Catholic Church's influence wanes in gay marriage fight

[SecularMotion]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Frank Ferri made peace with God years ago. He defeated the Roman Catholic Church just last month.

The openly gay state representative led the fight to legalize same-sex marriage in what may be the most Catholic state in the nation's most Catholic region. And, in early May, Rhode Island became the sixth and final New England state to allow gay couples to marry when its Democratic-dominated Legislature, led by an openly gay House speaker, reversed course after years of the Catholic Church successfully lobbying lawmakers to resist legalization.

"They put the fear of God into people," Ferri said, claiming that "the influence of the church" had been the primary stumbling block as every other neighboring state — and many people across the country — started embracing gay marriage.

Ferri's victory marked the Catholic Church's most significant political defeat in an area where more than 40 percent of the population is Catholic. Perhaps more problematic for the church: Its state-by-state setbacks on gay marriage illustrate a widening divide between the church hierarchy and its members, which may be undermining Catholic influence in American politics.

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/06/catholic_churchs_influence_wan.html#incart_river_default

[edhopper]

1. As the saying goes

"From your lips...."

[rug]

2. To be more precise, it's a civil rights fight.

[dimbear]

3. The dire warnings religious leaders issue to stave off gay marriage are seen as silly.

What kind of leaders say silly things?

[Dawson Leery]

4. Truly beautiful words: "He defeated the Roman Catholic Church"

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

5. The rot started in the 1960s

When the Second Vatican Council gave the laity the idea that they could think for themselves. The hierarchy tried saying, "Hey, we may have said that, but we really didn't mean it." To which the response was, "Well, you did say it. What's more, according to you, you were being infallible when you said it."

Then came Pope Paul VI's encyclical on contraception, Humanae Vitae -- "Of Human Life". This was eagerly read by married couples, and rejected. I have written in another thread on some of the problems with HV. I would just like to make two additional comments:

* It has been said that Cardinal Ottaviani (head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and a profoundly conservative man) argued that Pope Paul should issue HV as a way of bolstering papal authority. If this is true, then ironically, HV had the opposite effect: it reduced papal authority, since many lay people said "The Pope does not know what he is talking about" -- a deadly response to any teacher. It is clear that Pope Paul did not have a clue about the place of sex in marriage.

* HV allows for intercourse when the woman is known to be infertile. Thus, it says that what is actually a method of contraception is morally licit. This means that the encyclical is concentrating on the method of contraception, which is poor moral theology.

Another problem for the institutional Church was the whole pedophilia mess. After it became known, everyone in the hierarchy, from the Pope on down, seems to have overdosed on stupid pills. They think that they are defending the Church by denying that there is a real problem, or by covering it up or by blaming someone else. In fact, they are damaging the Church's reputation. Apparently, they have forgotten that what made Nixon resign the presidency was not the Watergate break-in itself, but his attempts to cover up the break-in.

As an example of how the Vatican is allowing those responsible for the mess, the former Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law, is living in gracious retirement in Rome, and did not have to face a court in Massachusetts; even though he could have been indicted as an accessory after the fact in several of the clergy abuse cases.

[Iggo]

6. "Catholic Church's influence wanes..."

Ah.

Music to my ears.