“I do not believe that the Church has the authority to stick its nose into family affairs. It would be good if a Church, which has taken more than two thousand years to admit that in marriage the couple’s love is also important besides the procreation of children, kept silent on questions for which it has received no mandate from Christ”.
Biblical scholar Alberto Maggi, in an interview with the “Pacem in Terris” blog at Quotidiano
The full Italian text may be read at the Quotidiano website. The interview was carried on his thoughts and expectations from the synod – and after. I offer here, courtesy of the community translation at Duolingo, some choice extracts from this notable interview,:
Expectations for the synod, and the Jubilee Year of Mercy to follow:
“I don’t expect much of the Synod”, but in the Jubilee Year of mercy called by the Pope, “I am hoping for concrete gestures in favour of the remarried, married priests and homosexuals” – three categories “humiliated and marginalised by the Church”.
On change in the Church:
Changes in the Church always come from the bottom, not from the top. Changes are rejected, hindered and opposed by the hierarchy. Then, after a long period of time, they are welcomed. When it is then too late”.
Christ, and the Church:
“In every situation, in every controversy you have always to keep in mind the behaviour of Christ. Every time he found himself having to choose between the obedience to Divine Law and the concrete good of man, without hesitating he always chose the latter. Doing right for man you are certain to do right by God.”.
The Bible and the patriarchal family :
What is the continuing thread that unites the Old and the New Testament on the family?“There is no continuity and the message of Jesus is the least appropriate for sustaining the patriarchal family. Christ, rather than uniting families broke them up …” And Jesus invited people to free themselves, for his sake and that of the Gospel, even from the closest family ties, such as those between husband and wife, parents and children”.
Catholic Church family teaching and the Bible
“I do not believe that the Church has the authority to stick its nose into family affairs. It would be good if a Church, which has taken more than two thousand years to admit that in marriage the couple’s love is also important besides the procreation of children, kept silent on questions for which it has received no mandate from Christ”.
Denial of sacraments:
The contradiction is glaring between a Church which rightly claims the mandate of Christ to be able to pardon sinners, but then is incapable of giving pardon to one, who with the first marriage failed, attempts a new union. The Church absolves murderers but not divorced and remarried persons. I hope that in this year of mercy there will be concrete gestures in favour of three categories of people humiliated and marginalised by the Church – married priests, homosexuals, the divorced. It is not just a question of mercy, but of justice.
There is surely little need for further comment from me.
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