THESIS: In 1968, with the sexual revolution exploding, St. Pope Paul VI stated...clearly, heroically, prophetically...the perennial Catholic ethos of sexuality in all its splendor, rigor and elegance. That teaching was further enriched by St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict. Notwithstanding confusion and ambiguity, the teaching was not contradicted or changed by Pope Francis. However, the implementation, the actual pastoral practice of the Church, has in fact been, for over 50 years, consistently gentle, tolerant, merciful. There is wisdom in the severe teaching and the gentle approach.
Pope Leo's official welcoming next week (Sept. 5-6) of the LGBTQ organizations to the Holy Year Jubilee in Rome sends two messages, one is good and the other not so much. The first: we love, esteem and cherish all of you, whatever your sexual proclivities, practices and ideologies. The second: your militant rejection of our Catholic view of sexuality is not a big deal.
We serious, observant Catholics applaud the first, as we regret the second. But to maintain our serenity, our Church unity, and our trust/affection/loyalty for the Pope we do well to put this in perspective.
1. This was already planned in the Francis papacy. For our new pope to disinvite would be received as an insult and cause commotion. We see that Leo does not like commotion. He is a man of peace, aspiring to steer the bark of Peter steadily on a tranquil sea. So we can cut him some slack on this.
2. As with the gestures of his predecessor, his intention is to express the love of Christ and the Church. Objectively, this gesture is deficient in truth and wisdom. But the intention and goal are important and to be granted proper worth.
3. We do well to recall a lesson we learned in the previous pontificate: the Pope is not the head of the Church. Jesus Christ is the head. The papacy is an important, specific office. The pope is not our savior and lord. That office is one aspect of an immense, dense, magnificent economy of tasks, missions, charisms. We need to live with the human deficiencies of each pope. A happy consequence of the Francis regime has been freedom from papalodolatry and ultramontanism.
4. Happily, we are blessed with the settled teaching of the millennia as refreshingly presented by the recent dual papacy as well as many gifted teachers across the globe. If the current pope fails on this, we can serenely look elsewhere for guidance and inspiration.
More importantly: a reasonable hope for this papacy is that it will preserve the clarity of our ethos even as it reaches out pastorally to communicate to all our esteem and tender care. The Church reaches out with two hands: truth and love; the stick and the carrot; the bad and the good cop. Catholic teaching on sex is widely (but erroneously) known and despised across the West. But for over 50 years the presentation of it by the Church has been meek and gentle:
- Even under Cardinal Ratzinger, very few dissenters were disciplined.
- John Paul and Benedict spoke clearly on it; but did not obsess. They spoke a lot about tons of other things.
- How often do you hear from the pulpit or classroom topics like pornography/masturbation, fornication, homosexuality, contraception/cohabitation? Almost never.
- Even Fleckinstein, tested Cultural Warrior that he is, has a life in the real world, beyond the blogosphere, where he engages with family, friends, catechetics, jail, hospital and residence work...and he NEVER NEVER NEVER talks about these things.
Why this shyness about sex?
One reason is that many, including priests and theologians, are ambivalent or uncertain. How many priests could and would give a clear, decisive sermon for or against the male-only priesthood? Perhaps 10% on one side and 10% on the other. The vast majority do not want to touch the topic.
More significant than that uncertainty, however, is a traditional Catholic reverence for the delicacy, privacy and sacredness of sexuality. No...not that it is dirty, disgusting, shameful or bad! Rather, it is inexpressibly delicate, precious, and worthy of being protected and sheltered. The topic of sex is like walking into a Catholic Church with the Eucharistic presence in the tabernacle: silence, reverence, bless yourself with holy water, genuflect on the right knee, find a pew and enter into prayer and worship.
This reverent reticence is largely why the Church lost the Culture War without real combat. Abortion, sexual license, deconstruction of gender, and dismissal of the family immediately swept elite circles in our culture. Few were the voices raised in resistance. The voice of John Paul and his collaborators was calm and confident but meek.
Leo seems to embody this very reverence, reticence, and shyness about this issue.
Our problem: our adversaries, sexual libertarians, are not so meek and shy. The militant, organizational circles are hysterical, hostile, and aggressive in their demand for our approval and their disgust for our way of life.
It will be interesting to observe the encounter between our Pope and the LGBTQ caucus! Will they be abrasive, histrionic, performative? Or reverent and receptive?
Will he be able to welcome them warmly (love) and speak a word of wisdom on the sanctity of sexuality (truth)?
Let us pray for that! Next week in Rome. And in all the decisions, words and acts to come in this papacy!
God bless Pope Leo! God bless our brothers and sisters in all their sexual complexities!
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