It Is Necessary to Revise the Moral of Sexuality, Says Bishop Robinson
By Maria Teresa Pontara Pederiva
The bishop emeritus of Sidney has declared this in Baltimore during a symposium of catholic homosexuals It has been known for a while that the Church is often perceived as an agency that claims to teach people what they should or should not do, like an oasis of control inside a secular culture of "freedom". This is a misleading image that contains a series of prejudices that have to be dispelled, but where nobody can call themselves free of responsibilities. The idea that the path to holiness is not an simple passing of an exam of good conduct, but an increase in closeness to God and His freedom is not very widespread nowadays, not even among Catholics, who - according to studies and polls in this regard - end up making their own independent decisions on matters of morality. In the subject matter of sexual morality, the gap is even more evident. In the United States, for example, the bishops and some catholics invoke religious freedom to oppose the health care reform that would provide coverage for contraception. At the same time, there are endless polls that suggest contraceptive use by more then 98% of women, independently of their religious convictions. It is also known that the recourse to freedom of conscience and personal freedom is one of the conciliar acquisitions more used in the matter of family pastoral matters, and that various moral theologians prefer expressing themselves with extreme caution. The complexity of current issues makes it more and more difficult, if not impossible, to draw a neat demarcation line anywhere in this matter, and there are a lot of little observations whispered by many and put in writing by a few. Few could have anticipated that a bishop would indicate in a very straightforward manner that the moral doctrine of the Church is in need of an overhaul. But it is exactly what happened on March 15th, when in Baltimore Mgr. Robinson - bishop emeritus of Sydney - has declared a necessity for "a new study of everything to do with sexuality" — a kind of study that he predicted "would have a profound influence on church teaching concerning all sexual relationships, both heterosexual and homosexual." Indeed "all the teachings that regulate every sexual relation need to up updated, because sex is so vital a way of expressing love." And if society trivializes it, does not in itself mean that the church must continue to accept uncritically its traditional understandings of sexual morality." Geoffrey James Robinson knows what he is talking about: he is Australian, was born in 1937, has earned advanced degrees in Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law in Rome, has taught canon law, served as Chief Justice of the Archdiocesan Marriage Tribunal, and has worked for Catholic schools and for ecumenical dialog. In 1984 he was nominated auxiliary bishop of Sydney and in 2002 Pope John Paul II called him to join the Vatican commission on clergy abuses. Retired due to age limitation, he often flies to the United States to attend conferences and retreats in universities and parishes. In March of this year, bishop Robinson has visited the United States once again. On the 15th and 16th of March he spoke at the Seventh National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality that was held in Baltimore, Maryland, which drew about 400 Catholic gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gender, covering a theme to which he has dedicated lots of studies and energy in the past. In the same Symposium has intervened Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who had signed the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state just days earlier, and whose opponents have launched a campaign for a popular referendum (but several recent polls have indicated that a slight but growing majority of the state's voting population favors legalization of same-sex marriages). Addressing the issue of same sex marriage, Robinson has declared that the doctrine of the Church on marriage is clear and unchangeable, but that the approach to sexual morality and its interpretation of ancient scriptural passages on homosexual and other sexual activity are in "need of correction." He confessed that he came to this conviction examining the causes of clerical sexual abuse when he was heading the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand. "Paradoxically, it was the effects of the sexual abuse of minors more than anything else that convinced me that sex is serious, and there is no possibility whatsoever of a change in the teaching of the Catholic church on the subject of homosexual acts unless and until there is first a change in its teaching on heterosexual acts." "If the starting point - as in current church teaching - is that every single sexual act must be both unitive and pro-creative, there is no possibility of approval of homosexual acts," "For centuries the church has taught that every sexual sin is a mortal sin. The teaching may not be proclaimed as loudly today as much as before, but it was proclaimed by many popes, it has never been retracted and it has affected countless people. The teaching fostered a belief in an incredibly angry God that would condemn a person to an eternity in hell for a single unrepented moment of deliberate pleasure arising from sexual desire." "Morality is not just about doing right things; it is also about struggling to know what is the right thing to do." Robinson has continued his conference tour in all the United States. The 30th of March he will be at Santa Clara University in California and then he will fly from San Francisco to Sydney on Saturday. There is no news of reactions from his American brothers, but a authoritative endorsement has come from an editorial of the National Catholic Reporter released on March 27th. "We are perfectly aligned with bishop Robinson in demanding a deep and honest revision of the church's teachings on sexuality." The position is clear, and so is the motivation: to insure that the church is not pushed to the sidelines in today's cultural arena. To follow Robinson's lead in abandoning the idea of a sexual sin as a sin against God, and to consider sexual morality in terms of good and evil in regards to people, would be a step of great freedom. Rather that searching for good and evil in individual objective acts - is is a unifying act and open to procreation? - strive to look at intentions and circumstances. "Sexual acts are pleasing to God when they help to build persons and relationships, displeasing to God when they harm persons and relationships." The invitation is not to focus on the literal reading of the Bible, but to understand its deep meaning as a spiritual journey of the people of God through history. Robinson is not the first to articulate the need for a responsible reexamination of sexual ethics, writes the editorial, but the addition of a bishop's voice adds new dimension to the conversation. Only with a clear and understandable morality in the area of sexuality we will achieve a teaching that can better challenge the message about sexuality trumpeted by the dominant culture in television, music and advertising, a sexuality that idolizes self-gratification and that puts 'me' before 'you.' Unlike sex centered on "me" , writes NCR, our new Christian sexuality, centered on the other, would respond to the deepest longings of the human heart, promote commitment between people, cherish the long process of relationship-building and foster community. It is about taking a genuine personal responsibility for everything I do, which is the conciliar primacy of conscience."
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