Writer Invites Catholics for Dialog on Abortion.
How do people of faith live in a pluralistic society?
I received an email this week from fellow Medium writer Rollie Smith. He sent his take on the abortion/pro-life issue in the political sphere. Writing from a background of a Jesuit theological education, and a Unitarian-Universalist, he invites Catholics and others into dialogue on political positions on the abortion issue within a pluralistic society.
Dialogue with Fellow Catholic Citizens
The Washington Post recently published an article on the Catholicity of President-Elect Joe Biden. He is a fervent…rolliesmth.medium.com
If you look at the heading of this publication on a desktop, you will notice I wrote Writings from the Catholic Abbey . . . is about “challenging words to and from Catholics.” You will also notice, by default, since I am on Medium, I am not on a Catholic platform. A lot of Catholic media I find to be too saccharine, legalistic or angry. There are exceptions including CatholicTV.com down the street from me.
The Catholic and secular world needs independent Catholic voices in the Catholic media and in the world in general. There is also a need for voices to challenge the Catholic way of thinking, this is not to change Catholic teaching but to deepen the understanding of it so that we may live its profound richness.
As Catholics, our teaching on abortion is well known and we certainly disagree with some of our legislators and political parties on their support for it and their demand that we pay for it. It is useless to do nothing more than recite chapter and verse of the Catechism and canon law to anyone who disagrees with us. It is like saying this is wrong because God says so.
It is not the goal of the Catholic just not to sin, it is rather to unite his/her will with God’s will, avoiding sin is hardly the same thing. Avoiding sin seems to be the exclusive message in a lot of Catholic media. You probably heard the warning: “One unrepented mortal sin can cast you into Hell.” It is such a superficial understanding of our Catholic teaching it is almost false. Saints teach us this is the lowest form of devotion and it borders on useless.
What the Church actually teaches about Hell is the one who is obstinate to his or her dying breath goes to Hell. That is a hard-hearted refusal of the grace of God. Indeed, one of my favorite prayers in the Last Rites is on behalf of the dying person saying to God that in his/her heart the person desired to do the will of God. The truth of our faith is all about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus’ parables usually define his rejection as “I never knew you,” not “You unrepentant sinner.” St. Thomas Aquinas laid the foundation on “Do good and avoid evil.”
Paragraph 2098 in the Catechism says that it is impossible to live the commandments if we are not people of prayer. So to recite the rules of the faith without ever introducing people to the richness of the Catholic prayer tradition is an exercise in alienation. In fact, my most popular article lately is all about the practice of contemplation.
Contemplative Prayer
Contemplation is a form of prayer that can be hard to describe. It is, however, fruitful even in its difficulty.medium.com
Rollie asks: how does a Catholic (and others) bring his/her voice to the public forum in a pluralistic society? This means not just the rules and regulations but the fullness of our understanding of the faith which we bring to the town square.
Medium shows Catholics the words of that pluralistic society. This allows us to understand all positions in a way that humanizes the face of sincere questions asking why we believe what we believe. This forces us to give an explanation that goes beyond citing chapter and verse and reaches the most profound levels of our teaching. St. Peter even tells us to do this.
What many people do not understand is that our battle is not about whether to support or reject abortion which are the two positions most prominent, it is deeper within the issue of how we define the human being? How do we manage the polis in light of how we define who we are? We cannot come to any consensus until we understand those two questions fully. They are the questions at the base of every society.
So you may see articles here from time to time challenging the faithful Catholic and so they should. You cannot lead people to know Christ just by reciting chapter and verse with no further understanding of what you said besides the grammar, spelling and syntax of the paragraph.
I welcome you to respond to Rollie Smith’s invitation and to comment on his article. If you find material here from other writers that you do not feel is in sync with what you hear elsewhere then realize you have just been invited to deepen your understanding of Catholic teachings. Studying them, bring your challenge to prayer, deepen your comprehension of what we truly believe and then respond to the writer as you see fit. Everything you see written by me, should be understood as Catholic teaching.
I may create a new section in this publication called: “The Opinions Expressed . . .” drawing from the traditional disclaimer we used in public radio: “The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the staff and management of this station.”