Throughout my life as a theology student and now as a Campus Minister I've been interviewed a number of times here and there for various papers, news programs and even a book or two. My experience thus far with 'the media' is not something I could say was overall bad or good, pleasurable or agonizing. Each situation has been different and the journalists have varied quite a bit in their approach and candor. The one unifying factor in every one of my experiences has been that I have always been misquoted. Now, I understand how difficult it is to adequately express the sentiments of another person exactly as they wished themselves to be expressed and sometimes people have an unrealistic standard about the light that they would like to see themselves portrayed. I don't think I'm beyond those faults by any means. It is however very obvious in matters of morality and the Church (which is almost always what I'm being questioned about) when what ends up in ink is not even remotely what came out of my bumbling mouth.
I bring all of this up because I've been interviewd twice this week, once for The Advertiser and once for The Vermilion. Both journalist were extremely cordial and patient with me and allowed me to answer their questions. The Advertiser interviewed me about our upcoming International Thanksgiving Celebration tomorrow night which short of getting the time and place wrong I'm not really worried about him having serious errors in his article. The Vermilion interviewed me about Homosexual Marriage and the Church's teaching on Homosexuality in general, a topic that the Vermilion has been overly saturated in as of late.
I tried my best not to give 'soundbites' or to us analogies that could be contorted easily. It's not that I think this young lady would falsly represent me intentionally but I know how easily it happens and I know that I'm already going to be portrayed and perceived somewhat as the 'the bad guy'. Something I did try to express to her accurately was that I think this particular topic is extremely difficult to talk about outside of the realms of friendship or at the very least a sincere conversation. One sentence statements and stereotypes cause unfair labels to be slapped on people of both sides of the issue and then the dialogue ends and people get hurt.
Thus far I have refrained from posting anything about homosexuality on our blog, not because I am afraid of speaking my mind or sharing the teaching of the Church but because I know that an issue that speaks of something so sacred and so fundamental to the human person carries with it strong emotion and sometimes the written word cannot portray the charity needed in such a delicate situation. Quite a few people who I love have Homosexual tendancies and I am always willing to sit with them and talk about the issue rather than have my thoughts known solely through the blogasphere.
I'm sure I stumbled on my words and rambled while I was being questioned,as I tend to do,but for the most part I feel like I represented myself and the Church accurately and with the utmost Charity and Truth. In any case nomatter what I could have said would have come out a little inadequate so I'm interested to see how this particular story comes out and who else will have been interviewed on the topic.
In the meantime I'm posting an interview with Cardinal Justin Rigali who is much more adept at speaking the Truth in Charity. Enjoy.
Cardinal Justin Rigali, the Archbishop of Philadelphia is always ready to answer questions, even the hard ones. He spoke with LifeSiteNews.com last week at the International Eucharistic Congress about the Church's teaching on sexuality, in the context of the current attack on the traditional definition of marriage.
Asked why it has become more common to see some elements within the Church promoting what is contrary to official Church teaching on homosexuality, Cardinal Rigali was quick to point out that it is not 'the Church' but members of the Church which do so at times.
"This goes back to the time of St. Paul," explained the Cardinal, "St. Paul says they will be teachers with itchy ears." He added: "They will come up with all kinds of doctrines and this is what's happened in the history of the Church and the history of the world and this will continue to happen."
Cardinal Rigali said however that it was an "aberration" to justify "homosexual conduct and worse than that homosexual marriage."
"The Church accepts people as they are," he said. "Jesus says the church is like a net, it pulls in everybody, everybody belongs to the church, there are sinners, there are saints, there are people with wrong ideas. But the Church continues to proclaim what Jesus taught."
"There is no room in the Church for the acceptance of aberrational ideas," he said. "There is room in the church to accept, to understand and to love people whoever they may be. Not to tell them that what they are advocating is right, not to justify it. That is quite different. That is totally, totally different."
Cardinal Rigali, who is also the President of the Pro-Life Committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, suggested that no amount of pressure would get the Church to alter its position.
"There are some people that say the church is intolerant - no! We accept people but we cannot be unfaithful to Christ. We will not accept gay marriage. The church has explained this over, and over and over again and she will have to continue to explain it."
Addressing people with same sex attraction he said, "these are good people and our way of treating them is very important. The respect we show them and even the understanding of their personal situations. But just because someone is in a personal situation does not mean we can change our teaching to accommodate the person."
On getting the teaching of the Church across in today's culture, Cardinal Rigali said "The Church has to continue, St. Paul says, ‘praedica verbum’, preach the word in season and out of season and that's what we do."
However, he added, "This is something we have to teach in the most effective way possible, with clarity yes, with fidelity yes, with sensitivity. We can't take people and choke them and say you're going to be doing it and you're going to follow the teachings of the Church and this is the teaching of the Church. No. St. Paul says in omnia patientia doctrina, speaking to Timothy, ‘with all patience and following the teaching’, following the teaching, these are the two elements."
"We present the beauty of human sexuality," he said, "we explain God's plan. We try to understand people who have the same sex attraction we try to help them; try not to speak platitudes to them but tell them what God's plan is and how they are to face their life."
The Philadelphia Archbishop concluded: "That's why we have organizations like Courage and Encourage because for parents it's a very, very difficult thing. But God's plan is to be presented in all its beauty, all its power with fidelity."
this article was originally posted on lifesitenews.com on June 27th, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment