| 'Surveys may be interesting
reading material, but as for establishing moral codes and
theological truths, they hold as much water as a sieve.' 'The plea to be allowed to "follow your conscience" regarding certain teachings of the Church is quite misleading. All humans, Catholic and non-Catholic, are given free will. They are already allowed to follow their conscience or to ignore it, so what exactly are these people asking for?' |
Polls, Schmolls; Surveys, Smurveys When passing the G’s in the fiction section of a library, it’s hard not to notice the novels by Andrew Greeley. Racy covers often featuring a woman complement titles like Thy Brother’s Wife and Cardinal Sin. In case, the picture is of a woman with a necklace in her mouth, cross hanging from the necklace, the top of her bosom showing, and the color of red dominates the whole image. It is perhaps shocking to find out that Andrew Greeley is a priest. He defines himself as a novelist, sociologist and priest. Quite a combination. Now, I must admit I have never read one of Greeley’s fiction works, nor do I really have a desire to. I will not condemn him for his fiction, especially since I have not read them. However, one must wonder what his fiction is like when considering his own personal agenda – one based on changing the Catholic Church to better reflect the "feelings" of "today’s" Catholics. I have had the opportunity to peruse a few of Greeley’s non-fiction works – The American Catholic: A Secular Portrait and another book specifically about the priesthood with the subtitle Reflections on a Survey. It’s in these works that Greeley shows his true colors. Once Mr. Greeley’s approach in these books is that certain laws and teachings of the Church ought to be changed because…well, because that’s what the survey says! I would pose this question to Mr. Greeley: Should we base our doctrine on a simple majority? Or should we treat Church law as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution and require a 75 percent majority? We could also split the two and require a two-thirds majority. Does this seem ludicrous to you? I sincerely hope so. The Magic of Polls Yet, polls seem to mean everything. They certainly are what’s on everybody’s mind. Coverage of political elections in the United States has metamorphosed in the last two decades to two things – scandals and polls. Everybody is more interested in finding out who’s winning rather than who ought to win. Unfortunately, the same thing is happening within the Catholic Church. More and more, discussion of morality is revolving around survey results. The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of the recent 30th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on contraception, was comprised of a simple four-inch graphic with three results from a survey conducted by U.S. Catholic magazine. Since you’re curious, the results quoted were as follows:
Well, then by all means, let’s make some changes. Gee, that 81 percent is well over the 75 percent majority I mentioned earlier. And, after all, it apparently won’t weaken the Church’s position on premarital sex, because 79 percent of the people say so. While we’re on polls, here’s another one. An Italian newspaper reported that 55.1 percent of Catholics there disagree with the ban on contraception, 68 percent said people who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies ought to be admitted to communion, and 86 percent believe that couples should be allowed to live together without marrying. Another magazine reported that 72 percent of Italian Catholics believe homosexuals should be allowed to marry and receive the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. WOW! We’ve got a bunch of changes to make over there in Italy. We won’t have to change the rule on abortion though, because 53 percent believe that is still wrong…right now. That could change, of course, with the next poll. So what should we do with the numbers? Absolutely nothing. Surveys may be interesting reading material, but as for establishing moral codes and theological truths, they hold as much water as a sieve. As Catholics, we express a belief in one God, who is eternal, infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Because he is eternal and infinite, we believe in an eternal law, which by its very definition cannot change! The eternal law is not swayed by what people think. Our moral standards are based on eternal law and cannot be swayed either. Sins do not become right whenever the predetermined percentage of humans think they do. Attempting to base our moral code on surveys is a pointless endeavor, because people have a habit of changing their minds. We cannot change what is right and what is wrong period, but we especially cannot change what we profess to be right and wrong because today a majority of people would like certain things to be moral. Let your conscience be your guide The plea to be allowed to "follow your conscience" regarding certain teachings of the Church is quite misleading. All humans, Catholic and non-Catholic, are given free will. They are already allowed to follow their conscience or to ignore it, so what exactly are these people asking for? Simple, they want the Church to stamp its seal of approval on actions that are wrong, but oh so tempting! It’s easier to ask for approval than to change behavior. Conscience has nothing to do with what they are seeking. And here’s why! The conscience is based on natural law, which Aquinas described as an imprint of the eternal law on the human heart. You know deep down what is right and what is wrong. The problem is too many people have talked themselves out of listening to their conscience. What they seek now is for someone to say, it’s okay to give in to that temptation. It’s okay to do that action, because it’s not a sin anymore! They are asking for an override of conscience as opposed to the freedom of conscience. Plus, in established a guideline of moral behavior, the Catholic Church in no way infringes upon free will. What the Church has done is to put the natural and eternal law in writing. The Church recognizes every individual’s free will, but it says, "Here is what is written in God’s law. Here is how you should act." The fact that the Church has established a moral code is evidence that the Church recognizes free will. If it could force people to act in a certain way, there would be no reason for law. Furthermore, it is not the Church’s duty to please individuals. It is the Church’s responsibility to help the people make informed moral judgements, judgements based on eternal law not on ambiguous "feelings." What's religion all about? Finally, and here’s the biggie, we must remember what religion is really all about. We express a belief in God. We worship God. We believe in an eternal law set by God. We do not, therefore, change religion based on what we as humans would like. The word theology means "the study of God": (theo- "God"; -ology "the study of"). This is where the moral code comes from, not sociology, which is the study of society. But, I’ve ranted enough. I’m curious to know what YOU think. That’s right, let’s have a poll. E-mail me and tell me if I’m nuts. Maybe, if the numbers are right, my whole mentality about this Catholicism thing will be changed. But, I’m gonna have to ask for a super-majority vote on this one. And, if it doesn’t work out the way I like, I reserve the right to conduct another poll next week. Chris Mosmeyer |
