Sunday, March 06, 2011

Father J. Bryan Hehir is out of step with the U.S. Bishops...

As reported here, Father J. Bryan Hehir, Secretary for Healthcare and Social Services for the Archdiocese of Boston, has argued that, “We [Catholics] could, on the basis of living in a pluralistic society, remain silent on the contraception question in the public policy area while upholding the Church’s teaching internally.” Father Hehir further argued that such an approach is consistent with Catholic tradition because, “Catholic tradition doesn’t always try to translate internal policy into public policy.”


But the U.S. Bishops aren't advocating such silence.  A new publication from the Bishops urges priests to preach on contraception, sterilization and in vitro fertilization.  In addition, the Bishops are urging priests to stress "God's desire to forgive our sins and renew his grace" and to offer "extra hours of sacramental reconciliation each week."  See here.

Related reading: Father J. Bryan Hehir's corroding and ambiguous pluralism.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

...to preach on contraception, sterilization and in-vitro fertilization. To whom? The elderly folks left in the pews?

I would suggest the Bishops are out of step with the reality of the culture at hand. The Hehir quote you offer is from 33 years ago. Hehir as head of Boston Catholic Charities a few years back was giving babies out to sodomite couples until the Vatican stepped in. Sodomite marriage has now gone viral worldwide and all due in part to a 'simple' Boston Priest...

Even a casual observer can see that Fr. Hehir has more real political power than USCCB has. Certainly more than more than most Bishops. Paradoxically, the Limelight is something he avoids quite successfully.

Out of step? You just quoted a statement he made 30+ years ago. Think about it.

Susan Goguen said...

I guess Fr. Hehir is content with souls being lost because they practiced contraception. Real love for souls there.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Has Fr. Hehir ever retracted his statement? No. Therefore, it remains relevant. As the good people over at Bryan Hehir Exposed noted, "Readers, just to note–this was written 32 years ago![they posted on this last year] The ideology you heard above about Catholic teachings being for private morality inside the Church and not public morality has served as the justification for decades of dissent by so-called “Catholic” pro-abortion and pro-gay politicians.

Even more important, Fr. Hehir’s and others’ ideas like this were able to advance and take hold over the intervening 32 years because people did not understand the Church’s moral teaching to begin with. For example, Hehir based part of his argument on the “need” for population control. Now, history has obviously proven that perceived “need” wrong since we’re facing something more like a demographic winter. But to even consider that population needed to be controlled was wrong."

You seem to believe that the passage of time automatically renders ideas irrelevant. One has only to consider the ideas of Marx and Engels to see the fallacy of such a belief.

You think I'm out of step? I've been in the trenches fighting abortion, homosexuality, contraception and all of the other societal evils we face today. Where have you been?

Perhaps we should thank God that the U.S. Bishops have released a document urging priests to preach against the contraceptive mentality, a mentality which is part and parcel of the Culture of Death?

BostonCatholic2011 said...

If a statement made "30+ years ago" is of no consequence today, why then did the authors of the BHE blog write an entire post on it? No, Father Hehir's idea of pluralism has had disastruous consequences for the Church in the United States. Even if anonymous cannot grasp this.

Samantha said...

There are more than "elderly folks left in the pews." Unless of course you live in and around Boston where the Church is dying.

As one website notes, "In two years, 2008 - 2009, we've seen 34 million additional Catholics join the Church...A total of 1.181 billion Catholics on the planet as of 14 months ago. At that rate, our numbers are almost certainly closing in on 1.2 billion as I write this post.

Last year, I posted this little thought experiment which is worth repeating. Take a moment to contemplate: 15 million additional Catholics entered the Church in 2009: Most are baptized infants. But perhaps a million could be older children or adult converts."

See here:

http://www.siena.org/February
-2011/2009-thought-experiment
-15-million.html

Anonymous is wrong. The Church has not been reduced to just elderly people.

Anonymous said...

Samantha,
Yes I write from Boston.
Thank you for the hopeful note.

Samantha said...

Anonymous, you're the one who suggested that it's only "elderly folks" who are "left in the pews."

If anyone is negating hope, it is yourself.

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