Forum: Oppositions taken by the Church today on family life
We welcome your view on the current issue. A thorough exposition of the issue through discussion will be helpful. We ask only that you address the issue stated and do so as briefly as possible. Therefore, every comment submitted will be examined accordingly.
It is our contention that the Catholic Church in the United States is doing its job very well today. That job is helping people to relate to God effectively. When it comes to other human tasks the Church is not doing that well. For example, men and women relate to one another primarily through the family. Since the Church is concerned with human beings at the most basic level it is concerned with the family, with the men and women and children who make up the family. and the ways in which they relate to one another. But, there is a great deal of confusion and opposition relative to the positions taken by the Church today on family life.
That confusion and opposition has a number of causes. Among those causes is the fact that the patriarchal way in which human beings have related to one another for many centuries is undergoing considerable changes in our day. The patriarchal way of relating is based on the primacy of the male. There are a number of sound reasons historically for male supremacy but many of them do not hold true in our day and time. The decline of male supremacy and the rise of female equality in our time are having basic and enormous consequences, of which we are only seeing the beginning and by which we are baffled.
The above development has profound consequences on family life, which constitutes and regulates so many basic relationships between men and women, with enormous consequences for family life, especially as it relates to the children, and for society at large.
The Catholic Church has learned to live with patriarchies over the centuries, even though its basic doctrines on human beings are at odds with male superiority. It can be fairly stated that the Catholic Church has developed into one of the most patriarchal of all our institutions, and that is clearly seen in its positions relative to family life. The Church itself has learned to enshrine patriarchal positions and promote a patriarchal view of the family. It has done so, we believe, for purely bottom line reasons. The patriarchal approach has worked better than any other thus far. The weakness in the patriarchal position is that it is unfair to women, and they will tolerate its inadequacies no longer. So, we must find a new system.
Education has deepened the problem. But, it is also a source of hope for solving that problem. Today, the better educated are coping in a superior fashion to the problems raised by the demand for a new system than are the less well- educated.
Thus far, the Catholic Church has shown no more ability to help in the creation of a new and better system than any other institution in our society. If we are going to condemn the Church for that, we will have to condemn our economic, political, educational and other institutions, as well.
Condemnations of this sort will get us nowhere. The challenge, we believe, is an enormous one. But, it is real and we are now facing it. It is time we got down to work and started experimenting with solutions, as difficult as they are and as much patience as they will require. In truth, this challenge makes our other problems seem rather trivial.
What do you think?
