Is The Holy Family a Model for Inclusion or Exclusion?
The Gospel of Matthew takes the import of the name “Emmanuel” as central to Jesus’s significance. He came to be here, among us, all of us, in this mess.
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The Gospel of Matthew takes the import of the name “Emmanuel” as central to Jesus’s significance. He came to be here, among us, all of us, in this mess.
Even as the USCCB has chosen to follow a narrow tradition that inconsistently places the good of persons behind the functionality of their body parts, the moral tradition itself continues to offer many more expansive interpretive possibilities.
While I don’t find the legal arguments particularly exciting, what does fascinate me is how little the arguments in this case had to do with the actual work of parenting.
Religious freedom must mean more for Catholics than requiring society to tolerate nonsensical and indefensible beliefs simply because they are religiously held.
As Pope Francis has consistently emphasized, mercy encounters persons and their needs, not their moral infractions. When Catholic families and communities learn to see others with these eyes, new horizons in how we imagine the extent and diversity of our families may well unfold.
For many commentators, Pope Francis’ recent comments reiterating his support for civil unions that recognize same-gender couples were not far enough. Less heard, but quite relevant, are voices who note that Francis simply speaking of LGBTQ people positively makes a tremendous impact in areas where LGBTQ people remain very much at risk.
Here at New Ways Ministry, we frequently point out that LGBTQ people offer great gifts to our institutional church. I was recently reminded that LGBTQ people also offer gifts to another kind of “church” beyond the institutional: the domestic church, meaning the family home.