The Bishop challenged Pope Benedict XVI's stance on condoms and, in so doing, has given grave scandal. As Dr. Germain Grisez explains, "Advising people whose sexual activities might transmit disease to reduce the risk by using condoms is seldom if ever a case of permissibly counseling the lesser evil. Publishing such advice or offering it indiscriminately gives scandal, for the advice encourages the choice of intercourse with a condom by some who are not already determined to engage in illicit sexual behavior or are determined only to engage in a specifically different immorality...Moreover, using condoms may not lessen the harmful effects of habitual behaviors which risk transmitting disease, for even if the risk is reduced in particular instances, in the long run it may not be less and may even be greater. Condoms fail; habitually unchaste people are not likely to have the self-discipline needed for consistency in taking precautions; and the illusion of safety negates one motive for discontinuing the dangerous behavior."
"Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2284).
"Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.' Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2285).
Not only has this renegade Bishop caused grave scandal by advising others that it's permissible to use condoms to "reduce the risk" of disease, but he also gives scandal by publically opposing the Holy Father on this matter.
This Bishop should be removed from his office immediately.
The Bishop said that, "A person with AIDS who cannot avoid having sexual relations is morally obliged to avoid passing on the disease by using a condom."
ReplyDeleteA person who cannot avoid having sexual relations? Living a chaste life is not possible for some? Morally obliged to use a condom? How about morally obliged to avoid sexual activity.
Are we animals without an intellect and a will who live only to gratify our sexual appetite? Can we not do "all things" in Him who strengthens us (Phil. 4: 13)?
Isn't it possible - with the help of God's grace) - to avoid dangerous sexual behaviors?
I think Bishop Leandro and Nancy Pelosi have been very good for Planned Parenthood's agenda.
ReplyDeleteAccording to today's Catholic World News, now three Portuguese bishops are challenging the Pope on condoms:
ReplyDeleteThree Portuguese bishops have taken issue with Pope Benedict’s recent comments on condoms and AIDS. Military Bishop Januário Torgal Mendes Ferreira said, in the words of the Associated Press, that “to ban condom use was equivalent to consenting to the death of many people,” adding that the Pope’s advisors should give him “more learned advice.” Bishop Manuel José Macário do Nascimento Clemente of Porto said that the use of condoms by persons with AIDS is “not only recommendable” but also “can be ethically obligatory.” Bishop Ilídio Pinto Leandro of Viseu said that those “who cannot avoid having sexual relations is morally obliged to avoid passing on the disease by using a condom.” The latter two bishops were both appointed to their sees by Pope Benedict.