Pelvic Issues’ revisited

Editor:

In response to Father Gregorio’s use of the term “pelvic issues,” I quote from Pope Francis’ interview on Sept. 19, 2013, which has been well covered by the Star Herald already. It bears repeating here:
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time. The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.”
Father’s use of the term is not “divisive.” The issues are divisive. These issues are clearly not “critical” to the many Catholics who use birth control (most Catholics, as surveys have consistently shown), or to gay Catholics, who are told by their church they are “intrinsically disordered” and “depraved,” or to remarried, non-annulled divorcees who are excluded from Communion because they are in essence considered adulterers. People in these groups somehow manage to remain loyal to their church (which in itself speaks volumes of the church’s enduring value and meaning to these people). Certainly the masses of Catholics who have left our church over these issues for a less “pelvic obsessed” church do not find these issues “critical.” They find a “Jesus obsessed” church critical.
As Pope Francis has clearly expressed, we must cease being a church defined by our obsession with pelvic issues.

Paul D. Hierholzer, D.O.
Somers Point