May 15, 2004
DAY LATE (via Tom Morin):
Vatican Warns Catholics Against Marrying Muslims (Shasta Darlington, 5/14/04, Reuters)
The Vatican warned Catholic women on Friday to think hard before marrying a Muslim and urged Muslims to show more respect for human rights, gender equality and democracy.Calling women "the least protected member of the Muslim family," it spoke of the "bitter experience" western Catholics had with Muslim husbands, especially if they married outside the Islamic world and later moved to his country of origin.
The comments in a document about migrants around the world were preceded by remarks about points of agreement between Christians and Muslims but they seemed likely to fuel mistrust between the world's two largest religions.
The document said the Church discouraged marriages between believers in traditionally Catholic countries and non-Christian migrants.
So where were you dopes when we were liberating the women of Iraq? Posted by Orrin Judd at May 15, 2004 9:06 AM
...or Afghanistan?
Posted by: MG at May 15, 2004 10:37 AMInelegantly put, but essentially correct.
Posted by: Chris at May 15, 2004 12:36 PMI have a good friend who twice considered the priesthood. He was, like the Vatican, totally opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Even after finding out about how bad things were over there he is still totally hung up on his belief that we invaded without cause. The fact that Hussein had ignored 12 years of U.N. sanctions and repeatedly flaunted it in our faces doesn't seem to him to be a good enough reason. Go figure some people?
Posted by: Bartman at May 15, 2004 4:00 PMI considered the priesthood for five years, and I wanted Hussein gutted like a mullet.
Posted by: Chris at May 15, 2004 8:55 PMThis just proves my point - philosophy/theology is not a determinant of values (are you listening Peter?).
Posted by: Robert Duquette at May 16, 2004 11:17 AMGod's commands
Posted by: oj at May 16, 2004 9:46 PMOJ, they are the same thing.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at May 17, 2004 12:51 PMThe idea that one can argue that the Church should publicly give its imprimatur on any war is abhorrent. The Church can never give its blessing to any war without losing credibility in being against war.
Even during the World Wars the Church pleaded for peace and called on both sides to work towards it. This did not make the Vatican pro-Nazi as some people claim.
War represents such a horrendous choice that the Church does not want to justify it in practice, although just war theory means the Church could give its blessing in certain cases.
When faced in a situation where two countries are going to war, the Church will always pick the third option - calling both to reaffirm their commitment to justice - than simply take the best of two evils.
Catholic doctrine states that no earthly government or social order is equal to the glory of God's Kingdom. Even if we think the US (or any other country) is the best so far, they all fall short of the glory of God.
Of course we'd like to hear the Church say, "In lieu of taking God's side we think the US is best option available to us." But if the Church of MLK or Gandhi always picked what conventional wisdom said is possible then we'd have no progress.
For Catholics that support the war, we need to still keep in mind Church teaching when formulating our views. If we can honestly say that we have judged that there is no recourse to war within that context, then our conscience is clear even if the Pope has come to a different conclusion. Even he can err in that regard.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at May 17, 2004 2:50 PM