BISHOPS ISSUE PASTORAL LETTER ON MARRIAGE

It's nice to have something good to say about the USCCB for a change. It looks like they have issued a pastoral letter in line with Church teachings. I'll have to read the whole thing (if I can stay awake) and see what else it has to say. I hope that they have maintained their fidelity to the truth regardless of who it offends.

"The bishops of the United States have issued a 60-page pastoral letter on marriage that offers an overview of Catholic teaching on the sacrament while addressing the challenges posed by contraception, same-sex unions, divorce, and cohabitation.

The draft of the document, which earned praise from pro-life and pro-family leaders, underwent nearly 100 changes before it was approved by a 180-45 margin. For example, in the section on contraception-- which cites Humanae Vitae seven times-- the sentence “this is an intrinsically evil action” was changed and expanded to:

This is objectively wrong in and of itself and is essentially opposed to God’s plan for marriage and proper human development. It makes the act of intercourse signify, or speak, something less than the unreserved self-gift intended in the marriage promises.

The draft’s key paragraph condemning the legal recognition of homosexual unions remained unchanged:

The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve. Such recognition affects all people, married and non-married: not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom."

Catholic Culture