Archbishop Soc: Pinoys in irregular relationships must be helped
THE Catholic clergy should help Filipinos who presently find themselves in irregular relationships — live-in unions, de facto separation from spouses and partnerships with other persons – and “not presume to judge and condemn.”
This was the recent bidding of Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who had just finished attending the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, convened by the Holy Father, Pope Francis. “Rather, the presumption should be that there is a genuine effort on their part to live according to the demands of our faith,”
“Where, however, in the pastoral assessment of bishops and priests, the full and unqualified admission of persons in irregular unions to the life of the Church causes charitable and sincere Catholics to doubt and misunderstand the teaching of the Church, then some prudent arrangement must be worked out that will be beneficial to all,” he siad.
On persons with same sex attraction, Villegas said “persons with homosexual orientation are sons and daughters of God; no less than any of us is”.
He said discrimination against them is contrary to the Gospel spirit. Verbal and physical violence against them is an offense against the good Lord Himself, as he pointed out that the danger of scandal should never stand in the way of genuine charity since “much of what Jesus did was scandalous to the ‘righteous’ of his time.”
To the legislators who consider giving legal recognition to same sex unions, Villegas said the Church declares there is no equivalence or even any remote analogy whatsoever between marriage between a man and woman as planned by God and the so-called same sex unions.
Quoting Pope Francis, he said “We can be tempted to neglect reality, making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing.”
Villegas further pointed out that, “in facing our Catholic brethren in painful broken marriage situations or our brothers and sisters with homosexual attraction quietly struggling to be chaste, we must avoid two temptations: The temptation to transform stones into bread to break the long, heavy, and painful fast; and also to transform the bread into a stone and cast it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick, add to their already unbearable burdens.”
He said Pope Francis asked active Catholic couples to lead in initiatives that assist couples in living the reality of the sacrament of matrimony, and in the rearing of their families according to the spirit of the Gospel.
Meanwhile, Villegas said it was his privilege not only to listen to the debates and interventions. He said he also had the privilege of addressing the assembly on the role of the clergy in family renewal.
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