Fuck the Archdiocese

Apropos of my previous post please read this article, from last week's Star Tribune. I'll wait.

Now that you probably haven't read it, Imaginary Readers, let's talk about it. It's about an incident (incident might be too strong a word) that happened at my high school about two weeks ago now (I would've been more prompt by I've been super busy the past couple of weeks) involving the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul sending representatives to talk to the seniors about the importance of traditional families. They've done this at most of the Catholic high schools in the area apparently, and according to both the article, and the little I've heard about it from people current at De (my high school), the brunt of the presentation was about how family is important, etc, etc, but at the end they got into defining family, and talking about how how adopted kids, kids raised by single parents, and kids raised by gay couples are at a disadvantage because they're not raised by their biological mother and father. I'll get back to this later. Anyways, the point of the article is that several of the students didn't take so kindly to this message, especially once it became clear that they were only talking to the seniors because they can all vote in the upcoming election on the Marriage Amendment. Some of them started asking very pointed questions, and defending the rights of non-traditional families.

The coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul (via)

Personally, I think it's awesome that they did that, the students that is, and that the school administration let them, because it brings home just how accepting my high school is, particularly for a Catholic school. The school had to let the Archdiocese say whatever it wanted, because it is under the purvey of the Archbishop, but the administration always made it very clear that it doesn't necessarily agree with our current Archbishop, who is very conservative, even for a Catholic archbishop, and has made the Marriage Amendment his pet project. Archbishop Nienstedt to so passionate about not letting gay people get married that he has given over half a million dollars to the amendment campaign and has sent out several DVDs to every Catholic household in the Archdiocese about the dangers of gay marriage. It's so ridiculous that extents he has gone to that [MaternalUnit] thinks that he is secretly gay, although she thinks pretty much everybody is secretly gay these days.

I don't agree with the Catholic Church on most issues, both politically and religiously, but I do generally respect it, because it's beliefs are consistent. I have no problem with it being against gay marriage because it is against any form of sex that isn't specifically for procreative purposes within a marriage, and it is also against divorce. It has the right to be against whatever it wants, it's a religion. What I don't like is the way that it has been attempting to impose that belief on everyone else by codifying it into law. There is a difference between civil marriage and religious marriage in the US, a fact which many seem to forget because we use the same word for both. All legalizing gay marriage does is making it possible for a gay couple to form a legal contract granting them certain rights in the civil sphere. No one is forcing the Church, or anyone for that matter, to approve of it or grant such unions it's blessing, nor should they. Religions will always have the right to believe what they like and approve what they see fit, but they shouldn't be messing around in the civil sphere. The Catholic Church is not the ultimate authority on morality, even if they like to think they are, and I don't think they should be involved with making laws, but they are, just like every other major Christian group in this country.

[MaternalUnit]'s opinion (via)

But I do think that the position of the Archdiocese is not necessarily the position of many Catholics in the cities. Just that fact that there is at least one Catholic high school that encourages it's students to engage in a dialog about these issues rather than accepting them as rote fact is encouraging. The face of the Church is changing, slowly, but it is changing. The hard line position that Nienstedt is taking is driving away the moderates, who like the community and structure that the Church provides, but don't necessarily agree with its politics, and he may never get them back. For example, this who debacle has caused my parents to decide to officially leave the Church, to the extent that it is possible to leave the Church, after staying for years because they liked our local parish. And there is always the question of whether St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church will end up succeeding from the Church altogether and become Lutheran or Episcopalian or something. Liberal Catholics do exist, but they may not for much longer, because they are being forced out of the Church by Nienstedt's politics.

This election cycle certainly will be an interesting one. Also, as [Honorary Robot] so eloquently put it, fuck the Archdiocese. It's getting really goddamn annoying to read about. Any pride I had left about being Catholic is pretty much gone at this point, as the Church has gotten nearly completely indefensible.