Dear Editor of the Star,
Holly Chaisson’s editorial in in the October 24 issue of the Star, “Homosexuals and the Church” provides a problematic and inaccurate characterization of the Catholic Church’s recent deliberations regarding homosexuality.
Ms. Chaisson introduces her piece with a number of remarks–taken mostly from the BBC and bearing little resemblance to the documents of the synod or the words of Pope Francis–on the recently concluded Synod of Bishops on the Family. In speaking of the Relatio, the “midway report” of the synod, which mentioned the “gifts” homosexuals had to offer the Church, she writes, “The fact that this was the early language approved by Pope Francis speaks volumes.” This is misleading. The document’s purpose was to give a report on the synod’s discussions: we have no way of knowing whether the Pope approved of those discussions. Furthermore, the section on homosexuality was written by Archbishop Bruno Forte, known for his progressive theology. Some cardinals suggested that the Relatio did not accurately reflect the discussions that had taken place, and several expressed surprise that it had been published at all.
Ms. Chaisson later states, “Disappointed by the decision of the synod, Pope Francis insisted upon full transparency of all document drafts and voting tally. In the same BBC press statement, Francis is quoted as cautioning against ‘hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written word, and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God.'” A request for transparency need not imply disappointment. If Pope Francis was disappointed, it may well have been because of attempts to change the Church’s position. He did indeed caution against “hostile inflexibility,” but he actually offered more condemnations of progressives than conservatives. For example, he warned against the “temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness, that. . . binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them. . . . It is the temptation . . . of the so-called ‘progressives and liberals.'” To conclude from the Pope’s statements that he was “disappointed” is unreasonable.
-Jonathan Meilaender
