Gaspar, continued from page 6 decades, Papal governments used foreign troops to control the people, which undermined their credibility both as rulers and as ministers of Christ. The repressive policies of the Papal government brought about no security: when Italy was forcibly reunited in 1870, there was no broad popular support for the Papal States. Its demise went unlamented by its subjects, and was mourned by very few beside the Pope. The vast majority of people voted for reunification in a plebiscite held the next year. �
As We Forgive Those, continued from page 7 included all relationships outside the bonds of the sacrament of holy matrimony. However, the first impression leaves quite an impression. Individuals in samesex marriages were directly targeted for exclusion and scrutiny, while persons in divorced-and-remarriedwithout-an-annulment were not initially targeted.
Marriage, whether within the church’ s teaching or outside of it, is complicated and messy, largely due to the fact that people are complicated and messy. An overly romantic or idealized reality of any relationship of commitment probably should be knocked down a few rungs, especially when the hamper with dirty clothes continues to overflow or the sink still has dirty dishes in it. The lens through which we approach a sacrament or a canonical requirement is one thing. The lens through which we approach an act of pastoral care is another. A pastoral act is not defined by following the letter of the law. It is usually considered an act that follows more the spirit of the law. From a perspective informed and influenced by Precious Blood spirituality, the lens of a pastoral act might be defined by how it reaches to and includes those on the margins. A minister might ask, how does this action bring those who were once far off but now are being brought near( Ephesians 2:13) into the fold of God’ s people?
In teaching a Confirmation class a few years ago in Chicago, the corporal works of mercy were heavily emphasized in the class. To emphasize to our students the corporal work of burying the dead, we shared with them the story of Roxbury Latin School in Roxbury, Massachusetts where high school seniors leave school in the middle of the day to provide funeral and burial services for those in the area who have not been claimed. In the midst of having no one to mourn the individual deceased, these students from a prominent
high school attend graveside services as pallbearers and mourners, mourning even for someone they never knew. To quote the students from the article:“ He died alone, with no family to comfort him. But today, we are his family. We are here as his sons. We are honored to stand together before him now to commemorate his life and to remember him in death as we commend his soul his eternal rest”( Arun Rath,“‘ Today We Are His Family’: Teen Volunteers Mourn Those Who Died Alone,” 25 January 2016, npr).
My first funeral as a priest will leave an indelible mark. Cyril“ Hoot” Evers was 90 years old. He was the second husband of his wife Phyllis, whose first husband died from a heart attack while their children were in high school. All of the family that gathered to plan the funeral and mourn was the family he had gained through marriage. The beatitudes from Matthew was the family’ s gospel choice for the funeral, not so much because of the comfort in the instruction from Jesus, but because they had seen them lived out by Hoot. There was true and profound joy in the family at the termination of Hoot’ s suffering, sadness at the loss of the lone grandfather their children knew on the Post side, and pangs of remorse at Hoot not getting to see the final renovations of the house passed down from Cyril and Phyllis to the oldest son and his wife. Repentance and sorrow were definitively a part of Hoot’ s life. They are a part of each our lives— in our asking to forgive us our trespasses. We’ re also called to forgive the trespasses against us. Unfortunately for many lgbt persons today and in recent years, the denial of funerals and funeral rites is a trespass they are called to forgive in the actions of others. �
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8 • The New Wine Press • October 2017