tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21487528.post3396523362182734788..comments2023-08-19T23:23:19.849+10:00Comments on Sentire cum Ecclesia: Condoms and AIDS...Schützhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05026181010471282505noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21487528.post-3413325991422455742006-11-28T22:36:00.000+11:002006-11-28T22:36:00.000+11:00Hi ya, Arabella! You wouldn't believe the number o...Hi ya, Arabella! You wouldn't believe the number of people I have met who have been drawn to the Catholic Church as a result of a "personal encounter" with Christopher West. A possibility for WYD? Well, organiser Bishop Anthony Fisher IS a Marriage and Family ethicist. I'm sure he will have this element covered in there somewhere.Schützhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05026181010471282505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21487528.post-1577017871002150482006-11-27T23:45:00.000+11:002006-11-27T23:45:00.000+11:00Now another religious affairs writer, Chris McGill...Now another religious affairs writer, Chris McGillion, in an article ‘More the church than human life’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 27 /11/06) joins in, putting forward the same argument as Zwartz. <br />While I agree these repeated rumors of changes in Church teachings become tedious it exasperates me more to see the same writers so often getting basic facts about Church teachings on human sexuality wrong.<br />McGillion says that “for the Vatican to permit married couples to engage in ‘safe’ sex by using condoms in certain circumstances implies a recognition that sexual relations do serve other than procreative purposes.” Really! In fact the Church DOES recognise and teach that sexual relations serve other than procreative purposes. The Church teaches that sex is an expression and builder of true mutual love between spouses. This is the unitive aspect. The Church also teaches that the unitive and procreative aspects of sexual union must never be deliberately separated in a way that makes the sexual act, by its type, sterile. This is where many become confused. Pope John Paul II (1981) expressed the Church’s teaching beautifully in his apostolic letter Familiaris Consortio: “Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, the unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and is open to fertility. In a word, it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making them the expression of specifically Christian values"<br />It not only religious affairs writers getting it wrong but, at times, those who should know better.<br />A bit ‘off-topic’ but regarding the promulgation of misleading information in these matters - I sincerely hope that the organising committee of World Youth Day (WYD) 2008, or our Catholic bishops, invite the academic Christopher West to Australia during WYD to counter the ‘loyal opposition’. I expect opponents of Church teachings on human sexuality will be particularly vocal at this time. I heard West, a young married father, speak with great enthusiasm and sincerity to about 100 Catholic teen-agers & young adults in Sydney (2003 or 2004) about the Church’s teachings on these matters and receive a standing ovation. I would not have believed such a response possible if I had not seen it. <br /><br />Arabella<br />(who wishes everyone would read ‘Humanae Vitae’ and ‘Familiaris Consortio’ with an open mind and heart.)<br /><br />McGillion’s article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/more-the-church-than-human-life/2006/11/26/1164476070712.html<br /><br />Familiaris Consortio: http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02fc.htmArabella-mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05882938927835413540noreply@blogger.com