sin no matter the sexual orientation. Most appreciated.

Archbishop Julian Leow can be seen at 0.14.



This post has been edited by yeeck: Jul 1 2015, 01:29 AM

Nuts, I watched it live ... might have missed that bit. Small matter though, but the Latin Mass is so beautiful, nothing can come close to comparing with it ... to bad it isn't celebrated in MY churches, is it?


This post has been edited by khool: Jul 1 2015, 03:38 PM

It's not the language that matters, but on how reverent the Mass is. I have attended masses in MY which people mistakenly call the Latin Mass just because they sing the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei in Latin, but the Mass was still in English. Technically that is still an English Mass.

BTW, for the rest who are not aware of the distinction, there is the Latin Mass in the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo) and then there is the Latin Mass in the traditional 1962 liturgical books (commonly called the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) or Extraordinary Form).

Yes bro, that's why I only mentioned Latin Mass ...

I don't mind the TLM or the Novus Ordo. I like both.

I was rather horrified by the false teaching regarding abortion on the Christian Fellowship thread.

Here's an article on why abortion is wrong:

Abortion

The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. This tract will provide some examples of this consistent witness from the writings of the Fathers of the Church.

As the early Christian writer Tertullian pointed out, the law of Moses ordered strict penalties for causing an abortion. We read, "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely [Hebrew: "so that her child comes out"], but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (Ex. 21:22–24).

This applies the lex talionis or "law of retribution" to abortion. The lex talionis establishes the just punishment for an injury (eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life, compared to the much greater retributions that had been common before, such as life for eye, life for tooth, lives of the offender’s family for one life).

The lex talionis would already have been applied to a woman who was injured in a fight. The distinguishing point in this passage is that a pregnant woman is hurt "so that her child comes out"; the child is the focus of the lex talionis in this passage. Aborted babies must have justice, too.

This is because they, like older children, have souls, even though marred by original sin. David tells us, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5, NIV). Since sinfulness is a spiritual rather than a physical condition, David must have had a spiritual nature from the time of conception.

The same is shown in James 2:26, which tells us that "the body without the spirit is dead": The soul is the life-principle of the human body. Since from the time of conception the child’s body is alive (as shown by the fact it is growing), the child’s body must already have its spirit.

Thus, in 1995 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church’s teaching on abortion "is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors . . . I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church" (Evangelium Vitae 62).

The early Church Fathers agreed. Fortunately, abortion, like all sins, is forgivable; and forgiveness is as close as the nearest confessional.



The Didache

"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).



The Letter of Barnabas

"The way of light, then, is as follows. If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. . . . Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).



The Apocalypse of Peter

"And near that place I saw another strait place . . . and there sat women. . . . And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion" (The Apocalypse of Peter 25 [A.D. 137]).



Athenagoras

"What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers?
. . . [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it" (A Plea for the Christians 35 [A.D. 177]).



Tertullian

"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed" (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]).

"Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery.

"There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] "the slayer of the infant," which of course was alive. . . .

"[The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive" (The Soul 25 [A.D. 210]).

"Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does" (ibid., 27).

"The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22–24]" (ibid., 37).



Minucius Felix

"There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. . . . To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide" (Octavius 30 [A.D. 226]).



Hippolytus

"Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!" (Refutation of All Heresies [A.D. 228]).



Council of Ancyra

"Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees" (canon 21 [A.D. 314]).



Basil the Great

"Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not" (First Canonical Letter, canon 2 [A.D. 374]).

"He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and unintentionally kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defense, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it dies upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees" (ibid., canon 8).



John Chrysostom

"Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication. . . . Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine" (Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]).



Jerome

"I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother. . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" (Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]).



The Apostolic Constitutions

"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for he says, ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live’ [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . [I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed" (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004

Source: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/abortion

This post has been edited by yeeck: Jul 1 2015, 11:33 PM