Tear Down This Wall
By Joe Maffucci
“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!” exhorted Ronald Reagan in his now-famous speech during the early summer of 1987; “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Shunning the advice of State Department bureaucrats, the President announced to the world that a divided Germany must be reunified. The gate was Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the gate that would not let German embrace German. The wall was the barrier between West and East Berlin, the wall of lies and repression. And, indeed, not long after, the wall did fall, and once-divided Germans embraced one another heartily. Many historians rightly argue that President Reagan’s statements marked the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism.
In his 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, wrote “The Church is thus in a position tolearn from scientific discovery but also to transcend the horizons of science and to be confident that her more global vision does greater justice to the rich reality of the human person in his spiritual and physical dimensions.” Ratzinger’s letter no doubt is referring to the centuries-long history of tension between Church doctrine and scientific conclusions. The particular question he addresses in this passage and throughout the letter is whether Church Tradition should be reexamined in the light of new scientific discovery. Cardinal Ratzinger thinks not. He bases his argument on the Church’s classic authoritarian position regarding the interpretation of scripture: “It is likewise essential to recognize that the Scriptures are not properly understood when they are interpreted in a way which contradicts the Church’s living Tradition. To be correct, the interpretation of Scripture must be in substantial accord with that Tradition.” The question here is whether the Church should enter into a scholarly dialogue with the many scripture scholars who disagree with the Church’s interpretation of biblical passages which purport to condemn homosexual relations.
While Cardinal Ratzinger’s approach to the intersection of religion and homosexuality is scholarly and measured, that from other prelates has not always been so. When he was asked to state his view on homosexual relationships, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Ukrainian Catholic Patriarch, responded: “In terms of gravity, the sin of homosexuality is comparable to that of murder. Therefore, if we are talking today about the right to have a homosexual relationship, then we must also talk about the right to murder.” Last August, Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis claimed that “machinations” such as the redefinition of marriage were caused by “none other than the Father of Lies.” In 2010, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, before he ascended to the papacy last year, used a similar expression when he spoke out against gay marriage legislation in Argentina. That same year, Archbishop Nienstedt told a gay parent to reject her gay child because her “eternal salvation may well depend upon a conversation of heart on this topic.” Only two months ago, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield Illinois performed “Prayers of Supplication and Exorcism in Reparation for the Sin of Same-Sex Marriage” on the very day that Governor Pat Quinn signed gay marriage into law.
It’s important to realize, however, that there is disagreement within the hierarchy of the Church over gay marriage, if not also rapidly changing opinions. For example, in their book Credere e Conoscere (Believing and Knowing), for which there is no English translation, Cardinals Carlo Maria Martini and Ignazio Marino enter into a dialogue about homosexual relationships in which Cardinal Martini states “I do not agree with the positions of those, in the Church, who take issue with civil unions. I support traditional marriage with all its values and am convinced that it should not be put into question. And if some people of the opposite sex, or even of the same sex, aspire to sign a pact to give some stability to the couple, why should we absolutely refuse that it be so?” Cardinal Marino agreed.
Pope Francis has also given some indication that the homosexual relationship must be reexamined. During the gay marriage debate in Argentina it was reported by the New York Times that Pope Francis was amenable to civil unions but was voted down by his fellow bishops. The pope’s now famous statement that “if someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?” may have been overhyped; nevertheless, given the rhetoric of archbishops Shevchuk, Nienstedt, and even Pope Francis himself some years earlier, the fact that it was even made is doubtless noteworthy. In his first major interview with a journalist after being named Pope, Francis recalled that “[a] person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter the mystery of the human being.” Given the attention a pope’s statements always bring, Francis’s public recognition of the accomplishments of 16-year-old prodigious scientist-inventor-researcher (and openly gay) Jack Andraka is notable. Last October, the Italian Catholic LGBT community, whose overtures to other popes have gone unheeded, received a warm and personally penned response from Pope Francis to the letter they sent him which requested meaningful dialog with the Church hierarchy. A month later, Pope Francis called for an extraordinary general assembly to discuss “the Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” The Synod will take place this coming October in Rome.
Venerable Pontifex, now is the time to open the gate and tear down the walls. Open your heart to love. Tear down the walls of distortions, lies, and canards of reality that is homosexuality. Let this be the beginning of the end.
In case you missed them in the text above, some links that might be of interest:
English translation of Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons
Cardinal Martini: The Gays and I, the English translation of Il cardinale Martini: io e i gay from the April 23, 2012 edition of L’Espresso, which offers excerpts of Marino and Martini's Credere e Conoscere
A Big Heart Open to God, the English translation, published in America, of the extended interview between Antonio Spadaro, S.J. and Pope Francis, which took place in August, 2013.
English version of the Vatican's Preparatory Document for the III Extraordinary General Assembly (Synod of Bishops) regarding Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization
