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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Mother Seton Prays Fervently

This is my latest response to a news story. This one is in response to other commenters on "The Chronicle of Higher Education" concerning a small article about Seton Hall Univerity possibly canceling a same-sex marriage course prompted by the archbishop of Newark.

Seton Hall is the oldest DIOCESAN University in the country and is under the Archdiocese of Newark. Therefore it is under the Catholic teaching of the archbishop. The university, itself, publically self-identifies as a Catholic institution and states, "A university is Catholic in many ways: ...living Catholic values." The university is obligated to uphold Catholic teaching by its own declaration while the archbishop is doing his job as the primary teacher and sanctifier for his see.

Even if it wasn't a diocesan establishment, as a Catholic institution it requires a "professio fidei" under canon 833 of the current Canon Law. In the revised code of 1983, a "professio fidei" was extended to theologians and others who teach in faith and ethics "in any [Catholic] universities whatsoever" as well as priests, bishops, etc.

A "same-sex marriage course" at a Catholic college is not a bad thing in itself. However, if such a course is to be taught, it should be solely from the spiritual teaching of the Church.

If it were truly from an "academic perspective" or some people believe Seton Hall should adhere to their personal interpretation of a "'real' open academic institution," then the expectation should also be for a "'real' open academic" lecturer. The class professor, W. King Mott, is an openly homosexual man in a same-sex relationship; he called the Catholic Church "prima facie homophobic" and has publically stated Church teaching on marriage being between one man and one woman as "laughable." This is hardly an "open academic" situation. Sounds rather biased to me.

It's easy for modernist academics to put a chosen spin on Bible passages despite 2000 years of previous teaching descended from others much closer to the time. But let's not also forget that there was no word or concept to fully convey our current understanding of what we now call "homosexual."
There are a lot of things Jesus never mentioned! (He DID refer to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, though.) You would have to disregard then entire New Testament save for the four Gospels if you “cherry-pick” to only believe something because "Jesus said it."

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