Monday 14 April 2014

Bishop Jurgis of Charlotte refuses to address the real issue of Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel's silencing

Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel's infraction or "sin", according to the The Diocese of Charlotte's newspaper, the Catholic News Herald, is that she: 

"...spent about half of her hour-long talk on homosexuality, including attributing a correlation between the decline of fatherhood in America and the rise in homosexuality. That drew the ire of students and parents over the past three weeks, boiling over in a meeting April 2 at the high school with more than 900 parents present". 

It was this noisy, aggressive meeting of these angry parents, of which Bishop Peter Jurgis admits lacked charity and respect, that precipitated Sister's downfall. Seemingly, the local church is afraid to back a nun when faced with media generated controversy.  

The full statement (non-statement?) by Bishop Peter Jurgis may be read here.  His statement carries no further clarification on the "infraction" of Sr. Jane that allegedly led to the outburst of a "great deal of pain" at the school. If one reads the bishop correctly, he is implying that the parents support the Catechism, but take (at least some of them) great umbrage at Sr. Jane's referencing sociological studies; indeed, to such an extent that they were reduced to a "difficult time" and the aforementioned excruciating "pain"? 

That suggesting there is a correlation between the growth of homosexuality and the breakdown of the family should cause such an emotive uproar amongst - if the bishop is correct in his assessment of the faithfulness of the angry parents - is a mystery. From what I have seen across various social media, quite a number of these pained parents display - shall I say - a heterodox position on homosexuality. 

As I see it, Sr. Jane Dominic was silenced because of her vocal opposition to homosexual acts. The local church, as I see it, likewise is also opposed to homosexual acts: but with a difference: keep it  quite, hush-hush; opposition is OK, as long as no one knows about it...this is confirmed with the admission of the organizer/s of the protest against Sr. Jane: it was her opposition to homosexual acts, brought stridently before the secular media by dissident students and parents, that triggered the cowardly churchmen to "apologize" and then for her Order to silence her. Henceforth the Church will decide Her position, not on truth, but on manipulated opinion. This is insanity. 

But is is also a tragedy. An orthodox nun, eloquent, educated, a skilled public speaker is removed over some minor, silly triviality....who will now preach the undiluted truth the the misguided youth? Faithful students have been abandoned. 

When was the last time the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts was discussed in your child's catholic school? When was the last time virtue was discussed in your school? Fr. Robert Barron has some excellent reflections on the collapse, and inability of society to engage in thoughtful reflection. 



3 comments:

Vox Cantoris said...

I am not a psychologist but it can be no coincidence that the rise in male same-sex behaviour and self identification as homosexual or transgendered is directly related to the absence of fathers due to the cowardliness of men and the rise of feminism and destruction of marriage and the family.

I will tell you that in my own personal situation, I went to the wall and lost everything material but gained all to ensure that I had custody of my son. It was not easy being a single dad and I made mistakes, but he is solidly a man and understands what it means to be a man and independent.

This is not to say that every boy raised by a single mother is going to be gay, but the connections cannot be ignored.

ELA said...

Sadly, this is just more of the same. The Catholic Bishops will either confirm society in the Truth, thus building it up, as called upon by Christ, or will fail to do so, resulting in a loss of integrity for society, more particularly for a Christian based civilization.
How do you successfully move the hand of Bishops who fear man more than God?

Freyr said...

Evangelization and catechesis are not the same thing. Sr. Jane's chief failing was likely in assuming that because the place had the word Catholic on the door, that it was in fact Catholic. Cultural and ethnic Catholics are like the house built upon sand... the first big wind blows them away. These people have never heard the gospel and ought to be treated as though this was the first time they are hearing of such things. Evangelization must precede catechesis. That is the essence of the pope's much maligned statements on the subject. If you don't even believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is what possible reason would you have to accept the moral authority of anyone teaching in his name?