Resent Or Repent?
By Lisa Fabrizio
March 15, 2007
It is not easy to be a Christian. To be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect, is a directive which should instill both awe and humility into its hearers. Likewise, commandments to love our neighbors and pray for our enemies are also tall orders, which, without the grace of God, would be almost impossible to obey.
As difficult as Christian living is, it's harder still to be a Catholic. Though the Holy Church is a gift and a blessing from God and ultimately, a gateway to eternal life, its ways are never easy, nor were they promised to be. Besides the ridicule heaped on Catholics for obedience to the Chair of Peter in Rome, the Church also faces daily charges of homophobia, misogyny and any number of modern moral maladies in regards to its teaching.
Every Sunday, the faithful profess a belief in "one holy, Catholic and apostolic Church," which means that, "she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, 'assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor.'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church: 857)
Yet as hard as it is to follow the teachings, or Magisterium, of the Church, it is also a voluntary act; although one who is baptized in the Faith and abandons it does so at great peril to his immortal soul. This is not to say that one's faith should be of a blind, unquestioning type--it is hard to conceive that a God who gave us free will and reason would desire that--but if a Catholic does have legitimate questions of conscience he should be "guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church." (CCC: 1785)
Lent is a special time of repentance for all Catholics and so it was with curiosity that I happened to tune in to "Hannity & Colmes" last Friday night to see graphics which read, "Resent or Repent" and "Priest questions whether Sean is a good Catholic." What followed was an exchange between Sean Hannity and Father Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International. (web site)
The dispute centered on Mr. Hannity's public endorsement of artificial birth control and Fr. Euteneuer's charge that he is a "heretic" because he claims to be a Catholic in good standing while rejecting the significant moral teaching of the Catholic Church on the subject. (web site) What followed was quite unpleasant.
From the start, Hannity was clearly perturbed and this was evident in his refusal to address Euteneuer by the title of 'Father', as would any good Catholic under ordinary circumstances. He then delivered a rapid series of questions intimating that Fr. Euteneuer should not "judge" him without knowing his religious background, as if that had anything to do with the controversy.
>> Continued -- Page 1 2
| 
