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