gay marriage – Madison Catholic Herald Archive (2001-2025)


	This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop.

Dear Friends,

I pray that you’ve all had a restful summer . . . as it seems, sadly, that we’re coming very quickly upon its last days! For myself, I’m maintaining hope that the winter is mild. I know that such a hope might be foolish — but I’m a man of hope, nonetheless!

In considering the readings of this past Sunday, I think it’s very important that we reflect together, once again, on the theme of fraternal correction — which is what the first (Ez 33:7-9) and the third (Mt 18:15-20) readings were about.

Fraternal correction is the way we correct one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We do so not in arrogance, nor in contempt, but with love. Fraternal correction in the Church is a service of love.

In our day and age, nobody wants to correct anybody (unless perhaps it’s anonymously, of someone we don’t know, and in an online forum — which is certainly not charitable correction). To correct someone directly, someone whom we actually know, requires us to make claims about right and wrong, and about what is good and evil. Nobody wants to do that because, “you have your own truth and I have my own truth and we just peacefully coexist and it’s all just wonderful!” . . . except that it’s not. It’s a confused world.

In this confused world, it’s politically incorrect to correct anyone for anything! For instance, you even have to be careful, lest you say that ISIS is a group of extremist Islamic terrorists, who are absolutely wrong. Now, that’s obviously true, but some can’t say that. Because, after all, “we simply don’t see the world as ISIS does. They have their own truth, so we have to be polite when we deal with them.” . . . Just as I’m sure they are polite when they are beheading people.

Word on Fire

On September 4, 2014

Fr. Robert Barron

Arguing about moral matters

In his classic text After Virtue, the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre lamented, not so much the immorality that runs rampant in our contemporary society, but something more fundamental and in the long run more dangerous; namely, that we are no longer even capable of having a real argument about moral matters.

The assumptions that once undergirded any coherent conversation about ethics, he said, are no longer taken for granted or universally shared. The result is that, in regard to questions of what is right and wrong, we simply talk past one another, or more often, scream at each other.

Red flags go up

I thought of MacIntyre’s observation when I read an article on the Supreme Court’s consideration of the much-vexed issue of gay marriage.

It was reported that, in the wake of the oral arguments, Justice Elena Kagan remarked, “Whenever someone expresses moral disapproval in a legal context, the red flag of discrimination goes up for me.”

Letters to the editor

On November 28, 2012

Paul Stauffacher

Catholic leadership is faced with a daunting task

To the editor:

After our 2012 election for president of the U.S.A., it is eminently clear to me that our Catholic leadership is faced with a daunting task.

When 70 percent of the populace of the Madison Diocese votes for an openly pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage slate that elected Obama, Baldwin, and Pocan, it is obvious that any and all teachings by Bishop Morlino and our parish priests are falling on deaf ears.

The Catholic Difference

On November 15, 2012December 18, 2024

George Weigel

The crisis of a second Obama administration

President Obama’s re-election and the prospect of a second Obama administration, freed from the constraints imposed by the necessity of running for re-election, have created a crisis for the Catholic Church in the United States.

Letters to the editor

On October 18, 2012

Timothy Rookey

Election will decide future

To the editor:

The election of 2012 will decide what kind of future our children and grandchildren will have: one based on Christian moral principles or one based on the wholesale discarding of them. The Obama Administration champions no limit on abortions up to nine months of gestation, gay marriage, and limitations on our religious freedom.

Letters to the editor

On May 31, 2012

Paul Richgels

Quote Scripture correctly on issue of homosexuality

To the editor:

Satan sometimes speaks to man by the misapplication of Scripture. We saw this happen when President Obama applied the Golden Rule to support his position on gay marriage.

Christ showed us the way to respond is to quote Scripture correctly (Luke 4). For God’s view on gay activity refer to Deuteronomy 22:5, Leviticus 18:22, 20:13. If we are to apply the Golden Rule to the sin of homosexuality, then what about bestiality, cannibalism, and pedophilia? (Leviticus 18:23, 20:15-16). I hope all would say, “ NO.”