Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Letter to Bishop Martino

The Beacon, Wilkes University's newspaper, has published an open letter to Bishop Martino attacking many of his recent pastoral actions. The author(s) make several attempts to discredit his protocol but continuously fail because they simply don't know what they're talking about. They rebuke the Bishop for saying that pro-choice politicians should be denied holy communion but their justification is only that many other parishioners are undoubtedly just as unworthy. I'm sure that's true but it is well known that politicians can be directly denied communion because their actions are public knowledge and not based merely on assumptions or hearsay.

Another recent controversy involved Misericordia University when its officials invited Keith Boykin to speak at the school. Boykin is an acclaimed speaker who is also gay and addresses a variety of diversity issues. Your objection is that homosexuality is inconsistent with the teachings of the church and therefore it was unseemly for Misericordia to entertain such a person on campus.

Though Bishop Martino may have been concerned that Catholics attending the talk would "[fall] prey to anything the church deems immoral or unholy" I believe his opposition stemmed more from the fact that talks such as this shouldn't be supported.
As my mom always says, "The media attacks the Catholic Church because they recognize it as the only real threat." I'll take that as a compliment.

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