A Sound of Sheer Silence

Three summers ago, all of the news reports out of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church was "the Episcopal Church approves same sex marriage."  One might have thought that this would be the end of the matter, but, indeed, it is back on the agenda for the 2018 General Convention kicking off in Austin, Texas in a couple of weeks.  For those not following this matter closely, here is the primer.  The vehicle by which same sex marriage approval was accomplished was two-fold.  First, GC15 approved a change to the canons of the church that explicitly authorizes clergy to marry same sex couples.  This change retained the provision that a clergyperson has an essentially unconstrained right to refuse to marry any couple.  Thus, an Episcopal priest or bishop who does not support same-sex marriage can never be forced to marry a same sex couple, as they could always use the general opt-out provided for in the canons. Second, GC15 approved a group of liturg...

So, it has come, the long anticipated Papal document summarizing the Synod on the Family ,  Amoris Laetitia .  I should state up front that, because of its enormous length (250+ pages), I've skimmed the more theoretical sections (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9) to focus on the parts on marriage (4-6, and 8).  I hope to come back and give those theoretical sections some time and reflection later.  I should also say that, despite its length, this is probably the most accessible Vatican document I have read.  The writing is smooth and unforced, and mostly avoids technical theological or philosophical jargon.   Laudato Si' had some of that quality, but this is far more pronounced.  It is, for lack of a better term, an easy read. With that out of the way, how is it?  Well, it's very, very Pope Francis.  Like Laudato Si' , it aspires to a comprehensive account of the topic.   So, for example, if you were curious to get Pope Francis's thoughts o...

Prior to the coming of the English, Ireland was governed by a set of traditional laws, passed down orally through a class of judges/lawyers, called the "Brehon Code" or "Brehon Law."  Brehon law lasted for a long time in Ireland--in the western part of the Ireland, it was still the operative rule of governance into the Elizabethan period, as can be seen in the tale of the Pirate Queen of Ireland, Grainne Mhaol ("Grace O'Malley") .  In fact, one of the interesting things one sees from the story of Grainne is that Brehon Law governed marriage and family relationships in medieval Ireland, not the rules of the Catholic Church. And the Brehon laws related to marriage were wholly incompatible with the Catholic theology of marriage as currently presented.  Rather than being a singular, life-long commitment of personal and sexual fidelity, marriage under the Brehon laws was a series (as many as ten) of pre-determined relationships that regulated the status ...