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| Who needs Saint Paul, anyway, when one has a Forte? |
From Sandro Magister's Italian-only blog Settimo Cielo:
The coincidence must be fortuitous, but on Monday, October 13, precisely on the very same day on which in the Italian political arena both the party of [Socialist prime-minister] Matteo Renzi as that of Silvio Berlusconi [the main "conservative" party] announced their will to legitimize homosexual unions, on the other bank of the Tiber the special secretary of the Synod on the Family, archbishop Bruno Forte, said that he also hoped for the same thing, because "it is an issue of civilization."
Forte is the author of the three explosive paragraphs on homosexuals of the “Relatio post disceptationem”, that the general secretariat of the Synod has afterwards tried in vain to tone down to a "working document", without any magisterial value whatsoever.
In the Synod Hall, and afterwards in the ten linguistic circles in which the Synod Fathers have pursued the debate, there was a veritable uprising against these three paragraphs, but no one could cancel anymore their impact on public opinion throughout the world. If these are the theses on which the Synod is "working", this means that these have now full citizenship at the highest echelon of the Church.
In the expectation to see how the debate will evolve concerning this point, and how the final "Relatio" will take stock of it, it can however be observed that on homosexuality the Synodal "party" in favor of change adopts the very same method put in place for communion to remarried divorcees: that of appealing to the "human case" of a statistically ultra-minoritatian reality in order to reach an innovation of a general nature.
The reasoning of the clerics who advocate for a radical revision of the teaching of the Church on the question of homosexuality takes as a given that the phenomenon of same-sex couples, with their respective children, is one of a considerable size and grows in an irresistible way, as a "sign of the times" to which the Church cannot deny welcoming and positive recognition anymore.
But if one takes a look at the real numbers, things are quite different. Let us take Italy. In the last census conducted by ISTAT [the Italian National Institute for Statistics], that of 2011, the couples formed by one man and one woman, with or without children, reached around 14 million, while single-parent families, with one parent, were around 2 and a half million.
And how many were in turn the couples formed by people of the same sex? 7,591, that is, 0.05% of the total of counted couples.
In other words, in Italy, heterosexual couples are 99.95% of the total. Yes, ISTAT notes that "many" homosexual persons prefer not to express their situation. But even if one would reduce the proportion of heterosexual couples to 99%, it would be immediately seen that the numbers do not add up: homosexual couples would then be around 150 thousand, that is, 20 times more than those effectively counted.
And how many are the children of same-sex couples? Only 529, one for each 14 counted [same-sex] couples, 200 times fewer than the mythical 100 thousand children of the propaganda of organizations that support homosexual "marriage".
With great goodness, the “Relatio post disceptationem” excludes the acceptance of the "marriage". But it does not raise objections against the "unions of people of the same sex."
Behold, as an aide-memoire, the three paragraphs of the "Relatio" grouped under the title "Welcoming homosexual persons":
50. Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?
51. The question of homosexuality leads to a serious reflection on how to elaborate realistic paths of affective growth and human and evangelical maturity integrating the sexual dimension: it appears therefore as an important educative challenge. The Church furthermore affirms that unions between people of the same sex cannot be considered on the same footing as matrimony between man and woman. Nor is it acceptable that pressure be brought to bear on pastors or that international bodies make financial aid dependent on the introduction of regulations inspired by gender ideology.
52. Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners. Furthermore, the Church pays special attention to the children who live with couples of the same sex, emphasizing that the needs and rights of the little ones must always be given priority
While these - always as an aide-memoire - are the awe-striking words of Saint Paul on homosexuality, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans:
"The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. ... As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. ... Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them."
[Source, in Italian]
