USCCB tackles 3 important issues...

Last week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) met in Baltimore, MD for their bi-annual meetings. In the course of their meetings, the bishops released three important statements regarding current issues here in the U.S. I want to briefly examine each statement and its significance in my next three posts.

STATEMENT #1: Married Love and the Gift of Life

In reading this document, I was struck by a number of important statements. The first focused on the cultural notion of sex. It said:

• Our culture often presents sex as merely recreational, not as a deeply personal or even important encounter between spouses...sex simply means limiting its consequences—avoiding disease and using contraceptives to prevent pregnancy.

Unfortunately, this is an extremely accurate statement and our media's portrayal of sex confirms this. How many movies or TV shows have we watched with a meanginless sex scene in it. Rarely is this seen depicted within the act of marriage. It is seen as a commodity to be used for profit or simply selfish pleasure.

The next statement that I noticed was a beautiful description of married love saying, "By its nature, the love of husband and wife is so complete, so ordered to a lifetime of communion with God and each other..." If only every married couple viewed their marriage as such an intimate and holy communion then divorce would be almost unheard of instead of it being the end of nearly 50% of marriages. Catholic divorce rates, however, are 21% of all marriages: less than half the national rate. This could be due to better marriage prep including teachings of John Paul II's Theology of the Body and such retreats as Engaged Encounter.

The third comment that got my attention was their reference to Natural Family Planning (NFP). An important and completely moral means of planning a family, NFP is something that should be stressed in EVERY preparation for marriage. The USCCB said, "Natural methods of family planning involve fertility education that enables couples to cooperate with the body as God designed it."

These are three of the important points made by the bishops regarding marriage. Next time, I want to discuss the second statement: Ministry to persons of homosexual orientation. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 18:25 | link | comments |
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